Bride of the Vampire

by Gayla Twist

  “I have to admit,” I told her, “it still surprises me every day.”

  Yvette nodded. “I believe Lord Vagnar can sense how devoted you are to each other. I think that’s why he wants to do what he’s planning to do.”

  “Seriously?” I was a bit incredulous. I had no clue as to why Vagnar wanted to host our wedding, but Yvette’s explanation definitely caught me by surprise.

  “I know it’s sometimes hard to take him seriously because he’s so handsome, but Lord Vagnar is actually a born romantic,” she assured me.

  “Huh,” I said, mostly to myself. “I never would have guessed.”

  “Most people can’t see through the facade,” she said. And she was probably right. I definitely was having trouble seeing through it.

  Glancing at a clock on the mantle, she said, “But we should probably stop chatting and focus on your gowns or we’ll completely miss diner.”

  The first dress was a strapless gown, made of a dark rose silk. It was snug on my body from my breasts to my knees and then flared to the floor, with slightly darker netting underneath to give it volume. There were even little sparkles in the netting to add extra flash when I strutted across the room. It was a dress that made you strut.

  “This is too much fun,” I said to Yvette.

  She gave me smile. “That’s because you look wonderful in everything.”

  One of the perks of being a vampire was that I no longer had to feel self-conscious about my looks. Goodbye to poor body image. It was such a relief. I’d had to sacrifice so much to become a member of the undead that I decided to enjoy the moment. “I wish I could wear all three gowns,” I exclaimed.

  “You probably can,” Yvette said with a laugh, “just not all tonight.”

  The next one I tried on was pale yellow with wide shoulder straps and a full skirt. There was a gap in the front of the skirt to display the woman’s legs and little matching short-shorts to be worn underneath so that things didn’t get completely immodest. “I feel like a nineteen-fifties movie star on the red carpet,” I said, doing a twirl so that the skirt billowed around me.

  The last gown was made of a silver fabric with lavender somehow woven into the threads. I could see the color rising and fading whenever the fabric shifted in the light. It was floor-length in a princess cut with a small train of layered fabrics. There was a slit up the left leg for freer movement.

  “How would I wear this without the train getting completely filthy?” I had to ask, looking down at the dress as it clung to my curves.

  “You don’t,” Yvette told me. “You just enjoy it for the evening and then wear another gown tomorrow.”

  “But what happens to the dresses?” I wanted to know. “Does Lord Vagnar recycle them somehow or donate them to…”

  Yvette shrugged. “You can keep it if you like, but I believe he just throws them away.”

  “Oh, that’s horrible,” I couldn’t help but exclaim. “To have something so beautiful and then…” I flicked my hand through the air to indicate tossing it away. “Do all the undead treat their finery like paper towels?”

  “They do if they can afford to,” my new friend confided.

  “I don’t know about here in Hungary, but there are charities in the United States that take donations of fancy dresses so that girls graduating from high school can have something beautiful to wear to prom.”

  “So save all your dresses and send them over there,” Yvette said. “You can have mine too, if you like. Start your own charity. You could call it something like Gowns from the Undead.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “I think the name needs a little work.”

  “There’s plenty of finery literally going in the trash,” Yvette assured me. “I’m sure no one would mind if you shipped some dresses off to a charity. In fact, quite a few vampiresses might like the idea. You’d be surprised how many ladies of the undead still remember their mortal years quite fondly.”

  “It’s something definitely to think about,” I said, running my hands over the silvery fabric. I had to focus on the Bishops for the moment, but after that was resolved, I would have time to consider all sorts of possibilities. I wondered how long I would have to live before I considered such a beautiful gown as disposable. It seemed impossible that I ever would, but eternity was a long time and I knew that at some point even the extraordinary would become mundane. Deep in my soul, I dreaded that day.

  “So which gown will you wear this evening?” Yvette asked, breaking me out of my reverie.

  “Is there any particular event going on that would make one dress more appropriate than another?” I asked.

