Vlad took my face in one hand, drawing my attention. “Only one. Find yourself one mortal then hurry back.”

“I may go alone?”

Vlad’s hawkish face was truly frightening bathed in the light from the moon. “If you do not return, I will find you and you will suffer.”

“Yes, of course. I would expect nothing less for such a transgression,” I said with great impudence.

“Go,” Vlad growled.

I needed no more prompting. With wild glee, I darted into the field beside the road. I began to run toward the alluring scent that had caught my attention. When I reached the edge of the field, I turned into the forest. The moonlight fell through the leafy boughs and illuminated a path for me across the forest floor. It did not take me long to break out of the trees into a clearing where a small farmer’s hut stood dark and forlorn.

Closing my eyes, I listened to the wind singing in my ears and breathed in the sweet scents of the night. Fresh, young blood was in the cottage. I could hear the heartbeats of the two people nestled within beckoning me to their side.

I smiled brightly as the anticipation of my feeding bubbled up within me. Reaching up, I freed my hair from its bindings and let it fall free to my waist. Slowly, I began to advance on the small cottage.

Wake up!

My voice was silent, a cry into the dreams of my prey, not a spoken whisper.

Wake up!

Opening my eyes, I looked at the tightly shuttered window. Languidly, I moved closer to the house watching as the dappled moonlight danced with the shadows across the white walls. The trees were swaying to the music of the night and it lulled me into a languor.

Come to the window! Come now!

I sensed movement within the house. My eyes sharpened their focus, concentrating on the shutters.

Open the window! Open it now!

Slowly, the shutters opened. Standing in the darkness of his small bedroom stood a young man, his tousled hair falling into eyes that were heavily laden with sleep.

I spread out my arms and moved forward slowly. I could see the farmer struggling to clear his muddled mind.

No, no, do not be afraid. Look at me. Look into my eyes. Am I not beautiful? Do you not wish to kiss me?

The young man shrank back into the gloom of the hovel in fear and I sprang forward. I landed lightly on the ledge of the window and stared into the darkened room. A large bed dominated the room and by the lumpy shape on the mattress I realized there was a very pregnant woman asleep under the quilts. Her husband breathed heavily, leaning back against the bed, staring at me; the beautiful, ethereal creature perched in his window.

“Please…”

“Invite me in,” I urged him in a seductive voice. I knew my eyes were glowing in the darkness. I could see a blue haze coloring my clothes and skin.

“I cannot…” the farmer protested in a whisper.

I licked my lips with my pink tongue and focused my gaze on him. “Look at me. Do you not wish to kiss me?”

The young man stared at me with horror and yet, with desire. I could see it in the way he cast his gaze warily at his sleeping wife, then back at me. His desire was growing for me. He was drinking in my translucent skin and piercing aquamarine eyes. I could see that my long red tresses mesmerized him as they fluttered around the soft curves of my body. Falling back on the bed, he pulled the heavy quilt over him in an attempt to hide his body’s arousal.

“Come…in,” he finally whispered.

I smiled and dropped into the room that I could not have entered without invitation. The young man wiggled back to his side of the bed, his eyes watching me as I slowly advanced on him. When I pulled up my heavy skirts and placed one knee on the mattress, he moaned with anticipation. As I crawled toward him, I could not help but lick my long fangs. The farmer gasped, but did not move. He was foolishly clutching the quilt up around his neck. I reached out one hand and pulled it gently from his grasp.

The wife stirred, mumbling under breath.

The farmer froze.

My gaze shifted to the woman.

“Please, don’t…”

One sharp look silenced him.

I leaned over the woman, one hand sweeping back the woman’s dark hair from her face. Pressing my lips against the woman’s forehead, I murmured, “Sleep in peace. Do not awaken.”

The woman sighed and her head slumped away from me.

“Now, for you,” I said with a smile.

The farmer swallowed hard as I moved over him and sat on his stomach. Looking down on him, I could not help but feel disgusted by his weakness. His wife was heavy with child and he was hoping that I would ravish him while his wife slept. It almost made me want to kill him, but I knew that soon a child would be born in the small cottage and it would need its father. I would take only what I needed.

Sliding my hands over his chest, I bent down toward him. He strained upwards for a kiss, but I pushed his face aside with one hand, exposing his throat. He was moaning beneath me, waiting for my passion to overwhelm him. With a soft hiss, I drew back my lips and drove my teeth into his neck.

I drank deeply, feeling his young blood coursing through me, renewing me. I drank until his heart began to grow weaker, then tore my mouth from the wound I had inflicted upon his neck. Still straddling him, I licked my lips with contentment.

A soft groan drew my attention back to my victim. He was gazing up at me with adoration mixed with horror.

“Come back to me again,” he whispered fervently. “Take me again! I want to be yours!”

I felt disgusted by his words and floated off the bed to the window.

He scrambled off the bed after me. “Please, my lady, please. I will serve you. I will do as you ask. I willingly give you my body. I will love you! Please!”

I caught him by the throat and tossed him back onto the bed with disgust. With one fierce thought directed into his drunken mind, I forced him to give up his memory of me.

Forget... for this was merely a dream.

He lay there, panting, his eyes closing in sleep.

