Subspecies: Eternity
Chapter 2
1435, Romania
A wagon moved slowly through the old forest; draped with fog it was impossible for the two people to be seen. But it was also hard for them not to be under an ambush as well.
A woman was hidden half under her red cloak and hood that shadowed her features and who she was. The man halted the horses for a moment and listened for any sound.
"Garret? Why have we stopped? It's isn't safe here, I feel it."
"I to feel uneasy about this place. Not to worry. We'll be safe in Kronescu and hopefully be able to speak about the bloodstone we saw in Rome. I know that my father would have wished the same."
She turned in the half light of the moon to face her companion, and smiled sadly to him. "Yes, he would have. But unfortunatly we don't have the stone; we only saw it when the nomads told us about it, remember Garret?" He chuckled under his breath.
"The only thing that bothered me about the legend was that it dripped blood. The blood of saints. We still need to acomplish the quest at hand and bring you to the castle."
"That is why I chose you as my escort." Garret jumped off the wagon and walked over to one of the horses who was figiting alot. He picked up the mares left hoof and began to clean it out.
"Garret I can see fire light from here over the trees in the west. What is it?" Garret looked up from his task and saw the light as well. "It's the Turks. The sooner we're at Korenescu the better. Try not to worry Torah." Her eyes searched the woods for anything or even for a sound. None. All was impossibly quiet.
"Garret, What are you doing?"
"The horse has a rock stuck in it's shoe. It won't be but a moment; easy there boy!" The woman looked up just in time to catch a glimpse of shadows moving towards them.
"Garret! GARRET LOOK OUT!!!"
"What-!" But a Turk had clubbed him over the head. More Turks surrounded the wagon and pulled the woman out of the seat and to the encampment. She pulled her cloak closer, so she would not be see by the men. They were led to a large area were many other Turkish men were preparing themselves for battle.
In the middle of the field was a tent that had the Turkish implement on top, they were led inside. It was dim lighted and smelled faintly of smoke and incence. She saw a shadow hunched over a map near an oil burning lamp.
"Lord Radu."
The shadow held up a hand as if to stop anything else that the Turk would say. "What is it commander?"
"We have captured these two sir. They were slinking around our encampment." Garret broke free from one of the guards. "We did nothing!" The other gaurd grabbed him ruffly and back handed him across the face so that he was silent again.
The lady gasped slightly from shock and from fear. The shadow turned and placed the map on a table near the lamp. In the half light, she could see an outline of a face hidden behind it's hair."Good. Commander, what direction were they going to?"
"Towards the Korenescu strong hold, sir."
"Excellent." Then it saw her. It looked right at her and she looked right into the face of a ghoul. It was horrible with a gaunt face and gimlet green eyes that looked like they could slay men with a look. And a mouth so bloody it was hard to see the large fangs inside. The voice sounded like dried mummies it was so hoarse.
"Bring her to me and then get out!" he snarled to the guards. She was pushed forwards until she faced him only a few feet away. The guards took Garret and exited the tent.
"What business does a woman have at Korenescu?" No answer. Why should she answer to one such as he? She didn't move has he neared her. Circling her like a predator was amusing to him. She did nothing. He couldn't deny the curiosity about why she did nothing and hid under a heavy cloak on such a warm night.
But then again he couldn't feel almost a thing like heat or cold. Radu touched the hood of her cloak, seeking to take it off her. She batted his fingers away and shrank from him.
"Hehehe. A little plaything that moves? How interesting." Again he sot to remove her hood. This time she was ready and pulled from the folds of fabric a dagger and took aim at his hand. A whizzing sound filled the tent as she sliced the backside of his hand open. Radu caught it the second time she was about to hit him and clamped onto her hand hard so she had to let go of the dagger.
He looked at his wounded hand and lifted it to his face; licking the blood from it he still held her in an iron clasp. She was frightened now, he could smell it like a heady perfume and it made the hunt even more sublime to him. She spoke.
" Let go." He grinned with malicious satisfaction.
"Ahhh. So it speaks! I don't think I will unless you show yourself." She tried to slap him with her free hand and half succeeded in doing so before he pushed her to the ground while holding onto her cloak. It ripped and what fell from it was not a normal human.
Her hair was like the color of sea foam and fell down her back. She turned to see him and he was a bit startled by her violet eyes. She instantly got back up and grabbed her dagger holding it so that she could aim again. She wore peasant pants and a tunic with short sleeves. He laughed deep in his chest, a sound that might have curdled a mans blood if he weren't ready to fight like she was.
"Damnyou!" She clenched the dagger to her like it was a sacred object she alone could wield. Radu caught her throat and squeezed it, feeling the life blood inside rush past. She choked and gasped for breath. He lowered his head to her pulse, and was almost there, when her dagger was thrust brutally in his back.
