“Ariana,” I cried out when I opened the door.
She gave me her coy smile, then hugged me and kissed my cheek. “Hello, Glynis.”
“Darling, I missed you so. I tried to find you but I could not,” I said in a rush of words.
“I am sorry for that, but we were trying to console, Cneajna. She is much better now and wishes to see you in the throne room.”
“Is she better? I would never do anything to hurt her,” I said softly.
“Oh, yes, Glynis. She is,” Ariana swore. “She was just distraught until we calmed her.”
With much relief, I hugged Ariana again. “Will you come with me?”
“Oh, no. This is private between the two of you. I dare not intrude.” She smiled at me sweetly.
I returned her smile and kissed her cheek fondly. “Very well. I shall see you later then.”
“Of course, dear sister,” she giggled, then dashed off in a flurry of white.
Nervously, I smoothed out my favorite pale blue gown and tucked up my hair. It was a relief that Cneajna would forgive me. I had been truly frightened that she would not. I rushed down the stairs to the throne room anxious to speak with her and put the past aside.
When I entered the room, I saw her seated upon Vlad’s throne. Behind it was the golden stake. I shuddered at the sight of it, thinking of that terrible opera about Vlad and the death of my father, and dismissed it from my thoughts immediately. Cneajna looked calm, but sad when I entered. She looked up at me with her great sapphire eyes, and they were full of sorrow.
“Cneajna,” I exclaimed emotionally, moving toward her.
She hurried down from the throne quickly, her arms held out to me. I rushed to her and felt her crush me against her body. We clung together, both weeping.
“I do not wish for you to be angry with me,” I whispered. “I love you so, sweet Cneajna.”
“And I you, Glynis,” she answered in her lovely voice. “Let us not quarrel.”
“Yes, please!” I kissed her cheek and held her against me.
“The time for quarreling is done.”
The blow of the dagger into my back drove me hard against her. It cracked my ribs and tore through my flesh.
“Cneajna,” I gasped in pain and fell to the floor.
She stood over me, the bloodied dagger clutched tight in one hand. Her eyes were cold, brutal, and deadly. “I will not be usurped in my own home.”
Then she was on me, her arm arcing downward as she stabbed me over and over. I cried out and tried to defend myself, but I admit, I did not try and strike her back. Despite her brutal attack on me, I could not see her as my enemy. I sobbed and pleaded with her, but the dagger struck over and over again. I felt it striking deep into my flesh. My blood splattered her as she continued to assault me. I felt my bones crack and shatter, then began to heal. Still the dagger came at me.
“I will cut out your heart and eat it,” she snarled. “He will not have it, but I will. I will have your heart.”
“Cneajna!” I screamed her name and still the blows came. The pain was quick and fierce. I tried to crawl away from her on shattered arms and legs.
I could not fight back. I could not believe she would kill me. Yet her face was twisted in hate and fury as she drove the dagger into my flesh all the way to the hilt, again and again.
Now I believe that she wanted me to suffer, to feel pain, and not die quickly. Otherwise, she would have taken a stake and pierced my heart.
Her desire to have me suffer was her undoing.
Vlad roared into the room like a great storm. His hair flying around him like a dark halo, his cloak flaring out, he rode into the room on a cold wind and descended on her like an avenging demon. He struck the dagger from her hand and gripped her slim white throat in his hand.
“How dare you touch my wife!” Vlad growled at her, his eyes fierce fires.
“I am your wife!” she screamed at him.
His long nails sank into the flesh of her throat and he ripped it open as he flung her aside. Blood bubbled from the wound as she lay close to me. Her blue eyes were fierce with her hate as she gazed at me.
“You are nothing to me now,” Vlad hissed. His eyes were completely red and his teeth were long and wolf-like.
Curled up on the floor, my blood slowly seeping back into my body, I healed myself. I shivered with pain and the loss of blood. As I watched, he moved over her, crouching down.
Cneajna reached up to him, her gaze full of desperate love. With a snarl, he slapped her hand away and bared his fangs at her.
“She is my wife. My Countess. Only she has the strength of will and power to be my equal. She is strong, clever, and smart. Glynis is all you shall never be in this modern world. A woman of independent thought and deed. I have no fear that if the hunters struck me down, she would continue and be strong.”
I rose to my knees, his words shocking me. Shakily, I tried to stand.
Cneajna again reached toward him, imploring him, begging him. Her terrible wound was knitting itself together, healing, and she managed to gasp out, “But I would serve you willingly.”
“I want no servant. I want someone who I can rise to power with. She is my true mate. My true equal. Never have I met a woman that I could respect as I do a man.”
Tears streamed down my face as his words pierced my heart. I sobbed as I realized Vlad saw me in the light I had always desired the world to see me in. He saw me as an independent creature that was capable and strong. The truth of that tore through me with a greater strength than any dagger.
Vlad snagged Cneajna by the throat and lifted her off the ground. She dangled from his grasp, her hands gripping his wrist. He looked toward me, his expression fierce. I stood, unsteady, my dress tattered and covered in my own blood.“Glynis, I will kill her then we shall leave. I will never allow another to harm you again,” he swore.
Screams of terror and anger filled the room as Elina and Ariana dropped from the ceiling onto Vlad’s back. They unleashed a fury of blows so fierce it drove him to his knees. Cneajna fell from his grasp onto the floor.
