The Tale of the Vampire Bride (30 page)

“As you desire, Master,” Ariana said, sliding past him with a flirtatious smile.

Elina followed her, casting a curious glance in my direction.

Cneajna strolled up to us, regarding Vlad curiously. “You look pensive, my husband. What concerns you so?”

“You need not worry, Cneajna,” Vlad responded in a distracted tone, his fingers lightly stroking his beard as he gazed intently at me.

I could see the apprehension in Cneajna’s blue eyes. Her lush red mouth pursed pensively, and I felt a pang of sorrow for her. There was something about her gaze. It was so beautiful, so potent, so lonely, and I knew nothing I did or said to her would make it fade from her lovely features.

“Glynis, come…now.” Vlad said, holding out his hand to me. “We must go to my library.”

Reluctantly, I moved to his side, my jewelry tinkling softly.

We left Cneajna, alone, in the snow, staring after us with a winsome, yet worried expression on her face. Oftentimes, I felt that Vlad disregarded how much she truly loved and pined for him. But he is a brute, so why should I be surprised that he would deny her very real love for him?

I obediently followed him through the long hallways and steep staircases to the library he often took refuge in. A fire was lit in the fireplace and the room seemed almost cheery. Papers were spread out on a table and Vlad motioned to a chair. I took my seat as he slid into his. His brow furrowed as his hands lightly touched several of the documents as I waited in silence.

Finally, he said in a low voice, “I have been planning to move to England for some time now. I spoke the truth to your parents about my desire to leave my home here and establish myself in London.” His green eyes slowly raised to stare into mine. “I wish to buy an estate in England and move there to live as an aristocrat and a gentleman.”

I tried not laugh at his usage of the word gentleman.

He continued, “Last year I told Sir Stephen my plans to move to England and that I needed to wed an Englishwoman. An aristocrat. When he heard that your family was visiting Rome, he wrote to your father and invited your family to Buda. Then he contacted me.”

I felt my mouth fall open as I realized the extent of Sir Stephen’s betrayal of my family. I had thought he had merely obeyed Vlad by sending us to him. It was horrific that he had actually lured us to Buda and into a trap.

“Do you remember that night you attended the opera?

I nodded, remembering the night vividly. It had been a few days after our arrival in Buda. I had dressed in an elegant ivory gown my mother had purchased for me in Paris. Despite the finery I wore and the jewels that had adorned my throat and wrists, I had felt rather put out. In fact, I had felt ill the entire night and had hidden in the back of the box, ignoring the performance on the stage.

“That is when I first saw you. I sat in the box across from your family and watched the shadows caress your beautiful face. It was then I knew I wanted you to be my mortal Bride. I was inspired by your beauty.” Vlad’s gaze swept over my face and he smiled with satisfaction. “I made additional inquiries about your family to Sir Stephen. He was very informative about your family and their dealings.”

I was surprised at his compliment to my beauty, but annoyed by his confession of Sir Stephen’s betrayal of my family. “He’s such a little sniveling toad.”

Vlad laughed slightly. “Yes, he is, but a very loyal subject. I called on Sir Stephen and told him that I desired you. But I could no longer remain in Buda. The vampire hunters were stalking me, and my home in Buda was under suspicion. That is when Sir Stephen sent you to me.”

I lowered my eyes and swallowed hard. It was painful to hear how this monster had lured my family all this way, had us journey so long, only to murder them and destroy me. All because he thought me beautiful, and I suited his plans.

“It was a mistake to bring your family here. I had forgotten how pompous and self-righteous the British are. The death of your family was never my intention.”

The look I bestowed him with was filled with my fury, but he ignored it, “I am so sorry their deaths inconvenienced you,” I said sharply.

He frowned at me. “If your father had accepted my proposal of marriage, they would all be alive today. All he had to do was accept and leave you here as my wife. Later, you would have accompanied me back to England after they prepared for our arrival.”

“How smug of you to believe I would have agreed to any of this! That I would be your happy, besotted wife and do as you said!” I could not help myself. He was just so sure that his original plan would have worked if only my father had not stood up to him!

“You would have learned to love me. All mortal women love men with power.”

“Never! I never would have loved you. I despised you from the beginning,” I said rather shortly.

Vlad just smiled, gesturing with the sweep of his hand. “It does not matter now. Those plans are dead to us as is your family.”

I hissed softly, and though he looked bemused, his eyes narrowed.

“You have been in my household for several months now. You are learning to love your new sisters and to accept what you are. Now you must prove your loyalty to me.”

“I hate you,” I responded.

Vlad reached out and gently stroked my cheek then took a firm hold of the back of my neck and drew me to him. “I know you hate me, but loyalty to one does not also mean that you must love the one you serve.”

I wrinkled my nose at him, and said, “I do not serve you. I am your prisoner.”

Vlad turned his head slightly, his green eyes never straying from my face. It was if he considered his words before speaking them. He abruptly released me, sitting back in his chair. “Your brother has written my solicitor in Buda.”

I started in my chair and for a moment I was overwhelmed with fear. The visage of my beloved brother swam before my eyes. I felt tears, hot and fierce well in my eyes.

“He actually wrote to your parents first. When there was no response, he wrote to Sir Stephen inquiring as to the whereabouts of your family. He is my solicitor in Buda. Did you know that?”

My eyes narrowed. “No, I did not. I thought him merely your lapdog.”

Vlad lightly ran his fingertips along the edge of a goblet sitting on the table. I could smell the blood within. “I spoke the truth when I told you that I planned to marry you and move to England.” His eyes darkened and his voice deepened as he said, “But your father defied me and those plans were lost to me. Or so I thought.”

“You made me a vampire. I cannot be your devoted mortal wife any longer.”

