VROLOK (30 page)

The next witnesses who were called were family members of the girls who had disappeared. They related stories about their grief and the abhorrent crimes to which they suspected their daughters had fallen foul. There were so many of them.

While these testimonies were being given, Vlad and Isabella moved among the crowd, whispering randomly into the ears of the onlookers, “
Look at Katalin, how ill she looks
,” Isabella was repeating. “
Dorottya, Ilona and Ficzkó, they are the guilty ones. They should be punished; Katalin is just a victim in this
.” The pair spent all day whispering similar sentiments to each person with whom they came in contact and by the end of the first day it was working. Sympathy was growing for Katalin, but Isabella had one final trick up her sleeve for that day. Katalin was called up to the stand and as she slowly climbed the stairs to take her place. Isabella whispered.

“
Faint, Katalin, faint
.”

Katalin was compelled to act. She fell against the front of the crowd that filled the room, and the crowd gasped. Several gentlemen rushed to help her to her feet. Vlad and Isabella held back as they heard the crowd whispering among themselves. Voices murmured “poor Katalin” and similar sentiments echoed throughout the crowd. The Vampires’ plan was working. Weeks later Dorottya, Ilona and Erzsébet were to testify.

Dorottya and Erzsébet had stronger wills than the others. A whisper of influence would not ensure their compliance. The night before they were to testify, Isabella visited Dorottya’s and Ilona’s prison cell, while Vlad visited Erzsébet’s. Isabella entered their cell and found Dorottya sitting in the corner petrified. Ilona was too naive to be terrified and was sleeping soundly. Ilona was not much more than a child herself. Isabella decided not to wake her; she sensed that the young girl would do anything Dorottya told her to do. Dorottya, on seeing Isabella, pleaded for her life.

“You are both going to die,” Isabella replied to her pleading.

“No,” shouted Dorottya, rocking back and forth in a nervous state. “We were coerced, we are the victims here,” Dorottya said “Erzsébet and Katalin forced us to do these things.”

Isabella actually believed Dorottya. There was sincerity in her voice that was missing from Katalin’s. Isabella had heard all these people blame the rest, but not themselves. Dorottya, however, was the first one she had heard that she was even tempted to believe, and she was not just speaking for herself, she was speaking for Ilona. None of the others had shown any compassion for anyone else. But Isabella knew that they both could not be spared.

“Dorottya, you witnessed terrible acts. Why did you not do anything?” Isabella asked.

“I couldn’t do anything about it! I was being held against my will.” This Isabella did not believe. She knew that Dorottya’s crimes were at their worst playing a full part in the torture of the girls and at their best she had been guilty of nothing more than standing idly by and letting them die. Dorottya, unlike Katalin, would have to pay her debt to the victims. The mob needed blood and retribution. And she and Ilona were the women who probably had the least role in these events, but they too would have to pay the ultimate price.

“I cannot save you, Dorottya, nor Ilona,” Isabella continued.

“Oh, please,” Dorottya pleaded.

“I can’t,” Isabella confirmed. “But what I can do is ensure that you and Ilona do not suffer. You have seen the mob outside. You know you are both going to die. I can ensure that your deaths are as painless as possible. That is all I can possibly offer you.”

“No, help us!” wept Dorottya in anguish.

“You have to have courage, because that is what is going to happen,” Isabella said. She was losing patience. “You know that you will be burned if no one interferes on your behalf. You couldn’t imagine what that pain feels like,” she said. One of Isabella’s many aptitudes was borrowing pain. She remembered Vincente’s pain. She touched Dorottya’s head and Dorottya felt her skin burning for just a few seconds, but it was enough. Isabella let her go and she reeled back in pain.

“I cannot go through that!” Dorottya exclaimed.

“If you do not do exactly as I say, you and Ilona will feel every moment of it. I will make sure you do,” Isabella warned.

Dorottya was still shaking; she looked up at Isabella, tears streaming down her face, still trembling from the pain she had felt. “What do you want me to do?” she said.

“Firstly, you must never admit to having ever seen me, and you must convince Ilona of the same. If you betray me, you will be burned.”

Dorottya nodded in compliance and asked, “What else?”

“You must confess to everything; you must state that you Ilona and Erzsébet are solely responsible and that you kept Katalin as your prisoner. You continually tortured her… Katalin is blameless.”

“Why are you saving Katalin?” Dorottya asked.

“That is not your concern. Will you do as I ask?” Dorottya hesitated. So Isabella let her feel Vicente’s pain one more time. Isabella held the back of Dorottya’s hair so that she was pulling her head upwards. “Will you do what I ask?” Isabella reaffirmed.

“Yes!” shouted Dorottya in anguish.

“Good… I promise that if you follow my instructions you will feel no more pain.”

Isabella left Dorottya’s cell and could not resist going to Erzsébet’s to see how Vlad was convincing her to confess. She crept down the hall and looked in. Isabella listened to what Vlad was saying.

Vlad had entered Erzsébet’s cell and at first she did not recognise him but when he spoke she instantly remembered.

“Erzsébet,” Vlad began.

“My love,” Erzsébet began she was as dramatic as ever. “Why didn’t you follow me all those years ago? You have left me alone for twenty years, why?”

“It is the hardest thing I ever had to do,” Vlad lied, telling Erzsébet exactly what she wanted to hear.

“It was?”

Vlad by this time realised Isabella was listening.

“Yes, Erzsébet.”

