That mere sip of her blood hit me as a bolt of lightning would have. So ferocious was its power, that I dropped the woman and stumbled backward, falling onto my haunches, breathless and stunned. Only belatedly did I realize that she lay there, still, on the cold stone, her hair spread around her like a puddle of golden silk.

Scrambling to my feet, my nerves still tingling and snapping with whatever power lurked within her blood, I hurried back to her, knelt over her, and lifted her from the floor. Her hair fell like a curtain, but I saw no blood, felt no lump on her head.

"Wake up, pretty one. Wake up."

Her brows furrowed into a tight little frown, and then she blinked and squinted at me as if I were a light that hurt her eyes. But the only light in the cave came from the fire beside us.

"What ...happened?"

"You don't remember?"

Screwing her face in concentration, she nodded. "Ah, yes. You tried to frighten me with silly vukodlak tales. And then you kissed me." As she said it she lifted a hand to touch her neck, where the skin was no doubt tender.

"Did you faint from fear? Or desire?" I asked, wondering if she had felt the power when her blood melded with my own. Had she forgotten it, in her swoon? Or was she only denying the memory because she did not understand it?

"I faint at any overabundance of excitement," she said, lowering her head. "I used to be so strong. So very strong. I could outrun and outclimb most of the boys in the village when I was growing up. I could outfight most of them, too."

I couldn't help but smile. "I don't doubt it."

"You should. I'm as worn out as an old woman now."

It was a shame. And yet, I was beginning to understand why I'd been so compelled to save her - even when doing so would thwart my own plans - and to see the powerful impact from a mere taste of her blood.

I had to know for sure.

"Are you ill?" I asked. "You said all your family had died. Is it the same sickness that took them?"

"I'm ill, yes. But not with the plague that took my family. It was swift and sudden, taking them with a ferocity unlike anything I'd seen."

I nodded. I'd seen the ravages of the plague that had been sweeping the outlying villages. Its victims were stricken down with raging fevers, hacking coughs that threatened to tear out their lungs. Within a few days they either improved or died. It was fast and merciless.

"It took my mother first, leaving no one but me to care for the others when they fell ill. My father. My brothers. My baby sister. She was only two."

I lowered my head, feeling her pain. Feeling her, more than I had before. There was a connection between us; I knew it now. And that tiny sip of her blood had strengthened it still more.

She was like me. She was one of The Chosen.