Date with a Vampire

by Raine English

  Gelda pulled her hand away from his. “You still want to marry her?”

  “It’s not a matter of want. It’s out of necessity. I need her money for Dragesa.” He stood and pulled Gelda into his arms. “Melody means nothing to me.We need to hurry, though, and get her before she wakes.”

  They traveled through the castle’s passageways, taking care not to be seen. Only when they reached the caves did Theo relax a little. He would remain on edge until this task had been fully executed. Luckily, they found Melody still asleep and it was without much trouble that they were able to deliver her to Guystof’s bedchamber and position her in bed beside him.

  Theo scrutinized the scene. Melody’s painted skin, fishnet tights, corset, and petticoat were not his brother’s style. If he wanted to set this up to be believable, he would have to change Melody’s appearance. She needed some suitable sleepwear, and there wasn’t time to rummage through her room. There was only one way for him to fix that. The old-fashioned way. With magic. He closed his eyes and moved his hands over Melody’s body, envisioning her skin a pale ivory and her wearing a lacy, rose-colored nightgown. Guystof was a sucker for frills. He opened his eyes at Gelda’s startled gasp.

  “Oh, Theo. That’s perfect. Melody looks like herself again.”

  He smiled. “But we’re not finished yet. We have to deal with my brother now.”

  “I don’t understand. What more needs to be done?”

  Theo pointed to Guystof. “Look at him. He needs to look disheveled after his wild night with Melody. Mess up his hair.”

  Gelda did as instructed. “How’s that?”

  Theo studied the bed scene a little longer. They’d missed the most important details. “Guystof’s wounds have healed. We need fresh marks on his neck and blood on the sheet if this is to be truly believable.”

  “It’s a good thing you’re so clever.’

  “Well, what are you waiting for?”

  Her jaw dropped open. “You have to be kidding. You want me to bite him?”

  Theo nodded. “Is that a problem?”

  Gelda looked at Guystof’s still body and grimaced. “That’s disgusting. He’s dead.”

  “But it needs to be done.” Without giving it another thought, Theo leaned over his brother, then curled back his front lip and let his fangs protrude. He pierced two perfect holes in the side of Guystof’s neck. Soon the white pillowcase was stained red. Theo wiped his mouth on his shirtsleeve. The blood tasted bitter in death. “What do you think of this picture now?”

  Gelda stepped closer to the bed. “It’s perfect.”

  Melody would be in for a shock when she woke, finding her beloved dead beside her. She’d have no memory of the turning ceremony. New vampires never did. What she would have would be an almost insatiable appetite for blood. There was no doubt Melody would think she was responsible for Guystof’s death.

  Theo chuckled softly, quite pleased with his work. However, he couldn’t stand there forever admiring it. He couldn’t run the risk that his father might still be suspicious. All evidence of his secret haven below the castle had to be erased.

  They returned to the caves, and he closed his eyes to visualize the caverns the way they were before he’d inhabited them—pristine. He waited a few moments, then opened his eyes and all signs of occupancy had been erased. Only his vampires, roosting high in the ceiling, remained.

  He called to them. His voice bounced off the flowstone walls. Each one lined up before him. “It’s no longer safe here. You all must leave.”

  Gelda’s eyes were wide with surprise. “Even me?”

  Theo placed his arm over her shoulders and pulled her to him. He kissed the side of her neck, then ran his mouth over her ear. “I’m sorry, but yes. It’s not safe for you here.”

  The color drained from her face. “I don’t care. I’m not afraid. Not as long as I’m with you.”

  “That’s very courageous, my dear, but you still need to go.” Theo kissed her hard, then held her out at arms’ length and studied her. He wanted to remember every curve of her body, the sparkle in her emerald eyes, and the way her lips curved up at the corners even when she wasn’t smiling. She was beautiful, loyal, and his, yet he had no idea when he might see her again.

  “Then come with me,” she pleaded.

  “I can’t. I have to stay at Dragesa.”

  “But I can make you happy. We can travel the world together. Home is where you make it.”

