"for a nightcap," and it wasn't long before they were in a tight clinch on

the

couch, tearing at each other's clothes. Moments later they were in the

bedroom.

Roger lay upon his back, looking up with awe at the sheer perfection of her

naked body, at the jet-black hair cascading down her shoulders, framing that

astonishingly lovely face, at the dusky look in her eyes and the lightly

parted

lips, at the way her chest rose and fell as she breathed heavily, and he

could

not believe his luck.

"God, this is the greatest night of my life," he said.

Terri smiled. "It's also the last night of your life," she said, and then she

growled and started sprouting fangs.

Roger screamed.

CHAPTER SEVEN

It was a door that she was never meant to open. He had forbidden it

expressly.

And so, of course, she opened it the very first chance she had. It opened

onto

what appeared to be a perfectly ordinary basement staircase. She tried the

light

switch. A torch set in an iron wall sconce erupted into flame.

Terri pulled back, startled. The flaming torch illuminated a stone stairway

that

only a moment ago she could have sworn was wood. The wall was not plaster or

brick but huge stone blocks, cold and damp. She reached out for the torch,

and

as her hand passed through the doorway she felt a strange sensation, almost

as

if she had plunged it into ice-cold water. She jerked her hand back and

looked

at it, but aside from a brief tingling sensation, it seemed fine. She reached

out again, farther this time, and the eerie sensation returned. It felt like

bracing cold water going up her arm. She swallowed nervously, took a deep

breath, and stepped through the doorway, down onto the first stone step.

It was just like diving into a deep mountain lake, except without the splash

or

any sensation of wetness. The feeling was there only for a brief instant, and

she gasped, then just as suddenly, it was gone and she stood on the top step

of

the basement stairs, feeling no different than she had a moment earlier, only

it

was slightly cooler... and she wasn't on the top step of the basement.

She stood on a landing, with stone stairs leading down directly before her

and

up directly to her left. Behind her, where the door to the basement should

have

been, was a solid wall of huge, rough-hewn stone blocks. She reached out to