Hello dear readers, I am back again with a new chapter! First of all, I would like to thank all those who reviewed. I was so happy that I have three new reviewers. Thank you Gem,Robyn xoxo, and fearsomdiety for your interest, I hope you will keep on liking my story! And of course I didn't forget my old readers, The Unrequited Lover, Joker and Fortune Zyne, thank you for your constant support! I love your reviews to pieces you know, I get so few! Enjoy the chapter, it turned out to be even longer than usual.
„We'll stop here to rest for a while." Igor's throaty voice awoke Agnes from the slumber, which she light-mindedly let herself fall into. She looked out the carriage window and her eyes met an old iron gate that looked like the evil teeth of the pointed gateway. With the help of an unknown hand, chains rattled, wood gritted, and the heavy iron lattice began climbing upwards to give way to the carriage, which slowly moved towards the pitched court. Heavy darkness surrounded the unfamiliar place; Agnes blinked all the time, trying to catch sight of something in her surroundings. Finally, she looked upwards, and could spot a pointed tower crowned with pinnacles, piercing the angry sky in grey clouds.
„A fine building of Gothic architecture" she thought „But we cannot be even near Budapest yet." For the first time in many long years, during the past months Agnes had no idea where she was, and the thought was really bothering her. Cold wind blew into the cosy carriage as Igor opened the door, and gestured Agnes to get out. The latter did not hesitate in leaving the small space she was locked into for quite a while, she would have given anything to stretch in a bed, but she refused the helping hand Igor offered to her.
„Very well then..." the servant groaned from under his dark brown hood. „ Follow me." He grabbed Agnes' gripsack, and walked to the other end of the court that was wet with rain, towards a door, under a pointed arch. Igor raked up an old rusty key from one of his pockets, and opened the door with it. Dust rippled in the old air within the castle or fortress, Agnes was not able to determine what it was, but she could see it was centuries old. Igor lit a silver lamp and turned left into a long corridor. Dusty tapestries covered the wall, showing pictures of a hunt.
„Bloody scenes for decoration..." Agnes thought. She loved animals, and never quite understood why certain people found amusement in slaughtering them brutally. Sculptures followed the tapestries as they walked along the corridor; statues of people, and a dragon every now and then. Small lancet windows broke the monotony of the stone wall on Agnes' left, and let in more darkness from the outside if possible. Ribbed vaults copped over the large hall they entered after a few minutes of walking, the walls on the right made up completely of lancet windows. Silent rain began to fall again, which remained unnoticed to Agnes until lighting struck, so near the castle that the thunder was almost deafening. The cold silver flash illuminated a row of sculptures forming unearthly beings standing in a row by the left wall, which in that state of mind made fears crowd upon Agnes. She followed Igor without a word, with a queer feeling of surprise over her sudden fright. At last, they reached a spiral staircase that led to another corridor.
„ Are we going to walk around in this place all night, or will I get some rest finally?" ran through Agnes' mind. She was just about to tap Igor on the shoulder, when the latter suddenly stopped in front of a door, and opened it.
„ Your room, Lady." He stepped back, and Agnes precariously entered the room. It was furnished in similar style as her room in Castle Dracula, but she woefully noted that it was dark, cold, and a thick blanket of dust covered all in a quiet manner. Igor hobbled in after her, and threw her gripsack to the floor.
„ Get some sleep, I will be back for you in a few hours." Agnes nodded, and Igor left the room.
„ If only all would stop giving orders." Agnes grimaced at herself in the dusty mirror, but her face lit up when she noticed a balcony in front of her. She rushed to the glass doors, and looked out, placing her forehead against the cool glass. The balcony seemed safe, save it was wet from the rain, but that did not bother Agnes the least. Her hands instinctively looked for the handle, but in the back of her mind, she expected to find all locked. To her surprise, the handle yielded to her hand, and the door opened, Agnes literally falling out to the balcony. She tottered to the stone balustrade, and looked down. It was raining heavily, but neither the silver drops falling towards the ground, nor her cascading dark locks could keep Agnes from seeing that she was only about two storeys high. She straightened her back, took a deep breath, and by that time, her mind was troubled by a painful demon: the call of freedom. The rustling sound of the trees around the castle, the wind's whisper, it sounded like a familiar voice calling out to her. Telling of places she has to explore, battles she has to fight, challenges she must face, inebriating her. Agnes rushed back to the room, looking for anything that might do as a rope. She knew it would be useless to try to look in the castle, she could hear Igor lock the door as he left. Agnes ended up tearing the curtains down, tying the ends together with that of the sheets and blankets, a single goal flickering in front of her eyes: escape from the castle. Within an hour, she was once more standing outside on the balcony with her gripsack on her back, her dark cape upon her shoulders, and the rope of sheets, blankets and curtains snaking in the wind all the way down to the muddy ground by the castle. A single question was screaming in her mind.
