Her ears ceased their ringing, and finally she could hear the voice of her imprint as she swayed and trembled against him, crimson blood staining the lightness of his fur. Sidriel had never felt so weak, so dependent upon the support of another, but there was something safe in his touch. The rigidity, the predictability, it soothed her. The woman had not been lost, not yet- it had been close, but he had come in time to grab her scruff and pull her head above the proverbial lake. Her terror, however, had not been tempered, and she could not tell if she was about to faint, or vomit, or both. Against his back she swallowed hard, breathing short, rapid breaths. "Herschel..." She said weakly in protest of his affirmative words, shaking her head slightly, though the motion caused her enough pain to stop entirely.

"You can't, you can't! He'll... you don't understand. Something inside him, it's... it's..." Her breath came even faster now, her one eye opening wide while the other remained swollen and scabbed shut. Words were twisted and scrambled, incoherent in their fear, and her body began to tremble ever more as she leaned more heavily upon him. "You can't. He'll hurt you, kill you even, and I... I cannot let you be hurt because of my transgressions. He won't leave me alone until he is dead, but forever I will be haunted by the specter inside of him..." She rambled onwards as if her words would stop him, but she could feel his resoluteness, he was as unfaltering in his mission as he was in posture.

Sidriel whined quietly, turning so that she might lean against him as they sought out a healer. She turned her injured face from him, she felt hideous, broken. No herb would fix the damage that he had caused; the silver shadow had made his message clear. For all her recovery in Taviora, he had struck the fear back into her heart. Even if Herschel or his brothers or Taviora entirely managed to hunt and kill him, he would haunt her even in death. She remembered the sickening flash in his eyes when he drove his fangs across her eye, and she shuddered and tripped, falling hard against her soul's shoulder.

"Now he has ruined me outside and in. I-I-I-" Her words were interrupted by a choked sob. "You won't even be able to look at me now, without thinking of him- just-" She stumbled away from him, her mind confused with a mixture of pain and adrenaline and fear, snapping her head up to look at him with her bloodied jowls and teeth twisted into a snarl. "Just let him finish it! Just let him kill me, because I will never be free of him, never be free of the Shade! I made an oath, Herschel! I made an OATH!" The final word was almost a scream. Sidriel collapsed then, sobs wracking her body before finally she was still once more, her breath hitching slightly in her throat.

Insane, now, she must be. He had taken her puphood, and her face, and now he had taken her mind. She didn't dare raise her head to look at Herschel, for she was ruined. She must be...