I'd joined two chapters here like I've been doing with other chapters but it was getting into 13000 words and was beginning to look a little crazy so I removed part of it.

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Cleopatra, Born of the Sea and An unlikely Liaison readers who have asked me to update, please be a little patient with me. I haven't abandoned the stories, I'm actually working on them behind the scenes. But it might take me a while to get the chapters update-ready because of the devil child that's called school.

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As soon as he made sure he had the best man in his guard watching over Erinna, Alexander left for Miya's house on the East side of the castle. It was way past midnight and he knew dawn was fast approaching. Whatever he was going to be doing there would have to take the littlest possible time.

Time was not the only reason he wanted to hurry his visit, the promise he had made to Erinna made it necessary for him to return to the castle before his absence became suspicious. He intended to do all that was in his power to keep his word. Unless of course she decided to never tell Dracula, only then would he be inclined to tell his master.

Miya was sleeping when he got to her cottage.

He knocked and then belatedly realised he might have been too loud. Miya was the only person in Transylvania who kept normal human hours and she got really irritated when her sleep was disturbed by 'bloody vampires'.

"The day I let a bloodsucker detect the time I sleep will be the day I die," she always said.

She opened the door with a sour face after the rude awakening.

"The only time you visit me and you are trying to knock my door down already?"

"Let's be honest Mimi, that's the only thing that could wake you up, you sleep like tge dead."

"Bloody vampires," she mumbled, letting him in.

"Coffee?" She asked then realised her error, "Why am I even bothering?" She finished, rhetorically.

They went to her sitting room and Alexander took a seat even if he didn't want to. Miya would never tolerate such nonsense in her home.

"I can't stay long, Mimi," he said.

"Who's he killing now?" she asked with a bored expression on her face.

He bit his tongue to hold back his laughter; it was true, all his past visits had been to beg her to save someone The Count had been about to kill. Not that Miya's opinion or anyone's really mattered to Drac but Alexander had felt it was worth a try.

"He's still out of town. "

"Then what's wrong?"

"Nothing," he replied quickly and hoped his lie didn't sound as fake to her ears as it did to his.

"Well spill it out then. Whatever is bothering you, I can't tell you I won't help you if you don't tell me what it is."

"What do you know about possession?" He asked.

A frown appeared on her beautiful youthful face. With red luscious hair and animated violet eyes, Miya was one of the most vibrant looking women he had ever met. She was the embodiment of life and vitality.

Her Greek and Romanian roots showed in her dark skin tone. It suited her and made her look like a sun goddess of some sort. Not to mention the energy she seemed to ooze, even when she was half asleep like this.

"Possession?"

"Yes, possession."

"That's a broad question Alexander; I couldn't possibly answer it in one day. What exactly do you want to know?"

"Is there any particular cause?"

Miya was silent for a moment, deciding on a prudent answer, no doubt.

"Well, the usual case is that there's a spiritual message or warning that needs to be issued to the living from the dead. It's not the usual form of communication between worlds and is considered rude and invasive."

"So the possessed person does not remember the possession?"

"No, they don't."

"Can it happen more than once?"

"As long as the message has not been passed or the dead feel their message is not being taken seriously."

"Can someone do something they would never do under normal circumstances when they are possessed?" He asked, unsure how to phrase his question without giving away Erinna's secret.

"Something like what Alexander? I need you to be more specific."

"Killing themself?" He squeaked, looking at his feet, wishing he hadn't had to say that.

Miya gave him a long look and he could almost hear the dozen of thoughts going through her mind. Her eyes widened, filled with concern and suspicion and he sensed she was about to lecture him but shockingly, she took a deep breath and suppressed the urge.

"Probably; a lot of things happen under possession I suppose. It's not my area of expertise."

"How can it be stopped?"

She stood up and went to her bedroom. When she came back, she was holding a necklace with a big aqua stone.

