The Vengeance of the Vampire Bride (40 page)

Behind us the horses neighed anxiously
as the driver of the sleigh tried to calm them.

“Agreed,” Adem said at last.

Percy gripped my arm and pulled me
along with him as we backed toward the sleigh. His fingers bit into
my flesh, but I allowed him to guide me. As we moved, I managed to
lift my petticoat and draw one of my silver daggers. I would not
stand idly by should we be attacked.

A thin, wispy mist skimmed over the
snow drifts as the power continued to swell. Icy cold, it touched
the hem of my skirts and flowed around my feet. The simple touch of
the dark magic manifesting around us was terrifying with its great
need.

“Bloody hell!” Percy gasped as the mist
suddenly roiled and twisted around me toward him. “What is
that?”

I had barely ascertained
what was about to happen when the banshee scream of a ravenous
vampire filled the night. The mist solidified into Laura as she
cruelly pulled Percy’s head to one side by his hair. He gasped in
terror as her long fangs glinted in the light from the lanterns on
the sleigh.

“Laura, no!” I
screamed.

Like a viper, she struck. Her small
frame drove Percy down into the snow as she tore at his
throat.

The driver cried out in surprise as the
horses tossed back their manes in fright. Unable to contain the
beasts, the driver was borne away by the petrified horses and out
of sight.

Unable to fathom the terrible scene
unfolding before me, I could only stand and gape. It was Adem who
sprang into action. He flung himself at Laura, managed to get his
arm about her throat, and wrestled her away from Percy. The reek of
blood filled my senses as it splattered across the snow, melting
the drift with its warmth. Adem struggled to contain Laura as she
thrashed in his arms. Her face and burial gown were stained dark
with blood. She hissed in frustration as Adem bore her away from
her prey.

Recovering my senses, I flung myself to
my knees beside Percy. His blue eyes stared at me in shock as blood
coursed about the fingers that he had pressed to his torn throat.
“Forgive me,” I said before seizing his hand, pulling it away, and
biting into the torn flesh. I took only one swallow, then licked
the wound, willing it to heal and save him. I could hear Laura
screeching like a wild cat as Adem and Enre struggled with her, but
I had to save Percy. I stared into his eyes, my hands pressed to
his forehead to keep him from moving as I watched his throat slowly
mend. His blood pulsed out of the wound one more time than the flow
was reduced to a trickle as it healed. Staring up at me, I could
see his fear and repulsion, but also some deeper emotion I could
not discern.

The sounds of the battle behind me drew
my attention. Laura broke free from her captors and lunged toward
Percy again. Instinctively, I leaped to my feet and deflected her
with a sharp blow to her chest. The dagger punched into her body
just above her bosom and she gasped in shock. Staggering back, she
looked upon me with a mixture of hurt and anger.

“Laura, no!” I ordered.

Bloodied lips drew back from her sharp
teeth as she hissed. Twirling about, she darted way into the
trees.

“Catch her!” I screamed.

Adem and Enre plunged into the dark
woods after her as I fell back to my knees beside Percy. He gripped
my arm with one hand as he tried to pull himself up. I rested my
hands on his shoulders and gently pushed him back down.

“Laura,” he gasped.

I kissed him softly on the cheek and
cradled his face against mine. “I will take care of her. Now, look
into my eyes.”

I believe he obeyed me out of love, not
because of the power of my blood that I was calling upon. His
expression was one of tenderness as I took his face between my
hands and compelled him to obey me. “Forget what has happened...” I
whispered. “Forget...”

I placed Percy in the doorway of the
mausoleum and left him sleeping. I rushed into the trees, calling
out to Adem. My acute vision allowed me to follow the footprints
pressed deep into the snow. Laura’s were not visible, but I could
see where Adem and Enre had pursued her. The prints separated near
the edge of the gardens that ringed the rear of Sir Stephan’s
house. Unsure, I stood in the falling snow, looking back and forth,
trying to decide. It was an agonized cry that settled the matter. I
turned and pursued the tracks that led toward the house.

Frustrated with the snow impeding my
progress, I willed the wind to take me. I glided along the edge of
the forest, my coat spreading out about me like great wings. I
darted past trees, branches tearing at my hair, before flying low
over the garden. The sleeping plants were buried under mounds of
snow and my feet barely skimmed over their tops as I desperately
looked about for Laura. Landing on the pedestal of the statue of a
lion, I peered about. It was the scent of blood that caught my
senses. I leaped over half the garden and landed beside Laura as
she feasted on Enre’s blood.

“No!” I screamed.

I tossed her away and watched her fall
into a deep snowdrift near the edge of the garden.

“Enre!” I cried out. I threw myself
over him, desperate to staunch the blood, but I saw it would be to
no avail. She had partially decapitated him and he was
dead.

Adem fell to his knees beside me and
let out an agonized cry.

“I can do nothing for him,” I
wailed.

A noise drew our attention to Laura.
She was gone. Then I heard a strange scuffling sound and looked up
to see her scaling the side of the house.

“I must stop her!”

“Go,” Adem said, cradling Enre against
his chest. He was weeping and the sight broke my heart.

I hurled myself after Laura and landed
close to the house. Shards of glass fell from above. I saw her
glance down at me before darting through the broken frame and into
the house.

“Laura, no!”

A heavy curtain was drawn back over the
ground window I stood beneath. I saw Sir Stephan’s expression of
shock at my appearance for a mere second before we both heard Maria
cry out, “Laura!”

“You brought her back?” he exclaimed.
“You brought her back!”

“I must stop her!” I leaped onto the
edge of the window sill. “Open the window! Quick!”

