VROLOK (9 page)

“Come out, Katya, please come out.” Katya’s eyes opened. She had not heard Isabella’s words, but something she did not understand made her get up and leave the safety of her own home. When Katya saw Isabella, she hid her face, afraid to look at her former friend.

“I won’t hurt you,” said Isabella. Katya did not respond. “Katya, please listen to me….” Isabella begged. “I have to tell you what happened the night…the night I died.”

Katya looked at her friend. Even though she was frightened of her, she was filled with pity and answered, “Tell me.”

“There were two attempts on my life that night. My sister planned the first; she sent Peter to kill me. You were right to warn me about him. He attacked me and then I killed him, but it was only in self-defence, for he would have killed me. I will not lie to you. I planned to kill my sister as well. You saw for yourself even last night, Katya, she tried to kill me again. I killed her and I am not sorry that I did. I wanted her dead and she deserved to die. Vlad made the second attempt on my life. The rumours are true; he lives in the castle and is a Vrolok.”

Katya listened and as she did she saw something of her old friend in Isabella’s eyes. She was no longer afraid of her. Katya tried to stifle her tears as she looked at Isabella. “Isabella, what will you do?” she asked.

Isabella laughed nervously. “I have no idea…What can I do?”

Katya tried to embrace her friend but Isabella would not let her. “I don’t want your pity. I don’t deserve it. I don’t want anyone else to know about me, especially not Nicolae. He’s better off thinking I’m dead.”

“I’m not so sure about that, Isabella,” Katya responded. “There’s something I have to tell you…about Nicolae.” She continued trying to find the words. “I’m looking after your child.”

“My child…my child’s alive?!” Isabella said in a state of happy disbelief.

“Yes, Isabella, it’s a baby boy,” said Katya. “We all assumed you died in childbirth, like your mother and grandmother.”

“Why are you looking after him?”

“Nicolae doesn’t want the baby near him. He said the baby killed you.”

“Let me see him.”

Katya went into her home and brought the child to its mother. Isabella glanced lovingly at the tiny infant and said, “I’m going to take him home to his father.”

“Isabella, he won’t take care of him. Do you want him to have the same life you did?”

“No, he’s not like my father. Nicolae could never be so cruel. It’s not in his nature. Go and see him tomorrow if you are worried. Everything will be all right, I promise.”

Katya believed Isabella. Isabella took the child in her arms and ran from Katya’s to Nicolae’s.

After Isabella left, Katya was filled with anxiety about the child. She had just given a baby to a Vampire, a Vampire that only a few hours ago she had witnessed slaughtering her own sister. She wanted to follow her but something held her back. It seemed as though Katya was bound to do anything Isabella asked of her.

Isabella stood over her sleeping husband. She placed the baby on the bed beside him and then kneeled down. She laid her head down beside his and started to whisper in his ear.

“Nicolae.” Nicolae did not wake up or even open his eyes but he answered his wife.

“Bella.”

“Yes, Nicolae it’s me, I‘m here,” Isabella continued whispering. “I’ve come to remind you of something. Listen to me, Nicolae. Do you remember how my father treated me? How his rejection hurt me? Do you want to do that to our child? Do you want our child to feel that pain?” Nicolae still didn’t open his eyes and yet tears were streaming down his cheeks. “I want you to look after the child. I want you to love him as you would have done if I had still been alive. You do not want him coming to your deathbed and cursing your name. Will you do this for me? It’s my final wish. I don’t want our child to turn out like me. I want him to be like you. Please, Nicolae, will you do this for me?” Isabella pleaded.

“Of course I will, Bella.” answered Nicolae.

“Thank you, sleep well.” Isabella ran her fingers through his hair. She watched him sleeping for hours. She didn’t want to leave him. She had this awful feeling that it would be the last time she would ever see him. He was always so beautiful in Isabella’s eyes, but never more so than tonight. She had seen other attractive men, but none compared to him.

Nicolae’s skin was slightly browned from the sun. He took the sun so well. The slightest rays would colour his appearance. His nose was narrow but not overlong. His cheeks were chiselled but not sharp. He had dimples in his chin and in his cheeks when he smiled. And he smiled often. His eyes were light green, not dark like Isabella’s. They were bright and clear. His hair was dark brown with streaks of red that shone in the sunlight. He had always had a proud but welcoming look about him.

