Chapter Two
Play me a Melody Just out of Key
Alice neared him with caution. She wasn't happy with him and like any child who had just been punished, she didn't trust him not to continue the spanking again. She gingerly sat down on the stool, hissing her pain out with a wince.
"Is that...?" She looked at the book with curiosity as he nodded. "What... what did you want to show me?"
"I don't want to sound repetitive, but I do want to impress upon you why certain books of mine are in this study - and not to be tampered with."
Turning the book back to the third page, he pointed to a single line. "You don't speak Latin, do you?" He looked down at the page. "Of course not. Do you know what this line says?" He tapped it. "In so many words, it basically warns that any spell in this book performed under any but the most exacting circumstances will have dire circumstances. It is not until this book, number 32, that this warning appears. The spells here are exceptionally dangerous."
He shut the book. "Some of them cannot even be read except under the right circumstances, Alice. Just remember there's a reason I don't want you snooping around here, alright?"
Alice looked at the words with confusion. He was right, she only knew a few words of Latin; liberate, tu, inferum, but none of them were on the pages.
"I... I see," She looked sadly at the book. "Alright, Aleksandr. I won't."
The truth was, she was just bored with the current lessons she had with him. They were so... first grade like in the feel of things.
"Good." He stood up, gesturing to her to do the same. "What say we go to the ballroom, hm? We'll see if some music will cheer you up."
Aleksandr had been a musician even before his encounter with his sire, and had enthusiastically encouraged Alice to pick up an instrument from his collection. Unfortunately, that also meant it was pretty hard to fool him about how much practicing the girl had done between their lessons - not only could he smell fear, he could hear improvement.
Music always cheered him up, though, so he supposed she'd look forward to it.
Alice followed suit remembering she hadn't practiced any of her music since last month. She had been busy with other things, namely memorizing names that Aleksandr wanted her to remember, which wasn't going well either.
"Right... music..." Alice followed behind him. This was not good, not good at all. "Umm, how about you play something and I listen..."
They entered the ballroom where the grand piano stood ready for use. Aleksandr took special care of it, keeping it polished and tuned at all times, but Alice loathed the damn thing more then she did getting spanked. She wasn't sure if it was because he forced the lessons on her or it was the fact that when she played a wrong key, he would some times hit her hand with a ruler. It wasn't hard and it never left marks, it was just painful. Even if her healing was really good.
"How about that four-hands piece I told you about?" Aleksandr sat on the left side of the bench, leaving plenty of room on the right. The idea being, of course, that both musicians could play at the same time, using the entire range of the piano to their advantage.
"You remember, the one you start with here, right?" Aleksandr played the first two bars, stretching past his spot on the piano to plink the keys and refresh her memory.
Alice paled at his suggestion and smiled nervously. The few notes brought nothing to her memory. The more she thought about it the more she realized that she still had trouble remember which keys were which.
"Err... I think I'll pass, Sire..."
She eyed the piano as she played with her hand a bit. She didn't know if she should tell him or not. She was suppose to know the notes by now and she didn't.
"Sit down Alice." The order was stiff and left no room for argument.
Alice sat down beside him and placed her hands on what she believed were the right keys and as if by luck, she must have guessed right.
'Please remember, please remember...' Aleks started to play and Alice followed, hitting every wrong note possible. 'Dear god, he's going to kill me.'
"Alright, that's enough..." With a sigh, Aleksandr began playing his side of the music by himself - the piece, of course, sounded half-finished, which made sense, since it wasn't the entire piece. "When's the last time you practiced, Alice?"
The man was still in a good mood, even though it was obvious the girl hadn't done any of her work - music, even bad music, made him happy.
Alice shrank in her seat, hands folded in her lap and biting her lower lip.
"Welll... not since last time..." She answered looking at the notes and then at him. "I've been busy, studying those names you gave me to memories. It slipped..." She flinched at the stern look he gave her. "I'm in trouble again aren't I?"
"Well... yes, I suppose you are." Aleksandr stopped playing, and looked at the girl. "You might be. Do... do you want to play the piano? You certainly seemed interested in it when you came here. If... If you do want to play, and if you think you had time to practice, and simply chose not to, then yes, yes you are in trouble."
