Heart of Darkness

by Claire Marta

  Taking her gently by the elbow, I draw her back inside the comfort of her home. “What has happened, Emma? Are you unwell? Do you need a doctor?”

  “It’s Charles; he’s called off the engagement.” Wiping away the dampness from her eyes, more tears spill free. “He didn’t even have the decency to tell me face to face. It was with a text.”

  Gathering her into my embrace, I hold her tightly to my chest. “Emma…”

  “All the late nights these last few weeks. His evasive answers when I asked questions. I should have realized he’s met someone else,” she continues in unhappiness, tilting her chin up to meet my gaze. “I’m an idiot.”

  “No. Never. He’s a fool who never deserved you, draga mea,” I croon softly. “If he could not see how special you are, then it’s his loss, not yours.” Taking her mouth, I taste the misery on her lips.

  So much pain. She’s breaking her heart over a male who never deserved her. No matter who she is–Elizabeth, Mina, or Emma, she will always be mine. Not even the vast expanse of time can change that.

  She doesn’t struggle like I half expect. Instead she remains quiescent and pliant.

  “I can take away your sadness and pain,” I whisper when I finally raise my head.

  Blue eyes fix on mine. “Vladimir?”

  “Trust me.”

  I’m not here for a few stolen kisses. I want more. I will not be denied.

  This time when I claim her mouth, her lips and tongue respond to mine. One large hand cradling her head, I soothe the other down over her back to settle just above her rear.

  Pressed so intimately together, she’s aware of my hard, thick erection.

  Writhing with a muffled moan, Emma pushes against me.

  Right or wrong, I want her now. She’s vulnerable, walls lowered, but I can’t stop myself even if I tried. Tearing myself away from her mouth, I trail open mouthed kisses along her jaw, before licking down her slender neck. It’s a battle to keep my fangs sheathed. They throb and ache. Itching to descend and sample the thick life-giving liquid that races beneath.

  “Please.” Her whine pulses with a feminine need. One I will not refuse her.

  Pushing the robe from her shoulders, I bare the beauty of her body to my greedy gaze.

  Now that she’s exposed, I take full advantage.

  Filling my hands with the warm weight of her breasts, I lick and tease a pebbled nipple.

  Fondling, pinching, I bask the other in the same attention.

  Emma’s keening groan gives me all the encouragement I need.

  Hands spanning her waist, I lift her with ease. Placing her naked form on the dining room table, I spread her legs, lifting her thighs to rest over my shoulders. My nostrils flare with her musky aroma.

  Emma’s gasp of surprise morphs into a guttural cry when I anchor my mouth against her swollen, wet pussy lips. Sucking, licking, I penetrate her with my tongue.

  Fingers tangle in my hair. Her whimpers and sobs igniting a demand to pleasure her until she forgets all but my name. I want her delirious with bliss.

  “Vlad. Please don’t tease me. Why do you always have to make me beg?” Emma whimpers in desperate muttered Romanian. I don’t think she’s aware she’s spoken a language she doesn’t even know in this lifetime. That she called me her Vlad.

  “You’ll have it, draga mea,” I croon to her plea.

  Elizabeth.

  My beloved. She is with me.

  The elation is strong.

  She remembers. It might be locked away, but her soul is intact. My heart aches with hope. Long-lost joy flooding my being.

  Her thighs squeeze the sides of my head as she fucks my face with an urgency that has my own need spiralling out of control.

  Nicking her swollen lip, she screams, bucking as I suck her clit and the cut, drawing in her blood.

  It’s the sweetest surrender. Heady and coppery, the taste fills my mouth and senses.

  Convulsing, moaning, Emma rides orgasm after orgasm, her eyes roll back in her head.

  Chapter 26

  Emma sits between the haven of my legs, her back resting against my hair-dusted chest as be both luxuriate in the heat of the water. The tub is narrow but long. With my arms wrapped around her waist, keeping her secure, it makes it all the more intimate.

  I savor it.

  The closeness. Rightness.

  Something I thought never to experience again.

