AN: Dear readers and followers,

I wish you all a year filled with good health, fortune, love, and may your dreams come true. May 2017 be better than the last year so filled with hate and unrest, and I hope you will continue to enjoy my writing in this year as you did in the last. Thank you so much for your support!

Always,

Sybilla

Hermione woke up slowly, feeling a bit lethargic as she reached for the glass on the bedside table. The cool water refreshed her greatly and helped clear her mind. Their suspicions were confirmed and this case with Reznikov was turning into a nightmare. Not only was he a magical being that could make her mission even more dangerous, she was putting everyone who was working on it and her close friends in danger. The intel was beyond welcome, but it was also the news she had been dreading for weeks.

She got to her feet slowly and slipped on her flat shoes before making her way into the en suit bathroom and then to the kitchen. Strong coffee was already brewing, something she loved about Draco's morning habits, surprisingly in a muggle moka that was a Christmas gift from herself last year.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty," Draco drawled from his place where he was leaning against the kitchen counter in all his glorious bathrobed form.

"Morning, sweetie pie," she drawled back with a sardonic smile and took the already steaming cup from his hand cheekily, knowing they both drank coffee simple and black as was anyway.

"Hey, that's mine! Give it back, don't make me hex you, Granger," he grumbled at her, but she disarmed him with a beaming smile after her first sip of the lifesaving liquid. He sighed and flipped her off. "Fine, keep it. Bloody Gryffindors and their cheeky habits.."

"What was that?" Harry came in, towel still in hand as he dried off his hair.

Draco grinned at the sight of his rosy cheeks and pleased expression, their morning shower certainly putting him into a good mood. Then he remembered Granger stole his coffee and snarled a little. "The lioness has my coffee,"

"And the snake is a grumpy puss this morning. Really Harry, I would have thought you put him in a better mood," Hermione flipped back from her seat at the table nonchalantly.

"Children!" Harry snickered, enjoying this teasing camaraderie between the two. They were like siblings, it was highly entertaining.

"She started it," Draco crossed his arms petulantly, only making Harry's smile widen as he raised a single brow at him teasingly.

Hermione saw the hormonal fireworks and downed the rest of the coffee before gathering her corset for a quick exit. "Right you guys, I'm off. I would rather not see what is about to happen," she waved and dashed for the floo, narrowly avoiding a stinging hex.

Her chuckle was however not long lived. When she landed in her flat a few seconds later, she instantly knew that something was wrong. The place was still. Very still. Not a particle of dust in natural movement, not a soul to see, and yet she sensed them. Not them, him. Someone was here. Why were her wards not tingling? Why did she not feel the entry?

Her wand at the ready, she stepped through into the living room but it was of no use. Her occlumency shields were violated and her mind was invaded forcibly, the piercing pain eliciting a blood-curdling scream of agony as she dropped to her knees and clutched at her hair. Her body could no longer handle such violent pain and she succumbed to darkness, pain and panic squeezing her chest tight...

...

Her temples were pulsing with a dull ache, her mind sluggish as she became aware of herself again. She had no recollection of what happened last, other than the memory of the unbearable pain, and she couldn't tell what time it was. She was however lying on a soft bed with sheets of smooth, cool silk. She was nude, her wand a two feet away, probably on a bedside table as she sensed. She tried to let her senses take in what she could without actually moving.

It wasn't cold but there was a slight chill in the air.

Fire crackled nearby, the heat radiating onto her back, so she was facing away from it. She could also smell tar, so the room had torches for more light. That probably meant no electricity. That meant a wizarding abode.

Stone. She could smell stone and age. An old building then, maybe a dungeon? No, too warm, and she was on a bed. A room, or a chamber, she couldn't be too sure.

"I know you have awakened," the crystal clear but accented voice rang across the room towards here.

Larger than she thought. A chamber then. She opened her eyes and sat up, looking towards the source of the voice. The room practically oozed old money. She was definitely in a chamber or old stone, decorated lavishly with furs and rugs, a large fourposter bed, and an ornate throne-like armchair.

And there he sat. Alexander 'Sasha' Reznikov.

"Welcome to Hajciuniški," he greeted with a pleased smile, his eyes roaming her nude form.

Hermione got up from the bed and stretched her sore body, as if she was the only one in the room and without any shame of her nude body. There was no time for shame, she needed to check her body was in good form for a fight if need be. But there was no pain other than the stiffness of unconsciousness. "I presume we are still in Belarus," she raised a brow, not quite a question but the slight lilt in her voice indicated she was wondering without actually knowing for certain.

"I see your contact in Brussels informed you well. He was rather delicious," the man stood from his chair and walked towards her with measured but elegant steps.

He was the epitome of otherworldly beauty. Elegant jaw, high cheekbones set in a young but mature face, piercing eyes the colour of brilliant aquamarine contrasted sharply with his near-raven shoulder-length hair. He was perhaps Draco's height at about 6' 1'' and dressed, of course, dramatically in black from head to toe. To most, he would be attractive but unsettling. To Hermione, he screamed predator, and her body failed to respond to his unnatural charm. Her tired mind was working on a higher dose of adrenaline, looking around and taking the room in while she tried to keep up the charade and her voice steady. One window, one door, magically locked, no other way out. She was naked, wandless but with inner magic, and yet still without an option other than staying put and seeing how things developed. She took a deep breath and relaxed her shoulders, trying to appear naturally calm despite her senses being on high alert.

"He was a good man, but what does that matter to you when he was no more than cattle for sating your appetite," Hermione spoke frankly and walked around the bed towards the fire, making sure her back was never fully to the man. She would not make a rookie mistake like that. "Kidnapping me though? Not classy," she shrugged a nude shoulder and ran a hand through her wild curls as her body soaked up the heat of the flames. Her hair caught slightly on her ring and she hid her smile. Bingo, Strychnos nux-vomica commonly known as strychnine was maybe going to be her saving grace.

"You, Hermiona," he pronounced her name with the slavic accent, "have given me much trouble. But you are mine now, and I will do with you as I want," he said firmly as he crossed the remaining space between them and gripped her shoulders.

"You can try to torture me, but I will not give you any information. You can try to make me your slave, or human blood bag, but you will not break me. And if you kill me, my people will retaliate and shut down this business of yours violently," she said simply but there was a fire in her eyes that spoke of her inner strength. She was not going to go down easily if he tried. She just needed a bit of time and an opportunity to poison the man.

The vampire's eyes glowed as their gaze connected and he sensed the old magic running in her veins. Sweet, powerful, precious. "I will do none of those things. I will make you my companion and claim you for eternity," he growled as his eyes webbed with vermillion and his canines extended into sharp points, her reflexes and all training failing her as his iron grip left her helpless to her fate.

For the second time that evening, Hermione's agonised scream filled the air.