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I shrugged.

“But I realized, looking into those cold beautiful eyes of yours, no one can truly conquer you. That knowledge makes you so very desirable. ”

I waved my hand at him, dismissing his words.

He came to my side in a flash and gripped me firmly by my hair, wrenching my head to one side. He looked deeply into my eyes and said, ”Never again will another man touch what is mine. Understood?”

“I know not what you speak of,” I lied.

He just gave me his most fierce, feral smile. “Yes, you do. I shall kill any man, brother or no, that touches you. ” He released me and walked to the trunks. My traveling cloak lay on one. He picked it up and tossed it to me. “We leave now. ”

Catching the cloak, I held it against me. “Where are we going?”

“I told Ignatius we are going to Vienna,” Vlad answered.

“But we are not. ”

Vlad merely smiled his cold, cunning smile in response.

We departed Buda in the crisp, gray dawn and left behind the world I had grown to love. Magda sobbed as I kissed her cheek and clung to my hand until Vlad had pulled me away. Astir and Ignatius had also come to see us off. Their good-byes were muted under the fierce gaze of Vlad Dracula.

I am now certain that Vlad suspected all of us of duplicity and wanted nothing more than to have me far from those he considered my co-conspirators.

“It was a pleasure meeting you, Countess Dracula. May we meet again,” Ignatius had said, kissing my hand.

It had taken all my willpower not to break down and fling myself into his arms. His gaze had caught mine for a mere second and I felt the connection of our love flare. I had quickly averted my eyes least Vlad see.

Later, as I sat in the rocking carriage, remembering my last moments with Ignatius, I felt a tear on my cheek. I brushed it away with my gloved hand and tried hard not to express the deep despair welling up within me.

Vlad’s hand took my other hand and he held it against his thigh. He said nothing, but his firm grip on my hand was possessive.

As we left Buda behind us, I laid my head against the closed panel covering the window.

All that I had cherished in Buda was gone and I was still Vlad’s.

I dreamed of Cneajna on our journey. I dreamt she was nothing more than a skeleton with gray skin, parched and dry, drawn tightly over her bones. In my dream, I tried to console her as she wept in the anguish of the hunger. And in my dream, her milky eyes looked up at me as she seized me and sank her teeth into my throat.

We reached Bistri?a on a misty, dreary night. Drizzling rain fell steadily from the dark sky as our carriage found its way through the dark streets.

When we alighted from the carriage, I felt a pang of sadness as I stared up at the countenance of the Golden Krone Hotel. I had first met Ignatius here not so long ago when my adventure had first begun and now it was almost at its sad end.

Vlad ushered me into the hotel as the proprietor gushed over us, quite anxious to make sure we were perfectly content with the room he had selected for us. I was hungry and weary from our travels and in no mood to deal with the mortal. He simply chattered on in his nervous tone. When we reached our room, I turned to Vlad and gave him my most plaintive look.

“Thank you for your kindness, but it is best if you leave now,” Vlad told the man.

The proprietor glanced toward me, saw my grim look, and immediately withdrew from the room, nearly tripping over his feet.

“You are in quite a mood, my dear wife. ”

“I am quite exhausted,” I answered. “And hungry. Give me your neck. ”

Vlad laughed. “I think not. I shall bring a victim for both of us. ”

I sat down on the edge of the bed and pouted.

“I shall leave immediately. I can see that you shall not be satisfied until you have fed. ”

I just glared at him.