-Chapter Twenty-One-

Mina was stirring by the time Vlad got her upstairs. She was cold, despite the warm, early July night, so he carefully removed her dress and wrapped her in a fuzzy robe he found hanging in the closet.

"Vlad?" she asked, in a weak voice.

He paused in putting warm socks on her feet. "I'm here. It's alright."

"What . . ." She tried to sit up, and fell back on the pillows. "Why . . .?"

Vlad took her icy hand in his. "I found you in the garden. You were attacked. I was just trying to decide if I should take you to see a doctor or not. How do you feel?"

"Attacked?" she repeated muzzily. "By . . . vampire?"

"Yes, iubita mea. By the vampire. Did you go outside for any reason?"

"No . . ." She frowned. "I feel so dizzy."

"I know." Vlad finished putting the second sock on. "I wanted you out of the dress and warm before I take you to the hospital. I don't know how much blood you've lost."

Mina just stared at him.

The door opened slowly and Lucy stuck her head in. "I've explained Mina's fallen ill, and the guests are leaving."

"Time to go," Vlad said. He helped Mina up. She wobbled, and he decided walking wasn't an option.

Arthur lurked in the hallway, face full of concern. "Is she alright?"

"Not really." Vlad nodded his head towards the front door. "You were admiring the BMW. Fancy a ride in it?"

Mina had a few scrapes, probably from being placed on the stone bench, but the bite on her neck had healed by the time they reached the hospital. Vlad wasn't sure what did it, probably something in the saliva.

The accident and emergency room was busy, it being a Friday night, but Mina's pregnancy and Vlad's story of her falling in the garden got her bumped pretty high up the list. It was still a good hour before they got her in to be seen, which had Vlad livid. He somehow managed to keep a rein on his anger, Mina being his main priority.

The doctor assigned to her came in and began poking and prodding. "Tell me what happened."

"We were having our wedding reception," Vlad began. "We were married a few weeks ago, but our friends threw us a party tonight. Mina and I were in the garden for some air when she suddenly collapsed. She was conscious, so I took her upstairs, thinking she needed to lie down. But she turned cold and dizzy, so we brought her in."

"And she's pregnant?"

"About eleven weeks, yes."

"Hmm."

In the end, the doctors had no better answers for Mina than they had for Lucy. Her blood count levels were higher than Lucy's, so they decided she didn't need a transfusion or anything of the sort. Her mysterious collapse was put down to pregnancy anemia, an uncommon but not unheard-of illness.

They sent her home with instructions to eat more red meat and other things rich in iron.

Vlad went through a drive-through at a twenty-four hour McDonald's and bought Mina several cheeseburgers. As he paid for them, with Lucy and Arthur in the back seat of the car, he wondered how he'd gone from being the terror of the Turkish Janissary Corps to buying McDonald's in the middle of the night for his pregnant wife that had just been attacked by a vampire.

"You have the most peculiar look on your face right now," Mina said.

"Just thinking."

"It must be some thought to make that expression."

He laughed a little. "Vlad the Impaler buying McDonald's for his wife."

Mina snorted a laugh. In the back, Arthur said, "I don't understand why that's funny."

"I ruled a principality. My reputation terrified my enemies. And here I am, at two in the morning, getting my pregnant wife a hamburger at a drive-thru in Westminster."

"Oh, how the mighty have fallen," Lucy said.

Mina reached over and patted his arm. "Just wait 'til Vlad the Impaler has to change diapers."

His green eyes slid over to give her a look. She grinned.

"I'm glad you're feeling better," he remarked.

"I'm still very cold, but I don't feel as dizzy as I did."

"Good." Lucy leaned forward and rested her chin on the shoulder of Mina's seat. "You gave us a good scare, disappearing like that."

Mina pulled a burger out of the bag and bit into it. She chewed and swallowed before speaking. "I don't know what happened. I was in the ballroom, headed for the loo, and suddenly I was in our bedroom. I've no memory of anything in between. And my head hurts, so I think I was hit in the head?"

"You should have mentioned that to the doctor," Vlad said. "Why didn't you?"

"Because I have been out of it for the last several hours," she pointed out. "It's not a bad headache, just sort of . . . there. Besides, they checked me for concussion and didn't find anything."

They got back to the house and Vlad carried Mina and her cheeseburgers up the stairs. He made her finish off the remaining two before letting her go to bed.