Aleksandr paused for a moment. "If that's the case, then I suppose we can kill two birds with one stone. You owe me two punishments for disobedience, do you not? Well, failing to practice your lessons for an entire month certainly sounds like disobedience to me. So what's your decision?"
A tiny smile flickered over his lips. At least he didn't have to ask her to tell him the truth. Alice looked like she wanted to cry all over again. The thought of another spanking while she was still sore was horrible but he had a point. She wanted to point out that he had been the one that made her take the lessons, although it was true, he had only do so because he had caught her playing around on it by chance. To Aleks, the piano was a sort of hobby he wanted to share wit her, the way mortal humans played soccer with their children or read a favorite fable as a bedtime story.
"But that's not fair!" She whined looking at him and covered her bottom again. "You're the one that gave me all those names to remember, and you know I'm still having trouble with this... this... thing!"
She gave the piano leg a small kick for measure, not thinking about the fact she was kicking something Aleksandr loved very dearly until it was too late.
"I... I'm sorry," She looked timidly at him again, unable to read his face.
"Temper, Alice. I keep telling you that you have to exercise more control." It was a small kick, after all.
"Its entirely up to you." he repeated. "Did I give you too much work, or should you have made time for this? You only get this spanking if you think you deserve it Alice. Otherwise, I'll simply lock up the ballroom for good, and we can see how your history memorization has been going."
So these were her choices; either get burned for her lack of proper priorities or get busted for doing even worse with her history. Alice bit her lip harder, drawing a little blood. She always forgot about her fangs when she knew was digging herself a deeper hole. The names were hard to pronounce, something the Aleks was very particular about because saying the names wrong was seen as an insult towards the elders.
"I... guess I should have made more time to practice..." She answered and thought to herself. 'At lest he doesn't know I've been listen to Disturbed and Korn instead of studying this...'
Aleks didn't approve of the two bands. They swear a lot in their lyrics and with her habit, it wasn't helping her stop.
"Is that a yes, Alice?"
Her moods and thoughts were so different than those of his generation, or of his sire's... he did not want to assume what she thought or felt when he could avoid it - as her sire, there was enough of that going on he could not help but do.
As for the bands, well, Aleks was not so stubborn that he could not recognize a child's need to rebel - it was simply a practical standpoint that kept him from warming up to her.. ..modern... music. In other words, Aleksandr knew how to pick his battles to get the best results. Alice, in the meantime, blushed hard as she looked at him with a 'you have to ask that?' look on her face and then sighed heavily.
"Yes," She banged her head down into the keys making a loud racked. "Dear god, I wish I was dead... why oh why did I say yes..."
She was off in her own world again, thinking about how she had gotten into this situation to begin with. She knew she should be thankful for the fact that Aleksandr was her Sire. Some of the elders she had read about, Razziel she believed his name was, was known for being brutal towards his fledgling, having once broken one's back as a form of punishment. She flinched at the thought.
'At lest I know Aleks would never do that to me...' She thought taking some comfort in the thought.
"No need for that, now-" He lifted her head up from the keys, and brushed the hair away from her forehead. "Good. I'm proud of you." Standing up, Aleksandr walked to a shelf full of musical scores and sheets. "We'll have you bend over the piano bench, hm? However you prefer, for now - either right over it, or resting your hands on it." The man returned from the shelf with the same ruler Alice had been thinking of earlier.
"You haven't been practicing, so this won't correct clumsy hands - I suppose we'll have to use it on your lazy rear instead. Raise your skirts-" Aleksandr blinked, and sighed as Alice gave him a dead-panned look. "...I suppose I'm fifty years behind again. Lower those jeans, Alice."
Alice didn't know whether to be happy or peeved when he said he was proud, but she felt her heart sink when he went and got the ruler in his hand. She hated that thing and although she had never been spanked by it, she doubted that she would like it.
"I'll... she looked at the bench before standing and resting her hands on it, bend over facing the piano. She felt too odd laying on it, feeling small and child like if she did. "...stand like this."
