Blood Marriage (38 page)

The owl hooted a third time. 

Elizabeth's grip on the wooden side of the trap tightened. She too stared into the woods on the opposite side of the road, unable to breathe, waiting. 

Then as suddenly as Princess had become alarmed, she calmed. Her eyes returned to normal. She stood quiet in front of the trap.

"Probably an animal," Vlad said. He gave the reins a shake and the pony started forward again. Elizabeth relaxed her grip on the cart. 

Minutes passed. Princess continued down the path. Was it Elizabeth's imagination or did the animal seem to move faster than before? They were almost halfway to Heaven's Edge. Had the horse simply sensed home was close and increased her speed, eager to be in her stall? Perhaps. But Elizabeth found herself watching the woods with greater intensity, unable to shake the growing feeling that danger lurked just beyond the line of the trees. 

"
Tell me
." Elizabeth hadn't intended to whisper the words. She simply wanted, needed the reassurance of conversation. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Tell me, please." 

"About Nicholas?" Vlad asked. 

"About everything." Elizabeth squinted at the dark outline of a strangely shaped tree. "About anything."

Vlad's head tilted. He sat up straighter, his placid demeanor gone. 

"My sister Lucretia was a beautiful child," he said. "She had a passionate nature, but I always believed it was tempered by a genuine sweetness of soul. I still believe that. What happened, what she did, she did in a moment of weakness, of rage born out of tragedy. And though I didn't realize it until it was too late, she would never have gone through with such an evil deed. It wasn't in her. Not even after what had happened."

"I don't understand," Elizabeth said. And she didn't. Why was the priest talking about his sister and what did that have to do with Nicholas? 

A few yards ahead, on one side of the road, the leafy branches of a bush stirred. Princess neighed, shying nervously to the other side of the path, but continued forward.

"Our mother died giving birth to Lucretia." Vlad's back was rigid, his knuckles white against the brown leather of the reins, his voice unnaturally loud in the quiet woods. "Our father was a good man. He loved us and worked hard to give us a good home. Romania is a country of great beauty and mystery. The culture is old and rich, but it isn't always an easy place for a man to earn a living. Lucretia and I were often left on our own. We came to rely on each other, grew close. I loved my sister dearly."

Though Vlad had not shaken the reins or even clucked his tongue at the animal, the pony picked up her pace. She tossed her head and snorted, tugging the cart first toward one side of the path, then back toward the other.

"I truly loved her." Vlad's voice rose as if he spoke to the canopy of trees above them rather than to Elizabeth sitting just inches away. "I'm so...so very sorry...that I killed her."

Elizabeth's heart skipped a beat. She turned her head slowly to the priest. Torchlight danced over his wrinkled face, giving an icy gleam to the tears that rolled down his cheeks and sparkled in his white beard.

"It's my fault things have come to where they are tonight. If I could take it back, I would. God have mercy on my soul, I would. I was ignorant. Wrong." 

The priest paused, closing his eyes, sorrow etched deep in the lines of his face. Beneath his breath he mumbled something in a language Elizabeth couldn't understand. Prayers perhaps?

That strange disquiet that creeps into a dream, that indefinable something that portends the transition to a nightmare, crept over her. "What happened?" Elizabeth whispered. She needed the priest to keep talking, needed it with an urgency she didn't understand. It was as if each word he spoke bought time; time for the pony to carry them a few steps closer to home. 

The hairs on her neck rose. Every muscle in her body tensed. She kept her eyes on the priest's profile, unable to look at the woods around her. Afraid to look.

Vlad opened his eyes. 

"I was a young priest, newly ordained, when my sister sent me word that she had fallen in love with a prominent doctor and was to be married. Our father had died a few years earlier while I was still at the seminary. Lucretia had taken a job as the doctor's housekeeper and eventually began assisting him in his surgery. I was happy for her, honored she wanted me to perform the ceremony."

Another tear rolled down the old man's cheek, finding a place to shine in his beard. 

"She never lied to me. Perhaps things might have turned out differently if she had. But we were close. She told me the truth. The doctor she was marrying was no ordinary man. He looked less than thirty, but he was older, many decades older. They age so slowly some people believe them immortal. They're not. At least not the true vampires, members of the Clans." Vlad's voice hardened. "It is that other sort that are immortal. The sort without human souls. They are a curse on mankind." 