  Yvette tilted her head to the side. “Not that I know of, but with Lord Vagnar, you never know.”

  “I think I’ll wear the silver one, then,” I said, running my hands over the sleek fabric once more. “It’s just so pretty it almost feels enchanted.”

  Yvette gave a small laugh. “I’ll have to tell Charles you said that.”

  “Why?” I asked, somewhat surprised.

  “Because this is one of his,” she explained. “You’re wearing a Charles Frederick Worth.”

  “Oh.” I looked in the full length mirror that was in one corner of the room. “I guess I’m beginning to understand his reputation.”

  If the mirror wasn’t enough assurance that I looked fabulous, Jessie’s expression when he first saw me was thoroughly convincing. He was coming up the stairs to the second floor as I was coming down. Someone had found the perfect tux for him and he looked very classic James Bond. “Wow!” was the first thing out of his mouth as we met on a middle step. “You look stunning.”

  “Thank you.” I did feel like the gown was rather perfect. I began to feel excited about what Worth would create for me as a bridal gown. “You look pretty wow yourself,” I told him. “Did you bring that tux with you?”

  “No,” Jessie said, taking my hand. “I wasn’t expecting any kind of event where a tuxedo would be required.”

  We were essentially alone on the stairs. Everyone else seemed to be gathered in the some nearby room, their din of voices echoing up to us. I took the opportunity to ask Jessie, “Did you get a hold of your mother?” When he gave me a small nod, I asked, “Is she coming to Budapest?”

  “She’s going to try,” he told me. “If only not to miss her son’s wedding.”

  “What else did she have to say?” I knew I was being stupid, but a small part of me hoped that she’d asked about me.

  “Nothing that we didn’t already know,” he told me, keeping his voice low. “Lord Vagnar is very powerful and has a great deal of influence in our world. She thinks it might actually be a good thing that he has taken an interest in us.” He slipped an arm around me and we started heading slowly down the stairs together. “We just have to make sure to keep him happy.” He lowered his voice even more. “He has a reputation of being quite fickle, so keep that in mind.”

  I wanted to say something like, “I don’t understand why keeping him happy means letting him take over our wedding,” but I also understood my comment wouldn’t be helpful, so instead I said, “I understand.” Trying to be both brave and mature was actually a lot of effort.

  Jessie gave me a little one-armed squeeze. “That’s my girl.”

  We headed toward the dining room, which was where all the noise was emanating. I was hoping we could unobtrusively sneak inside. There were dozens of guests, after all. But no such luck. Seconds after we entered the room, every vampire turned to look at us and then the whole room burst into cheers.

  Having an entire room of vampires shouting at me was so unexpected — even if they were being friendly — that I staggered back a few steps, pulling Jessie with me and bumping into a couple who had entered the room behind us. “It’s okay, Aurora,” Jessie said, steadying me on my feet.

  “My dear girl,” Lord Vagnar said, rushing forward. “I do apologize. Everyone’s just so thrilled to see you. But we all forgot that you’ve only been a member of the unde
ad for such a short while. It’s must be quite startling to enter a room full of enthusiastic vampires.” He made his last comment half turned toward the crowd and everyone let out a blast of laughter. “But I assure you that you’re quite safe.” He looked directly into my face and said in a much lower voice, “You are, after all, under my protection.”

  “Thank you,” I stammered, half from relief and half because I felt so awkward every time he looked at me.

  “Allow me to introduce you around,” he said, offering me his arm.

  I was reluctant to release the arm I was already holding.

  “Don’t worry about your fiancé,” Lord Vagnar insisted. “He’ll be fine. And I’m sure he knows at least a few of my guests — undead society being what it is — but a newly minted vampire is always something of a novelty. Especially one as beautiful as you. People are eager to meet you.”

  “That’s very kind of you,” I said, allowing him to draw me away. Glancing over my shoulder, I gave Jessie a questioning look and received a decisive nod of his head in reply.

