The Vengeance of the Vampire Bride (38 page)

Adem was lifting me down when the door
flew open. Maria stumbled out into the cold, clutching her shawl
about her shoulders.

“Oh, thank goodness you are here!
Hurry! Hurry!”

Hastening into the foyer of the house,
I clutched the pot of tea to my bosom. Though I did not know if it
could truly help my beloved friend, I was determined to deliver it
safely. Maria rushed me deeper into the house, away from the
coldness of the foyer. I thought she would take me to Laura’s room,
but instead she ushered me into the same parlor where I had met the
fortuneteller. Laura was nowhere to be seen, but Sir Stephan was
waiting anxiously next to a blazing fireplace.

“At last!” He surged toward me and
gripped my shoulders. “You must help her!”

“I brought her tea,” I said, offering
the pot. “It’s medicinal.”

Appearing confused, Maria took it from
me, her brow furrowed.

“Tea?” Sir Stephan gasped. “Tea? You
offer tea?”

Frowning at them, I began to unbutton
my coat as Adem lingered at my side and Enre stood in the doorway.
“I am here to see Laura. Where is she? How is she?”

“Very sick!” Maria exclaimed. “It came
upon her the night of the first snow. She began to cough and then
by morning she had a fever. It has worsened and the doctor is quite
concerned. Laura suffered a terrible illness a few years ago and it
has weakened her constitution.”

“You must help her.” Sir Stephan’s
voice was terse.

“I am not a doctor. How can I help
her?” I was confused by their words and frantic
appearance.

Sir Stephan glanced warily at Adem and
Enre. “Perhaps we should speak privately.”

“They want you to make her a vampire,”
Adem said. “That is what they want. They’re afraid she will
die.”

“What? She’s dying?” I gaped at Laura’s
parents in shock.

“No, not yet, but she may.” Sir Stephan
released me and sat down heavily in a chair.

“It’s my fault. I should have never
taken her out that night. It was the snow that caused it. I know
it!” Maria covered her face in despair.

“What does the doctor say?” I could not
believe that Laura could be so ill. I had just seen her a few short
days before and she had seemed fine.

“He says that there is fluid in her
lungs. He believes it’s pneumonia.” Sir Stephan rubbed his highbrow
with his ruddy fingers. “Our son died from pneumonia and Laura
nearly died as well that same winter. We beg you to not let her
die.”

I felt ill as I considered their words
and the implication of the deed they wanted me to perform. I sought
out Adem’s gaze and he only sighed in response. Enre stepped
forward to claim my coat, hat and gloves as I stood in silence
feeling the heavy gaze of Laura’s parents upon me. How could her
parents wish for me to inflict upon her my condition? Did they not
understand the terrible complications my new nature had wrought
upon me? Not only did I have to feed on the living for sustenance,
there was all manner of folk, supernatural and human, that would
see me dead. I lived my life in a state of constant anxiety. How
could I wish that upon Laura? Yet, how could I let her die?
Furthermore, I did not even know how to make one of my own kind.
That secret was not one Vlad had imparted to me.

“I wish to see her, please,” I said at
last.

Maria wiped away her tears, nodding as
she moved to the hall. She reached out her hand toward me,
gesturing for me to follow. Glancing back at Sir Stephan, I was
surprised to see such despair in his plain features.

The hallways were quite cold and the
sound of the wind outside made me shiver. The cold does not affect
me as it once did, but I find no comfort in it. We reached Laura’s
room and when the door opened, a warm gush of air flowed out. It
had a slightly medicinal tinge that somewhat covered the scent of
illness.

It broke my heart to see Laura propped
upon a pile of pillows, breathing shallowly as the air whistled in
and out of her lungs. Her skin was covered in a thin layer of
moisture and her hair was damp. Flushed with a fever, her
heightened color frightened me.

A maid was in the room stoking the
flames in the fireplace. She glanced at us briefly before returning
to Laura’s side to tuck the blankets up around her
throat.