"Alright." He tapped her thigh with the ruler, making Alice jump. She had honestly though he would have hit her there and then so her nerves were strung high. "Pants down, I said." The smile on the man's face was genuine - it was a very grown-up thing Alice was doing, and, while he wished there was a better way to reward her, he supposed doing what was right was the best he could do for now.
"Oops..." Alice rose and unbuttoned her jeans, and carefully unzipped her pants before working her down her legs until they were bunched around her knees. "Sorry..."
She fought back a deep blush as she did this in front of him. Even thought he had bared her many times before, doing it herself felt odd. She returned to being bent over the bench, gripping it and she took a deep breath.
"Its alright. Keep your ears open, hm? You aren't the only one in the room." Tapping her thigh again, he nodded. "Relax your muscles. It'll only hurt worse this way." Aleksandr waited a long moment. ...he'd bare her later, when she would imagine she could actually feel the difference - as it was, she'd almost completely healed. He could skip warming her up with his hand:
Smack. Smack. Smack. Smack.
Four lines of pink blushed up against the girls rear. Once she'd gotten used to their presence, Aleksandr began his task in earnest, swiftly peppering the girl with the thin piece of wood.
Smack Smack Smack Smack Smack Smack Smack Smack Smack Smack Smack.
Alice yelped the moment Aleksandr began. If she had thought his hand and hairbrush was painful, him wheeling a ruler was nothing gin comparison. She gripped the bench hard until her knuckles were nearly white, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow," She whimpered. "Oooh, not so awe hard..."
"Hm? Oh!" Aleksandr stopped swinging his arm, and contained himself to merely flicking his wrist - he'd forgotten he wasn't using a paddle, as his piano instructor had on him. The ruler was made to build up a slower sting, and Aleksandr didn't want to lessen the effect...
SwatswatSwat !The 'lesser' smacks of the ruler came down with incredible speed, but wouldn't leave her yelling about the pain so much as whining from the sting - which was, of course, the idea.
Alice fought against the urge to stand up when the pace quickened.
"Aaaaawe!" She whimpered. "That AH wasn't what I OH, meant!"
"I know. But its what you're getting." Aleksandr tugged down the girl's underwear, which was still shockingly revealing to his dated tastes, and continued her spanking.
SwatswatSwat !
"All you can do is stand there and take it, Alice. Be strong. Keep your body up, keep your arms straight. This was your choice - remember that you deserve this. I'm still very proud of you."
!
Alice started hoping from one foot to the other. The fact that it was her bare skin now, made it even more painful and tears were already falling from her eyes.
"AWE! AWE! AWE! AWE!" She started to cried out, her hand doing their best to stay in place. "AWE! AWE! Stoooop! It hurts! Awe!"
"Keep those hands down, Alice. I won't be able to stop quick enough if you bring them back, and I don't want to hurt you!"
atswatSwatswatSwatswatSwat
Alice finally couldn't stop herself. The moment Aleksandr increased the swats, Alice reared up to a stand and covered her rear for a moment. It proved to be a mistake because not a second later, the rule came down hard across her fingers.
"AHH! Shit!" Alice cried out as she brought her hands in front of her and the rub the pain away, a read band ran across the knuckles of her fingers. "Aw, aw, aw, aw ,aw..."
She blow on them before realizing what she had yelled and turned to face Aleksandr with pleading eyes.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It slipped I swear. Please, don't spank me for that, please." She looked at him with teary eyes, a little unbalanced because of her pants and panties. They were hot pants styled panties made up of pink and white lace, her favorite kind. "Please! It really slipped!"
"Alice! I warned you about that-" Aleksandr stopped for a moment and checked her hands. While the ruler hurt like the dickens, she was (luckily) uninjured. "Good. Your hands are okay… I won't have you rest on your hands though - it'll be harder, now. Put your whole body over the bench - and no more slip ups like that, Alice." He added, sternly.
Alice smiled thankfully at him and nodded her head.
"Yes Sire," She then turned around again. "Thank you... it... it won't happen again."
Laying over the bench felt odd to her, but she didn't voice it. Instead she bite her complaints inside herself and waited for the last of her punishment to be carried out.
"That's what I want to hear. You're quite welcome, Alice." He clucked his tongue. "Two months, dear, and I still can't get used to a young lady in breeches. You're really turning this old man's world upside-down. Ah well."
swatswatswat
!
