Chapter Two - Revenge issweet...

Her landing was fairly smooth, the only problem being coordinating herself in those high heels that she wore. But it would get better, with time. After all, she had all the time in the world. Turning around, she looked down at the city from her position on the roof of the house. The top floor of the house was surrounded by a thin landing with pieces of concrete sticking out at the corners, with statues on them. In her landing, she'd knocked one of these statues off and she could see it's shattered remains on the ground down below. The landing was mostly used for maintenance on the roof and guttering. She turned around again to face the house. There was a window nearby, the window in Alexander's bedroom. The room that she had once shared with him. She inched along the thin landing, and then she felt something underneath her foot. Bending down, she picked up whatever it was and looked at it. One of her eyebrows rose. It was a torn page from a calendar. But that wasn't all. The year on the page was 1466.

'Four years...four years...I guess time stands still for us dead...well, when I was dead. I'm the undead now. Dead, but living. A rather twisted logic if you ask me.' Valerie dropped the page and the wind picked it up and blew it away. She watched it almost dance as the wind blew it about. But then a voice broke the silence, drawing her focus away from the page.

"Alexander, dear. What are you doing?" The voice was female, with an English accent. But the fact that the voice belonged to someone female was something that drew her attention even more. She inched closer to the window and looked into it. Two shadows lay inside, one of them moving about looking at things around the room.

'Alexander, dear? So has the bastard got a whore already?'

"Sybil, please. I must find it. It's important that I must. It's the only thing left to remind me of her." That was Alexander's voice. And by her, she knew that he meant herself. She looked down. Beside her foot lay a tile that had obviously come loose and fallen off the roof. Picking it up, she hurled it at the window.

The window broke when the tile impacted with it and it passed through into the room. There was a surprised cry from the woman named Sybil inside.

"Where did that come from?" she said.

"Some rude child in the street probably threw it at the window, hoping to scare us." Said Alexander, "It's alright." He held Sybil close. Then the voice he heard chilled him to the bone.

"Actually, I don't consider myself a rude child. In fact, I consider myself to be an adult. Wouldn't you think so Alex?" There, standing on the landing outside the window was...Valerie?

"Surprised to see me?" she said, her lips curving into a cruel smile.

"I thought you were dead." He replied, hardly believing what he was seeing.

"Yes, I thought you would. Considering you were the one that killed me." Sybil looked at him.

"Is it true?" she said and Alexander moved his mouth to speak before Valerie cut in.

"That's right, lie to your English whore. Don't worry. It all doesn't matter in the end."

"Well, at least I can satisfy him." Said Sybil. Her words stabbed into her like a dagger in her heart. Correction, her dead heart. Valerie gritted her teeth together, staring daggers at Sybil.

"I'm sure as his wife you would have known how to. But if he had to kill you, you obviously didn't do a very good job, did you?"

"You are testing my patience. Please cease doing that, unless you want to end up dead."

"If Alex has killed you once, he can kill you again."

"Don't count on that."

"Enough!" said Alexander, holding up his hand to silence both of them. He turned to Valerie.

"What are you doing here?"

"What am I doing here? What am I doing here?" She tilted her head to the side, looking at him with those suddenly piercing emerald eyes, "Why, this is still my house."

"But the wedding vows state..."

"...until death do we part. Yes, I know. But I'm not dead, am I?"

"I killed you! The guilt is still there and now here you are, standing outside my window. Four years, why can't I escape it?"

"Oh you won't. Never. As long as I have life, I'll never let you forget what you did to me. You, Gabriel and God will pay, in ways that I myself haven't even thought possible." She stepped through the window.

"Your death will fuel my new life and make God's failure complete."

"What in the name of God has become of you?"

"Oh, God had nothing to do with it. Except will my death. If he hadn't, I'd still have a life. A whole life. Although, my new life is a lot better."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm not the same woman that you killed ten years ago, Alexander. I'm not the weakling I was before. You can't boss me around anymore. Your threats mean nothing to me." Alexander was silent.

"How can you have life when you're supposed to be dead?" said Sybil, "I truly hope that there isn't a whole harem worth of women out there that were once married to Alexander." Valerie laughed, a rather eerie sound, one that you'd hope not to hear again. Her gaze snapped to focus on Sybil, her eyes changing to an eerie bright green.

"Don't worry dear, Sybil, there's only me."

"You didn't answer my first question."

"Ah, that. Let's just thank the Devil for that, shall we?" She smiled cruelly again and it sent a fearful shiver down Sybil's spine. The woman was insane. Then something drew her attention. Those sharp, pointed incisors that were slightly longer then normal.

Valerie stepped through the window and both Alexander and Sybil took a step back.

"There's no need to be scared. I might consider sparing Sybil's life. After all, it's only Alexander that I really want." She moved closer to Alexander, who stepped back until his back collided with the wall.

