Seriously, this has been ready to go for a little while apart from the latin translations. They're what slowed me down. After much searching I couldn't find anyone who could translate them. At least not without a fee. So the small amounts of latin you see in this part are courtesy of me and a latin dictionary. I apologise in advance if anyone reading this knows latin as they are invariably more than a little sloppy. But anyway... Enjoy what's here... and hopefully the parts should start to come a bit faster now. We are well over the half way stage her.... I'd estimate about 30% left to go, And I'm actualy getting some serious motivation here.
Anyway... anyone still following this story... feedback is more than welcome as it lets me know people are still reading what I have to write.
And I apologise in advance for being ominous and forshadowey.
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Buffy lunged at Spike, stake extended to strike. Spike blocked the quick jab, and swung Buffy round, sending her staggering backwards deeper into the room. Drusillia dived at Kendra, pushing her out of the way as she went to stake Spike in the back.
Xander stood, immobile as he wrestled with the demon inside of him. He could feel it, the anger rising, and the urge to tear the two slayers limb from limb. With great effort he exerted what control he could. But he was still the weaker part, and it was only a question of how long he could keep the demon out of the fight.
Spike snarled as he blocked another of Buffy's quick jabs, knocking the stake from her hand and forcing her to step back in order to keep her footing in the process.
Kendra and Drusillia circled warily around each other, each keeping their distance. Swift attacks were met with equally swift evasive action, neither willing to turn the fight to close quarters.
Buffy launched a renewed assault at Spike. This time partially
successful. Spike tumbled to the floor, rolling as he landed,
and was up on his feet a few metres distant before Buffy had the chance
to recover her stake.
"Now, that hurt." He said, reassuming a combat stance
as he brought his vampire face to the surface.
Inside of Xander something gave. His eyes that had been locked staring straight ahead snapped to the fight happening around him as he too brought his vampire face to full display.
Spike took the fight to Buffy. Striking out, he forced her to stumble backwards under his attack. From her location, in-between the fight and the door she had come in by, she looked on in horror as events unfolded in the fight.
Drusillia, forced backwards by one of Kendra's attacks lost her
footing. Falling to her knees, she held her hands up to protect
herself as Kendra raised her stake to strike.
The strike never came.
Kendra gasped as the clawed hand grasped itself around her wrist,
the cracking noises made as Xander applied pressure were drowned out by
Kendra's exclamation of pain as the stake dropped from her hand.
Bringing his other hand around to grip her throat, Xander stepped
up behind her. There barely followed time for anyone to react before
Xander sunk his fangs into her neck, drinking deeply of her blood.
"No..." Buffy mouthed as Xander released Kendra and she dropped
limply to the floor.
"Oh yeah baby." Xander more breathed than said as he stepped
over Kendra to stand next to Spike. Also, Drusillia had got
to her feet, and was standing just behind them.
Buffy Looked between the three vampires facing her, and Kendra who looked plaintively up at her, trying to extend a hand to her. Buffy Summers, vampire slayer, did the only thing she could do.
She ran.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robert almost unconsciously raised his hand up to the pain on the side of his head as he opened his eyes, the sudden pain that caused him to wince an take a sharp intake of breath was a good indication that he'd found it.
From her sitting position a few feet away, Willow looked over
at the sound. "You awake?"
"Yeah." Robert fought the dizziness to pull himself up into a
similar sitting position. Looking around at his surroundings he saw
that they were in a makeshift cell that had been made by fixing a cage
door to one of the tunnel alcoves. The cell was perhaps six by four
feet, with no internal features. Looking out through the door,
he saw the surviving vampire.
"So, what now?" Willow asked.
"What time is it?"
"11:48." Willow replied, looking at her watch. "Why?"
"Because any time after midnight he can pull off that ritual."
"We have to get out of here." Willow said urgently.
The vampire turned to face them. Please do, I haven't eaten
in a while." It said, grinning menacingly.
"That reminds me." Willow said to Robert, trying her best
to ignore the vampire. "Why didn't he kill us?"
"He's got a soul just like us." Robert replied. "I'm guessing
he doesn't want to kill unless he has to."
Sighing in a dissatisfactory manner the vampire started pacing,
passing occasionally in front of the cell as it discontentedly walked back
and forth.
