It was when he gashed his throat and ordered me to drink that I regained my mind. The dark passion that had consumed me and threatened to devour me left as suddenly as it had risen. I cried out in my despair, grief ripping through me. The sight of his torn throat woke me to the truth of our reality. To drink from him would be to damn myself and lose all I had fought for. My life, my lover, my daughter...

“No!”

I violently wrenched his head back from my throat, his teeth tearing free of my flesh. My blood splattered the cold marble floor. My other hand found a silver dagger he always hid in his waistcoat. I withdrew it, pressing it against his throat.

“Release me.” His surprise was to my advantage. I untangled myself from his body and slipped free of his grasp. My body felt cold and disconnected from my soul. I struggled to regain my composure.

“You felt it! Our passion burns whether you accept it or not.”

“It is my destruction I feel in your arms. The loss of who I am.” Anger flared within me. I was not the fledgling I once was. I had forgotten that in my moment of terror and lust. I reached within myself and unfurled my power like great wings. I felt it flow through my veins like ice water, strengthening my resolve. My thoughts turned to Ignatius and Laura. The dark lust and need for my Master faded into a memory.

“What you feel is your potential to rise above all of them. Come with me and these usurpers,” Vlad thrust his hand toward the ballroom, “will be nothing more than corpses impaled before our thrones.”

Holding my dagger before me, I answered, “I desire nothing more than to live my life with Ignatius and Laura. I have no desire for conquest and death as you do! I remember your mortal life, Dracul!”

“You are what I am. I feel it in you. My blood in you whispers your darkest secrets to me.” Red fires burned in his green eyes as he stepped closer. “What did you do to Baroness Dosza? Did you not seduce her, lie to her, and kill her?”

“Her death brought me no real pleasure!” I cried out. “It felt empty!”

“Do not be a foolish child. You are a vampire! A powerful, beautiful, brutal vampire. And you are mine.”

“No!”

“You’re being foolish,” Vlad shouted, his rage beginning to build now that his lust was not sated.

“Call me foolish again and I will cut out your tongue,” I warned. “I am not your shirking Bride anymore. I am a Master. I am a Countess.”

“Countess Dracula,” he said, smirking, delight in his eyes, drawing so close to me he could touch me.

I returned his smile. “Yes, I am. Though I am not the widow I wished to be.” My smile turned bitter as I shoved the blade against his throat.

“Impudence!” he snarled, but stepped back warily from the silver dagger.

“What do you expect of me, dear husband? That you would return and find me fawning to fall into your embrace and return to servitude? I have lived my own life for months. I have my fledgling, my lover, and my place in the new court. I am doing quite well for myself. I do not need you to destroy all that I have acquired.”

“Yet, Cneajna came and nearly destroyed it all because you would not allow me to kill her,” Vlad reminded me, pointing an accusing finger in my face.

Lowering my dagger, I looked away. The pain of her hatred burned in me like a silver fire. I could hardly endure it. I had once wanted her embrace, her kiss, her love, her motherly touch upon my life, but it was all lost now. It was lost because Vlad chose me. Loved me. And she could not bear it.

“Weak! You are still weak! Though I do admit you are stronger than most of your sex, you fall to your emotions. You may be powerful now, dear wife, but you are weak in your own affections. You have yet to learn to guard yourself.”

I tossed him an irritated look and I stomped my foot. “I have denied your lust and your attempt to enslave me! I am not weak!”

“I will have you again. You will come willingly to me. Once you are done with these human affectations you have embraced.”

“Do not mock those human traits and strengths you no longer possess,” I retorted.

“You are in denial of who you truly are and I will not stand for it!” His teeth were gritted, his fangs glistening. He darted toward me as if to grab hold of me.

I slashed his face with my silver dagger, feeling the flesh part and blood splash my hand.

He howled, his hand covering his wound. “How dare you!”

“I will thrust it into your heart!” I felt confidence fill me. Adem had taught me to fight and I would battle Vlad for my life.

“Come to me,” Vlad ordered.

“No.”

“Come now!”

