vanity is my name: Lol! Of course they are chocolate covered! Life is meaningless without chocolate! I felt awful about killing Grace but it was the only thing I could think of Annora doing that would make him angry enough to wound her fatally. As for the ending, well, read on and find out:)

Almost-Lost-Hope6: OH YES! Mwahahahahahaaaa! Sorry, got a bit carried away there.

Katca Mcadar: I do love babies! Ha! I knew all the gore would make you freak:)

Fortune Zyne: Yup! Mwahahahahahahaaa! Ah, I'm too evil.

Eccentric Banshee: Oooh! Brownies! Yes, I rather think Dracula deserves the next hundred years of feeling "hollow" after all this... He really should think things through more.

et-spiritus-sancti: Creepy eh? Excellent... I'm glad this is still unpredictable:)

Ah, I love this chapter! Yes, I know I'm evil.

CHAPTER 13- A BEAUTIFUL DAY

The priest glanced nervously at the sky. He thought he had caught a movement out of the corner of his eye, something large and terrifying dominating the twilight sky. His pace quickened as he became desperate to reach his small church before his suspicions were confirmed. He heard a noise behind him and turned in alarm as Aleera dropped out of the sky like a stone, landing neatly in front of the priest and transforming back into human form. He suppressed a scream and tried to take a step backwards but the vampire's hypnotic eyes froze him to the spot.

Why aren't I dead? He wondered, miserably staring at the beautiful creature before him.

"Because I am not hungry and have no time for sport. Also, I have another use for you." Aleera fixed him with her eyes, managing to hide the urgent panic welling up inside her. He nodded weakly, too terrified to refuse. He'd forgotten that vampires could read human minds.

"Follow me."

The priest followed, shaking and sweating. He considered running but he knew that she would catch him. If only he'd accepted that offer of shelter until dawn… Despite the early hours he had agreed to leave the sanctuary of his church and say a few prayers over a dying father. The family had offered him shelter until dawn but he had refused, unable to stand the grief of the man's wife and children so he had set out for home as fast as he could, afraid of the winged monsters that frequently terrorised the people.

I must be mad, he thought. I'm following a vampire to Lord knows where and no one knows where I am and it's still it's still only twilight; the sun won't be fully risen for many minutes. The priest vigorously muttered as many prayers as he could think of.

"I told you I'm not going to harm you. I need your help." Aleera pushed through the heavy boughs of the fir trees and the man breathed in the sweet smell, trying to steady his nerves.

"Over here." She spoke quietly, a note of calm sadness lacing each word. Aleera was crouched in a small clearing and he gave a startled choke at the sight before him.

A young woman wrapped in a cloak lay on the ground groaning softly. The cloak had once been pale blue and the slashed dress looked as though it had once been white but now both were soaked dark with sticky blood and clung to her mutilated body. He couldn't even make out her features the wounds were so deep. Whole lumps of flesh had been torn out and though some healing had taken place when she moved the wounds opened again as deep and serious as before. Lying next to her on the ground was a small bundle of cloth. It too was stained with blood and on closer inspection he realised that this was the dead body of a baby. He turned away and retched. Living in the valley shadowed by the mountains that so frequently were haunted by vampires meant that people were used to bloody deaths but not the deaths of babies and not such painful wounds.

"Annora," Aleera was kneeling beside the woman, murmuring to her soothingly. "This man is here to help you, he will do for you what I could not."

"Wh- what do you want me to do?" The priest twisted his hands, dreading the answer.

"End her pain."

"You mean… kill… her?"

"Those wounds are fatal. Her death will be a slow, painful one unless you help. Her wounds keep healing but it is not enough, they open again each time she moves. She has lost too much blood to be in reach of saving and it could take hours for her to die. I want you to ease her passing. Hurry, it is almost dawn. This is what I want you to do…" She told him and he gave an involuntary shudder.

"But this is murder or assisted suicide!"

"Listen to me! She is going to die anyway and it is all because of people like you; drilling religion into her brain so hard that instead of guidelines for a better life she saw them as rules. You and your church destroyed her and brought her to this end. It is the least you can do to end her pain!"

He nodded, his mouth dry, afraid of the bride's temper.

"Were… were you close to her?" he asked nervously.

"Close? No," Aleera laughed softly, "I hated her. I hated that she took my lord and master away from me, that she tried to change him and couldn't accept who he was. I hated that no matter how she spurned him and rejected him he never stopped wanting her. But I pity her. She serves as a warning of how dangerous my lord can be when his anger is aroused and she serves to remind me that I was once more than what I am now. But I willingly sacrificed my old life for a new and better one and I do not regret it. Not like her. Now go, it is almost dawn and remember to do exactly as I told you."

The priest gingerly lifted the young woman into his arms. She was surprisingly light. Aleera placed the body of the baby in her arms and Annora's eyes expressed her gratitude. Aleera nodded in reply and then swept away into the sky. The priest was silent as he carried Annora to the church she lay quietly in his arms, looking down at Grace with sad, solemn, grey eyes. The priest pushed open the church doors and motioned to a monk to come over and then muttered to him,

"We'll have to cancel the dawn mass. Tell the rest of the clergy to leave; this young lady needs to be alone."

