The Vampire Queen (8 page)

“Countess, I believe in goodness, freedom, pure vampires, and you.
If
you choose the right path this time, and it seems you are heading down that path, now, then my allegiance is with you,” he said.

“You said I have ‘so much more to learn’. Who can teach me? Who can I trust to teach me the good way and not the evil way? People look at me and wish they were me, but being me is hard.
Very
hard, sometimes.” She stopped walking, put her head in her hands, and started to sob. Alexos moved toward her and wrapped his arms around her. She felt her face go into his chest, and it felt nice. In his mind, she could see his genuine concern and compassion for her.

“Shhhh. There, there,” he said. “It will be all right. I suppose I could stay on longer and teach you these things you need to know,” he said.

“Really?” came the muffled voice from his chest.

“Yes,” he said. “Someone reliable has to do it,” he replied.

Mission accomplished,
the Countess thought to herself.

Chapter Twenty

The next evening, Kendra and the Countess were walking through the grand ballroom, when the Countess stopped. She pushed open the curtains and motioned for Kendra to follow. They went outside and down a sandstone staircase on the side of the castle. It came out on a side of the castle the contractors had not yet started working on. There was a beautiful veranda with purple lights and a blanket laid out on the ground underneath it.

“Have a seat,” the Countess invited. Kendra seemed surprised but sat down on the ground, anyway. The Countess pulled a picnic basket from underneath one of the benches and opened it. She pulled out two wine goblets and a bottle of wine. She poured the wine and handed a goblet to Kendra. The Countess took a sip of hers and put it down on the bench next to her.

“I’ve missed you,” she confessed, smiling at Kendra.

“I thought I did something wrong. You’ve been keeping me out of the loop on everything.” Kendra’s eyes started to tear up.

“The guys have insisted. I’ve begged them, stating you’re my best friend, but they wouldn’t hear of it,” she explained. She wiped a couple of tears from Kendra’s cheeks.

“Please, forgive me,” the Countess pleaded. She leaned into Kendra, and their lips touched in a very soft kiss.

Despite her new mistrust of Kendra with regard to important matters, they still had their friendship pact, and she was still attracted to her. There was just something about Kendra that she desired, and she could read from Kendra’s mind the feeling was mutual.

“Drink some more wine, Sweetie,” the Countess encouraged, refilling the goblets. That was how the night proceeded. Drinking, laying on the blanket, and kissing. Nothing sexual happened, but it didn’t need to. Finally, it was time to go inside.

“Countess?” Kendra asked.

“Yes,” she replied.

“Do you think, just for tonight, we could forget the pajamas and hold each other’s naked bodies close to each other? Just this once, I mean. Nothing sexual. Just to cuddle and for the closeness?” Kendra asked.

“That would be magical. Yes, Kendra. I would like that very much,” the Countess responded, filled with a calm delight.

When the Countess awoke the next evening, Kendra was already out of bed. She fondly remembered the closeness they felt and smiled. She rang for Coletta to advise that she wanted a bath. While in the tub, Coletta could not stop talking about “that sexy Señor Alexos”. The Countess thought it was cute.

“Where is he this evening?” the Countess asked Coletta.

“Oh. He whisked away Ms. Kendra to his private yacht for a few days on a whim,” she said. “I sensed some chemistry between them,” she smiled. Instantly, the Countess dropped her wine glass onto the floor next to the tub.

“Oh, Countess. Are you ok? I will get that cleaned up and bring you a new glass right away,” Coletta apologized.

“See that you do,” the Countess replied coldly.

How could Kendra go from sharing a night like that with her to being with Alexos on his yacht, today? She understood Alexos had to get her out to build the panic rooms, but Kendra could have left a note or something. The Countess was hurt both by this man who was going to be her King and was “entertaining” on his yacht and by this woman whom she just shared an intimate night with and was also supposed to be her best friend. Maybe she wasn’t faking it when she told Alexos it’s not easy being her.
I take it back about him not being rude. It was rude to just take her from my bed. How dare he!
the Countess thought to herself angrily. Coletta reappeared with a full glass of wine. The Countess gulped it down and held it out for a refill.

The next few days, the Count noticed the Countess seemed very sullen. She stayed in her bed chamber most of the time and rarely smiled. He tried what he could, but nothing worked.

“Want to go dress shopping?” he suggested.

“No,” was her reply.

“Want to go into town and go dancing?” he asked.

“No,” again was her reply.

“Do you want to do
anything
other than sit here and mope around?” he said sarcastically.

“Not really,” she sighed.

“I give up,” he said, and he left.
Good,
she thought to herself.
I’m tired of his 20 questions.
She wasn’t even glad for the company, because it was not his company she wanted. She longed for Kendra or Alexos. Either would do. Just then, Kendra came skipping down the stairs.

“Countess, I’m back!” she yelled.

“Finally,” the Countess mumbled. “There have been two attempts on my life, and Angelina came back,” she said.

“Really?” said Kendra, sounding only half-shocked.

“No. Just kidding. I missed you,” and the Countess jumped out of bed to hug Kendra.

“You had me going there for a minute,” Kendra giggled.

“Why didn’t you leave me a note?” the Countess asked.

“I didn’t have time,” Kendra explained.

Little did the Countess know that Angelina and one of the “Others” were stopped earlier that night by one of the outside devices Alexos had personally created, and the Count was showing the videotape of it to Alexos at that moment.

Chapter Twenty-One

The following evening, Alexos and the Countess were taking their usual surveillance walk around the outside of the premises, but the atmosphere between them was strained. The Countess was unusually quiet, which Alexos noticed, but he was caught up in the things that were either incomplete or destroyed from the previous night’s actions by Angelina.

