THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN EDITED!
Note to Lionrose: Oops! Thank you, I wrote the end before the beginning of this chapter so I forgot I hadn't mentioned the baby. I hope the changes mean that this makes more sense!

Sorry for the long wait, I lost my inspiration and then lots of things happened which put me off writing for a while I've recovered now though and I'm back on fanfiction and updating!

First, thankee to my lovely reviewers who wait so patiently for each chapter!
MariAmber
Anna Maxwell
JP
charlote
Mysticjewel
et-spiritus-sancti
Luthien Anwamane
Countess Lianna
Thanks guys, you really make it worth updating :)

Anyhoo, on with the show... A lovely dark chapter this one and they don't get much happier after this. Thought I should warn you… Mwahahahahahaaa! (Dramatic flash of lightening and roll of thunder.)

CHAPTER 10- GOODBYE BLUE SKY

Summer ended, autumn passed and gave way to the bitter snowstorms of winter. When it shone the sun was pale and cold and gave little light to the castle. The sun set early now and, when the sky was clear of heavy clouds and snow, the sunsets were usually brilliant in colour. Annora stood bathed in the strong glow, her brow creased in thought as Dracula paced the room. She had been bathing and her wet hair curled defiantly and caught the light, making it shine. She had wrapped a large white towel around her body, her arms wrapped around her to keep in the warmth. She stood in the centre of her room watching the Count with large, dark eyes. He was lost in thought and she thought back to their first meeting and then to the first time she had seen him when he had brought her to Transylvania. She remembered how he had mesmerised her. A dark stranger wrapped in sorrow and mystery, radiating power and seduction. She loved him, unbearably, and the strange thing was that she didn't know why. They were so badly suited. The more she thought about it, the sadder she became. Annora knew his interest in her wouldn't last much longer and it made her sad and being sad made her angry. He said he loved her. But he didn't. Not really. Then why did he say he did? Annora watched him now, watching those dark strands of hair falling past his face, his eyes unfocused as he looked into his own thoughts, his brow creased slightly, his chin resting lightly on his hand.

Dracula's mind was busy. Annora had been acting strangely of late. She had been edgy, avoiding his caresses and she had lost her temper more than once over such insignificant matters that he suspected she was reverting back to her old prejudice. Yet sometimes she was the exact opposite. She surprised him by pulling him into a room as he walked past and kissed him, she was content to lie in his arms for hours, lost in his presence and at the other times she couldn't stand the sight of him. She was a mystery and that was what he liked about her. Her moods were unpredictable, sometimes she scorned him and other times adored. She gave a good argument if she was annoyed and was all love and smiles when she was happy. But for the past few weeks she had been unnecessarily argumentative and uncomfortable in his presence. She wouldn't let him tell her he loved her. He had only tried a few times but each time she stopped him or bluntly stated that he didn't. That was the only subject she would never discuss, it pained her too much. He could never understand why.

Annora sighed. She leaned against the wall and shivered at the feel of cold stone against her bare skin. Dracula stood up and moved over to her. She moved away and stood looking out of the window at the sunset, her body tense, eyes wary.

"What is it?" he asked, tired of this rejection.

"Why do you love me?" her voice was steady but Dracula could tell she was on the verge of tears. What in the name of the devil was wrong with her?

"That is what has been bothering you?"

"Why do you love me?"

Dracula looked at her, wondering what had brought this sudden change. He was silent for too long. She turned on him and shouted it again, "WHY DO YOU LOVE ME?"

He placed his hands on her shoulders. She tried to shrug him off but he simply held her still and, looking into those large grey eyes, he thought. For the first time he questioned himself why he loved her. He searched and he searched his heart and his mind but he couldn't find a reason.

"I just do," he offered eventually. It wasn't enough. The tears that were threatening to spill vanished and her face became cold and hard.

"Who are you trying to convince?" she asked.

