by Ana Calin
He and mum walk closer, until Radek the Handsome stands next to his brother, Lord Dracula. A pretty prince with blue eyes and a sweet face, mirroring a warlord with rough features and ruthless eyes, but both just as beautiful.
“I never thought I’d say this, Vlad,” dad says, his voice low and musical. “But you have my blessing to marry my daughter.” He blinks and shakes his head, as if he still can’t believe it. “To be honest, nothing could have made me feel more avenged than this—you falling in love with the very girl you were willing to kill as if she was nothing thirteen years ago. See what you would have lost if I hadn’t stopped you?”
“I know.” Pain cuts through Vlad’s face. I kiss his arm, pressing my mouth to hard muscle.
“Providence had a plan,” I whisper.
“Will you have me?” he whispers, his eyes full of pain and regret for everything he intended to do with me before he—my God, I can’t believe I’m actually saying this—before he fell in love with me.
“Yes,” I whisper, looking deeply into his eyes, conveying how desperately in love I am with him.
Vlad smiles at me, and leads me a little to the side, where we turn to face the vampires gathered at the entrance. He takes my hand, and raises it up in the air.
“Behold your queen,” his powerful voice fills the room.
Tristan claps his hands powerfully, Irina smiling widely by his side. Soon, all vampires whistle and congratulate, and my heart flares with a happiness that the cursed child I once was never dreamt to feel. I’m free of the demon, a perfect life with my lover opening ahead of me like the gates of heaven.
But, deep down, I feel the ripple of a dark power that starts to bubble to life like lava deep inside a dormant volcano. It’s not the demon, that I sense clearly—I’m free of him. It’s some kind of power that he left inside of me, like a legacy. I smile at Vlad, casting the thought away. I hope I never find out what it can do.
Victoria
GRUIA SQUEALS HORRIBLY like a pig being disemboweled alive, while the Old Priest puts all kinds of herbs on his mutilated face. Not even I can bear to look at him. I have to admit I didn’t expect the midnight monster’s curse would have this effect on him.
“Will that help?” I ask over my shoulder, keeping watch at the entrance of the small cave.
“It will eventually. But he needs time.”
“We don’t have time.” I sniff the air, watching the nightfall over the Bran castle, orange lights flashing on to illuminate it. I crease my nose. “He survived, the king of vampires, and he took the Grail’s blood. He’s invincible now, I can smell it in the air. He must be busy celebrating eternity with the love of his life tonight, but tomorrow morning he’ll send his people to get us. And with that piece of shit screaming like he does, they’ll find us in no time. I’ll have to transport us all to some other dimension where Dracula and his brother the Prince of Midnight won’t think to look for us.”
“One wouldn’t say you once loved poor Gruia, Miss Victoria,” the Priest rasps, applying further herbs. “You’re talking like you’d rather see him dead.”
“It was never about love between Gruia and me. We fucked, and we helped each other out. But now I don’t see how he can be of any use to us anymore. If anything, he’s only gonna draw the vampires to us, screaming like that.”
The bushes move, and I prepare to attack, but it turns out it’s only the vampire Dalton, made by and slave to the Old Priest, bringing in new herbs. I move aside to let him inside the cave.
“I’m an intellectual, not a serf,” he dares complain to the Old Priest, holding the plants tightly to his chest, his fingers green from the plucking. The Old Priest slaps him over his mouth. Fuck, that almost made me hot.
Gruia groans, distracting the Old Priest, and saving Dalton, who’s crouching in a corner, crying like a baby and possibly cursing the day he asked to be turned into a vampire. This surely isn’t the kind of life he had in mind for himself as an immortal.
To the relief of my eardrums, the new herbs seem to soothe Gruia’s pain.
“At least there’s a chance he’ll stop whining.”
“He’ll do more than that. He’ll fully recover and, when he does, you might want to reconsider what you just said about him.” The priest is still hunched over Gruia, the hood over his head, sparing me the sight of his ugly face, but I hear the satisfaction in his voice. “It seems the midnight monster’s curse left him not only with a face as ugly as mine, but also with a very special superpower.”
This piques my interest. I float to them, hovering over Gruia. I begin to see it, and bliss stretches a smile on my ghost face.
“I’ll be damned,” I whisper.
The priest grins back. “Indeed.” He turns to look out the cave entrance at the castle in the distance, the moon rising over its towers.
“We have a lethal weapon in our hands, Miss Victoria.” He gives a low, disturbing laugh, the wind outside wheezing in tune with his dark prophecy. “The mighty Dracula will fall, thanks to what his brother unwittingly created.” His laugh bounces off the cave walls. “What a wonderful surprise. Lucifer himself must love us, to grant us such a miracle.”
THE END
Enjoyed Vlad and Rux’s story? Wonderful! Because there will be more!
To be continued with
Prince of the Damned
(Coming Soon! 22nd – 28th of March 2019)
This was book three of the Dracula’s Bloodline series. Enjoy the first two books here, until the next one is ready for you:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MJC4ML1/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in vampire land Romania and living in romantic Germany, Ana Calin writes paranormal romance with vampires, shifters and other mysterious beings. Dark and intense, these love stories are for the truly passionate.
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MORE BOOKS by Ana Calin on her Amazon page:
https://www.amazon.com/Ana-Calin/e/B00CO5SNM6/
