Greetings Readers

I'm glad that some of you liked my previous chapter (though I might have also upset some of you people). I'm sorry but that's how the story goes. However, in this chapter we dig more into things. This is not a conciliation chapter to the previous, I planned the plot to go this way (believe me or not).

This is a special chapter also since yesterday was the first anniversary of my fanfiction account. *confetti* Moving on.

Answering some questions Guest asked regarding the previous chapter; The vampires were doing 'it' outside in the woods because… well, I thought a night forest would be a beautiful milieu for the bonding, bringing the couple and the event closer to nature. I also consider that old meeting place as 'equal ground' for them and the Castle as his territory (until the two bonded, so it became her 'territory' aswell).

But now, let's stir things up a little regarding the story.

Chapter 6: Anniversary

The decorative clock on the chimneypiece rang hourly in the sing song manner it always did. Seras threw a glance at its black hands. Gabriel would be home soon. She turned her head away and continued to stare nothing in particular in her favorite parlor.

She was waiting for her husband with some anxiousness. He had promised to come home a little earlier since it was a special day. The Duke and Duchess had been married for exactly a year now and some preparations had been made to celebrate their first anniversary. Seras had ordered Gabriel's favorite meal for dinner with a special cake dessert. You could see that everyone were in high spirits. All except the mistress herself.

Seras felt heavy inside. Guilty somehow. She couldn't tell why. She had lived the best of lives in the Red House; Gabriel was like a dream, well, minus the fact that he sometimes had to work late. Otherwise she couldn't imagine a better man and she was lucky to have him as a husband. The servants liked her and respected her authority. She had gained a foothold in London's tricky society though she had had to skip some social events because of her headaches.

Her headaches. The main reason for her uneasiness. She had hoped that the headaches and visions would disappear with time but she was still experiencing them in some occasions. She had noticed that some activities, places and objects triggered her symptoms, so now she mostly tried to avoid them. Over the last year her headaches had become characteristic to her and the Duke couple knew how to deal with them. But she had never told Gabriel about her visions. She wasn't sure if he suspected something.

The visions especially unnerved her since the shadowy figure appeared every time when she and Gabriel were practicing marital intercourse. She managed to somehow ignore the blurry vision of the other man so it didn't tremendously bother her and Gabriel's actual sex-life, but the visions would bother her afterwards. What kind of a person would see another man while being with her own beloved husband? Also considering she had no idea who the imaginary man was and why she was seeing hallucinations in the first place.

Also, since she now had more experience in the intimate activities the thought of their first time kept unsettling her. How she felt back then, and the pain… that was supposed to be there but it wasn't, and how similar it felt time after another. Something was wrong about that. She clenched her fist. Could it mean that she wasn't a…?

That strange sense of uneasiness and guilt grew every time. Like she was cheating on him somehow. Did that make sense? She was afraid there was something wrong with her. If she went on that road all kinds of questions of insecurity began to rise. Was her brain damaged after the long period of time spent in a coma? Was she simply losing it? Or was it something else? She felt like she was missing something, that she yet didn't posses all the pieces of the puzzle that was her damaged memory.

Seras quickly cast such thoughts aside. She didn't want to feel gloomy today. And she did it with great timing. She heard some noises in the hall implying that the lord of the house had returned. She quickly returned casual before he would come find her. Soon a few knocks were heard from the door and Gabriel stepped inside.

The moment his eyes landed on her a smile appeared on Gabriel's face. Seras smiled back at him and rose from her seat to greet her husband. He did walk closer to her and took her hands in his.

"Hello," was the first thing he said. It made her giggle and reply back. "Hello. How was your day?"

Gabriel sighed, running his hand over his brown hair and sweeping it back. "The usual," he replied dispiritedly. "Visiting the customs, inspecting the new cargo from Japan, some meetings with officials and discussions of financing and meeting people from the bank. However…" his tone turned less uninterested. "I received plenty of congratulations from my colleges due to my wedding anniversary and they sent their regards to you as well."

Seras nodded to him thankfully. She blinked at him as Gabriel began to laugh on his own. "Mr. Clarkson even gave us a bottle of champagne as a gift. I gave it to be served at the dinner."

His attention turned to his wife. "So, how about you? What have you been doing today?"