"That thing, What was it?" Willow asked.
"The thing that did this?" Robert said, gesturing to the
bruise on his head.
"Yep, that one."
"It's called an Avatar." Robert replied. "In the past,
many adepts would combine their powers to create an instrument; a
physical embodiment of their will. I never imagined he'd be strong
enough to make one on his own."
"How do you kill it?"
"You don't,.. you can't." Robert said. "It isn't
alive."
"It looked pretty alive to me." Willow commented.
"Well sure... It moves, it fights, if you really
want you can make it talk. But it's just a tool, and maintaining
it is not an easy thing. To control it fully he'd have to almost
be in a trance. Get close to him, and he'll drop it so that
he can defend himself. Besides, I don't think he's going to
be able to keep that thing up while he starts the ritual, if we're
lucky we won't see it again."
"So, we just bust out of here, kill the vampire,
and stop him?" Willow put forward.
"Not strong enough to break that open." Robert said, gesturing
to the cage door. "There is a key for it, right?"
Willow nodded. "The vampire has it."
"Hmm."
"You can get us out of here can't you?"
"I think so." Robert said. "But I'm going to need your
help to do it."
Willow looked across at him. "What do you need me to do?"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Giles paused to look at his watch as he worriedly paced back and forth
across the library.
11:54. It probably wouldn't be more than ten minutes before the
ritual would begin. As he turned to begin pacing in the other direction,
Buffy burst through the library doors.
It only took one glance for Giles to see the hurt in her eyes as she
stood in the doorway, breathing heavily.
"My word! What happened? Are you okay?"
After a moment or two Buffy had regained enough composure to speak.
"I think we've found a loophole in that thing where I'm supposed to die."
She said forlornly.
"what happened? Kendra?"
Buffy looked down at the floor.
"Oh." Giles made no attempt to hide the pained expression on
his face.
"It happened right in front of me Giles. Right in front of me
and I couldn't do a thing to stop it." Buffy said as she made her
way over to a chair to collapse in.
"What did we accomplish?"
"Nothing." Buffy said glumly as she sat down. "We didn't
get any of them.. And something wasn't right, they weren't
apocalypse ready."
"I fear that we all jumped far too hastily to conclusion earlier.
Willow and Robert..."
"Yeah, speaking of, where are they?"
"As far as we could tell, the potential apocalypse is going to
happen beneath us, on the Hellmouth."
"They've gone to stop it?"
Giles nodded.
"And you couldn't wait for me why?"
"We didn't think you'd be back in time." Giles stated.
"And seeing as we'll know whether or not they have been successful in about
ten minutes I'd say that the decision was well justified."
Buffy got up from the chair and walked over to the office,
coming back out with a two handed axe of reasonable size.
"What are you doing?" Giles asked.
"Going to make sure nobody else dies on my shift." Buffy said
plainly.
"But how will you know where they are?"
"I died down there Giles. I think I remember it fairly well."
"I take it you want me to stay here." Giles said.
"Do you think you can keep up with me?" Buffy responded.
Giles shook his head despondently. "No."
"Then you'd best stay here." She replied as she walked out of
the library.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"So, how does this work?" Willow asked.
"We need to kill the vampire before we can get out." Robert replied.
"Once the vampire's out of the way, I should be able to get this
open without too much trouble."
"Oh, so all we have to do is kill the vampire." Willow said nonchalantly.
"From in here, with no weapons of any kind. Shouldn't be too
difficult."
"I can burn the vampire." Robert replied. "But not from
that distance, not without help."
"My help?" Willow questioned.
"Yes." Robert confirmed. "We'll need to combine our strengths
to be able to manage it."
"Y'know, I... Don't think I know how that's done..."
"Well, let's hope you're a fast learner." Robert replied.
"It's much more an act of will than any amount of skill."
Robert held his hand out to Willow who, after a second of hesitation
connected her hand with his own. There was a slight tingling,
and what seemed like a static discharge at the point of contact.
The vampire walked back in front of the cage, smiling evilly
as it looked inside.
"Now, isn't that cute?.." the thing said, suppressing
a chuckle.
Robert's eyes snapped to the vampire as the words were spoken.
With a hand extended he projected energy out of himself and focused it
with a gesture at a single point inside the vampire. The vampire's
attempt to move was stopped by a small alteration of the gesture.
