Prince 0f Blood (Dracula's Bloodline Book 3)

by Ana Calin

  I pull myself off of her, and drop on my back by her side. My body turns so heavy that I can’t move a limb, as if lead is coursing all through me.

  “Jesus, Lord Dracula,” Tristan says, letting Radek fall to his knees by his daughter’s side. I turn my head to look at them.

  He checks her vital signs, then takes her head carefully between his princely hands that hide the strength of iron fists, pain and anguish in his red-rimmed blue eyes. The growing anguish in his face crushes all hope. Once again, I failed.

  “Please.” My voice is hoarse, because talking is one hell of an effort. “Put Rux on my chest. I want to die with her in my arms.”

  He hesitates, tears streaming down his face. He only glances at me, but I see all there is to see—he blames me for this, even though he knows I just took all the mercury into myself in a last, desperate attempt to save her life.

  “Brother, please,” I manage, my throat swelling painfully. “She is my heart. That has lived outside my body since the night I first kissed her. Let me die with my heart on my chest.”

  Radek moves and scoops Rux up in his arms. For a moment I see her floating above me in his arms, her white gown touching my hand, her long black hair brushing my face.

  He sets her on her side under my arm, her cheek on my chest.

  “Please,” I whisper. “Cut off my tunic. I want to feel her on my skin.”

  But Radek is too heartbroken to do it. He braces himself by our side, his dying daughter and brother, succumbing to his own pain. He just stares at us in a way that I can’t bear to watch.

  But luckily Tristan is still here, his dagger whooshing as he pulls it out of the sheath. He grabs the upper part of the tunic under my throat, and cuts it in half off of me, then the shirt under it, baring my chest.

  Grasping Rux under her armpits, he moves her just a little and then sets her down on me again. The moment her cold cheek touches the skin between my pectorals, my breath hitches, turning ragged. Mercury starts gurgling in my mouth. There’s a choking pain in my throat, and I abandon myself to the blackness, my eyes rolling back.

  CHAPTER XII

  Lord Dracula

  I DIED, I’M SURE OF it. But then I feel my heart again, then my head, then my limbs, and I’m not so sure anymore. I lift my head, which feels heavy as a rock, hung over, and I discover that I’m lying in bed at the castle, in Rux’s chamber.

  Rux.

  Pain slashes like a dagger through my heart.

  I sit up, grunting at the pain that shoots through my head. I also discover I’m completely naked under the covers.

  “Ruxandra,” I cry out, scrambling out of bed, and gritting my teeth at the pain that explodes all over my body, as if every last inch of me burns on the inside when I move.

  The chamber door opens, and a woman walks in. I just stare at her at first, much too crippled by the pain to remember who she is, but when she hurries over with an arm outstretched, muttering incantations that make the pain subside, I realize who she is.

  As the pain completely fades, I recognize more and more of the healer Juliet Jochs, my brother’s wife. Realizing that I’m completely naked in front of her, I pull the cover over my lap, a feeling of shame washing over me.

  “No need,” she says in a sweet voice. “We healers see naked people all the time. And right now I can really use a full picture of you so that I can reassess the damage, and make sure the last bit of mercury is out of your body.”

  She’s wearing a vaporous blue dress, her blond curls up in a rich bun, her pale-blue eyes disturbing behind the dark makeup. The impact she makes is similar to that of her daughter Rux, even though they are not biologically linked, and are visually so starkly different.

  “Please stop,” I tell her, pain in my voice. “Don’t heal me if Ruxandra is dead. I don’t want to live without her. I don’t want to see another day, let alone eternity.”

  Juliet smiles at me as I sit on the edge of the bed. She truly resembles an angel in the light that floods in through the window. Wait a minute—sunlight through the window, touching my skin. And it doesn’t burn. I look down at my hands, then up at Juliet.

  “I’m immune to sunlight,” I whisper, the very words tearing my heart apart. But Juliet’s face grows radiant, a smile spreading on her lips.

