As he had promised, Stoker returned my notebook the following day. He said that he had copied all of my notes, and was working on a new theory concerning my dreams, but refused to tell me anything more specific about it until he would be done with his research.

He only advised me to keep doing whatever I had been doing before my dreams stopped. It was important to keep in touch with Vlad, Stoker lectured, because, according to him, I needed to let my husband know that I would try to find my way back. I should make him believe that I would be with him again as soon as the portal reopened, so he would wait for me-- in any meaning implied by those words.

Stoker emphasized his last sentence by a meaningful look, making me understand that he was hinting at the dream concerning Vlad and Jusztyna he had read about in my notebook, sending my stomach into knots. But whatever Stoker was thinking, I was sure that Vlad would wait for me... Wouldn't he?

And it wasn't just that. According to Stoker, anyone who was brave or reckless enough, and knew where the passage was and when it opened, could walk through, but only guided by, or directly following one of the vampires from the other side. So, to get back in, if I really could walk through one more time, of which Stoker still wasn't certain, I needed to meet Vlad in our, current version of the castle.

Faithful to his other promise, Stoker met Lia that afternoon, and, to my dismay, the two of them kept meeting several times a week. In my opinion, he was simply too annoying to become my best friend's boyfriend. The knowledge that he thought more-less the same about me, with respect to my and Vlad's marriage, wasn't helping it.

Seeing my mixed feelings about their forming relationship, Lucas tried to keep me away from the flat whenever the two were in. He also made sure that most of my free moments and days off were busy, by teaching me first unarmed self-defence, then, as the weeks passed, the basics of fighting with a knife.

Mum filled in all the remaining gaps, insisting on meeting me at least twice a week, either in Lia's flat, our house in Barnes or at Luigi's, where I always arrived accompanied by Lucas or Lia. And, once I managed to convince Lucas and Stoker that none of their vampire kin would dare to approach me and Mum in broad daylight surrounded by people, we would meet in Paris, during my lunch breaks.

To my surprise, Dad called me a few weeks after my birthday and we managed to chat on the phone for about ten minutes about unimportant things, as if nothing had passed, carefully skirting around all the crucial subjects. Mum kept him informed, I was sure, and thanks to her intervention our weekly phone calls soon became easy, friendly even.

As Christmas approached, Dad started to hint at his inability to spend the Holidays with us this year. He understood that Mum wanted to spend Christmas with her boyfriend, he said, and he, too, would be spending a couple of weeks with his new 'friend' in Mauritius.

Mum had already filled me in about this 'friend', one of the reasons why they were divorcing, a young woman only some five years older than me. Apparently, she managed to keep Dad happy enough, and seeing that Mum was thriving in her infatuation, hopefully love, for Julian, I didn't mind.

William stopped calling me, and whenever we met by chance in the square or in Paris, much to my surprise, he behaved nicely. I introduced Lucas to him, as he was mostly with me, as mine and Lia's new friend and flatmate. But, like most people, William seemed to have jumped to his own conclusion and it made all the difference for him. He finally accepted my decision and moved on too, and seeing the positive change in him made me feel content.

As the weeks passed, my pregnancy became too difficult to hide. So, at last, a week before my planned Christmas break, I informed Mr. Turner about it, promising to work until the beginning of May at least. I wouldn't know what to do with myself at home anyway, the 'expecting' has already been too long, and I wasn't even half-way through yet.

Surprisingly unsurprised, Mr. Turner congratulated me, promising he would let me work as long as he saw that I was coping well, and not one day more.

The time was slowly trickling towards next Halloween, with me becoming more happy and positive as I kept ticking off the days. Everything was going smoothly...

Everything, apart from my dreams. They were as good as gone, having become too random and sketchy. Useless. Even though I could get glimpses of Vlad on some nights, he never saw me. Despite following all the advice Stoker could produce about staying calm, trying to relax and simply opening my mind to invite the visions, Christmas arrived without me having had even one clear dream.

Seeing me frustrated by this situation, Lucas proposed to ask Stoker to hypnotise me, but I refused. I was not going to let anyone, especially Stoker, to pick through my mind, read my thoughts and analyse my feelings. I had to do this on my own.

As Mr. Turner insisted on me taking an extra week off to spend a relaxing holiday with my family, Lucas and I decided to leave London a few days before Christmas.

The idea of spending the Holidays in Brighton this year was proposed by both Mum, who was already there with her Julian, and Lucas' family, who lived there as well. Mum was staying in Julian's fancy apartment in the Brighton Marina. Because she wanted me close, but we were too many to fit in Julian's flat comfortably, she decided that Lucas and I, and later Lia and Stoker who were to join us in a couple of days, would stay in our summer house.

According to Mum, it was the best option. And as his house would become overcrowded, having to shelter four extra adults for nearly two weeks, even Lucas' father agreed. On condition that we would show up in his house daily during our stay, so Anaïs would get to spend some time with her brother.

In the early afternoon of the twenty-first of December we packed our luggage into Lucas' car and set off, weaving our way through the thick traffic out of the city, towards the south coast.

The journey wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be. Being nearly four and a half months pregnant, I was big and awkward. My belly kept growing too fast, giving me no time to get accustomed to my new body. I felt uncomfortable whenever I stayed seated for too long, which, at this point, meant that I couldn't keep still for more than some thirty or forty minutes. However, Lucas, with his cunning ability to sense my feelings, moods and discomforts, stopped often enough along the way with different excuses, to let me stretch my limbs and take a mouthful of air.

"So where are you taking me?" He asked over the rim of his cup of coffee at our third stop.

"Sorry?" I said, nonplussed, raising my eyes at him from the contents of my own cup of tea, as black as the early winter night that has already fallen outside.

