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Chapter 1

I can hear her scaers scrabble at the stone walls of the sepulcher Her piteous cries and wails are a discordantThis is her nightly ritual ever since she was imprisoned here

“Enough!” I shout at her

This only elicits

Froliht cast by the oil laers around the iron rod piercing h the roof of theme to the bier so I cannot escape hiaze upon my husband’s latest vampire Bride But, alas, I am too weak for such a feat My hand slackens around the stake and sluainst the underside ofsizzles againsticks If I could, I would press the silver against h to cast a spell upon me to hinder any attempt

He is so very clever in his torment

Scuttling up the stairs to the iron door, she atte out for help The words she speaks in Ger When she fails, she bangs her srows discouraged Afterward, she dashes about the s over the stones as she seeks an escape froown She shrieks and scrambles up the wall to hide in the corner like an insect

Tiltingdown at me

“What is your name?” I ask in German

With eyes green as jade, she stares at olden tresses fall over her shoulders The gossaes fro to the stone wall, jewels glittering on the gold bangles and rings she wears I recognize a few of the finer pieces They once belonged to enerous with his new Brides

“Whatever did you do to anger him?”

I cannot help but add a taunting lilt to elic face Exactly the sort of young woman my dear husband loves to corrupt

“I did nothing!” she spits out

“That is a possibility”

“He is a devil!”

“That he is,” I agree

“You are a devil, too! Cursed! How can you be alive when impaled with a stake?”

“Oh,little one, you are as cursed as I And if I should be a devil, so are you Look at you! Hanging there on the wall like a spider!”

She screa teeth revealed

My laughter mocks her “Little one, I have faced much fiercer enemies than you Our shared husband for example”

“I a in the corner, she weeps “He lied to me! He promised me a life of wealth and comfort!”

“Of course he lied All men do, you simpleton”

I tire of craningof the mausoleum The spots of rust where the iron pole pierces the stone roof are gradually spreading into a dark mosaic Soes of friends and fa nose ofshape in one dark splotch