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was to grab him and drink her fill. Her fangs extended again.  
    She’d fed three weeks ago from a male Dren, a friend. Most Dren fed every few days, but some managed to go without for several weeks before the dementia took hold. Once that happened, they would feed on any creature. The tainted blood would eventually kill them, after their brain functioned at an animal level. Melissa shuddered. She pushed away from the table, staggering over to a counter filled with bottles of liquids and herbs. Her legs shook, but not as bad as before.  
    “How old are you, and what is your species’ lifespan?” he asked.
    “I was twenty-two when I was transformed, but I’m twenty-four now. Dren live for hundreds of years, some even reach the age of one thousand. Panthera typically live twice as long.”
    She faced him. “Your turn. What are you?”  
    *****
    Noeh’s gaze locked onto the unusual female who scrambled his emotions. As she walked past him, into the middle of the infirmary, he clenched his teeth. She intrigued him. There was something special about her. Without a doubt she was trouble, yet he couldn’t fight the spell she had over him. Since she’d opened up to him, he’d do the same, although he’d keep his personal secrets locked inside.
    “I am a shape-shifter, a Stiyaha. Our species live well over two thousand years. I am five hundred and thirty-three years old.”
    “You look young,” she said.
    “We reach maturity fast and stay that way until near the end.” He tapped the hilt of his sword with his ring, the sound loud in the room. “We each have a beast inside us, one that towers over nine feet tall, with great strength and speed. We no longer shift, not since the great scourge.”  
    A vision of his mother, her pale face mottled with red, open sores, crossed his mind. He forced the memory away, pushing the image back into the black box he kept it in.
    “Why not?” Melissa asked.
    “Energy strands connected beast to human form, which allowed us to change shape. For the ones that survived the scourge, the sickness altered us, and the strands didn’t work. We no longer shift, for we can’t change back. Many died in their failed attempts to return to human form, or were killed, so it is forbidden.”  
    He longed to try again, but to test the strands would risk unleashing the beast, and that, he would never do.
    Her green eyes raked him, and he stiffened under her glare.  
    “Gaetan tells me the Gossum took something from you. What was it?”  
    “I had a cloaking shield. It protected me until my powers weakened. That’s when the Gossum captured me.”  
    She closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip. He had a strange urge to pull her into his embrace and protect her from harm.  
    “They tortured me, took my blood, and with it, my shield.” Melissa’s moist eyes pulled on something deep within him.
    “Ah, that’s how Ram deflected my sword. He stole your shield.”
    Lines ringed Melissa’s eyes, and her glossy hair, matted in several places, lay limp around her shoulders. She still wore the dirty, ripped jeans and blood-stained tank top they’d found her in. Leaning against the countertop, her fingers turned white as they gripped the edge.  
    Noeh wanted to comfort her but couldn’t bring himself to do so. His chest tightened, and he hated himself for his inability to show her any kind of compassion. His spiral marking pulsed. He accepted the pain, savored it as his due. The sworl would fade further until he lost all compassion, and then the mark would disappear.
    “I’ll send in Bet, my chambermaid. She’ll show you the baths and give you some clean clothes.”  
    “Thank you, a bath sounds wonderful.”  
    Noeh placed his hand over one of the sunstones that lined the edges of the room. He sent a message to Bet to come assist his new acquaintance. Aware he was being watched, he glanced at Melissa. Her smile ratcheted up his nerves, and his stomach rolled into a ball.  
    “Where