Chapter 45

She was always there. Those large, bright crimson eyes following his every move each time he woke. Watching and waiting and never leaving his side since that first moment. She was always there either offering a smile or a nod or checking his food before he had the chance to even think about reaching out and take it. Making sure he lived. Making sure nothing was going to happen with him. And despite of seemingly treating him kind of like a child he found himself selfishly relishing in the near constant attention. Always there just as it had been 15 years ago.

And it was because of these very reasons that he couldn't help but find it unsettling to wake without those very large eyes watching over him and guarding his sleep. He had become so accustom…to having her there. A vampire becoming so much safer than the humans around him. Several hours more passed since sending his son off to bed, several hours of pondering over each and ever word the young one had offered in regards to the vampire that had failed to return so far. And in waiting for her he fell asleep question swimming in his head void of the answers she was indebt to give.

Haahhh…

Moans….

One more thing he hadn't expected with the sunrise. It wasn't what he pictured so early in the morning especially in his chambers with the sub gibing off the tail tale sign of awakening beyond the distant horizon. Waking to the sound of muffled moaning so close to his bed. The effects of the poison had barely receded to allow him the leisure of breathing with a lingering throb that did not sting as it had that first time. He still couldn't leave his bed for a long periods of time, his limbs and body far too heavy and weak still, the muscles all protesting to the simples form of movement if it exceeded the decreased intake of oxygen his weekend lungs were capable of producing. He would have pulled the curtain in anger had he the strength to do so after finally reaching in an amount of time that should have lasted a third of time it took him to cross the room. Anger, that someone would dare defile his chambers and privacy with such a blatant display of defiance, flared up within him. He acts as quickly as his body allows him and pushes himself on shoving all thoughts of pain and rest aside, his mind set on destroying whoever it was that dare to make a fool out of him.

Ne never expected to be greeted by the sight of blood. Coming to a stop near the opened balcony door, his chest heaving with the effort of even such a short walk of a few steps alone, he peers over the edge to see the very pair of eyes he'd been missing feed by the side of the stone railing, a servant girl in her grasp and utterly helpless to what the vampire was doing to her: head tilted back and back arched…helpless…completely lost to lust. And her face, though gagged, betrayed far worse than those few muffled moans he had heard. There was blood staining the front of her dress, yet he was beyond sure the poor soul couldn't even notice something as trivial as that whilst being completely devoured.

She was a sacrificial lamb pushing itself further in the mouth of the hungry wolf eating her alive. It was…horrifying? Despicable to watch? Unnatural? Sinful? So many thoughts that should have raced through his mind watching that scene never came up and some that hadn't did. For he had in fact never once witnessed this side of his vampire till now. All he did know was that she fed. He never once saw the act for himself.

The young woman's sighs suddenly break his train of thoughts as he stays clear out of sight peering from behind the doorframe of the balcony door, behind the cover of the left side drape, while struggling to keep his breathing under control. He shouldn't have gotten out of his bed that fast. He should have thought it through before recklessly putting his anger before his welfare.

With another deep breath his gaze finally leaves the woman's face and the ecstasy written all over it and instead turns on the vampire in question. Her full pink lips were attached to the girl throat softly suckling and her Adam's apple bobbing up and down with each gulp of fresh and warm blood he knew she was swallowing.

Undead.

I drink blood…

The words she had engraved into his mind from the start. Teaching him to understand once and for all…she wasn't human.

Stop looking at me that way. I am designed to lure in my prey. I am designed to be wanted and acknowledged.

She'd been right of course. Right about this as many other things in the past. And so, for the first time in 15 years, he got to see the hunter side of a creature he knew excelled in destroying and taking down her prey. The young woman's face was ecstatic as she willingly stood accepting death's embrace. He couldn't look away. The sight as fascinating as it was erotic to behold, the girl's face in utter bliss when it should have been marred by the pain of that deep bite.

The sun was brightly shining reflecting off her brown hair and…it made his blue eyes widen if only for a fraction. The sun was shining and shining brightly for that matter with the birth of a new day in the background. A vampire out in broad daylight. Impossible! The book spoke clearly of…

And yet it was happening. It was happening right in front of his eyes.

It was old. And thought you nothing.

