After drinking the blood I feel inches closer to death, but resolved to live. I've drunk blood. I can do anything. I'm the vampire girl. I crawl close to the fox and press myself against it. It's still warm. That's how sleep takes me, with blood on my face, holding close to the fading warmth.

I could just like down, right here, and let the sand cover me like a blanket. But my legs, clumsy as they've become, keep stumbling forward on their own. I'm not frightened and I'm not sorry. Not even a little bit. Nikko and I shared this fate, six years apart. We both walked into the desert, and we will both have died out here, under the wide open sky. At this moment, I feel closer to him than I have in years. Maybe that's what Endd meant when she said that none of us are ever truly alone.