I leaped out of the cottage and ran into the forest. I dismissed my victim’s amorous requests from my mind as I leapt about with wild abandon, feeling the blood within me spreading its life into my limbs. There was pure joy in the renewal that came with the feeding. Catapulting myself across the field in one great leap, I landed next to the carriage with a whoop of sheer delight.

One of the gypsy guards quickly opened the carriage door for me and I regarded him through slitted eyes. With one quick gesture, I grabbed him and kissed him so hard, I felt one of his teeth crack. Then I shoved him away and climbed into the carriage.

Vlad arrived a half-hour later. Moving into the carriage, he found me happily humming to myself. The blood of my victim had me drunkenly giddy. Perhaps it was my prey’s own frustrated sexual desires that had seeped into me through his blood, but I had never felt quite so aroused by the power of the feeding. When I saw Vlad’s stern expression, I burst into peals of laughter.

“That man out there. His mouth is swollen. Did you do that?”

“I kissed him!” I began to convulse with laughter. “They all want me. Every single one. Every time they look upon me, they forget their own names. He was lusting for a kiss so I kissed him!”

“You are drunk,” Vlad decided. “Young fresh blood full of mortal desires has clouded your mind.”

“I do not care,” I answered glibly. “It was wonderful to feed so freely.”

Vlad regarded me for a long moment, then slammed the door shut behind him before reaching for me. I recoiled at first, then he pulled me into his embrace. I could smell the fresh blood on his breath.

“Your victim…a woman…” I whispered.

“Yes,” Vlad responded as his green gaze bored into mine. “Do you wish to taste how fine her blood is?”

“Yes, please, a taste,” I responded dreamily.

Vlad covered my mouth with his own then blood began to pour out of him into mine. Sweet, delicious blood, still warm and vital with life. Hungrily, I wrapped my arms around Vlad’s neck, relishing the bloody kisses my Master was granting me. I was only dimly aware of him fumbling with the fastenings of my dress.

Vlad tore his mouth away from my blood lips. “She was very young and so soft in her bed.”

“Yes, yes,” I sighed, licking the blood from my teeth. I could feel this new blood rushing to mingle with my own feast and my vampire body growing stronger. I was dizzy, feverish, delirious and giddy. My head swam as tilted my head back and laughed.

Vlad licked my throat and whispered against it. “She welcomed me into her embrace.” He pulled my dress down around my shoulders.

“She was awed by your power,” I murmured.

“And my need for her life was so great,” Vlad answered, kissing the curve of my bare shoulder.

“She answered to it,” I whispered back.

“I took it. And that of her unborn child.” Vlad trailed kisses down my neck.

I froze, my fingers tightening their grasp on his hair. I wrenched his head back, forcing his mouth from my body. “Repeat what you said.”

Vlad held me firmly to him. “I said, I took the blood of her and her unborn child within her.”

I cried out in horror and flung myself away from him. “You followed me!”

Vlad chuckled mockingly, obviously amused by my distress. “Why did you not take them both, Glynis? What sort of hunter are you?”

“I took what I needed to stave off the hunger. I will not kill unless I am starving and I was not starving,” I shrieked at him. I was irate and overwhelmed with emotion. My hands fidgeted with my dress, trying to pull it up to protect the modesty I no longer truly had.

Vlad smirked. “You are a vampire. We kill mortals. It is our way.”

“Not a woman with child, safe in her bed beside her husband.”

Vlad chuckled and shrugged. “I finished what you started.”

“You killed them! You killed them! An innocent family! You butchered them! Damn you! Damn you!” I flew at him and began to pummel him with my fists. “Will it never end? All this death? Will it?”

Vlad forced me against his body, clutching my wrists tightly. “We are death. We are the undead. We feed. We kill. You know this.”

I was numb with my horror. The exhilaration of my feeding had dissipated. I felt cold inside and so very, very dead. Tears began to slip from my tormented eyes and Vlad kissed my neck then my lips.

“We are death. You know this.”

“But innocents…”

“Who is truly innocent in the eyes of your God?” He was mocking me and his words stung.

He kissed my mouth again as I tried to free myself from his embrace. “Please no, stop.”

“You were willing before,” Vlad whispered against my lips.

“I was being a fool. Release me.”

“I have no intention of doing so.”

I was shoved down onto the seat as I cried out in anger and frustration. His kisses were searing and his hands slid under my dress caressing me.

Despite myself, I began to grind against his fingers and gasp at his kisses. “Release me,” I growled, but my resolve was faltering.

He drew his tongue up between my breasts, then kissed me deeply. “I shall not.”

Furious at the entire situation and especially myself, I pushed at his broad chest.

His fingers slid over my thighs as he smiled wickedly at me. “Yes?”

“Please, do not let the guards see. Draw the curtains,” I said at last succumbing to him.

Vlad laughed and reached up to do as I asked.

I have realized that if I am to tell my true story, I must be truthful . What gnaws at me, what sometimes strangles my heart, is that in the bed of Vlad Dracula…I am loathe to admit this…I find pleasure. Despite my hatred for him, my anger, and my fear, his touch began to electrify me when I began to go willingly when he summoned me.

At first, I succumbed for the sake of Andrew and the remains of my beloved family. I gritted my teeth and endured it. One night, I found myself responding despite myself and in the aftermath, I felt quite lost in my despair. I could not believe that I had found pleasure with my enemy. Every night thereafter, when he called to me, I went willingly. Every time, I found myself more willing to let him take me.