  “I remember a castle perched above a fertile green valley,” Emma murmurs. “Blue flowers used to grow wild just beyond the gates.”

  “They still do.”

  “I used to pick them for our chamber in the summer.”

  And the nursery, I add silently. She doesn’t recall that yet, and I would save her from the loss if I could, but I have no clue how much she will recall.

  Gently, I press a kiss to her shoulder. “They were your favorite.”

  Turning, she meets my watchful gaze. “Why do they make me feel so sad? How can I know things like this? I’ve never been there, but I can recall it all so vividly.”

  I see her doubt and the thread of fear. Things have been awakened she does not understand. Other memories of her life as a school teacher have barely filtered through, but will also stir.

  “A past life Emma. It’s nothing for you to be distressed over.” My lips brush the freckles scattered over her nose. “We have found each other again, and that is all that matters.”

  Snuggling back into my chest, she trails her fingers through the water. “You were my prince. I loved you very much.”

  I can barely reply through the lump of emotion thickening my throat. “You were my everything until the day you were taken from me.”

  “What happened?”

  “Enemy forces – assassins breached our walls. They were looking for me, but found you instead. By the time I discovered them, they had murdered you in our bed.”

  I don’t tell her it was the day I also died with my wife and unborn child.

  How I struck a bargain with the Devil, forsaking God after he betrayed me.

  Her loss was my doom.

  I sold my soul.

  Eternal darkness.

  I have a fierce urge to kiss every freckle on her pert little nose. Things she sees as imperfections, but I view as uniquely beautiful. Her compassion and gentleness. The shyness yet ingrained gracefulness she exudes.

  Butterfly soft, the pads of her fingertips caress patterns over the backs of my hands and over the ring on my finger. “I love you, Vladimir. Whether from a past life or from getting to know you now, it doesn’t matter. Do with me as you will. Whatever is necessary for us to be together. I want to be with you.”

  Her quiet words bring me out of my sad reflections. “You do not know what you are saying, dragostea mea. My world is not your world. I walk in darkness. I’m no longer the man or prince you loved. I’m something borne of evil.”

  Reclining, she scatters kisses along my bearded jaw. “All I see is a lonely man. Let me be your light. We could be happy together.”

  Does she even know what she’s asking? There’s so much hope and emotion bright in her wide clear eyes. I don’t want her a mindless puppet bound to my will.

  “Emma, I have no wish to enslave you.”

  “You would never do that. He was wrong about you…”

  Confusion as she trails off has me tightening my embrace. “Who?”

  In silence, Emma tenses unexpectedly in my arms.

  “Tell me.” I persist, threading some persuasion through my tone.

  “Jacob Van Helsing. He said you aren’t human, but something unholy.”

  The bubble of happiness that I’ve been floating in pops without warning. It plummets me from the heaven I’ve been experiencing the last few hours, to the very deepest pits of fiery hell. She knows of my adversary. That wretched human clan that hunts my kind from the face of the Earth.

  “What do you have to do with him?” I ask, my voice without a trace of emotion.

 
“I…”

  Gripping her wrist when she tries to rise from the water, I hold her mercilessly in place. “You will explain everything.”

  “Vladimir, you’re hurting me.” Emma’s blue eyes flash with fear.

  Lips curling up, I give her a sneer. “Trust me, this is nothing compared to what I can do.”

  “He’s my birth father. We recently reconnected after he heard about the death of my mother.”

  No father’s name on her birth certificate. Gone before she was born.

  How is it that fate, that took her from me so long ago, can be so cruel?

  Her link to my sworn enemy runs deeper than I could ever have imagined. Daughter to a Van Helsing. Yet even this does not quell my need for her.

  I’m not a man. Why am I foolishly pretending to be something I’m not? Some things are just not meant to be again. I’ve let sentiment blind me.

  Redemption withers, instead falling into a path of revenge.

  She will take her place at my side. This woman is bound to me no matter what form she takes. I will not allow her to slip through my fingers. The revenge I have sought for centuries is within my arms. Helsing’s bloodline will not continue with Emma. No longer will I be blighted with his direct descendants. The others who bear his name, I will hunt down and slaughter without mercy.