With a groan of pain the vampire dropped to it's knees. A small,
almost imperceptible golden orange glow was at the centre of it's chest,
and Willow could have sworn that she saw a few tendrils of smoke drifting
up from there. Just as the glow started to become easily visible
the disintegration began. All the colour and moisture seeming to
drain from the vampire, until is seemed for a split second that it
was stone. Then gravity caught up with the dust and it fell to the
ground, the tinkle of metal on stone drawing both Robert's and Willow's
attention to where the key lay amongst the dust.
Letting the air out of his lungs with a sigh, Robert slowly got
up and walked over to the cage door.
"You okay?" Willow called from behind him, getting up herself.
"Yeah, that just took a bit out of me. That's all."
Willow glanced at her watch. "It's 12:05, shouldn't he
have started by now?"
"We should probably be thankful that he hasn't." Robert said
without looking back, his attention focused entirely on the key as
it slowly drifted through the air towards the lock.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Malek circled the symbol on the floor of the cavern, bending low
to one side to trace a line around it in the dirt with the dagger.
Enclosing the symbol were six pedestals upon which candles sat unlit,
As the line he was tracing reached each of the pedestals in turn the candles
atop them burst into life. As he completed the circle, Malek
looked up towards the symbol, with the completed circle he could
see that the spiral pattern of the symbol was already beginning to draw
energy in.
Walking to the centre of the symbol, Malek lifted the dagger,
the Hand of Tyrael up to his hand.
"Substantia meum ad manus."
He drew the blade across the palm of his left hand, opening a
shallow cut that left the golden blade stained a bronze colour.
"Substantia meum manus mihi refero. quod magis."
He knelt down, the dagger poised above the focus of the symbol,
pointing downwards.
"medium est manus."
The dagger was plunged into the earth, the release of power very
nearly causing him to topple backwards.
"Potentia adeo manus."
Holding his left hand above the dagger he clenched his fist,
causing a few drops of blood to drop down onto it. Where the blood
touched the dagger it pulsed with a bright light.
"Adeo!"
The chamber was shaken by tremors as he completed the incantation.
The candles atop the pedestals seemed to disappear as they were engulfed
by a magical flame fully twice their height
emanating from the top of the pedestals. Malek fell to his knees,
overwhelmed by the power. Gasping, he looked at the Hand of
Tyrael, the whole of the dagger seemed to be shining with an internal
light. It took much of his willpower not to reach out and take what
was there, but there was far more to come, that much was for
certain. Steeling himself he got to his feet and made his way out
of the circle, noticing how the boundary seemed almost solid,
but parted for his passage. As he cleared the circle, he became
aware of other presences in the cavern.
"Somehow I didn't think you'd stay away." He said, looking
up to the mouth of the cavern where Robert and Willow stood.
"And miss the big show?... Never gonna happen." Robert responded,
clambering at speed down to the cavern floor.
Malek moved over to an open patch of ground as Robert reached the cavern
floor, each focusing the entirety of their attention on each other.
Willow picked her way down to the cavern floor with deliberate care.
"So, Is this the part where you try to convince me to stop this?"
Malek said sarcastically.
"If I thought we could talk you out of it..." Robert responded.
"But I reckon putting you out and stopping it is a far more likely solution."
Robert and Malek circled warily around each other, each searching
for an opening or a weakness somewhere. Willow had just reached the
bottom of the cavern, and made her way over to the two of them as
fast as she could.
"Putting me out of what, dare I ask?" Malek said.
"Consciousness,.. Your misery... Whatever it takes."
Robert responded.
"Even more perplexing is how you intend to accomplish that..."
Malek said, his voice full of venom. "Unless you're going to
have your little sidekick here do the fighting for you."
There was a split second's delay as Malek watched the rage building
inside Robert... Then the attack came.
Stepping forward, Robert lanced out with his fist, the
blow missing only by the narrowest of margins as Malek twisted to
one side.
Malek could feel the anger building inside Willow as she rapidly approached
the fight.. She had also heard the last comment. Striking out
with his return blow he was surprised to find that Robert had actually
evaded it.