“Stephan! It’s Laura!” Maria’s voice
rang out from upstairs.

Conflicting emotions fought in Sir
Stephan’s eyes, then he said words that I never believed he would
say. “Your invitation is rescinded.”

“No!”

The curtain dropped into place as the
ward took hold and plunged me into the snow. Scrambling to my feet,
I rushed to the house and screamed Laura’s name. I could distinctly
hear her parents welcoming her home and her own sweet voice
answering them.

“Adem, I cannot enter!
Adem!”

His dark form emerged from the misty
darkness of the night. Blood covered him and his face was ghastly
in its sorrow. Grabbing my hand, he dragged me along to the doors
that opened into the garden. Picking up a stone vase, he beat it
against the doors, trying to break them open.

“Laura!” I screamed.
“Laura!”

My vampire senses are a blessing and
curse. Tonight, they were a curse. I heard Laura’s own sweet voice
say in the most chilling tone, “I have not come home to be with
you, but to kill you.”

“Adem,” I gasped. “Hurry!”

The heavy wood door began to splinter
under his assault. I tried to help him, but the ward shoved me off
my feet and into the snow.

As I stood up, I heard the screams
begin.

“Adem!”

The door broke apart in pieces and Adem
pried the remains from the frame. The wind and screams mingled
together in a terrible chorus.

“Hurry,” I urged him.

With a nod, he plunged into the
house.

Pacing back and forth, I listened as
the shrieks above me died. Silence followed. A terrible silence
that ate away at my senses and made me feel mad with dread. I
stopped before the broken door and cried out for Adem.

There was no answer.

The hallway beyond the doorway remained
empty, the flickering candles throwing grotesque shadows along the
walls. I ventured a little closer and tentatively set my foot
inside the house.

The ward was gone.

I gasped as the implication of the
ward’s removal struck me. I took another step, horrified at what I
had wrought upon Laura and her family. A loud thumping noise echoed
through the house then Laura stepped into view. She was dragging
Adem by his collar. Blood covered her face and saturated her white
burial gown and her long dark hair.

“Laura,” I cried out.

Hesitating in her step, she lifted her
head and gazed at me. Calmly, she dropped Adem to the
floor.

“Laura, what have you done?”

“I killed them for you. For me,” she
answered calmly. “They will not hurt either one of us ever
again.”

“Are you mad?”

“No. I am what you are. A vampire,” she
said.

And smiled.

Later-

It was Adem returning to
consciousness that restored any sort of sanity to the situation at
hand. Laura had merely rendered him unconscious when he had barged
in upon her. Despite the fury in his eyes, he calmly surveyed the
damage my vampire fledgling had wrought on the world.

Laura watched us both with some
interest from where she sat in a chair slowly licking the blood
from her fingers. She looked neither crazed nor feral. In fact, she
looked very much like she did when we worked on our
embroidery.

“We had best set about assuring that
her new nature is not discovered. Without Enre this will be
difficult. Stay with her.” Adem shook his head with frustration and
rushed back up the stairs.

I sat with Laura as I listened to Adem
moving about in the upper floors. Most of the servants did not live
within the house, but in another building set to one side of the
estate. But I did fear that the few that did live with the family
had met similar fates to Laura’s parents.

“Madam?” a voice said out of the
gloom.

I stood quickly and looked around the
corner to see the butler and three maids clustered together in the
hallway. They could easily see me from their vantage point, but not
Laura.

“What is going on?” the butler asked,
his eyes as large as saucers.

“Sleep,” I ordered, my power striking
all three like a thunderclap.

They collapsed at my feet.

Abruptly drained, I staggered, falling
against the wall.

“What will you do with them?” Laura
asked me.

“Nothing,” I answered. “And neither
will you.”

“I’m not hungry anymore.” She smiled
slightly. “I wasn’t hungry after I killed that man. I
wasn’t...crazed anymore either.”

I turned to regard her, my anger barely
held in check. “You killed Enre.”

“I didn’t mean to. I mean...” she
faltered. “I meant to kill him. But I wasn’t in my right mind. I
was just so hungry.”

“And after you were done feeding from
him?”

“I wasn’t hungry anymore. Or
mad.”

“Yet, you killed your
parents.”

She smiled. “Yes. I did.”

“Why, Laura? Why?” I stared
at her incredulously. I had wanted so desperately to save her from
death and give her life. I had intended to protect her from all the
horrors I had experienced when Vlad had created me. I did not want
her to lose her family as I had lost mine. Yet, she had butchered
them as coldly as Vlad had killed mine.

Laura twisted her blood
soaked hair about one finger, her eyes regarding me thoughtfully.
At last, she said, “I killed them because I was never anything more
to them than a key to more wealth and prestige. When I was a little
girl, I always knew my brother was the important one. I was always
shunted to the side once he was born. As I grew older, I heard them
talking about securing a wealthy husband for me to ensure that they
would remain in good standing. I was nothing more than a commodity
to them.”

“They loved you. Of that I am certain.”
I felt sickened by her words, yet could understand her frustration.
I had been furious with my parents for insisting that I marry well,
yet I always knew they loved me.

“I am not,” she answered firmly. “I
never felt their love. They were adamant in shaping me into the
perfect bride so that they could infuse more wealth into their
lives. I know my father even arranged for your marriage. I heard
him speaking with the baroness and Vlad Dracula. I know that they
set about entrapping you. Did Dracula make you into a vampire?” She
tilted her head and regarded me curiously.

“Yes. And murdered my family. That is
why I hate him.”

“Ah,” she said, nodding. “At last I
understand why you married him despite being so staunchly opposed
to marriage. So he created you, and you created me.”