CHAPTER 3

The sun had set and Von Krolock opened his eyes. He needed no window or any other confirmation to know that it was safe to move about. His internal clock had never failed him in four hundred years.

He rose and lit a candle. Sarah slept on but he would awaken her soon. Hunger gnawed at his stomach. As much he hated to, he would have to leave her. He dressed himself hastily. No need for a bath as he would return home covered in blood. He would bathe upon his return and see to it that dinner had been served to Sarah.

He bent down over the bed and kissed her reverently on the forehead. "Good evening, my beloved. Arise and wait for me."

He turned swiftly and closed the door after him, finding Maria outside ready to do his bidding.

It took hours to find his first victim, and another hour to find the second. He killed them both quickly and mercifully. Once he had completely drunk his fill, he leaned back against a tree with a bloody satisfied grin, his fangs retracting as he sank into the soft grass. He felt like a new man. This would hopefully hold him over for the next several nights. He risked losing precious hours with Sarah with all the time his confounded nocturnal feedings took. He would resort as much as possible to his emergency rations until the need for fresh blood became unbearable.

He shouted for the drawbridge to be opened and he entered furtively. He feared being discovered by Sarah in his bloody state. By this time, she would have bathed, changed into a fresh nightdress (he had hundreds to choose from), and dined alone. He regretted that. Tomorrow he would be seated across from her, he promised himself.

Maria approached Von Krolock, her face registering no repulsion at the sight of him. With a slight curtsy, she told him Sarah had found her way into his library and had been curled up with a book for the past hour. He smiled at this, not surprised. He would quickly bathe and then come join her. There was much that needed explaining.

He retreated to his bedroom. While in the very act of divesting himself of his blood-stained clothes, he heard delicate running footsteps approaching his door. Panic gripped him. She mustn't see him like this. But he had no time to act. The door flew open and there Sarah stood, her radiant smile fading as she took him in. She covered her mouth with her fist. His white waistcoat was liberally stained red, dried blood was all over his mouth and in the strands of his hair.

Sarah screamed. He wanted to comfort her and explain but it was impossible to touch her in his current state.

She kept screaming. Von Krolock approached her but stopped short within a few feet. He extended his arm imploringly.

"Sarah...Child, don't fear me."

"You are a monster!" She cried. "Have you killed a friend from my girlhood? The village priest? One of my kin?" Her voice caught on the last word and she fell to the floor, sobbing.

Still, he could not touch her. She lifted her tearful face to his own demonic one, awaiting his answer.

He couldn't meet her eye. Slowly turning away from her, he replied in his low, melodious voice.

"No, beloved. Your angel would never touch anyone you love. I feed on vagabonds mostly, sad souls passing through the village, prostitutes. Souls that are not beloved by anyone and will not be missed."

"But you kill them. Baptized Christians. You deny them the right of final confession."

He whirled around to face her, his countenance terrible to behold. Sarah remembered her mother's words. His eyes appeared black and smoldering, his pallor grayer than ever, his bloody fangs reappearing in his anger. She staggered to her feet, running to the opposite side of the bedchamber.

"You and your kind should be grateful that I choose with such discretion!" He growled. "I assure you that the other vampires do not. They feed on anyone, even innocent children. And while you may think me a monster now, when you are one of us, you will feel the same need to feed, never fear, and you will revel in it!"

It was the worst thing he could have said to her and he knew it as soon as the words escaped his mouth.

"I want my mother! Mama! Let me go home!" She wept and covered her face.

Von Krolock cursed himself. In twenty-four hours his plans of slowly initiating Sarah into his way of life had fallen apart. He wanted more than anything to hold her but that would make things even worse as he would stain her white nightdress with his victims' blood.

He did allow himself to draw closer to her and attempted to soften his features.

"Sarah...leave me now. You don't understand what you are seeing. I will come to you in an hour and I will teach you. My beloved. Leave me."

Sarah stared at him, her tears continuing to stream down her cheeks as she fingered a small chain around her neck. Absent-mindedly she removed it from under her neckline.

Von Krolock doubled over in pain before he internalized what he had seen. A small gold cross dangled between Sarah's breasts. He forced himself to look upon it again, to confirm that this was the cause of his agony.

"Sarah..." he gasped. "Have mercy...put it away..." He fell to his knees, shielding his eyes.

A tense moment passed. The pain was receding. He dared to raise his eyes to hers. She had tucked the cross back into her nightdress. He sighed in relief.

"I will not give up my cross or my faith...even after you transform me," said Sarah, in a voice full of youthful determination.

He would not argue further with her. Let her think she would always have her faith. It could not be so but she would discover this for herself.

"Very well...anything you want..." he said through gritted teeth, as the pain had not yet fully receded. "But keep that object out of my sight. Promise me." He rose painfully to his feet.

She didn't reply.

"Promise me, Sarah!"He approached her and grabbed her shoulders, forgetting his filthy clothes in his passion.

She wrenched herself free with a furious gesture. "I will promise. But in return, I wish to be alone for the remainder of the night. I will not share your bed in the morning, Von Krolock."