Unsteadied by the sudden reaction he'd had to take, Robert took
a step back in a defensive posture. Moving in quickly, Willow
struck out as best she could at Malek. Malek evaded the blow with
ease, and placed a hand in front of Willow's stomach about six inches
away. What followed that was a visible pulse of energy, Willow
was thrown through the air to land some distance away, and out of
easy view with all the clutter in the cavern.
Robert looked for a moment back and forth between Malek and the area
where Willow had landed... Then he attacked.
Willow moaned quietly as she pulled herself up onto her knees.
From her position she could hear the fight proceeding, although she
couldn't see it, nor could she place it with the sound distortion
in the cavern. Slowly getting to her feet she unconsciously felt
for the amulet that was still around her neck. It was almost hot
to the touch. She scanned the cavern for the fight from where she
stood, it didn't take long to find it.
The sheer fury that Robert fought with was enabling him to hold his
own despite Malek's superior ability, but it was all too clear who
the better combatant was.
Willow strained to follow the blows as they arced back and forth between
Malek and Robert. Only a few days ago she would hardly have been
able to see the blows, let alone make sense of them. Quietly
she worked her way unseen to where the symbol adorned the floor.
Robert was beginning to feel the exertion as the fight raged
between him and Malek. He seemed barely able to stave off Malek's assault,
let alone launch one of his own. Malek's arm was deflected scant
inches from his chest and his own response was picked off before even breaching
the outer layers of Malek's defence. His breath coming in short ragged
gasps, he tried to appeal to Malek as he gave ground.
"This ... isn't worth it ... you know what's ... going to happen ...
don't you?" Robert managed to say whilst maintaining an adequate deafens.
"Silly boy," Malek admonished, speaking with a fluid ease
despite the furious attack he was sustaining. "I know exactly what
will happen. If the ritual is not performed then I am as good as
dead. That is all that is of consequence."
"And it doesn't ... bother you that ... you're pulling ... the
Hellmouth open ... with this ritual?"
"Of course it bothers me," Malek responded calmly. "but
I am only doing what is necessary for my survival."
"I forgot ... that's all that ... matters to you, ... your own well
being. ... Doesn't ever ... occur to you ... does it, ... that there
may ... be things in ... this world that ... are more ... important than
you?"
"With that kind of attitude you'll end up a martyr or a nobody."
Malek replied softly. "I desire better than that."
"Better a martyr or nobody than what you are." Robert snapped
back.
Robert was ready for the outburst when it came. In a single quick
movement he was in inside Malek's attack. Striking out, his
elbow connected squarely with Malek's solar plexus, the sound of
the impact was audible like a thunderclap. Malek recoiled back
from the blow, his arms retracted into a defensive position, and
Robert had the barest of moments to wonder why Malek's chest hadn't caved
in under the force of the blow.
Then, without warning the moment was over and Malek was on the
attack again.
Willow came to where the symbol adorned the floor. The symbol
was marked in strokes of some unidentifiable material that glowed a luminescent
white in the gloom of the cavern. The dagger, the Hand of Tyrael
was embedded in the ground at the centre, and the periphery of the
symbol was marked by six candles on shoulder high pedestals. Huge
amounts of energy were visible to her, coalescing at the edge of
the symbol and flowing in a spiral pattern towards the Hand at the centre.
Cautiously, Willow held her hand up to the periphery and was
met by a palpable resistance, so much so that she couldn't force
her hand over the boundary. Glancing back towards the fight Willow sank
with dismay. Malek had forced Robert back almost to the cavern mouth.
Robert was suffering visibly from his exertions and had begun to favour
one leg between now and when she had last looked. In desperation
she looked back and forth between the fight and the circle. The fight
would be over before the minute was out, and the only way it would
end well was if she could halt the ritual. Her hand reached up unconsciously
to clutch the amulet as her mind raced in desperate thought.
The solid thought of an idea formed in her head with the clasping of
her hand around the amulet, almost as if the still warm metal had
imparted the knowledge to her. She looked back toward the fight again,
decisively this time. The fight was in the closing moments now.
Robert was down to his knees, and the blow that would be the end
of it was only moments away now. In one motion the amulet was
gone from her neck and was in her palm in front of her, the clink
of metal as it's light chain broke links seeming to her to be louder than
any other sound in the cavern. In a movement that seemed almost casual
the amulet was tossed from her hand toward the centre of the circle.
"Noooooo!"
