by Darren Cage
“Good.” I dipped my head in parting and strolled away. I only needed a few more ingredients, the rarest ones to fetch, but this information from Viorica made my trek through the county worthwhile even if I couldn’t locate a single herb.
Van Helsing was teaming up with a scientist. Science and magic. That could prove to be a potent combination. Even I couldn’t deny that.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Some of the herbs I couldn’t find, and I was running out of time, especially since I had decided to a new plan of attack.
Van Helsing was respected but not for long. Soon, everyone would realize he was a monster himself, driving by anger and causing death wherever he went. Not all monsters deserved death.
Now, maybe I should be killed. I couldn’t deny that I hadn’t been a model vampire, if there even was such a thing, but my brides were innocent. Yes, even Andreea. I didn’t care if she had killed a few people. Those deaths could be traced back to Van Helsing. If he hadn’t attacked us, Andreea wouldn’t have been injured, and she wouldn’t have needed all of that blood in the first place.
In my mind, I would only be revealing to the world Van Helsing’s true nature. It said a lot about a person to step up and become a monster hunter. They had to be bold, arrogant, and ruthless. Van Helsing wasn’t doing this for honor and glory. I was certain that a previous vampire had crossed him, and that was what had led him on such a destructive path, one that even required the killing of a troll child.
Now, I couldn’t say if the troll child would have been able to be a good and decent monster even with Andreea’s guidance, but why couldn’t the child have been given a chance?
With ease and the use of my shifting into fog ability, I broke into Van Helsing’s hotel room. Most of his items had been removed, but I did manage to locate a single blade.
That was all I required.
Back out on the streets, I stalked for only a few minutes before I found two men arguing. The taller one owed the fatter one money. The taller man was pleading, begging for more time, but the fat one just laughed, rubbed his belly, and removed a gun.
I raced, spiriting the tall man away to safety and then the fat one to Van Helsing’s hotel room. He blinked in surprise, gapping at me. With a shaking hand, he pointed the gun at me, but I already sliced his throat with Van Helsing’s blade, careful to ensure I didn’t decapitate him entirely. Van Helsing lacked the strength for such a move.
Blood squirted everywhere, but I had already moved out of the way. Before the body had a chance to hit the floor, I was already gone.
In total, I killed four others, all with Van Helsing’s blade. From his hotel room, I had also taken a few of his other items and dropped some behind at each crime scene.
Yes, I was planting evidence to suggest Van Helsing was a serial killer. Yes, I had killed five persons to do so. Yes, I had ensured that those same five persons all had committed sins of some kind. While everyone sinned, the first had been a mobster. The second had burned down a shack with an animal in it a few months ago and had never been charged with a crime. The third had beat his child so badly she suffered from broken ribs. The fourth had poisoned her husband but had been found not guilty during the trial because of shoddy police work. The fifth had been a man who had a bandage on his neck, highly suggesting he was one of Stela's walking blood bags. To be sure, she had compelled him to stop his evil ways, but he had hurt others, and so I hurt him.
Now, my work was completed, and I returned to the castle. Still, I allowed my brides to feed and fight, gaining skills and knowledge of their new forms while I used my magic to ensure Van Helsing could not and would not survive another attack. Some of the potions were supposed to increase vigor, strength, and endurance. I had no notion if they could enhance a vampire’s already superior attributes, but those potions had already been made and might as well been used.
With the herbs I acquired, I whipped up a few potions, including ones the man had never taught me but I had read about. Some were said to make one's skin like stone. Would that not be beneficial against a blade or a bullet?
Last of all, I made several potions that served no purpose save to explode. These were not grenades but rather magical explosions that should, ideally, destroy only what they landed on. The castle, itself, should remain safe from disrepair and destruction. One or two of the potions would vaporize its target. In truth, I hoped that would be how Van Helsing would end. Not after a long, drawn-out, torture session. No. He must die and the sooner, the better.
I stood, having concocted most of the potions while sitting and approached the window. Had anyone discovered the bodies yet? The blade I had left embedded in the last victim. It was a distinct possibility that the police and authorities would overlook the crimes once it became clear that Van Helsing was the guilty party, but still, anything and everything that might serve to slow him down could only increase our chances. Not that I thought we wouldn't be triumphant, but it did give me pause that he had fought us twice now and survived.
“Maybe that scientist’s experiments will kill him,” I muttered.
“Do you often talk to yourself?” Stela asked.
I waited for her to approach and stand beside me before I glanced over. She gazed out the window instead of meeting my gaze.
“Those who claim they don’t are liars,” I said.
Her lips twitched, but she did not smile. She shifted toward me. “Do you prefer being called Vlad or Dracula?”
“You can call me whatever you want. Lover, babe, pimp…”
"Haha. You aren't that funny."
“I think I’m rather hilarious.” It was starting to worry me that I couldn’t lighten the mood. Something was bothering her.
“Well, Drac, there’s something wrong with Andreea.”
