by Rebecca Foxx
Worried Emma Wood knew how useless it was to convince stubborn Sarah to not go there. It was just waste of time to make her change her mind once she made it. So all she could do was to look how she left the dining room.
After picking her bag and taking the most needed things for her research, she joined foreigners with much determination. The paths they cut with sometimes fast and sometimes slow steps was unbelievably long as offered many choices and lead to different directions.
They took the paths, that would take them deeper into the forest and would not take them back to any of the surrounding villages. Sarah managed to keep the pace with her companions and at the same time watch all the plants spread on the paths. Still she couldn't find something foreign to her knowledge.
She knew all of them. She did not talk much but nodded her head and smiled while her travel mates were actively talking about things she had never heard.
Suddenly she saw a yellow plant which seemed completely foreign. She stopped.
"You go, guys," she said to Mark and John, "I'll catch up with you soon."
"We can wait for you if it won't take too much." said Mark.
"Hey, we don't have much time. If we stop at every plant, we will stay here for lifetime." said John.
"You go, I'll catch up with you." repeated Sarah without looking at them but thoroughly examining the plant.
Chapter 3
After some time, when she was content with her study and took some samples of the plant, she shouted their names and followed their traces on the west path, where they parted. However she did not find anybody there, she walked on and on but there the traces of their boots disappeared. She looked around and heard a sound.
"Mark?" she called.
But apparently it was a sound made by birds or some animal. She shouted their names but got no answer. She decided that the discovery of the single plant was enough for the first day or first time. Maybe the bold travelers are quite far now and she wouldn't be able to catch up with them. Besides if she went on, she would have to go back to village as it was already a sunset. However she decided to continue her way a bit longer with hope to catch their trace.
So she pushed away the stubborn branches of fallen trees and suddenly shouted from surprise facing the horrible scene. John and Mark lied dead. Her boldness and courage as if abandoned her. She quickly looked around trying to find a sight of the wild animal or reptile that had killed them. But there was no animal.
She decided they were poisoned as they were not wounded.
There was no snake or scorpion on the wet ground. She bent over to measure their pulse to be sure they were dead, and she could escape from that hell. And suddenly on their necks she found two wounds of the penetrated teeth. The teeth were no doubt those of human being, not some animal.
Sarah became speechless. So it was not a legend. There is a vampire living in the forest and probably now it is following her. She looked around and took the same path to return back home. She walked fast, sometimes her steps turned into running. However the more she went through trusting her memory of the right paths they had taken, the more she got confused and felt lost.
The sun was already setting and the sky was blooding as she looked up through the high branches of tress. Soon the night would fall over forest, but she wasn't able to meet anything that would prompt her the right way.
For the first time in her life she felt completely lost and desperate. Every single sound of the bird now made her nervous and frightened. Now she did not care about any plant and had the constant feeling of being watched.
It became dark, and she understood the impossibility of walking further. She sat on a huge stone to gather her thoughts for the right decision. Sarah tried to encourage herself and to bring the brave Sarah back. So the only thing that she could do was to stay at night there trusting the good luck of being unnoticed by the vampire and wild animals.
She heard a sound out of blue. She tried to catch the ongoing sound. It seemed to her that it was a sound of piano.
"Am I going crazy?"she said desperately and surprised.
She walked to the direction of the sound and saw an enormous castle shining in bright lights inside. It deserved the most beautiful descriptions found in the fairy tales. She felt how the hope again returned to her veins. It must have been her savior.
Her Guardian Angel, How was that possible? Who could imagine, that someone lives in the dark forest.
Maybe this is a secret civilization, which has its state, buildings, laws, small folks and servants. "The place where such beautiful piano music is played cannot have bad people. They'll help me to get out of this forest. I hope they will give me a map and some useful tips." she said herself feeling already helpful and optimistic.
She walked to the castle and tried to find the main entrance. It was a high curved door. She knocked hard, as she was afraid that the high piano music would not let the sound of her knocking to be heard for the residents.
She waited for some seconds and repeated. After a minute or two she music ceased inside. she knocked again and the door was opened. There was no one, however. She wandered how then the door opened and entered the building.
It was so luxurious and stunning that she could not move for a moment. She stopped and looked at the walls which were covered by marvelous painting of middle ages and impressionism.
The mirrors in the vast hall were in the gold frames and showed her beautiful big body with shocked impression of face and all clothes in mud and dust. She saw that her leg was bleeding. She must have had her leg scratched by some sharp branch of tree while running.
"Is there anybody here?"she asked in a rather loud voice.
She saw the figure of a big tall man with wide shoulders sitting in front of the piano. "He had been playing the piano," thought Sarah.
