Walking to Regent's Park hadn't been my most brilliant idea ever, I realised as soon as I reached its lake, and it started to snow. All of a sudden, huge, heavy snowflakes were fluttering down from the soot-black sky, covering me and the ground as far as I could see in white fluff, like feathers from a ripped pillow.

The best thing to do would be to head towards the nearest tube station and jump on the first train home. But that would mean taking a train of the same line William would be taking from Baker Street. No. I didn't want to risk meeting him again. I had had enough of him, at least for today.

Watching the water of the large lake, placid and unperturbed by the snowfall, while pulling my coat tighter around me, I tried to picture the London's Tube map in my mind. My second best option was to walk for some twenty minutes to Oxford Circus and take a train from there, changing at least once...

Just great. But it's better than seeing William again.

It took me ages to get back to Hammersmith. When I finally exited the station, it was well after seven. I rushed down the road towards my new home, shivering in my damp coat.

The snow kept falling stubbornly. The square was already covered in a thin layer of white slush, turning grey and morphing into water in places where people kept treading on it. Winter had been so much more picturesque in my other world, in the castle surrounded by untouched meadows and the Carpathians, where the snow would remain perfectly white and unblemished for months...

Suddenly, I felt the hair on my arms and the back of my neck rise, and it wasn't from the chilly, moist air penetrating my humid clothes. It was the now familiar sign that I wasn't alone. Someone was watching me.

I stopped and looked around slowly, spotting him immediately.

A tall, well-built man was leaning against a brick wall of one of the buildings lining the street that led from the square to Lia's, apparently waiting for someone. You, my mind whispered.

He was dressed all in black, nearly indiscernible from the darkness surrounding him, as if he was an inseparable part of the long shadows filling the ill-lit, empty stretch of the street. My only way home.

I wouldn't have noticed him at all if his face wasn't so unnaturally white that it seemed to shine in the dark. So translucent. Waxen, like the faces of the statues in the museum... and vampires.

Shivering again, I looked away from him quickly. Breathe. Calm down. Maybe he's not here for you; you're just being silly. Go home. Fast.

I squared my shoulders and ducked my head, deciding to walk past him, attracting as little attention to myself as I could. I didn't know him. He wasn't waiting for me.

Just that he was.

"Good evening," the figure said in a low, strange, heavily accented half-whisper as I sped by.

I ignored him, increasing my pace even more, getting breathless from the surge of irrational fear I felt as his voice coiled around me again, "Wait. Lady Samara!"

The unexpected honorific shocked me more than the fact that this stranger knew my name. I stopped in my tracks and turned towards him.

"I don't know you," I said, watching him peel away from the wall and draw nearer to me.

"That is of no consequence. I know enough about you to understand that you require answers. So do I. Come with me and we will talk. I can tell you what you want to know." He put one of his hands to my elbow, making me jump.

Even through the sleeve of my coat, I felt how very cold he was. This man was like... like Radu, and those of his sort.

"You are a vampire," I whispered, feeling stunned.

Even though I had some suspicions about Lucas, I didn't really believe them to be true. I did not expect to ever meet a vampire in London. In this century.

"Like your husband, my lady," he said, bowing slightly. "And you are still so beautifully human."

His voice became that strange whisper again, and he closed his eyes for a few moments, tightening his hold on my arm. I had enough experience to know that he was enjoying the aroma of the blood rushing through my veins and the sound of my scared, crazily beating heart.

I tried to pull away from him but then he opened his eyes again and I couldn't move. I wasn't able to form a coherent thought, to focus on anything else but those silvery-green orbs piercing through me, compelling me to obey.

"Come with me," he said, guiding me across the street, towards a narrow, deserted lane leading to the river, never breaking our eye contact.

"Samara! Hey!" Someone called from the other side of the road, disturbing us.

The stranger's eyes snapped away from mine, towards the new voice.

Freed from the man's disquieting gaze, I looked around too, searching for the source of that vaguely familiar voice. Finally, I noticed Lucas running over to us from the direction of the girls' flat.

I turned back towards the stranger by my side, but he was gone. What has just happened? I shook my head, trying to disperse my fear and confusion.

Lucas wrapped his arm around my waist for support as soon as he reached me, predicting rightly that my legs were about to give way before it could happen.

"Come. I'll take you home," he said simply, guiding me towards the flat again.

"But... Where's... " I mumbled, still not able to think or speak properly as I looked over my shoulder in search of the strange man.

"He's gone. You're safe," he said. "I told him this was a wrong idea. I knew it..." he continued, muttering to himself.

Then we walked in silence until we reached the right house. Lucas took the keys from my trembling fingers and let me in, insisting on walking with me all the way to the third floor's apartment.

"Thank you, Lucas," I said as he made to leave. "Come in, please. Have dinner with us, Mark should be already here, too."

He shook his head, all seriousness. "Thanks, but I can't. I need to see someone first."