"Hhmnn.." the servant girl falls to her feet distracting him from his thoughts as Seras removes her mouth from her throat and her powers gently push her away without yet letting go just yet. The sound of her breathless excel capturing his full attention forcing his eyes to be immediately drawn to the expression on her face and the blood staining the corners of her mouth and full lips. Her closed eyes…

The change in her appearance is brief lasting seconds long: the few soft curls in her hair becoming fuller, rounder though her hair still kept its length. Her skin flushing under his gaze taking on a hint of a pinkish hue as one would see in the throws of passion, her clothes changing…baring flesh…

His hand drops from holding onto the curtain and his lips part in an involuntary gesture he would not be aware of for some time to come. The black pants, the corset, the white dress shirt…all gone replaced by an incredibly soft looking cream colored material he could not place perfectly molded over her body. It looked even tighter on her slim figure than the actual corset and pants, like a second skin and hung indecently high on her thighs. She had her right arm in front of her chest licking off the residual blood form her bare fingers and lips, those very fingers halfway hidden under the hem of her long sleeve, a hem whose pattern perfectly matched the one draped low over her bare shoulders exposing them and the lower third of her thighs. And her legs, her legs were incredibly long….perfectly carved out of the purest marble stone. The pants did little to hide her figure, but this was the first time he'd seen her those long slender legs clad in something so revealing: black silk thigh-high stockings with lace welts at the top and a small patch of skin several cm left bare in length between the hem of that indecent sweater and the welt catching his eyes; it proved somewhat difficult to look away and focus on anything else as the black color urged him to gaze downward at those long luscious legs so close…yet so out of reach. The three colors clashed making her stand out like a red light in the dark.

I am made to entice my prey.

Never had those words been truer than in that moment. So breathlessly exquisite.

Her laid back features almost sleepy like waking from a recent dream were beautiful to look at as she lazily rubbed her right eye wit the back of her hand much like a kitten would have. Beautiful golden curls now hung over and around her shoulders, no longer as straight as they had been moments before and the few whiter strands he'd noticed earlier disappeared as well.

The sun shining so brightly behind her like a hallo further making the gold of her hair stand out along with the shape of her hourglass silhouette.

One swipe, then two, three….her full lips had tasted that girl's flesh as warm crimson liquid ran down her throat.

4…5…

Her arms had been caressing her throat sucking every drop in sheer delight.

6…7….utter bliss…

Just by looking at her the prince had to force himself to turn from such a sinful sight and look away and take a deep breath, swallow hard, his chest suddenly feeling heavier and his breathing rising in strength. How could he ever get such an image out of his head? He turns form the sight picturing that small whimper he had just heard as something somuch more powerful. Involuntarily picturing her with his arms wrapped around that very slim body. The way his hands could, would, traced those very slender legs sinking into her soft and supple flesh…remembering the way those long legs had once straddled his waist forcing him to listen.

You dare finish and I'll rip out your heart where you stand.

Grinding and pushing….

Listen to me.

I can feel your heart racing.

Cursing he forces that image and all that came with it aside. He had to. As hard as knowing that fact was, the harder it would be to actually accomplish the deed itself.

She was unique, beautiful. It was the very first thing he noticed about her seeing her under the moonlight surrounded by all that darkness. Despite the fear and the terror and the exhaustion of hunting down the killer responsible…she'd been so beautiful….drenched in blood and rain hunting for vengeance against an innocent soul no one else had dared to defend.

You are my master.

Not a man.

Learn

He struggled to. And was it ever a challenge.

15 long years and those dreams of long ago never went away. They lingered still even after the memory of her face faded over time until it returned to that partially hidden figure in the shadows on his mind.

And now he had her back. And for the last three weeks at having her back by his side day after day rekindled that small amber back into a small orange flame.

"Don't be afraid." The sound of her voice was hauntingly beautiful and it immediately forced his head to turn back around and look beyond the balcony door once more. The servant girl was in her grasp again though she seemed to be standing on her own two feet this time. But her eyes, her eyes were lost and…red, her expression completely void of any sort of emotion. Seras's left hand was cupping her right cheek, her thumb caressing it with small circles, her lips brushing against hers in a fleeting kiss that had him unintentionally clench both hands into tight fists. "Everything is fine." Seras tells lowering her head to lick the final trail of blood seeping from the puncture wounds before they closed leaving no trace of her deed whatsoever.