He bowed his head in agreement, looking down at his blood-stained body, feeling every bit as disgusted with himself as she was with him.

"I will join you after sunset tomorrow, my beloved. You must forgive me my uncouth manners. Maria will escort you to your bedchamber at sunrise. In the meantime, my castle is at your disposal tonight. Wander about as you wish. You are safe here." His voice was soft, but wretched.

Sarah nodded, appearing satisfied. Yet she could not suppress a feeling of incompleteness. Von Krolock was right, she did not have a full understanding of his life. And in addition to his appearance tonight, like something out of a nightmare, she sensed that he was mortified that she had seen him like that. More than mortified. Deeply ashamed.

"I will say good night then," Sarah whispered, too affected to say anything further.

Von Krolock bowed again, a gesture so sorrowful and dignified, that she had to turn from him to conceal her distress and run from the room, Maria closing the door softly after her.

Once bathed and refreshed, Von Krolock summoned Johanna from a distant and little-used wing of his castle. Johanna had been his mistress when he was married to the countess and she had been the first woman he had transformed. She was an astonishingly beautiful creature and had taken many lovers in life and in her afterlife. Von Krolock never expected fidelity from Johanna and she cared little how much time passed in between their encounters. He allowed her to remain at Castle Von Krolock on the condition that she never interfere with his seductions and to keep herself well-hidden. In exchange, she supplied him with emergency rations, but as to where they came from, he had no wish to discover.

She entered his bedchamber, wearing a crimson robe that he loved. He grinned and wordlessly opened his own robe, revealing his enormous erection. Hissing with anticipation, fangs bared, Johanna slid out of her own robe and pushed him backward. He fell on the bed, thrilled by her boldness. She mounted him, her need as great as his. Their fangs sought each others' necks, biting hard, a harmless act that never left any marks as a result of their transformation. After a time he turned her onto her back and reentered her, so close now but ever the gentleman, he slackened his pace to give Johanna time to join him. Their pleasure was mutual and she cried out like a banshee when he sank his teeth into her neck, erupting inside of her with what felt like a month's worth of his essence.

The pent-up passion was all for Sarah, he was painfully aware. Johanna served a purpose but any true feelings of affection between them had long since died with the passage of time. They lay there for a time until their breathing resumed a normal pace. Johanna rose from the bed without a word, donned her robe, and let herself out. Von Krolock had already dismissed her from his mind.

Instead, his thoughts turned to Sarah. He wondered where she was within the castle walls and what she was doing. Now that he was clean, fed, and physically satisfied, he felt better equipped to begin again with her. To re-introduce her to his way of life in a way that would not horrify or repel her. It was a very delicate undertaking, sharing this knowledge with humans, even more so with an innocent girl such as her. In the past, he would bite first and answer questions later. Sarah deserved to know the truth beforehand, though.

As to her transformation, he would not give her a choice and she knew this. But she would walk into the darkness fully aware of the terms.

He shot up from the bed, suddenly eager to find her, throwing on fresh clothes and trying to forget her request that he leave her alone this night. There were precious few hours left before dawn. He ached to learn if she had recovered from the shock of seeing him, his anger, and his awful words to her.

Von Krolock automatically assumed she had made her way back to his library but upon exiting his bedchamber her scent overwhelmed his nostrils. He followed it down the corridor to the bedchamber reserved for his mistresses, specifically when he needed time alone after a feeding.

He crept softly to the firmly shut door. He put his ear to it and heard nothing at first. Then it came...the sound of gentle weeping, so quiet that he could tell she was making every effort not to make noise. He bent down to look through the keyhole. She was slumped into a chair beside the bed, sobbing silently into the sleeve of her nightdress.

Von Krolock's throat constricted and his eyes welled up with his own tears. It was rare for him to weep, but he was fully capable of the act. His transformation hadn't changed that. He sometimes thought he was unique in this aspect. Never in four hundred years had he ever witnessed another vampire weep. And never in four hundred years had he ever asked another vampire if they could.

His conscience railed at him. Let her go. Release her back to her family. Would that not be best? A chill coursed through him at the thought of losing her. No...He would not give her up. He would give her eternal life at his side and she would adjust. Her transformation would make her body and mind adjust. He could stop her misery now with one bite. He straightened and reached for the door handle.

But before he had even grasped it, his hand dropped to his side. She would fight him terribly and he would easily subdue her but he would hate to do it. Would hate to see the fear in her eyes. He could carry her back to his bedroom and claim her virginity instead. She might fight him all the same though it would be a different kind of battle. But his linens would need to be changed beforehand and anyway, he didn't relish taking her in her current state. What use was he anymore? He seemingly wasn't capable of transforming her or making a woman out of her.

Von Krolock lingered outside her door, like a guardian angel. He stood there, as her weeping finally subsided and he bent down to see her crawling into bed. Even long after he knew she was asleep, he kept his vigil, until the first weak rays of the sun appeared from the window behind him. He had been standing there for hours and had not realized the passing of time. Dashing down the corridor, he shut himself in his windowless bedchamber, giving way to his loneliness and despair, before sleep overcame him.