"Aqua stones have been known to keep away any spirits but I would need to cleanse it first to make sure it's not carrying anything from its last user."

He nodded. "Do what you have to do, Miya."

She gave him a long look that suggested she had a lot to say but went to a table in the centre of the room and started mixing herbs he was unfamiliar with.

After making some mixture of the herbs and sweetly scented oils, she left the necklace soaking in the concoction and turned around to face him.

"Alexander, what's going on?"

"Nothing."

"You woke me in the middle of the night to ask about possession because it's 'nothing'?"

"I can't tell you now."

"Look, I know it's been hard with Erinna around. You are used to having Vlad all to yourself and I'm aware of how he has been treating everyone like they don't exist ever since she came but killing yourself is not an option. And you can't confuse possession with hallucinations."

"I'm not trying to kill myself," he said and realised the irony. A few minutes before, Erinna had been saying the very same thing to him.

"I get that it's hard Alexander, but I told you I'm always here if you want to talk. You know it doesn't mean he doesn't care about you. It's just----he has been waiting for her for so long; we all have to bear with him."

"Miya, I'm fine. Please."

She looked into his eyes but he didn't break his resolution so she dropped it. After a few minutes she took out the necklace and wrapped it in a black cloth to dry it. She held it out for him.

"This is it?" He asked looking at the simple object.

Miya nodded.

"You wear it every time."

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Exhausted by her fruitless research in the books Alexander had been kind enough to leave her before he left, Erinna went to her favourite place: the balcony.

She looked at the sky, the blanket of the night air cocooning her and taking away some of the loneliness she felt without Vlad. It was ridiculous how much she missed him when he had been gone for only a few days.

She wrapped her arms around herself and gazed at the stars, their different alignment patterns speaking to her in a language she understood. She was trying to decipher some shift she could sense in the atmosphere when she felt strong arms wrap around her waist, pulling her against a rock hard chest.

A grin she couldn't stop if she had tried lit up her face and a dead weight she had been carrying subconsciously was lifted from her shoulders and for the first time ever since he had left, she could breathe.

"You should have let me come with you," she said turning around in his arms so that she was facing him.

"No," he shook his head, "I should have never left. Especially the way I did, I'm sorry."

She raised her hand and put it on his cheek. She pulled him down and placed a soft kiss on his lips, a simple gesture yet its effect flowed through her veins, liquefying everything in its path, leaving her body burning for him.

She just needed, a little bit of the connection they had. She wanted him to take away the fears that had been haunting her ever since the cellar episode.

He pulled away and took her chin between his fingers and gently tipped her head so that she looked at him.

"What's wrong?" Underneath the concern was a fear she rarely saw in him.

Memories of all that had occurred since his departure filled her mind but she merely shook her head and looked down before he could see the tears building in her eyes.

"Nothing."

"Did someone attack you when I was gone? Alexander?" He asked quietly but she was not fooled. She could see the rage burning in his eyes. The veins in his neck were taut with the control it was taking him not lose his temper.

"No, no one touched me."

"Erinna-"

She took his hand and tried to lead him to the bed to distract him from his misplaced anger but he tugged her hand causing her to turn around.

"Don't lie to me. What happened?"

"It's been eight hours since you left but it felt like ages. Right now I just want to lie down with your arms around me and forget everything. Please?"

Vlad knew he should say no, get her to tell him even if she didn't want to; but how could he refuse her when she looked at him with those eyes? Powerless and spelled, he followed her to their bed but suddenly remembered where he'd been.

"Let me change."

She nodded and got into the blankets, temptation personified as she lay carelessly against the plump pillows in their bed, black curls spread around her head in wild disarray. The air was electric for he knew he was not the only one ogling.

Erinna couldn't tear her eyes away from Dracula as he took off his shirt and threw it at a chair where it landed neatly. She saw his scars again and was reminded that his life had not been as easy as everyone seemed to believe.

