The Tale of the Vampire Bride (28 page)

I backed away, holding my hands out to him. “Come no closer! I will not be treated in this manner!”

From the corner of my eye, I saw Ariana seated upon her divan. She watched us, fascinated.

“You do not dictate to me how I treat my own wife!”

“I am not your wife!”

I avoided Vlad’s first swipe of his hand, but the second landed me full in the face. I impacted with a thud on the floor. Kicking furiously, I pummeled his legs with my feet trying to topple him over.

I glanced at Ariana to see her studying her doll. The face was cracked and one of the eyes seemed on the verge of falling out. Did she not care for what was being done to me?

Another blow to my face brought my attention back to Vlad.

“I hate you!”

With a look of absolute joy and dreadful lust, he pinned me to the floor.

“Hate is such a passionate word, my dearest Glynis.” He griped a handful of my hair and pulled my face close to his. “That you hold such passion for me ignites my desire for you.”

“I hate you!”

He smiled with satisfaction. “I know.”

When he entered my body, I screamed in his face with rage. Then I was squirming and fighting beneath him.

“Help me,” I cried out to my sisters in desperation. Of course, there was no response. In the midst of my degradation, my gaze sough them out. I saw that Ariana had joined Cneajna on her bed. Cneajna was busily trying to embroider. Her lips were pursed while her gaze was fastened with great determination upon her work. It was as if my rape was not occurring before their eyes.

“Get off of me!” I slapped Vlad, and he, of course, slapped me back.

Elina entered the room and slowly walked over to where we struggled.

“Help me,” I pleaded with her.

She merely stood over Vlad, watching him thrust into me, her arms crossed across her chest.

Vlad finally finished and sat up.

I thrust out my foot and kicked him in the stomach. He simply backhanded me in response. With princely grace, he stood, adjusted his clothing, and swung his deep auburn hair back from his face.

“I hate you,” I spat at him.

“So you said.” He took particular care to adjust his cuffs, then glanced at Elina.

“Master, if you are done, I have the most urgent news for you.”

“What is it, Elina?”

“There is a carriage approaching the castle.”

Vlad chuckled with delight and whirled about. His long hair swung heavily around him, then settled against his waist. Clutching Elina to him, he swept his gaze over us. “Unannounced guests, my wives! We feast tonight!”

Ariana leapt up from Cneajna’s bed, clapped her hands with delight, before rushing to Vlad to embrace him tightly. He gave her a long, piercing kiss. Laughing, he released her and kissed Elina.

“A feast, my dark one. A feast of blood, rich and dark, to feed your hunger, to feed your beauty,” Vlad said seductively into Elina’s ear.

Ariana joyously danced around them, her long curls swinging around her.

Cneajna stood silently, her eyes gazing at me. I struggled to my knees, cursing Vlad in my thoughts. Vlad moved to her and grabbed hold of her face between his long hands.

“Are you not pleased, my dear first wife? Tonight we feast!”

Cneajna gazed into his brilliant green eyes, smiling. “Oh, of course, my dear husband! Of course I am pleased!” She pressed herself against him, kissing his lips passionately.

“Good! Dress finely. I want our guests to be impressed by your great beauty!” He glanced toward me as I still struggled to overcome the pain of his intercourse and stand. “Get her up and dress her as well. The miserable girl must feed as well. She must remember what it is to be a vampire.” He strode over to me and knocked me onto my back. “Will you not, dear Glynis?”

“I will not feed,” I hissed back.

“What did you say? You will not feed? Are you still refusing to answer the hunger? How many days has it been since you last fed? You can barely heal yourself you are so weakened.”

I averted my eyes. “A week.”

“Ah, the child! Did you not feed from the hunter…ah…five days ago? Or the lovely young woman I found lost in the forest three days ago?”

“She fed from neither,” Elina said with disgust. “She refused and ran off to hide in the dungeon. More for us, I told her.”

Vlad growled at me. “Why are you so tediously stubborn about this, Glynis?”

The week had been a horrible struggle. To not feed has been desperately hard, but I remained determined.

“Yes, why are you so stubborn?” Elina asked snidely. “Do enlighten us.”

I looked up, raised my chin, and said in a fierce voice, “I despise you! I hate you! I will never be what you are!”

Vlad began to laugh, obviously very amused by my words. “You are so painfully pathetic, Glynis. You are what I am and there is no denying it no matter how much you hide behind your English arrogance. You are a vampire. You are a killer.”

Gritting my teeth, I rolled over and pushed myself to my knees. “I will not feed. I would rather die than please you.”

Vlad chuckled with delight. “Oh, you will feed. You will. Now, I must prepare for our guests.”

With that, he simply vanished from the room.

Ariana spun about in her wild dance, singing to herself. Elina just smirked and strode away. Cneajna came to help me rise to my feet.

“You will feed,” Cneajna said softly. “You will. There is no other choice.”

And as I write this I fear her words are true and I am damned. But I shall remain here in our empty chambers and refuse to feed. For I will not be the monster Vlad wishes me to be. I cannot give into the hunger. I just cannot.

The Journal of Lady Glynis Wright

The Castle

Same night-

Can I confess to what has happened? Yes, I must. I must. I must write down all that is happening to me. I must retain my humanity despite this dreadful place. Let this be my confession, for I have sinned, and I fear there is no absolution.

Soon after my defilement, Vlad left me to change from my tattered dress into something more appropriate. I had been ordered to join my sisters in waiting for his summons. Instead, I crawled up onto the ledge of one of the windows overlooking the courtyard and perched there to watch the events unfold below.