Isabella, close to tears, sat staring at her beautiful husband. Maybe she could stay with him, she thought. She could keep what had happened from him. She had kept things from him before. A single tear trickled down her cheek. This blood red tear fell from her face and splashed on the white sheet of Nicolae’s bed. Isabella knew then that she could not hide this from him and she leaned forward again and whispered one last thing into Nicolae’s ear.

“I will always love you.” Isabella leaned over and kissed her husband on the lips. This woke Nicolae with a start and he looked around the room, but Isabella was already gone.

When Isabella left her old home she again started to convulse. She was hungry for the second time that night. She went back into the woods to try and find something to eat. She eventually found someone and killed him to feed her desire.

Dracula appeared in front of her as she was feeding. Isabella looked up at him.

“You’ve made me a murderess!” she said.

“You had already killed…I had nothing to do with it. You murdered Peter, remember.”

“That’s not the same! He was trying to kill me.”

Dracula pointed down to the corpse that Isabella had just recently slain. “Do you not think he would have tried to kill you if he had known what you were? Do you not think even your husband would try to kill you if he knew what you are now?”

“And what am I?”

“In their eyes you’re a devil. You’re a Dracula. You don’t belong with those people any more.”

“Where do I belong?”

“You belong with me. Where else is there for you to go?” The words issued out of Vlad’s lips like a death sentence, but Isabella knew he was right.

“I’ll stay with you only until I decide where else I can go,” she answered.

The next day Katya went to see Nicolae. When she entered his room he was cradling his son.

“Hello, Katya.”

Katya smiled and responded, “Well, hello to you. You look well.”

“I feel well.”

“What brought on this sudden change?”

“I think you are partly responsible for it.”

“Me.”

“Yes it must have been you who brought the baby here.” Katya nodded nervously. “I had a dream last night that seemed so real,” Nicolae continued. “I dreamt that Bella came down from the heavens and told me to look after our child. It was so real, Katya,” Nicolae rubbed his lips with the tips of his fingers, remembering Isabella’s kiss. “It was as if she was actually here with me.”

Nicolae’s thoughts wandered for a second. The baby let out a soft cry. Nicolae’s eyes were drawn back to his son and he smiled at him. “Anyway,” he continued, “it made me realise how selfish I was being. How could I blame our child for Isabella’s death? What sort of person would do such a thing? I will never forget her and I’m going to make sure our son knows everything about her. How beautiful she was, what a good person she was and how much she was loved.”

Katya looked at the baby in his father’s arms and she was thankful, not only to see Nicolae caring for his son, but also because she realised that Isabella had made this happen, that she was not beyond hope. There were still some remnants of the friend Katya had loved and trusted, despite what had happened.

SEMPER AVIVA
ALWAYS LIVING 

CHAPTER FIVE

Isabella reluctantly returned with Vlad to the castle. She walked beside him but she didn’t speak to him; she didn’t even look at him. Vlad tried to talk to her but she refused to answer. Isabella held her head up high and looked straight ahead of her at all times, not acknowledging the former Prince’s existence.

Vlad entered the castle with Isabella and showed her to a room. It was a room she had never been in before; she hadn’t been in any of the other rooms. All the doors had always been wedged shut, and all she had seen of the castle before then had been the front hall and library. The room that Vlad gave her was lavishly decorated. She could see that the room at least at one time had belonged to a woman. A large four-poster wooden bed was in the centre. A polished jewellery box sat on a dressing table beside a mirror that was obviously imported from Italy, not like the crude piece of glass she had in the room she had shared with Nicolae. But of course this ornate trinket was no good to Isabella anymore. The box lay open, packed with necklaces and bracelets that were encrusted with diamonds and rubies. They were exquisite, but Isabella did not want them.

Aside from the jewellery, other exquisite trinkets were littered throughout her new room. There was a candelabra, although there was no need for any more light in this room. There was only one window, but it filled up the wall on the left side of the room and moonlight flooded through it. It was really quite beautiful and in other circumstances Isabella would have been overjoyed to live in a room like this, but all it was to her now was a pretty prison cell for her to occupy.

“There are clothes in the chest over there.” Vlad pointed to a large wooden chest, Isabella was still wearing nothing but the blanket Katya had given her, having left her own clothes in the coffin along with her wedding ring. “This room is yours now,” Vlad continued, but Isabella ignored him. Vlad nodded his head in courtesy and left her alone. He knew it was useless to stay with her. He would speak to her tomorrow when she had calmed down and resigned herself to her new situation.

