Most of this chapter was written in explicit fashion. I've tried making a PG version for the younger guys but it didn't work out so well so I ended up just cutting out the scenes from this book. The full chapter can be found in the other book with adult chapters.

"I don't know why I can't go too." Tristan sulked from the hallway since he had told in no uncertain terms that something unfortunate would happen to him, should he ever step one foot into their chambers.

Vlad's decision to exclude him from the party going to Egypt had left Tristan disgruntled. Erinna suspected that what actually irked him the most was that Alexander had been allowed to come but he had not. The rivalry between the two knew no end.

"It would be dangerous for you, Tristan. Witches especially dark ones, are not known for their friendliness."

"But you're going and you're practically the cripple in this group."

Erinna rolled her eyes. "I'm pregnant, not sick. And I can take care of myself. You on the other hand, would be disadvantaged in a magical fight."

He still wasn't satisfied so Erinna had to change tactics. She told him how much it would mean for her and Vlad if someone they trusted stayed behind to watch over the castle in their absence. Not that the remaining vampires would need Tristan's help in any way but it soothed his ego. He huffed but seemed to accept it.

"I'll go collect my things and move in."

"Okay, you can bring your mother so that she's not all alone at home. Have one of the maids show you some vacant rooms."

"I know my way around." He said and left.

Xander was giving her a disapproving glance from the center of the bed where he was lounging. For someone who didn't speak much, the scorpion was very judgmental.

"What? I didn't lie to him. His presence will be more useful here."

He clicked his pincers but said nothing, just continued watching her with that unnerving gaze.

"You know, Vlad is not going to be pleased to find you on the bed when he returns. If I were you, I would vamoose right about now."

"Xander is not scared of the vampire. He bothers me and I eats him."

"It's not about being scared, it's about respect. He allowed you to stay here, can't you be more nice to him?" She asked, folding one of Vlad's leather pants. The material was unbelievably smooth to the touch.

"He was not nice to my mistress. Why shoulds I respect him?"

That was a battle that Erinna did not want to get in the middle of.

"Why don't you tell me about Enai?" She asked instead. She knew about Enai as a voice in her head and a store of knowledge she could reach for, but what had she been like as a person? What had been her hobbies, her passions? Who had she loved?

"He ripped into her like a wild animal. Her screams rings in my ears to this day. Xander fought him but he kept stabbing her. Her blood spilt on a common rock and her flesh was left for the beasts of the wild to eat. Nothing I coulds do, just watched her die."

Erinna's heart stilled. The morbid picture was not what she had expected when she had asked Xander to tell her about his mistress. His hatred for Vlad did not sound petty now when she heard the pain in his voice. Erinna abandoned her packing for a while and sat on the bed with him.

"I'm sorry that you lost your mistress, Xander."

She stopped herself from making excuses or explaining that Vlad had not been in a good place then, his mind tortured by the violent death of his pregnant wife.

"Best mistress Xander ever hads. Made me warmest blankets and gave me roasted nuts."

"You love nuts?"

Her familiar made a motion that could have been a nod. "Nuts with tasty human children heads. Za new borns have chewy skulls."

Erinna laughed. She really hoped Xander was joking about eating children but the frequency with which he mentioned it made her question whether there was any veracity to his claims.

"Well, I can't help with the heads but I'll see what I can do about the nuts, okay?"

And the blankets. Xander was just so...prickly. It had never occurred to Erinna that he might actually want to be pampered or get affection of any kind. He was different from Alex who was not shy of taking what he wanted and needed out of what Erinna had to give. Be it hugs, belly rubs, walks or just entertainment, Alex just made himself comfortable in her personal space.

Xander was way too easy to forget because his way of communication was disapproving glances and grunts. It was very rare of him to voice out him opinion or ask for anything. She would have to put more effort into noticing him so that he did not just fade into the background. Maybe eventually he would get comfortable with her enough to ask for what he wanted.

