"You will not hurt me," she assured him. "In fact, you cannot hurt me."
Hunger pulsed through Xander. He was unable to keep from inching forward. One drop then two fell to the ground, and he almost flinched at the thought of his only real food in a week escaping him.
"Just close your eyes and drink," the woman urged. "You cannot bury your mother if you're too weak to carry her, can you?"
Shaking his head, Xander knelt beside her. This time, when she placed the bloody wrist to his lips, he sank his fangs into it. The woman didn't move, didn't react.
The warm liquid that filled his mouth was as sweet as it smelled, and unlike anything he ever experienced. His whole body felt alive for the first time. He became aware of the subtle movement of air beneath the front door, the cloudlike cloak clenched in his left hand and gritty dirt beneath his right, the trickle of blood down his throat to his gullet.
She withdrew, and Xander was shocked to feel the hunger gone after so short a drink.
"You see? You didn't hurt me." The stranger touched her other hand to the bloodied wrist, and the wounds healed. "All gone."
Xander sat back on his heels, guilty and uncertain about what he'd done. He looked again at his mother. Would she be upset with him?
"There's a place where everyone tastes like me. Not only that, but they are barbarians, like animals, that feel no pain. You could walk around without your mask and feed whenever you were hungry." The woman then asked. "Do you think you'd like such a place?"
Xander hesitated then nodded.
"I'll take you there. They will treat you like a god. You will have power unlike any other creature in either world."
"Power," Xander repeated.
"Yes, boy." Her eyes flared with light. "Power beyond your dreams. No one you love will ever die again, and you can punish men like your father, who cast you out. How does that sound?"
Confused, he said nothing.
"There are more of us, boy. Special people like you and me."
"I'm not special," Xander said matter-of-factly. "We are here, because I am deformed."
"Your mother told me. Your father tried to send you away for your deformity, but she wouldn't let him. So she went with you to the streets?"
Xander swallowed hard with a nod.
"He did this to her and you. He put you on the streets, made her sell herself to keep clothes on your back. Now, she's dying."
"I know. I hate him," Xander said. Heat crept up his neck and into his face.