“That is true, but that does not necessarily mean I should abandon my plans. Sir Stephen was under strict orders to not allow anyone to know your destination. Your brother’s letter mentions me by name. Obviously, he failed.”

“May I eat Sir Stephen?” I asked with a sweet smile.

Vlad flicked his gaze toward me and gave me a slight smile. “No. I did not know of your brother back in England. This changes everything.” Vlad slid a letter across the table to me. “Your brother is concerned. He is worried for you and for your family. You must write him and tell him that the shadow of misfortune has fallen across your family.”

“You want me to tell him what you have done to us!” I gaped at him in surprise.

Vlad merely chuckled, shaking his head. “No, no, no, my impetuous one. I want you to write to your brother and tell him that as your family journeyed here a storm overtook your carriage and it was swept off the pass and into the river. Only you survived and were rescued by my people. They brought you back to my castle and I am nursing you back to health.”

I snorted in disgust at his tale. “You are such a bastard! You are not a hero of some false drama! I will not lie to my brother!”

“But you must. You shall continue to write to him and tell him of my great compassion for your well being. You will tell him that I am caring for you and that you are beginning to love me.”

I curled my fingers into tight little fists. “Never!”

“In time you will write to inform him that you have married me and that we are quite happy together.”

“Never!” I rose angrily to my feet, tears streaming down my face. “What duplicity is this you ask of me? I cannot do that. I will not be party to your deceit!”

Vlad rose up before me, dark, menacing, and cruel. “Yes, you will. You will do as I say, my dear Glynis.”

“I will not help you go to England and destroy what remains of my family!” I turned away from him, sobbing, furious, my body shaking with my emotions.

Vlad’s fingers dug into my hair and he dragged me against his body. He drew my face near to his and whispered in my ear, “Do not defy me.”

“Kill me! Kill me and write to my brother that we all perished!”

“Kill you? I will not kill you, Glynis. I will punish you as only I can punish you. I will make you suffer and beg for a death that will not come. If you do not obey me, I will torture you with a living death I have only granted one other. I loved her as I love you, but she betrayed me and I had to banish her from my home,” Vlad whispered in a low, terrifying voice.

“You do not love, you do not love,” I hissed at him. The veil of my tears warped his face as I tried to draw away from him, but he held me firmly against him.

“I do love. In my way, I do love. Even when I strike you down, I love you. I love your pain. I love your misery. I love your tears. I love your blood. I love your cries of torment as much as I love your moans of pleasure. And if you force me, I will love you even as I grant you a living death that will be your hell on this earth.”

“I will not obey! I will not give you my brother! I love him and he is all that I have left in this world!”

“I do not want his blood. I want his help. That is all.”

I shook my head in protest.

“You do not believe my threat?” Vlad stepped back, his fingers tangled in my hair, and thrust his hand downward, forcing me to my knees. Drawing back my head, he leaned over me and said. “Since you do not believe me, then I shall show you.” He flung me away, and I fell to the floor.

Panic ripped at me as I gazed up at him through the cascade of my hair. The tone in his voice was an echo of the night he had killed my family. What more could he do to me? I was certain I did not want to know.

He moved to stand over me with mirth and anger mixed in his eyes. He let out a growl that made me clutch at the floor in dread.

Astoundingly, his face seemed to expand outward, his eyes sinking beneath his brow as his nose and mouth elongated. He ripped his clothes from his body to reveal hair flowing down over his arms and legs, muscle and bone rippling beneath his skin. The vampire threw back his twisted face and howled as I shrank away at the horror of his transformation. His body bucked and he fell to his hands, his long nails growing dark and sharp. I scuttled back from him in terror as his face fully transformed into that of a wolf. Shaking off the remnants of his dark clothing, the wolf moved toward me, the gold dragon medallion swaying about his thick neck.

“What is this? What has happened?”

The wolf was enormous. It was a beast of nightmares with its glowing red eyes and feral presence. It was pure, ominous power incarnate.

It was Vlad’s voice that uttered forth in a guttural growl. “Climb onto my back.”

Trembling, I cowered before the great beast. I wanted to refuse him, but I found myself reluctantly crawling on my hands and knees to him. He growled low in his throat, flashing his long sharp teeth, and I flinched in fear.

Reluctantly, I crawled onto the back of the huge creature and grabbed up fistfuls of dark fur. I held on tightly as the wolf whirled about and carried me out of the library.

Clinging to the beast, I was carried down the corridors of the castle and out the great entrance into the night. As I huddled close to the back of the wolf, he ran swiftly over the ground, the world blurring. The wind tore at my hair and face as I pressed my check into the thick ruff of his neck. The journey was swift and surreal. I could hear the calls of other beasts of the night mingled with the breathing of the Vlad-wolf beneath me as my own tortured heart beat fearfully within my breast.

I raised my head briefly to see the snow-covered cypress trees rushing past me. The ground flowed swiftly beneath the huge paws of the wolf. Only the night sky remained still, the moon’s face hidden beneath a cloak of a million stars, for at last, after the great snowfall, the clouds had scattered and the stars once more ruled the night.

The lupine beast leaped over a low wall and into a graveyard, jarring me and forcing me to grip at its fur desperately as my body almost tumbled to the ground.

A white marble sepulcher rose majestically over the pale tombstones and the wolf padded toward it. Just before the entrance to the tomb, the Vlad-wolf stopped.

“Get off,” he growled.

I slid off the wolf and stood among the true dead. My hair swirled around my waist as I took a step forward, the snow encompassing my feet and making me shiver. Hugging myself tightly, I started as a long howl rent the air. I whirled about just as Vlad Dracula rose up before me clad only in his long auburn hair and gold medallion.