I reached the top of the stairs, giggling. That had been fun. After such an eventful day, this short and unexpected conversation had been exactly what I needed to take my mind off all the other, unpleasant things.

Before I walked into the unlit corridor, I made sure that no one could see me, then closed the door carefully. I didn't want Katerina to know where I had been.

"Lady Samara," Katerina started as soon as I put one foot over the threshold of my chamber, "will you stop disappearing? I've been worried. Lord Vlad told me what a difficult day you've had, and then you are gone..."

"Oh, Katerina, I'm fine, don't worry. I'm not going anywhere," I said, walking over to where she stood and embracing her.

She patted my back in a caring, motherly way, then pushed a few strands of my hair from my face, mumbling, "Will you ever let me do your hair properly? I really don't approve of you wearing it loose."

That made me laugh. She was always so... proper. "Katerina, I'm not a little girl anymore. Will you let me do what pleases me and allow me to make my own decisions?"

"Very well, my lady. Now please decide to take your bath before the water gets too cold," she said, frowning.

"Thank you, Katerina, it's exactly what I was going to beg for! Can you read my mind?"

"No, I can't, but I think your husband can. He told me to get your bath ready," she said, shaking her head disapprovingly. "He looked quite troubled..." she added.

Oh no. I didn't want him to worry. It had definitely been an eventful day, but I was fine... sort of. A pang of jealousy spread through me as I remembered Jusztyna... she was still here... Don't go there! I screamed at myself.

"Thank you, Katerina," I said, looking away from her and walking towards the wooden tub placed by the fireplace. I hadn't even noticed it before.

"What is it, Lady Samara?" she asked as she helped me out of my dress and into the steaming bath.

I sat down in the warm water inhaling its wonderful, calming scent. It smelled like cinnamon tonight. Taking a bar of soap from her, I tried to wash away all the events and worries of the very long day.

Katerina passed me another cup of warm mead, and I smiled at her. I must look really beat and tired if she lets me indulge this much.

However, my unsettling thoughts and memories, instead of drowning in the scented bath, kept resurfacing, coming back to me reflected off the surface of the soapy water. Jusztyna's face appeared in front of me every time I closed my eyes. Out of all the things that had happened today, you chose to worry about her. My subconscious laughed at me.

I sighed deeply when I finally stepped out of the water, and Katerina helped me dry up, wrapping me in a large, warm towel before I slipped on a clean linen shirt.

"I saw her," I said, my voice a hoarse whisper after the long silence, unable to keep it to myself anymore.

Katerina looked at me confused at first, then shocked as she understood. "My lady, she..."

"Thank you, Katerina, now leave us, please," Vlad's voice interrupted her mid-sentence, making me gasp. He stood right behind me, and I hadn't heard him coming in at all. He was so fast and silent.

Katerina curtseyed politely and for once did as he asked her, leaving us alone without a word.

Vlad walked in front of me and looked in my eyes intently, trying to understand my mood. I blushed-- he must have heard what I had just told Katerina.

He scooped me in his arms and carried me over to the fireplace. Then we just sat there, I curled on his lap, cocooned in his embrace, not wanting to think about anything else but his closeness. I listened to his erratic heartbeat, resting my hand absentmindedly over his heart through his partly unbuttoned shirt. He smelled of cinnamon like me; he must have taken a bath, too... He nuzzled my hair, and I wrapped my arms around his body tightly, never wanting to let go of him again.

Despite sitting so close to the fire, Vlad's body felt cool against my warm skin, and I remembered that he had not eaten with me tonight. He must have 'dined' with the others then. That's why he felt different now, more like the rest of them. It was his 'abstinence' that was making him look and feel so human.

Of course, he had told me this himself before, but until I noticed the subtle change in him myself, I couldn't understand it completely. I shuddered at the thought that if he hadn't had such strong will and self-discipline, he would most likely be like Radu. Or Andrei.

"Samara, what is it?" he asked, his voice pained. "Are you scared of me?"

"No!" I exclaimed, surprised. Scared of him? Never.

"I saw her, your wife," I told him, burying my blushing face in his broad chest, my shaking voice betraying my emotions. This was the only thing that was really worrying me at the moment, I needed to know what he was feeling for her.

He lifted my chin gently, making me look into his green eyes, blazing with emotions.

"She is not my wife, not anymore. After I had faked my death in one of the countless battles, when I couldn't stand my miserable life anymore, she remarried, and more than once. Now she lives in the Citadel, with her brother Andrei, Radu, and a few more... of our kind. I haven't spoken to her directly in years," he said, his voice honest and serious. "We have never loved each other. For me, it has only ever been you."

I closed my eyes as a couple of tears rolled down my cheeks, tears of relief. His words reassured me.

Vlad kissed them away softly before he continued, looking into the fire, as if he could see a story unfolding in front of his eyes, among the dancing, hissing flames.

"When I came home and they told me you were... gone forever... I didn't want to live anymore. I tried to burn this castle down, and I could only thank Radu I didn't succeed. He really helped me back then."