"I feel too full," she groaned as he tucked her in.

"Be glad it wasn't liver. Besides, all you had all evening were some canapes and a piece of cake."

"You're bossy," Mina sighed as she snuggled down into the comforter.

"Yes, I am," he agreed. "Now go to sleep. I'll be here all night."

"Better be," she said with a yawn. "I'm so tired."

For obvious reasons that Vlad refrained from pointing out. He kicked off his shoes and joined her on the bed. Vlad wasn't surprised when she feel asleep quickly.

For him, sleep didn't come until long past dawn.

"I want to take you back to Romania."

Mina looked up from her bridal magazine. She was helping Lucy pick flowers, and was at present reading an article on floral choices and flower meanings. "What about Lucy?"

Vlad ran his fingers through his hair. "I don't know. I wish I knew why it switched from Lucy to you, why it even followed Lucy here. I wish I could find it and kill it, but it's intelligent."

She reached up and rubbed her hand over her neck, where the bite had been. "I'm fine with going back to Romania, except I don't want to leave Lucy unprotected. I don't know how to solve both problems, aside from killing the vampire that's attacked us."

"Which I am failing miserably at doing." Vlad sighed and went to the window. The Westenras had added extra security lights around the house after Mina's attack, and the lawn was bathed in a subtle glow.

Putting the magazine aside, Mina rose and went to join him at the window. Vlad hugged her close, kissing the top of her head.

"I feel like it's playing a game with us," he murmured. "The way it left you in the garden last night, with the rose. That was a deliberate taunt."

"Why would it do that?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "I hate not knowing. I hate not having a clear enemy to fight."

"It scares me that I don't remember being attacked." She rested her head against his shoulder, her hand over his heart. "The vampire could have done anything to me."

Vlad nuzzled her hair, breathing in the scent of her. It calmed his frazzled nerves, always had, even when she'd been Mirena. Funny how her scent was the same, her voice, her beautiful face.

"If we go to Romania," Mina said after a while, "we run the risk of it staying here and doing something to Lucy. Or it might follow us back to Bucharest."

"My instinct is to flee home and put you somewhere I can protect you. But I can't do that, can I? My last attempt was . . . less than successful."

"Please stop blaming yourself," she whispered, looking up at him. "It wasn't your fault. You couldn't be in two places at once, and your priority was the army attacking."

"My priority will always be my family," he told her. "From now on. You and our child."

"You saved Ingeras, even if you couldn't save Mirena. That was what was most important to her, that you save Ingeras."

Vlad heaved a sigh. "I know. She told me that as she was dying."

"You drank her blood. I have a vague recollection of telling you to do that, but I don't have the moment she actually died. It gets really fuzzy then."

"Which I'm grateful for." He turned his attention to the outdoors, scanning the darkness with his senses. The only thing he detected was a bat-always present, bats-and a stray cat hunting for food. "I still feel like we're being watched."

Mina shivered. "Ugh."

She pulled out of his arms and went to the bed, where she picked up one of the magazines. "Planning Lucy's wedding seems so . . . trivial when I know there's a monster stalking us."

He joined her there, selecting a magazine out of the pile to flip through. "How difficult can it be, really?"

His wife snorted. "Seriously? There's the dress, invitations, flowers, meal selections, music, the wedding and reception venues, guest lists, guest seating charts, the cake . . . Lucy's incredibly lucky that they can hold the reception at Arthur's family's house in Hampstead, because most reception venues have at least a six month waiting list, if not longer."

Vlad blinked dark green eyes. "No wonder you were fine with eloping."

"I did the planning with Jon, even if the wedding never happened." She shrugged. "Leave it to Lucy to throw a reception together in two weeks, though. Despite what happened last night, that was a lovely party."

He tossed the magazine aside. "You took my breath away. I don't think you've ever looked more beautiful."

Mina smiled and ducked her head. "You were pretty slick yourself in that tux."

"But you preferred my red coat," he said knowingly.

She laughed. "Oh, definitely. When we get home . . ."

There was a knock on the door, and she sighed. "Hold that thought."

Vlad rose and went to answer the door. It was Lucy.

"Am I interrupting? I'm interrupting. I was looking online at these cakes, and-"

Rolling his eyes, Vlad left the two women to their planning.