When we reached my chamber again, hand in hand, reluctant to let go of each other like two infatuated teens, Katerina was already up, waiting for me impatiently.

She must have heard us coming because she stood very still by the door, her face ever so serious, chin up, a stern look in her eyes, prepared to tell me off. I was suddenly very conscious about our joined hands and my flushed cheeks.

Just what exactly is her problem? Vlad would never do anything to hurt me, and there she was, so cold and untrusting.

She raised one of her eyebrows at me in a silent enquiry when she noticed that I was already dressed, making me blush as I remembered Vlad's fingers trailing up my back, closing all the buttons of my gown.

I looked at him and caught him watching me, a knowing smile playing on his lips. That made me blush even more. Great. I was a twenty-one year old woman who grew up in the modern world of the new millennium, and here I was, blushing scarlet in front of these two.

I wanted to stand my ground and tell Katerina that I was old enough to know what I was doing, but Vlad squeezed my hand a little tighter and spoke before I could find the appropriate words.

"Katerina," he said, undisturbed by her reaction, "get us some breakfast, and then take some rest, your lady is mine for the day, we won't need you until tonight."

My heart leapt with joy despite Katerina's deep frown.

"Very well, my lord," she said drily, exiting the room.

"I'm sorry," I said when we were alone again, feeling bad for Katerina's behaviour. "I guess she means well."

"Don't worry about her, Samara. She's been waiting for you for such a long time... she doesn't want to share you now," Vlad said, stroking my cheek gently with the back of his hand, his voice full of understanding. I closed my eyes and leaned into the caress, enjoying his touch.

"What would you like to do today?"he asked me after a short while. I opened my eyes again to look at him, and what I saw in his eyes made my heart stumble, stop, and then start racing crazily. They were so full of love, two pieces of mirror reflecting my own feelings for him.

We stood perfectly still, speechless for a few moments, lost in each other.

Then I walked over to the window and looked outside at the breathtaking countryside lying deep underneath. The sun was higher now, caressing the forests and the meadows with its soft rays, warming them up. I could see a thin, glittering veil of fog raising slowly from the ground, like a frozen breath, as if the beautiful landscape was alive and breathing just like me. Suddenly, I felt closed, suffocating inside my room, and couldn't wait to be outside.

I turned around to face him and asked, hoping he wouldn't refuse, "Can we go out, please?"

He smiled and nodded silently, then joined me by the window. He cupped my face and kissed me softly, caressing my face again. "Anything you like," he said even as the door opened.

I could feel a staring gaze pierce through my back and turned in search of it. There she was again, the blue-eyed maid, looking at me intently from across the room, unconcealed hatred seeping through her gaze. When she noticed me staring back at her, she cast her eyes down, curtsying silently.

Katerina, who followed the maid inside, dismissed her before she could properly enter my chamber. She really didn't like the girl, I noticed with some satisfaction.

"Your breakfast, Lady Samara, my lord," she announced and set out a couple of trays laden with food on the table by the window, making us move away from each other. Seriously, she is such a nuisance sometimes, I thought.

Over breakfast, I couldn't stop thinking about the maid, Alina. What was it, what did I do to her? I was so distracted that I hadn't noticed Vlad watching me curiously, trying to understand the shift in my mood.

Not wanting him to worry, I smiled, jumped up from my chair, and sat on his lap, taking him completely by surprise. Nothing was going to spoil this day for me, not the strange maid and not even Katerina, whom I caught gaping at me from the boudoir, where she was organising my dresses, most likely in search of clothes that needed to be laundered. Oh well, they will have to get used to my manners.

Vlad laughed, embracing me tightly, obviously enjoying my novel behaviour. I loved the sound of his laughter; he seemed so happy and careless at the moment. If only he could always be like this. Then he scooped me up, making me squeal with surprise, and carried me over to Katerina, where he set me down again gently.

"Katerina, bring her a coat, we are going out," he prompted.

She nodded and, without uttering a word, handed me a long, white coat. It looked so warm, lined with grey fur, matching the dress I was wearing perfectly. I slipped it on, revelling in its softness, as heartwarming as Vlad's nearness.

Katerina looked at my braid defiantly, and I noticed her internal struggle. I was sure that she wanted to object to my unusual hairdo, but in the end she remained quiet and simply looked away from me, shaking her head.

I smiled and kissed her on her dear, wrinkled cheek, saying, "See you later, nurse." She waved me off without looking at me, but I noticed a ghost of a smile playing on her lips.

Vlad grabbed my hand, and I followed him out of the room.