"Everything is fine…" the young woman repeated as though trapped in a deep trance. Seras smiles and it's another sight that kept haunting him. A rare and unique beauty indeed. He made no move to hinder her in the story she was planting in the girl's mind to hide the truth, nor stop her when pure black encircled the girl swallowing her up. He somehow knew no harm would come to that poor soul. The vampire never took innocent life.

"God is watching." He hears her whisper while seeing her bring her hand holding the cross the maid had been wearing around her neck in front of her face. "But he's blind to the world around him." Turning around she throws the small silver bangle over the edge of the balcony looking up at the orange sun, the wind caressing her hair.

The though of calling her name, her real name, flashes through his mind. What would it be like to have it uttered and have his as a reply? Shutting his eyes he turns from the sight pressing his face into the soft fabric of the curtain biting down on his lower lip. It was wrong. The though occurs to him with a smile for the girl must have though the same thing before surrendering to such passion. So very wrong. But was that event the correct word? The mere sight of it had enflamed his blood, his body, in a way no other woman had ever done. The servant girl nothing more than a tiny and insignificant black spot in the vast field of his vision completely filled by the vampire serving him.

Master

Ah yes, master. That was him. Never Sire or Lord, but master. From day one, master. Master…master….master…..

Spoken in so many ways and uttered in so many lingering emotions. Master…

Nothing more and nothing less. And always with the highest regard he could swear upon her loyalty as though it were his own life. Damn her. Why must he…

His thoughts are once again cast aside when he hears her whimper in what was clearly agony when only pleasure had filled his ears mere moments before. Peering back through the open door he sees her leaning over the railing with her right arm crossed over her stomach and her left one clamped over her mouth, blood seeping through her fingers. Her chest heaved moving up and down and her upper body was slight hunched over leaning forward, her shoulders lightly shaking. Crimson stained part of the floor by her feet as she shut her eyes in an effort to stop the trembling, compose herself and hold onto the rest of her meal. The suffering in her eyes was evident, blood trailing down her cheeks...

And just as he was about debating on what was happening her she doubles over entirely falling to her knees spilling her hard earned meal on the floor in front of her without being able to stop.

Her shoulders trembled violently with the effort and blood drips from her right hand and open mouth as she removed the former from her lips lowering it to her lap. Her shoulders sake harder, body trembling without control, as she lowers herself down on the floor exhaling and inhaling deeply in rapid fashion. She was crying

The crimson of her tears reminding him yet again of that something no other mortal had never seen before in his life. And her light sobs reflected more than the pathetic sight she was presenting. It left a heavy feeling in the pit of his stomach. One he hadn't expected. The sight of those very tears disturbed him in a far less powerful manner than the sight of her broken will sitting there hunched over on the cold floor in defeat. She was not a creature meant to fall and look down on the world from her knees.

"Drink it…" the sound of her weak voice is broken and unnatural and it catches his attention as she faintly whispers encouragement to herself. Why couldn't she just drink? Why couldn't she just keep one single meal down? She was tired and starving and each drop of blood touching her lips was agony…denied pleasure. The boy's blood, as little as she dared sample from him, had helped so much, yet when faced with the fact of a second meal she found herself in the position of accepting the cruel fact: it could be no one else's blood but her master's. A bloodline shared between two individual who could help her hold down a meal, yet one from which she would never take. Not the boy, never the boy. And that left only one other. "Just drink it…"

Go…

A small voice in the back of his mind whispered encouragement never to be taken seriously. He couldn't move. It wasn't his place to interfere. Because if he did it would be acknowledging what happened between them as more than a mere partnership. And he was already stepping over too many boundaries already. However he disliked it and however he was opposed to his own hid own convictions.

