Prologue
Ordinary people would think that the car ride was too long. Too time consuming. But time does not mean anything to me. It has not meant anything in a long time. Ordinary humans would have slept during the car ride through Transylvania and up the mountain. They would have woke up tired and dreading the cold. I have not slept or felt tired in a long time. I stepped out of the car into what ordinary people would call cold, freezing air. But I could not feel the cold. It did not disturb me. My body always felt cold, but I was always warm. Even if the wind was striking every bare part of my body like a whip, and crawling through my long black dress and thin red shawl, I still could not feel the cold. The black car I had come in was still behind me, and the old blood-sucking driver still sat behind the steering wheel. I examined, now, the tour bus that had arrived the same time as I had. I watched the tourists huddle together around their guide using body heat against the cold that I could not feel. Pathetic humans. I watched them walk into the castle, the reason why I was on top of this retched mountain today. The castle that had been my home so long ago, it was now barely recognizable. The old stonewalls were replaced with new shiny gleaming ones. There were more windows, and flowers, and lights. But the most disturbing of all was the sign that flashed in blue letters:
"Hotel and Restaurant"I scowled at it and continued to observe the tourists through narrowed eyes. They stopped at the entrance where five unmoving figures were standing holding trays, one in each hand. In their left hand, on the tray was piled bread. In their right hand, there were glasses filled with blood. I recognized them. The servants had worked in the castle when I had lived there. I watched the tourists take the bread and blood my loved one had worked for. His bread. His blood. They smiled and laughed and continued walking into the castle. When they were out of sight I walked towards the servants, thinking how long it had been since I last drank that sweet blood. Almost six centuries. How long it has been since I was last here. Almost six centuries. How long it has been since I have loved. I picked up a glass one of the servants was holding, thinking it would make me cheerful. How wrong I was. I stepped through the big wooden doorway and drank the liquid all at once. It stung my throat and I realized what it was I was really drinking. Vodka dyed red. Anger rose throughout me. My hands started shaking. My eyes turned black. I hurled the glass at the wall. It shattered into a million pieces like my heart had when he had said he was leaving. He had said I would not ever see him again. That did not mean I could not think of him. I thought of him all the time. It burned me like the sun. I followed the scent of the tourists and made up my mind that tonight, there would be enough blood for the whole clan. No one would survive the bloodshed I had in my plan. As I followed the human's scent up the stairs one more thought ran through my mind.
"Dracula will be avenged."