Erinna took the knitting set that River had loaned her when she went in search of Lierian. She was not yet very good at it yet but practice made perfect. And it was not like the person she was knitting the blanket for was in any position to complain.

Lierian was in the library, lying on the carpet with her legs in the air and a huge book in front of her. If there ever was a definition of a loner, Lierian was it. After spending most of her life with her father and Melissa only, Erinna was not eager to shut herself away from the world unless it was with Vlad.

She liked people. Talking to them, helping them, learning from them and spending time with them. Every moment spent with another being was a moment she treasured because it helped her understand the fine nuances of humanity and what made different people tick, their hopes and dreams. It was an incomparable experience to see the world from another's point of view.

Lierian on the other hand seemed to crave solitude and actively searched for it. Approaching her when she was alone always felt like intruding.

"I'll not make noise, I promise," she said. She had been chastised once for coming to the library to talk.

Lierian said nothing as Erinna went to sit in a reclining chair close to the fire.

"What are you making?" Lierian asked when Erinna took her knitting out of her bag.

"A blanket," she answered with a smile.

It was only the size of two hands now but she knew with constant work, it would start to take shape.

"It's ugly," Lierian said without inflection.

Erinna was too familiar with her by then to be insulted.

"I'm still learning. The second patch will look better, you'll see."

"Why are you making a blanket? Doesn't your baby have enough blankets?"

"This one is not for the baby. It's for Xander."

"Amloc?" Lierian said Xander's original name with distaste. The two had still not managed to get over their differences.

"Mmm. It's a bribe, maybe if I'm nice to him now he won't poke my baby's eye when its born." She smiled but the joke went right over Lierian's head.

"There is a Liderc in this castle," Lierian said.

Erinna had expected her to go back to her books but apparently she wanted to talk that day.

"Yes, Ingrid. She is half-fae, half-Liderc."

"She is bonded to your husband."

Erinna frowned.

"How did you-" She began to ask before the answer came to her. "Her aura."

"No. I can see the bond, can't you?"

Erinna shook her head. She could see energy patterns but bonds between people were invisible to her.

"They used to be together before Vlad and I bonded." She decided to tell Lierian.

If she didn't find out from her, she would find out from someone else anyway.

"They left the castle together."

Erinna's knitting needles clashed and she dropped a stitch by mistake.

"I trust Vlad."

She realized how true the words were as she said them. She did not like that Ingrid was bonded to him but it happened and crying over it did not solve anything. Maybe one day she would be able to find a way to break it like she had told Vlad but until then, she wouldn't let the issue steal her peace.

"The bond happened a long time ago and we don't have a way to reverse it yet," she explained to Lierian.

"You can always kill her."

Erinna chuckled, not surprised that would be Lierian's first suggestion. "Don't you think I've tried? Ingrid cannot be truly killed. Death only makes her morph into another form."

Not to mention her killer would become her bonded slave for life.

"But that only happens if she was born a demon of desire. Isn't she mixed species?"

"She is but both sides of her lineage manifest equally."

Understanding dawned on Lierian's face.

"Well that makes it easier. You can't do anything about her Liderc side but you can always command her Fae side."

"What do you mean?" Erinna asked, her interest piqued.

"Have you ever heard of a Fae's Oath?"

"It's when you place a Fae under an oath and they have to fulfil it."

She remembered reading about it in the book that the Royal Archives had given her but had not paid much attention to it because it had not seemed relevant in her search for a way to break the Curse of the Union or Diana's curse for that matter.

Lierian nodded.

"I'm not sure about the details since the Fae guard the secret fiercely but if you get everything right, you could command her to do anything. Including forgetting about her feelings for your husband."

Closely guarded secret.

The phrase struck a chord in her memories and excitement bloomed in Erinna's stomach.

"So if we do this, Ingrid could have a normal life and fall in love with someone else who could love her too?"

It was something Erinna had wished for her ever since she had read Ingrid's mind by mistake and experienced the woman's grief, despair and frustration.