"You is trying to bribe, Xander."

"No, I'm trying to be nice. We are stuck together now and I don't want you to hate it here. It's your home too," she said gently.

Her reply was loud snores.

"Xander?"

"I was trying to tell you zat you are boring us, princess. Xander is done talking now. Go away."

Erinna rolled her eyes. The scorpion was more cantankerous than an old man with bowel dysfunction syndrome. She left him to his devices and returned to packing. When Vlad returned, his eyes immediately went to the bed. Before she could stop him, he grabbed the edges of the bedcover, bundled the napping Xander inside and dumped him in the hallway.

"Are you done packing?" He asked, closing the door with his boot.

Erinna's mouth opened in an oval.

"Vlad, that was uncalled for. He didn't even do anything to bother you."

"His presence bothers me. I should have killed him when I had the chance."

"Do you realize that what you did to Enai traumatized Xander for life? He's terrified of you because he watched you hurt someone he loved. The least you can do is be nice," she said cautiously because there was an unstable atmosphere around Vlad, something she could not put a hand on. It made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up with increased alertness.

"He failed to protect his mistress, that's on him." He said, walking to the bathroom and letting the door slam loudly behind him. Erinna was still for a moment, not knowing what had just happened.

Seconds later, she heard water splashing behind the closed door. Vlad's showers were usually at dusk or at dawn. If they happened during the night, it meant he had done something that he wasn't supposed to be doing or something that left him feeling dirty inside.

Erinna dropped the dress she had been folding and followed him inside the bathroom. He was leaning on the wall with his forehead and his hands were gripping his hair as cold water beat down on him. The tiles were stained with blood that she would bet her soul was not his.

"Vlad?" She called softly, not wanting him to think she was there to fight him since he always assumed she would be aggressive if she caught him on the wrong side of morality.

"Get out, Erinna." He said shortly.

"Are you alright?"

"Yes. Get out."

Erinna opened her mouth to protest but hesitated when she saw how tightly the muscles at his neck were corded. His veins were straining from his struggle with control and now that she listened, his temper was flaring throughout the bond. It looked like the slightest thing would set him off. She quietly left him and closed the door.

She was conflicted on what to do. She did not want to irritate Vlad any further but she also didn't want him to be alone. Deciding if he got angry with her, she would deal with it, Erinna opened the bathroom door and slipped inside again, closing it behind her.

"Erinna, I said get out." His voice was soft, never a good sign with Vlad.

"You can argue with me later but right now you need me."

🚿🚿🚿🚿🚿🚿🚿

Vlad turned around to ask, just what was so hard to understand about the phrase 'get out', but his words died on his lips when Erinna got on her knees. The gesture was so simple and something he got from his subjects every day but never from his wife.

He opened his mouth to say something but again, nothing would leave his lips. His mind couldn't get past what she had just done. Erinna on her knees. For him. And only him, because he knew for sure she would never do something like this for someone else.

The blood Vlad had been firing into maintaining control suddenly changed directions, her submission filling him with a feeling of immense power that could only be compared to drunkenness. How did she always know what he needed?

"You're sure about this?" He asked because his eyes had already zeroed in on the target and he knew he would not be gentle. Not with the excess, unspent adrenaline swirling in his system, crying for an outlet.

Take. Possess. Conquer.

Erinna nodded. Did she even know what she had offered him?

Vlad turned off the shower and stalked towards her, water still dripping off him. Erinna's eyes widened when she got a full look at him but to her credit she held her ground. Vlad knew how he looked, his eyes had bled over a long time ago and he had lost the fight of trying to keep his claws and fangs in. He was as he had been the day he had been cursed. Well and truly monstrous. But she stayed, because that was how much she loved him.

Vlad held out his hand in front of her. Erinna looked confused but put hers in it. He pulled her up then circled her. Erinna shivered as his wet body stood behind her, just barely touching. The predator in him sensed the confusion of her reactions. She wanted him but could also tell that he was not himself. That was his wife, she was no fool.