  “Ah, sounds lovely, my dear, but I only have one home. It’s right here; and I will not give it up unless I am forced to. The game is not quite over yet.”

  She turned her head away and stared at the floor.

  “This is not good-bye,” he whispered. “I will find you no matter where you are and bring you back here when it is safe.”

  She looked up at him, a hopeful gleam in her eyes. “Promise?”

  He kissed her tenderly. “I promise.”

  — : : —

  Melody rolled onto her back. She felt like he’d been hit by a truck. Every bone in her body ached. Her blurred vision took in her surroundings. Where the devil was she? In a bedchamber, but whose? She turned her head to the side and gasped. Guy! She was in Guy’s bed?

  She squeezed her eyes shut. What had happened? The last thing she remembered… Well, she didn’t know what she remembered. Everything was fuzzy.

  She stroked the side of his cheek. It was cold. Very cold. She put her hand over his. It too was cold. She sat up and took hold of his shoulders. She shook them gently at first, then, when he didn’t respond, she shook harder. “Guy! Wake up! What’s wrong with you?”

  Though his features were relaxed as if in sleep, his white skin and pale blue lips told a different story. And a pool of red covered the sheet beneath him.

  Her chest tightened, and she felt the air being sucked from her lungs. No, no, no. It couldn’t be true. Her beloved Guy couldn’t be dead. How could he? It wasn’t until she saw the trickle of dried blood from the two perfect holes piercing his neck that she had a suspicion of what had happened. Her stomach rumbled with hunger and saliva filled her mouth. She ran her tongue along her swollen gums and felt the prick of fangs. She was a vampire!

  She ran her lips over Guy’s cold cheek, then covered his mouth with her own and tried to breathe life back into him. But he was cold, oh so cold. Had she done this to him? Had she somehow killed him? She scrunched her eyes shut, trying to remember how that could have happened.

  A knock sounded on the door, rousing her from her misery. She opened her eyes.

  “Master?”

  It was Blakesley’s voice.

  The door opened slowly, and the old butler peeked in. When he saw them on the bed, he appeared embarrassed; then a wide smile lit his withered features. “So sorry to interrupt, sir, but I’ve been so worried about you and Miss Melody. I was just about to go to your father, when I thought it best to check your room first.”

  “He’s dead,” Melody cried.

  Blakesley put a hand over his mouth in horror. He swayed, then reached for the doorframe to steady himself. “That’s not possible. Not Master Guystof. I told him it wasn’t safe to go after you alone. But he’s so stubborn. Wouldn’t listen to my warning.” He crossed the room to study Guy. “Theo is capable of just about anything, but I never thought he would kill his own brother.”

  Melody stared at Blakesley in disbelief. “Theo? He did this?”

  “You don’t remember?”

  She shook her head. “Remember what?”

  “Oh my! Theo kidnapped you and took you down into the caves beneath the castle. He was going to marry you. Master Guystof found out and went down into the caves after you, but Theo must have caught him and…”

  Tears ran down her cheeks. “You mean I didn’t do this?”

  “Why, how could you have thought so?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know what to think. My head is pounding, and everything is a blur.” She balled her hands into fists and rubbed furiously
at her eyes. “The last thing I remember is opening the door to my room, thinking it was my luggage, but it was Theo.” Her voice rose in pitch. “Everything after that is blank…until now. I woke and found Guy dead.” She opened her mouth and exposed her new fangs. “I’m a vampire.”

  Blakesley backed toward the door. “Miss, calm down. It’s probably best that you don’t remember.” He didn’t take his eyes off her face. “Your skin is becoming gray and your pupils yellow. You must need to feed.”

  Melody stared at him in horror. “What do I do?” Her voice came out as little more than a croak now.

  “You’ll need to hunt for your food, or find someone you can feed on.” Blakesley was nearly at the door, and she could see that his hands were shaking.

  “Please, don’t leave. I promise I won’t hurt you.”

  “Maybe not intentionally, Miss Melody, but as a newly turned vampire, you’ll not be able to control your urges.”

