Thanks much for the reviews y'all! :) It's nice to have feedback and I LOVE to write so I hope you'll continue to like it...reaches for cookie jar in case opposite happens lol
Charlie Quill: Glad you like it, I really like your writing and haha neither of us have worked on our blogs since I don't know how long...oh well it's a writer's life I guess (omg finals are FINALLY over...wait, pun not intended...yup)
Knnyphph: Thanks a bunch for the"constructive criticism" (where did they ever come upwith that word? It's like "brainstorm"...lol) Anyway, I'm glad that you like the story despite all the melodrama (although I must argue: how can it NOT be melodramatic with Anna dying and Tatiana being attacked/saved/kissed/etc. by Dracula? Sorry, just had to play Devil's Advocate there, pun kind of intended...ahem) It will be a tad less melodramatic for a while, I think...(key word(s): for a while).
Countess Keira, SilverFlover, Luthien Anwamane, Firbereth, Katrin Van Helsing, and all other reviewers: thanks a bunch and I hope you like what's next!
munches on cookies having given in to temptation
Count Vladislaus Dracula's wedding day was the only time in his entire existence as a vampire that he swore anything before God, and he thought perhaps that he would be forgiven at last and allowed to live out his life with his beloved.
Tatiana was so beautiful in her white gown that he could not take his gaze from her. Her auburn hair had been let down completely, and purple irises were intertwined in it. Her green eyes were shining as her father led her down the "aisle": they were married in a beautiful forest grove, as there was no church for miles around.
The village leader stood between them and joined their hands. "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to join these two in holy matrimony…"
Dracula smiled down at his bride. As he looked into her eyes, he silently called to God, "Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. Give me life, God, grant me mortality and emotion. I ask not, nor hope, for my soul, for it is gone and cannot return, but I ask you, Father—nay, I beg you—give me these things and I will do anything that You ask, even unto death."
No one but Dracula felt the blinding presence of God in the heavens above as He answered.
You must never again kill, Vladislaus Dracula. Death is no longer yours to command, though it will one day claim you. Your soul does not belong to Him of the Underworld, Vladislaus. It can yet be reclaimed. But if you should break this covenant, nothing will save you from the flames of Hell. Dracula agreed in silence, just as the village leader asked him, "Will you, Count Dracula, take this woman to be your lawful wedded wife, to have and to hold, to protect and cherish, in sickness and in health, for as long as you both shall live?"
When he said "I will," Dracula felt that a burden had been lifted from his shoulders. He felt free for the first time in many, many years as he kissed his bride, even enjoying the weak sunlight that filtered through the clouds above.
They arrived at his country summer palace near Budapest that night, just as the sun was going down. Dracula realized that he felt happy just looking at the beautiful fields and the orange light filtering through the trees. It was the first time that he had felt emotion about anything save for Tatiana, and that emotion was stronger than ever. In fact…Dracula's eyes lit up, and he laughed in disbelief. God, in whom Dracula had never held any kind of faith (unsurprising, perhaps, when one viewed the story of his life), had kept the covenant. On an impulse, he reached out when Tatiana was not looking and scratched his arm against the metal of the carriage door. It bled, more so than was normal for a vampire, and he stared at it. One second…two seconds…he had had larger wounds heal within five seconds. He thought he felt his heart moving inside his chest as well.
Ten seconds later, his arm was still bleeding, to Tatiana's dismay, but he, through his grimacing—he had cut it harder than he had meant to, and it hurt—was ecstatic. He was mortal! He would live the rest of his days with his bride and, when he died, it would be by her side, a true human being at last.
They disembarked from the carriage and waited as the porters took their bags and left them standing outside on the front veranda, which faced west. As they watched the sun sink slowly below the fields in an orb of burning gold, Dracula took his bride into his arms. She reached up and smoothed the strands of dark hair away from his eyes as he looked into hers, then melted against him as he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her.
Dracula pulled back for a moment, then set his mouth against hers like he had that night in the garden. He could feel her arms around his neck go limp as he trailed his mouth slowly down her throat. Still kissing her, he scooped her into his arms and carried her over the threshold of her new home.
If it's not completely obvious by now, I LOVE Dracula!!!!!!