Seras shrugged her shoulders. "Well… arranging stuff, receiving best regards from your relatives and waiting for you."

"I did come home earlier as promised didn't I?" the Duke asked playfully. "Were you worried?"

"No," Seras replied with as much playfulness. She received a knowing smirk from her husband. "Well, maybe a little bit," she confessed, pinching her voice on the word 'little'.

Gabriel chuckled at that before he raised his hand to stroke her cheek. "Have no fear, Mrs. Knightwood. When it comes to important matters I'm a man of my word. And you're the most important thing there is," he continued, adoration softening his otherwise somewhat stern features. Seras stayed silent.

"I have something for you," he said secretively as he pulled something out from his pocket. Her eyes followed his movements in wonder.

He handed her a box coated with dark red velvet, a blue ribbon tied over it. "I know you don't wear jewelry that much, but this piece caught my eye and I knew I had to get it for you."

She undid the ribbon and opened the box. Inside was a beautiful silver bracelet; sapphires were inlaid in the metal in equal intervals, surrounded by smaller sparkling diamonds. Inside of the bracelet were carved the words: 'To my beloved angel; Seras.' and the date. She was out of words.

"Well? Do you like it?" Gabriel asked, little hint of eagerness in his voice.

Seras gently ran her finger across the side of the bracelet. She absolutely loved it. But she had this strange pinch of guilt in her chest. The girl stayed silent.

"You don't like it?" Gabriel quoted sounding a little let down. His comment made his wife wince back to reality.

"No! I mean, yes! I… it…" her gaze fell back to the beautiful jewel work. "It's magnificent," she said admiring her gift.

"Just like you," Gabriel said with a smile. Seras' head shot up and she gazed her husband with wide eyes.

"That's the reason why I bought it. The sapphires reminded me of your eyes," Gabriel mused fondly as he was also looking at the wristlet.

His brows soon bent down to a frown since he noticed that her hands holding the box were shaking. He lifted his gaze to see the stunned expression of his wife. Seras was also again looking at the jewelry work, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes.

"Is something wrong Seras?" the Duke asked softly.

"Wrong? Why would anything be wrong?" she asked with a quivering voice.

Gabriel silently took the box from her hand and sat her down on the couch. "Come now Seras. There is something bothering you. I can see it in your face."

He sat down next to her and took her hand. "What is it?"

Seras bit her lip. "It's about these headaches I've been having. I don't think they begin randomly."

"Oh? According to doctor Regal the aches are aftermath of the coma."

"Yes, but… sometimes I… see something. Someone. A man. A strange man." Her voice was trembling somewhat.

"A man?" Gabriel's brow rose.

"I think it's only a vision. But it's most disturbing. There's something not right about him. And he mostly appears in… awkward moments," she continued.

"In what way it's disturbing? What is the man like?"

Seras clenched her fist. "Sometimes he is just standing there. It's only a small moment but long enough for me to see it. The image is quite blurry, but he is tall, taller than normal men. He has long black hair."

"Sometimes he is closer, so close…" she squeezed her eyes shut.

"Closer?" Gabriel asked in wonder.

"He mostly appears when we two… are together… intimately," a deep red was burning her cheeks when she looked at Gabriel again. He looked taken aback.

Seras inhaled and continued, sobs cracking her voice. "I'm sorry, but I can't help it. I don't know why he is there. I don't even know who he is."

She began to cry now. "He is there, with me. On me. Smiling at me. Whispering something in my ear but I can't make out what he is saying. And then… he looks at me. Looks at me with his… red eyes."

Gabriel's expression turned to shocked. His wife looked upon him, tears streaming down her face. "Who is he? Is he someone I used to know? Am I going mad?"

Gabriel's expression was dark. She found it scary. "It seems that he is still remaining in your subconscious. I was hoping that we would have been spared from his memory."

Seras watched as her husband gave a deeply bitter sigh. "Before you had your accident you… had a love affair, with another man."

Seras' eyes widened and she felt like all the color had left from her face. She had been disloyal? A lover?

Gabriel continued with a mock smile on his visage. "He was a handsome bloke, a foreign Count." The tune of his words twisted Seras' guts. This would explain why she wasn't a virgin at her first time with Gabriel. Her face turned red.

She wanted to ask her husband about what had happened to the man but she wouldn't dare. She just sat still, numb and silent.

