They had been in this landscape for only a few hours and already they were attracting the attention of the big predators. Scathach had no doubt she could fight them off, and Joan was almost her equal in battle, but sooner or later one of them would be injured. And while they were both immortal, they were not invulnerable-if the injury was devastating enough, they would die. The slash of a tiger’s claw, a bite, even a scratch would quickly become infected. Her metabolism would help her heal… if she fed. The problem was, in this landscape, there was no one to feed off-except Joan… and she would never do that.

Scathach’s vampire clan were not blood drinkers; they had other needs. And while she rarely-very rarely-needed to feed, sooner or later the hunger would come upon her. Joan too would need food; she was vegetarian, but who knew what was safe to eat in this time and place?

The Shadow took a deep breath, drawing in the clean night air, and leaned back on outstretched arms to survey the landscape. Close by, a lion roared and something smaller squealed in alarm.

She had lived longer than she’d ever imagined, seeing civilizations rise and fall and rise again. She had lived through the best and worst of humani history. In the course of her long life, she had made mistakes, and while it was not in her nature to apologize for what she had done, there were things she would have done differently. Her biggest regret was that she had trained Cuchulain; she had taken a boy and turned him into a warrior, and that had ultimately killed him. Maybe she should have found an Elder master to make him immortal beforehand. Funny, she hadn’t thought of Cuchulain in centuries; he was so inextricably entwined with memories of her sister, and those were painful memories.

If she’d had her life to live again, she would never-ever-have fought with her twin. When her parents and brother ignored her, Aoife had always been there for her; Aoife had always loved her unconditionally.

Drawing her knees up to her chest, Scathach wrapped her arms around her shins and rested her chin on her kneecaps. It had been a long time since she had thought about her sister. She wondered if Aoife was still on the earth. She thought so. Occasionally, she would hear rumors about a red-haired pale-skinned warrior, or she’d come across stories that confused her with Aoife, mingling and mixing their legends until sometimes even she could not tell them apart.