„ Who are you running from, Agnes?" She kept asking herself, but flapping the answer away. She was a wayfarer of liberty, she could not' help this, or at least that was the way she wanted to think there and then.
„ It is too late to turn back now..." With that, she seized the first sheet that was tied to the balustrade, and carefully began descending. Raindrops pierced the skin on her face and hands, but she did not feel it, her senses were blinded by other impressions. By the time Agnes was half way down, she was not at all sure, that she had done the right thing.
„ Might I never see Dracula again, or will I be haunted by him for the rest of my life?" Agnes was not sure which would be worse. She wagged her head, and looking up, considered the possibilities of climbing back. She gave a sigh, which ended up as a scream of surprise as she heard a voice from behind herself. She forgot about the rain, her position and foolishly let go of the curtain she was clinging to. To her amazement, she never began to fall, but ended up panting in two strong arms. Agnes started exploring the familiar clothes the man wore.
„ Black Bocskai-coat, collar of a black shirt, a golden earring..." It was Dracula, in mid-air, a pair of flapping black wings on his back. Agnes was gaping, unsure about what to feel or say, but she knew she was not going to like whatever the count has to say to her.
„ I just asked what you were doing out here." sounded the booming voice of Dracula, but he got no answer. „ Oh, of course, you're right, this is not the proper place to converse." With that, the flapping of his wings speeded up, and they began rising, and finally Dracula landed upon Agnes' balcony, with the angel still gazing frozen at him. After getting bored of the staring and getting wet in the rain, Dracula gracefully put Agnes down, who instinctively began backing into the room with slow steps she tried to make swifter, but her feet resisted obedience. Dracula's giant leather wings disappeared after having landed on the balcony, but Agnes could not clear that sight from her eyes. Two candles were lit up by Dracula's snap of his fingers on the vanity table, giving a slightly warmer atmosphere with their light. Dracula could see Agnes in the dark perfectly, but he wanted her to see him as well, otherwise there would be no fun in the game. The count walked towards Agnes in the same rhythm as she was retreating, their feet moving in perfect accord with each other, as if those were the steps of the elegant dance to the music of the pattering sound of Agnes' heels.
„ So.." began Dracula finally „ would you care to answer my question now?" walking ever so stately with his hands behind his back towards the speechless Agnes, who hit the cold stone wall after a time. The scent of freesia from Agnes' hair and red rage clouded Dracula's mind, but even to his own surprise, he stayed calm, and was curious about any explanation. He stepped closer to Agnes, and whispered into her neck, rather than he ear.
„ Tell me dear Agnes..." Agnes' heart was pounding in her head, with excitement and mad fear, of what, she could not exactly fathom. She felt her blood rush as Dracula left half of the sentence in the air, like icicles hanging over her head, threatening her with icy demise, while the count's cool breath upon her neck threatening her with losing her mind. „..why are you always running? What is pursuing you? Or should I ask, what are you pursuing?" Part of Agnes wanted to speak, while the angel in her soul still guarded her secrets with all her might, keeping her mouth, the lock of her soul closed.
„ It is such a shame that you resist to talk to me to night my beloved..." said Dracula as his hands slid from Agnes' face down to her neck, to the medal upon her necklace. He felt the soft, warm touch of her skin against his cool fingers, smelt the sweet blood rushing in her veins, fear and infatuation at every beat of her heart...all would be his very soon now. Agnes' thoughts and emotions were flying with fear, that always seemed to linger in the back of her mind, and unmercifully came to the surface. She tried to catch Dracula's gaze, but he just kept looking at her jewel.
„ I wonder if he's planning my means of death right now.."
The count lifted his head to have his gaze cut deep into Agnes' eyes, the bottomless well of her thoughts. Agnes knew exactly what Dracula was doing, but she had not the might to stop him, or resist him.
