Erinna didn't see Vlad much over the next few days. Something was keeping him busy but he refused to say what so she spent a lot of time knitting, reading and talking to people since she got a lot of visitors those days.

On the third day of his lengthy absences, Vlad strode into their bedroom at midnight with a wicked gleam in his eyes.

"You want to see something?" He asked, looking excited, well as excited as an over six foot tall ancient vampire who had an arsenal of intimidating an grim expressions to choose from could look.

"What did you do?" Erinna asked suspiciously.

"Me? Nothing. Ingrid? A whole lot."

Erinna sighed, hoping she would not regret this. "Okay, show me."

She put her knitting aside and sat up straight on the bed. He came to sit beside her on the bed, with one leg hanging off the side and the other tucked under him.

"I would let you use the dream catcher, but I don't want you to see too much."

His hands holding hers, Vlad joined their foreheads, bringing him close enough for Erinna to kiss. She looked into his eyes, dark and bottomless. They seemed to see right through her and she loved the feeling of being bared to his gaze like that. Hunger stirred inside her and she licked her bottom lip.

Vlad squeezed her hands a little. "Focus, angel."

Erinna closed her eyes because that was the only way he was going to get some focus out of her. Vlad began drawing soothing circles on her hands with his thumbs until her breathing became more steady. Her mind settled, allowing him to share his memories with her seamlessly.

"Brace yourself, okay?" He whispered in her mind. "The house is unusual. The inside is going to look like the inside of a human body."

"What?" Erinna said, already feeling apprehensive. His description matched an impression she had gotten whilst looking through Alexander's memories after they returned from Egypt.

"None of it is real, it's an illusion so don't be alarmed."

"Okay." Erinna agreed despite feeling nervous.

Suddenly she found herself in a house exactly like the one Vlad had described. Pink, fleshy, pulsating walls and a bed shaped the shape of a uterus with stools placed to look like ovaries, welcomed her. On the bed lay a man. His image was blurred to Erinna's eyes.

"Who is he?" Erinna asked.

Even though this was only a memory, her flesh was prickling, everything inside her urging her to run. Whoever this was, he had taken a lot of lives if his signature was powerful enough to be transmitted even through a memory.

"Toro. I'm blurring him so that you don't have to see his appearance."

"Oh."

Erinna supposed she should be grateful. She had gotten a glimpse of him through Alexander's memories but had quickly shielded herself from his monstrous appearance, remembering Horus' warning.

She wanted to ask Vlad why they were in Toro's house but suddenly an egg fell through the chimney into the dead fireplace of the warlock's bedroom. It broke to pieces and out of it stepped a woman. She was beautiful, with long, red hair that went down her back. She was naked but one thing that was distinct about her was her left leg. The right one looked like that of a normal human being but her left leg resembled that of a giant chicken.

She straightened up and walked to the bed, her gait, a language of seduction on its own. Vlad immediately cut off the memory.

"Was that a Liderc?" Erinna asked.

Vlad nodded, looking happy with himself.

"He doesn't know yet. He thinks he's just dreaming of his dead wife for now. But soon, she'll reveal her leg to him, and it'll be endless horror from there on."

"How soon?" Erinna asked. She did not know why she was whispering but something about what she had seen had felt so dark and twisted that she was afraid if she made too much noise, she would be pulled into the scene too.

"Weeks, maybe months. For now, she'll just masquerade as his wife and seduce him every night. It'll weaken him and he'll waste away. By the time he realizes what she is, too much of him would be gone to be able to fend her off successfully."

"What if he sees the leg before then and blocks her from entering his home?"

Incense, salt and birch could prevent a Liderc from entering a house. Not a rare combination to come by.

"Sofia had one request as payment for doing this. She wanted more power, so I instructed Ingrid to turn her. That means her vampire side will grant her entrance where her Liderc half will deny her and vice versa."

It really was genius, Erinna had to admit. And quite scary, the things that Vlad and Ingrid could achieve together. Part of her already felt sorry for what lay in store for Toro, but she quickly squashed that part, remembering the many lives that had been lost as a result of the man's hunger for power.

