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with her, and they did so.
    The man kneeled down and gazed at her. Whoever he was, she knew that he had not yet mastered what she and Jayden had. He couldn’t shield his emotions or intentions from her.
    He observed her , and then reached for the ground in front of her. She saw him remove his black glove and gently touch the blood she had spurted out. Covering his fingers with it, he removed his hood and brought it to his mouth, relishing the taste of it.
    Madison could never recall Jayden’s blood being particularly appetizing. The thought of tasting another creature’s blood like herself did not appeal to her. But this man seemed to feel like this was an act of conquering her. Taking her blood within him was proving her defeat as she lay before him.
    She felt him look at her again. He took the chain from behind her head, drenched in blood from her scalp. He ripped it from the back of her head, pulling a reasonable amount of her hair with it. He removed the chain from her mouth and unwrapped it from her jaw line, tossing it aside. Her skin slowly began to heal, but not before pushing out the small barbs that remained lodged into her skin. She refused to scream or groan in pain, knowing that he would only enjoy hearing it. She merely waited for her body to do what it did naturally. Her mouth, gums, and skin healed, but the agony continued in her arms and hands. The chain was somehow attached to her legs. With each movement below her chest, it tightened into her skin. She didn’t allow herself to move anything below her waistline, only her head and mouth were free. As soon as she was able, she turned her head upward to witness her attacker. The disbelief she had experienced at realizing that these men were just like her was nothing compared to the shock she felt now.
    Caspar was looking at her directly in the eyes with obvious curiosi ty. He suspected that she wouldn’t recognize him at first sight.
    “Ascot , at your service madam,” he said, not taking his eyes off of her.
    “You turned those men,” she said.
    “You cannot be serious? Those are your first words to me?” he responded. “I was half expecting you to be interested by my survival.”
    “Lyndon told me that you live. And what you have done,” she said with disgust.
    “What I have done, madam? No, what we have done.”
    She stopped only a second to consider what he said. “We?”
    “Lyndon was as complicit as I. Did you think I was alone in a desire to know how it was done?” His voice mirrored Jayden’s in a likeness of arrogance. But Caspar’s had an edge that Jayden never did. Jayden never viewed her with hatred.
    “Lyndon tried to stop you,” she said.
    “No, Lyndon felt responsible for what we did. He found means to turn people as a way to avoid them dying. Trust me, it would not have happened had he divulging the small detail that our stream had been poisoned continuously for months, or that that you and Jayden had fed us blood while we were ill. I being too weak at the time to recall, did not know of this. In that lay the reason why those I tried to create kept dying.”
    “I don’t understand,” she said.
    “Months of exposure to our blood through the waters, then taking of blood from humans during the period of illness, completes the process, child. This is what happened to us, don’t you know? The natives poisoned our waters with their witchery, then you and your companion, Jayden was it? Yes, you two fed Lyndon and me blood from the natives during the illness. Others from our voyage died because they did not feed on blood as we did. Now if Lyndon had told me of this, perhaps all could have been avoided. For I have no memory of it. I do however remember you biting me.”
    “How many have you changed?” she said harshly.
    “I truly find it fascinating that you are more concerned with what I have done than what is to become of you. No ‘why am I here?’, or ‘what is to be done with me, Caspar?’”
    Madison hardly bothered