Hallo my dear readers!
How long has it been? Month? Surely not two? I'm sorry, but crazy things have been happening. For a short period I lost my interest to continue this fic and I've also had some unfortunate things happen in my home, so I wasn't in the best ability to update this for a while. I hope you're still interested in this fic and will tell me so.
Thank you for the great reviews: flynalien, Lord Makura, BigKwell, Miss Kapri, Irena, Fleatcher, HellsingFanaticperson, Tsuki Tamahoshi and Cyndane.
Disclaimers: See previous chapters.
CHAPTER 16: BEING A VAMPIRE
14 years after the death of Vlad III Dracula.
A small Russian village near the border of Romania, 1490.
The full moon shone brightly on an otherwise black night sky. Somewhere in the distance howling of the wolves could be heard. Also it was freezing cold. It was the kind of night when all good people should stay inside and say their prayers. The village was indeed quiet, dead to the world. Only signs of life came from a small inn.
And from that inn a girl came out. She was carrying a wooden bucket with her, and looked like she might bash it to some unfortunate soul's head.
"How dare he?" she muttered angrily under her breath. "I work and work and work like there is no tomorrow and still it's not good enough! No, must go fetch water from the well in the middle of a night! And of course I must do it! Thank you very much, papa!"
She arrived to the old well and lowered the bucket down. She shivered in the cold night air and held a small cross tightly to her chest.
Oh God, she thought miserably, is this what my life will be till the end of my days? Will you not give me a single chance to escape? Where is my prince who will save me?
"Beautiful night" said a deep voice.
The girl nearly screamed as she turned around quickly. In the moonlight she could clearly see a man standing not far from her. He wore a huge black cape that hid most of his body, but she could see his other clothes were black also. His hair was black too and his face was that of a young man with an incredibly pale skin. His eyes seemed to be dark blue with a hint of purple in them.
"I'm sorry" the man said, his voice very deep yet also soft. "I didn't mean to startle you, miss".
"Startle me? I'm not startled at all" she laughed awkwardly, trying to hide her shakiness.
The man looked at her with a kind smile on his face. His eyes seemed to be suddenly purpler than blue and the girl felt an overwhelming need to take a step closer.
"Are...are you staying at the inn, sir? You're not local, are you?" she asked while a strange fog was clouding her mind.
"No, though I don't live far away either. I guess I'm sort of a traveller. I've been away from my home for a long time" the stranger spoke, and although she didn't really hear the words she was captivated by his voice.
"What is your name, miss?"
"Sonya" she answered.
"You must be cold, standing there like that. Won't you come next to me to warm?" the stranger asked and opened his huge cape.
Sonya felt tempted, very much so, but the cross in her hand suddenly felt like it weighted tons. The closer she came the harder it was.
The stranger's eyes flashed when he saw the cross, but then he spoke again with his sweet voice. "Sonya, you don't want to spend your whole life here, do you? You don't want to serve all your life and end up as an old and bitter woman, married to some innkeeper?"
Sonya felt her will disappearing. "No" she whispered.
"You want to leave. You want to escape all of this".
"Yes".
"I can help you. I can take you to a place where you will never again serve anyone. Do you want me to do so?"
"Yes".
"Then drop the cross".
Sonya hardly even realised that she had dropped her cross to the well, when suddenly the stranger closed his cape around her, like huge black wings.
"Will you take me away?" Sonya whispered, her eyes closing.
But the stranger didn't answer. Instead he brought his head close to her and Sonya surrendered to the dark kiss he gave.
--
Dracula looked down at the girl's body. Life had already escaped her as he had taken the sweet, delicious nectar from her veins. He wiped his lips and licked his fingers. The girl had been sweet indeed. And he had been gentle, making sure she had felt nothing but the utmost pleasure.
But this was the naive girl's end. She would not rise as one of the undeads, not even as a ghoul. She would lay here until she was found the following morning, or the children of the night would feast on her flesh.
Dracula chuckled. Seducing this girl had been fairly simple enough. He remembered his early days as a Nosferatu. He hadn't been any better than a wild animal, attacking any unfortunate traveller. Thankfully he had his, lacking the better term, advisors. Ever since his "rebirth" three vampires had helped him and guided him on his way, claiming they would serve him because he was not "bitten" as they were, but first "original" that had been seen in over seven centuries.
With their help he had learned to accept his new abilities as well as needs. He had soon gotten hold of himself. Although Dracula very much enjoyed being a hunter and capturing his prey, there just were times when he also enjoyed breaking their defences and seducing the humans under his will. Funny, how quickly he had stopped thinking of himself as a human anymore.
He couldn't deny how much he enjoyed his new powers. To take hold of someone's mind, hypnotise them and have them to do whatever he pleased. He was far faster and stronger also, something that would have been useful in battlefields. He could control animals and change his form from young to old, to bat and mist.
But he also had weaknesses, and the unimaginable agony in front of the cross or any other idol of God was only one of them. Smell of garlic had become absolutely unbearable to him and his much more sensitive senses. He had been told that it was only for the beginning, that after a century or two it would no longer bother him. Even more bothersome than garlic was the fact that he couldn't enter to a strange house for him without invitation. He tried it once, went to a maiden's bedroom without permission. He ended up losing a large amount of blood and had to rest for weeks in his coffin.
