The sun cleared the horizon and fell upon him like a benediction.
He closed his eyes and drank it in.
MILES FROM CASTLE RAVENLOFT, DEEP IN THE MOUNTAINS, a sleek gray and brown she-wolf entered a hidden cave. The beast limped through labyrinthine turns until she reached the coffin, secreted there by a cunning vampire for a special purpose. The she-wolf’s shoulder was stiff from a dagger’s bite, and her haunch would forever bear the mark of the silver brand.
She sniffed at the box. Her tail wagged slightly, then drooped with disappointment. The master would not awaken today. She leaped to the top of the dark mahogany box, yawned, turned around two or three times, and curled up to sleep. Surely, when he awoke, he would forgive her. And when he revived with the hunger clawing at the back of his throat, Katrina would see to it that he had a fresh victim waiting to assuage his thirst. Within minutes, the werewolf was asleep, breathing slowly.
The wounded vampire dreamed.
Strahd had been hurt—dangerously hurt. The sunlight had almost slain him. He was in searing, agonizing pain, and would need to rest for many weeks, perhaps months, perhaps even years. Yet, what was time to a vampire?
Jander had nearly destroyed him, but Strahd was the richer for the knowledge the older vampire had given him. He had new skills, new wisdom; and he knew his most dangerous enemy.
He would see Sasha Petrovich again, and when he did, the boy would not be victorious.
And his Tatyana? Her soul had been allowed a brief respite, but the girl was as bound to Ravenloft, in her own sweet and sorrowing fashion, as Strahd. As he was doomed to love her for eternity, so was she doomed to reappear, with a different name but the same beautiful face and shattered soul, to be loved by him.
He would see her again. And, one day, she would love him. Strahd von Zarovich was determined that it would happen, and he had the time to be patient and the power to make almost anything come true in Barovia. After all, the land was his to command.
The vampire rested and dreamed, and day dawned in Ravenloft.
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