Chapter 38

Anna was still asleep as Lara opened her eyes. The girl still thought about what her mother had said about Vladislaus. She didn´t know why but she didn´t believe her. Why would he be so kind to her and to Anna when he was a vampire?

Lara slipped out of her mother´s embrace, trying not to wake her up. She let out a sigh as soon as she was freed.

She tiptoed out of the room and closed the door silently behind her. As she turned to the corridor she bumped into somebody tall and landed on her butt. "Ouch", she muttered and tried to stiffle a whimper. 'I´m a strong girl', she told herself and stood up from the ground to face the person.

Innocently she brushed the dirt from her dress and kept looking up at Dracula. "What a coincidence! I just wanted to speak to your mother. Give me a minute."

Without waiting for her protest he strode past her and into Anna´s room. The princess awoke aprubtly as he slammed the door shut.

"Why did you tell her?", he asked louder than he had actually wanted. But he had wanted to confront her as soon as possible. Anna looked around to find Lara nowhere in the room. "Tell her what? And what have you done to her? Where is she?", she demanded to know.

Dracula shook his head before grabbing her shoulders and shaking. "Why did you tell her about me? I had tried to keep that secret on purpose!"

Anna´s eyes narrowed. "Because she has the right to know what you are! Maybe she´ll run away someday and I want you to be the last person she want´s to have any contact with!", she spat back. "And now tell me where she is!"

A long pause followed after that. Lara listened in front of the door. She understood her mother. And she was right. She shouldn´t be with Dracula!

The vampire let go of her shoulders only slowly and sat down at the edge of the bed. "You didn´t want me to have a companion, right?"

He opened his mouth to protest against what she had said but she continued: "You thought you could use her to get to me. You wanted to be like a father for her." As he stayed silent Anna´s anger only increased. "Now I got you! Don´t think that your stupid plan will ever work! ...And now if you excuse me I´ll fetch my daughter and leave this place. She deserves better than you!"

With that she rose and left him sitting there. She didn´t close the door but she just picked up Lara and hurried down the stairs.

It was now five days ago that the two had left Castle Dracula. Anna was sitting behind Lara and combed the girl´s black curls. While doing so sh e smiled to herself and thought about the happy hours they had spent together. They had fetched clothes and toys from Lara´s old home and brought it to Valerious Manor.

Anna sighed and placed the comb back on the small table beside her daughter´s bed. Her hair was already parted into two parts and Anna fixed them into ponytails.

Lara had to look good on her birthday. She had turned five. The girl wore on this special day a lavendel colored dress with white lace on all possible edges.

She turned around and giggled happily as Lara saw her mother smiling like this. Anna felt tears in her eyes. This girl made her so happy like nobody else ever could. Then she sat her down on her own lap and hugged her tightly. "You´re strangling me, Mommy!", she laughed.

"Are you ready, Lara?", Anna asked. "We´ll go to the nearest shop and there you can look for your birthday present."

Lara squealed in excitement and let her mother pick her up. She already had a doll in mind, she had seen the last time.