SWATSWATSWATSWAT!
The last four crackers struck the girl - one on each cheek, one on each bare thigh, and with that, the man dropped the ruler, and put a hand on the small of her back. "That's all dear - it'd have been far worse if you had shown any less maturity than you did. I really am quite proud of you."
Alice would have told him thanks for the compliment if she hadn't been crying as hard as she was. the string the ruler felt was extremely painful and she knew that she'd need to drink blood soon or else she wouldn't heal as fast as she should. Crying hard, she brought one arm up to rest her head on, and the other hand down to rubbed the pain away.
"I'm s-s-sorry!" She managed to say through her tears and wails. "I-I-I'll study harder, I promiiise!"
"I know you will. I'm always around if you need a little help - or a little encouragement." He rubbed the girl's shoulder. "Today is certainly an unusual day, isn't it?" He smiled, and continued rubbing until she managed to calm down. "While I can't have you running around in those skimpy things you call undergarments, I can't imagine you'll want to be wearing those tight pants any longer, will you?"
With a wave of his hand, a white skirt that went down past her knees appeared in his hand. "…if you wish. I don't mean to impose." Looking down, he saw the girl was still hurting. "Let's get you calmed down. Would you like us to go get you a drink? All this, ah, 'exercise' making you hungry?"
Alice eyed the skirt with mixed feelings. It went against her normal nature to wear it since it was after Aleksandr's taste but he was right. the thought of pulling her pants up again was almost enough to be it's own punishment.
She took the skirt with a semi limp hand, kicking of her pants off and slipped on the skirt. It was was a lose skirt and complement her nicely. She rubbed her eyes dry and nodded at him.
"Something to eat would be nice," She answered and folded her pants in her arms. "I'll just... put these away first."
"Alright. I'll be waiting for you in the upper hall. We'll walk from there, alright?"
Aleksandr headed out of the ballroom in a shudder of mist - the perks of vampirism simply begged to be exercised at times like this - stamina, magic, and in Alice's case, the ability to heal - all of them had their value.
Alice quickly hurried to her room and tossed the pants in threw the door. She normally keep her room tidy but she wanted to hurry up her healing so she would put them away later.
The state of her room was probably the only thing Aleksandr never complained about, she had always kept her things in order so it was never a problem. Once she reached the kitchens and peeked in to see if he really was there. She smiled at him softly but scolded when she looked at the medical blood.
"Eww," She groaned and picked up the glass. "Why does this stuff always taste so gross?"
"There are a million ways to improve taste, but none to bring back a life, Alice." Aleksandr raised his own glass. "You know I've given you full control over how you take it, and what you want to take it with, so long as you sate your hunger on it alone. We have a fully stocked kitchen for anything else you may crave, but right now, that's what your body needs. Drink up."
Alice pout at the glass, looking like a child whom had been told to take her medicine. She picked up the glass and quickly downed it, grimacing a the texture and taste.
"Eww, it is just like that liver..." She put the glass down, feeling a little more fresh as the blood quickly entered her system.
Aleksandr smiled, and opened a small silver bottle. A thin orange liquid slipped into his own glass, and, swirling it, he quickly downed the whole goblet. "But you'll feel better, sooner. Its worth the taste. Would you like something a little fresher to wash it down with?"
Alice shock her head, not wanting anything else in her stomach. She eyes the silver bottle with curiosity.
"No, I'm goo-what was that?"
"This?" He smiled, capping the bottle. "Extra-strength Tabasco sauce." Aleksandr licked his lips. "Like I said, a million ways to improve the taste."
Alice made a face. She wasn't a fan of Tabasco sauce.
"How can you stand that stuff?" Alice looked at him questionable before sighing. It was like him asking her why she wore the kind of clothes she did. "Well, I'd better work on those names..."
Aleksandr shrugged. "It tastes better than liver, I suppose."
He also stood up, clearing the table with a wave of his hand.
"So would you like to show me what you've memorized there, Alice? I have to admit, I didn't think you'd spend so much time on our histories, but... well, if you did, I'd certainly like to know."
Alice shock her head. She had been studying the names, but it wasn't coming along well.