Soft mocking laughter sounded from the forest to the right. Elizabeth kept her eyes on Vlad's profile, some instinct telling her not to look at what was beyond the little cart and pony. Princess continued to move forward, her gait slower, more hesitant now, her whinnies soft and nerve-rattling. 

"The members of the Clans," Vlad said, lifting his bearded chin and thrusting it forward almost defiantly. "They are like other men, some good, some bad. And a few, like the members of Sebastian's clan, are a blessing. A blessing," Vlad repeated. "I didn't understand that at first, not completely. Even after Lucretia explained Sebastian's work to me -- the healing he gave to those afflicted with a strange disease of the blood -- I didn't completely understand or accept it. In the beginning, the way he healed them made me sick with horror."

"But again and again, I saw people, God's children, come to him hopeless, dying. I saw them leave healthy and strong. Husbands, wives, fathers and mothers wept with joy. They offered prayers of thanksgiving for the miracle their loved ones received there in Sebastian's surgery. Slowly I came to understand. When Lucretia told me, after they were married, she intended to join Sebastian in his work, I accepted her decision. I married them beneath the light of a full moon and that same night, she became a vampire."

Elizabeth's gaze was fixed on Vlad's profile, but out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of dark movement on the road ahead. Vlad paled. The trap lurched to a halt. Princess shied back, whinnied, and tried to turn. The priest held the reins firm.

"Don't look into its eyes." Vlad's voice was less than a whisper. 

"Hello,
brother
." Lucy's thick accent was unmistakable.

Elizabeth tore her eye from Vlad's profile and faced the back of the trap, like a child convinced if it can't see something frightening, it isn't there. 

"It's a touching story, isn't it,
Lady Devlin
?" 

The sound of her name on Lucy's lips seemed to compel Elizabeth to turn. She fought the urge and the fresh ripple of terror shooting through her. 

Lucy laughed, low and wicked. "I had quite forgotten that story. It's been so long."

Vlad transferred the reins to one hand, reaching back with the other to grasp Elizabeth's hand. At first she thought he meant to reassure her, but he turned her hand in her lap and began to trace patterns with one finger against her palm. 

"What do you want?" he asked Lucy.

"Not you, priest, have no fear."

Elizabeth struggled to concentrate on what Vlad was trying to tell her. He traced a series of symbols. Stopped. Traced again.

Letters
. 

Elizabeth willed herself to ignore her pounding heart, still the trembling of her hand, and focus on what the priest was trying to communicate.

"Then what do you want?" Vlad said.

"Not what. Who. Give her to me, old man. I'm not going to hurt her."

Vlad's finger traced the letters again. B-o-t-t-l-e. Elizabeth closed and released her fist on his fingers to show she understood. Immediately he began tracing a second more rapid series. This one she understood the first time. B-o-o-k.

"Why Lady Devlin?" Vlad asked, his voice conversational, as if they'd met on a sunny afternoon drive and were exchanging common pleasantries.

"Because he thinks he loves the silly creature. If I have her, Devlin will come to me."

"You have Randall. Why do you want Devlin?"

"I will have a dozen Randalls, two dozen perhaps. Like Lady Devlin's mother, in the end, he will be nothing more than a vessel to house one of my brethren." An evil purr, a sort of caress, entered Lucy's voice. "Devlin is special. He is my
childe
. I made him."

"No," Vlad said. "Not you. You are a demon from Hell. Lucretia made Devlin."

Lucy shrilled and a fierce blast of wind, reeking of sulfur and rot, buffeted the trap. The torch extinguished in its onslaught, then exploded back to life as if fueled by the air itself. The pony panicked, rearing and bucking in its traces. The trap rocked violently. 

Vlad fought to control the animal. Elizabeth took advantage of the distraction to slide the burlap sack from beneath the seat with her foot. She pretended to cough and wretch in reaction to the sulfur cloud that engulfed them, bending double and slipping a hand into the bag. She found the book quickly, then the bottle. She sat up, bringing both into her lap.

"He and I have unfinished business!" The hellish wind died away almost as quickly as it had arisen, leaving behind the stench of evil. 

Controlling Princess with one hand, Vlad made the sign of the cross with his other. "Any business Lucretia had with Devlin ended when she left this earth." 

