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“Why her?” Elina said at exactly at the same time as my outburst.

Cneajna reached out her hand to me. “You must go to our husband and love him. ”

I recoiled from her. “I certainly will not. I do not love him. You go!”

“Mistress, he asked for the new Bride,” Ilona said anxiously.

“Of course she will go. ” Cneajna grasped my hand, pulling me off the divan and toward the door. “You must go. It is your duty. ”

“Duty be damned! I will not go,” I retorted. “I will not let him touch me ever again!”

Cneajna turned me about, shaking me angrily. “Do not defy me! Do not defy him! You will go!”

“I will not!” I stomped my foot. “I refuse!”

“Yes, you will, for if you do not go, he will starve us. Do you understand me? He will starve us! We will not feed. We will grow frail and ravenous and go mad!” Cneajna’s eyes were flashing with anger and desperation at the mere thought. “Either you go or we starve. ”

“But why does he want her?” Elina glared at me.

I covered my face with my hands, completely overwhelmed. What horror was this? Not to feed! How quickly I had come to crave the blood that renewed my life. It was a desire like no other: dark and ravenous. Instinctively, I knew I could not bear not to feed.

“Do you understand? We cannot feed without him. He gives us our life,” Cneajna said in a voice barely above a whisper.

“You stupid little whore! It is an honor to be called to the Master!” Elina’s voice was like a slap. “How dare you defy him!”

“Elina, please!” Cneajna motioned her back. “Do not complicate this!”

I felt so desperately trapped. To be brutalized by that monster was the last thing I desired, but I could already feel the faint, yet sharp twinges of the coming hunger. I could not bear to not feel the sweetness of the blood giving me new life.

I clenched my fists tightly. “I will go. ”

“That is wise, my dear child,” Cneajna said with relief and tenderly caressed my face with one hand. “You are learning our ways. ”

“I have no choice. ” My voice was grim, and I felt close to tears.

“Come along now. The Master is waiting. ” Ilona motioned toward the door with her lantern.

Taking a deep breath, I followed the old gypsy out of the chambers of the Brides. I was beginning to understand all too well that the passions of my new existence were dark and painful. The yearning to quench the burning vampire hunger and the desire to tear myself free of my Master’s power were forceful violent emotions raging in my being. Emotions burning with ferocity I had never experienced before. Now a new fearsome, paralyzing emotion wrapped cold chains about me.

Fear.

Stark, ugly, unrelenting fear.

My limbs felt leaden as I followed Ilona to the Master’s chambers. A deeply piercing cold washed over me, my facial muscles constricting tightly. I was sure I was going to retch, but my new vampiric body had nothing to release. My already clasped hands tightened their grasp, my long nails digging into the flesh of my pale arms.

Ilona’s lantern threw faded beams of yellowed light into the darkness. The light seemed so weak that the shadows barely cringed away. This new world was of infinite darkness.

And fear.

Such horrible fear.

Ilona stopped before the battered countenance of an ancient door. “The Master awaits within. ”

I desperately searched for an exit from this madness, but there were only shadows, the forlorn wail of a distant wolf, and the thundering of my own thickly beating heart. A heart that slowly faded as the blood of my victim lost its potency.

“There is no escape from the Master,” Ilona warned, her dark eyes piercing. “None. ”

“Open the damn door, wench, and be done with it!”