Once we got back to London after the Holidays, the time started to fly.

I was so busy with work, my 'theory of the art of fighting' sessions with Lucas or Stoker himself, meeting with Mum during the days, and then my dreams at nights, that I wouldn't have noticed how the weeks morphed into months, if it wasn't for my growing belly and the planned appointments at the hospital.

Mum tried to persuade me to move back home so she could be around more, but I refused. I did not want to attract any vampire's attention to her or Julian, who, ever since Dad moved out, was spending more time with her in our house in Barnes.

That wasn't the only change. Lia practically moved over to Stoker's. Nicole, on the other hand, spent always more time with me and Lucas in the flat; it was a joy to watch their relationship grow. To everybody's surprise, Anne and Mark got engaged. And, from our mutual friends, I heard that William and Kate got back together.

Seeing all of my friends so happy made me feel even more lonely. But Stoker, with his more or less fantastical theories about me and my two worlds, managed to shed some light into the long, dark tunnel I was walking through. I finally stopped groping around blindly and saw what I needed to do-- go back to Bran the next Halloween, step through the portal again, see if I could stay in and come back to pick up Aurora if I could, or persuade Vlad to come out with me if I couldn't... However crazy the plan seemed, it was a plan, and having it, helped.

The second week of May my belly was so big and my feet so swollen that when I arrived at work wearing rubber flip-flops, as no other pair of shoes fitted me anymore, Mr. Turner begged me to go back home for my own good. He didn't want me to come back to work until after the baby was born, and at least three months old, the kind man insisted.

"See, I told you." Lucas said as we walked back towards the flat. "It would be really nice if you listened to me, at least sometimes. You only have a week or two to go, you need to rest more."

I smiled at him, then looked around the sun-lit square, wondering why both he and Stoker still insisted on escorting me everywhere. No vampire has tried to approach me again, except for their very self-controlled friends. The mysterious Viorel seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth.

"What am I going to do at home now?" I asked. Time passed so much faster when I kept myself busy.

"Sleep more! You look exhausted. You push yourself into those dreams of yours every night, but they are just draining you. And, apart from allowing you to see him, they are not really helpful, you said that yourself."

"But once Aurora is born, I might not see Vlad until Halloween. Your Uncle said so, remember?"

"He might be wrong. No one knows if your dreams will stop once the baby is born."

"Maybe he is wrong. But what if he's right and..."

"Fine, whatever you say. Now that you'll stay at home, you can spend whole days sleeping, and dreaming." Lucas said as we reached the house.

He unlocked the front door and once we stepped inside, offered me his arm. The stairs to the third floor's flat seemed to be too many and too steep lately.

"I'll have to leave as soon as Lia or Nicole come back. Will you lay down?" He asked when I unlocked the flat and we entered.

"Maybe for a while." I said, a little out of breath. 

Stopping by my bedroom's door, I looked at him thankfully. I... owed him so much, but he didn't want to hear my thanks.

"You mustn't worry about anything." He said, looking in my eyes seriously, unconsciously using the exact same words Vlad and Junior used whenever they thought that I was overthinking something.

I shook my head, smiling to myself, as I reached for the door handle even as he vanished into the sitting room.

Having swapped my long skirt for a pair of shorts I laid on the bed. Waiting for sleep to overcome my conscious mind, I leafed through my copy of Dracula.

My pictures overlying the printed words, the people and events they represented, it all seemed to have happened a lifetime ago. I missed them all so much, Vlad, Junior, poor Ioan and Clara, and my Katerina, who, according to what I managed to understand from Vlad in my dreams, was missing ever since I left the castle. The old woman did not come back from the mill that day...

I could feel tears burning at the corners of my eyes when Aurora stirred, bringing me back from my other reality. Closing the book, then pushing it under my pillow, I laid both my hands over my belly soothingly, smiling through the unshed tears. It was so typical of her to wake up just as I was ready to fall asleep.

Closing my eyes, I tried in vain to find a more comfortable position... And then I was with Vlad, in a new dream.

He couldn't see me, like every time when he wasn't asleep while I slept. Which was always more often as my pregnancy progressed. Because I tended to doze off at odd hours and never slept properly at night anymore, we didn't seem to be able to time our dreams. Anyway, even just seeing him, and knowing that he at least felt my presence, was better than nothing.