Lucy hissed. "I am Lucretia!" 

The demon was losing patience. How long could Vlad continue to stall it with words? Careful to keep her back to Lucretia, Elizabeth removed the lid from the bottle with trembling hands. Her fingers fumbled to the ribbon dividing the pages of the book. She opened it, clasping one hand across the top, fingers on the page, palm against the spine. Then moved her elbow, bumping it against Vlad, hoping he would understand she was ready.

"No, you are not Lucretia," Vlad responded calmly. "Lucretia is dead. I killed my sister."

"You merely staked her, priest. We both know that will only stop a vampire for as long as the stake remains in place." Lucy's words were a mocking purr, creeping closer. "It didn't remain in place."

"Neither did her soul," Vlad said. "I was uneducated in the ways of the Clans. I didn't know that once the stakes were removed, in time, both Sebastian and Lucretia would heal, returning fully to life. I went to the mausoleum where Sebastian's body had been laid, intending to pray for the repose of his soul. Instead, I found Lucretia there with the duke's children. I staked my sister and in my ignorance read the Prayers for the Dead over her, releasing her soul. Lucretia is no longer in this world."

"Enough! Give me the woman, priest. Or I will kill you both now." 

Lucy's evil breath stirred the back of Elizabeth's hair. In an instant the she-demon would be upon her, see the book, the bottle of holy water. There was no time to hand them off to Vlad. Elizabeth closed her eyes, breathed a prayer and jerked the bottle over her shoulder.

Screams of agony filled the night. The stench of burning flesh and sulfur was suffocating. Keeping her eyes tightly shut, Elizabeth twisted in her seat and held the book up for the priest. His voice rang out loud and strong, each sentence a stinging whip, flailing shrieks of pain and outrage from the demon.

"
Domine exaudi orationem meam
." 

The screams grew fainter as if the creature were moving away fast. Elizabeth kept her eyes tightly shut, remembering Vlad's order not to look at the thing.

"This isn't over!" Lucy screeched, but its voice was distant now. 

Vlad gave the pony its head and it sprang against the traces with a will to match any top goer in London. Vlad stopped reciting prayers and Elizabeth snapped the book closed, clutching it to her breast with one hand, hanging on to the side of the trap with the other. The cart careened wildly through the forest. The half-empty bottle of holy water rolled and slammed against the sides of the trap, popping up and out of the little cart when it hit a rut. 

Strangely, it landed in the center of the path, upright as if placed there with deliberate care. Elizabeth watched it disappear, left behind as Princess raced through the forest and finally out onto the grassy expanse of lawn at Heaven's Edge. 

The winded pony slowed at the sight of home, its sides expanding and contracting like a fire bellow. As the trap bounced and rattled into the stable yard, Elizabeth stuffed the book back into the burlap sack. She hopped out of the cart almost before Vlad could bring it to a stop, ran to the stable doors and threw them open. Vlad hurried the pony and cart inside. Elizabeth shut the doors and dropped the latch in place, sealing them in. 

The torch still burned in its holder on the trap. Its light gave the stable an eerie glow, but the calm way the duke's horses regarded them from their stalls was reassuring. Vlad began unhooking the pony from the trap. Elizabeth pressed her back to the stable door as if, with the weight of her slim body and the force of her will, she could hold it against whatever might still be out there.

"Is she dead?" Elizabeth asked.

"Princess?" Vlad stopped fumbling with the harnesses and frowned at the little animal. Then his brow cleared. "Ah, Lucy." He patted the horse and released the last hitch. "No. It isn't dead. The holy water burned it, but not enough to destroy it. We'd have to immerse it to do that. It'll be back angrier and more vengeful, as is usual for its kind. But perhaps not tonight. Demons are strangely vain about their appearance.
Diavol varcolac
even more so than other types. You burned its face. Tonight it will want to heal."

"Then Nicholas is safe? For tonight?"

Vlad smiled. "Safer than you and I. She wants him. Until tonight I couldn't understand why she was here, why she'd come to Heaven's Edge. I suspected Lucretia's body might have retained some memory of her past, even though her soul is gone. I believed it'd come here seeking me or Sebastian. After all, I'm Lucretia's brother, the one who killed her. And Sebastian's the groom Lucretia died loving."