There Is No Me Beyond You

~12~

It became a frightening routine.

On most evenings Andrei would take as much of my blood as he could without making me faint, then he would appear again in the middle of the night with wine and willow bark tea. Sometimes he would stay long after I finished drinking, watching me drift in and out of feverish sleep. There was always food on the table next to the bed, fresh water in the basin by the window, clean clothes and fire on the hearth in the mornings.

There were a few rare evenings when Alina would appear to check on me instead of him, and even though I did not have enough strength or curiosity left to inquire about her awful husband, I came to understand that he was away, gone from the castle then.

She never stayed long, never spoke to me and I never dared to start a conversation, afraid to draw her attention to me. But those were the nights I began to treasure, the nights when no one would touch me, when despite the now constant fever I managed to rest and recover a little.

On one such night I fancied that I heard scraping on the thick wood of the door of my chamber and when I looked towards that sound, which startled me from sleep, through the tenebrosity filling the room, I thought I saw the door handle turn, as if someone was checking if the door was locked. But I was so weak by then, my thoughts confused by the fever, that I could not focus on it properly and went back to sleep the moment when whoever might have been behind the door went away.

And then, some hours, or perhaps some days after, I opened my eyes and found Jusztyna standing at the foot of my bed. Her long blonde hair falling in soft waves around her face reminded me about... Lia... I brought my hand to my chest as I felt my heart stumble painfully with longing. I wanted to be at home, hold Aurora in my arms again...

"It... It is her!" she exclaimed, pointing at me accusingly as if being there, a prisoner in her castle, was my choice, and my fault.

"Yes, it is, just as I said, sister." Andrei told her softly, while he smiled at me.

"Why... How did you get to her... what is she doing here?" Jusztyna stammered, her strange reddish-brown eyes trained on her brother who came to sit on the bed next to me, making me use my last force to move away from him as far as I could.

"She followed Alina through the passage," he said simply, bringing his hand on my thigh possessively, making me close my eyes, wishing to be somewhere else, anywhere but closed in one chamber with the two of them.

"Did you..." Jusztyna whispered as she saw him running a finger of his other hand over the scar on the side of my neck, "Will you let her die? I don't want to have anything to do with this. If he finds out... or my son..."

"But you drank her blood too, sister. And you asked for more..."

Jusztyna gasped, her hands closing in fists around the dark curtains of the bed. "You tricked me! Why did you do this?"

"I want you to finally enjoy your revenge," he hissed at her.

"By killing her? What would be the point, her death won't bring him back to me... Let her go, I don't want her here!"

"If I let her go now, she won't get far, she's too weak. Someone will find her body and then... You'll have him at your gates, yes, but with an army, stupid woman, and not even your 'friend' Rareş and his Council will protect you this time." Andrei informed her calmly, and when I looked at him I noticed his smirk addressed to his sister.

"Why did you do this to me, brother?!"

"He, her husband," Andrei said, stressing the last word, "the man you love so much, did nothing for you, but made you suffer for centuries. Now you can make him pay!"