He turned and walked away from her. It was true, he didn't love her. He couldn't. Not really. He had lost his soul and since then he seemed incapable of it. A hollow monster with just the memory of an emotion, what he felt now was only a shadow of the real thing. Yet she amused him and he liked the way she didn't fawn over him like his brides. She was complicated, she intrigued him. She was pretty, not beautiful now he looked at her clearly, but very pretty and the nights he spent with her were undoubtedly wonderful. She was strong in morals, which he respected, but stubborn, which he did not. She was naïve in the ways of love and an expert on the matters of religion. She was strong in mind and heart and soul but her body was weak, it was her body that had made her give in to him at first and then the pity in her heart turned to affection and that affection turned to love. He awed her and made her feel vulnerable, powerless in his presence in a sense she worshipped him, which he enjoyed, and in another she still pitied that he had no soul, which he hated. She had brought change and life into his immortal death and he had told her he loved her, invented a case of love to explain his amusement and excuse his passion.

Annora looked at him sadly.

"Now do you see?" she said. No, he would not let her do this to him. She would be happy believing he loved her and as long as she felt like this, life was unbearable. Annora shivered, her wet hair and damp towel making her feel cold.

"Get dressed," he told her gently. She tensed.

"Would… would you mind leaving the room?" she asked nervously.

His eyes narrowed and he walked back over to her. She clutched the towel around her body and raised her face to his. What was she so afraid of? She had stopped being afraid of him a long time ago.

His eyes searched hers, then they narrowed again and he took a step back. Annora closed her eyes, waiting. He looked at her oddly then turned around and paced the room a few times. Then he stopped and her breath caught in her chest.

"Take it off."

Her eyes were wide with panic again and she didn't move.

"Take it off," he repeated.

With trembling hands she let the towel drop. If Dracula could have breathed then he would have drawn a sharp intake of breath but instead he had to make do with a widening of his eyes. Annora's figure had once been fairly slim but now that flat stomach was undeniably rounder.

"How long-?" he asked.

"Five months."

She flinched as he took a step nearer. He started at this unexpected reaction and then his expression clouded.

"Whose is it?" he asked. His voice was low but danger laced every syllable, each word was like a small rumble of thunder.

"Yours. There is no one else it could belong to. Unless you believe that I would be interested in Igor. "

Dracula's patience ran out. "Do not take that tone with me! What did you expect me to think? You don't tell me, you act as if you thought I'd rip it out when I discovered it! Why else would you keep it a secret?"

"For God's sake! If you haven't guessed why I didn't tell you until now then you're a complete fool and if you think I was then afraid to tell you because it was someone else's then you have such a low opinion of me that I don't know if you deserve to know!"

"What, in the name of the devil are you talking about?" he shouted.

Seeing him so angry made Annora calm down. She sighed and sat wrapped the damp towel around herself again before beginning to explain.

"I didn't tell you until now because I didn't find out for certain from the doctor until last month and then I didn't know how to tell you. And then I was afraid you'd think it was someone else's because you're dead and the baby is definitely alive but then I thought that you'd know that I'd never do anything with anyone else, even if there was someone to do it with."

"So what were you afraid of?"

"I was afraid you'd make me get rid of it," she whispered. It was no use keeping silent; he'd have made her tell him in the end.

"Get rid of it?" he exclaimed. "Why on earth would you think that?"

"Because I know how much you want a child but… you're going to be angry with me…"

"Tell me."

"I'm giving it away."

"What?"

"I knew you'd be angry..."

"Don't you want this child? Is that it? Does the idea of carrying the chid of the son of the devil repulse you?"

"Do you know what your problem is?" Annora snapped, losing her temper as well. "You're so self-centred! Not everything revolves around you! You have this constant paranoia that I can't stand what you are! For God's sake, I love you even though you're a vampire and you don't seem to accept that. Yes, I do believe it's wrong and evil and a sin but I don't care. I love you and I can't stop myself anymore that I can stop the sun from rising. I love you and that is that. It may not be a perfect love but just accept it and try to understand it. "

"If it's not that then why are you giving the child up?"

