The next night Ashling's head felt much more clear than it had yesterday. The cause of her delierium was most likely all the fear and confusion her mind had been going through, but now she must have grown used to it. The sun had recently set and Sophie was absent from the room. As she rose she became aware of quiet voices outside the door.
"Sshh, quiet." She heard just as her hand touched the door knob.
"Ha!" She opened the door and tried to scare the children.
Sophie jumped back with a quiet shriek, though Vay seemed unperturbed. There were two other children with them: a boy and girl, not ten years old. Their blue eyes were sad and both had blonde hair.
Ashling kneeled laughing. "Did I scare you?" Sophie nodded quickly, Vay shook his head, but she got no response from the other two. "Who are they?" Ashling asked Vay, mild interest in her voice.
"Two of Master's guests' children." Vay's eyes were faded to thin fog and through the fog was glimsped emerald green eyes. Ashling didn't ask preferrring to stick to the current mystery.
"What are your names?" Ashling asked the children.
"Than." The boy answered.
"Valdis." The girl's sweet voice was like a bell.
Ashling nodded not sure what to do next. Vay filled the blank for her.
"The master asks your presence in the central room. If you would like I can lead you there."
"Yeah, sure." As she rose, and began to follow Vay down the hall, the children followed suit. She followed Vay down a maze of corridors, and tight passageways, until they reached a curve of the path, one side of which was suspended over the wrecked laboratory. Ashling stared for a moment at the werewolves lunging at each other in the room below, before Sophie wrapped herself onto her leg in fear. Ashling continued on reaching Vay in an alcove. A small clostrophobic hall lead into a large dark room.
It was as if they simply sat in shadows the room was so large. Moonlight filtered through a window into the room falling on its occupants. Dracula sat on a couch across from two others on another couch. The strangers were a man and a woman. The woman's hair was blonde as the moonlight, the man's red like fire, they were both pale as Dracula, and their fangs fell over their lips. Both sets of eyes were bright as stars and Ashling couldn't discern their color because of this.
"I understand your yearning for a child." The woman finished saying as Ashling glimsped them. "I have taken in two human children myself." She paused and looked over at the movement. "There they are: Than, Valdis come to Mummy." She cooed.
The strange children rushed into her arms, and as soon as they had Vay began to speak like a page boy. "Mistress Ashling, Master." He bowed to Dracula who nodded serenly to him.
"Vay, Sophie, you are dismissed." Dracula told them and happily they rushed off. Dracula's eyes glowed like ice at Ashling, as she felt the urge to go to him. And she did.
"This is the young woman you told me about?" The strange woman asked Dracula.
"Yes."
"I can see her night gift." She narrowed her eyes pleasantly at Ashling. "Yes." She concluded from her inspection. "What I told you was correct." She smiled tightly at Dracula. Ashling gave him a quizical look but he didn't see it.
"Good." He said simply. "I would rather tell her alone, so if you would excuse us. . ." They knew what he meant, and bowing they left. The children were even more glassy eyed than before and the woman had to whisper to them before they would bow.
Dracula nodded regally to them.
He stood up, abruptly, in front of Ashling, but he hesitated as he opened his mouth.
"Would you like to go flying?"
Without really thinking about it Ashling agreed.
Dracula led her out onto a balcony with no railing around it. The sudden rush of cold night air caught her breath, and she faltered back. He only laughed, caught her about the waist and leapt. Her breath stuck in her lungs, holding her scream with it. Wind rushed past her face, whipping her hair around. She looked around in wonder at the trees and black sky. She looked up at Dracula, but was not surprised by what she saw, simply took it as fact and let it float away in her mind.
Dracula was caught up in the sight of her. She laughed and smiled, as the wind skittered past her face. He forgot about what he had meant to tell her and decided to go with his hunger, instead, as his course of action this night. He did not care if she saw it, for sooner of later he decided she would have to do it also.
Finally, he landed between the trees. He set Ashling down, still giggling. Dracula smirked and walked away from her looking over his shoulder seductively.
Would you like to play a game? His mind whispered to her. The smile on her face and her quiet laughter was answer enough. He walked around a tree and looked at her, the smirk growing on his face. He ducked back around it but-
-he was gone. Ashling couldn't help but laugh out loud at this.
"Dracula?" She called. The smile still smeared on her face she went around the tree, expecting to find him hiding behind it. But he wasn't. She looked off to a stand of leafy trees, just behind it.
