And just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, they did. It was late afternoon when Lord Morren summoned me to his workroom. Amelia had been there earlier that morning, and she was sleeping on her pallet, recovering. I got to my feet and walked into the workroom with a sinking sensation in my stomach. I hated the transfer spell, and I was growing to hate my own latency even more passionately than I ever had before. But where previously I’d wanted full use of my powers, to be a mage like my father, now I wished that I had no power at all. Without a word I knelt in the circle. Lord Morren stood behind me and began the spell. I tuned it out. I’d heard it so many times by now I could have cast the cursed thing myself, if I’d only had the talent to do so. When the spoken part of the spell was completed, I braced myself for the knife strike, but Lord Morren didn’t pick up the little dagger. Instead he knelt down beside me. I looked over, finding his dark eyes level with my own.

“I’ve discovered a new twist to this spell, my young servant, and I have you to thank for it.” He smiled that predatory smile, and I jerked in surprise. Some time between yesterday and today he’d acquired a set of fangs not unlike my own. “Your own interesting dentition inspired me. I realized that there was a simpler and rather more enjoyable way to complete my spell. A simple physiological change, easy enough to initiate. And now I shall try it out.”

He moved behind me and I shut my eyes. I felt a sick, sinking sensation in my stomach. I knew what was coming, I just knew it, and I didn’t like it at all. The knife had been bad enough, but this! I flinched away as his lips touched my neck. Then his teeth broke though my skin and the real pain began. The prick of his fangs as they broke through wasn’t what hurt, the spell itself, as always, was what caused my agony. And really the pain wasn’t any worse than it had always been, but having Lord Morren’s mouth on my neck, drinking my power directly from my veins, brought the whole experience to a new level of degradation and horror.

At last it was over and he released me. I fell limply to the ground inside the circle. Lord Morren got to his feet. I looked up and saw him wiping my blood off of his lips with a laugh. I shuddered. He was cold and power-hungry, and I’d always known that he didn’t care what pain he caused to others, but I’d long suspected it went deeper than that. And now I was sure. He wasn’t simply cruel from necessity; he was cruel because he enjoyed it.

It was with a feeling of weariness and hopelessness deeper than any I’d ever felt that I staggered back to my cell. What chance would I ever have of escaping?