"Alex, it's just me. Your beloved dead wife."

"Get away from me, demon. You're not the Valerie I knew." He said, staying strong. She leaned forward, her face inches away from his. Sybil groped around her, looking for a weapon. Her hand felt the hilt of a dagger and curled around it.

"Hey. Undead bitch." She said, trying to draw Valerie's attention. And it worked. The moment that Valerie turned around to look at Sybil she felt the dagger stab into her shoulder. Staggering away from Alexander, she looked down at her wound. The hilt of the dagger looked strangely familiar. Gritting her teeth, she pulled it out effortlessly and inspected the blade. There. Just visible from the staining of fresh blood on the blade was the darkness of dried blood. Now she knew why it looked familiar. That very blade had ended her life ten years ago. There was a clattering sound as the dagger collided with the ground. The pain in her shoulder became a dull ache and then disappeared soon after, just like the wound itself. She glared at Sybil. The woman retreated away from her as she approached.

"Leave her!" shouted Alexander, running towards Valerie. He then let out a scream in pain as Valerie whirled around and her talons cut deeply into his face. The gashes cut diagonally down, through his left eye and to his left cheek. Clutching at that area, Alexander staggered backwards and Valerie turned back to Sybil.

Sybil saw that her only escape was the window and stepped through it onto the landing. Looking behind her, she noticed the drop and stopped in her tracks. Her shoe knocked a stone over the edge and she watched it fall.

"Careful." Came the voice of Valerie behind her, "You might just fall and break something. And that would be tragic." Her sarcastic tone was not amusing. Sybil watched as Valerie moved to step through the window when she saw the sharp point of a stake stick out of her chest. Valerie then collapsed to the ground, leaning against the window. Alexander stepped over her body and onto to the landing to stand beside Sybil. She touched his injuries gently and he held her close.

"Oh Alex." she said.

"Hush." he said, "Just get out of here. I have a feeling that this isn't over."

"But...but...she'll kill you."

"I know. That is unless she comes back from the grave once more." She kissed him gently and then her face lingered close to his for a few seconds. She then whispered something in his ear.

"What am I to tell the child when he asks for his father?" Alexander looked at her, surprised.

"What? You're...you're..." Sybil just nodded. An ecstatic grin came to his face but his serious expression soon returned.

"Tell him his father died protecting his mother." She nodded. Her eyes then went wide and she pointed behind him. Alexander looked puzzled until he heard the voice. He turned around, shielding Sybil.

"How cute. Protecting the mother of your unborn child." said the very familiar female voice behind them, "And now you've just given me a reason to kill the spare. By which I mean, Sybil."

"Are you so heartless that you'd deny a child the right to live?" said Sybil, her eyes narrowing at the former Countess.

"Darling, I have no heart to speak of. It died long ago. Along with the rest of my humanity."

"But I thought you were dead...again."

"Oh, by this?" Valerie gestured towards the silver stake still sticking out of her chest, "This is nothing." Pulling it out, she then threw it over the edge. That wound would take longer to heal, being silver that had caused it.

"Go." said Alexander to Sybil.

"Where?" she replied.

"Just get out of here. Now. Save yourself and the child." Sybil looked behind her, looking for a way out. There was another window, which led to Alexander's study. It was shut and she'd have to break it, but that didn't matter. Alexander moved away from her and she looked for something to break the window with. When she found nothing, she swallowed and her hand curled into a fist. Breaking the glass, she stepped through it, holding her injured hand. Then she ran, escaping the house.

"It seems that she's abandoned you Alex." Said Valerie, "Abandoned you to your fate." Alexander backed away as she approached. Then she moved forward quickly, grabbing him to prevent him from escaping.

"You're good as dead. Just accept it." She said and he saw her fangs lengthen. A scream broke the eerie silence in the town. Alexander's corpse dropped to the ground, lying on the landing. Valerie stood in front of it, still and silent. Turning around, she looked at the sky as it began to rain. Then she started to laugh. A normal laugh that soon got out of control, to become a hysterical one.

"Well, God, my friend." she said to the sky, "Your will has been denied. I still have life. And as long as I do, the world will suffer the consequences of its God's mistake. The mistake of willing my death." She continued to laugh for a little longer and then stopped. The rain poured down, soaking her clothes.

"Although I can thank you for that. If Alexander hadn't of killed me, I never would have become what I am now. Never feel the power to end a life. I would have stayed weak and incompetent." She smirked, "But I'm not now, am I?" Someone ran along the ground below her, and just one look down at them allowed her to know the identity of that person. Sybil. Smirking, she picked up the corpse at her feet and hurled it over the edge. Sybil screamed as she saw it fall to the ground in front of her, knowing all too well whose corpse it was. Looking up at the rooftop of the Di Mira house, she saw the dark shape standing there. Valerie.