  My stare burns with an unholy light. I see the demonic glow reflected in the wide terrified irises of the woman I love. Clutching the length of her lustrous hair, I drag her kicking and shrieking from the bath tub before she can escape.

  “Vlad, no please.”

  Her yell leaves me unaffected.

  In one swift movement, I have her on her back on the chilled tiles. Hands wrapped around her slender throat, I increase the pressure while she struggles. How easily I could snap it. Murder her on the bathroom floor.

  “I was cursed because I loved you. Doomed myself.” I spit, my anger mounting. “You would betray me now? Conspire with my enemy to destroy me.”

  “Vlad…” My name stutters from her lips in a hoarse plea. Fear and panic collide within the depths of her lovely eyes. Ones that only moments ago had shone with love.

  Death is too swift. Too final. For this unwitting treachery, she deserves a worse fate.

  Lips curling back, I sink my fangs into the side of her neck. Pull after pull, I drink of her life force. Her soft breasts are crushed against my chest, her silken limbs entwined with mine, but no longer in passion. We’re locked together now in violence. Hate. Hunger. Lust.

  Regaining some sanity from the madness that has over taken me, I release her, licking the puncture wounds to stem the flow of blood. I’m still vibrating with the intensity of my emotions. Overwhelmed with how they have affected me.

  Emma lays limp beneath me. Her breath slips from her lips in slow raspy pants.

  I’ve drained her far more than I intended. Not yet to the point of death, but enough to keep her weak. She’s too much of a temptation. A magnet to my hunger.

  No. I will not lose her again. Not for a third time, no matter whose offspring she is.

  Biting into the flesh of my wrist, the pain is only brief. Pressing the jagged wound to her mouth, red spills in a river from the corners to trickle down her jaw. Such a bright lovely color in contrast to her pale skin.

  Confusion flickers in Emma’s gaze. Twisting, her attempt to resist me is feeble. There is no escape from this. Any choice I was going to bestow on her is now in tatters.

  “Drink,” I urge. “Blood is the life, and I damn you for all eternity. You will forever shun the light of the sun. A creature of darkness. A thing of nightmare.”

  She whimpers. It’s just enough for the sanguine fluid to seep between her trembling lips. I see the second it triggers a craving. So powerful and ancient no one can resist. Fingers curl around my wrist. Licking, sucking, Emma gulps it down eagerly, anchoring herself to my flesh with a fevered frenzy.

  Each pull, each drag of my essence that flows into her sends pleasure coursing through my limbs. It binds us. Closer than any sexual act. Any holy ceremony. The deed is done. My corruption is now within her, polluting and destroying. Changing my beloved. Contaminating her like I have so many others throughout my long existence. Her first kill will seal her fate.

  Teeth scrape the already healing gash. As the thick addictive stream ebbs, my beloved moans in loss.

  “You will have more,” I promise in a croon. “Enough to appease the burning hunger you’ll soon experience.”

  Emma blinks in confusion. The primitive instinct that had her in its sway fading as quickly as it took a hold of her. Horror washes over her beautiful face. Realization at what she has done is stark and raw in her expression.

  “You’re a monster.” Her whisper is tiny, throbbing with fear.

  I watch her, knowing how easily I could snuff out the light in her eyes. “A monster who loves you. You’ll want for nothing, draga mea.”

  “No. Oh God, he’s right. You are something unnatural,” she mutters through red stained lips.

  I’m an abomination. A prince of evil. My crimes stretch back through history, heinous and depraved. The things I have done would revolt her. Yet now she is mine. Concubine, bride to the Prince of Darkness.

  “You will learn to embrace it too,” I assure her, caressing her cheek affectionately. “It won’t be so bad now, we’re together.”

  Emma flinches, pressing herself back into the floor. “Get away from me.”

  Her fear thrills me. I’ve reveled in it from every victim who has ever slaked my thirst, and now she, too, has fallen to its onslaught.

  “It’s too late for that now.” Releasing her, I rise naked from the tiled ground. “You made your choice. Whatever it takes, you said, to be with me. Now you have paid the ultimate price.”