With a roar, he rose into the air and flung the women away from him. Again, he descended on Cneajna, his long nails ripping across her throat.
“Vlad, no,” I wailed. I could not bear for him to kill her. I just wanted us to leave and be free of this madness.
The dark sisters launched themselves at him and he deflected Elina with one arm. She hurtled across the room and crashed into a column with a sickening crack. Ariana managed to land on his back and stabbed him brutally with her dagger. Grabbing her hair, he threw her away from him. She struck the wall, then scrambled up into the rafters above.
Gripping Cneajna by the throat, he hoisted her off the ground. “I shall tear your head from your body then I shall do the same with your sisters,” he snarled. His razor sharp nails bit into her skin.
“Vlad, no!”
“Glynis, stay back,” he ordered, and began to literally rip Cneajna’s head from her body.
Elina and Ariana leaped onto him from above. They hissed and screamed as they tore at him with their nails and teeth. He gave their assault no heed as he continued to squeeze his hand shut and his nails sliced deep. Cneajna screamed in pain. Her blood splashed over Vlad, the women and me.
“Release her,” I screamed at him, but he paid me no heed. “Stop!” I sobbed, begging him, but he was unrelenting. My tears poured down my face as I wailed in despair. Despite her betrayal, Cneajna is in my heart and I love her. She is my vampire mother and her pain ripped through me.
I rushed at Vlad and grabbed his arm. Hissing at me, he backhanded me so hard I felt my jaw crack. I fell at his feet, stunned.
The sisters were tossed away again. They both scrambled to their feet and rushed back to attack.
“Do not defy me,” Vlad snarled at me. “I do this for you.”
His words struck deep. I realized this was his true belief. All his violence was completely rational to him. He had even alluded to me that I should be grateful that he slaughtered my family and released me from my mortal bonds to rise up to be his Bride. This was what he was to me: torment.
It was then I made my bitter choice. Healed now from my wounds, I scrambled to my feet and dashed across the room to snatch up the golden stake from behind his throne. Whirling about, I could see his face covered in blood as he snarled up at Cneajna. In a few seconds, she would be truly dead. The sisters continued to assail him, but their attempts were futile. Just as he killed my mortal family he would destroy my vampire family. He would destroy Ignatius as well. He was death in my life. Death to all I loved.
Tears in my eyes, I pulled my power up around me and my feet left the ground. Gliding swiftly toward him, I aimed the great stake at his back. Elina and Ariana saw me and shrieked. They both flew upwards to cling to the ceiling.
Cneajna gasped a single, “No” as she saw me lower the stake as I aimed for Vlad’s back.
“For my family,” I hissed as Vlad looked over his shoulder.
His expression was one of utter shock as I drove the stake up through his back, through his torso, to explode out of his chest just left of his heart. As I impaled him, he released Cneajna and she fell in a bloody heap onto the floor.
My feet hit the floor. I steadied myself as I lifted the great stake upwards, lifting Vlad up off the ground. His arms flailed as he struggled to escape. His blood showered down upon me as I elevated him above my head.
I was weeping, but I knew I must finish what I had started.
“Burn the blood,” I ordered the Brides. “Burn it now!”
Vlad twisted on the stake, roaring with pain and anger as he attempted to free himself. Then gravity gripped him and drew him down the long length of the stake. His blood cascaded down upon me and I slipped. I fell back onto the floor, nearly losing my grip on the great stake. As fate would have it, he slid down the golden stake and came to rest in my arms, fully impaled, his blood flowing over me.
I sobbed as I held him. I could feel his blood and power drain from him. The stake must have pressed hard against his heart, weakening him, for he hardly moved in my arms. His green eyes, slowly dulling, looked toward me as he whispered, “I should have known it would be you.”
I pressed my lips together and laid my forehead against his.
Around me, fire sprang up as the sister’s grabbed torches from the walls and began to burn his blood. Destroying his blood would destroy his power. In a matter of minutes, we would all be free of him.
His body went limp in my arms as the blood continued to flow. His hair slowly began to have threads of silver running through it as his strong body began to wither.
Vlad gazed at me with an eerie calm. His hand struggled to rise and touch my face. When his cold, slowly shriveling fingers touched my cheek, I rested my face against them.
“I will my power to you,” he whispered. “I know you will go forth and be strong, my Countess Dracula.”
I shuddered at his words as his power began to flow into me. Trembling, I wept as I was filled with his strength and power.
“My countess,” he whispered again. His voice faded as his hair continued to turn silver and dark gray. His features slowly became sunken and old before my eyes.
I gently kissed his forehead.
The fire hissed and spat around us, but I felt his blood as it flowed into my body, piercing my flesh like a thousand hot needles and snaking up over my skin to fill my mouth. His power filled me completely. I felt as if I would burst open with it.
Then...
I felt our bond growing faint as he grew weaker.
At last, his eyes began to close.
“Glynis,” he said in a mere gasp.
“Yes, Vlad.” I answered, my voice thick with emotion.
“I love you,” he managed, then his eyes grew milky white and staring.
I buried my face in his hair and wept. “I know, Vlad. I know.”
I held him until he was a mere husk, still living, but in a deep sleep far from the world of the undead and living.