Moonlight filtered through the leaves, turning the ground slightly green. A noise reached her ears; a snap, a low growl, coming from before her. Ashling pushed her way through the branches and saw who she was looking for.
Dracula had his back to her, his head ducked down, and a muffled sucking assaulting her ears. Ashling watched for a moment, entranced in this strange act. The light came from directly above them, creating a halo above Dracula's head.
"Drac-" was all she managed to say before he spun around. His eyes were as bright as flame, his teeth bared over his lips.
Slowly the feral look faded and, almost in shame, he threw the animal away from him. Perhaps he did care if Ashling saw him. He looked down somberly, leaving his hands limp at his sides. "It is what I must do to survive." He told her.
She looked down, sad at his seemingly sorrowful tone. Then something tinged at her brain. "I wouldn't mind it." She said boldly.
Dracula smiled sadly as he turned back to face her, his eyes now dull. "Perhaps you may someday."
He took her back to the castle, the trip seemed slower and less exciting to Ashling and she took time to look around. She saw very little, for the moon was a sliver in the sky.
When they were back, Dracula told her to follow him and he lead her into a room, bare but for a few chairs and a table.
"Marion," Dracula adressed the blonde woman she had seen earlier. "Would you please explain her gift to her. . . the word have escaped me." Quickly, with a strange dimness and a shadow across his face, he went out.
"Ashling," she began. Ashling walked slowly forward. "You have a night gift. Which means you, normally a creature of the light, have been endowed, or cursed whichever way you may see it, with a power. Yours is second sight. Meaning you see things that have either gone on in the past or will come about. But you must be in the place that it happened."
"That's why I've been having all those weird. . . dream things?" She nodded. "Why has it just now kicked in?"
"It may be," she stopped looked away, thinking. "Stress or when Dracula brought you here triggered something in you." She looked back up, a bright smile on her face.
"Is that all?" Ashling asked.
The woman nodded, still as bright and sure as ever.
"Well, that doesn't sound so bad."
"Oh, don't be so sure." She interjected. "The strength needed to control it, suppress it, use it, may cause your brain to become fuddled or confused."
"Ok." Ashling sighed. "Well, thank you, if I may uh. . ." She trailed off, her thoughtfulness ended.
"Call on me for help? Of course."
"Exactly." The woman had guessed her thoughts. Well, what did she expect? She was a vampire.
"Excuse me."
"Do whatever you wish, I'm sure my children will be more than happy to lead you back to me if you must."
Ashling respectfully backed out of the room, and into the dark hall.
"Mistress?" Vay stood before her, the three other children at his back.
"Vay, can you take me back to my room?" She asked quietly, wanting to have a peaceful place to think.
"Of course."
Ashling stood at the window in her room, staring but not seeing the stars and moon, partially covered by clouds, when someone knocked.
"Come in." She called, a little quizzically.
"Mistress?" Vay opened the door a crack. The green shone brightly through the fog on his eyeballs, telling of happiness, and fun.
His eyes caught her and she voiced the concern she that had afflicted her for the day. "Vay, what is wrong with your eyes?" Ashling crouched in front of him and brushed some of his black hair away from his eyes.
Sophie rushed in behind him, holding a bundle in her arms, the same joy on her face as on Vay's. She was in a dress all silk and lace, and her feet made a muffled tapping as she moved. "He is too old to be bogey anymore." She explained, innocently.
Ashling smiled humorously at her happy tone which didn't seem to fit the sentence. Sophie strolled on past them and set her bundle, rustling on to the bed.
"And what will become of you Vay?"
He shrugged as if he didn't care much. "I will become almost like the master, but without immortality and not dependent on blood." She wasn't sure how to respond and stayed quiet looking at the strange boy. "It is a coming-of-age for me; don't feel sad." He told her.
"Ashling, look what the master gave you!" Sophie called, with not a little excitement making her bounce up and down.
Vay grinned at his mistress and bounded over to Sophie. Ashling, too, consumed by curiosity, went over to the bed.
Sophie had layed out what she had been carrying: a dress. Ashling looked at it in awe, a beautiful thing it was, expensive beyond belief.
"He asks you to put it on and join him-" Sophie cut him off with her screech of excitement she had been holding back.
"For a ball!" Her grin widened on her face, and she beamed at her mother. Ashling grinned too, though her eyes were much more sober.
Author's Note: No updates for a week. I'm going to camp:D