"Hello," said Sarah entering to the royal room.
The man turned to her and she saw his extremely handsome face, with thick eyebrows and full lips. He smiled at her with a smile, that made her forget about the troubles of the passing day. Her heart began to play a music for her soul, which she had never heard before.
He was noble and gentle when smiled. He stood up and approached her. Her heart began to tremble like her fingers did. She was lost for words, when he finally stood so close to her.
"Hello," he whispered. And suddenly under the thousands lights of the luxurious hall, where the keyboard of the piano was shining being gold, she saw his two sharp longer teeth shining brightly. She shouted. It was him! He was the vampire!
Sarah began to step back as he was approaching her.
"What do you want from me?" asked Sarah, who could not explain the strange mixture of sensations she was having. She wasn't afraid as much as she was supposed to. She even felt some sympathy for him.
"Me?" asked Vampire. "Absolutely nothing. You have come to me, and ask me what do I want from you?"
"You followed me yesterday. I know this scent. I am very good at sensing scents and remembering them," said Sarah boldly.
"It is a great pleasure, when a beautiful woman like you remembers the scent of my body,." he smiled attractively.
"What now? Will you kill me like you did with those two men in the forest?" asked Sarah.
"Yes," said the Vampire. “And I have been following you for the last month Sarah. I like you much. You are a beautiful woman, whose charm I have not been able to forget since the first day I saw," said Vampire.
“I want to go back, or you will have to kill me. You are a vampire, aren’t you?”
‘Yes, but I am kind when I love. And this is the first time in my life I feel love.”
Sarah did not talk, but stood speechless examining his wide forehead, his strong arms, dark green eyes, which would turn into silver, when he talked excited. He had full red lips, as if it had tested some blood minutes ago and still carried the bright color of red.
“Why do you kill people?” asked Sarah.
“Why do you kill animals?” aske
d Vampire.
Sarah could not answer, because the answer was not beneficial for her.
“This is quite different, very different," said Sarah.
“Yes, I do not eat human beings, I just drink their blood.”
Sarah felt sick and hated to hear that.
“You will have to kill me too then!" she shouted.
“I am impressed by your boldness, you know? Never in my life I had seen my victims looking straight into my eyes with so much boldness and courage.”
She tried to leave, but the doors were shut.
“Is there anyone else here?” shouted Sarah.
“Ah no, no one but you and me," proudly declared Vampire.
Chapter 4
He approached to her bold strong big body but did not touch it.
"Go upstairs. You are going to stay with me for couples of days, so feel comfortable. Have some rest before I make fantastic supper us to celebrate your arrival,” he said in confident yet gentle manner.
He looked like a gentleman, as if he wasn’t a vampire sucking blood of his victims.
She could not think of better solution than doing what the vampire told him. She thought the best way could be going upstairs, at least pretend, that she agrees with him and win some time to find a way out of that hell.
Though deep in her adventurous heart she was not so sure, that it was a hell. She was interested in the strange man who killed people and then was able to play the piano and not just play, but produce such divine music, which could invite a passer-by. Or wasn't that just a sly, tricky and well planned action to catch the victims?
But he sure did not forced his victims to enjoy the masterpieces of art that could be found everywhere in his castle. They were covering the walls in their artistic beauty, and each had unique style. Each was different from the other and took a viewer far to those places, where they depictions intended to.
The mirrors were large and high, as if he liked to stand in front of them and enjoy the scene of his own power and majesty. But she was sure that during those times he must also see his loneliness and freedom and turn his face away from those glasses. She was quite frank to confess herself, that he had fantastic taste not only in the classical royal black piano and art, but also in choosing the right flowers.
They were marvelous fresh white water lilies in transparent flower pots. She wondered whether there was a lake around or some place where water lilies grew. Sarah enjoyed their scent which made her head spin, like being in paradise, like being in her greenhouse. She found many rooms upstairs, but only one of them had an open door. She wondered whether he had expected her arrival. She was becoming quite sure of that.
Sarah entered the large bedroom. This room was an exception in its "plot". That was from another story. It was hidden in dark red roses having the color of blood. And that color of blood was also shared by the sky, as if he had managed to negotiate with sky to match its colors to those of his roses.
Sarah approached to the mirror on the opposite wall facing the bed and saw her own figure and her red cheeks burning from shame. It was not a shame of being a victim, nor shame of a virgin being so close and alone in the vast castle with a strange man. It was rather a shame caused by the feelings that were growing every minute and even second inside her virgin heart and soul.