  “But you can’t leave me alone. What will I do? And what about Guy? I can’t just leave him here.” Panic started to take hold of her, and she felt all reason slipping away. Her hunger was growing, and the saliva in her mouth burned her tongue. She didn’t want to hurt Blakesley, but if something didn’t happen quickly, she might not be able to control herself. “Please, help me.”

  He shifted his gaze away from her and back to Guy. “You’re right. I must do something. If you were to take the potion I gave to Master Guystof, it should keep you from needing to feed. Once we’ve taken care of that problem, then we can think about what to do next.”

  “Oh, thank you.”

  “It shouldn’t take long for me to get it.”

  After Blakesley left, she walked over to the window and stared out at the night sky. Stars twinkled, and the Southern Cross stood out like a beacon. Not so long ago, she and Guy had looked at it together. Now he was gone. And they’d never do anything together again. She crossed her arms over her chest and rocked back and forth. How could she go on without him?

  Through tear blurred eyes, she glanced over at his still figure on the bed and was overcome with grief. When Blakesley returned, she had no way of knowing whether he’d been gone a minute or an hour, nor did she care. Her body and mind were numb.

  Blakesley dropped a leather-bound ledger on the table and opened a vial of potion. “One drop is all you need.”

  She wiped the tears from her cheeks before taking the vial from him. “Do you think it will make me sick?”

  He looked at her with surprise. “What makes you ask that?”

  “Guy kept getting pains in his stomach. He assumed they were due to the potion.”

  Blakesley sat on a chair next to the table. “How much potion was he taking daily? Do you know?”

  “I think he said he’d gotten up to five or six drops.”

  Blakesley grimaced. “No wonder he’d been sick. He was supposed to take only one.”

  Melody tilted her head back, poured a drop of the amber liquid onto her tongue, and swallowed.

  Blakesley flipped through the ledger. “Do you remember when the pains started?”

  Her brow furrowed. “Right after we met.”

  “Really? That’s interesting. Ambrus, Master Guystof’s grandfather, created the potion, hoping to break the spell put on the kingdom by Lazlo, an evil sorcerer. He’d been taking it for years, gradually increasing the dosage. But he was never able to retain his human form for any length of time. When Lazlo discovered Ambrus had been conducting experiments, he threatened to kill his family, but Ambrus traded his life for theirs. That was when he began to get pains in his stomach. I remember that time vividly. And besides, Ambrus recorded it right here.” Blakesley placed his finger near the bottom of the page.

  Melody leaned over his shoulder and read. “He thought the potion was poisoning him.”

  “But what if the potion had nothing to do with the pain?”

  Melody looked up at him. “Then what do you think caused it?”

  Blakesley slammed the ledger shut. “Love. Ambrus loved Berta and Cato more than anything in the world. The way that Master Guystof loved you. I think the more he was falling in love with you, the more human he was becoming. And that was making him sick. The vampire in him was fighting the transformation.”

  “So the combination of the potion and unconditional love could be the recipe needed to remove the curse.” Melody lifted the bottle back to her mouth, but Blakesley held her arm.

  “Wait! We don’t know what too much of the potion might do to you. This is only a theory. What if Ambrus was right? It might very well poison you.”

  “That’s a risk I’m willing to take. If I can lift the curse, then maybe, just maybe, I can bring Guy back too.”

  “And if you’re wrong, it might kill you.”

  — : : —

  Theo stood in stunned disbelief at the state of his chambers. Broken vials littered the floor. Potion splattered his walls. His gray metal cabinet was open. His magic goblet was on his desk, filled with blood. He had no doubt who’d done this. Guystof. But he couldn’t have acted alone. That sneaky Blakesley was the only one who could possibly have gotten hold of Theo’s keys. What else had he done? Did that prying butler know of the caves? And of Melody’s kidnapping? Theo lifted his magic chalice and flung it against the wall. Blood sprayed everywhere, and the goblet crashed to the floor with a thud.