Fortunately Gabriel continued without her need to ask. "I heard that the two of you had planned to elope together to his homeland. In fact, you were on your way to the docks when the carriage accident happened."

He continued, bluntly without any feeling in his voice. "He only came to see you once at the hospital. Few days later he sailed back to his homeland, never to be heard from again."

Seras' face was expressionless, but the tears had begun to fall down her face again.

"I don't deserve this. I don't deserve you," she finally said aloud when turning to Gabriel. Her husband watched her seriously.

"I don't deserve your kindness… your love," the girl continued with a sorrowful voice.

"I was disloyal to you. I planned on leaving you. In a shameful way," that voice of hers began to crack again, Gabriel still looking upon her firmly.

"Still you took me back, waited for me when I was lost, married me and gave me a home, despite…" she buried her face in her hands.

"I did you wrong. Living in sin." She spoke with the most heartbreaking voice. She gritted her teeth while trying to fight back the sobs. She was angry with herself.

Gabriel gave a sigh, then kneeled in front of her and took her hands in his. "We'll have no more of that," he said while wiping the tears from her face. "You are my wife now and I love you. That's all that matters to me."

Seras stared at him in shock. He continued. "Yes, I was bitterly hurt from your actions, but I don't hate you. Never could. And I believe that you have already suffered enough, considering what happened to you."

"I hate that Count," his tone turned darker, like poison when he said those words. Her husband must have really hated the foreign nobleman with all his heart.

"He nearly took you away from me, and then abandoned you when you were in most need. He played with something dear to me and then threw it away."

His eyes stared into hers. "Don't blame yourself Seras. You were used. He used you."

Seras lowered her head. "I should have been aware," she said silently.

Gabriel brought her chin back up with his fingers. This time he wore a gentle smile. "Anyhow it's all in the past. Now what we have to do is look forward to a bright future, hmm?"

Seras realized that a smile had found its' way on her lips as well.

"Now that's better. Happy first wedding anniversary, my dear," he stood up taking her with him.

"Happy anniversary," Seras responded, her eyes gleaming with joy once again, just like the sapphires on her gift.

The couple shared an embrace.

The next morning, a ship was approaching London's harbor. Everything was wrapped in thick fog. Despite the horrible weather, there was a man standing on the deck of the ship, gazing into the fog as if he could see the city clearly before him. His black hair and red trench coat were swirling gracefully in the wind.

A moment later another person joined him on the deck, standing few feet from him. At first the woman didn't seem to pay any attention to the man. She was in her mid twenties, had long blond hair, and was wearing a grey suit.

She turned to look at the man's back through her round glasses, then at the deep grayness ahead of them. Her eyes widened slightly as she saw the fog dissolve slowly to reveal the scenery of the city.

The woman smirked, lit a cigar and blew out a puff of smoke.

"Welcome to London, Count."

The girl found that it was one of those days again. With nothing to do. She was wondering around the castle halls doing nothing particular. She had already trained on her telekinesis powers with the flower vases (this time breaking only two of them) and had decided that it would do for today. Her Mate insisted on her training constantly, though she had been making a steady progress so far. Everything had gotten so much easier after she had finally started to drink blood, and especially after when she had taken his blood. It had made her into her own vampire, independent from her Master. But she was happy about their bond as Mates.

Speaking of which, today was a special day after all. Today was the day that exactly a year had past from their bonding.

"Already a year…" the girl mused, a soft smile on her face. To other vampires it would have been "only a year", but she was still very young among her kind. Little pieces of humanity still remained in her persona, which her Mate called her "silly habits".

For example; every year, when the first snowflakes of the winter landed in the mountain area and in the Castle's courtyard, the girl went out to the back terrace and span around a few times among the silently falling snowflakes with a joyful smile upon her face. She had been doing it since she was a little girl. There had always been something about the first day of winter. Her Mate thought it was funny and childish, even by human standards. He however had always watched her "Winter Dance" from afar since they had been together.

He didn't seem to mind that much about her habits. She found it odd and funny, yet heartwarming to know that in some way he accepted her the way she was, as long as her skills were improving.