Lucas turned away from me and took a couple of steps towards the dark stairwell. Then, having changed his mind, he was back by my side.

"Don't ever go out alone!" he exclaimed, seizing me by my shoulders and staring seriously in my eyes for a few heartbeats. Then he was off again, vanishing down the stairs.

"Lucas! I need to talk to you! Please!" I called after him desperately. But it was pointless, he was gone, the soft click of the front door closing reaching me through the darkness filling the old house, the only evidence that he had been next to me just a few seconds ago.

How infuriating! I should have followed that stranger; he, at least, seemed to be willing to answer my ever increasing number of questions.

Feeling my eyes brim with tears, I unlocked the door, wishing I could just disappear into my room and think about what had happened. But they were all there, waiting for me. Anne and Mark with a bouquet of flowers and Lia with her endless questions about William, taking my mind off the stranger and even Lucas momentarily.

"Where did William take you?" Lia asked as she helped me to warm up and serve the dinner, making me recount my afternoon in the museum.

In the end I had to laugh with her, forgetting my strange, more recent encounter, when she burst out in a fit of giggles as I described how I left William in front of the statue of the Impaler, surrounded by a gaggle of excited teenage girls.

The meal which I had prepared was a success and even before we got to the dessert I was nominated as the official cook of the flat.

As I stood up to collect the dishes and bring the cake, Lia's phone rang. She apologized, explaining that it was one of her fellow students and disappeared into her room, saying she wouldn't be long.

When I returned from the kitchen, even Anne and Mark were missing, and I had no doubt that I'd find them in Anne's room, should I really want to. I didn't.

I put the cake down on the coffee table as my own phone started to ring somewhere in the kitchen.

I ran back, thinking it might be Mum, but I was wrong. It was William.

"William, please..." I begged as soon as I picked up. I didn't want to talk to him again right now.

"Mara..." he said simply, sounding... weird.

"What?"

"I'm down... Downstairs. Outside. You either... come down... or I'm coming up," he slurred his words.

He was definitely drunk, and drunk William had never been good news. Alcohol made him too unpredictable; this could go either way. The best thing I could do now was to try to hail him a cab and send him home...

"I'm coming down." I decided quickly, tossing the phone on the table and searching my bag for keys, then sneaking out of the flat before anyone could notice.

I found William in a lane running between our house and the next, leading to a small green situated behind the buildings. He was leaning against the wall for support, unsure on his legs.

"Come on, let's get you home," I said, trying to sound persuasive.

He let me pull him two steps towards the street, but then he stopped, shaking his head.

"No... I want to talk first," he mumbled, walking down the lane instead, towards the snow-covered green.

Having no other choice, I followed him, shivering. Why didn't I put my coat on?

"What do you want to talk about?" I asked, watching as he stopped in the middle of the patch of grass, spreading his arms and revolving his face towards the sky, offering it to the incessant snowfall. I had never seen him this drunk.

"I want you back, Mara... I'm serious," he announced, looking at me suddenly.

"No, William," I said, wrapping my arms around my body for warmth and comfort, trying to create a barrier between us.

"Why? Why can't we start... start all over again?"

"Because I don't love you anymore." I felt a pang of guilt as I told him the truth, realising how cruel my words must sound in his ears. But there was no other way to make him finally understand that it was all over for me. "You left me... I... met someone else. Just go back to Kate, please, before she finds out about this."

"But I... want you." He approached me, miraculously managing not to stagger, and looked in my eyes. "I'm still in love with you."

I took a deep, steadying breath, realising he was leaving me no choice. I had to tell him everything.

"William, I'm pregnant," I said, waiting for him to leave me alone, to go away.

Unfortunately, my words had the opposite effect. His lips were suddenly on mine, his unexpected move stunning me for a few moments.

When I managed to push him away, his breath, smelling of beer and something stronger, reached my nostrils as he said, "Marry me."

Oh no. Please don't.

"William," I said, my hands on his shoulders to keep him from swaying, "I can't. The child is not yours."

I could see the change in him immediately. His unfocused eyes concentrated on mine. He squared his shoulders and stood tall in front of me as his gentle features morphed into a mask of fury.

I knew he was going to hit me. He had never done it before, but now he was furious, drunk beyond reason and convinced of my betrayal.

Letting my hands drop off his shoulders, I closed my eyes, expecting the blow.

Instead, I felt a sudden shift in the air around me, followed by a loud thud. When I reopened my eyes, I saw William lying in a heap on the melting snow a few meters away from me.

A dark figure was looming over him, and there was one more materializing out of the darkness shrouding the far end of the green. This one was very tall, a man dressed in a long black coat, with raven-black hair falling to his shoulders. He was silhouetted by the light of a distant street lamp from behind, his face concealed by the shadows of the night, perfectly invisible.

I took a sharp intake of breath, feeling my knees tremble, as I reached for him.

Vlad...