"I have already sinned by not caring what you are. By loving you and not repenting I am almost certainly condemned to hell but I'm not letting our son or daughter face that fate. I'm giving this baby to the church so that it can live a normal life, tempted to sin only by the everyday things in life and where it can be untainted by evil. I trust you not to turn me, you know that God my greatest love and that my soul is my own to give to whom I choose and I choose the Lord. But our child… you will be its father and I can't trust you enough to know that you won't turn it. Your so called love for me will fade but this will be your child and when it comes down to it, will you be able to watch your son or daughter grow old, frail and eventually die? How will you bear it? Will you be able to watch something you fathered, created, gave life to, yourchild grow into something beautiful and innocent, a child of God that may grow to hate you? I know your mind better than you think and I've thought long and hard about this. I love this child and I want what's best for it."

Dracula's eyes were blazing. How could she state this so coolly, so calmly? So she believed she knew his mind? Well yes, she was right. He couldn't bear to watch his only living child grow old and die. He couldn't stand the thought of his own son or daughter serving God and calling his or her own father a sinner, a creature of evil. Yes, he would turn the child but what Annora didn't realise was that he couldn't bear to lose her too. Yes it was selfish but he no longer cared. She believed she would go to hell anyway so he would spare her the fire and she would serve eternal damnation with him on earth, forever. Starting from now. God, the devil, neither of them would own her! She was his and his alone!

Annora felt his hand grip her arm suddenly, his fingers tightening and digging into the flesh so hard it bruised. She turned and looked at him and in her eyes was a mixture of anger, sadness, shock, fear and horror. He pulled her roughly to her feet and the towel slid off her body, leaving her naked and vulnerable. She knew his mind before his teeth began to lengthen but she couldn't scream. She wanted to run, save herself and the baby but she couldn't move, she was frozen to the spot. He pulled her closer She couldn't resist as he bent over her then she collapsed as her knees stopped supporting her. I'm so weak, she thought angrily. He caught her as she fell and moved his face closer to hers, his eyes burning with that strange light. She closed her eyes, begging him with her mind… she loved him, oh, God, she loved him. She trusted him. Not with the baby but with her own life, she couldn't believe he cared that little for her to be able to take from her her most precious belonging. He was still for a moment, just holding her, looking at her terrified face. He waited until those dark eyes opened to look at him. She saw him move and shut them tight again, praying… then they opened in shock and pain as she felt the teeth pierce the soft skin of her neck. She couldn't believe it. She trusted him, she loved him and he had betrayed her. She shouldn't have made him angry… oh why did she have to be so stupid as to go and make him angry…? The pain was beyond description; searing through every nerve in her body. Then he pulled back and looked down at her, face cold, triumphant. He raised his wrist to his mouth and tore into it. Dark blood gushed from the wound and he forced it to her mouth.

Annora was still too shocked to protest, the blood trickled down her throat thickly, choking her. The spell was broken and she pulled back trembling and fell to the floor. She wanted to vomit but her body wouldn't let her. The transformation had begun. Annora gasped and drew long grating breaths as her body began to die. She could feel her skin and flesh as it rotted around her, her heartbeat grew wild with the effort of beating her lungs seized up and she couldn't breathe… she lay twisting on the floor, dying slowly. Dracula looked down at her, still cold, a horrific human monster just a shadow of the man she loved. Dracula called to Igor and said something, She didn't recognise it as speech, they were just harsh sounds ringing in her ears. Igor nodded and left.

Dracula looked down at her, a dark smile playing about the corners of his mouth. The he saw her properly and the light in his eyes died and he stared at her, realisation slowly creeping onto his face. He stared at her, unable to turn away from what he had done. Her skin was growing paler and paler, it was almost translucent, her grey eyes were dull and losing their colour. Her heartbeat was growing fainter, he could just hear each quiet rapid beat as she panicked and reached out to him, her mind full of mental and physical anguish. The Count knew she would never forgive him for this… But… at least now she would be with him forever in this living hell and, someday if they were killed, the real hell and God would have lost one of his greatest treasures. With these thoughts, the regret faded. She would learn to love him again and now he had complete control of her. She was his. A union of blood, a marriage made with the blessing of the devil. God could never touch her now… He moved to kneel beside her. The Count took her hand and stroked it gently as he spoke to her;

"Your senses are fading… soon you will be blind, deaf, dumb. Your heart is slowing… you can feel it fading… each beat seems such an effort… don't fight death, Annora, embrace it. You are dying… you can't hear my words with your ears now but your soul, your struggling soul, knows every word… So nearly there… hush now, don't fight it, surrender to death… sweet immortality… a release from the constraints of this lowly earth!" He paused and looked down at her then he kissed her forehead, "and now, your soul leaves you!" Her mind gave a violent lurch as she tried to hold onto it but it tore away from her and then, her mind, with a shuddering thought faded and Annora Osmond died.

