Chapter 21

The next day dawned and it found Vajra at his computer. He’d had a terrifying nightmare about Ardala. He’d torn her open and stolen silver threads from within her, but that hadn’t been the part that had prevented him from going back to sleep. No what had kept him from resting was the glee that had accompanied the visual of her torn open body. The pleasure that the sight and the consumption of the silver threads had given him had horrified and disgusted him enough that he hadn’t wanted to risk having the dream again and had just decided to stay up.

The cup of coffee that steamed gently in front of him gave him strength and focus even though half of his brain was still trying to parse his dream. He didn’t want to hurt Ardala, he didn’t want to hurt anyone, but the way that her flesh had felt under his claws had been almost sexual as he’d rooted around in her body for those threads, slurping them like spaghetti and with every one he’d consumed he’d gotten stronger.