Grief does not make us weak,' Cristina said firmly. 'It makes us human. How could you comfort Dru, or Ty, or Jules, if you didn't know what they missed about her? Sympathy is common. Knowing the exact shape of the hole someone's loss leaves in your heart is rare.

Well,” she said. “I was happy for fiffty-five years. That’s more thanmost people get. Now there’s the clan to look after, like Raphael would’vewanted. The night we knew he was gone, and every night since, I watchmy vampires in the home he guarded. I watch the mundanes in thestreets he loved. Every one of them looks like a child I should help, apossibility for a future I wasn’t able to imagine. Every one of them seemsprecious, worth defending, worth the world. Every one of them isRaphael.

Grief could be like a wolf tearing your insides, and you would do anything to make it stop.

Is everything all right?” They were going to be asking each other that constantly for quite some time, he guessed. And it never would really be okay, but they would reassure each other anyway about the small things, the measure of tiny victories: yes, Dru slept a little; yes, Ty is eating a bit; yes, we’re all still breathing.