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That blank space means please please please review! :) wowzer I love to write...did I just say wowzer? maybe the late nights are getting to me... well keep reading and tell me what you think! thanx much


There was a ragged veil of clouds, shimmering beneath the startling blue-whiteness of the moon. Tatiana tilted her head to the night sky, the shadows catching the beauty of her features and pooling in the hollow of her throat where exquisite skin stretched softly over bone. She sighed, an unconscious action, and for an instant, a line appeared between eyes whose golden flecks caught the faint candlelight. The single flame wavered for a moment, then continued to burn with its tiny intensity. Her gaze did not change. One hand moved for a moment, then slipped silently back to the bench.

Out here under the stars, the laughter and the music of the party still pervaded the air as they floated through the halls. Good. She had not been missed by her father's friend, Lord Durath. Not yet, anyway. The fool was seeking her hand in marriage, but for the moment her father was still looking for richer suitors.

Tatiana went to the balcony and stood looking out over the silver-gray of the moonlight on the forests. The far eastern region of Romania was so beautiful on nights such as this; it was for this reason that her father had purchased an old castle here as their summer home. That, and to keep his only daughter from the debauchery of life in the city. She smiled sadly. Her cousin Elisabet had met and married a man of high rank in the city; he had left her after the blond couple's first child, a beautiful baby girl with hair and eyes like the night, was born, claiming that she was another man's child. To be branded with illegitimacy at birth would forever mar little Verona.

Perhaps they would not miss her if she went down into the gardens. She needed to think, and the cool night air, combined with the scent of pine, would be wonderful.

Gathering her skirts, Tatiana carefully descended the narrow, winding stair that led to the gardens below. They went all the way to the edge of the cliff, so one could stand at the rail and peer into the depths of the ravines below, and extended for quite a ways in all directions, much bigger than her grandfather's private park-forest. She had been surprised, in fact, at their size when her father had brought her here.

She made her way along the path that she knew led to the rail and the edge of the cliff. At the railing was a small clearing with a bench, and she sat down carefully, knowing that any smudges on her gown would be cause for suspicion. She was already taking a risk by leaving the party unattended, something young women did not do to begin with, but the risk was doubled by the fact that this was the infamous land of Transylvania. Her brother Friedrich had warned her not to go anywhere at night in Romania if she did not have someone with her; however, he had been rather vague as to why, muttering something about her "delicate constitution" and other such nonsense. She was also sure that she had heard something about wolves. For comfort she touched the glittering necklace, a choker made of long strands of emeralds, that her mother had given her years ago.

It was the necklace that gave away her position.

As she was admiring the beauty of the silvery-white moon, Tatiana noticed something moving at the edge of the sky. She squinted to make out what it was, and froze in terror.

A huge, winged shape, like a monstrous bat, winged its way across the moon at an unbelievable speed, growing larger every second. Tatiana bit her lip to keep herself from screaming, looked around frantically, then darted up the path toward the stairs and safety.

Before she had gone twenty feet, she saw the thing—beast, demon, whatever it was—land somewhere ahead of her with barely any sound. She turned and ran the way she had come, hands frozen with fear, adrenaline rushing through her, imagining it moving on catlike feet through the undergrowth toward her even faster than she had seen it flying.

She couldn't go all the way to the railing; it was open there and the thing would see her. Instead, Tatiana ran down another path to a nearby cluster of trees that had often been a favorite reading place in the past. Kicking off her dancing shoes, she put her foot in the familiar hole and was beginning to climb into its center when something grabbed her arm and pulled backwards with inhuman strength.

Tatiana desperately yanked her arm free without daring to look at her attacker and took off into the middle of the forest-garden as fast as possible, knowing that she could never outrun the winged creature she had seen. A few seconds later, she was shoved roughly to the ground, face-first, her skirt tearing loudly as her foot caught on it.

She shrieked as something clutched at her hair, knocking the pin out of it, and instinctively rolled over to protect her head. It want my throat, she thought, and lashed out with both hands. Her wrists were immediately seized and shoved to either side, and she looked up, terrified.

Dracula froze, hands numb on his would-be victim's wrists as he stared down into the most terrifyingly beautiful face he had ever seen. The moonlight added a silver glow to the young woman's features, and her eyes…he could not look away. They were emerald green, with tiny flecks of gold, and, opened wide with fear as they were, they shot through him with the combined force of ice and fire. He felt his breath catch, his gaze traveling over her flushed skin and loosened tresses, waves of tawny golden auburn. He forgot that he had not fed in far too long or that he was unlikely to find another victim soon; he forgot everything save what he saw before him.


This is the last chapter until someone reviews, hopefully more than one person (grrr...will hold story for ransom until at least 5 people review, and NOT stuff like "there, I reviewed, now WRITE!"...twitches...)heehee I want actual feedback please!