"If you get all the details right, yeah but I don't see any Fae around that would tell you."

"I think they already did," Erinna said, a thoughtful expression on her face. "Come with me."

They went to the rooms that Chase had shown her before. One of the guards fetched the keys for her and they entered. The inside was still stocked with presents that she had not yet had the time to go through.

"Wow. What is all this?" Lierian asked.

"Gifts from the wedding."

"You know this many people?"

Erinna shook her head. "Not me. But Vlad is over four thousand years old."

"Isn't that strange for you?"

"The gifts?"

"No. That you're married to someone older than your father."

She thought about the question. In theory it did sound a tad disturbing but it had never been about age between them. Vlad had always been Vlad to her.

"No, it's not strange," she said in the end.

Lierian nodded and did not question her on the issue further. Instead, she turned her attention back to the room filled with gifts of all kinds.

"So what are we looking for?"

Erinna thought back to the wedding, trying to recall the details of the box the Fae had given them.

"It's a gold box with some ancient inscriptions and symbols. The lock had three emeralds on it and it was about a foot long."

The task seemed hopeless in the room brimming with boxes of all sizes so Erinna recruited the help of some vampires who were lingering in the castle. With all hands on deck, the box was found in half an hour.

"What's in here?" Lierian asked when the two of them had taken the box to the library for some privacy.

"The Fae queen gave it to us at the wedding; she said it is one of their most closely guarded secrets. She also said it would help us solve a problem that has bothered us for a long time. When she said it, I thought she meant the curse but now I'm inclined to think she meant something different altogether."

"There's one way to find out."

Before Lierian could open the box however, Erinna put her hand on top of hers, halting her.

"If we find something useful, will you please take care of it? I promised Vlad that I wouldn't spend too much time on this."

He wouldn't be pleased if she started going to strange places to see even stranger people in order to break Ingrid's bond. With the baby so close, Erinna didn't think it was a wise idea either.

Lierian shrugged. "Sure."

"Thank you. I'll ask Chase to help you." She smiled conspiratorially.

Lierian's whole face lit up with pleasure and disbelief. "Really?"

Erinna nodded. "I'll have to talk to Vlad first though. You can open it now."

Lierian lifted the lid off the box and frowned when she saw the contents. Erinna could not hide her disappointment either. She did not know what she had expected. A magic stone, some necklace or wand but certainly not a very ordinary looking book.

"Maybe it will tell us what's needed to activate the oath?" Lierian infused some optimistic hope in her tone.

Erinna lifted the book up from the box and opened it. It was written in very old ink but was not what they had expected. Instead of it being a book on the history of the Fae like the one she had read in the archives, this one looked like a genealogy book detailing several Fae bloodlines. Or rather all of them, considering how thick it was.

"It's just names?" Lierian asked.

Erinna flipped through the pages and yes, it was just names.

"There is a folded page." Erinna told Lierian.

The folded page had a series of names, ending with Ingrid's. Every other name on the page had two names in brackets beside it but Ingrid's was just Ingrid. Above her name was Imillia (Tachhtan'thujal Killon) and William Morgan. Since there were dates beside the name, Erinna supposed this was Ingrid's family tree.

"Her mother is Imillia. Have you ever heard or read of her?" Erinna asked.

Lierian shook her head.

"Maybe we are supposed to find her and ask her how to activate the oath?" Lierian queried but even she sounded doubtful.

"Unless she really hates her daughter, she would never tell us."

"You're right. The names are useless to us unless we know what the oath entails."

"I saw a book when I was in the archives. I browsed through it and it had information on the oath but I did not read through it."

Lierian perked up at that. Her white eyes gleamed with a silver-like glow.

"But you saw the page it was written on?"

Erinna nodded, not knowing how the information was relevant. She remembered seeing the page but she had only read the definition of what a Fae's Oath was.

"That's perfect. Have you ever done any memory walking?" Lierian asked.

Erinna shook her head.

