Chapter Two - Dark-Adapted Eyes
She sat in her favorite place and gazed down at the castle grounds. Most days she could be found here, though it was a forbidding and desolate spot, trying to catch a glimpse of the one she loved. Though he spurned her, her heart remained true, loving him despite the upheaval he'd caused in her life.
She was City-bred, her large-pupiled eyes giving that fact away at first glance. Hers were eyes that had never seen the sun. No, the changeable nature of humans, slowly refining its genetic code over generations, had given her eyes more suited for her world. Starlight was bright enough for her. The dusky greys of twilight had become her rainbow. Dim and subtle coloring was pleasing to her dark-adapted eyes.
So, though it was full night, she was still able to sit on her nearly barren hilltop, nestled between the craggy rock nearly at thecrest and the lone tree defiant enough to still grow there. The wind blew briskly enough that she huddled deeper into her shawl and curled up closer to the rock. Despite the discomfort, the castle grounds never failed to hold her rapt attention and hungry gaze. For even a glimpse of him, she'd stay out here the entire night.
Tall. Her first impression of him in the flesh had been that he was tall. And presence. His presence was an aura that announced his arrival before she actually laid eyes on him. Dwelling on her thoughts of him, she slid half-protestingly, half-willingly into the reverie of her memory.
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Long had she waited for this day, preparing her entire life for it. Her mother and father had groomed her carefully from the time she was an infant for her fate. Every aspect of her life had been tailored with painstaking care for the duty and honor of her destiny, for she was the gift of her house. She was the first child born in her tribute generation. When her birth was announced, a physician from the manor proper had come, to examine her for her suitability to become the tribute. She was flawless, no defect in her genetics to upset the special tastes and needs of her future masters.
Thus, her parents, knowing her destiny, guarded her carefully from harm, feeding her only the prescribed diet mandated by the castle for those destined for tribute, and lavishing her with their love.
"Why, momma? Why can't I go out and play with the other children?"
"The play might become too rough and you might be hurt. I'm sorry, sweetheart, but stay here with me. I can teach you how to..."
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"It would be too dangerous for you to learn to ride a horse. Let's work on your painting..."
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"There's no reason for you to go to the dance. You won't be needing to find a husband like the other girls. Besides, you are so beautiful, they boys would be too distracted!"
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She had known her destiny was to, on her 20th birthday, stand outside the entrance of her family's modest manor and wait for her lord's emissary. The emissary would come, perform the Ceremony of Tribute with her, and take her away. She would never see her family again. Her parents weren't able to tell her if she would ever see another human again. They couldn't tell her anything at all about what would happen after the ceremony, except that she brought great honor to her family name, and it was a great honor for her to be selected as a tribute.
Of course, she'd heard the rumors. She even knew something of the truth. In her family, it was not permitted to withhold what they knew from the destined. She knew that her purpose as the tribute of her family was to appease the vampire lords. Vampires needed human blood to live. Without the fated tributes from each family, the vampires would be forced to take humans randomly, against those humans' wills, in order to survive. Since the vampires were not cruel to the humans who shared the City of the Night with them, the tribute system had been agreed to as the method by which the vampires could gain the human blood they needed.
She'd thought, when she was ten, that it was romantic. Her family house's tribute, taken to the vampire's house the year she was ten, had been a handsome man of twenty. He'd stood at the top step of the castle, dressed all in white, waiting for the carriage from the vampire's castle to come. It had arrived at the appointed time, drawn by two black, demonic-seeming horses. It seemed as though every breath was held as the door opened and a beautiful vampire woman stepped out. Wearing the slightest serene smile on her face, she walked -- never too fast, never too slow, up the castle steps to take the tribute's hand.
"Everon," the vampire woman said his name.
"Yes!" Everon acted surprised that she had known it.
"You have been offered to us as your family's tribute. Do you accept this destiny of your own free will?"
"I... I do."
"You know that you will never see your family again?"
Everon nodded.
"Please, answer aloud," the vampire woman requested mildly.
"Yes, I know."
"Still, will you honor the ancient pact between your family and ours, to leave here with me as the tribute from your family to mine?"
"Yes."
"You have said your good-byes?"
Everon turned to look at the part of the extensive family permitted to watch and hear the Tribute Ceremony. His parents were there, of course, and were his brothers and sister. The head of the family watched too. His cousin, the next tribute, and her immediate family were there also, to witness, even as he'd witnessed the tribute before his, so that their turn at the tribute might be easier. Everon seemed a bit sad, looking one final time at his parents and siblings. His little sister was crying.
