Piera stood in the long queue, in a huge cavern. Every soul claimed that day stood in the queue with her. They all knew why they were there and what was about to happen.
She eyed the great scales that dominated the hall. It was the Great Balance. The heart of everyone that passed through here sat on them. One at a time, they weighed the hearts against the Feather of Maat. If the heart was light on the scale, then the soul passed to the monster, Ammit. Nobody looking on wanted that.
A huge horned beast sat on a chair beside the scales. His name was Thoth, and he was the Keeper of Records. The book that rested on his lap, even when opened, stood taller than any person in the queue.
“Next!” he shouted.
His voice boomed like a drum and echoed off the vast walls of the cavern. Piera and the others watched the two demon soldiers drag the next soul from the queue.
“Bring him before the Great Balance!” Thoth ordered.
The man they pulled from the queue looked regal in appearance. He wore clothes of the finest silk embroidered with precious stones. A white turban remained fixed upon his head. One of the soldiers ripped it away.
He tried to fight them off when they did this. The second soldier lashed him across the legs with the whip, to which the man cried out and fell down. When the soldier pulled the whip clear, he screamed again in agony. Piera eyed the spectacle with fear, her hands shaking the whole time. The ugly spikes on the whip dripped with blood.
“Forget the turban,” Thoth said. “There is no religion here. Stand him up.”
The soldiers dragged him to his feet. Another demon stepped up to him from the Great Balance. His clawed right hand dripped with blood.
“State your name!” Thoth ordered.
“I am Bahlul Khan Lodhi,” he gasped. “The first sultan of the Lodhi Dynasty.”
The demon with the bloodied hand stood before him.
“Wait!” Thoth said. “Something is amiss. You met your death more than two moons past in the mortal realm. Why are you only appearing before me on this day?”
An advisor whispered into Thoth’s ear. He explained the Afghan had spent a short period in limbo before coming here.
Thoth nodded. “That would explain that. It also explains why the Grand General has not already laid claim to you. I am advised you were quite a warrior.”
Lodhi bowed, though still shaking from fear of the whip. “I was one of the finest.”
“Then let us hope your heart is not light on the scale. The Grand General would be most upset.”
The demon punched his clawed hand into Lodhi’s chest. The sultan dropped to his knees in pain. Before he could look up, the demon ripped Lodhi’s heart from him. Lodhi fell onto his hands and knees. His arms stiffened and dropped to his sides as he rolled over onto his back. To those looking on, he appeared to be suffering from a seizure of some kind.
“Fear not,” Thoth said to him. “The heart is no longer of use to you. Place it on the Great Balance,” he ordered the demon. “Let us see what it decides.”
The demon placed the dead heart onto the right of the two mighty scales. He stepped back and out of the way.
“Place the Feather of Maat on the other side,” Thoth said.
A demoness stepped forward with the huge feather. She rested it down on the opposite scale. A brilliant blue arc appeared between the two. They bobbed gently from side to side as they tried to find a perfect balance.
Everyone in the great hall watched the scales. Piera looked beyond them, her eyes falling on the mighty figure of Horus. Even sitting down, the deity reached up a good thirty feet above the floor. The head of a falcon rested on his shoulders. She saw large numbers of people on the floor at his feet. They threw themselves down and cried out his name.
After a short time, the arc became a perfect line. The demon that placed the heart on the scale announced the result. “The heart of Lodhi has made a perfect balance.”
Thoth dipped his quill and recorded the result in his great book. “You are free to pass to the Field of Offerings,” he said to Lodhi. “I wish you luck on your way.”
The wall behind Thoth opened, and the sultan passed through it.
“Next!” Thoth shouted.
Lucifer and Dracula appeared in the mighty cavern. Many of those in the queue cowered at the mere sight of the Dark Lord. He did not need an introduction. Everyone present knew his identity.
“Stop!” Thoth ordered, as the soldiers dragged the next soul from the queue. “Majesty, for what reason do you grace us with your presence?”
“I have come for the woman called Piera Rossi.”
“Is she here?” Thoth asked his advisor.
“I see her,” Dracula said, pointing her out.
Thoth looked across. “Step forward, girl.”
Dracula met her gaze when she stepped out of the queue. His guilt remained etched across his face. Her heart pounded in her chest when she saw him there, though she did not feel any joy. However, she knew his presence meant she might get a reprieve. For that alone, she was grateful.
“What do you want with her, Majesty?” Thoth asked.
“I am sending her back.”
“That is highly irregular.”
“She has not yet made the Great Balance, so your records are not short.”
“Indeed, Majesty.”
“Good, then she can go back. I shall compensate you at a later time.”
Thoth bowed. “As you wish, Majesty.”
Lucifer turned to Piera. “Go, girl. Return to your body.”
She vanished from the hall. Lucifer then turned to Dracula. “You can go too. Do not summon me at any time without good cause.”
Dracula found himself back in Piera’s room. Her soul hovered there again above her body. This time, a white aura surrounded her. She offered him a faint smile. Thank you, Vlad.
