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Zedya’s fangs bored into Lennart’s wrist like a pair of white hot awls, searing deep into his tender flesh as she pierced his veins and arteries, spilling hot blood into her hungry, eager mouth.

The white hot pain lasted only for a moment before a soft, comforting pleasure flooded through Lennart’s body.

His muscles felt like they were filled with wet sand, quickly losing the strength to do more than maintain his upright posture and the gentle embrace of his arms wrapped around his feeding wife.

Wife. That thought alone filled his mind with a thousand ripples of joy as his mind drifted in the golden haze of the underground cavern.

His eyelids grew heavy, making it difficult for him to keep Zedya’s enchanting beauty in his sight as she drank her fill from his wrist. The last thing he saw as his eyes drifted shut was the slight movement of her delicate neck as his blood flowed down her throat.

But even if he couldn’t keep his eyes open to watch her, his mind lingered on her figure.

Clad in a black wedding dress, her enchanting face and mesmerizing eyes hidden behind her dark veil.

Her lips moved behind that veil, speaking words that brought tears to his eyes but within the echoes of his mind, the words themselves felt distant and far away, too hard to hear even though she’d spoken them just minutes ago.

Slowly, the vision of Zedya within his mind seemed to beckon him forward, guiding him toward that dark, cold pool beneath the waterfall at the center of the cave. Before he realized it, Lennart found himself standing nearly waist-deep in the water as a bone-deep chill spread through his limbs.

The pain began as sharp pins and needles, prickling all over his feet, his hands, legs, and arms, before it enveloped all of his body.

His chest felt heavy, and each new breath was harder and harder to take, forcing him to focus all of his effort just on filling his lungs with the biting cold air of the cave.

Still, the Zedya in his mind smiled at him, saying nothing as she took his hands in hers, pulling him deeper and deeper into the water until he stood up to his chest in water so deep that he felt like his feet could barely brush the bottom.

"Zedya. My wife," he struggled to say, staring at her glowing amethyst eyes that were the only part of her face he could make out behind her black lace veil. "I. I love. You," he said, struggling to kick with his legs enough to keep his head above water.

But Zedya said nothing as she held his hands while the water rose higher and higher.

The candles in the cave went out one by one, and each time a light faded away, Lennart sank deeper, his head plunging briefly beneath the surface of the water before he bobbed back up just enough to draw a shuddering breath.

Then, between the moment the last light went out and the moment he plunged beneath the surface of the pool one last time, everything changed.

Terror gripped his heart as he could no longer recognize the shadowy figure with the predatory amethyst eyes who held his hands.

Her figure twisted and grew until she was three times the bearish man’s size, looming over him with a burning gaze that held only hunger.

The looming figure’s shadowy hand twisted into a claw that plunged into his chest, gripping his heart in talons of ice and squeezing, as if it wanted to wring every last drop of blood from his body.

This was wrong, his mind screamed. This wasn’t his Zedya at all!

This was a terrifying creature spawned by the abyss, sent by death itself to reap his life!

His heart trembled in the creature’s grasp, and pain flooded his body, sharp, shooting pains that pierced every limb and every organ, tearing through his innards like the claws of a wild beast, ripping at his flesh with savagery whose only purpose was to cause greater and greater pain.

"Zedya," he whispered as the horror from the abyss tore into him. "I. Love. You."

The words he spoke were his last as the creature ripped his heart from his chest, casting it aside and staring at him with cold, cruelly burning amethyst eyes before both hands struck like snakes, piercing through Lennart’s soft brown eyes and shredding his mind until nothing remained but darkness and two haunting amethyst flames.

In the cave, Lennart’s body twitched, one leg thrashing about before it suddenly stilled as the valiant soldier fought for control over his body.

Each moment was clearly more painful than the last, and his face contorted in agony with hot tears spilling from his tightly shut eyes.

And yet, no matter how much torment he endured, the arm holding Zedya to his chest remained calm and still, as if even in the depths of agony, he could not bear to disturb the woman he’d given his heart to.

