The Vengeance of the Vampire Bride (48 page)

“What was that?” Laura
asked.

A commotion from the foyer
drew my attention from my journaling. I was seated in the parlor
writing while Ignatius and Laura sat before the fire playing
chess.

I tossed my journal and gold pen aside
and rushed out of the room behind Ignatius. As I entered the foyer,
my eyes fell upon the scene before me and I felt my dead heart
lurch.

“No!”

Behind me, Laura began to
scream.

I stumbled forward falling to my
knees.

Adem and his guards were swathed in
heavy coats, scarves and fur hats. Adem tugged a snow covered form
across the floor as his men dragged in another body before closing
the door. I was aware of Laura sobbing and Ignatius and Adem
talking rapidly to one another, but I could not take my eyes off of
the pale, icy figure of my beloved friend, Percy. His blue eyes
were open and his mouth was frozen in a grimace. Snow and ice
covered his hair and I reached out to brush it away. It was then I
saw the mangled remains of his throat.

“What did this?” My own voice startled
me. I could still hear Laura screaming and Magda trying to console
her, but they felt far away, their voices muffled. My fingers
hovered over Percy’s dead features as I realized I could not shut
his eyes. They were frozen open. “What did this?”

My voice echoed through the
foyer.

Ignatius knelt beside me to examine my
friend’s dead body. He took hold of my hand and gently laid it back
on my lap, so he could better see the wound.

“The driver’s throat is torn open as
well,” Adem noted. “Cezar, check the bodies of the
horses.”

A guard nodded before plunging back
into the world of night and snow.

“Ignatius,” I said, a catch in my
voice. “Tell me what did this!”

Turning his face toward me, he said
softly, “A beast.”

“What sort of beast?”
The word
dragon
resounded in my mind.

“Glynis, calm yourself.
Please.” Ignatius’s eyes strayed to where Laura lay collapsed on
the floor with Magda trying to comfort her. “You must be
calm.”

“I loved him,” I wailed. “He was my
dear friend. He reminded me so much of my father!”

Ignatius pressed his palms to my cheeks
and kissed my forehead. “I know, my darling, I know. Let me examine
him. Please.”

Clutching my hands to my bosom, I
struggled to contain my emotions as I watched him. I was grateful
for his tenderness as he pulled away Percy’s collar and scarf to
better view the savage wound. I extended my hand and gripped
Percy’s frost covered fingers. They were hard and cold beneath my
touch. He may no longer be among the living, but I wanted to feel
one last moment of connection with him.

Adem was a bit rougher with the driver,
studying the wound upon his throat with great intensity.

“Was it a dragon?” My voice sounded
odd. Distant. I felt lost in the wilds of my own dark
thoughts.

“No, darling.” Ignatius raised his
eyes. “A wolf.”

The image of Vlad turning into a great
wolf came to mind, and I shuddered. “It’s him, isn’t
it?”

“We cannot be certain, Countess. There
are wolves in this area.” Adem sat back on his heels and rubbed his
chin thoughtfully.

“He died very quickly, Glynis. His
throat was torn out. It was a matter of moments,” Ignatius consoled
me.

“Csilla is dreaming of wolves!” I would
not be pacified by their words. I knew it was Vlad who killed
Percy. I felt it to my core. He had found a way to strike out at us
from beyond his entombment.

Adem’s man slipped back into the
palace, the large door shutting behind him. Pulling his scarf down
from around his face, he said, “The horses had their necks broken.
It could be from the fall down the hill into the woods, but I
cannot be certain.”

“It’s Vlad,” I cried out. “It’s him!” I
held Percy’s hand even tighter, wishing I would feel his warmth
return to his flesh.

Behind me, Magda helped Laura to her
feet. Cezar rushed to her side to help carry Laura back to the
parlor. She was inconsolable, but I felt unable to rise and comfort
her. I merely stared at Percy’s face making foolish
wishes.

