. . Sigurd was lying, pain-ridden and stiff as death, in a castle bed in Transylvania when he regained consciousness. Last thing he recalled was his encounter with Reynaldo, the haakai Lucipire, and someone coming up to stab him in the back. Vikar had called out a warning to him, but too late for Sigurd to escape injury. Even so, Vikar must have saved Sigurd from a fate worse than death for a vangel—being taken to Horror and tortured into becoming a demon vampire—by killing the Lucipire who had come up behind him. Otherwise, Sigurd would be in Tranquillity, not a castle bedroom. Tranquillity was the place vangels went, those who died before their time. It was a holding place until Judgment Day, much like Purgatory. “Infection” was always a problem when anyone was injured by a Lucie weapon, which would have been treated with poisonous mung. Even if a fatal blow hadn’t been made, the slime itself in an open wound could cause death.
