s he leapt into the air to try to get his hands on the thing.

his palms met, going right through the shadow cat, but he felt hot breath, and just as the creature sprang past him, the brush of rough fur.

solange met the cat in midair, this time driving with her broad muzzle and a mouthful of teeth deep into its chest wall. again, she passed through the cat, but it whirled as she began to drop, gripping her back with his claws and sinking teeth into her neck, driving her down to the floor. she rolled, roaring, as the teeth drove deeper, finding her vein.

dominic struck hard, tearing the cat from solange's back and dragging it away from her. he felt the fur, the heavy muscles and the spray of blood across his face, and then the creature was insubstantial again, sliding through his grip to once more become nothing but a shadow.

solange! talk to me.

her breath hissed out in a quiet agony. she shifted, clamping a hand to her neck. blood poured between her fingers. dominic whirled around and pulled her to him, pressing his palm to the wound to cauterize and stop the flow of precious blood.

the creature sprang to the floor, once more emerging into substance, lapping ferociously at the blood on the ground.

close your eyes. as a precaution he shielded her eyes himself, clapping his hand over her face.

flames leapt from the candle on the table, joining with one rising from the bottom of the basin. white-light radiated throughout the cave, a blinding beam of heat that struck the creature before it could slip away. it shrieked and burst into blue-purple flames, spreading across the room, growing into a giant shape with a huge gaping mouth filled with spiked teeth. the legs went stiff and the spine bent.

dominic could see small tube-like appendages inside the mouth filled with blood-- solange's blood--and his heart skipped a beat as realization dawned instantly. the shadow cat had been sent by someone to collect her blood. someone else knew about her royal blood and wanted it for their own evil purposes.

the creature's eyes turned on dominic for the first time, seemingly just noticing him. the eyes whirled, black to red, vague and empty. suddenly, for one heart-stopping moment, they went a glittering silver, cunning intelligence staring into the room, searching.

before those eyes could focus on them, dominic took solange straight to the ground, covering her body with his, his hand still over her eyes as the mouth grotesquely opened wider and the silver eyes quartered the room.

dominic flicked his hand at the fire, fanning the air into a turbulent whirlwind that sent the flames into a wild burning ball. the silver eyes turned back to the vacant blue-purple. the mouth yawned wider, emitting a harrowing scream of horror as the flames consumed the creature. in the midst of the flames dominic could see a tiny black sliver of a shadow desperately trying to separate and slink toward the water. dominic directed a fireball at it, watching with satisfaction as the last remnant turned to ash, completely incinerated. a foul stench permeated the air, and again he sent the wind crashing through the cavern to air it out.

beneath him, solange was utterly still. he lifted his hand away from her eyes and swept back her hair, his heart thundering hard.

"talk to me, minan."

she stirred, blinked up at him--and smiled. his heart stuttered. there was blood covering his hand, coating her neck and shoulder, there were deep furrows torn from her skin along her ribs and down her left hip, but she smiled at him. her green eyes were totally clear. he could see pain reflected there, but she pushed herself into a sitting position, one hand coming up to touch his face.

"don't look at me like that. i'm fine. i've had worse. thanks for stopping the bleeding. i might not have been able to do that myself."

she shivered and he instantly wrapped a blanket around her, the comforter with all the healing symbols on it. solange shook her head. "i don't want to get blood on this. it's so beautiful and i'd hate to ruin it."

"leave it," he commanded, holding the blanket in place. "i can get blood out. just sit there for a minute, solange, while i clean you up. you are in shock."

"no, just shocked that that thing was able to get past your safeguards and come in right under our noses. he should have killed me. he was sucking my blood out fast, rather than trying to finish me off. what was it?" her voice was low and husky, as if her throat had been damaged in the attack. she cleared her throat several times and coughed, bringing her hand up to her mouth to cover it.

dominic pulled her hand down. her palm was smeared with blood. he lifted her and opened the earth, floating them down into the rich soil. he wrapped her in the comforter. "i'm going to heal you, kessake. just rest. we will discuss this next rising. in the meantime, i will safeguard even our water and the very cracks in the rocks."

she touched his face again. "i'm really okay, dominic." her lashes fluttered and drifted down. dominic felt the soft whisper of fear creeping down his spine, a whisper that grew into fingers of terror when her breathing became labored. solange. do not leave me! the pain was sharp and terrible and so unexpected. she was wound tight in his heart. he gave her the command with every ounce of strength he had and set about working frantically on her. it took him three times going outside himself and into her before he spotted the tiny venom drops left behind by the murderous shadow cat.