I felt his power wash over me, trying to seep into my soul and spirit and drag me down into the depths of his darkness. I thought of my family, Ignatius and Laura and my own power lashed out at him like icy claws. I saw him stagger as if I had struck him again.

“You are stronger than I thought,” he said, mystified, yet thrilled. “Come to me and I shall teach you to harness it.”

“No. Never!”

“I will not be denied!”

“Yet you are!”

He rushed me again, his body but a blur of shadow. I struck out at him, moving just as quickly. Again my blade slashed and it sliced through cloth and flesh. He managed to grab hold of my arm and hurl me into a pillar. The pain shocked my senses, but I held onto my weapon. My pink gown was now stained with both our blood. I could feel our powers mingling then withdrawing like sparks between us.

Vlad looked up at me, his hand pressed against his chest where I had drawn blood. His eyes were pure red, full of violence, anger, and lust. I did not see him move, but he was rapidly upon me. His hand caught my wrist in a vice-like grip, twisting it, breaking it, and the dagger clattered to the floor. My nails lashed out like rapiers, drawing blood as I ripped his face. I twisted around on my feet, using the momentum of my action to sling him into the pillar. Shocked at my action, he released my broken wrist.

I drew away from him slowly as I leaned over to reclaim the dagger. I felt my sluggish heartbeat stagger as he unsheathed his own.

“Adem taught you well, but how well? I think I shall cut off your hands and feet so you cannot escape me. Then I shall take you with me, trapped in a box until your hunger is so great you will not be able to resist me. Then you will drink, renew our bond, and you will be mine.”

There was no time to retort for he was on me. Our weapons clashed together as I moved to defend myself. I was afraid, but also exhilarated by the heat of our battle. His arm slashed at me, moving faster than a human could ever see. But as a vampire, I could see his strikes and moved my blade to intercept his brutally placed blows. Our blades clanked together, scraping off tiny rivulets of silver as we struggled. He grabbed for me with his free hand, but I was faster than he anticipated. My feet carried me swiftly away from him as I managed a sharp slash across his back. I swung about in time to meet his dagger with my own, the jolt from the impact forcing me off balance. I fell and raised my arm to defend myself. I felt the blade plunge deep into my forearm and screamed. With my other hand, I thrust the dagger at his heart, missing and slamming it into his upper chest.

Blood gushed from his lips and he smiled. “Yes, we are alike.”

I yanked my weapon free and slid to my feet like a snake rising to strike. “I shall never relent.”

“You shall,” he vowed.

Aware of his weakened state as well as my own, I feared that in the end he could possibly outlast me. I then saw Ilinca standing in the corner watching. Her presence was not truly a surprise. That she should come to see our final confrontation seemed to be in her nature. Her full, ruby lips were slightly smiling.

His attack was far faster than I ever anticipated. I felt his blade slash my throat and my blood pour out. I rammed my blade into his neck all the way to the hilt. He staggered back, both of us gripping our necks as our blood fell to the slick, bloody floor. He pulled the dagger from his throat and smiled.

Without a weapon, my blood streaming down my body, I knew I was close to losing. I could not depend on the regents to protect me. Vlad would fulfill his promise to lop off my hands and feet and entomb me. I would be lost. Damned completely.

I would not let that happen.

I saw a blur of motion and moved my body to absorb the impact of his assault, while coiling my power and my body into a tight spring. Vlad drove both daggers into my chest and back, the pain nearly toppling me to the floor, but my body burst into action as I unleashed the wave of power built up within me. I shoved my shoulder into Vlad’s chest as my power sent him hurtling backward. The windows shattered as he sailed through them and into the wintery night.

My trembling fingers drew out the silver daggers, my body burning with their poison. I gripped their cold handles, hearing my blood and Vlad’s dripping from their blades. I waited for him.

There was no dramatic entrance. He was merely before me in an instant, growling, his teeth bared.

“You are done with this discussion,” Ilinca announced.

Vlad took a step toward me.

Ilinca appeared between us. One hand rose toward Vlad as she said, “Do you dare to risk challenging me now?”