  “Don’t despair, Vlad. She lives. And all thanks to you. You stepped in on time, sucking the mercury out of her bloodstream. Hadn’t you reacted so fast, she would have been dead by the time I got there, and I couldn’t have resurrected her. But I could heal her.”

  It takes moments until I process the information.

  Juliet bends down to me.

  “Vlad, I owe you my daughter’s life. You got the mercury out of her, not caring that it would kill you instead.”

  “I wanted to die,” I whisper, remembering the mercury sliding down my throat, mingled with her blood. “I wanted to save her or die trying, die with her. But she lives.” My voice cracks over the last three words.

  I grab Juliet’s hands, falling to my knees in front of her, not caring anymore that the cover falls off and now I’m again fully naked.

  “By God,” I whisper, raising my eyes to the window, to the sky. “After all these years, providence proves to me I’m not forgotten. She lives! And she’s free of the demon?”

  Juliet nods, the smile quivering on her face, tears of gratitude playing in her eyes.

  I lean my head back, breathe in deeply to fill my ribcage, and I howl like a wolf, only that I’m facing the sun. I howl in boundless happiness that Ruxandra Len, the love of my life, is alive.

  “Where is she?” I cling to Juliet like a mad man. She cups my cheek with that motherly smile on her face, the sunlight creating an aura sparkling around her blond curls. In this moment I’m certain she must be an angel—an angel that I was willing to hurt beyond repair twenty years ago, for which I deserve to be whipped once again, to the bone. How could I have ever been so vile?

  “You can go see her, but I suggest you put on some clothes first. Your vampires are all around the castle, waiting to see how you’ve recovered.”

  “My vampires. I suppose they were worried.” I snort. “They cannot survive if I die, you see—the Old Priest and Gruia kept promising them a way to disconnect them from me, but clearly they failed. The vampires still depend on me to exist, because otherwise they’d love nothing more than to see me die, and in pain if possible. ”

  “You’d be surprised. I had the feeling some of them showed genuine concern.”

  “Some of them. You mean Tristan and Irina.”

  “Yes, their loyalty to you seems almost affectionate.”

  “Both Tristan and Irina were suffering horrific abuse when I found them, so I suppose I got attached to them while they transformed. They must have sensed that, and return the feeling. But not all the vampires I made were as lucky.”

  She reaches under my chin, causing me to look up at her again, the warmth that comes from her overwhelming.

  “Maybe this is your chance to make yourself loved instead of feared, Vlad Dracula. Ruxandra, my daughter, has touched your heart. Love often makes us compassionate to other people besides our lovers too, it makes us feel profound feelings that your subjects will love to experience from you.”

  “Oh, my feelings were profound before, Juliet. When I tried to come between you and Radek, misusing his feelings for you in order to manipulate him and reach my goal, the ambition and the need for power and control were profound. So was the jealousy. Radek and I, even though our relationship had been bad for years, we shared an emotional bond in our dark, sick souls. Our barren hearts and twisted minds were linked, entwined. When you appeared, he broke off from me, and became a better man. He abandoned me in that dark place where we used to dwell together. I resented you for it.”

  I pause, exploring these feelings and Juliet’s face for a few moments. Now I have a loving place of my own inside my chest, a tender place that makes me a better man, and that feels both pleasure and pai
n when I touch it—Rux.

  “Take me to her, please.” I look down at myself, and put a hand over my crotch. “I’ll need at least a pair of pants, though.”

  Rux

  I’M SITTING ON THE broad windowsill in the castle drawing room, east wing, my face in the sun to feel its warmth.

  I brace myself, my eyes heavy. I could sleep for at least another week, but I refuse to close my eyes until I see Vlad. When I hear his steps down the hall, I sit up like a dog that’s sniffed its master.

  I would recognize his steps anywhere, they are heavy, strong, but this time also quick, like he can’t get here fast enough. The closer he comes, the harder my heart drums, my mouth going dry.

  When he appears in the archway that leads from the hallway to the drawing room, I stop breathing.

