Leave a woman who would cast me to hell herself out of this. Call me bastard, my father wouldn't want a son so foul, but leave her out of it.

[He closes his eyes, agonized, unable to believe he's quibbling about language at a time like this.

No matter where he looks, his teacher is there, furious and disgusted. It does not occur to him that even a dhampir cannot move so fast.]

He loved you. That was... it didn't even look like him, as he said that, but it was... that was what he said, at the last.