  “Damn him!” Blakesley might know everything. He might have already gone to Father. Things were not going at all as he’d planned. Think. Think. There had to be a way out of this. He walked over to the window. Hundreds of bats streamed across the sky like a giant black cloud. His vampires were leaving. If only he hadn’t sent Gelda away. She’d know what to do. He remembered her words. “Home is where you make it.” He could live anywhere in the world. Besides, it would only be temporary. Eventually, he’d be forgiven, and then he could return to Dragesa. In the meantime, there were plenty of lovely young women he could seduce. Theo closed his eyes and imagined where he’d like to go.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Melody drank the entire bottle of potion, gagging a few times at its bitter taste. As she waited for what she hoped would be a reversal of the curse, needle-like pains shot through her insides, and she doubled over in agony.

  “Oh, Miss Melody,” Blakesley cried, draping his arm around her and ushering her over to a chair. “I was afraid this would happen. Too much of the potion is dangerous. I just hope it doesn’t kill you.”

  She leaned back against the worn velvet cushions and closed her eyes, grimacing as another wave of pain ripped through her. Beads of perspiration on her forehead rolled down the sides of her face.

  “I’ll fetch you a cool cloth,” Blakesley said.

  Before he could go, Melody grabbed hold of his arm. “No, stay. I-I don’t want to be alone.” Her voice was barely above a whisper, but she had no doubt that he’d heard her, for her eyes, open now, were fixated on his face.

  Concern had etched more lines into his skin, and the corners of his mouth were tipped down in a frown. However, he nodded agreement to her request, then took her hand in his and squeezed. “You’re a strong woman, Miss Melody.”

  A faint smile cracked her lips, but then a second later, she gritted her teeth as the pain intensified and all rational thought left her. Through her delirium, she heard a woman screaming. It wasn’t until Blakesley took her by the shoulders and shook her that she realized she had been that woman. “Maybe I’m not so strong after all,” she panted.

  “Just hang on. Hang on,” he begged.

  “I’m trying.” She gripped the edge of the chair. A searing heat raged from the tips of her toes all the way up to her scalp. “What’s happening to me?”

  “I don’t know.” Blakesley grabbed hold of her legs and put his full weight on them as she began to kick wildly at the air. “But your skin is darkening like you’ve spent an entire summer in the sun.”

  “What? Even on Fiji, I barely got a decent tan.”

 
; “Well, you’re positively glowing.”

  Just as Blakesley uttered those words, the burning sensation was replaced with itching. It started on the palms of her hands and traveled throughout her entire body, growing more intense with each second. She scratched at her arms, neck and chest like a dog infested with fleas, and then her fangs broke through her gum line, and she gnawed her skin raw.

  A giant welt appeared on her wrist, itching worse than a hundred mosquito bites. When she sank her fangs into her own flesh, she thought the potion must have made her insane. But she didn’t care. All she wanted was for this nightmare to end.

  Blood spurted from her arm and dripped from her mouth. Blakesley let go of her, his eyes wide with fear. As he backed away, she pleaded, “Don’t go. Please. I won’t hurt you. I promise.”

  “I don’t know what more I can do to help you.” He inched toward the door, never shifting his gaze off her face.

  “Just don’t leave me.” Tears blurred her vision as she watched him go.

  However, before he reached the door, he stopped. “Miss Melody, your fangs, they’re gone!”

  She ran her tongue across her teeth. He was right. She couldn’t feel them under her gum line either. The itching had gone away too. And so had her insatiable appetite. “It worked. The curse is lifted. I’m no longer a vampire.”

  She sprang out of the chair, raced over to Blakesley, and hugged him. “Doesn’t it feel wonderful to be human again?” When he didn’t answer, she pulled back from him and saw fangs. “You’re still a vampire? It only worked on me?”

  He nodded and pushed her away. “Go on. You must leave here before I do something awful. I never feed on humans. I find it abhorrent. Animals—usually rabbits and squirrels—are what I eat. But with your blood so close…”

  She looked down at the blood dripping from her wrist. “Then take the potion. If it worked on me, it should work on you. That’s how we’ll lift the curse. Each vampire will drink an entire bottle of potion.”