Later-

I stare into the storm and
know that someone is watching me in return. I can feel it now. The
dark shadow gaining in strength as it waits.

Death has come.

“I love you,” Ignatius whispered before
kissing my cheek and smoothing my wet hair from my face as I sat in
my slowly cooling bath. The scented water did not bring me the
comfort it usually did. It was growing colder and the cold reminded
me of Percy’s frozen visage. At least he was now out of the
elements and tucked into the cellar with the dead
driver.

Dragging his fingers through the water,
Ignatius knelt beside me gently bathing me. I sat in silence
staring at the tiny waves lapping up against my breasts. Percy had
died after giving us our gifts. He was clad in the same clothing
from that fateful night. The carriage and the bodies of the mortals
and horses had been found a short distance from the gate. As I had
lived my life in the walls of the palace, enjoying making love to
Ignatius, Percy had lay dead outside in the cold.

“I love you,” I finally
answered.

Ignatius reached into the water and
lifted me out, not minding that I instantly drenched him. Resting
my head against his shoulder, I let him carry me to the bed. He set
me down and began to dry my limbs.

“It is not your fault.”

“Vlad killed him because I loved
him.”

“We do not know that Vlad killed
him.”

“He did.”

Ignatius wrapped me in a towel and sat
next to me on the bed. His fingers intertwined with mine. “I’m so
sorry, Glynis. I know you and Laura loved Percy very
much.”

“I sometimes felt like my father’s
spirit was in him, watching me, making sure I was safe.” I felt
tears slipping down my cheeks, but did not care. “At times, Percy
would smile and I would know that I was loved and part of a family
once more. And now he is gone.”

In silence, Ignatius touched the cameo
about my throat I had refused to take off before my bath. “He is
with you in other ways now.”

“Are you certain?”

Ignatius nodded. “I may no longer be a
true priest, but I do believe that.”

The bubble of pain within me was so
great I felt I could not contain it and I hunched over. Ignatius
held me until I could cry no more. He wiped away all my tears and
kissed me tenderly as I clung to him for comfort.

We were lying upon the bed, damp from
my tears and bath, holding each other, when Katya burst through my
bedroom door. “Come quick! Csilla is dying!”

I snatched up my robe and tied it about
me as we rushed out. Adem joined us shortly before we entered
Csilla’s bedroom.

For a moment I thought the baroness was
already dead. Then I heard the soft rasp of her breathing and saw
her hand move upon her chest. Her feverish eyes found me as I drew
close to her. Slowly, she held out her hand to me. I took it. Her
skin felt cool and I could feel the delicate bones. I had not
realized how much she had wasted away in such a short time. The
room reeked of illness, but her fever had given her eyes a
brightness that was eerily beautiful.

“It is time,” she whispered with a
smile. Her voice was raw, yet excited. “It’s time for us to truly
be sisters.”

I could hear her heartbeat slowing as I
had heard Laura’s fading just before her death. I did not answer
her, but gazed at her face wondering how such beauty could hide
such a dark soul. How callously she had sent me and my family off
to our doom. How easily she had poisoned Laura out of jealous
spite.

“Glynis?” Her voice rose, fear lacing
it when I did not respond in the way she anticipated. “I am dying.
I feel it.”

“I know.”

“It is time for us to be sisters, isn’t
it?” Her smile was fading as she struggled to grip me with her
other hand and draw me to her. “Glynis?”

I stared into her eyes as I disengaged
myself from her grip. Standing, I stepped away from the bed. Katya
stared at me, her lips slightly parted. Ignatius stood silently
next to the door. Adem merely watched and waited.

“Glynis, please come to me and make me
your Bride.” Csilla struggled to reach for me as the stuttering of
her heart filled my ears. “Glynis!”

“Die, Csilla. Die knowing that there
will be no immortality for you in this world,” I answered at
last.

“No,” she cried, falling back upon her
pillows. She flailed, panicking as death dragged her away from the
world of the living.

