Nadezhda found Syssoi sitting on the ground, leaning against a trunk just as wide as his imposing chest. She crouched down in front of him and began to fiddle with the ground, still soaked with the last rains, while secretly observing him. He perfectly personified the handsome and dark vampire, the ideal supposed to overcome the resistance of the Insubmissive: the burning gaze of a life punctuated by violence and conquests, he imposed it, in a register very different from Rempert. Nadezhda remembered the day when a vampire tried to subject her to this odious transformation. This is what he had promised her: transcendent beauty, immeasurable strength, and domination of others. An offer rejected with all her soul, but for what result? If she had given in on that fatal day, her brother wouldn
