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A panic unlike any other takes hold of me, and I can barely stop myself from trembling.

"Will you…" the priest's words are a blur, my ears ringing with what I can only describe as a deafening sound.

I close my eyes, blinking rapidly. But then the entire room darkens, smoke infiltrating in the church.

For some reason, I don't know if this is real or if it's just something my sick mind is producing, rejecting the reality I find myself in and somehow creating a new one.

People are yelling, shots are fired. The noises become increasingly loud.

An arm sneaks around my waist, a hand on my mouth as I feel a hot breath on my neck.

"You're not getting rid of me, hell girl," he drawls, a dangerous sound that makes my already dead heart weep.

And then the world goes black.

9

SISI

Athrobbing in my temples forces me to open my eyes, my lids are heavy, my entire body aching. It takes me a moment to regain my bearings and remember what had happened.

Pulling myself up, I note I am still in my wedding dress. But one glance around the room and I realize I'm in a foreign location.

I'm sitting on a huge king sized bed in the middle of an equally enormous room. I try to move my limbs, happy when I see that nothing is wrong with me.

But what happened?

I remember being so deep inside my head, trying to block the ceremony out and everything around me, that I hadn't realized when the whole church had filled with smoke. And then…

My eyes widen as I recallhiswords. In my ear.Hisarms. On my body.

"What in God's name happened?" I mutter aloud, more to myself.

The entire room is empty save for the bed. The almost ceiling high windows allow plenty of light to infiltrate the room, and I have to turn my gaze away, my eyes blinded by it.

I swing my legs off the bed, heading straight for the door.

If this is another one of Vlad's games, then he's going to be in for a small surprise, because I'mnotabout to allow him to embroil me in mood swings.

I can already foresee why he'd done this. He'd been too bored and had decided to mess with both me and Marcello.

A bitter smile escapes me as I realize I shouldn't think myself that important to him, after all hadn't he said the exact thing? That I wasn't the only woman in the world? He'd likely done it to toy with Marcello.

Regardless, I will not sit by and wait for him to make a fool of me again. No matter how much my heart still beats painfully in my chest knowing he's somewhere close. No. Our time has passed.

Wrapping my hand around the handle of the door, I pull down, not surprised to find the door locked.

Like the windows, the door is ceiling high as well. It's old too, the wood spoiled around the corners, the painting coming off in ugly stripes.

For a moment I'm saddened by what I'm about to do, since this is clearly a historic building. But he has left me no alternative.

Raising my foot, I balance myself on my other leg as I try to gain as much momentum as I can before kicking.

The sole of my foot connects with the wood, the sound reverberating in the room.

It's not budging.

The more I kick, the more I realize that for all its dilapidated appearance, the wood is strong — too strong for my puny kicks.