Chapter 43

"You monster! Why did you hurt my Mommy?", Lara cried and scrambled out from under the bed sheets. Her doll was abandoned on the cushion.

As Dracula looked at her, he saw her red eyes from all the weeping in the previous night and the fever. Her little bones were trembling and she was close to tears once again. "This is my business, so keep out of it."

"But Mommy loves you so much! Why are you so cruel?" The girl sat at the edge of the bed and stared up at the tall vampire king.

"She doesn't love me, stupid. She despises me just as all her ancestors did", he said darkly. "And can you imagine why, Lara?" He came close to her face, scaring her on purpose. Dracula smiled as she shook her head, that her brown locks bounced. "Because I'm a murderer. And nobody loves evil people, remember?"

Lara pouted. "Nobody, except of my Mommy!", she said firmly and crossed her arms in front of her chest. She saw him shook his head and tuck a lose strand of hair behind his ear.

"You're being naive. Many women, I think also Princess Anna, feel something for men like me, which is not love." Before the question 'What do they feel then?' could bubble out of her mouth, he answered the question himself. "They feel something called lust. Ever heard of that?"

The five-year-old nodded. "Yes, when I want ice creme and can't get it. Then I always think about ice creme and how I eat it. Is that lust?"

"In a way, yes", Dracula smiled charmingly.

"Oh, and Mommy feels that, too? In one of her dreams she talked and said: 'Take me in your arms, Vladislaus. I need you.' ... And do you know what? As I told her about that the next day she blushed and said: 'You're too young to understand this. I think she loves you!", she exclaimed and clapped her hands.

He smirked. If that was really true ... "And I bet you shouldn't have told me this, right?"

Lara nodded but then hung her head in shame. "Please don't tell her", she pleaded.

"Even if I did, nothing would change. Even if she loved me once, she can't forgive me for injuring her so badly. The same is for you. Or would you forgive a monster?", he asked, using her own words.

"If I loved this monster, I would."

"I highly doubt that ... Okay, you stay here and I go to your mother's room and apologize. It won't take long", he assured her and went to Anna's room with a large grin plastered on his face. There he found the Princess, sitting on the bed with the same expression which Lara's face held. Her arms were also crossed and her eyes looked at him with hatred.

"What happened last night?", she demanded to know, obviously trying to stay calm. The room with red tapestry fid perfectly with the colour of the blankets on the bed and was also similar to the colour of her face.

Dracula chuckled. This game would be funny. He looked shortly at a bottle standing on the night desk. In it had been water mixed with a few drops of potion. She must have been quite thirsty, that she accepted drinks from him. "Dearest Anna, can't you remember? I know I made a mistake last night but my apologize was this water for you. In it was something against the pain, which you obviously needed." Actually the potion made her tell the truth and only the truth for a couple hours. "And I helped Lara, as she broke into a fever after a real bad nightmare."

"Should I be grateful now? ... I am - what?" Anna held her mouth shut with her hand. She hadn't wanted to say the second part. How did it just slip out? How was that possible?

The vampire sat down beside her. Time for the game to begin, he smiled in his mind. "Tell me, Anna: How old have you been, when you got your first kiss?"

"Eleven." It slipped out quicker, than she could have prevented it. Oh, how she hated this man! "Dracula this is not funny! ... Not in the slightest." She was telling him things she had wanted to forget, only to torment her further! If only she could remember what happened the night before!

"Oh, I have to say, that I find it rather amusing. And how about the most embaressing moment in your life?"

"I fell out of the window and landed in a stable for cows. The roof broke and inside the stable I saw my parents kissing." Anna shook her head. Everytime she had to reply she could feel her mind get foggy and lose control of her thoughts.

Dracula laughed heartily. This woman was perfect to make fun of. "And -one thing I always wanted to know- do you desire me?"

She pressed her lips together and closed her eyes. Not that question! She could already feel how her thoughts faded into nothing. "Yes", it finally came out of her mouth, "For I love you like nobody else before."