“What is?” I demanded. “She seemed perfectly fine. I never would have left otherwise.”
“It’s not that she’s hurting or under some spell or some aftereffect from Van Helsing. That’s not the issue.”
“So, what is?”
“We’ve done all you asked and trained for a long while. Catina and I wanted to take a break. Andreea wouldn’t. She refused. She kept saying we had to listen to you, obey you. It was… I never saw anything like that before.”
My eyes narrowed. “Her voice. Did it sound different to you?”
“How so?”
“Flat. Lacking emotion. Her eyes, were they blank too?”
“What do you think is going on with her?” Stela demanded.
“I don’t know,” I growled. “Maybe if you would answer my questions, I might have a better idea of the situation.”
"If you think that she's compelled to listen to you, maybe, but she's definitely compelled not to leave."
“Not to leave the castle?”
“Not to leave your side unless you tell her not to. Catina wanted to go and try to find you. I didn’t think that would be wise. We shouldn’t split up, but Andreea just shut down. She turned cold, almost ugly, flat and emotionless as she demanded that we could not leave and hadn’t we been told that we had to stay?”
“I don’t think I ever—”
"It doesn't matter how the compulsion got there," Stela interrupted. "I know. You've been very careful lately not to compel us. I don't know if it happened back when she was human, and it carried over or later, but you have to try to fix it."
“You think she’s here against her will.” The last drops of blood coursing through my veins turned even colder than normal. I began to pace at a frantic pace. Even to Stela’s vampire vision, I had to appear as a blur. “What if she didn’t want to marry me? What if—”
“I think if you just talk to her, you’ll be able to straighten this out quickly.”
I nodded, halting my pacing. “I never intended—”
“We don’t know for sure she’s compelled—”
“Did she have the flat tone, the expressionless face?”
Stela avoided eye contact again.
�
�Well then.”
“But it might not have been your compulsion.”
I squared my shoulders. “Catina?”
“I don’t know. I just know it wasn’t me.”
I smirked. “Would you rather it just be you and me and Catina?”
She stiffened, and my breathing hitched. Was she regretting marrying me and sharing me with the others?
“I was only teasing,” I rushed to add.
"I know," she murmured. "Go and see to Andreea. She has been training for so long with hardly any rest. She wouldn't listen to us when we suggested taking breaks. I wanted to stretch my legs a bit by just walking... well, running around the castle, but she almost attacked me for even suggesting it."
“Catina?”
“She’s resting in her coffin.”
I headed to the poor and then turned back. “Thank you for telling me.”
“You’re going to lift the compulsion and then let her choose if she wants to stay, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“And if she says no?”
“She’ll be free to go, of course.” I appraised Stela. It was on the tip of my tongue to ask her if she wished to be free, but I couldn’t.
One, I was worried enough that Andreea would leave.
Two, Stela very well might opt to.
Three, we had to worry and contend with Van Helsing.
After the battle, I told myself, after we feasted on Van Helsing’s corpse, then I would let them all reaffirm their decision to love and be with me or else we would split ways.
Stela said nothing else, and I had no more words for her. Down in what should be the ballroom, I found Andreea. She was wearing a tight corset and nothing else. The tight bindings held her breasts in place as she jumped and flipped. She had found a weapon from somewhere, and the blade flashed, reflecting the candlelight as she fought off an imaginary foe.
Once she paused after racing at the wall, jumping up, walking two paces before flipping to land on her feet and slashing out, I applauded.
“Well done, Andreea.” Each clap sounded like twenty as the noise echoed in the massive, empty room.
She should have looked flushed, should have been out of breath, but she was just fine as she approached me, swaying her hips like a succubus.
“Dracula,” she cooed.
“Andreea.” I placed my hands firmly on her shoulders, but she moved them to her hips, drawing close and stealing a kiss.
I cleared my throat and stepped back.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Do you need anything?”
“I need to talk to you.”
“Of course. Is it about Van Helsing?”
“It’s about you.”
She frowned, faint lines appearing on her forehead. I hated to distress her in any way, and I leaned forward to kiss away those lines.
Andreea smiled timidly. “Have I offended you at all?”
“No. Nothing of the sort. Andreea, I just need to know…”
Why were the words so hard to come by?
“What do you need to know? You can ask me anything at all. Anything. About my childhood, my first kiss, my feelings toward you, my—”
“I need you to stop talking.”
It was an order. A command.
A compulsion.
I wasn’t even sure if a vampire could compel another vampire. I suspected I might be able to, and I doubted very much that Catina could.
Which meant that if Andreea could be compelled, somehow, I had done so. Could a whisper turn into a compulsion if the need behind the words were that forceful? I vaguely remembered telling Andreea how I wanted to always be with her during the long consummation of our marriages.
She stared at me, her expression blank.
“Say something,” I ordered.
“What do you want me to say?”
I winced at her flat tone.
“Andreea, you can speak clearly, now and always,” I said. “Any compulsion, anything that may be controlling you, it’s all gone, all done away with. Only you stand before me, with your mind, body, and… and your heart clear and free.”