“I can’t believe they didn’t get to this, yet. I expressed the importance of its completion while I was gone, and it’s still not done!” he ranted.

“Good help is hard to find,” she mocked.

“This was my best work, and it was damaged in last night’s...” he trailed off, looking sheepish. “Never mind,” he said at last.

“Last night’s what?” the Countess demanded.

“I can’t tell you. The Count made me promise,” he pleaded.

“I don’t care about the Count!” she shrieked. “What happened?”

“Angelina and some of the ‘Others’ came here last night and tried to get in. They were deterred by my outside security, so they never reached the castle. The Count has it all on videotape. Please don’t tell him I told you,” he begged.

How convenient again that when Kendra was not here, the castle was attacked,
was all the Countess could think to herself. She looked like she was a million miles away when Alexos spoke again.

“I’m glad I had at least
some
of those devices in place,” he said.

“How convenient you take Kendra’s naked body from my bed and whisk her off for several days of fun with you, while I’m stuck here, alone. I hope you enjoyed her,” the Countess snapped at him.

“It wasn’t like that. Besides, you are getting too close to Kendra. You even said yourself that you have doubts about her, and then you do that. A Queen
cannot
rule solely with her heart. She will be blindsided and killed,” he explained.

“You just want Kendra for yourself. Admit it!” the Countess snapped again.

“First of all, she’s not my type. Secondly, we already had this discussion that we would have to distract her to get the panic rooms built. Well, they are built, and the Count has them stocked and ready for you,” he stated.

“Oh, I forgot about that,” she said flatly.

“So, are we good now?” he asked.

“Yes,” she mumbled. “When are we going to start all this learning you said I need to do?” she asked.

“Since it’s getting late, you may ask one question, and then we will start full force tomorrow,” he suggested.

Just one question,
she thought to herself. “Why do some vampires have tainted blood, and others do not?” she asked, feeling rather foolish for not knowing the answer.

“Excellent question, since one of your goals is to cleanse those with tainted blood according to your speech in my home. Ok. If a vampire is made out of love, for true companionship, or born to a mother that has been bitten, its blood will be untainted or pure. If a vampire is created for evil, to form an army, to quickly create vast numbers of vampires, or so that a dead body is not found thus them being discovered, this leaves those vampires with tainted blood. Understand?” he asked. She nodded her head “yes”. “Good. Now, get some sleep, and I will see you tomorrow,” he said and left the Countess sitting there, contemplating everything he had told her.

She had tasted Kendra’s blood, and it was not tainted. As unsure as she was about her and the evil surrounding her, she refused to believe that Kendra was created for evil based on the untainted blood. That leaves only one explanation. Kendra was created by another vampire out of love, but the Countess questioned by whom. She was curious to find out, since she could not just come straight out and ask. Or could she?

Chapter Twenty-Two

The Countess was in the tub, and Kendra was sitting in a chair by the door. The Countess had been sipping her wine, trying to get the courage up to ask Kendra about her maker. Finally, she put the glass down.

“Kendra,” she asked quietly.

“Yes, Countess,” she jumped up with a towel ready.

“No, no. Have a seat. I have a question for you,” the Countess replied.

“Oh. Ok,” Kendra said as she sat back down.

“Do you remember your maker? The one who made you a vampire,” the Countess asked gently. Kendra shifted in her seat uneasily and looked down for a long time. When she looked back up, she had tears in her eyes.

“If it’s too painful, forget I asked,” the Countess said.

“No. It’s ok. It was my father. I never knew his secret until I got older. One day, we were getting ready to go into a battle that was almost certain defeat. He said he had already lost his sons and didn’t want to lose me, too. He said he had a special gift for me. That’s when he bit me, and I became a vampire,” she sobbed. When she finished, the Countess could read from her mind that she had just made the story up.
So much for finding out the truth,
she thought to herself.

That evening, the Countess and Alexos did their outside tour, and almost everything was complete. Then, they went into the backyard and sat on the two-person swing, swaying silently. Finally, the Countess could take it no longer. “Ok. Tell me the story of me, and start from the beginning. Oh, and leave nothing out.” Alexos chuckled at her impatience but started.

“Before you, there is no recorded history,” he said.

“What?!” she shouted.

“Are you going to let me tell you what I know or not?” he asked.

“I guess. Go on,” she mumbled disappointedly.

“You are our ‘Ancient One’. That is why there is such a struggle for control over you. The ‘Others’ believe if they have you on their side, they can rule the world through fear, death, destruction, rage...all things they have convinced you in past lives that you can be. On the good side, though, there are far less of us who know what’s in your heart and know you don’t want to be those things. Angelina has been your enemy since day one. She believes she is the ‘Ancient One’, and they don’t need you, so it has been her mission to destroy you and take over. Rumor has it that Kendra has been her lover and spy all these years,” he stated sadly, shaking his head.

“No…,” she whispered. “Not my Kendra. It’s not possible,” the Countess said in disbelief.

“Yes, Countess. It is,” he said solemnly. “Put the events together, and you will see it,” he explained gently. The Countess was crushed. Even though she had suspected somewhere in the back of her mind, his saying it made it real. She felt like her chest had caved in, her heart had been broken, her entire body had turned colder than usual, and breathing was damn near impossible.

“The Count and I thought it would be a good idea to send Kendra back to Angelina during your last lessons, so she could not sabotage them, report back on them, or distract you. Only with your permission of course, Countess,” he added.

“Get her out of my castle,” was all the Countess managed to whisper.