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Do I love her?

The question pondered itself in his mind, amazingly clear despite the loss of blood. He didn't try to open his violet eyes this time, or bite at his shackles that pinned his small frame to the wall. Instead he allowed his body to shake under the toxin unleashed within it.

I'm doing this for her, aren't I? Just like last time...

The frightening memory from years past rose in his mind. He had been shot by Dietrich's gun and the hunger had washed up in him. It was something Terrans would never understand, the hunger. An inner demon unwound and released to the sport of madness, the spawn of evil in their veins. Normally, blood was nothing more than an itch. Just like humans were tempted by chocolate or sweets; totally resistible if you wanted it to be. However under the craze, it was a need. A mandatory other-half that wrestled your body from you and sated itself in the sinful liquid.

The hunger had come and found its only source of release—the fragile looking woman in the cell. But he had fought, damn it. Ion had tortured himself and cut at the devil himself to save her.

Why couldn't I do it?

Esther had offered him release, stupid creature. She had poised her snowy neck to him, and he could feel the blood rushing under it. But then his last strain of self had peered into those innocent blue eyes, and he couldn't do it. Drinking from Esther would have been dipping an angel in ink. It was beyond sinful, it was damned.

I couldn't do it because I do...

And now the Count was once again locked underground, his body hung to the wall by chains. Shackles on both wrists stretched out his arms, and the cuff on his legs bound them together. His blonde head hung limply. The bloodied and bruised body was trembling under the metal, the hunger coursing through it without restraint. But somehow, the vampire's mind was detached from it all. His thoughts were still his own, even as his muscles rebelled.

I really love her.

Even with the peace between Terran and Methelusah, a love affair between the two races was pox. He knew it. Just like he knew she was a Queen and would soon be wed off to a higher noble for political reasons. Because she was Esther and she would give anything to make others happy—her heart, her body... her blood.

Ion realized vaguely, that he was dying. The hunger was beating at him and yet his self was separate because he was fading. And somehow, that knowledge didn't scare him.

I wish... I wish I could see her.

His now reddened eyes were glossing over, and a faint smile lingered on his lips.

But I wouldn't want her to see my like this.

Dying wasn't so bad, the vampire decided. But loving out of your life was. And he wished to leave this world and go wherever he would next—heaven or hell—with one last message to her.

"Esther... I love you."

And as a light seeped into his vision, the young Count thought he saw an angel in the haze, wearing a white dress. Her red hair swayed and her blue eyes smiling. Forever.