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“You may threaten me, but we know the truth of it. You are weak and far from here,” Ignatius said in a dangerous tone.

“You are trapped in your coffin!” I snarled at Vlad, anger diminishing my fear. “Do not threaten us! You cannot touch us!”

“I touch you every time you sleep,” Vlad reminded me as his apparition struggled to draw closer to me. His smirk was cruel. “I make you writhe, don’t I? Did she tell you that, Ignatius?”

“You are powerless here, Vlad. Leave,” Ignatius said in a voice I had never heard him use before. It was a terrifyingly cold sound.

The specter faltered, growing dim. “I shall return,” Vlad warned. “I may be weak now, but I will return. You cannot keep me trapped forever, Glynis. ”

“Yes, I can. ” I lifted my chin defiantly. “And I will. ”

Vlad’s manifestation laughed as it faded into the shadows. “This is not done between us,” he promised. His presence receded like a tide, leaving the room feeling cold and empty.

Crushing me against his chest, Ignatius said, “He is gone. ”

“I thought it was a dream. Every night when I slept and he would come, I thought it was a dream. ” My face felt numb and my heart fluttered in my bosom. The terrible truth of Vlad’s nightly visitations made me sick with disgust.

Loathe to return to the bed, we sank down onto the floor together. Ignatius held me as I wept. I felt sullied and grotesque, yet Ignatius held me as though I were precious. His long fingers raked through my hair as he kissed my brow and whispered sweet words of assurance.

“Do not torment yourself further over his sins,” Ignatius urged me. “You are not accountable for what he has done to you. We shall find a way to ward you against his intrusions. ”

“I wish you did not have to leave me. ” I saw that my tears were staining his chest and arms with blood. I felt ashamed of my weakness.

“I will return as swiftly as I can. That is my sacred promise to you. ”

“How is he coming to me? Why is he doing it?”

Ignatius tilted my head so he could kiss my bloodied cheek. Then, his lips nuzzled against my skin, he said, “Vlad is more than a mere vampire. There have long been rumors that he studied the Black Arts. I suspect he is using some sort of spell to cast his spirit to torment you. And, perhaps, he is feeding from you somehow. I felt his power, Glynis. He is not as weakened as you hoped. Perhaps you should tell me what you did to him. ”

Clasped in Ignatius’s arms, I told him everything that had happened after we departed Buda. I even told of the night I willingly gave into Vlad Dracula in my desperation to find some solace. Though Ignatius flinched, he did not pull away. Instead, he pressed kisses to my brow.

“The bond between a vampire and his fledgling is powerful, Glynis. He will try to use it against you to manipulate you. ”

“In retrospect, I can see now how he suspected that you were my lover and altered his interaction with me in an attempt to seduce me from you. I admit I was a fool and for a short time believed he truly may have loved me. ”

“He does. In his own way, he does love you. ”

“It’s not true love. It wounds. It hurts so deeply. It makes me feel as though I am dying and lost. It is terrible and hateful. ” My words flowed in a rush, tumbling over each other as I once more reminded myself of their truth.

“What happened next?”

In detail I described my confrontation with Cneajna, Vlad’s angry arrival, and my decision to rise against Vlad and vanquish him.

“I meant to kill him,” I confessed. “I wanted him to die so he could no longer kill those I love. Instead, he is in a torpor and trapped in his coffin. In his last moments, he willed his blood and power to me. ”

“He plans to return. ” Ignatius’s voice was weary and strained.

“That is what Magda also said. I feel foolish. I thought it was some grand gesture of his demented love. ” I laughed bitterly, feeling like a fool. I would never truly love Vlad Dracula. He had murdered me and my family and enslaved me in my immortality. He had violated me, beaten me, and degraded me. But some naïve aspect of my psyche had craved some sort of truce. I had fooled myself briefly into believing there could be peace between us. Of course, there never could be. My desire for freedom and my love for Ignatius would always keep me from falling into the abyss of Vlad’s evil.

Lifting my chin, Ignatius’s dark blue eyes gazed solemnly into mine. “He believes he loves you and that endangers you even more than you can imagine. He will do everything he can to free himself from his entombment and reclaim you. I have borne witness to the terror his love brings upon his women. ” The fear in Ignatius’s eyes was both a comfort and warning.

“Do not fear, Ignatius. I will not fall prey to his seductions. ”

“It is not his seductions that worry me. It is the great lengths he will go to see that you are his. ”

I brushed my lips against his cheek, feeling the slight black stubble of his beard against my mouth. His eyes bore lines of worry about them. I curled my body against him, my arms wrapped around his strong shoulders. He is leaner than Vlad, but his body is masculine and muscled. It is a reminder of our vastly different backgrounds. My softness comes from a life of privilege and his body from a life of hardship. Yet now we are equals in our love and our misery.

We are a fine pair.