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Sebastian slipped off his vest and put it over Isabel’s shoulders. “Well,dolcezza,sorry I don’t have a coat to give you. But I can walk you home so you can get dry!” He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and to her surprise, a younger version of herself stepped out of her and allowed Sebastian to lead her up the path.

“Our first meeting,” she whispered as the figures faded away. From there, multiple scenes began playing out before her. The visions and snippets she’d seen all fell into context until she could remember the vast span of her lives. Every bit of love she’d ever felt for Sebastian stretched the boundaries of her heart and she longed to get back to him.

Overcome with exhaustion, she lay down on the bank of the river and closed her eyes. All she needed was a little nap, then she could figure out how to return to her body. As she drifted off, she heard her own voice as a whisper.

“Whatever happens, you cannot let Sebastian paint you with his magic again.”

* * *

Apain like twin bee stings in her wrist brought Isabel crashing back to consciousness. But the feeling was familiar; heat racing up her arm and into her heart, followed by tingling in every cell. Her ribs shifted and knit, as did the bone in her arm, both of which made her scream with pain.

“Shhh, it’s okay, Aurora. It’s just me.” Josephine’s soft voice relaxed Isabel immediately, and her tongue tickled against Isabel’s wrist. “There. That should take care of the broken bones and things. And the doctors are already giving you more blood, so you should be fine soon.”

Isabel nodded and opened her eyes. “At least hospitals are better these days than they used to be,” she murmured, gesturing vaguely with her fingers. Josephine stared at her for a moment before her face broke out in a smile.

“Did you get your memories back?! You’re speaking perfect Italian again!”

“Of course I’m speaking Italian! I’ve only spoken it for-” She paused, the connection making its final link. “Oh! That’s right! Where is Sebastian? We have to tell him the good news! And I have to apologize for being so prickly…and accusing him of being a liar…”

Josephine frowned. The simple action made Isabel’s stomach sink, but she grabbed her sister’s hand and looked her firmly in the eyes. A sigh escaped Josephine’s lips and she shook her head. “I don’t know where he is. He came running through the keep and demanded that I come to the hospital and make sure you didn’t die. I couldn’t even ask what happened before he demanded that I ‘tell her not to follow me!’ and he disappeared.”

“So obviously I have to follow him,” Isabel replied, her jaw set. “If he’s demanding that I stay put, he’s definitely doing something dangerous.”

“I mean, you’re not wrong there.” Josephine rolled her eyes and put her hand firmly against Isabel’s shoulder. “But you’re too weak to go anywhere. You’re going to stay put until you have the proper amount of blood.Thenthe two of us can hunt down that husband of yours and find out what mess he’s gotten you into.”

CHAPTER28

Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania, Romania. 11 June, 2007

Sebastian sat in the corner of an ancient pub, his hood pulled low and a glass of ale in hand. Now that he had arrived in his ancestral homeland, his ‘plan’ was beginning to sound rash. The treaty allowing Victor’s coven to be sovereign from the original coven was fragile at best. Vlad had Turned Victor himself, after all.

But after watching Isabel writhe in pain after burning just one painting, he felt even more desperate to find another way to undo his mistakes.Hecould handle the pain. Isabel, though? She was already saddled with such a weak body. Would she even survive the agony of so many pieces of her soul being burned?

So this had to be done. Even if it meant denouncing his coven and joining Vlad’s, he would find out more about his curse of a magic. Sebastian downed the rest of his ale and slid the cup away, the liquid courage beginning to course through his veins.

Every vampire knew where the original coven lived. Beneath the castle just outside Cluj-Napoca ran miles and miles of underground tunnels. At the deepest point stood the Throne Room where the original vampire himself resided. Even humans had rumors of his existence thanks toDracula,though few actually believed in him. And those that did believe didn’t know that Vlad the Impaler was not the first of their kind. He was merely the first to be discovered and happened to share the same name.

Getting there would be easy. Getting inside? That was the problem.Just have to think on my feet,he thought and rose from his chair.

“So you reallyarethis stupid. I had hoped I was wrong.”

Sebastian’s eyebrows lowered and he spun around. “Remus?” he growled in a whisper. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I’d ask you the same thing, if I didn’t already know. You know the consequences of passing through that door! Our coven has gotten large enough that this wouldn’t be a small war. Either we’d be wiped out, or they would.” Remus grabbed Sebastian’s arm and began dragging him out of the pub. As much as Sebastian wanted to resist, he also didn’t want to cause a scene in front of the humans.

The pair slipped out into the night air and out of the city, remaining silent until they were deep into the uninhabited countryside. Anger and fear clouded Sebastian’s vision and made his heart race despite the forced leisure of their pace. When only the stars and shrubbery remained to bear witness of their conversation, the vampires stopped and faced each other.

“I would do anything for Isabel, and I know you would, too. How much do you know about our magic, Remus?” Sebastian sat on a large rock, struggling to balance his desperation with caution. If he could win Remus over, perhaps the two of them would have a better chance with Vlad’s coven.

But Remus seemed unlikely to agree. “I know that you’ve disobeyed the most basic rule of it, and put the womanIlove in danger. How many paintings of her do you have, that you’ve managed to summon some kind of demon to devour her?! How much of an idiot are you, that you’d willingly capture so much of her soul?”

“I didn’t know!” Sebastian spat, his hands clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white. “I didn’t know that our magic was stealing parts of her soul! I didn’t know that something so beautiful and pure as our paintings could be so evil.”

“Excuses! If you hadn’t been so damn cocky and refused to listen to Victor when hetriedto tell you what you were doing, this wouldn’t have happened. But you’re a selfish, moronicchildwho thinks he knows better than everyone! Even now you were about to march in to start a war that affects hundreds of people, only thinking about yourself.” Remus shook with fury, his eyes black and his teeth clenched. He pulled his arm back and let it fly, slamming his fist into the unsuspecting Sebastian’s jaw.

Sebastian felt the bone shatter, followed by the white-hot pain of his body knitting it back together. Within 30 seconds he was healed, but the phantom ache remained. His own anger boiled over and he went for Remus’s throat with both hands, but the shorter vampire dodged the attack. “You’re an ass!” he shouted.

“No,you’rethe ass! I’m the one here to stop you from slaughtering our entire family, and still help Isabel! Unlike you, I took the time to speak with Victor and search the library for answers. If you’ll use your brain instead of your ego for five seconds, maybe I’ll tell you what I’ve learned. Not for your good, but for the good of our family, and the good of Chiara.”