Ardneh's World: Empire of the East Book III

Her look seemed to him that his behavior was far from being unendurable; that, perhaps, if it went on a little longer it might even begin to give her pleasure …

He found her lips. He tenderly kissed her checkbone before he began a line of kisses moving down her throat.

Wait! What was this upon her skin?

What had happened—

What—

With a cry Rolf sprang to his feet and backed away, almost falling in his haste. Before him now, and lately enfolded most tenderly in his arms was one of the most hideous human shapes it had ever been his ill-fortune to behold. What had been Catherine’s healthy young face had altered while he kissed it to the visage of a withered, snaggle-toothed, misshapen crone.

Moving like some crippled sleepwalker, she tottered toward him. “Rolf?” she cawed out the one word, in something like a reptile’s voice, and then her figure seemed to blur, and down she fell on hands and knees.