  Chapter 15

  I was never very popular in high school. My only claim to the cool crowd was that Blossom was my best friend, and boys loved Blossom. I didn’t know how to make other people like me. Usually I just tried to act like myself and if people happened to like me, then that was nice. But purposely trying to make someone like me just made me feel so fake. I would start to feel wooden and awkward, and then I would start trying too hard, and then I usually ended up repelling the person I was trying to attract.

  I didn’t want to make any of my trying-too-hard mistakes with Lord Vagnar. Our lives depended on things going well in Budapest and apparently he had the ability to make things go well. So I decided that smiling and nodding was a good way to go. A lot of men only thought of women as props in the movie of their lives anyway, so I knew it was probably a good strategy. The fact that a woman had a mind of her own, along with her own hopes and dreams, never occurred to a lot of men. They found it inconvenient. But this time I was going to use it to my advantage. Lord Vagnar appeared to just want to show me off — like a prize-winning racehorse or something — so it was smile-and-nod time as he introduced me around the room.

  Most of the vampires didn’t appear to notice that I wasn’t saying much. They were all having a wonderful time talking at me and the noise in the room was so thunderous, I doubt they could have heard much if I’d bothered to reply beyond a simple “thank you” or “It’s nice to meet you”.

  “I knew you would be the belle of the ball,” Lord Vagnar said, making me wonder when he was born. Frequently, antiquated expressions were the only way to judge a vampire’s real age. “I cannot wait to see you in your bridal gown.” His eyes flicked over my figure and then back to my face again. “Jessie Vanderlind is a very lucky man.”

  “I feel pretty lucky myself,” I told him, but it was obvious he wasn’t listening. Lord Vagnar had locked eyes with someone across the room. I looked in the direction of his gaze and saw a vampire who appeared very out of place compared to the revelers that were all around us.

  The man was dressed simply in black pants, a black coat and a white shirt. The cut of his suit and the fabric — velvet — let me know that he was probably born at least a century or two ago. His shirt had a ruffle down the front, but it didn’t distract from the intense masculinity that clung to him like a liberally applied cologne. His dark eyes glittered like obsidian. They were in direct contrast to his white hair. But it wasn’t that snow white like you see on some older men. And besides, the man’s face was quite young, thirty-five at the oldest. What his hair actually reminded me of was the fur of a polar bear, which wasn’t actually white. The individual hairs of a polar bear are actually clear. It’s just when the hairs are layered on top of each other that they appear white. I wondered if it was the same case for the man who appeared to be assessing Lord Vagnar and myself with great interest.

  “Who is that man?” I asked Lord Vagnar, causing him to break his gaze.

  “No one you want to know,” he told me, which wasn’t a very satisfying answer. “Come,” he said, leading me away. “There are so many people who want an introduction.”

  After more than an hour of being led around the room, I was thoroughly sick of being on display. I had periodically been scanning the room for Jessie and usually spotted him making small talk with another vampire or waiting patiently on the fringes of the party.

  I happened to look in his direction when a vampiress with tresses of long golden hair approached him in a very aggressive manner. They exchanged words and then, before I could disentangle myself from Lord Vagnar, she threw her drink in his face. Jessie wasn’t at all the kind of man who warranted having women splash him with a drink. I wanted to go to him immediately.

  Lord Vagnar obviously saw the whole scene as well because he thrust me toward a wall and said, “Stay there. I’ll see what this is all about.”

  I was about to protest, but he was too quick for me, already making his way across the room.

  “She was in love with Jessie’s brother,” a voice said, startlingly close to my ear. “I suppose she’s upset about the fratricide.”

  I turned to see the man in black with the obsidian colored eyes and colorless hair. “It’s wasn’t Jessie’s fault,” I said, automatically.

  “I’m sure it wasn’t,” he agreed, still observing the heated conversation that was taking place across the room. “I’m Karl, by the way. I noticed Cornelius failed to introduce us.”

  “Cornelius?” I asked. “Lord Vagnar’s first name is Cornelius?”