The girl stopped walking. Where was her Mate anyway? He had been distant the last few months. It pained her. It could have had something to do about his "work". She knew that he hunted rogue vampires who brought trouble to humans and shame to proper vampires. That was pretty much all she knew. Her Mate had kept her out of his business annoyingly well. Perhaps it was because of his vampiric pride. A vampire, (also considering his high status), helping out humans?

The girl laughed in her mind at the thought how her husband must be feeling about the situation. Although, she didn't know all his motives and relations. There was that strange tall woman. The woman sent him letters and papers. He put them in files and locked them away in a desk in his study. His Mate was not allowed to read them.

Sometimes the woman came personally to meet him in the Castle. The Draculina remembered the first time she had "met" the tall foreign woman. There she was, standing in their front hall when the vampiress herself was coming from the library, heading to the gardens, with a book about vampire abilities in her hands.

First they had just simply stood there. The human woman must have been an acquaintance of her Mate, how else would have she been able to enter the Castle freely. The young vampire gave a small smile and a simple 'good evening' as a polite gesture. There was no response from the human, she just kept staring back at her with a calculating and observing gaze. The girl blinked a little bit annoyed. Who was this strange woman?

Suddenly she felt the familiar presence of her Mate arrive. He was standing there gallantly, smiling at the human woman. A smile, his Mate had never seen on his face before. He walked to the woman and bowed somewhat.

"It's rare for you to come all the way to my domain to come and see me, My Lady," were the words that left his lips. The human woman smiled back.

"I take that the letters I sent explained the situation and my presence here in Carpathia?" the woman's English accent echoed in the hall. Her voice was filled with confidence and authority. The man nodded, a hint of a smile still on his face.

The girl looked upon them. Suddenly the feeling of being left out crept to strain in the girl's chest. She jumped slightly when her Mate turned to her, not saying a thing but giving her a meaningful look. 'Leave, adults are talking' -kind of look. She squeezed the book in her arms and headed to the garden doors. Before she stepped out her sensitive hearing picked up what the woman was saying.

"So you ended up with a baby-faced lassie after all," she half sighed half chuckled. The girl bit her lip. But what really hurt her was her Mate's response.

"Yes, she can be quite childish occasionally," her Mate chuckled back. The girl punctured her lip as the doors closed behind her.

She took firm steps as she was heading towards the garden terrace. Her steps however indicated that she was angry and she clutched the book close to her chest.

That was a less pleasant memory to the girl. She had been so upset and angry that in her practice she had destroyed all the practice vases and accidentally frozen up the garden with her still hidden powers. She had felt bad about her "truly childish behavior" afterwards. It had been a pain to melt the garden down without her Mate knowing.

"I guess I really can be childish sometimes," she mused quietly to herself.

Her head shot up as she heard the door open. Her Mate stepped into the room reading again some of those forbidden papers. He raised his own gaze to meet hers. She smiled at him, but the man just closed the file in his hands. "Already done practicing?"

The girl's smile faded but she nodded in response. "I was looking for you," she added.

Her Mate raised a brow. "What for? You aren't stuck on an ability, are you? You have been coping rather well on your own, considering I have been too busy to teach you." He opened the file again and started reading. The girl could only read his amused and loathing expressions he made while scanning the document.

"No, my learning is going just fine. I had something else in mind," she said while brushing her index finger on an antique table beside her.

"Oh?" the man replied without lifting his gaze from the files. The girl's patience was wearing out.

"Surely you remember what day today is?"

"Today is Tuesday," he paused for a little moment and the girl's eyes widened in disbelief and hurt. "Exactly a year since we bonded together as Mates," the man added, a little smirk on his face and watching the girl from the corner of his eye. Relief had taken over her expression, soon to be taken over by disbelief again.

"What about it?" he asked with noninterest. The girl was speechless.

"Uhh… nothing. I just thought that it would be nice to celebrate somehow," she replied, twisting her hands in front of her with unease.

"Sounds like a human habit to me," the man rolled his eyes.

"Yes perhaps, but… it's our first year together as a couple," she pleaded.

The man gave a sigh. "We'll spend decades, even centuries with each other. What importance does one year hold?"

The girl lowered her head slightly, her mood going down as well. "Nothing, I guess…" she mumbled silently. The man turned his gaze to look upon her let down visage.

Her head shot up and she forced a carefree smile on her face. "Forget I ever mentioned it. I'm sure you're also busy with… whatever it is that you're doing." She waved her hand pointing out the files. She walked to the door, closing it silently behind her.