Too soon Aurora stirred again and I woke up, feeling hungry and more tired than before.

That's how I passed the last two weeks before the birth. Avoiding the awful stairs leading to our flat, I went outside only when I needed to go to the hospital for my appointments. Most of the time I shuffled around the apartment, among the kitchen, the sitting room and my bedroom, spending my days reading, talking to the others as they never left me home alone, cooking, and sleeping.

Until the night when I was cruelly snatched from Vlad's arms, from one of those rare dreams we still managed to share, by the first contractions.

They were not painful yet, not even regular enough to make me run to the hospital immediately, just so unpleasant and annoying that they woke me up.

As soon as I understood what was happening, I forced myself to fall asleep again. I needed to see Vlad for a few more moments.

However, I only made him worry when a new, stronger contraction made me wince and pant with pain.

"I don't know if I'll manage to see you again soon, but I'll be with you in the autumn." I promised, trying to sound reassuring, when the pain ebbed away.

"But I don't know if you can come back," he whispered, kissing me, then burying his face in my hair.

We were lying on the bed in my chamber, bathed in soft moonlight and the silence of the sleeping castle. He wrapped his arms around me tightly, as if he believed that this way he could hold me there, next to him, forever.

But I was already waking up, and slipping away from him.

"I will return." I pledged, determined not to let my words become an empty promise. "I'll find my way back to you."

Vlad looked at me, then closed his eyes as he said, "You and our child must be safe and happy. Wherever. Even if that means that we..."

"But we belong together, I'll never be happy without you!" I interrupted him, as another cramp made me grit my teeth, then take a couple of deep breaths. "I need you. There's no.... there is no me beyond you."

"Hush..." He whispered, kissing  away a couple of tears that managed to escape my eyes. Tears caused by his words rather than the increasing pain.

I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on my breathing again as the new wave of pain washed over me, remembering that I was supposed to measure the time passed between the contractions.

"Promise you'll wait for me, on my side of the passage, when it reopens." I whispered, pressing my lips to his one last time.

"I will, you stubborn, stubborn girl. But you must be careful..."

I smiled, nodding, then allowed myself to wake up, watching as he dissolved into the darkness surrounding me.

Turning around in my bed, I looked at my alarm clock. It was only three o'clock in the morning. I waited for another couple of contractions, still not extremely painful, timing their length and the intervals between. As I had thought, it was still too early to go to the hospital.

Switching on my reading light I stood up, and following my midwife's advice started to pace around the room.

I only took a few steps when Lucas knocked, then asked if I was all right through the still closed door.

"Come in," I said, not surprised at all that he had heard me.

"Time to go? Shall I get the car?" He asked, looking panicked.

"N... no. Not yet." I said, stopping at the foot of my bed and holding on to the bed frame while the contraction passed. "It will take hours before we need to go."

"Are you sure? Shall I call Lia?"

"Please, don't wake anyone up. Let's wait for an hour at least, then you can take me to the hospital."

"All right. What do you want me to do then?" He asked, running one of his hands through his dark curls.

"You can take my bag to the front door while I get changed. Then, if you have nothing better to do... " I said, pausing as the next wave of pain hit me, "you can walk around with me. See, Lia's mum says gravity helps, and if I walk, it will all be over faster."

"I don't know about that but I'll walk with you as long as you want if it will help you," he promised, rushing off with my bag while I swapped my pyjamas for a long dress.

In the end, the moment I stepped into my hospital room supported by a nurse, leaving Lucas in the waiting room calling all our friends and my mum, my water broke.

Then, everything became an endless row of moments filled with pain, frenzied activity of doctor Murray and her team of nurses, more pain, increasing in intensity as the hours passed, someone reminding me to push when I just wished to sleep, or even faint, and yet more, awful agony.

And finally, when I had no power left not even to take another breath, let alone push again, and the only thing I wished for was to sleep and dream about Vlad at least once more, Aurora's piercing cry stirred me back to full consciousness.

Looking at the crying little bundle the nurse put to my breast shortly before rushing off with her again, her tiny face scrunched in righteous anger at anyone who banished her from the place she inhabited for so long and never asked to leave, her damp, auburn down plastered to her head and her eyes shut so tightly that I could not glimpse their colour, I let my tears fall too.

This was the best moment of my life, she was the most precious thing... and I could not share any of it with her father, the only man I have ever loved.