Standing near her bed, my eyes fastened
to her pale face, I watched. I felt no remorse. No joy. I felt
nothing but emptiness within me. I could feel no pity. I had sapped
her of life to the point of death, but the belladonna she had once
given Laura was now stealing away the last bit of her life. It felt
fitting as she struggled to hold onto the sliver of life she still
possessed.

When her last breath rattled out of her
throat, her terrified eyes fixed upon me, I smiled.

Later-

How foolish I was. Upon
reflection I can see so clearly how it came to this one terrible
moment when all was revealed. How could I have not seen the
truth?

Ignatius and I left Adem to deal with
the body of the dead Baroness and strolled to our room through the
hallway illuminated with candlelight. The shadows slid along the
walls like wraiths. I heard soft footsteps behind me and turned to
see Katya hurrying along behind us.

“You let her die,” she said in
awe.

“Yes.” I waited for her to chastise me,
but instead she shrugged.

Ignatius gently pushed her past us. “Go
see how Laura is doing. She was quite upset earlier. She takes
comfort in you.”

Katya bobbed a little curtsey and
obediently hurried away.

“Are you disappointed in me?” I asked
Ignatius once she was descending the stairs.

“No, I am not,” he assured
me.

Standing near the top of the staircase,
I looked down to see Katya gently holding Laura as she cried. Magda
stood just behind them and she looked up at me
curiously.

“The baroness is dead,” I called out to
her.

A small smile spread over her
lips.

Ignatius took my hand and together we
moved to continue to my room.

There was a booming crash against the
front doors that echoed throughout the palace. Twisting about, I
witnessed the doors shattering as one of Adem’s guards was cast
through it. He struck the marble floor and slid all the way to the
bottom of the staircase leaving a long swath of fresh blood in his
wake.

Snow, ice and wind billowed through the
open doorway as an enormous white wolf hurtled into the foyer. The
wolf snarled, its sharp teeth bared as it stalked toward the three
women huddled together below. Throwing back its head it howled
before shaking the snow violently from its white fur. Before my
eyes, the fur parted and fell into a long white cloak and gown as
long golden hair spilled out and sapphire blue eyes were raised to
gaze at me.

Princess Cneajna, my vampire mother and
the Bride I had inadvertently usurped as Vlad’s favored wife,
smiled wickedly up at me. “Whom shall I kill first?”

I broke free of my shock and hurtled
over the railing with Ignatius close behind. Cneajna drew back her
hand, her long rapier nails ready for the kill, and attacked
Laura.

Blood splashed over me as I landed
behind Cneajna. Grabbing her golden hair, I pulled her off her feet
and hurled her across the grand foyer. I barely had time to cast a
quick look in Laura’s direction before Cneajna was hurtling toward
me. I briefly saw Laura holding the terribly wounded Katya in her
arms as Magda tried to staunch the great flow of blood from the
mortal’s girl neck.

Cneajna was nearly upon me when
Ignatius appeared and delivered a brutal blow that sent her flying
through the air to crash into a painting on the far end of the
hall. As she slid to the floor, the painting was dislodged and
tumbled over her.

“Help Katya,” I urged Ignatius as I ran
at Cneajna. My mind was in a flurry as all the events of the last
few days fell into place. As Cneajna hurled the painting away and
charged toward me, I understood now that it had been her that
killed Percy and waited for Csilla to die. She was the wolf of the
nightmares.

Clad only in a robe, I had no weapons
but my teeth and nails. I bared my fangs as she seized me and
attempted to wrestle me to the floor. I managed to slip my foot
behind hers and trip her as I shoved her. Falling to the marble
floor, she let out a feral scream. She slashed at me and her nails
sliced through the flesh of my calf. The pain staggered me. As I
fell to my knees, I caught a glimpse of Ignatius licking the
terrible wounds on Katya’s neck. I was certain that Katya had
stepped before Laura to save her. I would not forget her
loyalty.