Her Mate watched her go. He stood there silent and still for a moment after the door closed, then he turned his gaze back to the papers in his hands. But this time he didn't continue reading them, he just looked upon them. The man let out a sigh as he flapped the leather folder shut.

A couple of hours later the girl had made her way to the eastern part off the Castle. There was that one room where she liked to sit when she felt alone. She would sit on a soft cushioned window ledge that acted as a bench and look outside; a part of the Castles garden could be seen from there and also the Castles entrance. Otherwise it was trees and a breathtaking view of the mountains. Though you could pretty much look out from any of the Castle's grand windows and see a beautiful view of the mountains.

At the moment the weather outside was a bit windy. The treetops swayed as a gust of wind blew over them. The girl looked beyond the woods in a special direction. Her old village was that way. She wondered how it would hold up in the coming storm.

She could never return. She could never go back to how things were. There was nothing for her left back there. She let out a melancholy sigh. She felt content with her situation most of the time, happy with her un-life. But… there were times… when she wondered… if… things could have been differently.

Suddenly the doors slammed open and a breeze entered the room. The girls' head shot back towards the doors, her hair and the helm of her dress swaying in the wind. The breeze began to die down, so the girl walked to the doors to close them. However the breeze still continued to blow lightly in the hallway. The vampiress noticed something small flying through the air. With her reflexes she was able to catch them.

She opened her palm. There were two red rose petals in her hand. This caused the girl to blink in surprise. What on earth..?

A gentle breath of air traveled down the hallway bringing more rose petals. The girl watched as they danced through the air and then landed on the stone floor. She turned her head left, towards the end of the hallway where the petals had come from. Suddenly she had this feeling, like she had to go there. She let out a small disbelieving laugh. This all seemed so familiar. She set off and started walking down the hallway where the petals had come from, walking through the dim corridors of the Castle.

She was standing in front of the brown wooden doors that led to a sitting room just next to their bed chamber. She couldn't explain why, but she felt somewhat anxious. She gave a nervous sigh, grabbed the golden door handles and pushed the doors open. It was quite dim inside the parlour: the only illumination was the faint moonlight, since there was a storm outside and some clouds had started to gather up in the night skies.

The young woman looked around for a moment. Nothing abnorma-…

Her thoughts were cut off as she spotted the sight in front of the window, dim blue moon rays lighting the scene beautifully. In front of the window was an antique coffee table with two chairs placed on the other ends facing each other. On the table there was a single crystal flower vase holding a red rose, her favorite. There were also two wineglasses. The girl was numb and speechless. Could this mean..?

"So you found your way here," that dear cunning voice rang out from behind her.

The girl slowly turned around to face him. "Does this mean-"

"Since it's a special day, I thought a little something special was in order." He made a leading gesture hinting her to settle to the table. He smirked at her since her crimson eyes were gleaming upon him with joy. How easily she became pleased. Still, somehow this little arrangement felt… nice, and he was glad it made her happy.

The vampiress followed his lead to the other chair. Once she had seated he pulled out a wine bottle like from out of nowhere.

"Now this is a rare treat, taken from my secret collection," he said while looking at the bottle proudly before he started to yank the stopper open. "It is a special mixture of blood, taken from a virgin on each decade, and the flavor is spiced up with a secret."

She mentally snorted at him. Perhaps even he didn't know what the secret was. And to think he had a secret stash of blood he found delicious hidden somewhere seemed a little humorous. But once the cork came off with a little pop, she could understand why he felt proud and protective of it. Even only the faintest scent of the blood felt intoxicating, yet fresh at the same time.

The man chuckled at his wife as he poured the liquid into her glass. Her eyes never left the blood, and she looked like she would bounce off from her seat and snatch the glass to herself, perhaps even the whole bottle. She retrained her self-control remarkably well. Any lesser vampire would have lunged at it already.

"I had to kill to get this," he stated bluntly as he swapped for his glass.

His sentence made her withdraw her concentration from the life liquid and stare at her husband with a sarcastic look. This didn't go unnoticed by the Vampire Lord.

"I know coming from me that may sound cheap, but this one was… a different case." His disappeared smile and blank eyes betrayed that his mind drifted to another place, a place not so happy. His Mate watched him with wonder and compassion.

