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fell backward on the bed as if an unseen force had thrown him down. His back arched and his

mouth opened wide. Fangs punched through his gums and elongated. He panted like the leopard

he was named for, and then growled. The sound came from deep inside him. It was bone chilling.

GoGo backed away. The men were uncertain what to do.

“Konkoo be na. Konkoo be na!” said Omar.

The Golden Leopard leaped from the bed past his mother with the arrow still sticking

through his chest. He landed on the floor with both bare feet. Though unnerved, GoGo was

mindful and she marveled to herself. He moved in utter silence. She watched as Omar pounced

like a ravenous predator onto the wild goat.

“Konkoo be na!” he said again, looking up, as if speaking to the gods of vampirism.

He sunk his fangs into the struggling animal’s neck and tore open its throat. The blood

gushed into Omar’s mouth and spurted out in all directions as if from a broken fountain.

Zuba and the men grimaced as the last breaths of the goat gurgled within its air passage.

“What does it mean?” Zuba asked GoGo.

“It is Mandinka,” she replied. Konkoo be na—hunger is upon me.”

Sooth, composed and stern, rushed over and broke the arrow with his powerful hands and

pulled it from Omar’s back as he fed. The wounds healed immediately. Then he gently pulled

GoGo aside.

“Go’ngola, do you know what you said yes to? Sygnosis asked do you love her.”

“Somehow I knew that,” said GoGo.

“To a vampire, love not born of the fang . . . is very serious,” Sooth said.

“Human hearts do not need the fang to be enthralled,” said GoGo.

A feeling washed over her. At first she didn’t recognize it. Then she took a deep breath, the

kind of deep breath only a woman can take, and then exhaled. That feeling, so long absent from

her life, was bliss… but not the bliss of happiness. That’s the simple kind. It could be gotten from

honey cake. This bliss was more complex, more essential. After years of Kanja’s weakness and

the disgrace of the royal family after Ramoth’s betrayal, Sygnosis represented something GoGo