“Then why do it? I would have left my husband for you in an instant.”

“I know, but I could not condemn you to live as I do.”

“I wanted to! I loved you.”

“I know you did, but I didn’t want condemn you to a life of living off the blood of others… but now I see it may not have been such a hardship,” Vlad said dryly. “I am going to tell you the secret. You don’t bathe in blood. You must feed on blood, but first you have to drink the blood of a Vampire.”

“Are you a Vampire?”

“I am.” Erzsébet leaped forward and tried to break Vlad’s skin with her teeth. Vlad caught her before she could touch him. Vlad and Isabella both realised that this woman was completely insane.

“Not yet, be patient. I want you to do something for me first and then I will give you your youth, and when I give someone youth they never lose it again.”

“What do you want me to do? I will do anything; I just want to be young and beautiful again.”

“You will be, but first you have to confess to the killings of the girls. I want you to say Katalin is innocent.”

“Why?”

“Because Katalin is my brother’s descendant, I have an obligation to her and my family, and it is my wish. After the trial I will make you young again, but you must do this for me.”

“I will do anything you say.” Erzsébet crawled over to Vlad and rested her head on his chest. Vlad lifted up his hand and started to stroke her hair. Isabella who was still watching was struck by pangs of jealousy. Erzsébet looked up into Vlad’s eyes and moved herself up to kiss him. Vlad leaned down to greet her lips but Isabella was sickened; she had seen enough of this tainted love scene. She ran back to the guards and whispered to them.

“I think there is an intruder in Erzsébet’s cell.”

“Who are you?” shouted one of the guards.

“Never mind who I am, go arrest the intruder,” Isabella demanded. Erzsébet and Vlad were disturbed by the sound of the guards running up the corridor.

Vlad kissed Erzsébet on the forehead and said, “I have to go.” He transformed himself into a mist and seeped out through the window of the room. When the guards came in, he was gone.

“Who is with you?” the guards shouted.

“No one,” replied Erzsébet. “Why would you think anyone was here?” The guards looked at each other. They had no idea why they expected to see someone with Erzsébet. They walked back up the corridor scratching their heads, completely bemused.

Isabella was waiting for Vlad when she saw the mist floating down towards where she was standing below. Vlad re-emerged and Isabella threw him a cloak.

“How did it go?” she asked.

“I think you know—I heard you scratching at the door.” Isabella smiled; he knew her so well. “How did it go with your charges?”

“I am not sure. I think we may have trouble with Dorottya.”

“Well, we will both attend the trial tomorrow to make sure all goes according to our plan,” Vlad answered.

The next day Erzsébet’s testimony was delivered as directed. After speaking, she sat and caught sight of Vlad in the crowd. She smiled on seeing him and he returned her smile, nodding to acknowledge her. This ensured her compliance.

Ilona walked up to the stand she looked back at Isabella and Isabella whispered, “
Do everything that Dorottya told you to do
.” Ilona was compliant.

Dorottya approached the stand very nervously. Isabella was watching her every move and so was Vlad. Dorottya started off well but she was not as confident in her statement as Erzsébet or Ilona. Her answers were clumsy and disjointed, but she was relaying the story as planned. Isabella still had her veil on to keep from being recognised.

There was growing tension in the room because the crowd that had been gathering outside for days were by this time baying for blood. They had started to throw things at the windows of the castle. Every time one of rocks thudded against the wall, Dorottya would jump in fear and her eyes would dart about the room. The nobles in the court room were also getting more and more agitated. The crowd outside had now reached over a thousand people and they were all seeking retribution.

A rock suddenly broke the glass window. It flew past Isabella’s head, knocking her hat off, and consequently, her veil fell to the floor. The rock ricocheted off Isabella and struck Dorottya on the head. Dorottya fell. She rubbed her forehead where she had been struck and looked at the blood on her hand. She pulled herself up on to her feet only to see Isabella staring at her.

Dorottya now felt that Isabella could not ensure that she was not going to be given to the mob. She stretched out her arm and pointed towards Isabella. “It was her,” Dorottya shouted, but her voice was not heard over the din of a panicking crowd. Ilona, seeing Dorottya accuse Isabella, also began to shout accusations at the Vampire.

Isabella and Vlad had both predicted the betrayal of the two women only moments before it began. The two Vampires shouted into to the crowd simultaneously, “Burn them!”

The crowd joined in. They wanted people to blame and they wanted a sacrifice to placate to the mob outside.

“She is the one!” Dorottya shouted, still protesting her innocence as several of the crowd pulled her from the stand. Dorottya and Ilona were frantically trying to implicate Isabella.

“She is responsible,” Ilona cried out. The crowd carried Dorottya and Ilona over their heads. There was a small gap in the crowd and they dropped Dorottya to the floor. Isabella rushed over to Dorottya and lifted up her chin so that she staring into Isabella’s face.

“I warned you,” Isabella said. Dorottya burst into tears and Isabella relinquished her grasp. She was then lifted up again and dragged outside. By the time she got there, Ilona was already burning. The mob outside had already erected Dorottya’s stake and she was being pushed and pulled towards it. Isabella watched from the broken window above. The flames were licking higher and higher. Dorottya and Ilona were screaming in agony. Isabella, as she looked down on the women’s faces, was surprised to realise she felt guilt. She turned towards Vlad and said.

“No one deserves to die like this. Make the pain stop for them. They are guilty of no more than we are.”