The Tale of the Vampire Bride (10 page)

“Please, let me go,” I pleaded with them. My strength was gone. “Please, let me go.”

They led me on as they would a small child.

It was then I heard my father cry out and my mother began to scream. I fell to the ground, my heart shattering within me. I knew that Prince Vlad had murdered my father.

For a short moment, the gypsies released my arms. I buried my face in my hands, rocking before them. Their faces showed no emotion as my mother’s screams grew louder and rang throughout the castle.

As the low, seductive laughter of Prince Vlad swelled up from below us, they reached down and drew me to my feet.

“Please, please,” I begged.

But there was no mercy for me. I was taken far from the staircase and deep into the castle. So deep, my mother’s screams faded away.

This was madness! Madness!

I must be mad, I thought. This could not be happening! And yet, it was.

The gypsies tore my clothes from my body and forced me into a tub of water where they set about roughly bathing me. I let them do as they pleased as I wept, my tears falling into the cold water. My body shuddered with my tormented sobs. I was drawn from the water and laid on the floor. They dried me with huge rough cloths.

“Stop crying,” one of them finally said in English.

“My father…”

“He never should have defied the Prince,” she answered. Her strong fingers gripped my damp hair and she looked fiercely into my eyes. “Always do as he tells you. Always.”

Together, they pulled me to my feet and led me into another chamber. It was there they dressed me in a fine white nightgown of purest silk and brushed out my long hair.

I sat with my hands in my lap as they tugged at my curls, shaping them with their hands and brushes. My face hurt from crying, and the tears were now just a mere trickle down my cheeks. It hurt to breathe and it hurt to ponder the terrible events of the night. I did not want to think or feel. I sat and stared at a crack in the stone floor, ignoring the women around me.

The gypsies finished preparing me for whatever horrible plans the Prince had for me, and led me to the bedchamber I had slept in the two nights before. They left me there to wait for him. I covered my face with my hands and trembled in terror.

I wanted to die and join my father in heaven. But, alas, I knew I was not going to die. I was going to wait. I was going to wait in that awful, cold room where terrible nightmares had plagued me. I was going to wait for the monster that called himself Prince Vlad.

So, reluctantly, I waited in trembling silence.

Trying to calm my wildly beating heart, I began to recite the Lord's Prayer.

As midnight approached and my fear deepened, I stood watch in the dusty, dark bedchamber, listening to the distant cries of wolves. Shivering in my flimsy nightgown, pale with fear and despair, I waited.

I could not let myself ponder the fate of my family anymore. If I did, I would go surely mad. I had to wait and see what horror the Prince would visit upon me. In my heart, I wanted him to kill me as he had my Father. I knew that I would never escape this place except to die. I also knew he would come tonight. I had seen it in his eyes. The way those dark green eyes had rested on me with unholy lust had been a promise. A dark, evil promise.

I held my hands close to my breast, listening to the awful ragged sound of my own tortured breathing. The night was full of shadows and half-heard whispers. It was as if the very darkness had sprung to life, reaching for me, trying to claim me.

Outside the one long narrow window, the moon was full, glowing a pale unearthly light. It washed the mountains in a pale blue light, creating chilling shadows.

There was no comfort to be found.

The words of the Lord’s Prayer faded from my dry lips. Fear finally robbed me of my voice. Even my body was paralyzed. My only movement was the nervous rocking of my body as I stood in the center of the bed chamber waiting. Waiting for the Prince. Waiting for my fate. Waiting to endure whatever evil the Prince had designed for me.

“Glynis, Glynis, sweet Glynis…”

A voice soft, sweet, and seductive whispered through the night. It was a woman’s voice that was ever so softly crying out my name.

“Who is there?”

Desperately, my eyes flicked about the room, searching for the source of the siren song.

“Dearest sister of the night,” the voice whispered, tinged with an accent.

“Who is there?” My voice was barely audible to my own ears. “Reveal yourself,.” I said in a louder voice.

“We are here.”

Before my eyes, the moonlight pouring through the window shimmered and brightened. As it grew brighter and brighter, it molded into three distinct columns of light. I watched in terrified fascination as the light faded to reveal three very beautiful women dressed in gossamer gowns as pure and white as the moonlight. Each had long, voluminous hair that fell below their waists. Exotic, foreign jewelry was twisted into their tresses and decorated their pale throats and limbs. Their eyes were like jewels, hard, sparkling, and deep. Their skin was as pale as the moonlight. Lips red as the darkest wine smiled at me with secret smiles. Two were as dark and exotic in looks as the Prince. The third woman was blond and regal in her appearance.

I recognized them from my nightmare. Now I knew it was no mere dream.

My body began to shake violently as I stared at them. I knew now that father had been wrong. There were many things in this world that were not natural. These creatures were of a realm I had not known existed and they terrified me.

“Dearest sister,” the blond woman said softly in her musical voice, “as with every Bride, the time of your making by the Master has come.”

“You were in my room before. I thought it was a dream, but you were here, were you not?” My voice was tremulous. “Who are you?”

“My Brides,” a dark, deep familiar voice said.

The very sound of Prince Vlad’s voice made my knees buckle. Tears sprung once more to my raw eyes.

The shadows in the darkest corner of the chamber unfurled to reveal the dark image of a man. That horrible face emerged from the darkness as Prince Vlad stepped into the flickering firelight.

My terror rose and released my body from its frozen state. “No, please, no.” I stumbled backwards from him, my heart beating so violently it felt as if it would burst.

The Brides moved around me, their languid movements seductively graceful, yet menacing.

“The time has come for you to join my Brides, my love,” the Prince said in a low tone. His dark green eyes were burning with such intensity that they captured my very soul in an iron grip.