The raven head put the bottle away, seated on his chair opposite of her and began to swirl the blood in the glass. His eyes watched devotedly the red surface of the blood.

He blinked out of his thoughts as he noticed that his Mate was looking at her own glass with a serious expression. "I'm not that good of company, am I?" he asked with amused bitterness in his voice. Her head shot up. She looked alarmed.

"No, it's not that. You can be crude sometimes but all in all I enjoy the time we spend together," she stated, hoping that he would catch her message. He said nothing; he just gazed at her adamantly.

"It's those little moments, right? That really mean something," she continued. "Like now. We are here, sitting in a beautiful setting you have created for us and drinking fine blood."

She fingered the foot of her glass coyly. "I guess what I really mean to say is… that I'm grateful. Not only for that you were willing to arrange a 'silly human tradition'. To me it's not silly at all. We have been together as a couple a whole year and I think it deserves to be celebrated."

"Thank you," she finished, a little blush on her face. She wasn't sure what he was thinking of her right now after her little emotional outpouring. She blinked in surprise as she felt his fingers stroking hers on the table.

"I'm the one who's supposed to be grateful," he said while watching into her eyes. She smiled softly as she let his fingers intertwine with hers.

For a small precious moment they sat there in silence, feeling unexplainable warmth in their bond. He was the first one to snap out of it as he slowly drew his hand away and picked his glass up. With only his characteristic smirk he proposed a toast. She raised her own glass up next to his.

"For our first year," he declared.

"For the precious moments shared together," she added.

Just after the cling the man's head shot up and he had an absent look. The girl blinked at this but soon she felt it too. A familiar presence was approaching the Castle. The girl cursed in her mind. No, not her, not now! The feeling of dread erupted in the girl's chest as she watched her Mate rise from his seat. "Stay here," he said tautly as he walked past her and vanished through the door.

The girl did stay put for awhile, until she felt the sensation she had dreaded she would feel that whole time. She sprung from her seat and ran all the way to the east side of the Castle, to the room she had been sitting in earlier that evening. The doors flew open as she entered the room. She headed straight to the window; she was on her knees on the bench, her hands leaning against the window glass. She gazed towards the entrance. It had started to rain outside.

She felt her heart sink as she saw that tall woman standing in the courtyard. Next to her was the Draculina's Mate. They seemed to be in a serious discussion and in haste.

"Don't go…" the young vampiress whispered against the glass. It was a whish from the deepest corners of her heart.

Outside the woman mounted a horse and took off through the Castle's gates. The man in the courtyard stood there for a moment before his body turned into a flock of bats and head out after her. The girl felt a crimson tear escape from the corner of her eye.

She felt hurt. She felt numb. Disappointed… Neglected. Her hand against the window clenched into a fist and she gritted her teeth as she pressed her forehead against the window as well. Her fury erupted only as a quiet sob. She slid down the glass until she was sitting on her legs on the bench. For a while she stayed there, watching as the raindrops gathered on the glass and slid down. The weather was terrible.

She slowly turned around and rose from the bench with a gloomy expression on her face. Like in a stupor she wandered through the corridors back to the sitting room. She threw a long glance over the romantic dinner setting. She had no desire to continue the feast without him.

Why did he have to be so distant about his work? She had convinced herself that he was doing something important. But it was getting in between of them. As a Mate she wanted him to be able to rely on her. She wanted to be there for him. But he wouldn't let her. What could she do in such situation?

Realization wakened in the girl's head. The answers to all her questions were in the documents in his study. She quickly materialized into the room in question and looked around.

In front of every wall in the room there was tall shelves filled with books and paper piles. There were more piles on the floor. Some of the books were left open on a specific page, mostly revealing a complex rune or trivia about a certain creature. The girl frowned. Her Mate ought to clean up once in awhile.

She quickly banished such trivial thoughts. She was on a mission, and her Mate wouldn't be too happy if he ever found out she was in his study without permission and snooping around his business. He had himself to blame. He could have told her what he had been doing all these months. Sometimes she felt like he still treated her like a fledgling.

She carefully dodged the piles of books as she looked for his desk. She didn't want to leave any traces that she had been there. The brown large desk was at the opposite side of the room in front of the window.