A brilliant white beam fell into the room from the heavens. He smiled back at her. “It is time for me to leave. Farewell, dear Piera.”
HUNGARY. THE ROYAL PALACE OF
KING MATTHIAS CORVINUS AT BUDA.
DECEMBER 11, 1489.
Dracula left at once for Buda, his need for a companion taking him there. Piera was lost to him and all his hopes now rested on Ilona, the wife who had survived him. They had shared passion, and even love, a rare thing among people of their status. It was his last hope to satisfy this urgent need in him. She was his only hope. Perhaps she would go with him if she saw him in the flesh.
His heart raced hard as he flew high over the city. He found the palace of Matthias with ease from the skies. For thirteen long years during his mortal life, the youngest of the Hunyadis had kept him there as a captive.
He wondered how Ilona would receive him. She had not seen him in fourteen years. Since the night at Snagov, she believed him dead. Her period of mourning was long past now.
Still, he knew he had to try or he faced an eternity alone. With all his powers, it was not enough. He had to have someone at his side to travel with him through the ages. One such as Ilona. She was one of the very few who had loved him in his mortal life. Nobody else had ever given him what she had, and he wanted to feel that again.
The sound of her breathing called out to him. He would know it anywhere. It led him to her bedchamber, where he stole his way inside and found her asleep in her bed.
He sat on the edge, close to one of her arms. The sight of her lying there did something to him inside. He quietly watched her sleep. She remained beautiful to him despite her advancing years.
On his last occasion here, he had done nothing and left her be, despite the many hours he had watched her. This time, he could take it no more. He leant over and gently kissed her on the lips. His touch, though tender, disturbed her, and she stirred slightly in the bed. He eased back when she moved, as though afraid he might wake her.
She emitted a soft sigh and drifted back to sleep. He leant over again and kissed her a second time. It was a firmer kiss than the first. As much as he tried, he
could not fight the passion he still had for her. His need to have her at his side fuelled it further still.
It awoke her with a start, and she sat upright in the bed. Her eyes tried to focus in the dark. She held her hands up in front of her, fearful of the intruder she knew lurked close by. “Who is there?”
He did not enjoy the look of fear in her eyes. “Ilona, my love, it is I.”
The voice seemed familiar. It made her more curious than afraid when he spoke. Ilona, my love? Who would dare call me that? She lit a lamp on her bedside table so she could see him. It lit the area around her. There he sat, only a few feet away.
When she saw his face, she almost fainted. “Vlad? It cannot be you.”
“Yes, my love, it is I. Do not be afraid. I could never harm you.”
“But how can this be? You died at Snagov, thirteen years ago.”
“As strange as it may appear, I am here.”
He told her the story of the events that night. She hung on his every word as he moved on to the story of his afterlife. In spite of all he had done, he omitted none of the gruesome detail. The only part he did not speak of was Piera.
Ilona sat in silence for a time, taking some time to digest all that he had told her. She did not fear him. Just as he said, he could never harm her. That much she was sure of. Her father, Mihály Szilágy, knew her husband in the old days. Through him, she learned of how brutal he was in power. He spoke too of Dracula’s honour, and of the occasion he had spared her father’s life. This was long before they married, or had even met.
Theirs had been a marriage arranged by her cousin, King Matthias. In spite of that and the bad spoken about her husband, she had loved him. They went on to make two children together. He had always treated her and their boys with love and tenderness. So when she looked into his bright green eyes, all her old feelings came flooding back.
“We heard stories,” she said in a whisper. “Of that night at Snagov. I never believed any of it. I thought it only superstition and foolish peasant talk.”
Another brief silence passed between them. She looked down at her hands, and, as he touched them with his, the first tears rolled down her cheeks.
She fell into his arms. “Oh, Vlad,” she said, crying in his ear. “How I have missed you.”
“I have missed you as much,” he assured her, holding her tight.
“And how I love you. I have always loved you.”
They kissed for the first time in fourteen long years, arousing the old passions in both of them. She closed her eyes and dropped her head back when he moved his lips to the side of her neck. He felt an urge to drink from her, but resisted it.
She broke from his embrace and lay back on the bed. He ripped her nightgown away in his hands. She sucked in a deep breath, and smiled, as he took a moment to study her naked form. He stooped down to kiss the cleft between her breasts. She gasped when he sucked on one of them and grabbed handfuls of her long auburn hair. Her dark pink nipples hardened to the touch of his tongue.
He stroked the inside of her thigh. She parted them to allow his fingers easy access to her. He found her already moist to his touch. Her musky scent reached out to him, making him ache for her in a way he had not ached in years.
His tongue traced its way down, inducing a long groan from her when he licked the area between her thighs. He had never done this to her before, and the sensations she felt were incredible. After the shortest time, her orgasm began to well inside her. Not since he left Buda had she had one. When she came, she had to bite into her pillow so as not to wake the whole palace.
“I thought of you often this day,” she said, after several deep breaths.
He smiled. “You remembered my birthing day?”
“How could I not? It is always the day I miss you the most.”
“It is the same for me. We always enjoyed them in our times together.”