“No,” I moaned.

“You are most honored, my flame haired Bride.”

The Brides were whispering among themselves in a strange foreign tongue. One of the dark haired women reached out to caress my hair. I pulled away from her, alarmed, and stumbled into the arms of the blond woman. She pressed her cheek against mine and whispered, “Dearest sister, your lovely hair has brought you life instead of death. It enchants him. As does your beauty and your spirit.”

I pulled away from her. But Vlad was drawing near, driving me back toward the three women.

“What are you that you can appear from the shadows?” I cried out. I could not stop my shivering. I was so cold, so afraid. My teeth chattered. I hugged myself tightly. The Brides frightened me, but Vlad terrified me. The cold, soft hands of the Brides slid over my body. I twisted away from them and almost fell. They gathered me up and pulled me into the midst of them.

I cried out in fear as their cold bodies pressed against mine. “What are you?”

“I am Vlad Tepish. Dracula. I am Immortal. I am a Prince. I am your new Master.”

I again saw those sharp teeth behind his red lips, and I shrank back in fear. The Brides stroked my hair, my face, my arms, whispering to me, their lips sometimes brushing my skin. One of the brunettes softly kissed my cheek and spoke to me in a gentle voice.

“She says not to be afraid of us, for soon you shall be one of us,” the blond woman translated.

Though I was shaking I tried to put my feet beneath me and stand my ground. I pushed my arms and hands outward, pushing them away from me. The Brides released me and stepped back as Vlad motioned them away from me.

“These are your sisters, my love. They will care for you as you change.”

“I do not understand any of this!”

Vlad smiled ever so slyly. “You are mine forever, my dearest Glynis. I am giving you the gift of immortality. I am going to make you my Bride. A vampire.”

“This is madness!”

In a panic, I ran to the window, my bare feet slipping on the stone floor. Instantly, the Brides were upon me. They seized me with their long fingers, pulling me back from the window. I almost fell as I spun away from them. Vlad caught me. I stared into his face in horror as he smiled, revealing those long fangs.

The blond Bride took hold of me and dragged me away from him. For a moment, I thought she intended to whisk me away, then the other two grabbed hold of me. With horror, I realized they were dragging me to the musty, old bed.

“No! Please, no! Please, no!” My shrieks filled the room as I fought against them, but they were obviously far more powerful.

The wolves outside began to howl. The Brides were strong and their grip sure. As much as I struggled, I could not break free. Tears were streaming down my face, but they took no notice.

The Brides dragged me onto the bed, managing to crawl across the covers like spiders, their movements bizarre and inhuman. They never lost their grip and maneuvered around me in a frightening ballet. The two dark haired Brides knelt at my sides while the blond bride knelt near my head.

“Come, my Master, the time has come,” she said in a low, excited voice. Her eyes were sparkling and fever-bright as she combed my hair back from my face and neck with her fingers.

The other two Brides echoed her breathlessly in their foreign tongue.

“No!”

The fire flashed brilliantly, then died to low embers. The women clustered around me, their long hair brushing over my body as their eyes burned like coals in the darkness. The Prince was nowhere to be seen. My eyes anxiously scanned the room for him, but he was gone. I sobbed with relief, hoping desperately that my unsaid prayers had been answered and he had fled.

To my absolute horror, he seemed to rise out of the very floor at the end of the bed to stand over us. He smiled his malevolent, seductive smile and rose onto the bed without moving one limb. With a burst of energy, I began to kick and twist about, thrashing about madly. The iron grip of the Brides would not give, and the Bride brushing my hair slapped me soundly. My head swam as I moaned in pain and fear. I could not bear to see Vlad crawling toward me with lust in his eyes. The Brides were whispering in madly soft voices, obviously urging him on. Their eyes, too, were wild and excited, their ruby lips pulled back from sharp glistening teeth.

Those teeth, those horrible, long, white teeth!

The Prince’s long body was over mine and he tore his shirt from his chest. His long hair fell over his shoulder in long dark waves as his eyes burned with red fire.

“Now. Now is the time, dear Glynis.”

I screamed at him and shut my eyes. The world seemed to explode around me, voices mingling with the howls of the wolves, shadows and fire playing against my closed eyelids. His long hair fell all around me as he pushed my nightgown over my thighs. I kept screaming “no” and refusing to look at him as I felt his hands sliding roughly over me.

“I had planned to seduce you, my little one, but you have forced me to take you this way,” he said in a low voice, trying to kiss me.

I whipped my head back and forth, trying to evade him. This only made him angry and more determined.

When he entered me, an all-consuming pain erupted with me. He took me with such violent passion that my screams diminished all other sound. I twisted under him, but he gripped my waist tightly as I arched my back, crying out to my mother, my father, God and all the saints.

This was not how it was supposed to happen. I was to be seduced by Lord Byron in a fancy villa in Rome. It was to be beautiful and passionate. Not like this. Not this pain, this degradation. This horrible taking of my body and spirit.

His teeth descended into my neck with such savagery all other pain was drowned. I could feel nothing, but his teeth ripping into my throat. I struggled to get my hands free to push his horrible head away from my throat, but the strong hands of the Brides kept me prisoner. Their long sharp nails pierced my wrists, spilling more of my blood onto the bedclothes.

All I felt was pain, horrible excruciating pain. No matter how savagely I fought, his body continued to ride mine while his teeth penetrated more deeply. I could feel his mouth working hard against the wound, drinking in my blood, my precious lifeblood. I could feel him drawing all of it deep into him as my limbs grew weaker and cold.

“That is enough!” The blond Bride shoved him back from my throat. “Take no more lest she die.”