Tons of positive response! Wow! Thank you so much, you guys! I cannot stress enough what a wonderful gift those reviews are to me. To be honest, I'm surprised that you all like a Dracula/OC fanfiction so much, and even more so since I've barely gotten any of that action in there. Also, I know my fic is rated M and hasn't been very M-oriented yet, but it's getting there, trust me. ;) So, we resume after Luminitia's bonding time with Verona and Aleera has ended and Dracula has taken her to Budapest. He is about to claim her as his own! Let's pray some depraved vampire doesn't get to her first (hint hint). How's that for… (cue dramatic music) FORESHADOWING?!
I'm sorry. I'm in a weird mood today.
Disclaimer: I do not own Van Helsing, Sweeney Todd (sob uncontrollably), or any other shows I've written about in the past, mainly anime, as I think I've mentioned before. Life's a bitch that way, isn't it?
Anyway, enjoy chapter three!
"Are you awake, my dear?" a deep, seductive voice whispered in my ear.
I smiled and shifted my weight a little, breathing in deeply. Letting my eyes flutter open, I looked up into Dracula's black ones. He was leaning over my body, and I was lying on a loveseat. His face was very close to mine. "Are we in Budapest?" I asked, my voice cracking from not having been used in a while.
"Naturally. Tell me now, are you feeling all right?"
I sat up and stared at him. That question had come out of nowhere. "I'm fine."
He smiled and stroked my cheek. "Sometimes waking up from our hypnotism can be… disorienting to humans. You seem to fare rather well."
"I don't see any reason why I shouldn't have," I smiled sweetly and pulled him down to sit beside me, placing my hands on his arm and rubbing my cheek along his shoulder.
He sighed and took a deep breath, burying his face in my hair. "Intoxicating," he mumbled, kissing my right temple and trailing more down my jawline. I got the sense that Dracula was a very sexual creature; it seemed all he did when we were in each other's company was kiss me like this. And I loved it more than anything I have ever loved before.
"When will you make the announcement?" I whispered, gasping as he placed his hands on the small of my back and between my shoulder blades, baring my neck to him, and he kissed the hollow of my throat.
He pulled away from me after a moment more and brushed the flyaway strand of hair that had gotten loose behind my ear. "Not tonight. Three days from now, on All Hallows Eve. I hold a masquerade ball each year for my brethren. I shall mark you as mine, in front of the world of darkness, at midnight." He drew away from me, standing. "And you shall be untouchable."
"To anyone but you?" I whispered, leaning back on my elbows and dwelling on the ghost of his lips on my throat. He hadn't kissed me on the mouth this time.
"To anyone but me," he confirmed. "Now, I have some business to attend to in Budapest. You shall remain here, keeping out of trouble. Human curiosity is… quite dangerous."
"Of course," I agreed, even though I secretly was praying he didn't mean I wouldn't see him for three days. I wanted to see him tomorrow, tonight, as soon as I possibly could. I missed him already, even though he was standing right in front of me. "What am I to do, then, while I'm staying out of trouble?"
He smiled. "This castle has many things for a human to occupy their time with. Although for the time being, I think it would be prudent for you to learn how to dance. I also have a rather extensive library."
I blushed, too humiliated to admit that I had no idea how to read.
Dracula turned to the door in the corner of the vast room and called, "Renata! Akos!"
The door opened and two human figures came gliding into the room, both beautiful, certainly vampires. One was a small girl who couldn't have been more than twelve when she'd been turned, petite and blonde with a childishly pretty face. The other was a tall and slender man with thick, wavy brown hair and a square jaw. He had to be in his mid-twenties at least, when he'd been granted immortality. The man bowed sweepingly, first at Dracula, then at me. The girl curtsied in much the same manner.
"Renata," Dracula said, indicating the girl. "And Akos." He waved his hand towards the man. "Renata shall be your attendant. She knows this castle inside and out. Akos will instruct you in dancing. They are both very aware of your position and will follow any order you give to them without hesitation."
Akos approached me and knelt on one knee before me, taking my hand and kissing it. "My lady," he said humbly. "It is an honor to serve a future bride of our lord."
I was blushing all the way down to my toes by now, I was certain.