“Countess Dracula brought Laura a
medicinal tea. Please have it warmed.” Maria held out the pot,
clearly dismissing the maid. The woman bobbed her head, took the
tea, and departed. Adem calmly shut the door behind her.

Hurrying to Laura’s side, I felt angry
and helpless. Clutching her very warm hand to my bosom, I leaned
over her. “Laura. Laura, darling. Please wake up.”

Eyelashes fluttering, her eyes
struggled to open as she rasped out my name. “Glynis!”

“I’m here!” I forced a smile, fighting
the urge to weep.

Adem set a chair beside me, and I
gratefully sank onto it.

“I’m sick,” she whispered, her dry lips
barely moving.

“I know, but you will be better soon.”
I smoothed her hair back from her face and nearly flinched as I
felt the fever burning under my touch. There was a basin next to
the bed filled with melting snow. Several clean cloths were folded
beside it. I wrapped a clump of snow in one of the cloths and
rested it against her forehead.

“I’m so cold.” She tried to shove my
hand away, but I kept it firmly against her brow. The fever
immediately began to melt the snow and rivulets of water trickled
down into her lank hair.

“I know, darling. But it’s the fever.
We must try to reduce it, so you can get better.” It pained me to
listen to her tortured breathing. The soft whistle emanating from
her lips frightened me with each breath.

“I loathe being sick.” Tears formed in
her eyes as her body seized in a terrible fit of
coughing.

Adem and Maria surged forward to her
bedside as she violently coughed. Adem snatched up one of the
cloths and held it to her mouth so she could expel the terrible
substance in her lungs. Once she was done, he gently cleaned her
mouth with the clean edge of the fabric before stepping back. Maria
clutched Laura, rocking her tenderly as Laura clung to
her.

When the tea Brice sent was brought to
the door, Adem retrieved it. I quickly poured a cup for Laura.
Together, we had to cajole Laura into sipping it. After a cup, her
breathing seemed to quiet a bit. Together, Maria and I tried to
cool her skin with the snow in attempt to bring down her fever. Our
earlier discussion was forgotten as we toiled at her bedside,
nursing the poor girl the best we could. It was several hours
before Laura’s fever broke and her breathing became less
ragged.

Exhausted, Maria sat at her daughter’s
bedside holding her hand. In silence, her eyes beseeched me to
perform a task I did not truly know how to accomplish. As I gazed
at my sick and possibly dying friend, I wondered if I would make
her into a vampire if I knew the secret of the
transformation.

Chapter 25

The Journal of Countess
Dracula

November 26,
1820

The Dosza Palace,
Buda

I despise doctors. Loathe
them. Detest them! How can he say that he can do nothing for Laura?
I do not understand! He claims that the damage from her previous
illnesses has weakened her chest and that he cannot help her beyond
the treatments he has administered.

How is that
possible?

Every night I sit at her
bedside and listen to her struggle for breath. Even the tea Brice
has been sending her has lost its potency. Surely there is some
miracle of medicine that can save her. Are we not a modern
society?

I find myself bereft of all
hope in science as I watch over her. I wish I could pray to God,
the Virgin, and Christ and beg for her life. Yet, I fear they no
longer hear me. Instead, I am tortured by the truth that despite my
new, cursed nature, I am helpless. I do not know how to give Laura
the terrible gift Vlad forced upon me.

I have dispatched Adem on
more than one occasion to demand that Astir tell me the secret of
the vampire gift. Each time, he was rebuffed. I even sent a letter
to Astir demanding he disclose the ritual, or I would approach
Ilinca and Gavril. He did not rise to my bluff.

I am so desperate now, I am
inclined to risk my life to save Laura’s, but then I remember
Ignatius and I am torn.

What to do? What to
do?

“I hate him,” I sobbed as the door shut
behind the doctor. His departure was a relief for I could not stand
to hear him drone on about Laura’s dire condition. He was granting
us no hope. Over the last few nights I came to despise his very
presence in Laura’s sickroom.