"I still don't know where exactly your holiday house is. You only said it was a bit out of town and not far from the Marina."

"And you agreed to come along without knowing anything more, you are unbelievable! I could kidnap you or something," I giggled. "It's on Roedean Way, one of the last houses."

"Oh, up there, on the cliffs? One of those brightly coloured, enormous villas with huge balconies and a spectacular view of the English Channel?"

"I see you know the place quite well, for someone who lives on the other side of the town." I grinned, thinking of the girls' school situated nearby, a little further up on the cliffs. "How so?"

His grin matched mine before he replied, "Yes, fine, I know someone, or two, who used to go to school up there. And I see you know the local boys sufficiently to have guessed..."

"Oh just... hush, Lucas. That's not true!" I called, rolling my eyes at him and making him laugh.

"Whatever you say. Do you mind if we stop to say hello to my family first? We won't stay long."

"Of course not. At least I'll finally meet your father." I replied, feeling apprehensive of how he would receive me. I kept feeling guilty for having made his son's life more chaotic, and for keeping him from home...

Lucas put his hand over mine, still closed around my already empty cup.

"What's the matter?" He asked.

I shook my head. Sometimes, his insightfulness was annoying, there was no way of concealing anything from him.

"I just feel guilty for keeping you away from them, it's not right."

"Don't be silly, Samara. Are you ready, shall we go? Anaïs won't go to bed until we arrive." He proposed standing up, and putting the end to our conversation.

Anaïs opened the front door as soon as she noticed Lucas' car pulling to the curb outside. She took me by my hand and dragged me upstairs to show me her room, immediately after Lucas introduced me to his father.

Once I satisfied Anaïs by praising her bedroom and her favourite toys, she led me downstairs again. Leaving me on the threshold of the kitchen where the two men were absorbed in conversation, she hopped off towards the sitting room, back to the cartoons she'd been watching when we arrived.

I paused in the doorway observing the two. If I didn't know better, I would think that Albert, Lucas' father, was his older brother. He looked like his son, with only a few wrinkles added to the corners of his eyes, a couple of grey hair woven among his dark curls, and a hint of melancholy in his warm, brown irises.

"Samara, come in." Lucas' father beckoned when he noticed me.

He stood up and pulled a chair out for me. "I've heard that you decided to continue that ancient legend. To give it finally the happy ending it deserves." He said, smiling at me once I was seated, and he sat back down, next to me.

"Yes. I'll definitely try." I smiled back at him. "Your cousin Abraham is not too convinced I'll succeed, though."

"Well, let me tell you that even though Bram is a very clever man, he doesn't know everything. Sometimes he's just guessing. Am I right, Lucas?" He said, looking at his son, sitting across the table from us.

"You are," Lucas said, "and Samara knows Uncle well enough by now to have noticed that too."

"I do know him well enough." I said a bit too seriously, making them both chuckle.

"Would you like to stay for dinner? I bet you are hungry..." Albert asked, his eyes, full of mirth only moments ago, clouding over fast with memories, as they strolled to my belly.

Even as I heard my phone starting to ring from the front door, where I had left it with my coat and the handbag when we arrived, I realised with a pang that he was most likely recalling his wife, who passed away a few years ago.

I made to stand up to get my phone but before I pulled myself up, clumsy as I was, Lucas was at my side, my bag in his hand.

"Thanks," I grinned at him, his vampire speed never ceasing to impress and amuse me. "Mum." I said as soon as I fished my phone out and picked up.

"Hold on." I told her, turning to Lucas. "Mum and Julian are waiting for us with dinner in the house. But if you want to eat here I'll tell them... "

"I don't mind, Samara." Lucas said, so I glanced at his father.

"If they are waiting for you, go eat with them and come over for dinner tomorrow night, what do you think?"

"Thanks, Albert." I told him, then to Mum, "We are on our way. Give us fifteen minutes and we'll be with you."

Mum and Julian helped us unload the car before we sat down to dinner, a warmed-up take-away from one of the restaurants in the Marina.

"The house is clean, the fridge is full and I made all the beds, you decide where you'll all sleep." Mum ticked the points off her fingers once she helped me load the dishwasher after we had finished eating, and she and Julian were ready to leave. "Julian brought the Christmas tree and all the decorations in the sitting room. I thought you would have fun decorating it with your friends, what do you think?"

"Thanks for everything, Mum," I said as we walked to the sitting room where Julian and Lucas were watching a game on the television.

It was beyond me how they could concentrate on football with the breath-taking view filling the floor to ceiling glass sliding door right behind the television. The sea, shiny and luminous as if it had swallowed all the stars that were missing from the overcast sky, was heaving and stretching deep down, at the foot of the tall cliffs.

I walked closer to the glass, wanting to step out on the veranda lining the whole front side of the house, but changed my mind remembering how cold it was outside.

"Will I see you tomorrow?" Mum asked as she approached me, disturbing my reverie.

"We promised Lucas' father to dine with him and Anaïs tomorrow night. Shall we pass by in the afternoon? Is that all right, Lucas?" I turned round expecting to find him on the sofa where I saw him a while ago and jumping at finding both men behind me. They have finally noticed the view as well.

"Sure." Lucas agreed.

"And I'd like to ask you and your friends to leave one evening free to meet my son, kids. He's coming home in a few days." Julian said.

"Fine. Of course. Why don't you write some dates down for me, Mum, so we can see what Lucas' dad, and Lia and Abraham have in mind too, and get organized?"

With that, we accompanied Mum and Julian to the door. Once they were gone, I gave Lucas a quick tour around the house and after we decided the sleeping plan for us and the other two who would be with us in two days, we retired in the two small bedrooms situated above the sitting room, sharing a large balcony and the sea view beyond.