"So Ingrid is bonded to her now?" Erinna asked, remembering what killing a Liderc, even as part of turning them into a vampire, could do to a person.

"I was hoping she would be and that it would reverse her bond with me but it seems they cannot be bonded to each other. Only to other species."

It would have been too good to be true.

"What if Toro forces her out of her disguise?"

That would reverse the power roles and also result in Toro knowing that Vlad had orchestrated this.

"With a face like that?" Vlad laughed. "There is no way. A Liderc has to be receptive to their victim in some way and have feelings for them in order to be persuaded to reveal their true face."

He really had thought of everything.

"Poor Toro."

Vlad's face hardened. "You can't be feeling sorry for him, not after what he did to Alexander."

"I know. I just wish there was a quick and easy way to get rid of him so that we can just put all this behind us."

"What he did to Alexander wasn't quick and easy. Alexander is going to suffer for the rest of his life. The least the bastard can do, is suffer along with him."

"I know, I know." Erinna agreed, not knowing how to explain the melancholy she suddenly felt for a man she had once wanted to kill with her bare hands too. "It just... it makes me sad."

To her relief, Vlad did not get angry or laugh at her inappropriate feelings.

"Your mission," he said with understanding.

Erinna nodded. Destruction and punishment went against everything inside her. She might briefly want to cause pain in her anger, but ultimately, she wanted to save everyone. It was an instinct that had not made sense to her before she had discovered that her mission as a Pure Being was Redemption.

Vlad drew her into his arms, holding her close. Erinna hugged him back, appreciating the comfort.

"Thank you, for Alexander."

"You're welcome."

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

"Vlad," Erinna said quietly later that morning as they lay in bed preparing to sleep.

She was snuggled close to him with her arm around him and her head tucked under his chin.

"Hmm?" He replied sleepily, his day sleep already dragging him.

"Did Ingrid... did she ever hurt you badly? The way Sofia is going to do to Toro?" She needed to know but was also scared to hear the answer to the question. There was one thing she absolutely could not stand and that was someone hurting Vlad.

"Not as much as I hurt her for hurting you."

Which was his manly way of denying the effect that Ingrid's games had had on him.

"Can I see?"

After he had had to live through the pain, the least she could do was share the memory.

"No."

"I won't make an issue out of it, promise."

"It's in the past, angel. Let it go, I have."

As much as he might have wanted to shield her from his past whilst they were awake, Vlad's mind hand other ideas. Erinna did not know whether it was their bond trying to bare all their secrets to each other or the side effects of spending so much time in each other's minds that boundaries were becoming indistinguishable, but she found herself suddenly dragged into one of Vlad's nightmares as they slept.

The dream started well enough, with a woman approaching Vlad on the bed as he slept. At first, Erinna thought it was Lisa because she was kissing and making love to Vlad, but the dream became darker and more macabre as the woman sat on his chest and began suffocating him and drinking his blood.

He could not wake up and even though he ended up opening his eyes, his muscles were not responding to his efforts to try to move. Paralysis held his body in stasis like steel bands, the only indicator of his consciousness being his listless gaze. He watched Ingrid as she sucked out his energy, draining him of his lifeforce. As his life seeped out of him, Erinna watched a look of peaceful acceptance come over his face.

He stifled his instinct for survival and lay completely still as Ingrid fed off him and tortured his body. It was like he knew this could kill him but didn't care enough to try to fight it. Like he was tired with life altogether and any out was acceptable. It was a scary thing to watch and heart-breaking.

Erinna pulled herself from the memory when it became too overwhelming. It took her a while to get her bearings. Her chest was hurting, swollen with too much emotion that she couldn't express. Vlad on the other hand, lay completely still beside her, his body showing no outward signs of his inner turmoil.

She had thought she was fine with helping Ingrid but seeing into Vlad's mind had changed everything. Silent tears leaked from her eyes as she reached over to Vlad, caressing his face gently and passing him some healing love and comfort through their bond. His eyelashes fluttered, a moment before he opened his eyes.