"It's easy. All you need is a guide and we will be able to comb through your memories and read what was on the page as if it's right in front of us now."

"Have you ever done it before?" Erinna asked sceptically.

"It's not that hard. You want to try?"

It seemed as good a plan as any. Lierian directed Erinna to lie down on one of the longer couches in the library.

"You have to think of the day so that when I get in your head, I'll only see what you want me to see."

Erinna nodded since there were many memories she would rather happily take to her grave.

She relaxed and thought back to the day that she had gone to the archives. Lierian's fingers massaging the sides of her head were calming and helped her relax.

"Take deep and even breaths. I'll be coming in now."

A steady, invisible pressure began pushing against Erinna's head. She knew it was Lierian trying to get inside her mind so she relaxed and tried to let her in but the only thing she got for her efforts was a headache that made cold sweat bead on her forehead.

"I don't think it's supposed to be like that," she said with a wince.

"Relax."

"I am relaxed. Are you sure you have done this before?"

"I've read about it. It's not that hard. Just take some deep breaths."

Erinna did but the headache only increased. She had almost reached her endpoint when an invisible force shot out of her and knocked Lierian across the room.

"Princess," Lierian complained with a pout, rubbing the side of her head.

"I'm sorry, I didn't do it on purpose."

The air immediately shifted and Vlad appeared, a worried frown on his face.

"Your head, what's wrong?" He asked, coming to where Erinna was laying. He lifted her head, sat down and put it on his lap gently. His touch on her temples was much more calming that Lierian's had been.

"You're back," Erinna smiled, pulling him down for a kiss.

His presence, like always, filled her with a giddy, joyous feeling that she could get with no one else. He made her happy but also put her on edge. With him, she never knew what to expect. Every moment was like unwrapping a present.

"You didn't tell me you were not feeling well."

"I am well. Lierian was trying her amateur memory walking skills on me," she chuckled.

It was safe to say that the whole endeavor had been an epic fail.

Vlad glanced to where a wild-haired Lierian was still lying amidst the books she had knocked down when she had crashed into a shelf. He looked a little too amused by her predicament, a hint of a smile playing on his lips before he turned back to Erinna.

"Why do you want to walk your memories?"

"Lierian thinks if we put Ingrid under a Fae's Oath, we will be able to get her to forget her feelings for you."

Vlad nodded, "I've tortured a dozen Fae over the years but none has ever told me how to evoke that oath."

"I saw the book in the archives but I didn't read it. Lierian thinks if we walk through my memories, we can read it but it's not going well," chuckled Erinna, earning herself a scowl Lierian.

"I did everything right. You were fighting me," accused Lierian.

"Her mind doesn't do well with invasions. It's kept her safe over the years," Vlad said quietly, tucking Erinna's hair behind her ear.

"From you, you mean," Erinna said.

Vlad said he had visited her mind often until her mind had built up impenetrable barriers and safety mechanisms and he had to go through Melissa's mind to stay updated on her life.

"Yes, from me. How far did the two of you get?"

"Nowhere, I couldn't even get in," Lierian replied, coming to stand beside them.

"That's alright, I'll take it from here."

Heat pooled in Erinna's stomach from the way that Vlad was looking at her, promising dark and wicked things.

She swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry.

"How do you walk someone's memories?" She asked looking into his dark eyes. There were focused intensely on hers, his undivided attention making her feel like she was the only person in the room.

"Close your eyes," Vlad commanded softly.

Without any thought from her, Erinna's eyes shut. She felt Vlad's hands on her, moving from her hair to her temples, down her cheekbones and jawline to her shoulders and arms. His touch was soothing and relaxing as he kneaded and massaged her flesh. When he kissed her temple, Erinna's body sank into his lap and she sighed with content.

A long time passed with him just working his hands on her. With every touch and kiss on her skin, the world around them fell away. Everything else blurred away, leaving her focused on her mate's hands and nothing else. Tension left her body and she might have purred but she was too out of it to give any kind of response.