  The great Lord Dracula is standing in the sunlight, forever immune to it. He’s shirtless and sinfully beautiful with his bulging muscles and sculptured warlord face. Good God, every time I see him my heart stops. How could this man come to care about me so much as to risk his own life, eternity, no less?

  He approaches me, and we stare into each other’s eyes for moments. Vampires whisper and fidget outside in the hallway—they can’t come in here because of the sunlight; they’re wearing protection, but still. Mum has stopped in the archway, her hands together in front of her mouth like she’s praying, her eyes full of tears. Normally it would be too awkward to do this in front of her, but I just can’t contain myself.

  I jump into Vlad’s strong arms that close around me like armor. Winding my legs around his waist for support, I look into his face, into those wolfish eyes the color of honey, and press my lips to his blood red mouth.

  Vlad crushes his lips to mine, cupping my head and kissing me so deeply that I can hardly still breathe. Before I know it, he’s laid me on the floor, his kisses wild, his hands moving under my gown until my poor mother has to clear her throat to remind us of her presence.

  A wave of embarrassment washes over me, and I pull my face away from Vlad. His mouth still searches for mine, his eyes closed, as if he’s in a trance and could care less who’s watching, but I cup his strong jaw and put my thumb on his lips.

  “Vlad, please, my mum, your men.”

  He glances over his shoulder, then scoops me up and comes back to his feet as easily as a gazelle, despite being so big and heavy. His eyes search my face hungrily, his large hands cupping my cheeks after he sets me down on my feet.

  “You palms feel hotter than usual,” I whisper, not knowing what else to say.

  He smiles, drinking in the sight of me like he still can’t believe I’m here. “Yes, it must be the magic you worked on my body. I’m now immune to sunlight, and I suppose also silver, which must have changed something in my body’s chemistry.” But then his face distorts in pain. “But that took a toll on you.”

  I try to look down, but his hands remain firm around my face, keeping it up. I know my skin is literally snow white, because of the small amount of blood left in my system, and the blackness in my eyes hasn’t faded. If anything, I look even more disturbing than before, but I don’t know if I retain any power. And I don’t care, all I want is to be sure the demon has left me forever.

  “What you did for me, Vlad, that was,” I choke on the tears in my throat, my vision swimming. “I thought you were just using me to get to the demon, and then you’d take my blood and drop me dead in some ditch—“ I shake my head, trying to cast away the memory of how I felt. “At least that’s what Victoria argued. You refused to make our relationship official in any way, so her reasoning kind of made sense.”

  His jaw ticks in anger. “I swear to you, I will kill Victoria for poisoning your mind like that. She may have run away, but it won’t do her much good, for she’ll have to spend eternity in hiding. Because if she and I meet again I will end her, and I’ll make it painful as fuck.”

  “Vlad, we—”

  His thumb rests on my lips. “Don’t be afraid, Rux. I will find ways to fight creatures from the spirit world. I will never be powerless again in the face of an ancient demon that’s out to hurt you. I never want to feel the way I felt on the flipside, watching that cursed demon take you away from me and being unable to stop it.”

  I have to tell him the truth. He saved my life, willing to sacrifice his own for me.

  “I discovered his identity, Vlad. I know who the demon is, I have his name.”

  Surprise slowly replaces the hard expression on Vlad’s face, melting his features. He leads me to the windowsill, still holding my hands in his, and sits down with me.

  “I got it that night at the Northern Monastery,” I go on. “But then I blacked out, and when I came back to myself his name was somehow hidden in the shadows of my memory. It kept escaping me like soap under water. But as I swallowed down the mercury....” I look down, still feeling the taste slide down my throat. “I felt it and pulled into the light, I know his name.”