He frowned the moment he saw her face.

"Why are you crying?" He looked around the room instantly alert, "Is something wrong?"

Erinna shook her head, his concern further breaking her. First thing from a nightmare and his first concern was for her. What had she ever done to deserve this kind of consideration?

"I'm so sorry. I had no idea," she said.

"No idea about what?"

"Ingrid." She finally managed to say, the name leaving a bad taste inside her mouth.

She had one line and Ingrid had not only crossed it, but she had blurred and catapulted her way over it. There was much that she would forgive but hurting Vlad was one thing that she would never allow anyone to do, dead or alive.

Vlad sighed. "You got dragged into my dreams again, didn't you? We should stop merging so much."

"I will tell Lierian and Chase to stop searching," she told him.

"Why?"

"Because she hurt you and no one hurts you. I won't allow it."

Vlad moved on top of her, interlocked her hands with his and pined them on either side of her head. It left their faces close together, their lips just a breath apart. Erinna's breath hitched in her throat.

"You know what it does to me when you get all protective?"

His dark eyes glanced at her lips and back to her eyes in the brief moment of a second. Liquid hunger stirred in their depths, answering the call building up inside Erinna's own body. It was taking everything not to squirm under him. Even without his weight resting on her, Vlad's presence on its own was overwhelming. But she liked every bit of it because it made it safe for her to let go, to not have to be strong.

She opened her legs wider, accommodating him between them.

"I think so," she smiled, biting her bottom lip.

"Then keep a lid on it until you give birth to this baby, unless you want me to ravish you into labour."

Erinna laughed, imagining coming up with an explanation for that. "That will be difficult to explain to Corinne."

She tilted her head up and kissed him, her body singing when their mouths made contact. She tried to free her hands so that she could touch Vlad but he wouldn't let her, so she was forced to rely on her mouth to show him how much she wanted him. Her foot travelled up his leg, teasing him until he grew impatient and tore off her nightdress.

"Vlad, stop tearing my clothes," she chastised.

It was the third night gown he had ruined in the space of one week.

"I told you not to wear any when you come to bed."

He put a pillow under her and parted her thighs.

"You're not my master. I'm not going to sleep naked just because-"

Erinna's protests died down to a soft moan as Vlad's tongue licked her most intimate part. He made love to her with his tongue, licking, teasing and sucking until she thought she would come out of her skin. Her back arched off the sheets and her hands balled up the sheets, trying to find purchase but she still felt like she was freefalling through space, everything too bright and too vibrant around her.

"Vlad." She tried to scoot back, to get some relief from the onslaught of emotions and sensations but Vlad wasn't having it.

"Stop running from me," he said, gripping her thighs and pulling her back to his tongue.

He didn't understand how crazy he was making her apparently. She didn't want him to stop but she also felt as if she couldn't take more of what he was doing to her. It was too much, too good.

"I'm ah....please... so close," she said unintelligently.

She felt that if he licked her clitoris just one time or even breathed on it, she would fall apart. But he was master torturer for a reason and every time she felt that she was on the brink of her orgasm, he would stop, leaving her frustrated, angry and even more aroused.

When he finally clamped his tongue of the sensitive nub, Erinna's brain blanked, white hot pleasure blinding her to everything else. Her muscles contracted, her channel spasming and her thighs vibrating with the force of her orgasm. She felt the waves of pleasure right up to her uterus, a full body experience that left her boneless and listless.

"Goodness, Vlad," she said covering her face with her hands.

He chuckled, looking highly amused and pleased with himself as he removed her hands from her face.

"Still think I'm not your Master?"

He was too arrogant for his own good but after what he had just done, Erinna wanted to worship the ground he walked on, kiss his feet and shower him with all kinds of affection worthy of a god.

"Shut up," she said and kissed him.

Her arms went around his neck, holding him close as she tasted herself on his lips. The hunger and dominance in Vlad's kiss sent new waves of arousal through her body and she rolled him over so that she was sitting on top of him. She kissed and nibbled on his neck, knowing how much he loved and hated that with the same passion.