He had a dark past that no one knew about or was at least willing to know. She was still shocked from what she had leant the previous night from Miya. Who knew he carried so much pain with him? No wonder he was so tuned off to the world.

"You're staring," he teased, his eyes dancing with humor, showing her that he did not mind in the least.

"Did your father do that?" She asked softly, looking at the marks that marred his perfect beauty.

His eyes shuttered and she almost regretted asking the question. She had put him through too much about his past already. As if living through the horrific events was not enough, she had made him relive them again in the woods.

Of course she wanted to know everything about him, especially about his mother and Aurora, but she was not going to be heartless.

"It's ok, you don't have to answer that," she conceded.

He slid into the sheets next to her and she moved a little closer to him, letting him take her into his arms. He was quiet for about five minutes until she thought he had already fallen asleep.

"The first time we shared a bed, you would hardly come near me," he said quietly.

She blushed and was grateful he could not see her face for her head was tucked under his chin.

"You're not afraid of me anymore," he said.

Erinna sighed.

To do this or not to do this? She didn't know if she should take this high road or not, but also knew she did not have a choice, this was what was meant to be, what she had tried to run away from, what had eventually caught up with her.

"I was never afraid of you, not really anyway. Just thoroughly disgusted," she said, hoping that sounded better than it did to her own ears.

"Now you're not?"

"I am, but now I understand where you are coming from, why you do the things you do."

"You always look for the good in people. Does it never occur to you that some people are just bad because they are bad?" He asked.

"I'm not saying what happened to you excuses your actions Vlad, and I know I can never agree with most of the things you do but no one was born bad. It's the world which makes us bad, the experiences we are forced to deal with; so at the end of the day everybody deserves a second chance. It's not up to us to decide who does and who does not," she said tilting her head so that she could look into his eyes.

Her heart leapt because he was looking at her with an intensity that knocked the breath out of her lungs.

She looked away first and lay on her back, facing the ceiling. He didn't say a word for a long time, then, "It wasn't always bad."

She wrinkled her nose in confusion.

"My life, it wasn't always bad, there were good times. I didn't aways live with my biological father. At least not until I was twelve."

She knew Draco his father was responsible for most of the things that had befallen him and had shaped him into the man he was that day.

"Why?" She asked curiously.

"My mother, when she conceived me, it was out of wedlock. My father refused to make an honest woman of her, claiming she was a whore, even if he was the only man she had ever been intimate with. Now that I think about it, he must hae forced her. My mother was not a woman of loose morals, she would have never slept with him and gotten pregnant out of wedlock."

She took his big hand in two of hers and threaded her fingers into his, in silent comfort.

"What did her parents say when they found out?" Erinna asked, fearing for the life of the woman who had conceived this broken man who had somehow found a way of surviving despite everything the world had thrown at him, even though the story had already happened.

"They forced her to marry one of the sons of our tribe leader, my biological father's older brother : Benjamin. He was a good man, hardworking and mostly honest. He treated her well."

Something was off about his tone.

"Did he treat you well?" She asked, almost reluctant to hear the answer, dreading it but also needing to hear it.

"I was a bastard Erinna; he hardly was going to treat me with kid gloves."

My poor poor Vlad, she thought. He had never known any happiness at all.

"Did he --hit you?"

"Sometimes. I wasn't the best stepson. But life was good with Benjamin. At least it must have been, I don't have many bad memories from that period. "

"What happened? Why did you go to your father?"

"Werewolves."

It was spoken with a bitterness and coldness that gave her goosebumbs. She knew that relations between vampires and werewolves were not at their best, but was that the reason behind all that venom in his voice? Or maybe the division had started long back, when Vlad was still human?

"Werewolves?" She asked, sitting up to staddle his legs so that she was looking right into his eyes.