"Follow us," he ordered the knights standing by my door, and then we walked along the corridor. He stopped shortly in his own chamber to grab his coat, and through the open door, I saw the girl again. She was sweeping the floor of the large room, carefully avoiding looking at me. Why was she making me feel so uneasy?

"Ready?" Vlad asked. I nodded eagerly, and we descended a large staircase and then one more, and after that, we were in the dark Entry Hall where I had entered the castle with my group...

Wow. It felt as if my Halloween trip to Transylvania had only been a dream. I looked around and saw the corridor where Vlad had disappeared that night, the door leading into the Great Hall. My head was swimming with confusing thoughts, I couldn't even start to comprehend what had happened, how did I get here.

We walked out into the courtyard, and I was suddenly blinded by the strong light of the day. The sunshine was reflecting and multiplying off the thin, sparkling layer of snow covering the meadows, which I could see spanning towards the distant forest through the open gate.

Shouldn't they dislike the sunshine? I wondered and looked curiously from Vlad to his knights. No, they didn't seem to mind at all.

A valet came rushing to us as soon as he noticed us standing there, in the effulgent light of the early winter morning.

"Bring us horses," Vlad told him, still happy and smiling, making my own heart swell with joy.

In no time, the man was back with two very large horses, and seeing them, I wasn't so sure about this anymore. They were so tall, lively, moving constantly and... I'd never ridden a horse, not in the last six hundred years at least.

But the spotless white horse belonged to me. I recognised him. "Frost?" I whispered, looking at Vlad, but he shook his head.

"No, my love. It's not him. But I always keep a white horse for you..." he said, his voice trailing off, leaving the sentence unfinished, ...in case you should come back.

Of course, it couldn't be Frost, I realised. It's only the vampires and Katerina who live forever here.

I looked at Vlad thankfully and smiled, hoping to disperse the sudden sadness creeping back into his eyes.

Approaching the beautiful animal, I caressed him on his pinkish, warm snout, regretting not having anything to offer him. I remembered how my Frost used to like apples. Then I held on to the harness and, on an unexpected impulse, and without any help, managed to mount the horse, sitting steadily on the side-saddle.

It's like riding a bicycle, I realised, exploding in a fit of giggles, once you learn it you never forget.

Vlad looked at me inquiringly, but I only shook my head, not knowing how I could explain to him something like that.

As he approached me on his black horse, handing me a pair of riding gloves, I asked, "Why do we need them with us?" I nodded towards the knights who were ready to mount their horses and follow us. Their cold, icy eyes, the extreme pallor of their skin, and those red lips... They looked even more scary in the bright sunshine, the mere sight of them made me shudder.

"Samara," he started, and I knew he was going to object, to remind me how unsafe the place was for me. But, he didn't finish his sentence. "You don't like them," he observed instead, his eyes suddenly desperate.

I shook my head, watching him carefully, not sure what I had said to make him feel so sad. "They look like... your brother," I said, looking away from him, my voice shaking.

He approached me as much as our horses would allow, and taking my hand in his made me look at him again. "I'm one of them, too."

When I looked back at him, his eyes bore right into my soul, and I hoped he could see there for himself what I was trying to explain to him, words failing me.

"No! I mean, yes, I know, but not to me... I'll never see you like one of them. Because I know that you are different. I don't care what you are... You are my husband! What happened can't be undone and so I only wish I could be like you..." To stay with you forever. My voice faded into a whisper, and I had to look away from him. I had promised myself he would never see my tears again.

"What are you saying, Samara?" he asked, shocked. "This existence, this place... I would never condemn you to stay here, you know that! How could I? You deserve so much better, your other life..."

"But I don't want it, not without you!" I tried to sound persuasive and convincing, but even to my own ears, my voice was only pleading, begging him to keep me. To change me.

He shook his head, lips set into a thin, hard line, eyes lost in the distance somewhere far behind me.

He doesn't want you here, my subconscious hissed at me, and even though I knew he meant well, it hurt.

"Please, let's go out," I murmured, tears threatening, leading my horse towards the gate. I was not going to cry. Not in front of him.

Just don't think about it now. Live for the moment.

"We won't need you," I heard him say to the knights before he followed me to the open gate.

"I love you, Samara," he whispered in my ear as his horse walked past mine, his voice soft and sensual. Then he was out of the castle, far in front of me, his horse gaining speed, making his coat fly behind him like a giant pair of wings.

And I felt my mood shift again as I remembered that this used be our favourite game, a wild race towards the forest.

I smiled as I followed him into the peaceful, infinite whiteness of the snowy landscape.