CHAPTER THIRTY ONERevelations***ElenaDracul didn't move for a moment. For what felt like an age, he just rested, taking deep breaths and regrouping. His breath was short and trembling in his chest.He seemed to have a lot on his mind, a lot on his plate. My heart pounding as I watched him, everything seemingly suspended in mid-air.I took a deep breath and held it. I didn't know if I wanted to hear the answer, but I knew that I had to. I didn't know how to move forward from here, but I knew that the truth was the first step. I had been kept in the dark for long enough."It's complicated," Dracul said, finally. His words broke the silence that was hanging between us, but somehow, he still wasn't saying much, wasn't explaining anything.Part of me wanted to be angry with him, but I was still just relieved that he was alive, relieved that he wasn't dead.I couldn't be angry with him, not really, but I could still feel the pounding disappointment in my heart. I deserved to know more,

Chapter 33No Holding Back***DraculElena's question hit me like a sledgehammer. I didn't know what to say or how to react.No one had ever asked me that before. No one had ever cared about what I was feeling before now, not really.As a child, the focus had been on survival, and I had been grown for so long now that I barely even remembered that time. I sighed and tried to rein in my emotions, which stampeded along at a great speed.Elena was something else, she was.Right now, when I should be feeling guilty for what happened between Gulliver and me, I wanted nothing more than to pull Elena into my arms. It was insane. It was absurd.But she did that to me. Even in the depth of the hardest conversation of my life, she was still here, listening. Even in the depth of the most challenging part of history, I wanted nothing more than to take her into my arms.She did things to me, things that I had never felt before, things that I didn't truly understand.I turned and she was looking

Chapter 35Nightmare Fuel***Elena Sleep came easily, curled up on Dracul's chest. Even thoughts and confusion about love weren't enough to stop me from sliding into a sweet sleep.But my dreams weren't pleasant, or sweet.On the contrary, I found myself thrown back to where this all started, to the nightmare that happened on my first day in the castle.It was like I was reliving everything again. But this time, it was warped. This time, it was wrong.I stood in the corridor, the hallway of the castle dark and twisted in my nightmare. I couldn't move, the cold seeping into my body like poison. I was helpless. I was terrified.Time seemed to slow as a second figure appeared and they both turned their eyes towards me. In the dim lighting, I saw yellow eyes staring back at me, narrowed to slits.Just like Dracul's eyes, but nowhere near as warm. The golden tones of his eyes were welcoming compared to the pale-yellow eyes that stared back at me.Just like the first time, I couldn't brea

Chapter 37Last Resort***Elena pov"What?" I stammered.Dracul's words felt like a punch to the gut. I had expected him to feel frustrated. I had expected anger. But I was not expecting this.I wasn't expecting this loss of trust, this coldness from him."You heard me." He said quietly.There was a heaviness in the way he spoke, a weight to his words that I had not heard before. I felt a jump in my stomach at the way he looked at me.Only hours ago, his gaze had been so warm on mine. I had been the one angry at him, feeling the fury of uncertainty.Now, he felt as betrayed as had. Maybe even worse, from the way he was looking at me.But it was more than that. There was a focus on him. He wasn't going to wait around, and I knew that. He was going to charge straight in, no two ways about it.I shuddered and shook my head, "Dracul, I know you're mad, but I didn't hide this from you. I didn't get two seconds to talk to you in private!"He shook his head and I could tell that he was done

THIRTY-NINEFinding Help**Elena What do you mean, my help?" Gulliver said.He was staring at me like he wasn't sure what to make of me.I bit my lip, "Can we talk inside? Or on the way?""On the way?" He frowned, "Where? What's going on?""Dracul's in trouble, okay?" I said, my voice dropping to a low whisper.I couldn't just tell him everything out here. I didn't know who could overhear and I didn't know who I could trust.I didn't even know if I could trust Gulliver, but I thought that I could. If he was helping people to kill Dracul, he would never have done everything in his power to save him and keep him alive.It didn't make sense and I thought that Gulliver seemed a lot more logical than that."In trouble?" Gulliver scoffed, shaking his head, "Yes, he is. He'll have the whole kingdom against him at this rate. But what does that have to do with me?"He still seemed angry at Dracul, but I was starting to feel a twinge of hope in my chest. Maybe, just maybe, he would be agreeab