“Every night, I close my eyes and pray you might come to me in my dreams, but you never have. Not till this night, that is.”
“This is no dream, my love. I am really here. You see me as I am.”
“How I wish that were so.”
He laughed. “Ilona, you are not dreaming.”
“Then make love to me, Vlad. Be my husband once more.”
“I have always been your husband. I still am he.”
“It is fourteen long years since I have felt you inside me. I want to feel that once more.”
“I want that, too.”
She sensed he was not going to, and it frustrated her. “I need it, my love, so much.”
“I cannot, my love. Not in this moment.”
She sat up. “Why not? I am giving myself to you, as your wife.”
“I have not fed this night. I need fresh blood in my veins to be able to make love to you. Without it, I fear I cannot function in that way.”
Several thoughts raced through her mind. She remembered the things he told her about his life as a vampire. Whatever he had to do, she did not care. She needed him, and had to have him. “Then go, Vlad, and make haste. Do what you must and then come back to me.”
She watched him leave by the open window, before he disappeared from sight and rose high above the rooftops of Buda. Below, he read the dreams of those who lay asleep. He dropped lower. With his keen sense of smell, he could select the right victim.
It did not take him long to find the house he wanted. He smashed through the shutters of the room where the scent was at its most powerful. On entry, he woke a young married couple from their sleep.
The husband reacted quickly to the intrusion. Though startled, he jumped from the bed to meet the intruder who had entered his home. Dracula moved across him in the darkness, and delivered a strong blow to the chest that rendered the man unconscious.
His wife screamed at the attack, but the intruder ignored her. In his excited state, his claws were out. He considered driving them into the man’s chest and ripping out his heart, but he elected not to. Instead, he allowed the man to drop to the floor.
The woman tried to scream again. Dracula moved fast and sat down on the bed beside her. He clamped a hand over her mouth to silence her. “Be quiet, woman. Lest I shall have to kill you, and your husband.”
When he removed his hand from her mouth, she did not make a sound. Dracula could barely contain himself, with a rare and unexpected treat awaiting him. It was the second one in only a few months. He ripped away her scant clothing and ran his tongue the length of her pregnant stomach. She did not offer a struggle, but whimpered in fear at his actions. She expected she was about to be raped, not realising the true fate that awaited her.
Dracula was alive to her fears and hesitated a moment. The last occasion he had consumed a foetus, he had done so to preserve his life. He had no such need right now, and though it was a delicacy he savoured, he preferred to take one only out of necessity. A sound from nearby in the small house further distracted him.
He gazed down at the pregnant woman, his eyes glowing a bright and luminous green. The effect of this hypnotised the woman to such an extent that her own eyes lost focus. He touched his hand against them and ordered her, “Sleep.”
Dracula left her and moved from the bed. The pregnant woman’s teenage sister walked in after the commotion had woken her too. Still half asleep, she did not see him there. She moved towards him like an innocent mouse in the path of a predatory snake.
He waited as the girl walked blindly towards him, and kept quiet so as not to frighten her. She would have to fulfil his needs. The couple in the room had enjoyed a very fortunate escape from death.
“Clara? What was that noise?” the girl asked, looking for her sister.
Dracula stood only a few inches away, like any predator ready to pounce on its prey. Ilona was waiting for him and he wanted to return to her. First, he needed blood so that he might have the capacity to give his wife what she so desperately wanted from him.
Just from her smell, Dracula knew the girl had virginal blood. It wa
s the most potent variety, and one he savoured. He snatched her from the darkness and flew back out through the window with her in his arms.
He moved with lightning precision out into the night. So swift was his motion that he had his fangs buried in her neck before she even had time to cry out. Her body tensed as he quickly sucked the life out of her. He then tossed it into the dark waters of the Danube far below. Without changing direction, he arrived at Ilona’s window. The body of the girl had not even struck the surface of the water. As he heard the distant splash, he joined his wife once more.
His wife gazed at him with the deepest affection. She tried not to think of what he had done in his absence, but watched him undress and sit down on the bed. Smiling at him, she moved over to allow him enough room beside her.
Her jaw dropped when she saw the size of his manhood. It was nothing like she remembered, and she worried that it would cause her great pain. His torso, too, looked different than before. He had always had a very well-toned body and muscular physique, even in his forties. Now, though, it resembled something chiselled from stone.
“Do not be afraid,” he whispered. “I shall be gentle.”
He leaned over her. Where his skin had earlier felt cold, it now radiated heat. The room was already freezing from the open window, but when their bodies touched, he warmed her at once. They kissed until she could wait no longer. She gripped his erection in both hands and guided him inside her.
Her face contorted with pain at first, so he moved against her with great care. She parted her legs as wide as they would allow. Closing her eyes, she inhaled and exhaled in quick bursts. The penetration pushed her vaginal walls farther apart than she could manage without the tissue tearing a little.
They remained still for a moment. Then, slowly, he inched his way inside. Her erratic breathing continued. Impaled as she was to him, her muscles soon began to contract, and she accommodated him with a little more ease.
The Dracula Chronicles: Bound By Blood Page 12
