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Trembling, I slowly rose to my feet. I was drenched in blood. It covered my being, warm and slick against my cold vampire flesh. I found myself staring at a dead woman, her face slack, her eyes dead and empty of life. Her head was lolled to one side, the stake protruding from between her breasts. I turned away in disgust and gazed into the horro

r-filled eyes of a dying young man no older than twenty.

Repulsed, I backed away and nearly slipped. The dead and dying surrounded me as my new family danced to the strange music. It was then I realized the music was not music at all, but the fading heartbeats of the dying, their tortured moans, and the magnified symphony of the sounds of the night.

Vlad caught me and whirled me about. His long tongue licked the blood from my face and laughed at my wide-eyed expression. “This is who we are!”

I looked about to see Ariana holding hands with Elina, slipping about in the blood as they twirled, laughing and shouting joyfully. Cneajna came up behind Vlad and began to lick the blood from his hair, her eyes sly and seductive. Vlad released me to kiss his first wife.

The horror of it all overwhelmed me as I sank to my knees, my hands covering my face. I screamed until I thought I would go mad. The sounds of those wavering, tormented heartbeats tormented me, and I shivered at the sound.

To feed was one thing, but this…this was torture. This was madness. The moans of the dying made me weep and I could not stand it any longer. Rising swiftly to my feet, I drew Vlad’s dagger from its sheath he had secured to his belt, and dashed away before he could grab me.

I raced to the young man with the desperate, horrified eyes and raised the dagger over my head. He looked terrified, then seemed to understand deliverance was at hand. I slammed the dagger into his heart, burying it to the hilt, splattering his lifeblood over my face. I felt him shudder and he was gone.

“What are you doing?” Vlad demanded.

I whirled about and ran past Elina to a woman spasming on her stake. Her death seemed close and certain, but I could not take the rattling in her throat. I drew the blade harsh and quick against her neck, ending her.

“I may feed, I may be a vampire, but I am not torturer!”

I sidestepped Ariana as she tried to lay hold of me, my vampire reflexes quick and sharpened by the blood that filled me. I leapt easily past Elina’s grasping hands and buried the knife into the chest of an old man.

I could have sworn he uttered, “Thank you,” with his last breath.

Elina grabbed hold of me and tried to draw me back. I felt the knife slide free of the old man’s stilled heart, and I moved to plunge it into my assailant.

“Let her be!” Vlad ordered.

Elina shoved me away and turned her angry eyes toward him.

One heart remained, sluggish and faint. I walked over to a man, face down on the floor, his back nothing more than torn flesh and bone. By his clothes, I knew he was the driver, a lowly man in Vlad’s eyes not worthy of the stake. I knelt and turned him over. I was glad to see he was oblivious of this world for his pain had borne him away into the world of unconsciousness. With one single stroke, I stilled his heart and released him.

Rising, I turned my defiant countenance toward Vlad. Ariana and Cneajna stood on either side of him, their expressions a mixture of confusion and anger. Vlad merely looked at me with unreadable scrutiny.

Slowly, I raised the dagger and drew it across the tip of my tongue, cleaning the blade. Once it was no longer bloodied, I walked toward Vlad, my chin held high, the dagger clutched tightly in my hand.

Without a word, he reached out and I laid the blade in his hand. His long fingers closed over the hilt and he secured it back in its sheath. The gaze of his green eyes did not waver from my face.

“You have killed. ”

“Yes, but I was merciful. ” I was strangely unshaken by the murders I had just committed. My body was alive with the power of the blood I had consumed. I could feel my power radiating outward from me. I was not afraid, but resolved.

Vlad laughed softly. “Is there room for mercy here, dear Glynis?”

“Yes, I believe so. I have done as you wanted. I fed and I killed. What more would you want of me?”

Vlad regarded me thoughtfully, then reached out to rest his hand heavily against my neck. Drawing me close, he pressed his lips firmly to mine. He then whispered against them, “This time, I shall not punish you, for your words are true. You have only done what I desired. ”

Licking my lips, I tasted blood. I looked up at him through my lashes. “I will no longer fight the hunger. ”

“But you will be merciful?”

“When it suits me,” I answered truthfully.

Vlad smiled, his lips revealing his sharp teeth. “You amuse me, dear wife. ”

“Then your life will not be boring with me in it,” I answered.