Dracula leaned over me and planted a slow, gentle kiss in the center of my forehead. "Fret not, my love," he said smoothly. "I shall return in a few hours."
And he strode out of the room, leaving me alone with two unfamiliar vampires. I pursed my lips and looked at Akos and Renata, my eyes flickering from one to the other. What now?
Akos rose smoothly and offered me his hand. "My lady," he said. "Shall we proceed to the ballroom?"
I supposed there wasn't much for me to do but take his hand and let him lead me to the door. "I suppose Dra… I mean, the master expects me to dance at the announcement party?" I asked, trying to make small conversation as Akos took me down a cavernous hallway. Renata followed us silently. She was looking at me with a sort of longing in her eyes.
"But of course," Akos grinned crookedly. "What sort of princess of the night would you be if you did not know how to dance?"
"Princess?' I scoffed. "I'm no princess."
"Not yet," he said cleverly, chuckling slightly. "But you will be. Even as a human, every vampire shall revere you. They will be loyal to you without hesitation. Once the announcement has been made, the only creature more powerful than yourself shall be our Lord Dracula."
I shuddered.
After we had gone through a few hallways, Akos stopped me a enormous, ornately carved mahogany doors. "Here we are," he smiled, pushing them open. "The ballroom."
I almost had a heart attack. It was, simply put, the most beautiful room I'd ever seen. The floors glistened, mirrors framed with gold hung on every wall. I was reminded once more that vampires had no reflections as I stared into the mirror, two vampires by my side in reality but entirely alone in my reflection. My cheeks were still pink from when Dracula had been kissing me and my hair was slightly rumpled.
"Now, you will have to imagine the music," Akos said, pulling me from my thoughts. I gasped when he placed his hand on my waist and a figurative jolt of electricity ran up my spine. He withdrew at once. I shook my head, indicating I was fine, and waved my hand, conveying to him it was all right, that he could proceed. When he moved forward once more, his motions were much slower, his touch much lighter. It was as though he was afraid he'd break me in half (which he probably could, but only if he was trying to).
His right hand rested on my waist and he took my right hand with his left. "Now, place your free hand on my shoulder," he instructed, and I obeyed. I took a deep breath. I had never been this close to anyone but Dracula since my father's death. It made me nervous. "You'll step forward first," he said, his tone even.
And he taught me to dance. I was amazed by the effortlessness of his every motion, the way dancing was, to him, as natural as breathing. Not that he technically needed to breathe. My own movements were clumsy and awkward, and the best I can say for my dancing is that by the end of our session I had progressed from abysmal, treading on his toes with nearly every step with not a hint of grace, to dreadful, stepping on his toes every several steps and managing to barely achieve scattered scraps of grace as we waltzed.
When the windows displayed night as it had fallen, dots of light littering the dark sky, Akos declared us done for the day and assured me that, though I did not feel the way he did, that I had made "good progress" and would surely grow steadily better as we practiced over the next two days. I was beginning to panic. I had two days to master this skill I had never attempted before, and in two nights' time I was expected to demonstrate it to a dark community, expected to win their hearts and their respect, although their loyalty was guaranteed.
For a moment, I feared that, were I to prove myself inadequate, I would be slaughtered and they would feast upon my blood like fine liquor. I shook myself and forced my mind to return to the present, telling myself my bloody fantasies were both irrational and, for lack of a better term, idiotic.
I realized, through the nervousness twisting in my gut, that I was hungry. Who knew how long it had been since my last meal. I couldn't even be sure how much time had passed since the night of the burning windmill, the night I was spirited away. As far as I could remember, the last scrap of food I'd had was half a small loaf of bread, which I got for cheap since the baker burned it. My dining experiences throughout my life could sadly be described only as little better than savage.
Renata was the one who said something about my mundane humanness, calling to attention my mortal need for things like food. "Akos, you should have let her take a break ages ago," she reproached the older vampire (or older in appearance, at least. How was I supposed to know whether she'd been turned before him or not?). It was the first time she'd spoken in front of me. Her voice was different than I'd imagined it. I'd thought her voice would be high and sweet, vaguely reminiscent of Aleera's. Her tone was deeper and sadder. "Humans are fragile. She's probably starving by now."
