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I clutched his arm with both my hands and tried to keep my feet under me. I am loathe to admit it, but I am rather petite. He was much taller than I and my toes barely touched the ground. My vampire powers had abandoned me and I felt as weak as a mortal.

Gregor lifted me off the ground and swung me around to slam me up against the side of the building. He shoved me hard against the wall, his free hand sliding down over my body. I was not sure if he was accosting me or searching for some sort of identifying possession, but I could feel the putrid press of his arousal against my back through our clothing. Frightened and bitterly angry, I tried to bite into his arm, but he sensed the movement and slammed my face into the wall.

“None of that, Bride of Satan,” he said gruffly.

The hand sliding over my body became more aggressive, beginning to fondle me.

“Leave me be,” I hissed through swollen lips.

“Not until you tell me who you are and who is your Master,” Gregor responded in my ear, then licked it.

I was repulsed by the touch of his lean body against mine as I struggled against him. The cold press of the blade against my throat ceased my defiant movements. Gregor let the blade nick my skin lightly and laughed nastily in my ear. I shuddered with pain and disgust, trying to remain calm. For one desperate moment, I wished Vlad would sa

ve me.

“Who is your Master? Where does he live,” Gregor demanded. He began to nuzzle the back of my head, licking my neck with his cold, oily tongue.

My flesh crawled as I pressed my lips tightly together. I could not betray Vlad. Besides, Gregor would kill me the moment I revealed that truth to him.

“You will not answer, will you, wench? Well, we shall see about that,” he growled in my ear.

With his knife he sliced open my frock and gruffly drew it back, exposing my breasts. Roughly fondling one, he pressed the knife against the other. “Tell me, whore, who is your Master. ”

“No,” I whispered through my bruised lips.

Gregor shoved the knife slowly into the soft flesh of my breast. Again, the metal burned and I screamed. “I enjoy this. I really do. I could make this last for hours, little one. ”

“I will not tell you,” I hissed at him. “I know if I tell you the truth, you will slay me instantly. ” Fervently, I wished for Vlad to come to my rescue.

Gregor just laughed and shoved the knife in further. “I will slice off your pretty breast then start with the other one if you do not tell me who your Master is and where is his haven. Do you not want to keep your pretty breasts?”

“Go to hell,” I swore at him angrily.

Gregor chuckled, such an ugly sound, and shoved the knife in further, making me scream. “What is the name of your Master?”

I shrieked with agony as tears poured down my face. “I will never tell you. ”

Was this how I was to meet my fate? In a dirty alley with a disgusting creature assaulting me? It seemed too awful considering how happy I had been just a few moments before, but my world was now full of excruciating pain and there seemed no salvation. I prayed once more, fervently, desperately, begging God to deliver me.

“Go to hell!” I struggled to be free of him, but the knife sank further and I screamed again.

The shadows about us rippled. A murky form suddenly slammed into us, knocking the knives out of Gregor’s hands. The assassin jerked back in surprise, loosening his grip on me long enough for me to break free in one desperate move.

Gregor grabbed after me, but he was tossed across the street by an unseen force. His lean body crashed into the wall of the imposing building towering over us and his face was torn open by the impact. Blood poured out of a huge gash in his forehead and ran down his pale face, blinding him. Grunting with rage, Gregor staggered into the street, slicing the air with his knife in a futile attempt to stave off any attack.

Stumbling, sobbing, desperate to escape and tormented by excruciating pain, I was nearly delirious. Looking back, I saw Gregor gripped by an unseen force and slammed back into the wall. This time it was hard enough to stun him, rendering him near unconsciousness as he slumped to the ground.

Terrified, I struggled on, trying to escape.

A swirl of shadows pressed up around me and I screamed with fright. The gloom overwhelmed me, engulfing me, and just when I thought I would die of fear, I felt arms encircling me.

“It is I, Lady Glynis,” the voice of the gentleman vampire whispered in my ear.

Then he clutched me to him, lifting me into the night sky. Below us, Gregor raised his head and howled in pain and frustration.

Chapter 23

The Journal of Lady Glynis Wright– Continued