She beamed at me but said nothing.
“Andreea, can I ask you a question?”
“Of course.”
“Do you want to leave?”
Andreea’s look of utter shock would have made me laugh, only I was too anxious, too unnerved.
“No,” she assured me. “What makes you think that?”
“I… I compelled you to stay,” I admitted. “I didn’t mean to, but I did, and I will do my best to never compel you again.” I rubbed my chin. “Maybe I should compel you so that you can never again be compelled in the future…”
“Dracula.” She laid a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “You may have compelled me to stay, but staying is what I wanted.”
“You can’t tell me you’re happy about what I did. Accident or not, I took away your choice, and I—”
“Everyone makes mistakes—”
“A mistake like that could cause your death! You refused to stop training. You wouldn’t—”
“Dracula,” she said calmly.
“—take any brakes. You have to be starving. If you’re fatigued, it won’t end well for you once we face Van Helsing again.”
“Dracula.”
"I don't know what I would do if I lost you, any of you."
“Dracula!”
“Yes?”
“The refusing to stop training was me,” she said. “I’m surprised you haven’t realized this about me already, but I’m type A.”
“Yes, I know, but—”
“That means I want to practice until I get things right.”
“I know, but—”
“All things,” she murmured before kissing me and stroking my cock through my pants.
“I need blood,” I whispered against her lips.
“So do I.”
Hand in hand, we went to the humans, feed, and made love.
As much as I knew Van Helsing had to be killed, I couldn’t deny that at this moment, I was happy. Could this possibly last?
Chapter Twenty-Six
Somehow, an entire week passed. I didn’t return to the village in vampire form, only as fog, and from what I overheard, Van Helsing had been proven innocent of the murders. After all, he had been with that mad scientist the entire time. I did learn his name, though. Doctor Frankenstein.
I didn’t learn what exactly the scientist was doing to Van Helsing, and I also didn’t discover if Van Helsing was even looking for me yet. The longer Van Helsing was in the doctor’s possession, the stronger he would become, or so the rumors suggested. Whoever this doctor was, he apparently knew what he was doing.
“When are we going to find Van Helsing?” Stela asked that evening.
“We might as well try to find him and the scientist,” Catina said. “Because if we kill Van Helsing, there’s a good chance Dr. Frankenstein will just enhance another vampire hunter. He’s a risk, too.”
“Agreed,” said Andreea. “We’ve trained long and hard enough.”
I smirked. We had trained and trained and trained in both fighting and lovemaking. It amazed me how easily I could make each one of my brides come, and they knew all of my most sensitive spots. Once we had killed the vampire hunter and the doctor, I already planned a marathon lovemaking session. How long could we go on for? Two days straight? Three? How many orgasms each could we endure before it became too much? Would that even be possible considering our vampire abilities, our endurance?
Just thinking about that made me hard, but now wasn’t the time.
Trying to push down my boner, I said, “We don’t want to fight Van Helsing here. It would be best to keep our location a secret as long as possible.”
“I’ve already figured that and picked out a perfect location,” Stela said.
“Where?” I asked.
“Devil’s Precipice.”
I glanced at Andreea. “Do you think that advisable?”<
br />
“We’ve scouted it,” she said. “We wandered around, and we didn’t become lost. We can handle any curse laid on the place.”
I rubbed my chin. When had they run off to check out the location? Not that I minded, but I wished they would have told me first.
My face must have given away my thoughts because Stela crossed her arms. “We went together. You can’t be upset.”
“I would have appreciated knowing that you were going off. What if you had become lost?” I demanded. “What if you needed to be rescued?”
“And this is exactly why we didn’t tell you,” Stela said angrily. “You don’t trust us.”
“No. It’s you who don’t trust me. I never said I wouldn’t have allowed you to go. I wouldn’t have stopped you, and I wouldn’t have even come along, not unless you were gone longer than you said you would be.”
Stela grimaced and glanced away. Why did I feel as if she still didn’t truly accept me, accept all of us? Did she feel regret? When we made love, everything felt so right, but other times, she seemed to be so distant yet.
“They told me,” Catina offered.
“Great. Wonderful. All of my brides don’t trust me,” I grumbled.
“We all make mistakes,” Andreea said. “Forgive us.”
"I suppose all that matters is that we have a location for the battle," I said, wishing Stela would have apologized too but knowing better than to expect it. "So long as Van Helsing will show up."
“We’ve come up with a plan for that too.” Catina grinned.
“Oh?”
As it turned out, Van Helsing’s grandfather lived yet. Apparently, the elder Van Helsing had been a vampire hunter, too, but he had managed to reach old age, basically because he had stopped killing after he married and started a family.
Andreea had met the grandfather while she and Van Helsing had dated, and she had already brought the man here. He wasn’t able to be compelled, she had discovered, but that didn’t matter. Shackles worked well enough, and locks prevented him from leaving the castle.