  “Rux,” Vlad begins gravely, “you don’t have to give me his name if you don’t want to. But know that having a demon’s name gives you great power over him. I’m pretty sure the link you had to him was severed like the head of a snake, disconnecting you from him completely, but even if it wasn’t so, having the name would help you free yourself of him. This is great power.” He glances out the window. I can tell he’s choosing his words with care. “This could be dangerously tempting information to many people, but you’re a responsible person, so here it is. With the proper rituals demons can be enslaved, but they are cunning creatures, and they could turn the tide in their favor in the end, so I wouldn’t recommend—”

  I squeeze his fingers reassuringly.

  “My love,” I whisper.

  The mighty Vlad Dracula looks at me like he forgot what he wanted to say, his mouth opening. I lean over and kiss him sweetly on the lips, then peel my mouth lovingly from his and look deeply into his eyes.

  “He is an ancient demon,” I offer the information. “Whoever thinks they could bind that kind of power is deluded, and no one knows it better than me. Maybe you could indeed do it, as a supernatural with experience, but I would never leave it to a human. Not that we humans are lesser beings in any way, but to put it simply the span of a human life isn’t enough to even comprehend such power as the one of—” I take a deep breath before I carefully say the name, since I know speaking it out loud could summon some of the creature’s energy back into this world. “Moros.”

  Vlad stares at me in shock.

  “The spirit of doom,” he whispers. “One of the oldest spirits in the universe. He’s not even a demon, he’s much more than that.”

  He lets go of my hands, rising slowly from the windowsill and pacing the drawing room deep in thought, talking to himself, helping himself understand things. The vampires have already crammed behind my mother at the door, and she’s moved inside to make more room for them. They’re all listening.

  “The thing is no demon, it’s a god,” Vlad says. “He’s the god of doom, brother of the Fates. That’s why terrible things happened to the boys who dated you—he doomed them, and it was like fate was against them.”

  “It’s the kind of power he endowed Rux with as well.” The vampires move aside to let my dad come into the room. It was good to see him after so many years, and we spent a whole day together until Vlad regained consciousness. But seeing him now, face to face with his brother, is quite an experience. The Prince of Midnight, and the Prince of Blood together in the same room.

  “I don’t know if I still have any of that power,” I say as I realize the vampires are staring at me with the question.

  “And you don’t need any of it,” Vlad says, walking over to me. “Ruxandra Len. You are what legend calls Dracula’s Grail, a human whose blood would make the King of Vampires immune to sunlight and silver, and therefore so strong that no supernatural in the world would stand in his way. But you have given me so much more than that.”

  He takes my hand, placing it bet
ween his hard pectorals, my fingers splaying into the hair on his broad chest.

  “You brought my heart back to life, Rux. You injected love into it, and made it beat again. Before I knew it, I felt that my heart was no longer inside me, but it breathed and walked outside my body. You gave me eternity, Rux, but I would lay it at your feet any second, I’d die for you this very moment, if you wanted me to.”

  Keeping his broad hand over mine, he turns to my parents and the vampires gathered in the hallway on the other side of the entrance.

  “Radek.” His strong voice fills the room. “I am your older brother, but you are the adoptive father of the only woman I have ever truly, deeply, from-the-very-marrow-of-my-bones wanted to make my wife. Will you concede me the hand of your daughter in marriage—provided that she’ll still have me?”

  I swear someone just pulled the ground from under my feet. I sway, but Vlad’s large hand hardens over mine, and his other arm slides around my waist, holding me close to his massive body.

  “Vlad, wait,” I manage. “We can’t do this. You’re an immortal, while I, well, with the demon gone I’m just a normal human. Time runs differently for me. I’ll grow old and die, and—”

  “No,” dad says, his arm around mum. “You won’t die, Rux. You exchanged blood with the great Dracula. No one who tastes his blood can remain mortal.”

  “But,” I mutter, “whoever exchanges blood with him also becomes a vampire. I haven’t—”

  “That’s because you were a different kind of supernatural at the time. You were the carrier of the power of doom. Vlad’s blood enhanced your existing powers instead of turning you into a vampire.” He gives me a warm, fatherly smile, while mum is still in tears. “But you are immortal, my sweet girl. Thanks to Vlad, we will never lose you.”