"Mademoiselle," He replies, all but smirking. "if you expect sympathy you are telling your story to the wrong man. I cannot provide it." The smile becomes slightly rueful as he scratches a few more lines on the sheet of paper. The outline of an elephant beginning to form.

"We all face trials such as these. At least your intentions were good. Someone was ready to act in her defense. That has to count for something." A soft amused snort follows. "You would have had a harder time forgiving yourself, I think, had you done nothing and watched him kill her, all the same."

"And now you are one who commits such acts," He repeats scornfully. "A vampire, part demon, a murderer. Like myself. Some of our kind are even soulless, but we do not all deserve your contempt. Some of us have suffered at least as much as you and have survived in the only way we know how."