“Come in, come in,” he said breathlessly.
I felt the invisible wall collapse before me and I stepped into the house. Vlad shot a venomous look at Sir Stephen when Andrew was not looking. The man nearly fell over a vase in his haste to step back from his Master.
Andrew took my hand and led me into a grand sitting room. He sat with me on a couch and attempted to stare through the veils hiding my face.
“Are you happy, Glynis?” he asked suddenly.
“Of course she is,” Vlad answered for me. He sat down in a chair opposite us and gave me a rather stern look.
Andrew pointedly ignored him and persisted. “Are you, Glynis?”
I leaned toward Andrew, took his head. “Yes, Andrew. I am now.” It was the truth. Staring into my brother’s face brought wonderful contentment and happiness.
“Your face? Does it hurt you much?”
“No, not really. The pain inside is worse,” I answered truthfully.
“I brought someone to see you, Glynis. This is Doctor Emil Baum. Do you remember him?”
A man I remembered quite well from my childhood stepped forward. I recalled he was a friend of my father’s and often tended to us when we fell sick.
“Good evening, Countess Dracula,” he said with a smile.
“Dr. Baum, how lovely to see the face of a friend from home,” I said.
He graced me with a bright smile and kissed my hand. “It is lovely to see you as well, madam. You seem to be doing quite well after all you have endured.”
I suddenly found I could not speak. The presence of my lost family seemed to fill the room and the pain of all we had endured sliced through me with fresh intensity. I gripped Andrew’s hand tightly and fell against his shoulder.
Andrew embraced me and held me close.
I could feel Vlad gazing at me with latent anger looming in his eyes.
After I had recovered myself, Andrew spent the next hour quietly questioning me on all that had happened since our family had journeyed from home. I happily told him the truth of our travels until I reached the point in my tale where Vlad tricked my family into traveling to his estate in the Carpathian Mountains. From that point on, I recited all the lies Vlad had instructed me to tell my brother. Andrew listened with a somber expression and believed all that was told him. When I had finished my tale in a wavering voice, Andrew broke down into fresh tears.
“Thank you, thank you, sir, for saving my sister,” Andrew said to Vlad, his earlier antagonism fading from his voice.
“It was all I could do,” Vlad responded lightly.
“You do not know what it means to me to have her alive. We have always been close and to lose her would have been too much to bear,” Andrew continued.
“You are a good man, Count Dracula,” Emil enthused. He, too, had been touched by the false story of Vlad’s courageous attempt to save my battered self from the raging torrents of the river and his kindness in nursing me back to health.
I could not help but frown at Vlad through my veil. I rather liked the gauzy thing at this point. I did not have to disguise my expressions of distaste.
“I desired to do what I could to help her. Then I was blessed with finding love in my heart for her,” Vlad said, smiling with satisfaction.
“You are a most remarkable man,” Maria sighed. She also had been swept away by the romantic aspects of the story.
A solitary Count rescuing a damsel in distress then marrying her even though she was disfigured was a wonderful story that warmed the heart.
It was nauseating in its effectiveness to sway our audience.
“He has given me more than you know,” I said darkly from beneath my veil. I could not help myself.
Vlad smiled at me, but I distinctly heard his voice utter Watch your words in my mind.
“Glynis, Dr. Baum has traveled far to see you. Would you please let him see your injuries? Perhaps he could help you in some way,” Andrew asked gently.
I looked toward Vlad, who nodded his consent.
“Well, yes, I suppose. But I only want him to see my face.”
“But, Glynis-“
“Andrew, please, I could not bear for you to see what I have become,” I said sharply and I meant it. The creature I had become was not the same wholesome, vibrant girl I had once been. If Andrew were to see me now, he would know I was something unreal, unnatural, even though he may not know the word vampire.
“Very well,” Andrew sighed. “Then you will allow Emil to examine you?”
“Yes, I will.”
“Maria, take the doctor and Glynis to a room where he may examine her in private,” Stephen instructed his wife.
Maria quickly stood and Emil and I followed her at her beckoning. I walked nervously with the doctor, glancing back at Vlad for assurance as I moved through the doorway. He merely nodded.
Vlad had told me what to do if this was requested, but I was still a little frightened. I had not fed well the night before and the Hunger was growing. My powers were weakening and I did not dare tell Vlad I was afraid I would not be able to carry out his instructions without a fresh infusion of blood.
“Here you are,” Maria said opening a door. “The servants already put your medical bag on the bed, Doctor.”
“Thank you, kind lady,” Emil said with a smile. “Come now, Glynis.”
The doctor shut the door behind us and gave me the warm smile I remembered him gracing upon me when I was a small child. May had hated all doctors but Doctor Baum. She had seen him far more often than I had. This memory only made me feel even guiltier about what I had to do.
“All right, Glynis, sit down on the edge of the bed and I shall take a look at you,” Emil said in his cheery voice. He moved several candles over to the side of the bed for more light and pulled a chair over. Sitting down on the edge of the chair, he reached out his pudgy, wrinkled hands and took hold of the veil.
I took a deep breath and steeled myself for what was to come.
Dr. Baum lifted the veil until my chin came into view, then he hesitated. Obviously expecting the worst, he flipped the veil back over my head. His expression changed from anxious to dumbfounded.
“I do not understand,” he gasped as he gazed into the beautiful perfection that is my face.
I knew from Cneajna’s description of me that I had blazing aquamarine eyes, flawless skin, and ruby lips. I must appear magnificently exquisite, for he could scarcely comprehend what he was seeing.
