Katiya played her part as well. In the beginning, she made sure to let her mother know that she was not pleased to have Drake as her husband, and that Drake was equally unhappy at being forced to marry her and then, as time went on, she, too, began to smile more often.

Six weeks after Drake married Katiya, Andrei returned to the Fortress.

Drake sought him out the next night. “Elena,” he said, “is she well?”

“She misses you, of course. She cries a lot.” Andrei grinned. “She’s been reading vampire books.”

“Vampire books!” Drake exclaimed.

Andrei nodded. “None of them are close to being accurate. She asks a lot of questions. And then she cries some more.”

Cursing softly, Drake shook his head. Why on earth was she reading vampire books? If she’d had questions, she could have asked him, he thought irritably. But then, once she had found out what he was, they hadn’t had a lot of time alone.

“So, how are things going here?” Andrei asked. “Is the plan we agreed upon working?”

“I believe so. Yes.”

“How is Katiya?”

“She worries a lot.”

“I cannot say as I blame her.”

Drake grunted softly. “Rodin is hosting a feast tonight for Marcos.”

“Why?”

“Marcos has taken over the Fortress in England. He is coming here to propose a new treaty with Rodin.”

“So, Marcos now rules the Fortresses in England and Spain.”

Drake nodded. It was an old story. Vampires lived a very long time. Often, when they grew bored, the very old ones challenged each other for territory. Such fights were always to the death. In the course of Rodin’s long existence, he had defended the Carpathian Fortress over a dozen times.

But Drake had other things on his mind tonight. “Katiya is fully ripe. I am certain she will conceive tonight. Once that is accomplished, there will be no reason for my sire to insist we remain here.”

“And if Rodin still refuses to let you leave?”

Drake clenched his hands at his sides. “Pray that he doesn’t,” he said, his voice little more than a hoarse whisper. “I cannot stand being here much longer.”

The reception began at midnight. Marcos and his entourage, apparently desiring to make a grand entrance, arrived an hour later. Rodin took the stage to introduce his guests, and everyone present came forward to pay their respects, starting with Rodin’s sons.

When that was done, Drake took his father aside.

“I hope you will not be offended,” he said, “but Katiya and I desire to retire early.”

“Is something wrong?” Rodin asked, his voice curt. “You have not yet danced with your bride.”

“The night is young, and we have another dance in mind,” Drake said with a smile. “The woman is ripe and willing, and I am eager.”

“Then go with my blessing!” Rodin said exuberantly. “She will bear lusty sons and beautiful daughters.”

“Of that I have no doubt,” Drake replied.

Moments later, he took Katiya by the hand. Smiling at each other, they hurried out of the ballroom, arm in arm.

Chapter 21

Time passed, one day blending into another. Elena kept busy as best she could. There was always something to do in the castle—a bit of dusting or sweeping, windows to clean, tapestries that needed airing and beating, clothes and sheets to wash and dry.

Once, leaning over the wooden washtub in the kitchen, she grinned, remembering how she had once contemplated doing her laundry on a rock in the river.

The nights were better. She had only Stefan for company now. Stefan claimed he didn’t know why Andrei had returned to the Fortress, but she didn’t believe him for a minute. Something was going on.

But she was too unhappy to wonder or care what it was. Drake belonged to someone else now. What else mattered?

One night, a month after Andrei’s departure, she coaxed Stefan into accompanying her to the lake. It was as beautiful as she remembered, but it lacked the magic she had felt when Drake had taken her there, and she realized then that it hadn’t been the lake or the moonlight that had cast the magical spell on the place, but Drake’s presence beside her. Had she loved him even then without knowing it?

“You are very quiet tonight,” Stefan mused when they were seated side by side on a fallen log.

“Will I ever stop missing him?” she asked. “Will the pain ever go away?”

“I know little of the ways of mortals,” he replied, gazing out over the water. “Sometimes I think it would be a blessing to be human.”

“How so?”

“You may miss Drake for decades, but I have centuries to grieve.”

“Have you lost someone you cared for?”

“Yes, but it was long ago.”

“But you’re still mourning for her, aren’t you?”

He nodded.

