Chapter 30

Slowly Anna wrapped her arms around Dracula´s neck, crying into his shoulder now. "Why did I have to see that?... Do they really think about me like that?", she asked softly.

"I was of course exaggerating with your family´s opinion but all in all they expressed the right thing", the vampire said matter-of-factly. "And you should also think like that. It´s useless to fight me. I´ll win anyway, my princess. Right from the start it was for sure."

Anna looked up at the man who held her, asking: "What do you mean?" Her tears seemed to disappear within moments. "I´m here to kill you, or did you forget?"

She felt unknown anger built up inside her. Dracula was still her enemy. HE killed her whole family and left her as the only one behind. HE was the true reason for Gabriel´s death. HE played these ridiculous games with her and always had the advantage from it. And on top of that HE thought she could love this monster.

The princess pushed him away from her and got to her feet. She of course noticed that he had probably changed her clothes back into her old riding clothes. Bending down she pulled the knife that was strapped to her thigh out and plunged it right into his heart.

Without hesitating any longer she turned to run, threw the door open and raced through the dark corridors.

Quicker than she had expected Dracula flew over her in his winged form, the knife still deep in his chest. He landed in front of her, blocking her way and changing back into his other form.

"Tsk, tsk. How rude of you. I see in the time you spent with me you learned how to attack people in an unexpected moment", he said.

Anna felt that his patience was running out. Yet she felt the need to throw anything, no matter what, back at him. "People? Do you still believe that there´s anything human in you. If yes you are a fool. If not then you´re a wiser man than my father was!"

The thing with her father had just slipped out. It hurt her much to think about him, because she had been mad at him for locking her in her room as she had seen him last. And the fact that she would never be able to take it back made tears appear in her eyes.

She watched Dracula pull out the knife and hold it in front of her in a defensive way. "Let´s duel, Anna. That would surely be something amusing."

Without a hesitation she pulled her sword out of the sheath and tried to throw the knife out of Dracula´s hand. But his strength allowed him to avoid a sword even with a small blade.

Sparks flew as the metal met and it was Anna who found it harder to hold on to her sword with every attack of his.

Her tears were long forgotten and also the memories she had only moments ago. Only the fight mattered. And she had to win. She had to kill him so that she could finally be free. The duel continued almost an hour. By then both of them had deep gashes on their bodies. Dracula didn´t have the time to heal himself.

A new strength built up inside her as she could already smell her triumph. She kicked the knife out of his hand and was ready for the final.

Anna held the tip of her sword over his heart. It was visible that he was just as exhaused as she was but she had to use this only chance.

But she stood there in front of him like frozen. His strands of hair hung into his face and moved with each ragged breath he took. "You won´t give up now, will you?", he asked. Anna shook her head hastily. Her gaze fixed at the place where his dead heart lay.

Suddenly the sword dropped out of her grip and landed on the floor with a clirring sound that broke the silence around them. She lifted her gaze for less than a second to look into his eyes. Then she collapsed onto the ground into a sobbing ball.