When he left, Isabella went over to chest and opened it. She found a nightgown for herself, put it on and got into bed. She lay awake staring at the ceiling; she could not sleep and yet longed to. She tried to block out the recent events in her mind. It was too bright to fall asleep in this room. The strong moonlight was irritating. Her eyes could not really focus properly. Isabella pulled the silken quilt over her head and yet it was still too bright for her. She got out of the bed and lay underneath it. This still didn’t help, she rolled over in frustration and the chest caught her eye. She walked over to it and opened the lid. Isabella threw out the contents and climbed inside. She shut the lid so that she was in complete darkness. Finally she could sleep and gain the sweet vacuity that it offered her.

Isabella was awakened the following night by Vlad entering her room. She opened the lid to reveal to Vlad her resting place. Vlad looked shocked when he saw Isabella climbing out of chest. However, he soon smiled at her.

“I should have guessed you’d learn quickly,” he said. Isabella did not respond. Vlad’s smile hardened into a glare. “You’ll have to talk to me eventually; who else do you have to talk to?”

These words hurt Isabella because she knew they were true, but her facial expression remained cold and emotionless. She simply walked towards him, staring him straight in the eyes, almost beginning to smile. Vlad smiled at her thinking she had finally come around. When she could almost touch him, when they were nearly face to face, she turned her head from his gaze and walked around him. Acting as if he was just an obstacle in her path, Isabella left the room in silence.

Weeks became months and the months drifted slowly into years. Isabella continued to ignore Vlad; she took every chance she could get to slight him. Isabella had learned from her father that it was not insults that hurt most. The worst thing you could possibly do to someone was to completely ignore them. Acting as if they did not exist could drive a person mad. She did not shout at him; she never yelled angry recriminations at him; she simply acted as if he was not there, never even looking at him. Isabella wanted to do the cruellest thing she could think of and this, ignoring him, pretending he was not there, was the worst thing she could imagine. She wanted him to suffer as she was suffering. This tactic of hers was working. She could feel Vlad’s enmity towards her growing daily.

Isabella at first was ignoring Vlad because she hated him, but there was soon another reason. Isabella was miserable; she had never been this alone before. During her life even when things were at their worst she had always had someone to rely on. Her grandfather, Katya, Nicolae—but now there was no one. She wanted this to end. Over the years since Isabella’s death people had tried to kill her and she had let them try but the most anyone had managed to do was break her skin. Isabella knew Vlad was strong because her own strength had increased since she had died and if anyone could end this misery for her, he could. She could sense his intense anger towards her when she ignored him, and over the years she felt it building. He’d lash out at her soon and hopefully he would kill her and end her miserable existence completely.

While she waited for her final days, she spent her time discovering the extent of her newfound powers. Isabella had been a strong woman in life but now her strength had increased tenfold.

She had other abilities as well. She could not disappear but she could change form and shape. She discovered that she could also influence the weather; Isabella could stir up the winds and start a thunderstorm. She could make a cloud come from nowhere and block out the sun. Her senses were incredibly heightened. She could hear and see things that were happening miles away. She could hear certain people’s thoughts, but she would have to touch others to be able to listen to what they were thinking. She had tried to read Vlad’s mind but could not. She often wondered if he could read hers. She presumed he could not but was not sure.

Isabella’s skin was still quite vulnerable to scratches and cuts but they healed almost instantly. She did not feel very much pain at all any more. She certainly did not feel pain from any wound she received. The only time she came even close to feeling pain was when she did not feed and was hungry, but Isabella did not let herself get hungry too often. The only pleasure she received was from the sensation she felt when she fed. Although she was killing people, she could not resist it, and so she blocked out any thoughts of remorse. It was an addiction and she had come to enjoy the kill. She no longer saw her victims as humans. They were just a source of nourishment to satisfy her inexhaustible appetite.

Her abilities were at their strongest when it was dark, but unfortunately with each of her strengths came a weakness. In life she could see perfectly well during the day and her vision was impaired at night, by the dark, like everyone else. Now, she could see perfectly well during the night. Her vision was impaired by the daylight. She could see things close to her during the day, but things that were far away from her just seemed like shadows basked in the brightest of light. Pungent smells annoyed her like onions, garlic, rot and decay. Isabella sometimes could smell death all around her and through this ability she could tell if someone was going to die, if death was close. Death had its own unique smell.