"I'd rather you didn't," She answered and groaned into her hand, "What is it with Elder vampires and weird names, like Astaroth, Seith, Godric, Razziel, and even yours. I mean you say it Alexander but you spell it A-L-E-K-S-A-N-D-R. Why can't you have simple names like Bob?"
She crossed her arms on the table and rested her head on them.
"I hate these these lessons... they're boring."
"They're from an older time, Alice." Aleksandr smiled, a knowing look on his face. Alice wasn't the first fledgling, whether his or in history, whom felt that the history lessons were a bother. "Why, even your name might be different back then.. and perhaps, when you have a fledgling of your own, she'll think it strange how your name is spelled."
"Alice is a classic name," she scuffed a little at him. "There's only one way of writing it."
Still smiling, the vampire eased Alice out of her seat and guided the girl into the Long Hall, which was lined with many vampires' portraits. Some were very formal in their stance while others were casual in some odd way which Alice couldn't put her finger on.
"Perhaps if the names don't help you, the stories will? You've read at least some of their histories, haven't you? Tell me if you can remember any looking at the pictures."
Alice looked at on portrait and smiled. At lest the first one was easy.
"That's Vladimir Tepes the 3rd. He was the ruler of Vallachia and was known for his blood lust," She turned and smirked at her Sire. "I remember because read Dracula back when I was human."
"Yes, well, we aren't all celebrities, at least." Aleksandr shook his head. "The book is quite wrong, you know - we met for Christmas some fifteen years ago. He throws quite the party."
Alice blinked looking completely shocked at him.
"You mean he's still alive!" She was mixing up the character Dracula with Vlad thinking they were the same. "I thought he got killed by Van Hellsing, or at lest works for them..."
Now she was mixing him up with Alucard from the manga Hellsing. Aleks shock his head looking amused.
"I don't believe it, Vlad the Impaler. Alive." She shuddered. "I hope I never met him."
"Yes, well, how about this one." He gestured to a painting of a tall, cold-eyed woman wearing a full Victorian dress of stunning ice-blue. Aleks grinned, remembering something. "She has the same colored hair as you. or... She did. Its gotten a bit white since then..."
Alice looked at portrait drawing a blank. The woman looked familiar but not from a book. In fact t was sort of... unpleasant in a way. Alice almost felt that she would move any moment just to scare her.
"She... looks like my old English teacher..." Alice shuddered at the memory. "Mrs. Saumple. She was an old battle ax who did everything in her power to make my life miserable..."
Alice blushed as she realized she was rambling and shock her head.
"Sorry, I'm not sure who she is," She looked at the portrait, trying harder to remember but without luck.
Aleksandr smiled. "At least you didn't start in the back of the book and work your way towards the front. She's one of the youngest - my last fledgling, in fact - no matter what the painting looks like, she's practically a baby... Do you recognize any of the others? I'm sure at least one or two will trigger something."
Aleksandr smiled. "At least you didn't start in the back of the book and work your way towards the front. She's one of the youngest - my last fledgling, in fact - no matter what the painting looks like, she's practically a baby... Do you recognize any of the others? I'm sure at least one or two will trigger something."
Alice looked at a few others. She stopped at a painting of a very beautiful vampiress dressed in a deep red grown while black trim and a heavy ruby necklace about her neck. The woman had a cruel look in her eyes and a smirk on her lip, as if she knew she was better then everyone else.
"This one I definitely know," Alice backed away from the painting. Of all the female vampires she was learning, this one unnerved her to no ends. Mostly because she had met the woman once. "That's the Countess Carmilla. She... she use to kill young girls and ba..."
Alice looked sickly at the picture. Carmilla had told her in detail what she would do to her victims before Aleksandr had rescued her from her.
"... bath in their blood to remain beautiful and young..." Alice finished and looked at an other portrait. "And this one's Lord Razziel Dornell. He's known for rearing hell hounds and being a general during the dark ages."
"Yes. The graphic ones. Well, good - I don't expect you to have this hall memorized, Alice, but I'm happy to see you've at least taken an interest. Don't... don't think of these people as a lesson you need to learn by a certain time. They're a history - a story - and if you keep reading, you'll be able to put the pieces together much more easily. "...For example, do you know how Lord Dornell reared those hounds?"