He turns around and slowly backs away holding his side retracing the path he first took without a second glance. He walked away and his steps made no sound whatsoever. He moves towards the fireplace in the far corner of his room instead of his long awaiting bed. He moved away from the window, away from it all, and stares into the empty fireplace void of all ash trying to understand. Yet unknown to him the sound of his heart beat had been far louder than his feet. And to a starving vampire there was no better sound than that of a strong beating heart pumping fresh, warm blood time and time again. And so she stayed silent taking more comfort than she had though possible in the simple fact that he had cared enough to come see her despite his condition. It made her happy he cared yet concerned at the same time. He shouldn't have gotten up. Not for her and not because of her.

Sure she had told him what she was, but having him personally watch her feed of another living being was something else all together. It implied a far greater risk and a far greater sense of trust she wasn't sure he could offer. This wasn't her master and he wasn't her boy. He was just a man who's seen a creature drink another human's blood as one would water, as if it were the most natural thing in the world and deep down she couldn't help be worried he would not understand despite everything he understood so far. The line she was treading on was awfully thin and the depths of the abyss below cold and dark. Despite everything, he may yet choose to not understand.

Still Seras smiles still fighting though the nausea forcing herself to hold onto the last few ml of blood still left in her stomach. And though she struggles at first, she eventually gets back on her feet and follows her master finding him staring into an empty fireplace with his back to her. He was leaning against the large stone fireplace with his right arm while the left continued to hold his chest, long raven hair hanging off his shoulders in several strands while the rest trailed down his back covering the white shirt the wore. Dark bangs covered his forehead concealing his eyes as his torso moved up and down in quick intervals to accommodate the necessary need for oxygen his body craved.

"I've wondered how you do it?" the sound of his deep voice echoed loudly in the otherwise silent room filled with nothing but the occasional sound of the morning breeze humming outside beyond the balcony doors and the slight wheezing his breathing brought forth. "What else is there?"

"Depends." Seras replies slowly walking forward from her spot by the door to come up behind him on the left. And as he does so, he can't help but notice the slowness of her otherwise strong and confident stride and the weariness in her tone of voice despite his back being turned.

"Come." He beckons her to come closer partially turning to peer over his left shoulder and catch a glimpse of her from the corner of his left eye. Blood no longer marred her hands, face or sweater and there was no trace of it ever existing. Yet he could see the traces of fatigue all over her pale features where once a glow had been. "Tell me," he pauses noticing how she briefly shuts her eyes and takes a deep breath, how her knees momentarily trembled under her own weight ready to give in. He knows the signs of a body ready to drop dead in sheer exhaustion all too well. Which only reinforced the knowledge that she had indeed not left his side not even to feed like a proper vampire.

"I could show you." she whispers finding her bearings once more and then coming to a stand right next to him just as he asked of her. "It is easier, but I would have to..." she pauses searching for the right words. It would mean opening her mind to him and showing him exactly what she could do in more than just mere words. But to do that meant closing a lot of doors and hiding many more secrets and her mind wasn't ready to handle such strain. She would have to stick to the very basic knowledge of vampiric abilities.

And so, in the end, she merely raises her right hand to his forehead in a simple gesture he was sure to understand. /I can hear you and you can hear me./ she speaks directly into his mind noticing how his blue eyes briefly narrow in understanding no longer surprised at the notion of hearing her words without the ability to see her lips move while she stood directly in front of him. He'd gotten used to it in their time spent together. Reading his mind was taboo and he had already made that clear, but she seemed to be offering the opposite this time around.

/You need to look into my mind./

The words catch him by surprise temporarily making him forget about the gentle touch of her finger on his forehead. Seras concentrates on holding his gaze for a moment longer before the color in her irises changes turning darker with the black dot of her pupil slightly dilating. Her eyelids then drop and she opens the link baring her mind to him entirely.

"Then you are still foolish." He tells her with a chuckle taking hold of her wrist with his right hand removing it from his forehead before a single image has the chance to seep through. And though his tone is harsh there is a genuine smile on the corners of his lips, however small it may be. He's told her this before, to keep all secrets to herself never to be revealed. It was the first time since stabbing her that he had to repeat those words. Apparently, there were some things he would need to teach her in return.

"No," Seras smiles kindly in return gently freeing her hand from his grasp while taking another step forward to further decrease the gap between them. "Just loyal." Her eyes were impossibly big looking at him the way they were. They close a moment later and the floor beneath her feet comes to life. Her shadow grows spreading along the length of the floor coating it a soft black mist that encases everything in its path including his feet. And when the mist reached the base of the walls it moved up until the rest of the room was swallowed as well. The sole light remaining was that of the sun entering through the balcony door as the shadows began sealing it up.