His hand went under her chip, his grip strong but sensual. When his nose pressed against her neck, right where his mark was, Erinna's eyes closed and she gave a sharp intake of breath. Her heart beat faster and his arousal got heightened as he smelled her blood. Simply delectable. There was nothing like it on earth and soon Vlad would have his fill.

He was going to feast on her, devour her like he had never before. The hunger in him called for nothing less.

He inhaled her once then moved his lips up, barely touching her skin until he was at the back of her neck, right above the top of her spine. He nipped the skin there once, then took her dress in his hands at the neck and rend it in half down her back.

"Get rid of it," he said in her ear and walked to their bedroom.

When he returned, his wife was stepping out of the dress. He threw the pillow in front of her and she knelt carefully on it. The picture that she presented looking at him with such trust about did him in.

Vlad stepped forward and took a fist of her long, dark hair, jerking her head up to look at him.

"One last chance," he told her. Her pupils were blown so wide with desire and her cheeks rosy with desire.

If he had any doubt that she would want this, it was gone. Her breath was coming in little pants that betrayed her racing pulse before the strong scent of her blood did. His blood lust lust wrestled with the need to sink inside her body. He wanted so much to be in her that it did not even make sense. He was not sure it was even about lust, there was this intense need inside him to be joined with her. To feel her.

**************

When Erinna woke up, she was worn out from everything that had happened ever since Vlad had come back. They were still on the bathroom floor but there was no one where else she would rather have been.

Vlad had been relentless and she had wanted to give him everything he needed. In the hand, it had not been her body that had sated him and calmed him though. It had been her love for him. She had wrapped him up in her essence, everything that was her. Only then had his demons receded, allowing him to sleep.

He pressed kisses to her hair, rubbing her stomach gently which was supported by a pillow. Vlad must have put it there.

"Time for you to leave," he said softly.

Erinna frowned, then she realized he was talking about her mind and her consciousness that she had wrapped around him. But it was still midday.

"I can do so at sunset."

He shook his head, tickling her with her hair. "No." He kissed her neck. "I like it too much, if you don't pull out, I'll never allow you to leave. Do it now please."

Erinna nodded and pulled her mind and essence from his, noting the coldness and void that she felt when she was not in him. She had not even been aware of it before. She was grateful when Vlad wrapped his arms more tightly around her.

The next time Erinna opened her eyes, it was sunset and Vlad was carrying her into the bath. It was then that she became really aware of how sore her body was, from the outside to the inside. She was half asleep and only mildly aware of Vlad cleaning up all the sticky, congealed blood on the floor. Part of her was horrified that it had all come from her but then when she thought of how she had managed to anchor Vlad and be there for him, everything else seemed inconsequential.

A disaster nearly happened when she tried to get out of the bath on her own. Luckily, Vlad was just coming back into the room with her bathrobe and caught her in time.

"You should have waited for me," he scolded.

"I didn't realize my legs would be like this."

They felt like lead, all of her limbs were too heavy. He carried her and set her on the bed.

"It's blood loss." He looked away when he said it.

Erinna took his hand and pulled him to sit beside her on the bed.

"You don't feel guilty about last night, do you? Because there's nothing for you to feel guilty about, Vlad."

He didn't look convinced but nodded his head. "I'll heal you, now."

Erinna shook her head adamantly. "I'm keeping them."

"The wounds will take days to heal otherwise." He pointed out.

In truth, her back was a nightmare and she felt as if her insides had been raked with a wire gauze but it was the symbolism behind the marks that she treasured.

"I know. I still want to keep them."

"Your back..." He looked behind her and grimaced.

"I knew what would happen yesterday when I said yes; Vlad and I enjoyed it, in case you couldn't tell. At least until..."

She didn't finish but they both knew what she was referring to. Never had she felt such helplessness in her life before. She put her hand on Vlad's thigh and turned to really look at him.

