Page 97 - Microsoft Word - FANG EMPIRE - NOVEL.docx

“I am known for the best,” she said with a cunning smile.

“Being a vampire, it is so hard to describe. I feel divided, like I’m in two worlds. I am

hollow—but firm and strong, and yet vulnerable. My flesh is cold yet I burn under my skin. I can

feel the sword and bow but not the touch of my own mother. I am a contradiction.”

“I have heard this before,” said Sygnosis. “But I have never been human so I don’t know.

My father is a great sadist, a master of pain and pleasure. He has often used them both to try and

feel what it’s like to be human.”

“Tell me about your father,” said Omar.

“His name is Talon Sparth, he is an Astral vampire, and he is the vampirical.”

“She says that with such pride,’ Omar thought. “How I miss Kanja Khan. He may not have

been a great king, but he was a great father.”

Daka, Zuba, Cane, Raki and the royal guards gathered around a large fire. Roast lamb and

traditional Mandinka foods were cooking. The men drank ale and feasted. Some sharpened their

swords and arrowheads as they talked. Cane looked up from his lamb to see Sygnosis speaking

with Omar on the other side of the terrace.

“That creature, Sygnosis . . . she makes me nervous,” he said.

Sooth stood at a distance from the men but listened to their conversation. His Azulite

vampire ears could hear every word.

“When we captured her,” Cane said, “she was hanging upside down from a tree eating a

grown man like a praying mantis eats a moth. Turning him in her hands like he weighed nothing.

Yet now our prince treats her like his kindred.”

“She is his kindred now,” said a royal guard. “He is in her debt.”

“As is the queen,” said Cane.