“I don't know why you came here,” Vlad called, turning this way and then that as he listened for even the slightest hint of motion. His senses were sharp, his focus honed over the years, but the background hum of the city was still an insistent presence.

The pounding in his head intensified, fingers flexing.

Frankly he didn't care why she had come, could only concern himself with the here and the now, and hope – 'Please God, let them be all right.' – that Claudia had found her brother and had gotten him out.

“But you must know that I cannot let you leave, not after all that you have done.” That even if she did escape that he would hunt her down himself, had to, because this was his family. “So let us end this peaceably.”