been gullible, superstitious creatures, and it amused him to have his victims come to him and pay for the

privilege of feeding him. It was how he carefully chose the ones whom he would kill. In "counseling"

them, he found out about their lives and patterns of behavior, and those whom he found suitable, he

would later stalk. From the others, he only drew off small amounts of life energy surreptitiously. They felt

slightly weak when it was over, but they were convinced that it was merely part of the process of having

their "psychic growth cycles" stimulated. Amazing how naive and foolish they all were.

been gullible, superstitious creatures, and it amused him to have his victims come to him and pay for the

privilege of feeding him. It was how he carefully chose the ones whom he would kill. In "counseling"

them, he found out about their lives and patterns of behavior, and those whom he found suitable, he

would later stalk. From the others, he only drew off small amounts of life energy surreptitiously. They felt

slightly weak when it was over, but they were convinced that it was merely part of the process of having

their "psychic growth cycles" stimulated. Amazing how naive and foolish they all were.

Unquestionably, they had grown more intelligent, but to Wulfgar's way of thinking, they had done very

little with their evolved intellectual capabilities. They had used them to make life easier for themselves, but

in so doing, they had only succeeded in nearly destroying their own world, would have destroyed it, in

fact, if not for Merlin, or would have destroyed themselves eventually as they fought among each other

amid the ruins of their so-called civilization. Even now, they hadn't learned. Merlin had given them the gift

of magic and what had they done with it? Merely re-created their old world, using thaumaturgy as the

energy base for their technology. They still had no understanding of the world they lived in. They sought

to impose their own order upon it, continuing to ignore the natural forces of the world and order of the

universe. Their arrogance would have been amusing if it were not for their stupidity.

The natural order of the world was based upon one immutable law—survival of the fittest. Yet,

everything these humans did worked as a feeble attempt to contravene that law. They had eliminated

most of their natural predators, creatures that had served a valuable function in culling the weak out of

their society. They had eliminated most of their natural diseases, so that now even the weak could thrive.

They had built their world upon mutual dependence instead of self-reliance and most of their

achievements had been based upon making their lives easier and free from the sort of striving effort that

improved the breed. Perhaps these humans were more sophisticated than their primitive ancestors,

perhaps their life spans had increased, perhaps their smell was less offensive, but they had grown soft. He

had less respect for them and all of their accomplishments than he had for the ugly brutes they were

descended from, who at least knew what it was to struggle for survival.

Their life force was sufficient to sustain him, but it was a pale thing compared to the energy their

ancestors had possessed. Even in the grip of fear and overwhelming power, those primitive humans had

fought like cornered beasts right to the end and their life force was a heady elixir compared to the tepid

brew of these "evolved" humans. He still relished in the drinking of it, but it was not the same. With each

victim he had claimed since his escape from that damnable pit in the Euphrates, it had been no different.

The sudden rush of terror, perhaps a momentary struggle, but then . . . submission. Meek submission.

Even in the face of oblivion, they all had reached a point—and how quickly they had reached it!—where

they had simply given up. And each time, he had felt sated, but with an aftertaste of disappointment.

Their lives had been too easy for them. They had forgotten how to fight. They had lost their primitive

instinct for survival. Only a shadow of it remained. They were like sheep, bleating pitifully as they were

slaughtered. There was no thrill in the hunt.

What they needed, Wulfgar thought, was to be reminded of their true place in the scheme of things. To

be reminded that they were not the dominant form of life on earth, as they so arrogantly and stupidly