She lay so still. He looked down at her. She was dead, lifeless. The women he had claimed to love had gone she was just a shell, a hollow body, host to that inquisitive, intriguing mind. Then her skin began to decompose and he looked away as her corpse rotted, he didn't want to see the ugly side of death. No, in this death there was only beauty. He couldn't look for a long time. He was silent and still as he heard the sound of the blood he had given her seeping over the stone floor as her own evaporated. Her body had gone now, she was just a skeleton, white bones. A smaller one lay under her where it had fallen to the floor when her flesh had rotted away. Then the bones crumbled into dust, the dust soaked into the blood and with a flash of what can only be called darkness, darkness so intense that light would have been swallowed up and smothered, darkness the bones reformed, the flesh re-grew, the skin covered the new red flesh and it was Annora but Annora without the imperfections. No freckles on her nose, no small mole on her neck, no scar where she had been injured by the pitchfork… she was flawless. Then Dracula sensed him. The room went icy cold and the Count shuddered in his presence. He couldn't see him but he knew his spirit was there, breathing living death into the beautiful body and life into the child within her. Then the spirit vanished and Dracula turned to look at his new bride.

Annora's first instinct was to breathe so she tried to but no breath flooded into her body. It was strange, she sucked air in but it didn't go anywhere, it simply flowed out again. She panicked and her eyes opened but she did not see as she had once done; everything had a heightened sense of beauty. She began to tremble, at least she thought she was but trembling was a human action and vampires are not human. She wanted to cry but no tears sprang to her strangely bright, clear eyes. She opened her mouth and then at last she screamed. She screamed in pure anguish, fear, pain and horror. She clutched at her chest; she felt raw inside, as though her body had been ripped to shreds as her soul had struggled to stay but it had been torn away. Her soul, that precious part of her, the part that connected her with God. When her mind, body and soul committed sin her soul had stayed pure and now it was gone and she was a creature of pure sin, a creation of hell. Annora couldn't look at Dracula. She had loved him but now she knew only numb despair, empty anger and unbearable grief.

Dracula went to the door and Annora heard the sound of screaming, struggling then a sickening snap as an arm was broken. The screams faded into sobs of shock and Dracula re-entered and went over to his new bride, dragging his victim with him. Annora closed her eyes, unable to bear looking at him. Dracula smiled again and pushed the human nearer. Then he bit into his neck, allowing the blood to trickle down over his skin. Then human cried out in pain. Annora sat up to scream at him to leave the man alone but then she smelt the blood and found her teeth lengthening of their own accord. She tried to stop them but they wouldn't. With a grim smile Dracula forced the human down to Annora's level and when she tried to turn away he forced the wound to her mouth. At first she struggled fiercely then the thought struck her. If she didn't drink the baby would die. Now a choice was before her, to refuse to drink, to die here and now and kill the baby too or to drink and let it live. It never occurred to her that the baby might be dead nor that it might be born a vampire. Annora was too distressed to think at all. All she knew was that she couldn't kill her own child. She opened her mouth and surrendered to her new body's instinct.

Soon her gorged veins told her they were satisfied and her arms pushed the human away as he died. She was covered with little specks of blood and she tried to wipe them off but they stained her skin. Annora fell back onto the cold stone floor, mind shuddering, weakly wiping away the blood tainting her mouth and Dracula, kneeling beside her, tilted her unresisting face to his with a finger and kissed her.

"Now," he said, "you are mine."

Well, I'm not sure if that was an unexpected twist or not. I was hoping people wouldn't guess beforehand but maybe you did… Well there's only one way for me to find out, please click the nice purple button at the bottom of the screen and send me an inspirational review :)