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His long nails sank into the flesh of her throat and he ripped it open as he flung her aside. Blood bubbled from the wound as she lay close to me. Her blue eyes were fierce with her hate as she gazed at me.

“You are nothing to me now,” Vlad hissed. His eyes were completely red and his teeth were long and wolf-like.

Curled up on the floor, my blood slowly seeping back into my body, I healed myself. I shivered with pain and the loss of blood. As I watched, he moved over her, crouching down.

Cneajna reached up to him, her gaze full of desperate love. With a snarl, he slapped her hand away and bared his fangs at her.

“She is my wife. My Countess. Only she has the strength of will and power to be my equal. She is strong, clever, and smart. Glynis is all you shall never be in this modern world. A woman of independent thought and deed. I have no fear that if the hunters struck me down, she would continue and be strong. ”

I rose to my knees, his words shocking me. Shakily, I tried to stand.

Cneajna again reached toward him, imploring him, begging him. Her terrible wound was knitting itself together, healing, and she managed to gasp out, “But I would serve you willingly. ”

“I want no servant. I want someone who I can rise to power with. She is my true mate. My true equal. Never have I met a woman that I could respect as I do a man. ”

Tears streamed down my face as his words pierced my heart. I sobbed as I realized Vlad saw me in the light I had always desired the world to see me in. He saw me as an independent creature that was capable and strong. The truth of that tore through me with a greater strength than any dagger.

Vlad snagged Cneajna by the throat and lifted her off the ground. She dangled from his grasp, her hands gripping his wrist. He looked toward me, his expression fierce. I stood, unsteady, my dress tattered and covered in my own blood.

“Glynis, I will kill her then we shall leave. I will never allow another to harm you again,” he swore.

Screams of terror and anger filled the room as Elina and Ariana dropped from the ceiling onto Vlad’s back. They unleashed a fury of blows so fierce it drove him to his knees. Cneajna fell from his grasp onto the floor.

With a roar, he rose into the air and flung the women away from him. Again, he descended on Cneajna, his long nails ripping across her throat.

“Vlad, no,” I wailed. I could not bear for him to kill her. I just wanted us to leave and be free of this madness.

The dark sisters launched themselves at him and he deflected Elina with one arm. She hurtled across the room and crashed into a column with a sickening crack. Ariana managed to land on his back and stabbed him brutally with her dagger. Grabbing her hair, he threw her away from him. She struck the wall, then scrambled up into the rafters above.

Gripping Cneajna by the throat, he hoisted her off the ground. “I shall tear your head from your body then I shall do the same with your sisters,” he snarled. His razor sharp nails bit into her skin.

“Vlad, no!”

“Glynis, stay back,” he ordered, and began to literally rip Cneajna’s head from her body.

Elina and Ariana leaped onto him from above. They hissed and screamed as they tore at him with their nails and teeth. He gave their assault no heed as he continued to squeeze his hand shut and his nails sliced deep. Cneajna screamed in pain. Her blood splashed over Vlad, the women and me.

“Release her,” I screamed at him, but he paid me no heed. “Stop!” I sobbed, begging him, but he was unrelenting. My tears poured down my face as I wailed in despair. Despite her betrayal, Cneajna is in my heart and I love her. She is my vampire mother and her pain ripped through me.

I rushed at Vlad and grabbed his arm. Hissing at me, he backhanded me so hard I felt my jaw crack. I fell at his feet, stunned.

The sisters were tossed away again. They both scrambled to their feet and rushed back to attack.

“Do not defy me,” Vlad snarled at me. “I do this fo

r you. ”

His words struck deep. I realized this was his true belief. All his violence was completely rational to him. He had even alluded to me that I should be grateful that he slaughtered my family and released me from my mortal bonds to rise up to be his Bride. This was what he was to me: torment.

It was then I made my bitter choice. Healed now from my wounds, I scrambled to my feet and dashed across the room to snatch up the golden stake from behind his throne. Whirling about, I could see his face covered in blood as he snarled up at Cneajna. In a few seconds, she would be truly dead. The sisters continued to assail him, but their attempts were futile. Just as he killed my mortal family he would destroy my vampire family. He would destroy Ignatius as well. He was death in my life. Death to all I loved.

Tears in my eyes, I pulled my power up around me and my feet left the ground. Gliding swiftly toward him, I aimed the great stake at his back. Elina and Ariana saw me and shrieked. They both flew upwards to cling to the ceiling.

Cneajna gasped a single, “No” as she saw me lower the stake as I aimed for Vlad’s back.

“For my family,” I hissed as Vlad looked over his shoulder.

His expression was one of utter shock as I drove the stake up through his back, through his torso, to explode out of his chest just left of his heart. As I impaled him, he released Cneajna and she fell in a bloody heap onto the floor.