“Would you like to talk about it?”

“No. It only freshens the pain.”

They sat in silence for several minutes. Elena gazed into the distance, thinking how sad it was that the only place where men and women lived happily ever after was in fairy tales.

“Are you truly immortal?” Elena asked after a while. She couldn’t imagine living forever. Of course, if you never got sick and never got old, it might not be so bad. But to live forever—when you had been everywhere and seen everything, what else was left?

“Not exactly immortal,” he said. “Everything that lives can be killed. But some of us take a lot of killing.”

“Drake is five hundred. How old is Rodin?”

“He turned one thousand and one this year.”

The number was staggering, she thought. “How many children does he have?”

“I am not sure how many his other wives have borne him, but Liliana has given him five sons and three daughters.”

“I thought Drake said female vampires were only fertile for a short time.”

“They are fertile four months of the year, but many have difficulty conceiving or carrying a child full-term.” Stefan laughed softly. “Liliana is obviously not one of them.”

“Would it be rude of me to ask how old you are?”

“Only mortal women are vain about their age,” he said, grinning. “I am four hundred and fifty-three.”

She pondered that a moment, then sighed. “Do you think he misses me?”

“I know he does.”

“Why can’t vampires and humans have children together ?”

“I do not know,” he said with a shrug. “I am not sure it has been tried very often. The penalty for mating with a mortal is death. If not for the fact that Drake is Rodin’s favorite, and the favorite of our mother, he would be dead now.”

“How many wives does Rodin have?”

“Twenty. He has taken two wives every fifty years for the last five centuries. Our women outnumber the men, so it is not uncommon for a Master Vampire to have more than one wife. Liliana is Rodin’s first, and his favorite.”

“Do they all live at the Fortress together?”

“No,” Stefan said, laughing. “When Liliana comes to the Fortress, the other wives go elsewhere.”

“I can’t say as I blame them. Oh! I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“It is all right. Liliana never loved Rodin, but she is extremely jealous of the other wives and refuses to have them under the same roof. As the first wife, it is her right. She has always been good to me, spoiled me because I was her youngest son, but she can be cruel and uncaring to those not of her family.”

Stefan glanced at Elena, his expression solemn. “Trust me, you are well out of it. Take my advice. Forget this place. Forget Drake. Start a new life somewhere else. Somewhere far from here.”

Elena was thinking about what Stefan had said the following morning when the clang of the bell at the front door announced a visitor.

She opened the door cautiously, then stood there, staring at a man in overalls and the enormous moving van that loomed behind him.

“Miss Knightsbridge?”

“Yes?”

“Got a delivery for ya. Sign here.”

She glanced at the clipboard, noting her name and directions to the castle were neatly typed in the space that said, Deliver to. “But I didn’t order anything.”

“Well, somebody did. I got a truckload of goods here, all paid for.”

The words had barely escaped his lips when four big burly men began carrying furniture into the castle: bedroom sets in gleaming walnut and antique oak, an oak dining room table with eight chairs, an enormous flatscreen TV, an entertainment center, three antique oak curio cabinets, flowered sofas and matching love seats, overstuffed chairs, oak end tables and coffee tables, and lamps. Except for the TV and the entertainment center, all the pieces appeared to be antiques, which was only fitting, she thought, considering the age of the castle.

An hour later, she stood in the middle of the main room surrounded by more furniture than she had ever seen in her life. Who had sent it? What was she going to do with it all? And how was she supposed to get it up the stairs?

A short time later, the bell rang again and a man stood on the steps. His eyes grew wide when he looked past her. “Holy hel . . . heck,” he muttered. “This place really is a castle. I’m gonna need a lot more help,” he said, pulling a cell phone from his back pocket.

“Excuse me?”

“Got a job order from the power company to wire this place.” He shook his head. “You must know somebody mighty important, that’s all I can say. We’ll get started as soon as I get more help. Won’t be done for a couple of weeks, big as this place is, and that’s pushin’ it. We’ll try to stay out of your way as much as possible. Like I said, it’ll take time, but we’ll get ya hooked up, never fear.”

Elena nodded. Then, feeling as though she was living in the twilight zone, she closed the door.