The left side of Gwala’s upper lip rose, exposing a long fang. “Have I traded in for a substandard replacement?”
“Please, Your Majesty, give me time. I need to heal. It is taking all my strength to stand here before you.”
Gwala whipped his arm away from me so fast I felt the breeze of its path on my tender skin.
I expected to feel his fist smash against my face but couldn’t find the strength or desire to move away.
Instead, he tore into the inside of his wrist with his fangs. A nauseating ripping sound accompanied the spray of blood that shot across his clothes and splattered against his skin underneath.
Before I could comprehend what was happening, he yanked his arm from his lips and shoved his wrist to my mouth, then pressed so hard that my lips were forced wide to accept him between my teeth.
The spray of blood spewing into me was such an unexpected sensation that it was gushing down my throat before I fully grasped what was happening. At the realization, I began to gag, forcing both blood and bile back up, filling my mouth once more.
Gwala shoved his wrist in even deeper.
I gagged again, and this time the blood forced its way up my nose. I felt it run over my cheeks. On reflex I swallowed, again and again, trying to clear the blockage from my passageway in order to breathe.
After countless swallows, Gwala wrenched his arm out of my mouth. I’d not been aware that my teeth had sunk into him.
The air rushed into my lungs with such force that I gagged once more. Without his strength to hold me up, I fell to the floor on my hands and knees, dry heaving and gasping for breath. My left hand slipped in the pool of blood, but I managed to catch myself before falling the rest of the way.
Such luck didn’t last, as fire rushed in tidal waves through my veins, both stealing my breath and what little strength I had left. I crashed the rest of the way to the ground, my face cracking as it hit the stone beneath the pool of blood. My gaze focused, blurred out, then refocused on Gwala’s bare foot mere inches from my face. Blood was pooling in the cuticles of his nails.
Certain death was moments away, I used the rest of my strength to shove off the floor just enough to roll over onto my back. I looked up to find Gwala staring down at me. He smiled, his lips, fangs, and chin awash in his own blood.
At his smile, I realized the truth was so much worse than I’d feared. So much worse. I wasn’t dying. If only that was the extent of it. I would give anything if I was only dying.
More fire flooded my body, causing my muscles to cramp and my back to arch.
I was changing.
Twenty-One
FINN DE MORISCO
Gwala andeverything in sight was behind a wash of red. At first crimson, at the height of the agony, then gradually lessening in intensity in direct ratio to the pain. Gradually, by the time the world around me had little more than a pink hue, I could breathe again.
I was surprised I was still breathing. That I needed to breathe. It had been my understanding that such bodily functions ceased after the transition.
Transitioned. With the breathing came the return of cognitive thought. With thought came another rush of panic. A vampire. Like Sonia. Like Gwala. Like the redhead that ruined our lives.
“Change it.”
I glanced up at Gwala, his figure upside down as he stood over my head.
He knelt over me and held out his sleeve once more, dangling it over my face, blocking the rest of the room from view. “Change it.”
Without thinking, I reached up and clasped his sleeve between my fingers.
My skin had barely made contact before the silver material began to spread over the more sheer fabric. In less than half a minute, Gwala returned to his standing position, his nudity covered behind a solid sheath of silver.
“Very good.” He inspected himself, glancing over his shoulder at his garment then lifting the folds up for closer inspection. “It seems, even though Omar wasn’t helping you, that you haven’t been wasting your time. That is good. How have you been increasing your skill?”
Confusion pushed aside my panic for a heartbeat as I looked at his clothes. I’d assumed my power would be lost when I transitioned to a vampire.
“Warlock!” Gwala’s sharp tone cut through my worries. “Stand up.”
I followed his order, rolling over to my hands and knees, then pushing myself up to a standing position. None of the pain or dizziness threatened me like it had before.
