VROLOK (19 page)

“It’s the same thing that is happening everywhere. Acts of faith, they are called. They started in Spain. The Queen declared that Jews were to be burnt as heretics and then it spread to include anyone who was not practising the Catholic religion. It has gotten steadily worse. Now it seems that anyone who was different at all is in danger of being burned. I have heard in the country villages members of the Inquisition have come through and tortured every woman until she confessed to being a witch and her reward for her confession was to be burned at the stake. I have heard of villages where not a woman has been left alive after the Inquisition has left.”

“There is evil in this world and I am only a small part of it,” Isabella said. There was a pause in the conversation and then Vincente said.

“Where did you go when you left Florence?”

“Home…well the only home I have and I have to go back there soon.”

“Good, I will go with you.”

“I wish you could.” Isabella relayed her story, about Vlad, her sister, all there was to tell him.

“You see, you can’t come with me. You must stay here and I will get away as often as I can.”

“You have to stay here with me. Please don’t go back.”

“I promised Vlad I would stay loyal to him and I will keep my promise…for now.”

“Then let me go with you.”

“No, Vlad would kill you.”

“But you said it yourself he can’t, you have made me immortal.”

“I don’t know that for sure yet. I still can’t explain why Nicolae could die and I could not. Even if Vlad couldn’t kill you, he could do other things that would cause you pain. If he knew about you he would find ways to torture you. No, he can never know you are still alive.”

“When will you leave?”

“I promised him I would be home as quickly as possible…I am going to leave tomorrow.”

“So soon?”

“Yes.”

“I pretended that I just came back for my portrait. I want him to take down a portrait of his wife and put mine in its place.”

“Why would you be concerned about the portrait of Vlad’s wife?”

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

“Maybe I just don‘t want a picture of another woman in my home.”

“No it’s more than that…” Vincente paused and then it struck him. “You love him.”

“Don’t be ridiculous…I have just recently stopped hating him.”

“My mother used to tell me, that to truly hate someone you must have at one time truly loved them.”

“Nonsense…as I told you, I just don’t another woman‘s picture in my home.”

Another realisation seized Vincente. “You don’t have any feelings for me, not really.”

“Now you really are being ridiculous. If I felt nothing for you I would have left you to the religious zealots.”

Vincente smiled, “No, you wouldn’t have let me burn. You do feel something for me, but it almost feels like a sense of obligation—is that it?”

“Don‘t be a fool, Why would I have any sense of obligation towards you?”

“Maybe some day you’ll tell me.”

Isabella ignored his last comment and as day was approaching, she felt tired. She had a long journey home ahead of her.

Isabella soon arrived back at the castle. Vlad looked indifferent to see her but he really wasn‘t. He was overjoyed to see her return so swiftly. But he hid his feelings. He felt he poured his heart out to her before she left and she ran from him. Isabella returned his indifference, but she too was overjoyed to see him. She sat down opposite Vlad and looked up at the portrait of his dead wife.

“Where is your portrait?” Vlad asked.

“It’s behind you.” Vlad stood to look at the portrait. It was beautiful, he thought. It was more beautiful than the picture of his wife. But Vlad had loved his wife and although he loved Isabella even more, he knew that Isabella would never look at him with the complete adoration his wife had. He also knew that he would never be completely sure of Isabella’s feelings for him. But Isabella was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen and he was besotted by her, though he feared his love of her would make him more miserable than he had been without her.

Isabella looked at Vlad surveying the painting. She was not sure until this moment that she loved him. Vincente was right; he had inherited his mother’s perspicacity. Isabella believed Vlad was still totally enamoured of his dead wife and she was only a distraction for him. She would never be sure that he loved her completely. And eternity with this man was sure to make her miserable, but she could not imagine eternity without him. A knock at the door interrupted the thoughts of the two Vampires.

Isabella looked at Vlad and he returned her gaze, both of them bewildered—who could it possibly be? They were both prepared to kill whoever it was. Isabella put her finger to her lips to keep him silent. She crept towards the door and he opened it slightly. A woman was standing outside; she was in her late fifties. Isabella saw the girl’s mother in her eyes. It was Katya’s daughter.

“Isabella?” the Vampire asked.

“Yes,” her human namesake answered. “How did you know it was me?”

“You have your mother’s eyes.”

“I want to talk to you.”

