Page 117 of Blood Mosaic

She opened her eyes and blinked in the darkness that wasn’t dark. There was a rank sweetness in the back of her throat and an aching in her jaw.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

The dripping sound came from everywhere, and Tatyana realized she was lying on a floor pooled with red-tinged water. There was a body in the corner.

Elene?

Tatyana’s throat already hurt, but she burst into another wracking sob when she remembered the still form lying on the floor of the creaking freighter.

She wasn’t at sea anymore. Wherever she was, she could feel the ground steady beneath her. There was a skittering, electrical shock of energy along her skin, and her mind raced, trying to classify the new sensation.

Electricity? Buzzing. Brightness. Heat. Coursing rivers of blood in her body. She could feel her blood she could feel her heart and her heart should be racing her blood should be racing and the water surrounded her like a current flowing over her skin and scattering her senses too much too much too much.

She closed her eyes and listened to the thump of her heart.

Her heart.

Thump.

Silence.

Thump.

Silence.

Too slow.

Her heart was too slow.

Her skin was cold, and the water threaded over it like raindrops crawling along her body.

The water soothed her. It loved her. The water was her only friend.

Tatyana sucked in a breath, and the scent of sweet blood threaded the air. Her mouth watered, and something sharp pierced her tongue.

The body in the corner twitched and Tatyana rolled to her heels, crouched in readiness as she watched the body in the corner with a predatory stare.

Not Elene. Elene was dead.

Her throat was burning and the strange, manic energy skittered along her skin, making her muscles twitch and her mind spin.

Take.

Need.

Take, take, take.

The pain in her jaw became agony, and she opened her mouth, bringing her fingers to touch the elongated canines that were growing between her teeth.

She was ravenous and her throat was burning and her fangs?—

Her fangs.

Tatyana screamed in realization of what she was. Of what she had become.

The blinking human flesh rolled over, his drugged eyes wide and his mouth bound with a dirty rag. His eyes went even wider when he saw Tatyana, and he tried to scream. The noise pierced her eardrums, and something in her brain snapped.

Too late.

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