"What happened? You were angry when you came home." She said gently, not wanting him to think she was trying to pick a fight.

Vlad considered her for a moment before he decided to speak.

"I left him alive and I so badly wanted to go back and kill him."

Erinna had already braced herself for something of this sort but her heart still stuttered.

"Kill who?"

"Dylan."

"I don't know anyone called...Oh. Vlad, you could have gotten hurt, the barrier."

She couldn't even correct him on Deacon's name, her concern overshadowing everything else. His safety was her first and main priority and she did not want to see him as Alexander had described after he had had gotten hit by Lierian's barrier.

"I took Lierian. Are you upset?"

Maybe another day she would have been but after her recent contact with her depth of her feelings for Vlad that day, she could not fault him for wanting to avenge her honor. She had been ready to kill anyone who had put him in such a state the previous night.

"I can't be. I would do much worse if anyone hurt you." It was the curse of their bond, the very same madness that was still driving Diana from her grave into taking revenge on those who had hurt her mate. "I just don't like that I'm the one who is always putting you into situations where you have to revert to violence." She raised her hand and stroked his chin.

Vlad captured her hand and nipped her middle finger. "It wasn't your fault. It was his and he paid in blood. You understand why I had to do it, right? Why I couldn't let him get away with it?"

Erinna nodded. What she had failed to grasp in the early days of their relationship when Vlad had punished Derek for touching her now seemed so natural. She would not hurt someone for touching Vlad in a way he did not want to be touched. She would kill them. Their bond required nothing less and it spoke of Vlad's control that he had managed to spare Deacon's life.

"Thank you." She brought their joined hands to her lips and kissed his Recognition Mark. Sweet tingles radiated from her own mark too the moment her lips made contact.

"You wouldn't be thanking me if you knew what I did to him. There won't be enough of him left for them to put through a sieve."

Erinna's heart stopped. "He's dead?"

She would not hold it against him but Vlad's conscience would not let him rest. It would come back to haunt him one way or another.

"I wanted to end his life but he saved my child and protected you when I couldn't. I owed him."

That would explain why Vlad had been turned inside out and holding by a thread when he had arrived. The battle of honor versus revenge.

"Would you have cared if I had killed him?" His gaze was sharp and assessing as he looked at her.

Suddenly the previous night made more sense to her, the hunger for her submission, the desperation for her affection, the insecurities. Only Deacon would have made Vlad want to affirm their bond and imprint himself so badly on her that he had nearly lost himself. In his mind, Erinna respected Deacon and had feelings for him but it could not be further from the truth.

"He is a good leader for the elves but he means nothing to me more than friendship. He is no threat to you."

No person was, for she would never want or love anyone the way she loved Vlad.

He tried to hide it but she did not miss the relief in his eyes.

"Of course, he's not. Have you seen that hair?" Vlad scoffed.

The joke caught her off guard given how somber and serious he had been ever since they had woken up. Erinna found herself laughing, stifling the sound with her palm because it sounded too loud in the silent room.

"The measure of a man is in his hair?" She was, trying to regain her composure but still laughing.

His face softened as he watched her wipe away the tears of laughter and he gave her a gentle kiss.

"Mmm. What self-respecting man has hair longer than the women around him?"

"I hope you told him to come and get styling tips from you then." She chuckled.

"I would have but his ears were rather occupied with hanging on for dear life after I nearly carved them off his skull."

Erinna grimaced. "Thank you for that vivid picture."

**********************

Erinna tried to go back to sleep when Vlad did since it was still midday, but she had really underestimated the aftermath of their 'activities'. She had wanted to wear the evidence with pride but her body hurt all over. Her back felt like it had jagged stones inside and she could not move without moaning in pain. In the end, even Vlad who had fallen asleep had to stay awake with her.

Every time he asked if she was ready for him to heal her, she scowled. She was no coward. But after three hours of that, she was done.

"I think you broke my back."