"... Samara... Oh Samara..."

I must have fallen asleep, surrounded by the warm bodies and soft fur of my wolves, and now I was dreaming.

"I couldn't find you... you were always with me... I thought I was too late, I thought you had left..."

I felt elated at hearing Vlad's voice. This was the first dream I had in a long while, a pleasant dream of him finally waking up.

"Samara..." His voice repeating my name followed by the touch of his arms lifting me off the floor this time, finally coaxed me into consciousness.

This can't be a dream... My breath hitched when my eyes bore into Vlad's smiling green orbs, as he carried me to my chamber. I was afraid to pronounce a word, or even breathe, convinced that he was an apparition produced by my despairing, overtired mind, which my slightest movement or sound would scare away, make dissipate like a dream, until he laid me on my bed and lay down next to me.

Then, drawing a deep, shaky breath even as my eyes welled with tears I clamped my hands around the fabric of his shirt to keep him at my side, and whispered, "You..."

"I'm back," he said, pushing a few strands of my unruly hair away from my face, drying my tears with a sheet. "I woke up and you were gone; I could not find you. You scared me."

"You have no idea how much you scared me... you slept for weeks... How are you feeling?" I breathed, pressing my hand to his chest, letting my fingers trace the scar I could feel through the white linen.

"I'm fine, I just... couldn't wake up." he said, smiling at me.

I knew that I should be careful, that he just woke up after weeks, but I couldn't help it. I laced my fingers through his hair and pulled him down, kissing him deeply, letting my hands stroll over his body, making sure that he was really there.

"I heard you talking to me sometimes." he said when we pulled away, wrapping me in a tight embrace. "All those things you said..."

I nodded. "They are all true. So much has happened since the fight... " Feeling his lips trail featherlight kisses down the column of my neck, I wished we could just forget about everything and everyone right now... But he needed to hear the latest news.

"You don't know that Radu is leaving in the morning. I have no idea what time it is, he might be gone already, but you should speak to him before he goes. Your son received a letter from the Council last night..." I said, voice faltering, as I felt his lips on my collar bone, his hand tugging at the laces of my shirt.

Vlad sighed. "I think you are right... I should talk to both of them."

He stood up, leaving me alone in the bed, making me panic.

"Don't go away! Send someone to fetch them, let them both come here but don't leave... Please..." I called, sitting up, ready to follow him, resolved not to leave him out of my sight.

"I'll never leave you again, my love, you mustn't worry," he said, kissing me before he walked to the door where he sent the Guard standing in the corridor for Junior and Radu, then disappeared towards his chamber to get dressed.

Right. Like not worrying is an option, being in love with you. I smiled at his retreating figure, thinking of all the occasions he had given me to worry since I found him last year, after centuries.

I drew the curtains all around my bed, leaving only a tiny gap, the moment I heard someone knocking on the door softly but impatiently, the sound followed by Vlad's approaching footsteps.

Snuggling among the pillows, pulling the covers up to my chin, I let the men's hushed voices reaching me from the library, echoing off the stone walls through the pre-dawn silence of the sleeping castle, lull me to sleep.

He's back, my subconscious whispered as I closed my eyes,  a smile I could not suppress playing on my lips.

Vlad wasn't in the bed with me when I woke up hours later, squinting into the bright wintery light as I sat up and moved the thick burgundy curtains to the side.

My heart missed a beat when I realised that it might all have been just a dream, but suddenly he was on his knees in front of me, his arms wrapped around my waist, his head pressed to my chest even before I could call his name.

"I love you," I said, my hand buried in his hair, still damp after the bath he must have just taken.

"I love you," he echoed, pushing me back down on the bed gently, then lying down next to me.

Later, as he helped me get dressed instead of Katerina who did not appear this morning, Vlad told me how he never returned to bed the previous night.

"I spoke for hours with my son and Radu. And then, since Radu left, I've been... getting ready." he said, turning me around even as he closed the last button on my back. "The portal will open in five days and there are still a few things I need to settle, before we leave this place to the new prince." He smiled.

"Are you... happy to come home with me?" I forced myself to ask even though I was dreading his answer.

"I... can't wait, actually... All those things you and Lucas told me about your world... I guess it will be a nice change after all this time... And of course I want to see my daughter."

I buried my face in his chest, hiding the tears of joy his words brought to my eyes. In five days I'll see and hold Aurora again... I rejoiced, even as I realised that it also meant that I only had five days left with Katerina, Clara and Junior, Cook, my beloved wolves... and I could only hope that Radu would really make it back before we left... These thoughts did not help my mood and confused tears were streaming down my cheeks when Vlad put his fingers under my chin, tilting my face up.

"And I can't wait to see our second child grow," he teased, "I hope you won't be this... moody the whole nine months..."

That made me giggle. He heard that too. "No, you are lucky." I said, smiling at him, letting him dry my tears. "There are only some seven and a half months left now, I think."

The following five days passed in a blur. Vlad spent most of the time closed in the library with Junior, and I stayed either with Clara and Katerina, or at Father Boian's bedside. His way to recovery after the transition was way slower than Vlad's after the injury.

"He will be well, I've seen so many of them like this before. Physically, at least..." Vlad told me as we went to bed on the last night before Halloween. "His sister is here, she and all the others will help him pull through, they won't abandon him."

I nodded silently. There is nothing more you can do... my subconscious reminded me, as Vlad blew out the candles and laid down, pulling me closer to him. My head on his chest I watched the shadows of the dying fire dance on the stone walls in the semi-darkness. Tomorrow you'll be in a completely different world... I would miss the old castle and the strange world surrounding it.

"There is something else that worries me more." Vlad said, disturbing my reverie. "Andrei... " his voice faltered as if he had changed his mind, and decided not to say what was on his mind at the last moment. But before I could urge him to tell me, he went on, "Andrei, and maybe Rareş too, must have connections on your side of the passage. From what you told me about that Viorel, the fire that was in your version of the castle too... Either of them could cross that passage in Poenari each time it opened throughout centuries, and meet someone, just like I kept meeting Alina, the guide, and her ancestors.

I sighed, nodding again. It had crossed my mind before-- the possibility of someone following Rareş' orders, finding us in London-- but I did not want to think about it.

"And I was thinking... that it might not be safe to try to cross the passage tomorrow, not knowing if the fire was extinguished completely on the other side..."

Oh no. No, no, no. I had to leave this place, Katerina had said so clearly, and even if I would not have to, I wanted to, for Aurora. And I was taking Vlad with me.

"We will have to risk it." I said firmly, sitting up and staring in his eyes.

"We will, of course we will." he said, smiling, as he pulled me back down. "We'll just have to be more careful this time."

We lay awake for a long while, the crackles of burning wood devouring the silence that had fallen between us as we both got lost in our thoughts.

"I'm afraid..." I mumbled, finally forcing myself to voice the thought that had been lurking at the back of my mind for weeks, "... that you won't like my other world. That you'll miss this place too much, that I, and Aurora... won't be enough to... enough to make you happy..."

He laughed softly at hearing my words, pulling me even closer. "Silly girl... I've been thinking that maybe I don't deserve to leave this place with you, that I don't deserve you coming back for me after all this time, that I'm not worthy of your love so..."

"Hush." I said, placing my fingers to his lips. "I love you. Aurora needs her father, she deserves to be happy. You are part of that happiness. And I finally want my happily ever after too-- that won't happen without y..."

His lips, gentle, reassuring, loving, were on mine even before I could finish the sentence, scattering all my doubts and thoughts.