Maria sat in silence next to Laura’s
sleeping form, her gaze riveted to her daughter’s face as she drew
in each tortured breath.

Pacing back and forth, I
struggled not to cry. I was angry, hopeless, and torn. Once again I
considered going to Borbála’s home and demanding to see Ilinca. I
was not convinced she would impart the secret of the vampire
ritual, but I was at the end of my wits. I could not bear to see
Laura suffering so.

“If only he had told you,”
Maria said at last.

“He tells me nothing,” I snapped.
“Nothing!”

“Stephan says that he won’t even answer
his correspondence.” Maria let out a soft sob. Her eyes were
terribly swollen and her face was doughy from all her
weeping.

“Human life means very little to him
unless it suits his needs.” My words were bitter ones. I knew far
too intimately the truth of Vlad’s regard for mortals. Adem and I
had agreed not to respond to Sir Stephan’s pleas to Vlad. The very
nature of Vlad Dracula would be to ignore the situation since it
did not necessarily affect his plans.

“Stephan said he will refuse to do any
further business with him,” Maria dared to say.

I shrugged. “Vlad would find another
solicitor and possibly kill Stephan and you.”

She bit her bottom lip, nodding. “That
is what I told him.”

“I don’t want her to die, Maria.” I
felt close to tears and moved to face the fireplace. The flames
were high, making the room almost too warm.

After several long minutes, I heard
Maria slide to her feet. “I need to tend to some matters. I shall
return shortly.”

“I will watch over her,” I promised. I
guessed that the mortal woman needed to use the privy. She had been
at her daughter’s side for hours before I arrived.

The door closed very quietly behind
her.

Sitting at Laura’s side, I took her
limp hand in my own. It felt very hot and moist. Her fever had
returned. With a soft cry, I began to weep. I could not repress
myself any longer. I loved her so, but I felt worthless. I had
thought of binding her to me as I had done with Magda, but Adem
warned that the old and the sick sometimes died and became mindless
creatures upon rising. He was convinced there was more to the
vampire ritual, but he was not certain how it was
performed.

“Is it the bite?” I sobbed to the
emptiness of the room. “Is it?”

Should I bite her and hope that it
would bring her forth from the grave?

Her terrible cough began again. I
hastened to help her sit up so she would not choke. Holding a cloth
to her mouth, I felt her body shuddering with the violence of the
hacking cough. At last, she was done and slumped in my arms. Her
eyes were slightly open, but I knew she did not see me. She was not
truly awake, but in a twilight world. It frightened me almost as
much as the blood staining the cloth.

Leaning over her, I wept ever harder,
tears flowing down my cheeks. I whispered her name like a litany,
lost in my emotions. My bloodied tears fell onto her lips and I
reached for my handkerchief to wipe them away. I was so overwhelmed
by grief, I did not hear the door open behind me.

“Countess Dracula?”

Percy’s voice.

Gasping, I quickly wiped at Laura’s
mouth and face, erasing the traces of my tears.

“Glynis?” His voice was softer as his
hands touched my shoulders.

I quickly rubbed the handkerchief over
my face.

“She is coughing blood,” he said in a
sorrowful tone. “Let me help you.”

Pulling me about, he used his own silk
handkerchief to clean my face. I was confused by his lack of
surprise at my blood streaked face, but then I realized he most
likely believed I had been spattered by Laura’s blood as she
coughed. His hands were tender and careful as he gently dabbed away
the blood. I restrained myself from crying and allowed him to sit
me down. Kneeling before me, he took my hands in his own. In
silence, he kissed my palms then rested his forehead against
them.

“You’re so cold, Glynis. You have not
been taking care of yourself.”

“I stay at night so her mother may
sleep.” I had been so obsessed with Laura’s care, I knew I had been
neglecting myself. I only fed because Adem insisted every
night.