Chapter 41

Dracula let his eyes travel over the sleeping beauties in front of him. Lara looked as if she really was Anna´s daughter. She looked so much like her, though Lara was shivering from the cold, while Anna didn´t. In the girl´s arms he now noticed a doll.

'Seems as if Anna is taking good care of her', he thought. But even this child couldn´t keep him from toying with his princess.

Walking over to them he picked them up carefully. Before taking off into the cloudy sky he wiped a brown lock out of Anna´s face. While flying the events of the day re-happened in his mind. Instead of just understanding that running away was of no use the spoiled little brat had thrown a knife at him. She couldn´t have learned this on her own. Anna must have showed her some technics of defending.

An idea crossed his mind how to make them both pay.

As he arrived in his castle he began to smile. He already hoped that Anna would finally learn her lesson. The vampire transported them into the dungeons by magic. He lifted Anna´s wrists and tied each of them to the wall. Lara was just sat down beside her mother.

"Awake, my darlings and let it begin...", Dracula whispered and disapeared into the darkness.

Anna opened her eyes only seconds after he had ended the spell he had put them under. Looking around herself frantically she found Lara awaking slowly.

She wanted to crawl over to her and take the girl in her arms but as she moved the princess saw te chains. Dracula! He had brought them here for another stupid game! "I hate him! I just hate him!", she released her anger.

"Whom?", Lara asked and rubbed her eyes from the heavy sleep. Right after she had opened them completely she started to panick. "Mommy? Mommy, what happened? Where are we?" The sight of her mother in chains only made her fear increase. "Mommy..."

"Calm down, Lara", Anna tried to comfort her with words. "I´m alright. This was Dracula´s doing."

Lara let out a sob, trying to hold her tears back. She crawled over to Anna and wrapped her small arms around her mother´s neck. "I´m sure he´ll free us again. Everything will be alright. Just don´t give up hope, Lara."

"I´m so scared of him. Why is he so mean to us, Mommy?" Anna would have liked nothing more to hug her but somehow the chains got tighter by the minute. "I don´t know. I just don´t know."

"I don´t think so", a voice said from behind Lara´s back. Her head snapped into the direction of the voice to see Dracula standing there.

The vampire king smirked at the child´s scared face. "You know all too well why I´m doing this. You just need to be more cooperative, my sweet darling."

Dracula´s eyes turned into a dangerous red. And somehow Lara couldn´t turn her eyes away from him anymore. 'Come here, my child.' As if being in a trance Lara got up from the cold floor and walked over to him. "Where are you going? ... Lara?"

Anna watched him kneel down in front of her and whisper something in her ear. That was when she felt the pressure from the chains increase.