Chapter 4: I'm Not Tired

Though I have tried unsuccessfully to kidnap various characters, I sadly still own no one but Destiny.

AN: Phew! I finally finished chapter 8, which is amazing since I had writer's block throughout the whole darn thing! Which meant I'd write a sentence or two, then walk away from my computer. Don't know how I thought this was helping me, it only seemed to make it worse. And it took a while (the longest chapter yet) But I finally got to where I wanted to be by the end, so I'm happy. Can now start chapter 9. After I post chapter 4, which is not as long as chapter 8, well, almost.

I awoke in near pitch darkness, resting in the crook of someone's arm. An experimental prod at it confirmed it as Dracula's. I tried to sit up, but only succeeded in banging my head on the top of some sort of box. Of course, I thought, biting back a curse, he's a vampire. Makes sense for him to sleep in a coffin. But that didn't mean I had to. My eyes had adjusted to the darkness and I was fumbling with the latch on the coffin's satin insides when my hands were covered by a larger one.

"I am curious," came Dracula's smooth voice from the darkness beside me, "as to what you are doing my love. The sun is not even at its zenith and there are still many more hours to sleep."

"I'm not tired anymore," I replied tartly. Dracula chuckled and pulled me down again to lie beside him, a most unwanted position in my opinion.

"Such a spirit," he remarked, stroking my long hair. It felt surprisingly good, and for a minute I almost forgot what a demon he was as I relaxed against him, nearly falling asleep again.

I had lain there for about thirty seconds when I realized exactly what he was trying to do. With a cry of disgust at my own stupidity (never once thinking myself a victim of the manipulations of a cunning, 300-year-old vampire), I shoved the lid of the coffin up and scrambled out.

The suddenness of that action surprised Dracula for only a moment before he followed, but it was enough for me to dash to one of the large windows and fling back the heavy draperies. Sunlight flooded in, creating a patch of light on the floor that I stood inside, for I knew sunlight burned vampires. Dracula stopped at the edge of the pool of light, looking at me with amused eyes. I stared him down, my face set, my ice-colored eyes glinting the cold hard blue of anger.

For a while, neither of us said anything. I cannot ever hazard a guess as to what Dracula may have been thinking but suddenly, he began to laugh. My look of anger faded to one of puzzlement.

"I see you know some vampire lore," he grinned. "But you forgot one other thing."

As I watched, he began to pace around the edges of the light. But when he got to the wall, he just kept going, up, up, until he reached the top of the window hangings. It was then that I realized the flaw in my ploy. With a flick of his hand, he thrust the drapes closed, effectively cutting off the sunlight. He walked down the wall again to stand in front of me again.

"Showoff," I muttered. He laughed.

"Clever of you, to think to create that." I spat on the stones in front of him to show him what I thought of that opinion. This only served to amuse him further.

"See, that is what I admire most about you," he said circling me. "Never afraid to show some rebellion, some spirit. One of these days though, you will run out of ideas, out of these interesting little diversions. And then you will have no choice but to come to me. You know you can't keep this up forever."

I tilted my chin defiantly and narrowed my eyes at him. "But thanks to you I have forever to try now, don't I?" With that, I brushed rudely past him and strode out of the room.

Stalking down the sweeping staircases, I headed for the main part of the castle. That would be where the great hall would be and where there was a great hall, there was a door to the outside.

I burst out into the sunlight, blessing its warmth on my face. I tore across one of the catwalks that spanned the abyss between the two parts of this mountain fortress, not stopping my frenzied pace until I had reached the middle.

For a while, I just stood there while the snow slowly numbed my bare feet and stared across the mountains that separated me from the castle I called home and the village I'd grown up in. Nostalgia washed over me in bittersweet waves and I closed my eyes to better pictures those memories, but my mind's eye remained nearly blank. Not even gone two days and I could not remember what my Lord's face looked like, though I'd served him my entire life.

Turning my head towards the castle, I searched the windows on its face, peering closely at the ones located in shadowy nooks. He was there, watching me, I was sure of it.

'Stop tampering with my head!' I thought furiously at him.

'The more you provoke me, the more I will respond in kind,' he replied mildly. 'It's simply my nature to do so.'

'Your nature be damned! Do you think I care? Now get out of my head or I'll –'

'You'll what?' Dracula seemed amused now, which did nothing for my temperament. 'My dear, you are in no position to make any threats.'

'Oh really?' Reaching up with one hand, I grabbed the rim of one of the unlit fire basins and pulled myself up onto the edge of the catwalk wall. I stood there defiantly as snowflakes began to drift down from the gathering clouds above, frosting my hair and dress. I caught a small spike of…was it anxiety? from the Count.

'You never did teach me how to use my wings' I shot at him, a little smugly. 'Or perhaps, I won't need them…' I let that thought hang, deliberately poking at him in my anger. Still keeping my eyes on the castle, I swung one foot out over the abyss, wobbling a little as I balanced precariously on one foot on the wall.

With an ear-rending screech, a large bat-like creature burst from the castle and swooped towards my position on the wall. Except I was no longer on the wall. The mental force of Dracula's blazing fury had sent me toppling over the edge and I was now on a crash course down.

If you play with fire Destiny, I berated myself, You're going to get burned. And it looked like I was in for a scorching worthy of Hell itself.

My descent was abruptly cut short with a painful jerk as Dracula's claws closed around my middle and I was born upwards by his powerful wing strokes.

I'm in trouble.

Hah! I made a cliffy! (at least I think I made a cliffy) and if I made a cliffy then it would be my first cliffy. (you can tell I'm inordinately pleased with myself, can' you?) my kitty muse also says it's review time and thank you for the reviews that I've already gotten. I feel so loved sniff