  Chapter 27

  Renfield greets us at the door as I escort Emma into the mansion. Under my sway, her will has no strength to match my own. Entranced, her consciousness is passive and subdued.

  I feel the coldness in her ashen skin where I have a hold of her arm, the tremors that quake through her slim frame. After shocks from my violence. Still weak with the sickness I’ve unleashed in her blood. Not even the attractive blouse and jeans I had her dress in provide her with any warmth.

  “Master, your guests are waiting for you in the basement,” he informs me with a bow.

  “Excellent.”

  Emma’s head twists fractionally in his direction. A plea for help glitters in her eyes. She opens her mouth, but her bitter tears are falling too thickly.

  Drawing her round to face me, I use a finger to tilt up her chin. “He won’t help you, dragostea mea. Renfield has always been loyal, so your tears of regret are wasted.”

  Hopelessness shines in her over her bright gaze. Her cheeks are wane from her crying. Droplets trail down to follow the curves before dripping off the end of her pointed chin. Framing her beautiful face, her ebony locks are a mess of imperfection.

  Dipping closer, I run my nose up the dampness of her skin to her ear, inhaling deeply. “I’ve prepared something special for you, my love.”

  On unsteady legs, Emma jerks away to flee me. “Please, Vladimir, I just want to go home away from this nightmare.”

  “This is your home now. Your place is with me.”

  Recapturing her arm, I march her to the metal doors that lead down into the basement. It has taken time and ingenuity to keep sections of it partitioned off. Undetectable and unescapable, it has become the perfect prison.

  Our footsteps echo on the marble steps as we descend to the lower levels.

  Emma glances over her shoulder with a look of longing that does nothing to aid her plight.

  We journey beyond the hidden labyrinth of cells to the main part of the corridor that takes us to the central room.

  The first thing she focuses on is the youthful form of the naked male chained to the wall. Whisky colored eyes bulge when they find hers. Behind the ball gag that has his lips stretched wide, Ch
arles’ words are muffled and distorted. Saliva pools at the corners, oozing down to dribble onto his chest.

  “Charles?” Emma says his name faintly, swaying on her feet. When she hears the pleasured female moans and groans from across the room, she turns to confront the source.

  Sara rides the old man’s cock as if it’s the finest steed. Nude, her blonde tresses cascading down her shoulders, she bounces on his crotch with an abandonment I have rarely seen. Lips ruby red and stained from feeding, her gleeful smile shows off her fangs.

  Below her, Helsing’s cuffed arms are covered in tubes pumping the liquid from his veins into the waiting clear bags. He lays on the metal table with a look of defeat.

  “Father?”

  Emma’s disbelief filled voice snaps him from his misery. “Emma? Dear God, no. Not you! Run, girl. Get out of here while you can. Dracula is an unholy fiend!”

  “Oh God, no.” Emma’s wail is tortured as she watches Sara bury her fangs in his throat, ripping out the flesh. He won’t last long. Drained as much as he is, the end will be quick.

  “Tears for the man who abandoned you before you were born? His blood will sustain you while you learn to feed for yourself.”

  “How could you? I’d rather die than be like you.” Striking my chest with her fists, the tears stream down her lovely face.

  “I’m a monster, remember? Depraved things are what we do. Humans are sheep, and we are the predators that feed on them.”

  “I hate you.”

  Hate, love, I’ll take them both. All of her.

  Gripping her wrists, I quell her blows. “Does it frighten you? Disgust you? Make you realize just how small and fragile your life is?”

  Pulling free, she crosses herself, whispering a frantic prayer.

  “God won’t help you now.” My glare bores into her. “His angels may weep for you, but you’ve been touched by me. Fucked by me. Your soul is tainted. Heaven is closed to you for all time.”

  I hear her heart rate rise, taking on a panic consumed rhythm.

  “No! God forgive me, no.”

  “All I have ever wanted is your love. I won’t share it with another.” Backing her into the wall, I rock forward. I press my arousal into her stomach. “We have always meant to be together. This time you will not escape your fate as my eternal bride.”