Hallo there again! Man, can you believe we've made this far. When I started this story I imagined that I'd be writing this still next summer. But we are actually quite near the end. I can't say anything sure yet but after this chapter there will be just 3 to 5 chapters anymore. Well, I hope you will enjoy this till the end.
Disclaimer: Still not mine.
Isabella Mortte stood in front of a huge mirror. The only mirror in Castle Dracula she had been informed. Her dark blue dress had been changed to a white one that had gold in the end of it. She had not been dressed by chamber maids or vampires, for she had arrived to the castle during the daytime. While the pried sailors had carried the boxes in which Dracula and his bride slept to the castle, she had been brought to these rooms.
Unlike rest of the castle, which seemed to be cold and abounded, her rooms had a huge fireplace, a bed made for kings and queens and wardrobes filled with clothes from different eras. She had also been fed, with fish which she had to admit, though she had been scared out of her mind, was delicious and some wine. They had been served in solid gold plates. They also had not been served by vampires or humans.
No, the ones serving her were spirits.
It seemed the castle was filled with spirits, phantoms and demons that Count Dracula had summoned to obey him and guard his castle while he rested. Isabella hadn't actually seen them but they were there, for the she had been helped to dress by gentle invisible hands, that didn't feel like flesh and blood, but more like wind with a will of its own. She felt like a trapped in a story that was unknown to her.
"You are very beautiful" she heard a strong, cold voice saying.
Isabella turned around and saw Count Dracula standing behind her. She turned back to the mirror and her eyes winded when she saw that legends were true: vampires have no reflection. Even the clothes Dracula was wearing, including the black cape, didn't reflect in the surface of the mirror.
"This mirror" Dracula said, taking a step closer, "was a gift from the Tsarina of Russia to my mother. My mother was a weak spirited woman who sat in corner as my father planned the coming wars and while I was trained to become a soldier. She didn't have the spirit to take part in my father's business and the motherhood was something she couldn't bear. She rarely spoke to neither me nor Radu. Radu was my brother, you see. The first of the current House of Valerious. The last thing he saw when he left this world was my red eyes. I watched while the wolves ate him alive".
The way Dracula spoke of the death of his brother was so matter-of-factly that Isabella started to feel nauseous.
"Oh, don't have too much pity for my death brother. He was never a worthy to be alive. He was a leach who sucked the life out of our father, made him do everything he wanted. He arranged the murder of my wife and made it look like a suicide. But when I found out the truth Radu made my father to send my best friend to kill me" Dracula continued his story.
"Your own friend?" Isabella asked weakly.
"Ah, yes. He did pull a sword right through me. But you see, I had already made, shall we say, a backup plan and so I came back and I haven't left for 400 years. You see, my dear, I've been waiting this day all these centuries".
"This day?"
"Come" Dracula said and lead Isabella to the wall in which hand a huge portrait. The portrait showed two persons. One was a man with black hair and steel-blue eyes in a red robes. Other was a woman with long blonde hair and green eyes, dressed in green robes. Isabella's eyes winded. She recognised the man immediately; it was Dracula probably when he had still been human. It took her time to recognise the woman also and she might not have unless she had seen the face of the woman in the mirror.
"That is…me" she said in wonder.
"Her name was Sabrina. She was my wife, the love of my life. For centuries I've tried to find a woman like her with no avail. But now I know that the search is over. You have finally come to me".
Isabella turned to Dracula and their eyes met. "C-Count", she started, "I…I am not this woman. I'm Isabella Mortte…I'm not your wife" she said.
"Yet", Dracula said, "but you soon will be. When the clock strikes midnight we shall have a blood marriage here in the castle. I will make you part of my clan, a powerful Nosferatu, and then I will summon Sabrina's spirit to take your immortal body. I shall have her back and you will become the Queen of the Night".
Isabella's whole body was shaking now. Tears formed in to her eyes and she fell to her knees. She catch Dracula's cape to her hands and pleaded.
"Please…please, don't do this. I'm not ready to leave the sun. Please, don't…please…" she sobbed.
Dracula removed his cape from her hands and spoke softly. "Life goes on".
Just then a strange kind of wind blew around the room. It whistled and Dracula seemed to be listening to it. Isabella understood that he was listening to phantoms and spirits of his castle.
"Well, it seems unwanted quests have dropped to our wedding" Dracula said.
Outside:
Anna Valerious, Gabriel Van Helsing and Carl, the friar whose family name remained unknown, had slowly climbed up from the river to the front yard of Castle Dracula. The old gate hadn't given them opponent but what they found from the yard was enough to make them consider their approaching.
The yard had been filled with long sharp stakes that had corpses impaled to them. Dracula's very own garden. Some of the bodies were probably centuries old, with only bones left anymore. However, in some of the bodies there was still rotting flesh.
"Has he personally impaled them all?" Carl asked, his voice showing his lack of confidence.
"Wouldn't surprise me if he had" Van Helsing said, slowly walking past the stakes.
Anna walked slowly, seeing familiar family cross around many of the corpses. Many Valerious family members were impaled here.
"We can't turn back now. It must end tonight" Anna whispered, more to herself than to others.
They passed the garden of impaled corpses and saw the wooden front doors of Castle Dracula.
"So, any plans how we should do this. Doesn't need to be any Waterloo but still…" Carl asked.
"We'll go in, kill Dracula and save Isabella" Van Helsing firmly.
"And kill anyone and anything that tries to stop us" Anna continued.
Carl was tempted to turn back and say tell me how it went then.
Suddenly the wooden doors opened, showing a dark corridor behind it. Nobody was seen or heard.
"It's a trap. They know we are here" Anna said.
"It seems we don't have any other choices" Van Helsing commented.
The three looked at each others, knowing this could well be the last time they were all standing together alive and then continued to the darkness.
As they entered the dark corridor and Carl was mumbling a prayer in Latin, the wooden doors closed behind them.
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