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forest, where they copulate on the ground or standing up against the trees, or on hands and knees, like animals. I’ve watched them. I’ve seen it all.”
    â€œYou lie,” she whispered, though she could barely speak. Will knew she believed every word the monster said.
    â€œIt doesn’t matter. You can’t go back there.”
    â€œI can. I must. Let me go.” Again she jerked and tugged at the chains.
    The vampire leaned over her, stared into her eyes as he lowered his body atop hers and clasped her wrists with his hands. “You can’t go back. My life has become unbearably lonely. You’ll only die, Sarafina, unless you accept the gift. And I’m afraid I have no inclination to give you a choice in the matter.”
    Releasing her hands, he cupped her face, turned her head to one side and moved her hair out of the way. Will attacked him, but his blows were like air. Holding her that way, the vampire pressed his mouth to Sarafina’s throat, and bit down hard, without mercy. His fangs stabbed deep into her neck—Will felt the pain she felt—and then the creature suckled her there, drinking her very lifeblood as she slowly faded into him.
    She felt as if she were hovering outside her body. Looking down at the monster feeding so hungrily at her throat. Then she shifted her gaze to Will’s, and he realized she could see him. She was panting, her chest rising and falling, and his was, too, as the two of them gazed down at the vampire feeding from the woman. It was erotic and exquisite and arousing. It shouldn’t have been. It should have been horrifying, but somehow, it wasn’t.
    Then the creature lifted his head away, staring down at her still, pale face.
    Has he killed me, then? Sarafina directed the question to Will, looking right at him as she spoke. Are you the spirit who has come for me, to take me to the other side?
    I’m not a spirit, he told her. I’m real. I’m a man, and I love you.
    She looked down at her body from the place where she hovered. Her eyes were wide and vacant. Her skin was whiter than it had ever been. I will never love anyone again. Anyway, it doesn’t matter now. I think I am dead
    The vampire drew a dagger from a sheath at his side and pressed the very tip of the blade to his own throat. Sarafina watched, amazed at the action, and mesmerized when he drew it away and ruby-red welled up in the puncture wound.
    The vampire bent again, cradling her lifeless head, pressing her mouth to his neck.
    Suddenly Sarafina was sucked back into her body in one rapid flash that ended with the impact of a fist to the heart. She tasted the first droplet on her tongue, and every nerve ending came to quivering, hungering life. Will felt it. He felt it all. She closed her lips around the wound and sucked the blood from it, feeling stronger with every swallow.
    Finally the vampire held Sarafina’s forehead with his palm and jerked himself away from her hungry mouth.
    â€œNow,” he whispered, breathless, panting, his eyes ablaze, “you rest, here with me. Later, you can visit your clan and see them with clear eyes for the first time.”
    She looked at the cave around her. “It looks different. I can see every color dancing in the flames of the torch! And I can hear it. The flames have a song all their own.”
    â€œEverything is different now,” Bartrone said. “You are immortal. You need never die.”
    â€œYou sound different, too, and you look—by Devel, my senses are heightened to a thousand times what they were before. It’s almost unbearable.”
    â€œYou’ll grow used to it in time. You’ll have plenty of time. But now you must rest. And when you wake, you will be stronger, and I will explain things to you. You’re like me, now, Sarafina. You’re a vampire.”
    â€œI’m…a vampire….”
    â€œNow sleep,” he whispered. “Sleep.”
    She