Willow heard the cry almost as soon as she felt the ripples from the
amulet breaching the periphery. The cry of sheer anguish stretched
the normally abrupt word out into a sound that defied language. Even
before she turned around, Willow knew that the originator of the
cry was Malek. As she turned she was speared by Malek's eyes looking
straight at her, condemning perhaps. Malek held her gaze for
perhaps half a second,... Then Robert's foot connected with the small
of his back, sending him tumbling over the floor.
It was the sound that drew willow's gaze back to the circle,
the low hum that had been audible accompaniment to the circle had risen
in pitch to a high wail, and was interlaced with a sound like ice
cubes cracking in warm water. The amulet sat half on half off one
of the luminescent white strokes that comprised the symbol, metal
heated almost to melting in a matter of seconds and the amethyst staring
out like a single malevolent eye. She could see how the energy welled
behind the amulet, as water behind a dam. Then in the blink
of an eye the amulet was gone, exploding into gobbets of metal that
landed just outside of the periphery. The mass of energy that had
been held in abeyance by the amulet continued on it's path toward the hand.
The tidal wave of energy had made it's way to the hand in less than a second,
and the hand didn't take kindly to it. For the briefest of moments
the hand seemed to glow brighter than humanly possible. Then,
like the amulet before it, it exploded.
The power contained within the explosion was enough to topple Willow
from her feet, leaving her sitting on the ground. The symbol
was now blackened and burnt into the ground it had adorned, the pedestals
blackened and burnt on their inside facing and the flames atop them had
been extinguished like candles in a hurricane.
Raising herself from the ground Willow looked back across to where
Robert and Malek were. The shock and horror on his face had turned
to pure and simple anger.
"What you have just done now has condemned me." His voice carried
the distance of the cavern despite it's lack of volume. "If I am
to end like this then I will see your broken body at my feet before I am
gone."
He rose to his feet just as Robert descended upon him, scant
seconds later Robert was sent back in the direction he had come from,
though rather less in control of his own movements. Malek continued
his stride towards Willow unimpeded. Robert looked towards her from
where he knelt on the ground, his eyes conveying a single message.
"Run."
Willow stood firmly, the only certainty was that she would not
run. She would stand and fight if it was needed of her, but
she would not turn tail and run now that she had it within her to fight.
In the end Malek never even got half way to her.
Willow saw the look in his eyes change back from anger to abject horror
as the pain, to which his cry attested, bent him double.
"No! Not yet..." The words seemed forced out of his mouth
as if human speech was suddenly something it was unaccustomed to creating.
What followed almost defied human speech to describe it.
Flesh boiled, there were no other words that would do it justice.
Spines, spikes of bone shot their way out from the shape that was
no longer recognisable as human, rending the clothes that tried their
best to accommodate the warped form. The flesh changed in colour,
darkening to a scorched black before starting to lighten to a ruddy red
colour. Willow watched in mesmerised horror as the flesh warped and
twisted into it's new form, from somewhere else extra mass was being
added into the mix. After what seemed an eternity she managed to
pull her gaze away from Malek and look to Robert, no sorrow could
she detect on his face, mostly the same morbid disgust that she felt,
but also there was an ashen look to his face. It was only then that
Willow began to imagine the things that she could not yet see but that
he could. Her eyes met his for a second and she wasn't sure but she
could have sworn she saw envy in his. It was then that the gasp of
air being drawn into new lungs drew her attention back to the form on the
floor.
Willow watched as the thing raised itself up onto two legs, the
backward jointed legs should by all rights have ended in cloven hooves
but Willow wasn't surprised when she saw the inch long talons at their
end. Such seemed to be the way of things with demons. At full
height the thing stood eight feet tall, and a good five foot wide
at the shoulder, the flesh of the beast looked terracotta in the
gloom, and had a sparse covering of scales the colour of jet.
Cruel spikes, curved and serrated jutted from the back of it's ribcage,
it's shoulders, and elbows. Atop the shoulders was the head,
about what you might expect if you went halfway between a gorilla and a
tiger, though the scales gave a reptilian slant to it. Oddly
enough, the thing's head was what disquieted Willow least about it.
Arms, long but no less muscular for it trailed down to the things
knees and ended in the same talons that were on it's feet.