"If the light of day fades," She asks him opening her eyes, irises beginning to glow as more and more light was swallowed a little at a time. "Will you stand and fight?"

The light was gone and hundreds of red glowing eyes stared him down from all corners of the room, a deeply resonating growl reverberating all around. "Or just die?"

The words come out of nowhere quickly making him turn around and stare into the eyes of a different beast altogether. Massive jaws opened wide with a deafening growl and jagged teeth ready to tear into soft warm flesh and rip it apart as the creature roared in all its glory tilting his head up and sinking his front paws into the stone floor breaking the tiles. The large black body of the beast slowly came forth emerging from the darkness behind them dripping blood from those same jaws, teeth bared and chest rumbling as his claws scratched the floor and his long tail wisped behind him. The sight left him speechless and stunned, immobilized by a sudden incredible sense of panic and fear; eyes wide, heartbeat frantic and breathing all but stopped. The floor beneath his feet was moving too, alive with shapes and sizes, blood and death reflecting back at him.

Will you die?

Seras screams prompting him to move out of the way in sheer reflex just as Baskerville attacks lunging for him and clamping his jaws shut exactly over the spot he had stood in. And as he dodges the killing blow he's able to see the rest of the enormous body come into view, a dog? No a wolf. That wolf….the one from so long ago. A creature of nightmare and one he's not laid eyes upon since his time in Edirne. The large hellish teeth ready to rip out flesh and crunch bone in one single bite. A creature unlike any he's ever seen since that day, a creature that towered above him like a god ready to devour an offered sacrifice. Baskerville's body filled the entire room, his back scraping against the ceiling and his paws crushing the furniture as his tail flowed behind him destroying the bed.

"What is this?" Vlad demands through ragged and erratic breaths of air, his chest constricting with each breath making it more and more painful. Getting back up on his feet proved a horrid challenge especially when the beast attacked again and again like a bull in the ring trying to pin the damned matador with his silly red cape with its sharp horns. He fought just to stand his ground as the massive wolf leaned his head forward growling once more with such force the entire space around him shook. His breath smelled of blood and death and all his eight eyes glowed redder than all the other pairs following his each and every move. The crimson eyes of hell itself. He had though her to be the wolf like last time. And this certainly wasn't….

"What will you do?" Seras replies in an unnaturally calm tone as her body reapers behind him, her hair flowing around her while her arms are held together behind her back. God it hurt to do this. Every shadow brought to life felt as if ripped from her flesh and Baskerville…..the hound was draining her last ounce of strength.

"Though I'll have to rip this memory from your mind for showing you. Even if I am loyal there some things you should never see."

"And this is it? A dog?" the prince mocks her fighting each and every instinct he possessed not to cower in fear. "Pathetic. Show me something truly frightening!" he screams out loud wishing to see it more than anything else in the world: true, raw, fear. Just like then. Just like that night in the cold unforgiving rain on top of a barren rooftop surrounded by death and bats and darkness 15 years ago. Cowering on the ground with the warm breath of the same beast on the back of his neck waiting for death to stricke.

"Goodbye master." She nods shutting her eyes. If death was what he wanted, then death he would get. That and more. She would show him everything this time.

There is no time for him to move, to breathe or think as the beast come to hover directly over him, jaws already wide and ready, clamping shut all around him with the sound of Seras's words the last he hears before the stench of death surrounds him unlike ever before. And after that…well it gave both hell and fear a whole new meaning. Something that has yet to happen before the birth of the vampire Dracula. Something she could never present as much as she desired to save his life in years to come. He would eventually have to die in order to live. She once showed him hell and war. This time she offered them without a hint of restrain and added a single spice more.