Vlad greeted the guests warmly, invited them in, and entertained them in the great hall. Cneajna dressed in a beautiful gown, obviously the proud possession of one of Vlad’s former victims, and had accompanied Vlad as his wife. Elina and Ariana had been beside themselves, their excitement ghoulishly joyful. They had left to wander the shadows soon after the guests had settled in to their last supper.

I remained behind, perched in the window, afraid if I bore witness to the slaughter, the hunger would overcome me. I watched as the gypsy men led the horses to the stables and the gypsy women dragged the heavy traveling cases of Vlad’s victims into the castle. I knew the trunks were not for Vlad’s guests, but for the Brides to pick over once the guests were dead and gone.

So I waited.

Strangely, I had been dangerously close to accepting this world and all it offered. I have to admit I enjoyed feasting on the gypsy girl. I could feel the sheer glory of the power of the blood within me. I had reveled in it.

It was only when Vlad brought us the child that I realized I could go no further into this darkness. It was that night I decided that I would fight the hunger until the madness descended and forced Vlad to destroy me. I did not know if my soul would find peace in heaven or torment in hell, but I did not care. I had to escape. I had promised my Mother, and death, though not quite what she had planned for me, was an escape.

All these thoughts flitted through my mind as I curled up in the window and stared over the mountains. I could feel the hunger gnawing at my bones, ripping at my mind, demanding to be quenched. The weakness in my body was almost pleasurable. It spoke of defeat of the vampire within me.

Then…

A horrendous scream rent the night air.

I gasped, shivered, and dug my fingers into my palms.

The slaughter had begun.

Then…

Another scream.

Vlad’s roar of pleasure.

The sly laughter of my vampire sisters.

Terrified shrieks.

I clawed at my hair with my fingers: my stomach quivering, clenching, and demanding. I flung myself from the window onto the floor.

“No! No! I cannot listen!”

I lay in a heap shaking violently. The hunger descended upon me with all its fury, ripping at me, biting at me, demanding, needing. I curled into a tight little ball, my hair covering my face in long, red curls. Hands over my ears, I struggled not to hear the death cries echoing through the halls of the castle. The hunger built up within me, spreading into my limbs, becoming a fire of dark desire licking at me. The all-consuming desire to feed was upon me.

“No…no…” I whispered into my hair and pounded the floor with one fist. “No!”

The poor travelers at Vlad’s mercy were just like my family. Innocent, stupid mortals who had no earthly reason to believe they would be feasted on by vampires if they stopped for the night at an old castle. I wept for them, for I understood their naivete, and I mourned their deaths. But I would not feed! I would not feed on the innocent!

But strange, intoxicating music was wafting through the room, foreign and exotic, pulling on me as much as the hunger did. I had never heard such music before. It was seductive, yet harsh to my ears.

Crying out, I fought the hunger even as I felt my body seizing as it responded to the bizarre combination of the music and my blood lust.

Softly murmuring voices floated about me as the sweet smell of blood filled my nostrils. Struggling against the intoxicating lure of the feast below, I writhed on the floor. I moaned as the fire in my limbs consumed me. As though I had no will over my own body, I rose slowly to my knees. Leaning forward, pressing my forehead against the cold stones of the floor, I tried to block out the exotic music, the sweet, coppery tangy fragrance of blood, and the uncontrollable hunger assailing my senses.

“Please, I cannot. I cannot, please…” I murmured.

The hunger burned through my body. I could feel my fangs, long and sharp, against my lips, and I yearned to feel them slipping into the soft, smooth flesh of a mortal.

The whispering voices seemed to flow about me, calling my name in hushed tones. I could feel the call to feed. I felt the great need to soothe my torment. To release myself to the pleasure of the feast.

I threw back my head, my hair falling about me like a great red curtain, and cried out. My eyes felt hot and burned with tears as my body trembled with the passion for blood.

I was losing myself to the hunger.

The music seduced my body. I felt myself twisting to the exotic drums as I closed my eyes and let it consume my will. The voices swirled about me, whispering in maddening voices of the feast below. The sweet smell of blood seemed to fill my every breath.

Throwing back my head and arms, my body rose slowly upwards. The air lifted me up, caressed me, and enticed me as it carried me from the chamber. Through half-closed eyes, I could see the torches brightly burning in the corridor. I released myself to the power, feeling languid and weightless, as I was carried by the air to the feast. My dress fluttered around me as I was pulled downward, past darkened doorways and crumbling walls.

The music was growing more passionate as I floated in dizzying swoops and turns to the feast that awaited me. My hands grazed the walls and floors as my body twisted through the castle. I licked my fangs in anticipation as the sweet smells from below enticed me.

The Brides’ voices reached me, their joyous laughter and singing echoing through the corridors. I opened my eyes slowly from my swoon as I passed through the doorway into the ancient banquet hall. Here the music was loud and crazed, the laughter harsh, and the smell of blood overpowering.

“And now you join us,” Vlad said, laughing.

I floated to the center of the room and slowly rotated there. Through the veil of my hair I could see the bodies surrounding me, impaled on long, thick stakes. Some of the travelers were already dead and others were in the midst of their tortured death throes. Blood flowed freely from their horrendous wounds, a lake of thick, fresh blood forming on the floor before Vlad’s throne.

Cneajna, Ariana and Elina were dancing about in a circle, their gowns flowing out about them. There were dipping their hands into the blood and licking it from their fingers or letting the dark, red blood drizzle into their open mouths. Elina laughed evilly as she thrust her hands into the gaping wound of a still living man. Cupping the fresh blood in her palms, she lifted them over her head and let the dark vampire wine dribble over her face.

I was quivering as my mind tried to cope with the horror and gore I saw around me. The desire to feed overwhelmed me. I pressed my hands against my eyes.