"Don't cry, Sarah. I'm just going to go and live with this nice lady's family now, since I'm all grown up, okay?" Everon broke the pattern of the ceremony to call out to his little sister. The next oldest boy leaned down and swung his sister into his arms. He whispered something in her ear and she ran her sleeve across her eyes to dry them.
"Jesse told me this is a happy day for you, and not to spoil it by crying," Sarah called out in a wavery voice.
"You be happy in your new home!" Sarah smiled even though a tear slipped free and rolled down her cheek. Everon swallowed hard, looking one last time at his family before nodding firmly to his father and turning back toward the waiting vampire woman.
"Let's go," he said simply.
She smiled at him, a warm and tender smile, before reaching down to pick up his hand.
"They will be all right," she promised as she started back down the steps to the waiting carriage. When they got there, the door opened on its own. Everon assisted the vampire woman up the step, and then, without turning back, entered the carriage himself. It drove off. His name was added to the book of tributes, along with the name of the vampire who'd come to claim him -- Isolde. Then, the excitement died down.
At twelve, she had thought it wasn't fair. At fourteen, she'd tried to run away from home, to escape her fate. By the time she was eighteen, she had accepted it, realizing that her sacrifice would make it so the vampire family she was tributed to wouldn't have to find someone else, someone less prepared than she was. She didn't want a vampire, driven mad with hunger, to strike anyone else in her vast, extended family. She was the first of forty-two children born in that tribute year. If something happened to her, another would be selected to take her place. At least she had been raised knowing her destiny. She'd been raised to be pleasing to a vampire. If she were gone when the time of tribute arrived, and the vampire didn't like the alternate, how many of her cousins would be taken before he was satisfied?
No, she'd resolved by the time she was twenty to accept her fate and the bitter honor of being her family's tribute.
She'd been arrayed in white on her Tribute Day. White roses were twined into her dark hair. Her lacy, floaty, pure white dress had been lovingly made by her mother.
"It is a good vampire house," her father had whispered as he hugged her tight one final time. "I know you've heard the rumors, but there is honor there, in that vampire family, too. We will never see you again, but I'm certain... I'm certain..."
"We are certain you will just live there, hidden away, that's all," her mother finished, reached around her husband to hug her daughter too. "One human, once every ten years, when we know there are several vampires in that house... it doesn't add up. The tributes of previous years must still be there! Just -- hidden away."
She nodded that she understood the comfort her parents were offering her. They didn't think she was going directly into her death. In fact, she might meet other tributes from her family there. That prospect excited her. That she might be "in" on such a big and important secret pleased her.
Still, her heart had thudded and a terrible feeling of dread settled in her soul at the sight of two black, demonic-appearing horses pulling a carriage up to the castle steps. It was almost as though she could feel the -- well, the spirit of the vampire who'd come to claim her. That spirit was vast and powerful. She felt almost as though it would devour her even before the vampire made it up the steps to claim her.
The carriage door had opened.
"He's so tall!" she had thought before the vampire's eyes found hers. A depth of warmth she'd never imagined could exist in anyone's eyes met hers. It had flashed across her mind then, as she recalled Everon's tribute, that the vampire castle was very smart. They sent one of the opposite gender of the tribute to claim it. She'd been too naive at ten to recognize it, but recalling it now, they had been something of a feeling of courtship about it all. Everon had even worn white as she did, almost as if he were a groom to be married.
And now -- it was her turn. She would have screeched at the coercive and unfair nature of it all, except she'd somehow managed to fall in love with her vampire when he had met her eyes.
He seemed to be taking his time reaching her side, taking each step with an agonizing slowness. Yet, it gave her time to get her heart to stop racing about so she could breathe without fearing she would faint. By the time he reached the top step, she thought she might be able to trust her voice again, to perform her half of the Tribute Ceremony with something close to her normal voice.
There was a gasp behind her. She glanced over to discover the reason for the break in the dignity of the ceremony. The head of the family stared at the vampire with eyes widened by shock.
"You... you...!"
Smiling faintly, the vampire ignored the head of her family and reached forward to take her hand. A thrill shot through her at his soft touch.
"Samantha?" the vampire's velvet voice caressed her name.