“Evidently…” Isabella answered. “I will come outside.” Isabella slipped outside and shut the door behind her. “Why did you come up here? You certainly took a risk,” the Vampire said.

“My mother asked me to come up and fetch you.”

“Why?”

“She is dying. She wanted to speak to you and see you before she left this world.”

Isabella’s outward appearance was cold and emotionless. She did not know what to expect but she consented to travel down to the village with Katya‘s daughter.

“Are you not afraid of me?” she asked.

“My mother told me you would not harm me,” Katya’s daughter answered.

“She did.” Isabella smiled. After all that had happened, Katya still had faith in her childhood friend and Isabella knew she didn’t deserve this trust.

The pair arrived at the cottage. Isabella sat down on the bed beside her dying friend. Katya opened her eyes and glanced one last time at Isabella.

“Still so beautiful, Bella.” Isabella made no response. “You’re still angry with me.”

“I’m not angry with you, Katya,” Isabella began. “Your actions have always demonstrated a caring for the others around you. You were right to kill Nicolae; he would have never accepted what I had changed him into.”

“You look the same, but yet you are different,” Katya said.

“I am different. I am not the woman you once knew. I can’t even remember what that woman was like.”

“Oh, yes you can, Isabella, or you would not be here and you would have killed my daughter.” Isabella remained silent and Katya winced in pain. “My time is running out and I have something to ask you.”

“What is it?”

“Will you grant me a wish?”

“It depends on what it is.”

Katya used all her might to sit up and then grabbed Isabella’s arm.

“Don’t play games, Isabella. Will you grant your dying friend a final wish?” Isabella was moved by Katya’s determined emotion.

“I will,” Isabella responded. “What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to promise me that from now on no member of my family will ever be harmed by your hand.” Isabella looked at her friend; Katya was making her promise to look after her children and their descendants. Her final thoughts were of her family. Katya was a good woman.

Isabella answered her request. “I promise you, Katya, that as long as I am living and your family is loyal to me, no member of your line will ever be harmed by a Vampire. In fact, I will keep watch over them for you and if it is in my power to protect them from any other danger, I will.”

Katya brought Isabella’s hand to her lips and kissed it. She then dropped Isabella’s hand as her strength gave out and she gasped her last breath.

Anna was still reading her story when she was silenced by a woman bursting through the door of her cottage. This woman was beautiful, but her face was cold and expressionless. It was Isabella, the Vrolok.

CHEVALIER SANS PEUR ET SANS REPROACHE
FEARLESS AND BLAMELESS KNIGHT 

CHAPTER EIGHT

Catherine was terror-stricken at the sight of Isabella. Anna’s grandchildren still did not really understand what was happening but when they saw their mother struck still with fright, they began to become frightened themselves. And within a few brief moments all Anna’s grandchildren erupted into tears. Isabella immediately threw a harsh glance towards the children, which managed to silence them instantly. She spoke to Anna.

“Come with me.” Anna obeyed the command immediately. She shut the door behind her so that the children and their mother could not hear the conversation that was to go on between the old woman and the Vampire. Once the two women were alone outside, Isabella continued to speak.

“I could not save your son,” Isabella began.

“I know that…you do not need to tell me.”

“I do not need to do anything. I am telling you because I wanted you to hear it from me, no matter what these people say,” Isabella remarked superciliously.

“You were once one of these people yourself,” Anna replied. Isabella had killed people for being less familiar with her but she liked Anna, she always had. Anna had never been afraid of Isabella, as so many others of her family had been, and she had never shied away from speaking her mind where Isabella was concerned. So Isabella just smiled at her temerity.

“You are right, I was, but I would not remind me of that too often if I were you.”

“I am too old to hold my tongue, and you are no threat to me.”

“I’m not?” There was a pause in the conversation. Isabella wanted to frighten Anna, but Anna would not be frightened and Isabella understood this.

“You’re not.”

Isabella sighed and said, “I have cursed Katya many times for making me promise never to hurt your family.”

“I had heard you made that promise willingly and often did more than you were asked,” Anna replied.

“Your family for the most part deserved my respect and protection. I did whatever I could, which was usually too little too late.”

Anna began to think about her own future. “What will happen now…what will become of us? Will we go to a new village and start again?”