Oh?! Why would Radu help him after...

"So, I left everything as it was here, leaving the place in Katerina's hands and moved to our other castle, the Poenari Citadel, with Radu. And yes, I married again. I had to, for the sake of this country. Samara, my love, I didn't care about anything anymore at the time; it was as if my heart had stopped beating along with yours," he said, stroking my hair gently, absently. "My sickly wife, who disliked me as much as I disliked her, died a few months after our marriage, and I was forced to remarry one more time, fast. The war was threatening on the horizon, always closer. I never liked Justyna and avoided marrying her as long as I could, but in the end.... She was a princess, a promise of all of the Hungarian army at our side. A hope of victory." He sighed deeply, the events from centuries ago still seemingly too fresh and painful in his memory. "When the decisive battle drew near, I went ahead with my soldiers, to meet the enemy, expecting the allies that never came on time..." His voice faded away momentarily.

I braced myself, I knew what was coming next, at least some of it. The cruel Battle with Torches, the event that secured him his awful moniker. The Impaler. Dracula.

"You don't have to tell me, it's fine, really..." I whispered, stroking his face.

"But I want you to know. We've never had any secrets between us," he said, looking in my eyes.

I nodded, hoping he would feel better once he told me. I felt helpless; there was nothing I could do for him but listen.

"The Hungarian allies did not turn up as they had promised, but it was too late to change the strategy. We attacked the enemy at night, hoping for the element of surprise to help us. Descending like devils on their sleeping camp, torches blazing bright in our hands, me, Radu, the Order of the Dragon, and our faithful soldiers... " His voice was strained, and he looked miserable. It made me feel guilty for having started this conversation. I tightened my embrace around him as he continued.

"Too soon we were overpowered, and nothing was making sense anymore. Instead of leading and controlling the vampire knights, I let them run free, do whatever they wanted to do... And then I saw them feeding on the enemies and with their growing desire for blood even on our own soldiers, impaling the drained bodies to threaten the rest of them... The battle was lost. I was injured, caught, and imprisoned. When they finally released me, I was half dead. With Radu's help, against my will, they brought me home again. I was only hoping I would finally die and join you wherever you were, but Andrei, Jusztyna's brother, changed me... And when I healed, after a long time, it was a hell to think that I would live forever."

He paused, collecting his thoughts from among the burning embers, and I shivered. I could imagine how I would feel, having to live without him, forever...

"I stayed in the Citadel, with Jusztyna, for a few years, in and out of battles, the war still threatening, just like when I lived here with you. Our three sons were born... and two of them died... and I couldn't stand that life anymore. Being a vampire, killing innocent people to prolong my poor, unhappy, and unwanted existence... I couldn't do it any longer, I had killed too many times, it had to stop, or at least change somehow. I had to find a way to live without being a monster like them."

A huge weight seemed to lift off my chest at hearing his words. He is not the cruel Impaler, nor the bloodthirsty Count Dracula. But Vlad's story wasn't over yet. The despair in his eyes was exchanged by helpless anger for a while, and his voice was sad and resigned again when he continued.

"In one of the following battles, I disappeared. The soldiers and even the enemies took me for dead; there was no way to check and identify all the corpses... I returned here to live alone, and soon, only my closest family and other vampires like me knew that I was still around, cursed to live the kind of life I hated the most, for eternity."

He shook his head as if he still couldn't believe it.

"You know, I was starting to get used to it, accepting my new life as a verdict for the sins I had committed, the lives I had taken... Slowly, I learned to fight and subdue my hated vampire needs and instincts, all thanks to Katerina. She never ever stopped believing that you would come back, and I wanted you to find me as human-like as possible when you did. My greatest wish was for you to find the same man you had left behind."

He smiled at me weakly as he said that, but his eyes remained sad. I tried to smile back, the corners of my mouth quivering unsuccessfully. The only thing I could think of was how much he had suffered. When he continued, his tone was wistful again.

"Then I received another blow-- they changed Young Vlad, my only remaining son. My wife, his own mother, had him changed into a vampire without asking my opinion. I would never permit Jusztyna to do so. He was only twenty one, he deserved a better life than this. Or at least a little bit more of it! This... existence... it's not a life, it's an endless suffering... I hated Jusztyna and her brother for what they did, I even argued with Young Vlad, as he seemed to be happy about it, at least at the beginning. But it had been all my fault, I had left him living with his mother and disappeared. I'll never forgive myself for that, either. However, it was done and couldn't be changed. I did not speak to her for years, I was furious. We had Radu in between, delivering only important messages," he concluded, coming back to the beginning of our conversation.

I could clearly picture what he was telling me, the events and protagonists of the story of his life after me appearing in front of my eyes, among the flames of the fire. His life had been long, bleak, and lonely, full of pain and sufferings. No one deserved an existence like that. Whatever Vlad had done to merit it, now was the time to change it.

I'll do anything to make you finally happy, my love, I thought, pulling him even closer to me and kissing his beloved, tortured face.