Page 5 - Microsoft Word - FANG EMPIRE - NOVEL.docx

sabers, but also for their swiftness. Sygnosis fled from the bush out into a clearing then stopped at

the edge of the vast Sahara Desert before her and looked out onto an endless ocean of sand. For

millennia, this sand had provoked the passions of men, seduced them, frightened them, lured them

into its waves where they drowned and became sand themselves. But for Sygnosis Sparth there

was no time to ponder the deeper meaning of destiny and fate, for they both fast approached from

behind in their earthly forms—the saber-tooths.

She could see them now, blazing toward her. They were the fire. She was the wind that

stoked them. She streaked out onto the sand, her feet barely touching the surface as she ran. In the

desert, the words sand and speed were never spoken in the same breath, but Sygnosis was the

vampress of legend, the Algul of Africa, the Succubus of Zohar in the Hebrew Alphabet of Ben

Sira, Nosferatu Angelica, Dracula’s Bane, Lilith’s Blood; speed was the Darkling’s birthright. The

sand sprayed and billowed behind her as she ran.

The tigers bolted into the desert after her. Any other big cat would have sunk like a stone

in the dunes, but their paws were padded purposely for the sand. They leaped and bound as they

ran, and closed in on their prey. The pace cat struck out with a well-timed swipe. Its claws dug

deep into Sygnosis’ lower leg, tripping her up like a gazelle in mid-stride and flipping her into the

air. The armored cat lunged upward, snatching her in its claws before she could even hit the

ground, tumbling down, tackling her, and then with a dual pounce the tigers put an end to the

chase. Blood splattered. Sygnosis screamed.

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Dusk dropped like a velvet curtain over the Sahara and the setting sun cast a burnished crimson

light on the stage of sand in this theater of death. In the distance, four hardened horseback riders

wearing desert robes and Arabian keffiyeh head wraps with scarfs over their faces appeared like a

mirage through the fibrillating hot air. They rode toward the fallen— two dead saber-tooth tigers.

The riders reached the carcasses and looked down at the dead beasts, but not in wonder or

shock. Zuba of Zanzibar, a Sephardic Jew in Africa, the land of his birth, dismounted and removed

his facial sash. He had a mustache, narrow beard, and a gold ring in the lobe of each ear. His skin