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In the difficult emotional aftermath of the evening, all thoughts of Vlad were swept away.

Hungry, I summoned the Baroness to my chamber. This time I took more blood than my previous sips. She swooned as I fed and fell unconscious upon my couch. I left her and sat alone in my bedroom, contemplating the night’s events. I brooded in my misery, feeling trapped by Astir’s words.

Later, when Adem returned with Magda, he carried the Baroness to her room. Moody, I retired early to bed. This act did not give me the comfort I yearned for. I could smell Ignatius upon my bedclothes and the memory of his touch filled me with great longing. Heartbroken, I cried myself to sleep.

There was no dream this time. No slow seduction in my bed. I awoke when I was slapped so soundly my ears rung. Gasping, I could see the apparition of Vlad Dracula over my bed. I barely had time to fully understand the event that was unfolding when his phantom hand gripped me about the throat and flung me across the room. My body struck the wall with such violence the plaster broke and rained down around me. Clinging to the wall with my power, I scurried up into the corner feeling my cold blood seeping through my hair and down my spine. Frantically, I searched the room for the attacking phantom.

Vlad’s misty form materialized below me and seized my ankle. Wrenching me off the wall, he tossed me over the canopy

of the bed and I hurtled into my vanity. It splintered into pieces beneath my body. My cosmetics crashed to the floor and the powders billowed into the air like mist, their sweet smell filling my nostrils.

The door to my room was tossed open.

“Countess!” Adem cried out, gripping a silver dagger in one hand.

Magda brushed past him and gasped.

The shattered remains of my vanity bit into my skin as I crawled out of the wreckage.

“It’s Vlad!” I warned them.

Magda’s face turned ashen as Adem raised his dagger higher. Sweeping his eyes over the room, Adem sought out my attacker, his body poised for battle. Magda rushed to help me to my feet, her long hair falling around her stricken face.

Vlad’s apparition appeared just before Magda reached my side. She screamed as he blocked her way and fell back in an attempt to evade him.

“Traitor!” he snarled at her. His shadowy form dismissed her with a savage look, then gripped my throat in both his hands. “Release me from my coffin and I will forgive you!”

I had no need for breath, but I knew he could rip my head from my shoulders. Frightened, I attempted to fight him. My hands and feet passed through his spectral body like vapor, but the hands about my throat felt like iron.

“Release me, Glynis!” Vlad’s voice shouted. “Release me and I will forgive you!” His face was a dark shadow, but his eyes were coals of fire.

Adem struck out at Vlad, his silver blade slashing through his murky form. Vlad growled and struck my guard savagely across the face. Adem was thrown back from the blow, but he quickly recovered and rose to his feet. Again, he slashed at the apparition, but his blade was useless against the specter. Vlad laughed at Adem’s futile attempts before tossing him away.

Hands tightening around my throat, Vlad hissed at me, “Release me. ”

Magda surged forward, her hand thrust out before her. I suffered the rosary before I saw it dangling in her fingers. The light emanating from it was like fire washing over me and I screamed in pain. She slashed the cross through the apparition of her former master and Vlad howled in agony before vanishing.

Violently convulsing, I flung out my hands toward the cross. I could feel its power burning my hands. Magda was rooted in fear and did not immediately recognize my distress.

It was Adem that snatched the cross and threw it across the room. “It is hurting her, too!”

Immediately, I was released from its power and lay panting on the floor.

“How was he here?” Magda cried out. “He is not dead! How can his ghost attack us?”

“It’s his spirit. It is wandering the earth and it has found her,” Adem answered grimly. He fell to the floor beside me and swept me up into his arms. Smoothing my hair back from my face with one hand, he reached out to Magda with the other. She wrapped her arms about both of us and we clung to each other.

“How?” Magda whispered.

“Black magicks. ” I was trembling with fright and the words came out in a choked sob.

Magda gasped. “Ignatius told me we must find you a protective talisman, but I did not know why. Forgive me! He told me to take you to a gypsy fortuneteller as soon as he was gone. ”

“Do not feel guilty, Magda,” I urged her. “We were all a bit overwhelmed and not ourselves last night. ”

“I am not certain where we will find someone who can help you,” Magda continued. “I suppose there may be someone in Pesth. ”

“I would not advise going to the gypsies unless you are certain they are not charlatans. ” Adem’s voice was heavy with worry.