It was locked. The girl eyed the desk carefully to see if he had placed any traps on it. She stared the small iron lock like a sworn enemy. She began to focus her mind on the object and tried to unlock it by using telekinesis. She had to push her nascent mind skills to open the lock, pattering a mantra of 'open' and 'I have to know'. Some sweat gathered on her forehead as she did her best to concentrate. She felt ease as a small click was heard from the lock.

She opened the desk with her mind as well and peered inside. There were more of those leather folders, all in a neat row arranged according to date. She slid one out on the table with her powers and opened the folder. Knowing her husband the documents were bound to hold awful stuff, but what harm could one peek do?

Soon all of the folders were in a neat pile on the table, the girl reading the latest one. The documents consisted of reports about human and surprisingly, vampire casualties. All of them had died in 'suspicious circumstances'.

There were also dozens of letters from the foreign woman. She expressed her concern about the deaths and that something seemed out of the way. She speculated that an organized party was behind all the deaths of the humans and midians alike. Somehow the girl had felt it too, some sense of threat as she read through the documents.

An idea woke up in the girl. Why not help things along? Surely there was something she could do. She didn't exactly understand how the vampire society worked, but this was an opportunity to find out. The subject clearly needed more investigating.

Already mesmerized the contents of the folders she neatly put them back in their places and locked the desk with her powers. After that she headed to the library. She had already made up her mind.

She would help him in secret so all this would come to an end and they could go on with their un-lives.

The Vampire Lord returned at the Castle in the early morning. He shuffled through the corridors, his long black trench coat leaving behind puddles of water and blood. He was completely drenched and weary.

He opened the door to their bedchamber silently. He was stopped for a moment by the sight of the coffee table in front of the window. The scene looked frozen; the glasses hadn't been touched. The blood inside however had already clotted. Ruined.

Their bedroom was separated from the sitting room with curtains. Usually the curtains were drawn to the sides but now they were closed, hinting that she had already gone to sleep.

He quietly emerged from between the curtains to the dim room. Their canopy bed loomed in front of him. He looked further to the other end of the room where the two coffins lie and walked over to them. He could sense uneasiness radiating from inside the smaller one. He knew she couldn't sleep very well because her coffin wasn't thoroughly suited for her.

He opened the lid slowly. There was his precious. She liked to change into a nightgown before she turned in. Another thing completely unnecessary yet still she practiced her old habit. Still, he had to admit she looked beautiful in her nightgown, somehow making him glad that she was his and no one else's. He could feel how his businesses were straining their bond and relationship. She felt lonely and neglected, unworthy. What pained him the most was the sense that she thought he didn't notice her low spirits or simply didn't care.

She wasn't ready yet. Despite her progress she just wasn't ready yet to face the events he was trying to solve. He didn't want her to know that side of the night world and what part was passed on him to play in it.

When she was his fledgling he was keen on her experiencing new and even dangerous stuff. Experience is the best teacher, and in the world of midians one has to learn fast. It was a matter of survival and dominance. But now that she was his Mate…

The old wounds were deeper than he thought. A sense of… fear had appeared of losing her.

Now all he wanted to do was keep her safe. But at this rate he would lose her anyway.

He picked her carefully up from the coffin, not waking her, and carried her to the poster bed.

"Forgive me, but on a special day like this I really want to sleep with my Mate," he said to her sleeping form as he lowered her on the mattress.

He phased out of most of his clothes, until he only had his white loose shirt on. He dragged his weary body onto the bed next to the girl and pulled the covers over them. She mumbled something in her sleep and turned towards him. She was now comfortably against his chest, her face buried in the crook of his neck. The man inhaled the scent of her hair and planted a kiss on her forehead.

Behind the curtains the sun had started to rise over the horizon, dyeing the mountaintops golden.

"Happy first anniversary, my beloved," the man said silently, drifting to slumber.

Hopefully it wasn't too mushy.

I also don't know if this story is heading somewhere beyond comprehension to you or if everything has become crystal clear (meaning I failed in my mystery).

Also, I try to mesmerize all the little plot points and stuff I have written keeping hold of all the strings. But if I forget something that leaves a hole in the story and you Readers puzzling, please let me know. At the moment it's a little early to tell stuff but regarding the future as the story progresses.

Otherwise than that, Monogatari Seeker wishes you all Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2014 :D

'Till Later (probably next year)