The monk nodded to show he had understood and ushered his fellow clergymen outside then he followed and ordered them to tell the churchgoers to turn back. The priest then carried Annora up the aisle and then helped her into a kneeling position in front of the altar. A magnificent stained glass window had been built into the wall before them and Annora glanced up at it, half afraid, half welcoming the light that began to filter through the brilliantly coloured glass. She clutched the child to her heart and lowering her head, closed her eyes. The cloak's hood fell forward and hid her face from view so that all he could see of her were bleeding her hands. She looked like a ruined statue of the Madonna, he thought, the Virgin Mary all in stained blue and white, kneeling before God, holding her child.

Annora only spoke once but what the he did not understand what she meant.

"I have experienced hell on earth, I am not afraid of hell itself. I have sinned in this life and in my first one, I will accept the consequences in my third."

Then she fell silent and the sunlight poured in through the window and for a split second the she was bathed in brilliant light of rainbow colours. Then suddenly, and without warning, Annora and her baby burst into flame and a fierce fire licked at their skin, eating away the impure flesh. Before the devil's breath left her decaying body Annora gave a sigh and she knew that at long last the sands of her wretched life had finally run and she melted into the light of the rising sun.

The priest felt a tear prick his eye as the fire smouldered and died leaving just human shaped ashes. Then a gentle breeze drifted in through the open doors and the ashes disintegrated, leaving only a pile of charred bones. He gave a heavy sigh and knelt to say a prayer for the mysterious vampire and her child who had died again with no hope of rising again.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Dracula stared at the letter in his hand. It was written in a barely legible shaky hand and stained with much blood and signed Annora. It was a sentimental letter and obviously written when emotions were running high but it was written from the heart and it's words haunted him long after he had folded it away.

Vladislaus,

Forgive that I was not strong enough for you. Forgive me for the pain I caused you. Forgive me for failing you as a bride and as the mother of our daughter. Do not forget me but remember me until the end so that you might one day find the hope that was kindled in me when we first met. I leave you now to face the fate that God has chosen but I leave with you my blessing, my forgiveness and my love.

Yours forever,
Annora

"Where is she?" he demanded storming into his ice chamber where his brides had taken refuge.

"She is dead," Aleera replied, settling into place alongside Marishka and Verona.

"Dead?"

"Dead."

"I killed her."

"My lord, do not be angered, her final request was that I end her pain but I could not kill her outright. I took her to the village in the valley and gave her to a priest and told him to take her back to his church-" but she never finished her explanation because Dracula had morphed into his hell beast form and hurtled down to the village, a haunted vengeance burning in his eyes, like death on wings.

The sun had just vanished behind a vast thick cloud as Dracula erupted into the open skies but once it had passed it promised to be a beautiful day. Dracula burst into the church, scattering the crowd outside and flinching away from the holy symbols he half ran to the pitiful remains of his bride and daughter.

"No," he whispered, staring in disbelief at the blackened bones. He collapsed to his knees and stared, unable to tear his eyes away from the sight. A priest appeared beside him, unafraid of the broken vampire, a pitying expression upon his face.

"She did quickly and painlessly. She simply sighed and welcomed the sunlight."

"Did she speak?" Dracula asked, his usual dominating, elegant composure faltering in the face of his sorrow.

"I think she said, "I have experienced hell on earth so I am not afraid of hell itself. I have sinned in this life and in my first one… so I shall accept the consequences in my third." That's as close as I can remember."

Dracula nodded and stared at the sad little pile of bones for a little longer. Then he stood shakily and took a deep breath of air that passed through his purposeless lungs and out again and turned away.

"Bury them. Turn this sermon into a funeral. It is the only thing I can do for her now." Dracula then reached into his pocket with his hand and pulled out a delicate broken rosary, encased in a thin leather pouch.

"Put this in them with them."

"What were their names? And, how old were they…?" The priest asked as tactfully as he could as the Count began to walk away. The vampire paused and turned around to face him, the bitterness heavy in his words.

"Grace, born the fourth of January 1785 died the fourth of January 1785. Annora Osmond born the twenty-ninth of September 1766 died the fourth of January 1785."

"So young," murmured the priest.

Dracula couldn't answer; the guilt was tearing him apart. Then he walked out of the church feeling as though once this unbearable grief had passed that he would never feel anything again. The staring congregation moved aside to let him pass. He did not look at them but simply began to walk numbly to the forest, following a dark trail of dried blood he knew was Annora's. Once he had reached the clearing where she had lain he morphed into his hell beast form and took to the air, heading in the direction of castle Frankenstein. He swept down the corridors and through the door of ice that separated him from the mortal world. Once in his domain he became a human once more and made his way up the winding stairs and along a corridor and up more stairs to Annora's chamber. He leant against the window and pressed his forehead against the glass. He pulled the crumpled letter out of his pocket and scanned it with his eyes. No, he would never forget her.

God had taken everything from him now. Dracula vowed to remember the woman who had made him remember passion for the first time in a century for the rest of eternity. He would never have a fourth bride again. It would just be the four of them, Dracula, Aleera, Verona and Marishka. They would linger on in dark immortality, living in hell only to descend there when they finally came to rest. But that day would not come yet. He had other children who did not live but who could be brought to life but not by God. He would find a way to make them live even if it took him a million years. Dracula folded the letter into a tiny square and pocketed it. He would never forget Grace and he would never forget Annora Osmond. He had murdered her, betrayed her and failed to love her. No, he would never forget her.

My heart just about broke writing that final paragraph. Don't worry, those who are crying "NO! That can't be the end!" It's not, there is an epilogue! And because I'm generous I've posted it at the same time so you don't have to wait.:) So, without further ado, read on...