her

like a serpent's coils. She moaned and crawled weakly from the bed. She fell

onto the floor as she tried to stand. Gasping and squeezing her eyes shut

against the pain, she struggled to her feet, steadying herself by holding on

to

cne of the canopy uprights on the bed frame. She waited until the wave of

nausea

had passed, and then she walked unsteadily to where she had let her white

dress

fall to the floor when she'd tried to seduce Royce Blood. With an effort she

bent down to pick it up, each little movement causing her intense pain. It

felt

as if her entire body had been squeezed in a vise. She thought some of her

ribs

must have been fractured.

She draped the dress around her neck like a shawl, then pushed her tousled

black

hair back away from her face, took a deep breath, and walked unsteadily over

to

the fireplace on the other side of the room. Just a simple act like that took

an

incredible effort. She leaned against the carved stone mantelpiece a moment

to

catch her breath, then pressed down hard on one of the stone gargoyle heads

adorning it. The head pivoted downward, and with "a heavy, scraping sound the

back wall of the fireplace opened inward, reveling a secret passageway. She

ducked down, stepped into the fireplace, and went through the concealed

doorway

into the darkness of the secret passage.

Once inside, she pulled down on a lever set into the wall, and the fireplace

wall slid back into position, leaving her in total darkness. For a moment she

simply stood there in the silent darkness of the stone passageway, breathing

heavily, wanting nothing so much as simply to lie down, shut her eyes, and

wait

for the pain to go away. But she would not allow herself to do that. She

would

not give in. She would get even.

Her breathing slowed and grew deeper, with a low, guttural rasp to it. She

groaned with pain as her chest rose and fell heavily, the rib cage bulging

outward and lengthening' as her system suddenly started manufacturing

adrenaline

peptides and growth hormones at an impossible rate, altering her body

chemistry

and causing her temperature to soar. Saliva mingled with blood dribbled down

her

chin as her incisors grew longer and larger. Her swollen gums bled as her

teeth

reshaped themselves, layers of new calcium reforming them with incredible

speed,

making them longer and sharper. She felt a tingling sensation as hair started

to

sprout from her forehead and cheeks, the sensation spreading downward as hair

growth occurred on her throat and chest and stomach, on her thighs and calves

and on the tops of her feet, which throbbed with agony as the complex bone

structure was altered and thick pads formed on her souls, at the balls of her

feet. Her entire body trembled fiercely as her jawbone lengthened, forming

into