Slowly, his limbs went still, and the tremors that rocked his body began to subside.

His head hung low, and only the cavern wall that he leaned against prevented him from toppling completely to the ground.

Warmth faded from his limbs and his chest, and the heart that had beat with such vigor just minutes ago slowed, trembled, and stopped.

Atop him, Zedya’s amethyst eyes had grown clouded in a euphoric haze as strength and vitality like none she’d ever felt filled her being.

The rich taste of a complete life flowed endlessly across her tongue, seasoned by moments of great joy and deep sorrow, victory and defeat, pride and shame, and wrapping around all of that, soft, silky, decadent love and dedication.

Her body shivered in uncontrollable ecstasy as she savored everything that had made Lennart the man he was, and in that moment, she felt like she had reached deeper into the abyss within herself than she’d ever dared to look, finding a vision of herself filled with the power of death and the ability to reap any life she chose.

This, her body sang, was what it meant to be a vampire, and in this moment, she felt like she understood her power more than ever before.

"Zedya," Nyrielle said sharply, her voice rippling with the power of the Voice of Command. Precious seconds ticked by, and she could feel Lennart’s presence in this world growing weaker by the instant. Soon, it would be too late, but she refused to believe that Zedya couldn’t see this through to the end.

She only needed a little bit of help to set her feet back on the path that would lead to an eternal life with the man she loved.

"Withdraw your fangs and feed your love," Nyrielle commanded. "Before it is too late."

Nyrielle’s words tore throught he haze that clouded Zedya’s mind, dragging her back to the present where Lennart’s body had grown cold and still, unmoving even as he held her close in his final embrace.

"Lenny," Zedya said, pulling back from his wrist and staring at him with shaking eyes.

Had she taken too much? Had she become so lost in the intoxication of her feeding that she had.

.. No! Her mind refused to accept that she might have failed him for such a stupidly selfish reason as becoming lost in her own ecstasy!

"Live, my husband," Zedya said, slicing deeply into her wrist with a sharpened nail and bringing it quickly to Lennart’s lips. One drop fell, dark and crimson against Lennart’s pale, bloodless lips, joined a second later by another drop and then a third.

"Drink from me," she said. "And walk forever at my side. "

A fourth drop fell, then a fifth, but still nothing happened.

Lennart’s eyes remained closed, looking peaceful, as if he was sleeping, without the slightest twitch of dreams or nightmares to disturb his eternal rest. A sixth drop fell, followed by a seventh, and still nothing happened as the powerful soldier lay unmoving, immune to his wife’s desperate plea.

"Zedya," Nyirelle said, stepping out of the darkness at her progeny’s side.

"I have given you the Mesmerizing Gaze," she said, kneeling beside Lennart and carefully lifting the lids of his eyes with the gentlest touch she could manage.

"If he cannot hear your voice now, then look deep within him and see the man who waits for you.

Guide him back to you so he will drink."

"Yes, Mistress," Zedya said, shifting in Lennart’s embrace to cup his soft face with her free hand and blinking away the tears that filled her vision. "Lennart, my love," she whispered. "Share a vision with me. A vision of our home together."

As she spoke, powerful energy surged within her as she drew on not only all of her own strength, but the strength she’d taken from Lennart as well, fueling her power to draw someone into a world of her making.

Drifting in darkness, Lennart struggled to remember who he was or how he’d come to be in this strange, endless darkness.

In the distance, he felt an irresistible pull tugging at him, urging him to sink deeper and deeper into the darkness, but somehow, even though he didn’t remember why, he knew that surrendering to that pull would be the worst thing he could do.

Before he could consider what he should do instead, two soft amethyst flames intruded in the darkness, filling it with a soft glow that felt otherworldly and unreal.

"Lennart, my love," a pure, pleading voice called out to him, giving him back the name he’d forgotten in the endless darkness. "Share a vision with me. A vision of our home together..."