for the first time in the years he had known Danica, she seemed so frail. A delicate flower, she was, and a strong wind could have blown her away.
Kierkan Rufo wanted to go to her, to gently stroke her pretty neck, to kiss her, softly at first, until the urgency built and he could rightly sink his fangs, the material extensions of what he had become, into that throat, and drink of Danica's blood, feel the warmth of this woman he had desired since the first moment he had seen her.
But Kierkan Rufo could not, despite the chaos curse's urging. To feed on ... no, to join with Danica now, would kill her prematurely. Rufo did not want Danica to die, not yet, not until he could give to her enough of himself, of what he had become, that she might join him in this state of vampirism. No matter the demands of the hunger and the chaos curse, the vampire simply would not accept and would not tolerate Danica's death.
She would be his queen, Rufo decided. This existence he had chosen would be so much more fulfilling with Danica at his side.
That image of his queen was sweeter still for Rufo when he thought of how it would wound Cadderly.
As much as Kierkan Rufo desired Danica, he wanted more to hurt Cadderly. He would flaunt Danica, his Danica, before the young priest, torturing him with the knowledge that, in the end, it was Cadderly's life that was a lie.
Drool slid from the vampire's half-opened mouth as Rufo basked in the fantasy. His bottom lip trembled as he took a sliding step forward. He almost forgot his own reasoning and fell upon unconscious Danica then and there.
He caught himself and straightened, seeming almost embarrassed as he turned to Histra, poor scarred wretch that she was, standing beside him in the room.
"You will watch her," Rufo commanded.
"I am hungry," Histra remarked, and she eyed Danica as she spoke.
"No!" Rufo snarled, and the sheer force of his command knocked the lesser vampire back a step. "You will not feed on this one! And if any others come in and harbor similar thoughts, warn them well that I shall destroy them!"
A hiss of disbelief escaped Histra's bright red lips, and she looked frantically, like a starving animal, from Rufo to Danica.
"You will tend her wounds," Rufo went on. "And if she dies, your torment will be eternal!" With that, the confident master swept from the room, heading for the wine cellar to spend the daylight hours gathering his strength. He noted the dim outline of an invisible imp perched in a corner and nodded slightly. If anything got out of line here, Druzil would warn him telepathically.
Danica's trip back to consciousness was a slow and painful journey. As her mind awakened, so, too, did thoughts of the carnage at the campsite, thoughts of poor Dorigen, and the realization that the Edificant Library had fallen. Tormenting dreams carried Danica to the end of her journey, and she opened her eyes with a start.
The room was dim, but not dark, and after a moment, Danica remembered she had been taken in the deep of night, and realized that the next dawn must have come. She steadied her breathing and tried to separate reality from nightmare.
She understood then that reality had become a nightmare.
Danica's hands shot up suddenly - the movement sent jolts of pain along her leg - and grasped at her neck, feeling for puncture wounds. She relaxed slightly when she was convinced that the skin remained smooth.
But where was she? She struggled to get up on her elbows, but fell back at once as Histra, carrying the stench of burned skin, leaped to her side and glared down at her.
The remaining skin on the back of Histra's head had ripped apart under the strain of support, so that her face sagged, as if she were wearing a loose and pliable mask.
And those horrid eyes! They seemed as if they would fall from their destroyed sockets, land upon Danica's torso, and roll about the contours of her body.
Danica tried not to show her relief as the gruesome creature backed away. She saw then that she was in one of the bedrooms of the library, probably the private quarters of Dean Thobicus himself, for the place was handsomely furnished in dark wood. A great rolltop desk sat against the opposite wall, under a fabulous tapestry, and a leather divan was to the side of that