“Do you want to do that?” Isabella replied. “I will never come back here. All ties with this place have been severed now. No member of your family will ever have to teach their children to be guardians of Vampires ever again.”

“I have already started to tell my grandchildren,” Anna replied

“Tell them it was just a story that you had once heard and that there is no truth in it. In time they will forget, as children always do. I don’t want your family to be under any further obligation to me.”

“Thank you,” Anna replied.

Isabella did not want to leave Anna like this. She wanted to give her something. She looked up and saw the castle on the edge of the forest and smiled.

“There…that will be your new home and you can have Vlad’s fortune. He has it buried all over the Carpathians.” Isabella laughed. “As if anyone would dare steal from him. Do you know when he was alive he left a golden goblet in the middle of the village square for people to drink from, and no one ever tried to steal it? He was so feared even then.”

“What about you, do you not need money?” Anna interrupted Isabella.

“I don’t want his money. I don’t deserve to have it.” Isabella looked over towards Anna and smiled. Isabella was touched because Anna actually looked concerned about Isabella’s well-being. “Don’t worry I will survive; that is one thing I can guarantee. Take the money for your family. Consider it payment for centuries of loyalty.”

“Thank you again.”

“Don’t thank me just yet. I do want one final thing from you.” Isabella responded.

“Anything,” Anna replied.

“I want you from now on to deny my existence and the existence of Vampires. I want us just to be a story in this land, dismissed as a figment of frightened children’s overactive imagination. In time we will become a myth, not even a distant memory. Will you do this last thing for me?”

“I will, of course I will,” Anna replied. “But what about the other people in the village, they will tell people of you and Vlad and the others.”

“I would not worry about them; they won’t be getting a chance to tell anything to anyone.”

“But people will come to the castle and ask where we came from and what we are doing there.” Isabella considered her answer before she spoke; then an idea struck her.

“Tell them you are descendants of the Dracul family. Yes, that’s it, tell them of his family. Deny all rumours of Vampires. Condemn any people who spout such nonsense as fools. Tell them Dracula’s family history. Make it up. Tell them of other princes after Dracula who continued his line, that his son was not poisoned, that he didn’t die, but ruled Transylvania after Vlad Dracula had died and you are his direct descendants. Write a history and make people believe it. As far as the whole world will be concerned, Vlad died four hundred years ago. People who visit Snagov can even see his tomb. I have even seen it. There is another tomb near a monastery where Vlad’s brother was supposed to have been laid to rest. His body was stolen but his tomb still exists. Tell people it is Dracula’s son’s grave. Anna you can make a good life for you and your family if you do as I ask.”

“I will never be able to convince people of this. They will not believe such stories,” Anna protested.

“People will believe anything you tell them as long as you have the confidence to do it. Vlad told me a story once. It was about a French knight. His fellow knights had deserted him. He stood on a bridge alone where two hundred men were marching towards him. He stood there facing his own death, determined to fight off as many as he could before they overcame him. Vlad was watching from afar. He was overawed by the knight’s pugnacity and decided to help him. Together they fought, and when they were finished not one single man had made it across the bridge. The only request Vlad made of this knight was that he never told anyone that Vlad had helped him. The knight protested, saying people would not believe he had done it alone. Vlad simply said that people will believe anything as long as you have enough conviction when you tell them. Later I read of a fearless and blameless knight who fought off two hundred men singlehandedly and I knew it was him,” Isabella said, smiling. She was remembering.

“You really loved him, didn’t you?” Anna asked. Isabella laughed.

“I hated him, but someone once told me that to truly hate someone, you have to have truly loved them. Vlad was the only man who never judged me. He never tried to make me different from what I was.” Isabella fell silent; memories were filling her mind.

“You will miss him, won’t you?” Anna asked.

“More than I even realise. Unfortunately, I always believed he would be there if I needed him. I always thought he was dependable. I could always rely on him to be skulking about in that castle whenever I needed company. I came as close to loving him as I have done to any man. There were times when we hated each other. There were times when we made each other miserable, but there were also times when he truly made me as happy as I ever have been and took me as close to perfection, as love can ever take you. I was never completely happy with him but we could have been and that is my greatest regret.”

Anna watched as a red tear fell down Isabella’s cheek. She tried to change the subject, not wanting to cause Isabella anymore distress.

“Thank you for giving us this. It’s a second chance for us all,” Anna said.