With eyes that glowed a dirty orange colour it surveyed the place of
it's birth. There was fire in the eyes, but nothing that resembled
human intelligence. The thing looked at Willow, then over at
Robert, then at Willow again. Then its first step in the world was
taken towards Willow.
"How do you kill such a thing?" Willow had meant the words only
for herself, but for some reason they seemed to carry across the
entire cavern.
The reply sounded from the mouth of the cavern. "You don't.
I do."
All three pairs of eyes in the cavern snapped to Buffy as if commanded
to. Willow and Robert both let out sighs of relief. The creature
turned to face Buffy and roared, the entire cavern reverberating
under the power of it's lungs. Buffy brought the axe up in front
of her, the weapon seeming absurdly large for someone her size,
then she charged down into the cavern below, traversing the uneven
ground at what seemed a suicidal speed. The creature brought it's
arms up in front of itself, the claws on them suddenly appearing
far more threatening than they had before. It stepped forward growling,
razor sharp and dagger sized teeth bared..
Then Buffy reached the cavern floor and battle was joined.
It is a rare thing to see a slayer so deep in battle that they are
lost to it. Despite the huge strength and unnatural agility of the
beast it was fated to death the moment the battle had begun. Had
another ten demons just like this one been placed before her, Buffy
would have killed them too.
The battle lasted all of thirty seconds. When it was over,
the axe was embedded so deeply in the demon's chest that the metal of the
axe-head couldn't be seen. Buffy paused to wipe the sweat from her
brow, inspecting the shallow cuts where the demon's claws had
found one of her arms. Willow was the first to reach her, Robert
behind by the smallest of measures. Willow saw the pain on Buffy's
face as soon as she got close, there were a hundred questions that
sprang to her lips but she bit back on all of them. There were more
important things at hand.
Buffy looked back and forth between Willow and Robert for a moment
before she spoke.
"Is it stopped?" Buffy's voice came out a good deal more cracked
than she liked.
"Yes." Robert cast an eye over to the circle as he spoke.
"But we may have a problem."
Willow looked quizzically at Robert, whereas Buffy simply raised
an eyebrow as the prompt for him to explain.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Giles' raised eyebrow seemed remarkably similar to Buffy's as Robert
explained the situation to his second audience of the night. He'd
be the first to admit that saying the exact same things twice to two different
people ... especially when they were perfectly capable of talking to each
other was wearing more than a little thin, but desperate times called
for desperate measures.
"The Hellmouth is still closed." He said. "But not as tightly.
There is a natural flow of energy through the Hellmouth, there always
has been. Whilst the ritual was stopped and the Hellmouth is still
closed, there was some damage and the flow of energy through there
is much greater than before."
"And I take it that this damage will repair itself given time?"
Giles gave the cold, analytical response that even in the short time
Robert had known him he had come to expect.
"That I don't know." Robert answered. "I believe that it
will, but I couldn't say anything with the kind of certainty that
you'd like."
"Could you guess at how long it might take for it to repair itself,
presuming that it will?"
"Again, I simply don't have that knowledge." Robert replied.
"Weeks, months, years, decades even maybe. I don't
have the answer to give you."
"And until the damage heals itself we'll be subject to increased supernatural
activity of all varieties, one would presume." Giles did an
excellent job of making the question sound like an offhanded comment.
"That would be my guess to." Robert confirmed. "But I think
we'll just have to wait and see."
"That's what I like least about this." Giles said grimly.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Bloody lunacy! That's what it is." Spike shouted. "There's
a reason why it doesn't happen. Everyone old and strong enough to
pull it off knows better."
"Are you telling me that you'd pass up an opportunity like this?"
Xander bared the skin on his arm as he spoke.
"Yeah." Spike answered. "That's exactly what I'd do.
I'd drink her dry and dump the body on the watcher's doorstep. But
this...." Spike sighed with exasperation. "It's your kill so
it's your choice. But I wouldn't."
The moonlight glinted off Xander's claw as he carved a gout into his
forearm. "That's the difference between you and me." He said.
"That, one slayer, and half a brains worth of common sense."
Spike shook his head as he said the words, almost laughing them out.
Xander didn't reply as he took the girl's head in his hand, easing
it up until the lips pressed against the wound on his arm.
And he watched with satisfaction as Kendra drank from it.
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