Flashback

Fields ablaze lighting up the sky…

Thick black smoke rising from the ground up for as long as the eye could see…

A full, blood red moon weeping for the souls lost beneath her gaze…

Screams filled the night, people running, horses neighing and trampling over the fallen…

Thousands of crimson, fiery orange and pitch black tendrils scared the blood soaked soil reaching for the heavens. They spread like a vast and open sea rising and falling and clashing against each other swallowing up everything and everyone unfortunate enough to fall prey to their path. The blood soaked fields and the piled up bodies of the dead, the living and now the dying sustained the massive and out of control flames. Whole trees were engulfed while the bodies that hung from their many branched burned like bright pillars against the smoke filled sky.

One tree stood alone on top of a barren hill, one whose roots still housed the wooden platform and scaffold and was ablaze burning brightest as smoldering black flames consumed it. It was the grave sight of many broken bodies where the soil bore the most scars and had soaked the largest amount of fresh, warm crimson as one head after another had been cut off and left to rot in the fading light of day. The thick pitch black trunk of the tree stood out amongst the sea of orange, red and black; the center piece of a burning hellish inferno like the center piece jewel on a king's crown. The river of fire spread wide from its roots slithering down the steep sides of the charred ground like the bodies of snakes. The platform, the scaffold, they were all destroyed and the wooden boards blackened in blood ripped and scattered around it without burning up like everything else.

A discarded axe still lay embedded in one of the pieces with the tell tale traces of crimson still marring the sharp edge of the blade and matching liquid dripping from its long handle. And beside it was the body of the man who'd once wielded it, all that was left of him.

Amongst the screams, amongst the terror, fear and death, the blood being drained from lifeless corpses and still beating hearts, new tendrils slithered over the burning soil without putting the flames out and before rising in mid air while heading in a completely opposite direction than the rest. They were all gathering and heading towards a dark figure concealed in shadow. A seemingly human figure and dark silhouette who stood on the other side of the tree and whose molted lava color irises shone brightly with a deep demonic red while starring at the massacre below.

Flashback end

Those eyes were all the prince could see. Everything else was pitch black darkness.

And in all those eyes he could see….

He would never again forget the haunting sound of a deeply resonating dual voice laughing in maniacal pleasure:deep throated and hoarse, maddening and satisfied…insaneresonating all around.

The victory cry of war.

And a voice so strangely resonating with his own.

Blue eyes snap open loudly gasping, the irises small and a faint underline compared to how wide his black pupils were, the sound of his own heartbeat pounding heavily against his ribcage at a frantic pace. His chest was heaving to the point of hyperventilating to excruciating pain and urgent need for air. More and more air amidst coughing and wheezing and struggling to breathe in between while doubled over on his elbows and knees on the floor in front of the fireplace. Fuck it hurt. It hurt….god was it unspeakable. His bangs clung to his forehead; hair to the back of his neck and his clothes to his skin in that all too familiar sense of nausea and numbness he had only once experienced once before in the past.

You trained for war, but you don't know true war.

Let me show you mine."

The cold shiver still traveling down his spine…the brilliant sense of utmost fear, pure and unadulterated fear resonating through each and every cell of his body unlike any other emotion experienced by man. A high and a fear unlike any other. Fear… the likes of which only she could provide. Fear only an immortal creature such as her could one day hope to control and rule over.

Incredible, powerful and all consuming. Fear topped only by the agony it forced his body to endure. Heart pounding and chest heaving as if a rope found its way around his throat constricting his breathing more and more.

When you find yourself torn between what needs to be done, has to be done and you want to de done?

The words somehow rose from his subconscious mind softly echoing all around him as time seemed to restart around him and his body began to function anew.

He needed to see.

He had to know.

And he wanted to learn.

. .

This was Undead.

After 15 long years, finally…..

"There is more…" he immediately blinks releasing a heavy gasp while jerking his head to the side, his entire body a live wire ready to snap at any moment and defend himself should the need arise. His eyes glazed over threatening to roll up and surrender to the willful sensation of pure numbness just around the corner, his eyes betraying his astonishment at the sight now before his humble eyes.

His room was clean. His room was normal. There was no darkness…there was no wolf…

Just a girl leaning against one of the four bedposts of his bed barely holding herself up with her right hand. "But I can't show you any mor…" his eyes go wide at the sight of her falling form. Seras's eyelids drop and her body gives in to the welcoming touch of darkness, her knees finally failing her.

She drops loosing consciousness, but her body never hits the cold floor.

.

.

To be continued…