  “Yes, but no one dares call him that but his oldest friends,” he told me. “I’ve known Corny since he was a boy.”

  I fought back a laugh. “And you just go by Karl?” The undead had a very formal society in some ways and the casualness of him using only his first name seemed odd to me. “You’re not a Duke or a Count or something?”

  “Actually, I am. A real one too,” he hastened to add. “Not one of these undead, self-proclaimed titles. I swear half of them are printing up their pedigrees on the internet.”

  I stifled another laugh. Karl had a very candid way of talking, which I greatly appreciated.

  “It’s just when you’ve been around as long as I have, even noble titles start to grow tiresome.”

  In a way, mortality seemed to be an undead curse. As a mortal, living forever sounded great. I didn’t know if that was because humans feared aging or death or what, but once a vampires had skulked around the planet for a couple centuries, they seemed to run out of things to do.

  I wondered if that would be how things would go for me. My love for Jessie was so fresh and new that it seemed impossible that we would ever grow tired of each other. But how would we feel after a few centuries had passed? Was Yvette right; was getting married so soon a mistake?

  But it couldn’t be a mistake. I loved Jessie too much for it to be a mistake. I loved him with all my heart and knew, without a doubt, that he loved me with the same passion.

  “While we have a moment alone together,” Karl said in a low voice. We weren’t exactly alone, people swirled around us coiffing glasses of blood and speaking in loud voices, but no one seemed to be paying any attention to us, so I understood what he meant. “I’m going to suggest that you and your fiancé leave here as quickly and quietly as possible.”

  “What?” I said. It wasn’t exactly anything I had expected him to say. “Why?”

  “Because Cornelius Vagnar is not a man to be trusted,” he told me. “I’m willing to bet he has something planned that I doubt you’ll enjoy.”

  “But… What does that mean?” I stammered.

  “It means that you should take my advice, and here he comes,” Karl said, under his breath. And then, in a slightly louder voice, he said, “It was a pleasure meeting you, Miss.” He executed a deep bow. “I wish you and your fiancé every happiness.”

  “What did he want?” Vagnar asked, once Karl was gone. />
  “Nothing, really,” I told him. “I think he just wanted to tease you.”

  “Tease me?” Lord Vagnar did not appear pleased.

  “Yes, he said he knew you as a boy,” I explained. “He implied that he had lots of stories from your youth, but I didn’t get to hear any of them.”

  “Oh,” Vagnar said, frowning, but also looking relieved. “What did he have time to tell you?”

  “Your first name,” I said. “But then he warned me that only very old friends were allowed to use it.”

  Lord Vagnar gave a small nod of his head. “That’s probably good advice.”

  “What happened with Jessie and that vampiress?” I asked. I scanned the room for my fiancé, but he was nowhere to be found.

  “Just a small tiff over past indiscretions,” he said with a lascivious grin.

  “So they know each other?” I asked.

  “Oh yes,” he assured me. “Quite intimately.”

  I knew he was lying. Jessie had never recovered from the disappearance of Colette and I knew he had never been with a vampiress. I gave Lord Vagnar a penetrating look. “I have the strong impression that you’re trying to make me jealous,” I told him.

  He broke into a sly grin. “Is it working?”

  I shook my head. “Not yet.”

  “Have you eaten?” he asked. “I had blood flown in especially for this occasion.” Lord Vagnar lifted his hand and snapped his fingers, drawing the attention of one of the servants. The servant was a rather homely mortal with a nose that looked like it had been broken several times in his life so far. He also had a rather mangled ear. I quickly realized that the man, who was probably somewhere in his forties, must have been a boxer in a previous career.

  Vagnar noticed my scrutinizing the mortal man because he said, “I always find it makes life so much easier to have ugly servants rather than pretty ones. Cuts down on temptation.”

  I opened my mouth to protest. Vagnar was being unbelievably rude, even by undead standards. I mean, the guy was standing right there. The mortal glanced in my direction and then averted his eyes before muttering, “Don’t let it bother you, Miss.”