“It is no less than your family deserves,” Isabella answered.

“Can I ask you for another favour?”

Isabella smiled. She had just given this woman everything she had and still Anna was asking for something more. Only Anna would have dared.

“What else do you want?” Isabella asked.

“I want to know what happened to you. I want you to tell me about the things you have seen.”

“You are the third member of your family to ask me that. I’ll grant you this last request.”

“I actually have another.” Anna stated.

Isabella laughed and said, “I have nothing left to give you.”

“You can give me this….” Anna gathered up her courage to ask Isabella for this last thing. “A man called Simon came to visit me today. He tried to save me. He thought I was in danger. I believe him to be good man and guilty of nothing more than just being there when Vlad was killed. I would like you to spare him and his family.”

“No,” Isabella said, resolute. “I will not and cannot grant you this,” Isabella said firmly. “These men let Vlad die. They are all guilty of nothing more than just being there when he died. They watched him die and they must suffer as he did. They watched as he was slaughtered and did nothing to stop it. For that they will follow him to the grave. All of them.”

“And what about the men who killed my son?” Anna asked, remembering her own loss.

“Rest easy, Anna, my punishment for the English that pursued Vlad and hunted him down like an animal will be greater still. They will suffer the worst of all fates. I will not stop until their worst fears have been realised. That is a promise.”

Anna was stunned into silence; she almost pitied the men who had killed Vlad. Isabella realised she had slightly frightened Anna when she had spoken so vehemently. She wanted to give her comfort but she didn’t know how.

“I have to leave soon but before I do I will give you my memories,” Isabella said, and she placed her hands on Anna’s head. Thoughts and memories flowed into Anna’s mind. She saw and remembered Isabella’s life as if she had been there observing it all along. Some things were horrible, some beautiful and some sad. She understood Isabella that little bit better and she knew that no one would be spared. For the first time in her life she felt pity for Isabella and Isabella sensed her pity.

“Do not try to rationalise my actions,” Isabella began, “because have no doubt—I am a cold-blooded killer. I have killed children while they slept in their beds and not felt a moment’s remorse. Your pity is wasted on me, but I thank you for feeling it. Take your grandchildren and their mother up to the castle and you will eventually forget these memories that I have given you. Live the rest of your life in peace and forget about Vampires, for you will not hear from me again.”

Anna felt sad as she watched Isabella depart. She knew what Isabella was, but she could not help but feel the loss of a friend as she saw her walking away.

The night Katya had died Isabella was distraught. She left her friend’s house and walked back up through the forest to the castle. She went to her bedroom and lay on her bed staring out the window. Emptiness filled her. She felt Katya’s death had severed the last link to her old life. She was now truly a Vampire and nothing else. She did not know what to do now. The best thing she could think to do was to take comfort in Vlad’s company and live here with him. Any thoughts of her painter in Italy left her. She would stay here for the foreseeable future and see if she could finally forget her old life. It would also give her time to grieve for her old friend.

Vlad was pleased that Isabella stayed. They actually seemed to be enjoying each other’s company. They slept together and they fed together. This was the closest thing to happiness either one had ever experienced in their afterlife, but it was not to last long.

One night as the dawn was just about to break, Isabella crept downstairs and sat on the floor beside Vlad’s feet and leaned her head on his lap. He was pleased if not surprised by this show of affection, but he knew her too well and realised she wanted something. The pair shared everything but neither one was that intimate with the other. They didn’t completely trust each other; perhaps they never would—each one knew the other’s character too well.

Vlad rested his hand on her head and waited for her to ask him whatever it was that she wanted. The pause was not long before she started to speak, for Isabella was impatient and impetuous.

“I have grown tired of this place,” she began. Vlad thought this meant that she wanted to leave him. He lifted up his hand from her head and got up, ousting Isabella’s head off his knee.

“You want to leave so you can go back to Italy!” Vlad snapped.

“No, I have seen enough of Italy, too—quite the contrary, in fact. I thought I would quite like to fight in a battle.” Vlad looked at Isabella, bemused as she continued to speak. “A German army prepares to fight the Turks in Hungary. Why don’t we go and lend a hand? Since my promise to Katya we have been going further and further afield for food. If we got into a war there would be plenty of blood at our disposal. A King, Maximilian I think, is rallying troops against the Turks.