„ Tsk-tsk Agnes, I thought you knew me better than that. Do not let fear blur your thoughts, that is not for the good of the warrior, which you are, ..no?" Agnes flew into a rage at this comment, if she had her sword, she would have stabbed Dracula right across the chest, even that she knew it would mean no harm to him, she would have done it. And she has not doubted it showed on her face
„ Now, that is more like it.." Dracula said in a saucy manner, „ I would not find you so entertaining if you were dead you know that" he studied Agnes' face that still held the savage look of a cornered wolf . And in her eyes, Dracula saw something untameable and frantic that he would barely be able to control, even as her sire. „ Fast, furious, and unpredictable..what a fabulous vampire she'll make" He felt his own blood begin to rush, an odd sensation, at the thought of having such a creature for himself, to be present at eh dawn of a fallen angel. Long minutes passed as Dracula rambled in Agnes' mind to find out what he wanted, and spoke again. " Why want to live in pain, my angel? Expose yourself to suffering…brought to you by the freedom that you so eagerly desire? Freedom is a dolorous burden..." Agnes saw the count's annoyingly smiling face differently now, and answered with a sarcastic smile.
„ Once you learn to endure the pain of freedom, then nothing could ever cause you any pain...But what do you know of freedom?" She finished the sentence in a sharp and cheeky tone, hoping his warder would get what she meant. Dracula understood perfectly what his favourite captive meant to convey, but he ignored it momentarily, knowing this would be the last time Ages longed for freedom in her life...but he didn't need to tell her that.
„ You have tried my patience angel." he said in a different tone, not dripping of poisoned honey, the smile melting away from his handsome features, almost making Agnes' hair stand at an end. „ I shall have to make sure you reach Budapest..hmm... safely...You did not cease to be a danger to yourself as I see." With that, Dracula took two rings from the pocket of his coat. One was a bare silver ring without embellishments, while the other formed silver bat wings around a heart-shaped black hematite. The two rings were bound to each other with a chain of about ten inches, and Agnes numbly watched Dracula put the bare one on his own left ring finger, then lifting her right hand, and elegantly slip the one with the gem onto her right ring finger. The chain that connected the two rings disappeared after a few moments to Agnes' not so minor surprise, and she stole a glance at Dracula, and suspiciously pulled her hand away to study her new jewel. The pitch-black stone was glittering in the half-light with a slight tint of grey.
„ Hematite...the blood-stone..." Agnes recalled seeing hematite once, she would never forget the sight of the precious stone turning clear water into blood red. „ So much like him to give me such a thing..."
„ You will meet me in Budapest then my dear, have a pleasant journey." Agnes heard Dracula's harsh voice in her ears, but as she looked up, lighting flashed, and the count disappeared in front of her very eyes. First, she just stood numbly, and then, as if pooped up from a dream, was taken over by the knowledge of her earlier foolishness and helplessness.
„ Oh, we are not finished yet 'dear Dracula'" she growled to herself, imitating the count's sweetish, nerve-ruffling voice for the last words. She dropped her wet gripsack and cloak to the floor, then looked at the ring on her finger once more, and tried to get it off, but it would not come. She could see it was not at all tight, still, it would not move an inch. For the second time that night, the angel was caught off guard, and she soon found herself in Dracula's arms, their mouths so close, she could feel his chilly breath upon the warm flesh of her lips, fingers with the rings entwined, the small chain visible again, wrapped around her wrist-bone. Agnes looked at Dracula's smiling lips, and their mouths met in a dangerously deepening kiss within a few seconds. Their tongues wrestled in sinful passion, tasting and teasing each other in a wild way, like never before. With the chain on the rings gone again, Agnes wrapped her arms around Dracula's neck and sunk her nails into the cold flesh of his neck with flare, just enough to make a lustful groan escape his lips. The count's hands snaked around Agnes' waist and found their ways under Agnes' shirt, but his touch on her skin was soft enough to drive Agnes to the edge of madness. Dracula's exalted lips soon wandered from Agnes' mouth to her marble-white neck, and as she let her head fall back, allowing the count hold her like a trusting lover, slid to her chest, down to the neckline of her shirt, their ravishing touch of velvet evoking thoughts and desires in Agnes, angelic not the least. Thereafter, it were Agnes' lips that found Dracula's once more in a searing kiss, that only ended the moment, when the angel could feel a piercing shot of pain on her lips..Dracula's fangs. She instinctively pulled away, tearing herself from the embrace so treasured for long minutes, and snapped at her mouth. She kept backing away from Dracula as she saw the precious red liquid upon the end of her fingers, and the count's mouth, then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand to clear it off. As for Dracula, he did not need his hand to clear the blood away. Agnes was horrified beyond measure, mostly by the fact that by the time she was several steps away from the vampire, she actually wanted to walk back to Dracula, and continue where they broke off. She could only have been more scared if she was aware of the count knowing all about her inner turmoil.