“I do not understand,” he repeated.
“You will,” I responded.
“It is all a lie,” Dr. Baum whispered in shock. “A lie. But why?”
I could stand it no more. The tension was unbearable. My hands lashed out and gripped the poor doctor tightly. I flung him down onto the bed next to me and straddled him before he could even catch his breath.
“Glynis!”
The hunger welled up within me, fierce and demanding, as I gripped the man tightly by his thinning hair.
“What are you doing? This is madness,” Dr. Baum exclaimed, fear finally rising in his gaze.
“I have to do this to protect Andrew. Forgive me,” I answered passionately.
I drew back my scarlet lips and my fangs descended.
The terror of the moment gripped the poor doctor so tightly he could not scream.
I reared up, then fell on him, my fangs ripping through his throat. His blood welled up through the wounds and into my waiting mouth. I drank with feverish intensity as my victim swooned under my body.
Even though the hunger was terrific in its force, I fought it sufficiently to project thoughts of erotic pleasure into the doctor’s terrified mind to calm him. His blood was not as fresh or tasty as I would have desired, but as it flowed down into me, it renewed my body and fed my powers. As he weakened, I forced myself to pull away from his throat. The hunger was still within me, but was sated enough to stave off the madness.
Staring down into the doctor’s face, I felt terrible remorse, but brushed it away. I had to finish what I had been instructed to do. Leaning down, I licked the two small wounds on his neck until they closed to small white dots. Rising up, I stared into the doctor’s dazed eyes, pressing my hand against his forehead.
“Listen, Emil. You lifted my veil and you saw a horribly scarred face. It was so terrible it broke your heart. The eyes were nearly blind and my features were horribly disfigured. It is nightmare face. It was a violent trauma and you are amazed that I am alive. Do you understand?”
The doctor nodded. “Yes, it is horrible. I wanted to weep.”
“Yes, and you realize that Vlad is a very good man to care for me. You must tell Andrew this. Insist on this fact. Vlad Dracula must be a very good man to marry such a horribly scarred woman.”
“Yes, yes, a good man,” the doctor repeated.
“And what happened here, just now, it was a dream. A dream that you cannot truly recall. Do you understand?”
“A dream. A dream.” His gaze was distant, lost in my power.
“You will feel slightly ill, but it is because you were so repulsed by my appearance,” Glynis continued.
“It was so terrible,” the doctor sobbed.
I sat back with satisfaction. It was done. “Now, Emil, go back to your chair and sit down until I tell you otherwise.”
Emil climbed off the bed and obediently sat down, his expression blank, his eyes glazed.
I waited for nearly an hour in the room, allowing sufficient time for the doctor to examine me. At last, I lowered the veil over my face and raised a hand in front of the doctor’s face.
“It is done,” I whispered.
Doctor Baum snapped into motion immediately. “There you go. The veil is back in place. Do not fret now. It is all done.”
“What do you think, Doctor? Can anything be done?”
The doctor swallowed hard and reached out to grasp my hand. His eyes filling with tears, he shook his head. “Dear girl, if I could do anything I would. The damage is too severe. I am so terribly sorry.”
I almost laughed, but caught myself. The doctor took my strangled laugh as a sob and patted my hand.
“Glynis, you are a lucky woman to be alive. Now, you are blessed with a husband who loves you despite what has happened. He is a good man and you must be happy.”
I smiled triumphantly behind my veil. “I shall, Doctor.” I vowed. “I shall.”
Chapter 25
The Journal of Lady Glynis Wright
Later-
Silence, cold and seething, dominated the ride back to the mansion. As the carriage rolled past the pastel colored homes of Buda’s wealthy, Vlad stared stoically ahead throughout the ride. Only the dark fires glimmering in his eyes were visible through the cloak of darkness he had drawn around him.
Across from him, I sat in a blissful haze of happiness. Freed from my cumbersome veils, I enjoyed the sweet caress of the night breeze against my face. A small smile formed on my lips as I gazed down the hillside toward the sparkling river then further to the flatland of Pesth.
I was immune to Vlad’s cold stare. My brother’s warm embrace had brought a joy to my soul I had not believed to be possible in this vampire existence. Being with Andrew had reawakened my humanity and it warmed the coldness of my vampire heart. For the first time in my undead life, the long festering wounds inflicted on my soul by Vlad’s cruelty and Sir Stephen’s betrayal were numbed. The comforting love of my brother had been a salve to my tortured psyche.
As the sleeping city streamed past my window, I wished fervently that I would never leave this place. In this city, I had found a measure of peace. First unexpectedly and wonderfully, in the arms of my mysterious vampire, and then in the gentle smile of my elder brother. To be free of Vlad’s wretched castle was bliss. His evil permeated every stone of that ruined structure. Here in Buda, his evil seemed tempered by outside forces.
With a pang of guilt, I realized that I had hardly missed my vampire sisters since arriving in Buda. Their beautiful faces and tender embraces seemed like a distant memory. Only Cneajna’s image remained vivid in my mind. I could distinctly remember the lovely vampire’s teasing smile and bright laugh. I know that if I were to never return to the castle, I would miss Cneajna dreadfully. But with that realization, came the knowledge that I can go on without my vampire mother. Freedom from that terrible place where my family had perished is more enticing than Cneajna’s motherly affections. I had lost my mortal mother and, guiltily, I knew I was prepared to abandon my vampire mother.