Tanith was not a woman that scared easy, but nothing in the world could have prepared her for that. Her eyes had been focused on Alistair, and she had noticed the change in him. His body had gone very still, then fallen limp and truly lifeless in the corner. All vampires were dead, but she'd never seen anything like that before. It was as if his body was nothing but a husk, and he'd simply left it behind. In that moment what remained was truly corpse-like, and Tanith's surprise had slowed her reflexes.
And then he was there. There and not there all at the same time, standing at her side. A ghostly figure, but free and speaking to her. Tanith's heart jumped to her throat. She leaped away from this new Alistair, the vial in her hand forgotten as she moved simply to put space between them. And then she stumbled. She threw her arms out to catch her fall.