„ It must have been the ring..." she tried to explain to herself. Dracula's eyes played in a nighted colour with remains of delirium when he noticed his body being slightly warmer after the angel's touch, and the taste of her sweet blood. „This is not to be ruined now..." he calmed the surging fiery passion within, only to leave the well-known quiet that dwells before the Earth-shaking tempest. However, that tempest was only to come a little later. „Until she stops deceiving herself...I can wait, after centuries of waiting, a single night won't mean a thing." Agnes has regained the control over her body, ignoring its aching for the count's touch, and her mind took over again.
„ What is this ring, that you gave me?" she finally asked in a dying voice, glaring at Dracula, still embarrassed by her earlier outburst of desires.
„ I thought you'd never ask." The count walked up to the faltering Agnes, and gently took her hand, for the second time that evening. Dracula ran his thumb finger over the smooth surface of the hematite stone in a delicate circle.
„ This, my beloved, „ he began temptingly „ is a unique jewellery of power, a slave-ring." Agnes raised an eyebrow in suspicion, but the count continued „ The one wearing the master ring" upon saying this, he gestured towards his own hand" has control over the other, who was bound to him by the chain that disappears once the rings are in their proper places." The vampire's mesmerizing gaze pierced through Agnes' eyes, clearly implying dominance. „Useful, is it not?" Dracula asked in a casual way.
„ Oh, no doubt..." came the answer from lips wearing a forced ironic smile.
„ Very well then, I am amused that for the first time, we share an opinion. You will see yourself later, how useful it is. And do forgive me now, I have to depart before dawn breaks." The rain has already stopped outside, and the clouds were slowly drifting away towards the eastern horizon, to see the sunrise, and a clock struck five somewhere in the castle.
„ Then we will meet in Budapest within twelve hours...I hope that will be enough time to re-evaluate things in your mind, dearest." Agnes heard the second part of the sentence only within her head, but she had not the power to comment anything witty on it. Dracula kissed her hand gently, and the blood she wiped off from her lips, was gone in an instant. The count bowed his head one last time, then elegantly turned around, walked to the balcony, and flung himself from the balustrade.
Hours later, Agnes was locked in the carriage again, haunted by fays of sleep, trying her hardest to stay awake, and think, „re-evaluate things" as Dracula's words were being repeated in her head. She was still scared by how much she lost control, and let her deep sentiments control her...and how peccantly beauteous it felt. The line between what is wrong, and what is right, was growing thinner with each minute she spent in Dracula's company. Agnes wondered what would happen if she just abandoned her defences and let herself flow in the river of events with her heart steering. The Sun had already risen, as she could see from the carriage window, and cast part of its rays upon the world through the heavy grey clouds, and Agnes thought of her grandmother. She smiled when she remembered an event from her childhood, her first real impression of mystery. Her grandmother was sitting under an arbour of roses in the gardens of Nádudvar Castle, singing a song the little Agnes found particularly strange. She sneaked upon the elderly lady planning to greet her as a surprise, but then she got absorbed in her voice. Now she knew why it sounded so heavenly...The old Lady Gabriella stopped singing as soon as she noticed her granddaughter, but the catchy melody remained in Agnes' head and ears for all her life. She spent her boring hours complementing it, rewriting the lyrics, but there in the carriage she decided to quietly sing the fragment to herself, exactly as she heard it for the first time. Agnes' voice was lost in the noise of the wheels and horses hooves, but in her head, it sounded clear, both in sound...and after what she had to live through over the previous months, in meaning too.
Silly little game,
I lie and I believe
Selfish little game,
my angel-heart is taken to Hell
When I feel, that to me you mean all
the only thing, that mine I can call
I'd fly to your embrace,
but I lie and hide my face.
I'd whisper to you sweet words,
but I leave my heart in darkness covered
still I feel, what is now, before never has been,
earlier left to my eyes unseen
It is only a presage down deep inside,
for I dare not believe,
that forever is starting tonight...
Agnes never earlier wished so eagerly to know how the song originally ended...to know the outcome of her adventure.
Well, do let me know what you think of this one, please review! Especially the song! Love you all, who took the time to read my work!