Radu arched up in pain and howled as it stung his skin like a million ice shards at once. Torah, the woman, didn't stop there. She raised her dagger again and again plunging it into the monster until he sank to his knees. Radu reached out for her ankle and she swatted it away. She shook slightly and grabbed her cloak off the floor, watching to see if he made any more movements.
He lay still and exhausted from the battle that had commenced. The dagger had been magical and wounded him greatly. He watched from the corner of his eye as she slipped from the tent and into the night again. Torah, crept through the outline of tents as silent as owel's wings but something grabbed her and she half shrieked half gasped in surprise from it as she was pulled into the underbrush.
Michelle gasped as she woke up again. She remembered what had happend the night previouse and shook slightly from the memory of it. The bed was nice, compared to the hard cement they had slept on for a few nights. She hated to admit it but the glass coffin had been befiting for her new role as a vampire. Although she didn't consider herself a Snow White from any fairy tail.
No this was more like a fractured fairy tail. She was the broken princess, now and forever in the clutches of a terrible dragon. "But every story has a dragon, and every dragon needs a maiden, and every maiden needs a prince." But mine is dead, she thought bitterly. It was like she had signed away her life the moment she got on the plane with Mara and Lillian.
" So the sleeper is awake." Radu stood in the door frame grinning with malicious content. Michelle slid off the bed and walk to him. She stood there with her shoulders slumped and head bowed down, the look of someone defeated. She felt his calloused claws lift her chin up to meet his eyes and for the first time she could see what color they were.
Gimlet green.....almost soft.
"....Thank you..." He cocked his head to the left a bit.
"There is nothing I could truly deny you....If you give yourself over to me freely." Michelle felt a dull ach in her heart and prayed that Radu had kept his word and returned her sister to the city. She hoped Becky was ok. She let herself be led out of the room and instead of the throne room to the battlements.
"Fly with me. We have business to attend to." He grabbed onto her hand and she could feel him flexing his powers out and beyond. She uncoiled herself and did so as well. What else could she do? She was under a monsters power now and had no choice. They dissolved into shadow and fly away from castle Vladislas.
Michelle had never opened her eyes when they flew, she had been so scared of hights when she was younger and the plane trip had been a nightmare for her. But now she was watching the world pass by below her feet. And not flipping out.
They flew until they stopped in the middle of a large graveyard and at the front of a large mausoleum. The architecture was exquisitely carved onto the bricks and she had to steady herself as she looked up at it as they landed. She took three steps back and was wide eyed from the old worldly beauty of the tomb. Above it were the words "Vladislas" on a stone script above an old wooden door with iron hinges.
Radu took from around his neck a key that was on a leather string. He when to the door and unlocked it, but seemed weary off the outside and quickly stepped in.
"Come Fledgling." He called to her and she reluctantly stepped over the stone door frame and into the dim lit room. Radu closed and locked the door before returning the key around his neck again and tucking it away safely. He took her wrist firmly and they began walking down a long flight of stone stairs that must have been hundred years or more so ago.
She could smell something as they got closer to a light near the bottom. What was it? Perfume? Smoke? Incense? Finally, and to the surprise of Michelle, They broke from the dim light to what looked like a very old living room. It was incense burning that made the smoke, she thought. She did notice that a woman was being ravaged by two other vampires and had her dress front opened to her stomach.
She couldn't stop staring at the scene. It was almost....beautiful to watch. Wait! She shouldn't think like that! She turned away from embarassment. Radu move towards them and stopped a foot from the sofa that they sat on and addressed the auburn hair vampire who was sucking on the woman's wrist.
"Ash my child." His head snapped up and Michelle saw a man about in his early thirties, with black eyes and a strong face. But when he saw Radu he looked almost terrified and surprised. Then he saw Michelle. The woman stared in awe at Radu.
"M-Master!"
"I seek sanctuary with my Fledgling." Ash took out a black handkerchief and hesitantly dabbed away some blood from his mouth, glancing back to Michelle who still had her self turned away from the almost naked woman.
"All that I have to offer....is yours, Master." The woman had stood up and was now almost fixated on Radu. Her black eyes were as large as a full moons and she herself was almost as still as a statue.
"Are you Radu Vladislas?" Radu turned to her and touched the tip of his clawed hand to the line of blood that ran down from her mouth.
"I am."
Michelle turned to see that Ash was still staring at her, and this made her fidget a little. Ash had whipped the last bits of blood away and looked like he was shrinking away from Radu. Ash is nervous! Michelle though.
"This is my protege, Serena."
Radu nodded. He turned to Michelle and pushed her towards Ash so he might get a better look at her. Michelle Looked up at him and knew he was studying her with great interest. But the feeling of hunger made her look back to the woman and she felt her mouth water treacherously at the smell of blood.
"You may feed if you wish Fledgling." Radu had taken the woman's wrist and was leisurely rubbing it between his finders letting the woman's intoxicating scent drift into the air. Her feet moved on their own accord and she couldn't resist as she took the wrist that he held out and sink her fangs into the arteries that pumped blood.