She tried to convince herself, that the reason and purpose she came upstairs was a trick to get rid of the vampire and his power, but she realized deep in her soul that she couldn't cope with getting rid of his charm at first. Vampire could kill her, drink her blood but before all that he could love her, like never she had dreamt in her wildest fantasies.
She fantasized about his smile once again, his eyes that would turn from green to silver, she closed her ears with her palms to stop his attractive sensual voice sounding in her tender ears.
Sarah turned and looked at herself and saw a girl begging for love. She went to the bathroom and saw something she had never seen before. It was a huge bathtub full of hot soap foam.
It contained red petals of roses. It also contained thorny stems of roses. They were very tall, high and without buds. As if people could be severed from heads, Sarah thought. And then the cruel comparison that came to her mind frightened her and surprised. They looked, however, interesting first time in her life she had seen severed roses.
But unlike the times, when she was working in her greenhouse and was careful with every flower, even with those withered and also with those small flowers and plants that were growing along the roads, paths or valleys and she walked carefully not to trample them, now she was looking at the severed roses and thinking that they are aesthetically beautiful.
Sarah was also amazed by the candles resting in small and relatively flat candle holders made of glass. They were numerous and each bore slight light that united and made a symphony of lights. They were penetrating the foams of soap and making them shine like stars.
Sarah took off her dress and tested the temperature of the water in the tub with her beautiful legs. She sank in it and soon only her thighs were seen under the thick cover of foam. She could not conceal them deep in the water not because the tub was not large, but because her thighs shining in ivory were beautifully large and wide.
There were large windows in the bathroom facing the tub and telling nice fairy-tales about the tender and compassionate night. Sarah believed, that soon her blood would add another color of red to the blooding sky and red roses. In spite of all those conscious ponderings she was not afraid. She looked at the sky for a long time and far trees outside of the window, until sunset sky conceded its place to the night. Suddenly she felt a strong masculine hand tenderly running on her thigh. Sarah retreated with fast movement of a deer.
"Do not be afraid of me," he whispered to her in his sensuous voice. "I won't harm you. All I want is to remember your scent of body like you have remembered mine."
Sarah kept silent. Not because of fear, as she actually lacked it at the moment, but the longing for his sudden touch again and the mood for playing that she had first time in her life. She felt how her blood flushed along her veins. She felt her veins burning not only because of hot water but his way of looking at her.
Vampire Duke caressed her face with slight touch of his fingers. He stood and gently got into the tub too. He pushed her wet hair by side and kissed her tender neck, taking her big beautiful virgin breasts in his large palms. Sarah felt his hard breathing on her neck and suddenly trembled from fear. She felt his sharp tooth, but he calmed her.
He went on kissing her carefully so that his teeth would not harm her. He disobeyed his instinctive reflex of penetrating human skin for blood. She felt and even knew, that, though she had never kissed before to differentiate now the good kiss from bad one, and he was kissing so passionately and good, it was his first kiss.
His lips trembled as he went down. His arm hold his narrow feminine waist, and the other hand was touching and feeling her curves with so much excitement, tremble and care, as if not to miss some part and remember those touches forever. He held her big body in his arms in such light manner, like she was a feather and carried her to bed.
After passionate lovemaking, he felt even greater pleasure to see her head and hair of dark chocolate color resting on his breast. They talked then as if they had known each other for years, had known each others' soul for eras, just unaware of small common details to which adults gave huge importance, like where they were from, how old they were, what they did, what their business was.
Chapter 5
"How can I call you?" asked Sarah smiling at him.
"Call me Dante," said Vampire kissing her forehead.
"So you are the Vampire Duke about whom people talk. I have always thought of you as a legend."
"Yes, I am a legend, it may frighten you, but though I look only in my early late twenties, I am 700 years old. My eyes have seen many changes, and my ears have heard many news about all revolutions in art, science and war. Only my heart had not felt the
sense of loving and being loved before." said Vampire.
"Have you always drunk blood? Were you born this way?" asked Sarah to satisfy her curious mind.
She simply wanted to know everything about her beloved man.
"No, I was born a mortal human like you. I was a young man of about 23 years old and studied philosophy at university. Well, I will tell you my story, just come with me, I'll show you something," said Duke.
Sarah got up too and followed Duke. They went to a dark hall or a very large room, and he switched the lights on. Sarah saw that the hall was round structured, and walls were not actually seen, as they were covered up to the ceiling with books, thousands of books.
"How marvelous!" shouted Sarah.
"Yes," said Vampire, "All these books I have managed to obtain, when they have just been published and sold in public bookstores. These books are about almost anything in the world. And there are book written in all existing languages spoken on the earth.