"They used to raid our lands, every full moon they would make sacrifices to the moon. Blood sacrifices of young virgin girls. Our clan was small, therefore the obvious prey. We had just relocated and didn't know much about supernatural creatures then, blind and ignorant like most humans. I was fourteen years old, my sisters Tamera and Aurora were six and thirteen.

Tamera had always been a weak child, her health was problematic, even from birth which is why she relied on me so much. I had vowed to always be there for her, to protect her. She looked up to me in so many ways and I--I cared about her.

Usually I was there to protect her but on this day I had been assigned to the Eastern boarder for patrol. It was sort of an honour because fighters were recuited at the age of sixteen unless they had exhibited great potential for the battlefield.

It was customary in those days to have patrol duties to ensure safety. The wolves came in through the Western boarder while a few of them came to the Eastern front to distract us.

By the time we killed them and returned to the village, my sister, my youngest sister Tamera, she was gone. She was only six but they just took her. She knew nothing except innocence, had never wronged anyone or even said an unkind word her whole life," his voice had become had become heavy with emotion.

She brought his hand to her lips and kissed the knuckles.

"What did you do?" She asked, her voice coming out raspy because she was trying to hold back her tears. She couldn't cry again. He didn't need her pity.

She prayed that somehow, someway there would be a happy ending to this story. There had to be.

"I wanted to go after her but my mother and Benjamin refused, claiming it was too dangerous. Benjamin however set off to find her, told me to take care of my mother and Aurora until he brought Tamera home.

By that time he had succeeded his father as king so what he did was really humbling. I will always respect him for that. Most warriors who lost their daughters that day did nothing but he went after Tamera. That was the last I saw of him."

"He didn't come back?"

"Oh he came back alright, or maybe I should say his head did. They sent his head and Tamera's to my grandfather, the former king."

The tears rolled silently down her cheeks. She didn't know what to say. What did you say to someone who had lost so much? Someone who had gone through so much pain? There just was no consolation enough.

"And now I'm making you cry again," he cursed himself self-deprecatingly as he wiped the tears away from her cheeks.

"I do not mean to," she said, using her hand to wipe the rest away.

"I know. Never cry because of me Erinna. Please."

"I hated being an only child, always wondered what it would be like having a sister or brother but I can't imagine what it's like having all that then have it taken away just like that. You have lost everything."

"No. I have you."

And she could not argue with him there.

"Yes. You have me."

Still no word about Aurora's connection with all this, but baby steps, she reminded herself.

When they slept, Vlad tried to take her in his arms, she refused.

"Turn around, I want to hold you," she told him.

"Erinna."

"Do not argue with me, Vlad. Turn around."

So that's how they slept, with Vlad facing away from her, her legs tangled with his, her arm around him, her head borrowed in his neck, her breasts pressed tightly against his back and her whole body curled around him. It was not much, but it was the least she could do. She wanted to give him the same safety that she got in his arms and the skin to skin contact also allowed her to send healing energy to him.

"You have me," she repeated even after he had fallen asleep.

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"I must die-I must die-I must die," Erinna kept muttering repeatedly like a church mantra.

Her movements were robotic and unnatural as she slipped out of the bed and made her way towards the doors which opened onto the balcony. She opened the doors and stepped outside without bothering to close them.

Her hands gripped the metal bars on the balcony and she put her leg over ready to jump.

Dracula opened his eyes and terror as such as he had never known took over him and he nearly keeled over as his deepest fears came to life. Had he been human, the cardiac arrest would have been instant and fatal.

He didn't give it a second thought but dashed across the room, ignoring the sun searing his skin as he stepped onto the balcony. He just grabbed hold of her waist, dashed back into their bedroom, and tossed her on the bed.

"Erinna, what the hell?!" He screamed, anger, fear and pain all making him lose control of his temper.

But he could have whispered for all the effect his oral blast had on Erinna. She scrabled up from the bed unseeingly and began making for the balcony doors again. Her lips were moving, repeating a chant of some sort and her eyes were glazed over.