"This is not in the books," Lierian grumbled from beside them. Erinna had almost forgotten about her presence. Even when she opened her heavy-lidded eyes at the distraction, she could not bring herself to talk or care about pretty much anything else.

Her mind was floating and she felt far removed from everything else. Her body was in a lethargic state that felt half drunk and half asleep. It was the most intoxicating feeling and she did not want to give it up for anything else.

Vlad must have said something to Lierian because soon she left and it was just her and Vlad. He continued massaging her, extending his attention to her palms and the tips of her fingers.

Erinna must have fallen asleep at some point because when she woke up, she was in bed with Vlad's arm around her. Erinna turned around so that she was facing him, only to find him already awake.

"Hey," she smiled at him, still a bit dazed from his wonderful massage.

"Hey."

"So was that in the books?" She gave him a teasing look but Vlad's face remained blank. The only expression on his face was the slight pinching of his forehead.

"What books?" His eyes remained on her, the intense expression on them, making her slightly uncomfortable. It made Erinna want to eavesdrop on his thoughts to hear what was going on in his mind.

"The ones for memory walking." She swallowed, her throat suddenly dry and her heart beating fast at the predatory way Vlad was looking at her.

He shook his head.

She waited for him to say something but he didn't. He just kept looking at her with a contemplative expression on his face. When the silence started getting awkward, she opened her mouth to ask him what was wrong but Vlad suddenly pushed her onto her back and kissed her. The kiss was fierce and hungry and it completely undid Erinna.

Tongues of desire licked her flesh like flames and it felt like she was being burned from the inside as feverish desire consumed her. Impatiently, she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him on top of her. She wished he would rest his full weight on her but knew he could not do it with the baby.

"Vlad," she moaned when he let her breathe.

Her hands went into his hair, pulling him down so that she could kiss his neck. His body became rigid and she felt a strong wave of desire roll through him through their bond. Deciding that he liked what she was doing, Erinna sucked on his skin. If he was a human, he would definitely have been bruised.

His scent was intoxicating. Clean, fresh and masculine.

Vlad's lips came back to hers and he kissed her hungrily. His hands stroked her body, drawing her dress up as they moved up her thighs. When his hand reached where she wanted it, Erinna shuddered.

"Angel," he groaned and bent down to kiss the swell of her breasts above the neckline of the dress.

He teased her with his hands and mouth, stroking the fires of her desire until Erinna couldn't take it anymore. She writhed, begged and cursed beneath him but he refused to be hurried. When he finally pressed against her entrance, gloriously hard, she almost wept in relief.

"Vlad please please, please," she begged with urgency. She needed him inside her with a desperation that she could not explain.

His dark eyes watching her with possessive hunger, Vlad pushed into her and it was like Erinna had a seizure. Her body convulsed and her eyes rolled to the back of her head, pleasure making her incoherent and mindless with lust. Immense satisfaction rolled through her as he filled her, stretching her until she almost felt him in her soul. Elvish pleas left her mouth like a chant, and she clung to him, never wanting to let him go.

Vlad cursed and kissed her hard. Their tongues dueled, two forces meeting and creating the best of magic that the universe had ever seen. He drew back and knelt between her legs. He pulled her by her thighs towards him, penetrating Erinna at an angle that made her see stars. He laughed when she let loose a string of gibberish before she covered her mouth with her palm.

When he began thrusting, Erinna threw her head back, her back arching off the bed in efforts to contain the storm of sensations burning inside her. She cried out his name and touched whatever part of him she could reach. She had never wanted something so fiercely. As the energy between them rose higher and higher, Vlad lost control too and his thrusts lost their rhythm.

His body folded over Erinna's and he kissed her once before driving them both towards the finish, his hand gripping her jaw and forcing her to look into his crimson eyes. Erinna's climax was violent and she lost herself in it, one of her hands pulling Vlad's hair and the other digging into his back. Vlad thrust into her three more times before he found his release too. Erinna held him, rubbing his back as his body trembled above her.