Page 66 - Microsoft Word - FANG EMPIRE - NOVEL.docx

supple. GoGo walked around behind Sygnosis and unlocked the left wrist and ankle shackles. The

bruises vanished. Lastly, she unlocked the neck shackle and gently removed it. Sygnosis’ neck

bruises were horrific, but in only moments, they cleared away as if they were never there. GoGo

gasped with amazement, even envy, at such power. She removed Sygnosis’ torn garment leaving

her standing naked. The queen washed her tenderly then placed a fine silk robe around her.

Sygnosis walked over to a full-length mirror and admired herself. She looked like a

sensuous, vampire Mona Lisa with a tiny smile.

“I have heard vampires cast no reflection. I see that is a myth,” GoGo said.

Sygnosis turned her head slowly, hauntingly toward GoGo but did not speak. Yet the girl

in the mirror did.

“Yes, GoGo Bah, there are many such myths,” said the reflection of the Darkling vampire,

Sygnosis Sparth.

Unable to explain what she’d seen, GoGo looked on in silent disbelief. Sygnosis walked

over to a Turkish urn. She admired the fine craftsmanship, stroking the meticulous arabesque

patterns accented with Chinese designs.

“I know this urn,” she said. “It is from the royal ceramic collection in the Topkapi palace

of the Ottoman Empire. It was made by my thrall, the vampire craftsman, Utep Utut.

GoGo’s mood waxed peculiar for having it.

“How is it, Queen GoGo Bah, that you come to possess it?”

“Its path to my cave is unknown to me. All we now possess we received from the Rhune

Mystics. From whence it came they do not tell, and we do not ask.”

A flower grew in the urn.

“A poppy,” Sygnosis said. “I want it!”

“It is yours.”

Sygnosis took the stem into her right hand. Long sharp fingernails grew out from her left

thumb and forefinger. GoGo watched apprehensively.

“This creature is so strange,” she thought.