Vlad's body was a work of art and she took her time with it, enjoying it and appreciating it, from the flat pebbled nipples on his defined chest to the ridges of muscle on his stomach. She kissed and sucked the area just under hipbone but when she went to give his straining erection some attention, Vlad protested.

"You put your mouth on me and this is all going to end very fast."

She knew he meant it as a deterrent but Erinna could honestly not see the bad part of being the lucky recipient of his seed. Her body quivered at the thought of tasting him and she looked at his thick, engorged cock, contemplating just swallowing it whole if the reward was more of him in her.

"No, I can already see what you're thinking. Put that thought out of your head. I'm cumming inside you."

Erinna pouted but Vlad wasn't moved.

"Put it in or I'll do it and you know I won't be as nice about it."

There he went again, threatening her with a good time. But since Erinna actually wanted to ride him and knew Vlad was probably one second from throwing her onto the mattress and pounding her into it, she sighed regretfully and positioned herself over him.

"Next time, in my mouth."

A slew of curses left Vlad's mouth. "Deal. Now hop on, Countess."

With a happy smile, Erinna gripped him in one hand and began lowering herself onto him. She was so well stretched after the out of the world loving he had just given her a few moments back, so he slid in easily. She bit her lip when it started to hurt a little, letting her know she had reached her limit, at least whilst she still had their baby inside her.

Vlad's hand tightened on her hip and his muscles strained as her warmth enveloped him.

"You better move, angel," he hissed, his eyes rolling back.

Erinna chuckled softly, loving the effect she had on him. She braced her hands on his chest and adjusted her position until it was comfortable before lifting herself up. Vlad cursed colourfully as she slid down his shaft, dragging her wetness over him. Involuntarily, her channel spasmed around him.

"Erinna." Her name was a prayer on his lips. He pulled her by her neck for a hard kiss before letting her go with a smack on her bottom.

She gave him a sour look, but it wasn't effective since she wasn't even the slightest bit upset. Contracting her muscles around him the way he loved, Erinna made love to her mate until every little bit of his civilised façade fell off. His fangs came out and his eyes turned red and the next thing she knew, she was on her back with Vlad driving into her like he was trying to put a second child in her.

His strokes her hard and ruthless and it didn't take long for her to shatter around him. Vlad put her on her side and finished whilst holding her in the most intimate embrace possible, his head buried in her neck and his chest plastered to her back.

Feeling wonderfully relaxed and sated from the endorphins coursing through her system, Erinna began drifting off. She was woken up by Vlad sucking on her neck, just lips, no teeth.

"Don't call them off," he said.

"Hmm?" She mumbled, confused to what he was talking about.

"Lierian and Chase. Let them free her," he said.

"Why?" Erinna immediately frowned unpleasantly even though he couldn't see it.

"Because it'll finally get her out of our lives. I don't want you to worry about her ever again and you will if the next blood moon comes and she's still bound to me."

Well, that was true but...

"I hate her."

"No, you don't. That's not you. Don't let her change what you stand for."

"How can you be so forgiving?"

She had not understood the crassness that Vlad had handled the issue with Ingrid before but after getting a more detailed background, she thought he had been too merciful. Something dark inside her yearned for blood. It needed Ingrid to pay for the pain that she had caused her mate.

"Not forgiving. I just don't care about her enough to muster any kind of anger or even resentment. She's in my past and she should be in yours too."

"I don't know if I can forgive her, but I want to make it possible for you to never have to see her again or hear her voice."

Vlad tucked her hair out of the way and kissed the nape of her neck. "No one has ever cared this much about me," he said, a thoughtful expression on his face.

"I more than care for you." She rolled onto her back so that she could look at him.

He was looking at her intensely, his dark eyes boring into hers, with a worried expression on his face.

"The sacrifices you make for me... promise me that you'll never put yourself in danger for me."

Erinna put her hand on his cheek. "I'll always do anything for you," she told him.

"That's what scares me."

**********