Alice blinked and shock her head. She had never really met the man, just on of his fledglings who had 'grown up' and moved away from him.
Alice had met Mikeal on the street that first and only time she had tried to run away from Aleksandr. After having caught her and called Aleks to pick her up, he had explained to her a bit on why it was better to be with her Sire and learn what was happening to her rather then running off. To help her take her mind of of Aleks until he'd arrive, Mikeal told her about his own life as a fledgling and how he envied her sire. That was where she knew about the hell hound and his strict love as Mikeal had called it.
"No, how does he rear them?"
Aleksandr happily watched the girl blunder into his trap.
"Well, that's just it! Another story entirely. A copy of Dornell's Memoirs is in the library. If you'd like, feel free to read it - if you do, I'd be more than happy to consider it just as - if not more - educational than the Histories I've left you with."
Alice gaped at him and then growled. While she should have foreseen this trick instead of walking head first and blind into it, it figured he would do this. He just had this ability to passively give her more work to do. What was worse he knew she would go and read the damnable book.
"That..." Alice pointed a finger at him and poked him lightly on the chest. "...it just beyond mean, Aleks."
She then turned back and looked at the portrait of his past fledgling. "So... who was she anyway? what did she do?"
Aleksandr shrugged.
"I thought you'd rather read that then one of your Histories, is all... ...and she... that is Gabrielle."
Aleksandr once again wore that smile which spoke of treasured past memories.
"She... truly missed her human life. Her beau... He was in a boating accident mere weeks before she joined our ranks," Aleksandr shook his head. "She was a very lonely woman - very solitary. An... an introvert. You know the word, yes? ...I spent many, many hours coaxing her out of her shell. With music... history..." Aleksandr braced for impact. He couldn't help but drop this last tidbit. "...that white brush in your bureau, too..."
Alice felt a pang of jealousy and self doubt run through her blood. Aleks spoke so lovingly about Gabrielle and it made her wonder how close they had been and if she was just replacing her in some way. At the mention of the brush in her bureau Alice felt a blush run across her face.
"I see, so I'm not the only..." She tried to seem normal, but the little 'what if' seed was already planted. "Aleks... I've been wondering..." Alice wanted to ask but stopped herself. What if the answer wasn't what she wanted to hear. "No it's nothing. Forget... I'm gonna go and find that book you mentioned."
Alice didn't wait to hear if he had anything else to say and hurried off towards the library, a little worried. She didn't mind life too much with Aleksandr, although she didn't wish he didn't have all the rules he did nor that he would spank her for her misbehaviors. In fact, if she pushed those parts off the list life was pretty nice in his home. Still she could help but wonder why he had picked her as a fledgling to begin with.
'Maybe... I'm just a whim...' She thought as she closed the doors to the library and looked at the large selection of books on the shelves.
*-*-*-* Author's Notes *-*-*-*
Vladimir the 3rd and Elizabeth Batheroy are two real people in history and no vampire story would be complete without mentioning these two pillars of the vampire lore. Elizabeth was not blonde in her mortal life, and in truth I don't know what color it was. However, given that most people know a day think of perfect beauty as someone being blonde, I pictured her to be a woman who does everything she can to be an image of perfect beauty. Even if she has to pull a Dolly Parton.
* Ms. Saumple – Ms. Saumple was actually my senior year English teacher. The worst teacher I've had to date. Other then boring lessons, she managed to hit every single pet peeve I have from saying my name wrong past the first month of being in her class, to asking how I understood a poem and then telling me I was wrong. At the very least, she could have said 'interesting, but it's not what the author had meant by it'. Worst was when we saw Hamlet in class and I called the coast line in the movie not to be Denmark. A word of advice to all out there. Never tell a Dane that they don't know what their own country looks like. It ticks them off royally. It's like calling a Canadian an American or saying a New Yorkers is the same as a person from New Jersey are the same. I got even with her though. I got my whole class to call the Monster in Frankenstein for Bob. Take that!
I would also like to say now before I forget, I did not major in history and I barely scrapped myself to a C while in school, so there will be times where I will fuck up on what time period something happened in.