But the worst of all was sunlight. It didn't burn him like it burned other vampires and ghouls, possibly because he was "original", but it did take his powers away. During the time between sunrise and sundown he felt himself so powerless and weak that it was truly pathetic. He could not move his fingers, much less actually stand up. All he could do was stay in his coffin, waiting for the damnable yellow round on the sky to go away.
Dracula wondered if he could possibly find a way to get rid of these disabilities and weaknesses. If he could walk in sunlight, spit to the cross and enter to anyone's house as he pleased, he would truly be invincible.
But before he could think about that, there were other things to attend to.
A few hours later Dracula, in a form of a huge bat, landed near an old villa built in the woods. He changed back to his own form, or at least it looked most like him, not that he could really tell without reflections. He used this villa as a nest for him and his advisors.
His "advisors" included Matoba, the red haired vampire he had met in his youth in Moldavia. Matoba claimed to be 900 years old and was born in an island empire far in the east, called Nihon. The woman vampire that had come to mock Dracula during his imprisonment was called Teegra. She said she no longer remembered how old she was, but during her human life she had seen Cleopatra and admired her beauty. Her "master" had been an original who became tired of life and had set himself on fire. The third vampire was Dracula's own countryman, a Transylvanian named Orlok who had become a vampire during a crusade to Jerusalem. He was a pale man with bald head and didn't speak much. However Dracula often found himself awed by the knowledge Orlok possessed.
Although they all claimed to be his servants and had been helping him the past fourteen years, Dracula suspected their reasons were not as selfless as they claimed. He didn't know what the three really wanted of him, but for now he would wait and see, and keep his guard up all times. Past experiences with Radu, Matthias Corvinus, Bathory and others had forced him to trust no-one but himself.
Dracula entered the villa and threw his cape to the first table that he came across. He walked to a large room where Teegra, Orlok and Matoba had put a fire to fireplace. Dracula thought this to be rather unnecessary since cold and heath were the few things that didn't bother vampires.
Matoba was sprawled all over a chair by the fire with a glass of blood in his hands. Teegra was lying on a fur carpet in a position that would have any man, living or dead, drooling. Dracula would have probably also, had he not spent his own share of private moments with her already. Orlok was leaning to the wall, standing straight and nearly blending to the shadows.
Matoba raised his glass to Dracula and grinned. "Young Master has arrived from nightly hunt. Did you go for bored housewife or a youth feeling adventurous?"
Dracula had no need to answer but he did anyway. "Little girl dreaming of a different life".
Matoba laughed. "You certainly crushed those dreams!"
Dracula didn't comment on that. Instead he stared vacantly to the fire.
"What is the matter, Master?" Teegra asked after observing his expression.
Dracula was silent first but then answered. "I have been thinking of returning to home".
"To Wallachia? Whatever for? There's nothing there for you" Matoba said.
"Not to Wallachia. To my childhood home, my birth country. To Transylvania".
Dracula knew immediately that if he didn't have their full attention before, he had it now.
"To Transylvania?" Teegra asked.
"But, Master. Iscariot has its facility in Transylvania. They would notice that a new vampire has arrived and then they'd hunt you" Matoba reasoned.
"They're not going to be a problem, I'll destroy them first" Dracula answered solemnly.
"You'll destroy Section XIII of Vatican?" red-haired vampire asked, his voice filled with disbelief.
"Of course not. I'll destroy Scholomance and make it an example for those who want to war against me".
"Vatican will not take this lightly. You might have to fight against them for a long time to come" Teegra said.
Now Dracula smiled and his eyes changed to red. "Good. I've been hoping to have some other way to kill time than just eating. Besides war is what I do best".
Silence met him.
"I'm not forcing anyone to come with me. I did not claim myself as your master, you chose me as one. If this is where we part so be it" Dracula added.
Matoba smiled warily. "It will be too boring here without you. Besides, I've known ever since I first saw you that extraordinary things would happen wherever you go".
Teegra turned to look at the silent figure by the wall. "What do you think, Orlok?"
Orlok spoke with a chilly voice. "It would bring me great pleasure to rid Transylvania of those clergymen. It is my home also and I have been away for too long".
"There is no need to decide now", Dracula said, "I still have much to plan for and I need time to gather my groups".
"What groups?"
"Why, my army of course. You don't go to war without one".
To be continued...
AN: This chapter proves that I have no ability to create new names. Those three "advisors" of Dracula. I got the name Matoba from Japanese movie "L: Change the World" where Matoba was the name of one of the villains. The island empire Nihon he came from is of course Japan. Teegra was the name of main heroine in the 80's sleazy B animation "Fire and Ice". And Orlok, as many of you probably know, was the vampire's name in 1922 silent film "Nosferatu" the first film adaptation of Dracula. I also took his looks from the film because I thought "how cool would it be to have Dracula and Orlok in the same story".
Till next time. Review and tell me if you still want this story to go on.