"Yes?" Samantha wasn't surprised that he had known it. She wouldn't be surprised if he already knew everything about her.
"You have been offered to us as your family's tribute. Do you accept this destiny of your own free will?"
"I do." Samantha nodded firmly, happy that she'd fought her way to accepting her fate and not running from it. She was now certain her fate was much gentler than she had ever hoped it could be.
"You know that you will never see your family again?"
"I know." The answer seemed too short to her somehow.
"Still, will you honor the ancient pact between your family and ours, to leave here with me as the tribute from your family to mine?"
"Yes, I will!"
"You have said your good-byes?"
Overcome, just the tiniest bit, Samantha couldn't help but turn and look at her parents. Perhaps it was a bit easier for her than it had been for Everon, as she was an only child. She suddenly realized it made things that much harder on her parents. Not that Everon's parents had replaced him with the other children, but surely their presence made it so it wasn't too lonely for them. Her parents had no such distractions.
Her father's smile was sad, but proud. Her mother's bore the same pride and faint sorrow. As one, both nodded. By that, Samantha knew they still wanted her to honor the family's vow. She turned back and straightened her shoulders resolutely.
"I have," Samantha replied. "I'm ready."
Her vampire had smiled down into her eyes, then, he dropped her hand.
"It is not to be. Samantha, you are released from being a tribute. You may remain here, and live out your life with your family."
Tears started in her eyes, as her heart dropped into a deep, dark, abysmal place. He didn't want her!
"My, My Lord Dracula!" The head of the family protested. "In what way is Samantha found lacking? She's been raises since infancy to be pleasing to vampires, fed all the right things! She accepts her fate -- this is unprecedented!"
Dracula! The Vampire King himself! No wonder she'd fallen in love with him so fast... The dark and rich tones of his voice as he explained flowed around her, barely making a dent in her despair. How had she failed? What was wrong that he didn't want her? Each word he spoke, each glance at his face, or hands, admiring the grace of his gestures, and the waves in his hair as he brushed it back from his face, served only to wind Samantha deeper into a hopeless love for him. Never in all her nightmare imaginings of this day did she ever consider that she might be rejected. Such had never happened before.
The shocked response of her family died down. Trapped in a helpless numbness, the only thing that registered properly was when Lord Dracula had reached for her hand again, lifted it to his lips, and kissed the back of it.
"Live well," he had commanded, before walking away (Away!) from her, down the steps, into his waiting carriage, and out of her life.
Her parents' arms had wrapped around her then, tears of joyful relief on their faces. It wasn't until later that Samantha understood why Lord Dracula had left her that day. While she had been locked in her stunned numbness, the Lord of All Vampires explained to the head of her family that they had enough tribute humans for the time being. That taking another one would actually be a hardship on his house, for he made it a point to have a personal and meaningful relationship with each of his bloodmates. That if he took Samantha, she would most likely be rather ignored in his house, and that wasn't something he was willing to do, since once a tribute human entered a vampire's house they were not permitted to leave. Ever.
Her family was happy. Her name was put in the tribute book in a place of singular honor, since Lord Dracula himself never came to claim the tributes to his house personally. Of course, the entry read that she was released from her destiny as a tribute, instead of claimed by him.
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"And so, five years later, with no honor and no destiny, I haunt the hillside that overlooks the castle that rejected me," Samantha thought to herself. Still, she couldn't bring herself to hate Lord Dracula. It had been a brief meeting, but still, his presence was burned so deeply in her heart that she couldn't blame him. She just wished that she'd been -- good enough -- for him.
Half a sob escaped her to be torn away by the wind. A moment later rough hands grabbed her and hauled her out from her spot between the rock and the tree. A blow to her head summoned darkness before she could even scream.
Author's notes -
:sigh: Did you notice this chapter wasn't "The Vampire King" as promised at the end of Chapter One? The story took on a life of its own and insisted I write a chapter for Samantha. This changes the nature of the story I had intended to write a little, but I think it is for the better. Never fear! Dracula and Meier have their face to face meeting in the next chapter.
Next chapter teaser - Chapter Three - The Vampire King (Oh, he just had to have a chapter all to Himself!)
Reviews, comments and constructive criticisms are always welcome! Please feel free to email me also if you see something awkward that needs to be clarified or fixed. I need all the help I can get!
stargarde (at) stargarde (dot) com