Her hearing was so much increased that shrill sounds annoyed her. Isabella had grown to hate screamers. If she were killing a woman she would prefer to break or slash her neck to immediately silence her. Sunlight also irritated her. When she was out during the day it felt as if the sun was constantly shining directly into her eyes. If she closed her eyes or hid her face it would make no difference. So therefore Isabella grew accustomed to sleeping during the day. Sometimes even bright moonlight irritated her. In fact, any light at all would irritate her and even suppress her powers, but the most effective light that lessened her abilities was sunlight.

Five years had drifted slowly by since Isabella had died. She had not been down to see Katya since the night she took her baby home. Isabella missed her friend and she had to talk to someone or she felt she would go mad. She made up her mind to visit Katya. She fed well before she went near her friend that night. She felt she could control her feeding but did not want to take that risk where Katya was concerned.

Katya greeted her with a smile. Isabella was reassured by Katya’s smile and returned it warmly. Katya’s husband and children were sleeping. Although Isabella desperately wanted to see her friend there was someone else she longed to see.

“How’s Nicolae?” she asked Katya, immediately.

“He’s fine and your son has just turned five.”

“Five? Has it only been five years? Nicolae must be twenty-six by now.”

“He is.”

“What did Nicolae name our son?”

“Alexei.” A single red droplet trickled down Isabella’s ivory cheek. This shocked Katya but she tried to hide it. “He’s a good boy,” Katya continued. “You’d be proud of him,” Katya said, smiling. “He’s the image of his father, but he acts like you used to—”

Isabella held up her hand to stop her friend from continuing.

“Stop, I don’t want to know,” Isabella sighed. “It’s too hard.”

Katya was silenced only for a moment as she continued to try and comfort her friend. “I know it must be torture for you to hear about them. It’s something you won’t have to worry about for much longer.” Isabella gave Katya an inquisitive glance. “Seeing and hearing about them, I mean.”

“Why? What are you talking about?” Isabella retorted impatiently.

“Nicolae is taking his son and leaving the village.”

“Leaving to go where?” Isabella cried out, now panicking.

“It’s too much for him here. He goes and lays flowers on your grave every Sunday. He has nightmares and screams out for you in his sleep. He can’t stand to be without you, and he is so desperately lonely. He has to go somewhere away from here, a place where he can forget.”

“Forget!” said Isabella.

“Yes, forget! Your son needs a mother.”

“A mother! I’m his mother. Do you think I can forget? What about me? Do you think it is easy for me? To go through every day without my husband and son. If anything, it’s worse for me!” Isabella grimaced and ran from her friend.

“Where are you going?” Katya shouted after her.

“I’m going home.”

“You can’t, it will destroy him to know the thing you have become.” The words left Katya’s lips before she could think about what she was saying. On hearing this remark Isabella stopped running and slowly turned to face Katya. She looked back at Katya; her glance was piercing and hellish. It chilled Katya to her core as she was thrown back against the wall of her house by Isabella’s look. Katya again was frightened by her friend and for the first time she realised how powerful Isabella had become. A mere glimpse from her was enough to hurl a grown woman backwards.

Despite Katya’s fear, she was sorry for what she had said and almost immediately regretted it. She never intentionally wanted to hurt Isabella. Isabella knew this to be so and it was the only reason she did not kill Katya there and then. For like it or not, Isabella was now a cold-blooded, remorseless killer.

Isabella turned her back on Katya and ran home. She was just about to turn the handle on the door of her old house when she hesitated. Images of how Nicolae would react when he realised she was a Vampire stopped her from entering. She slunk back into the forest and watched and waited for morning. The night brightened into day and Isabella still sat there waiting and watching for just a glimpse of her husband and her child.

After a few hours of daylight, a small boy opened the door. Isabella crawled forward to see him more closely. The boy was playing with his dog. He picked up a stick and threw it for the dog to chase after. A little time later the boy threw the stick a little too far and the stick landed at Isabella’s feet. The child unknowingly ran to his mother.

“Hello,” the boy said. Isabella was on her knees and handed Alexei the stick.

“Thank you.”

“You’re a very polite boy.”

“I know.”

Isabella smiled, “Oh, you do, do you?”

Alexei looked at his mother’s face, “You’re very pretty.”

Isabella leaned over and tucked a loose strand of hair behind the boy’s ear and said, “So are you.”

“Boys are not pretty! They are handsome. I am handsome.”

Isabella laughed softly and answered, “Yes, you certainly are.”

“You don’t need to tell me I’m handsome. I know that I am, just like you know you are pretty.”