Starving, no. I'd gone longer than this without food before. I began to say that I was fine, but Akos showered me with immediate apologies and wouldn't hear a word of my insistence. Renata was at my side in an instant, curtsying, and indicated that I should follow her. I did, out of the ballroom and through yet more hallways. I was getting lost in this labyrinthine castle.
She led me straight to a very empty and, from what I could deduce, mostly unused dining room, in which a small feast, much too much for a scrawny girl like me, awaited. Now, I won't say it wasn't awkward to be the only one eating, especially with two vampires hovering over me continuously inquiring if there was anything else I preferred, but eventually my street urchin instincts kicked in and I stuffed as much into my belly as I could. Hardly ladylike, but as both vampires had, it seemed, long since forgotten proper table etiquette, my lack of any self-restraint whatsoever went widely unnoticed.
After a dinner of richer food than I'd ever laid eyes on before, Renata showed me to the library, where I stood mesmerized, running my hands along the spines of the perfectly arranged books in rows upon rows of shelves, silently mourning that I did not know how to read. Twenty minutes passed, and I finally had enough gall to remove a book from its spot on a shelf and placed it on the table in the library's center, flipping each page carefully so I did not crease them, examining letters and admiring the pictures inside by candlelight.
"You are turning pages far too fast to be properly absorbing the story, my dear," a deep, thickly accented Transylvanian voice informed me amusedly from behind my right shoulder. I jolted violently, startled, and whirled around.
"My lord!" I exclaimed, rushing into Dracula's outstretched arms. Immediately I drew my face towards his, inviting his lips on my neck, on my jaw, on my mouth. He did not kiss me, though.
Instead, he looked at me fondly and nodded towards the book, still open on the table to a page with a painting depicting a battle some fur-clad army on horses fought long ago. The description, I assumed, was below the picture, but I could not read it, so I did not know who the men were or why they were fighting. "Perhaps you like the pictures better than the text?"
I blushed. "I don't know… how," I mumbled, ashamed to admit it. "To read, that is."
"I did not expect you to, no," he told me. "Reading is not an important survival skill in the village of your origin."
I shook my head. I was afraid if I tried to talk I'd suddenly break down. I was quite abruptly very, very sad. I wanted to be able to open a book and know what its contents read. I wanted to be able to decipher and interpret that strange collection of letters, filled with loops and lines and circles with curved tails. I wanted to read about that battle whose picture I could only look at, never interpret. I wanted to read other books, too. Accounts of actual historic events that happened in places I will never see or even dream of seeing. I want to read fairy tales, made-up stories to teach children lessons or romanticize life, which is essentially crappy. I would listen sometimes to mothers telling their children fairy tales in the village, though the same stories were told differently by different mothers and many admitted to not knowing some endings, so they made up their own. I wanted to know the real stories, as they were originally written.
Dracula pulled me back to the present, out of my thoughts, by placing a hand on my chest, feeling my heartbeat as it pulsed. "Your heart rate quickened," he breathed. "Are you upset by something?"
I bit my lip and stared past him, longingly, at the book by way of an answer.
"Ah," he sighed. "Plenty of time for that, my dear. We have an eternity, and my library is not going anywhere. Verona did not know how to read when I turned her, many years ago. She has, I believe, since read every book in this library."
That reassured me somewhat, though I was still aching for the knowledge that was not mine, but Dracula's lips pressed against mine, like I'd been craving for some time, proved a wonderful distraction.
And that's Chapter Three! I've been writing it bit by bit all week and here it is, at last, in its completed form! What do you guys think? Is Dracula too OOC, or do you like him as I've written him? It's so difficult to recreate such a complex character. (Try as critics may to bash Richard Roxburgh's performance as Dracula, I maintain the man was flawless in his part.) Also, what's your take on Akos and Renata? I'll be doing more with them in chapters to come, so keep reading! Luminitia will return!
Anyway, I love you all, I very much want your reviews, and TELL YOUR FRIENDS about this story if they're Dracula fans. Or Van Helsing friends. Or story fans. Just get the word out there, okay?
Phantom, out!