"Don't you like my little present?" she shouted down to Sybil.

"You're a monster." Said Sybil. Valerie just laughed.

"My dear, you can not even imagine what I am. Worry about your own life first." Valerie knew that it was time to leave. She knew that she should kill Sybil, but her stomach would not allow it. She would come back later, when she was hungry again and quench her thirst on the blood of the whore that would now call herself Alexander's widow. Closing her eyes, a smirk made its way to her lips before she transformed. Sybil watched with wide eyes as the woman on the rooftop was replaced by a black hellish bat creature. She heard footsteps running towards her but did not tear her eyes away from the rooftop.

"Dear God. Master Alexander." Said the maid which had run out having heard Sybil's scream. She was looking at the corpse on the ground. Following the gaze of her mistress, the maid stared in shock at what resided on the rooftop. A deafening roar echoed into the air.

"Nosferatu."

"Nosferatu." Said Sybil, "Nosferatu." Her wings beating hard and fast, Valerie took to the air, leaving the town behind her. There was a feeling of joy in transforming. Just a feeling of it, not the feeling itself. She had no emotion, no heart. She was...hollow. Flying through the sky, she had one destination in mind. Her old home, the Kildare castle. After all, if one wanted to dominate the world, one would need a place to rest and recuperate after battle, would they not? What she did not notice was the dark shape behind her, following her closely.

This next landing was a lot more coordinated, as she came to rest on the landing in front of the castle. Thunder rolled through the clouds and lightning flashed in the sky as the rain continued to fall. The droplets stung her skin, feeling wet and cold. But that was nothing to her. After all, wasn't she cold and unfeeling herself? Not that rain had feelings.

"Empty." She said to herself, "Just as I had left it."

"It's always interesting to come back to an empty home." Said a voice behind her. Valerie turned around, her wet hair clinging to her face. There stood Vladislaus, as drenched by the rain as she was.

"Being an only child with parents that are now dead, it was always rather dull coming to an empty home." She said.

"I see." There was a flash of lightning, which illuminated their forms in a bright light. The sudden light cast shadows on her face and Vladislaus could not help but stare into her emerald green eyes, which held a softer expression than the one that had been there earlier.

"And Gabriel has been, taken care of, am I correct?" she said. He nodded.

"Excellent." She turned her back to him, her gaze darting around, looking at every inch of the outside of the castle. Her focus went to the doors and they opened by themselves, something she found pleasing.

"Interesting." She said to herself and she walked through the doors. She could hear Vladislaus's footsteps behind her, as he came into the castle behind her. It was a lot drier inside. Although it did look a bit of a dump. Cobwebs gathered in the corners of the roof and several other places. Dust adorned chairs, desks, tables and the like.

"It looks like the place hasn't been touched ever since I was dead. Four years. It's never looked so bad." She said, her voice echoing in the empty halls.

"What are you going to do now?" she heard Vladislaus say behind her.

"Clean up, most likely. Or maybe find servants to clean it up for me. Although a lot of the help that was around here when I was younger are probably dead now."

"You'll have to get more, won't you?"

"Yes." She smiled, revealing her fangs.

"Anything else?"

"Possibly indulge a little. Scare the daylights out of the locals. The Countess they believed dead come back to haunt them. Won't that be fun?" Vladislaus laughed and stood beside her.

"And yourself? What do you plan on doing now?" she turned her head to look at him.

"I have plans. Lots of plans." She smiled.

"A man with a plan, or plans in this case. How very interesting." The two then stood in silence.

"I should be going." Said Vladislaus finally. Valerie didn't even move and she listened to the sound of his footsteps receding as he left her alone. Alone in the castle she once called home.

Her gaze drifted around the room, coming to rest on a large mirror on the wall beside them. All that remained of herself was a hand and her head. She smiled as she watched it disappear, leaving nothing but blank glass.

"It is complete." She said. Turning around, she walked away from the mirror. There were things that needed doing. Like for example, the employment of servants to look after the castle. Although she'd need at least one mildly intelligent person to use as her personal servant. One that would do her bidding, no questions asked. Then the perfect person came to mind. Her adopted brother, Cedric. But he would need convincing. Forcing him to do what she wanted would be a challenge. Although, Satan did say that mortals would bend to her will. She smirked.

"Excellent."

Some Random: And she gets her revenge after all. Well, thanks to those people that have reviewed and please keep reviewing. This will get better, with possibly more deaths to follow Alexander's and other juicy stuff...well, I hope. I mean, what did you expect? This is just part one...part two will be so much better...once I manage to pull of part one that is...err...well, thanks once again to reviewers and to those that haven't, please review. Some Random out.