“I can do as I please, dear one. I am the Master.”

“Sir Stephen is your servant. Give him to me. Let me feed.”

I had seen Sir Stephen’s frightened eyes as he had gazed at me and beyond that, I had seen his lust. All I wanted was to rip open his throat and feed. Feed on his blood to satiate my hunger and avenge my family.

“He is worth more to me than you know. Hate him if you must, but his blood is not yours.”

“Damn you,” I whispered in a fierce voice.

Vlad threw back his head and laughed with delight. “You are such a wild creature. You amuse me, but I will break you.” Elina covered his neck with desperate kisses as he spoke. His wives closed in around him, seducing him with their beguiling bodies.

“Just a taste more, my love, a taste more,” Cneajna whispered in his ear.

Vlad just shook his head. “No more tonight, my darlings.”

I screamed at him with rage. I picked up the corpse of the guard and flung it at the writhing vampires. The dead man smashed into Ariana and Elina, knocking them to the floor. Cneajna drew back in fear as Vlad whirled about.

“You will not defy me!”

“Feed us or I will slaughter the servants!”

Yes, I realize now that I was being temperamental, but I was furious. Seeing Sir Stephen brought back the stark reality of his betrayal of my family. Also, I might as well admit, I was disgusted by the fawning attentions of my vampire sisters. I was barely recovering from the agony of our starvation, and I wanted nothing more than to feel full, alive, and strong.

Vlad’s form blurred and I found myself dangling from his grasp. “You will not dishonor me! You will wait for the night to return and then you will feed! If you defy me again, I will lock you in the dungeon with your dead mother and let you starve for weeks! This is not an idle threat, Glynis. I have killed Brides less disrespectful than you.”

To emphasize his point, he slammed me into the wall several times, then flung me across the great hall. I slid to a halt against the wall, my hair splayed out about me. My anger burned in my eyes as Cneajna hurried to my side. I pushed myself up, growling deeply in my throat.

“Do not do it!”

I reluctantly obeyed her, my hands clutching at the stone floor. I craved release. I wanted to let my anger ride me into a wave of violence against all of them.

But I remembered…I remembered what I had promised my Mother. I had to escape this place and defying Vlad would only deter that plan. I did not need to be killed or imprisoned.

Elina wrapped herself around Vlad’s body. “Let me calm you, my Master. Let us leave them.”

Vlad continued to glare at me, then he nodded. “Yes, yes, let us go now.”

He embraced Elina and they dissolved into a fine blue mist. Ariana watched it reverently until the last mote dissipated, then she joined us in the corner of the room.

Slowly, I rose to my knees and gazed at my vampire sisters. My anger still burned inside of me, but my countenance was cold and aloof.

“Tomorrow he will bring us another. That is good, Glynis,” Ariana said, trying to console me.

I nodded, then fell back to the floor. I drew my knees up to my chest and hugged my legs. “I feel the hunger now. It is faint, but there.”

“You will learn to live with it,” Cneajna assured me.

“You really should not defy the Master. He never would have called his men back,” Ariana said softly, patting my arm.

“I wish he had,” I said in a low voice. “I saw the man who betrayed my family in that carriage. I saw his pale scared face and his long white neck. He would have come to us if Vlad had not held him back.”

I could feel my fury burning in my veins, but my vampire sisters did not understand.

“He brought you to us,” Cneajna said softly. “For that I am grateful.”

I gave her a sharp look, then turned away. She could not possibly understand.

It was then that I took another vow in the name of my family.

When I am free of this place, I will go to Buda and I will kill Sir Stephen.

None shall stop me.

Chapter 13

The Journal of Lady Glynis Wright

The Castle

5th of September, 1819

How did I become this monster…this creature that feasts on the blood of innocents? I stare at my bloodstained dress and feel nothing but hatred for what I have done. To know how callously I killed before and felt no regret, now pains me. I killed before with no remorse. But tonight…tonight, what I have done is unbearable.

I allowed myself to become this hideous fiend. The hunger tears at me, but I must find a way to fight it.

Tonight Vlad disappeared soon after we rose. The hunger was stirring within me and I clung to Vlad’s promise that he would feed us once again tonight. I have never been a patient person by nature and tonight was no different. As I scribbled away in my journal, I continuously listened for his return. From where I sat, perched high on a ledge in the great hall, I could watch the male servants busy replacing the front door we had battered to bits. Beyond them, in the courtyard, the wolf pack paced back and forth.

I sensed him before I actually witnessed his arrival in the castle. Ducking back into the shadows, I hid my journal and lay flush against the cold stone. Below me, Vlad entered the castle holding a large sack in one hand. He began to speak to one of the men working on the door, gesturing toward the courtyard. Taking advantage of him being distracted, I crawled, spider-like, out of my hiding place and down the back of a large column, then leapt onto the stairs and rushed up into the castle.

Bursting into the Brides’ chambers, I found the sisters seated on the floor, talking softly as they sorted through a heap of jewelry.

“He has returned,” I said breathlessly.

“We are to feed,” Ariana squealed happily.

“I did not see anyone with him so perhaps he will let us roam free,” I said hopefully. I thought, briefly, of the bag he had held, then I dismissed it from my thoughts.

Cneajna gathered up the tangled jewelry and tossed it onto a table. Smoothing out her dress, she smiled at me. “Our Master will come to us and we will feed. As he promised.”

As her words ended, the door opened behind me. Vlad swept in dressed in a cloak, the sack swung over one shoulder.

“You wished to feed tonight, my loves, so I brought you a feast to restore your bodies, your youth, your beauty.”

I leaned back against a column and looked at him over my shoulder. His features wore a particularly satisfied expression.

“And where is this feast?” I asked of him. I suspected he was toying with us once more. Giving us false hopes just to listen to us wail with starvation later.

Vlad laughed at my impertinent manner and leaned over to press a kiss against my lips. I turned away from him sharply, so he licked the side of my face with his awful, long tongue. He lowered the bag to the floor and untied the top.

The other Brides gathered around us, whispering with delight among themselves. I looked down at Vlad as he leaned over to open the bag.

What had he brought us? An animal of some sort?

But in my heart, I knew the truth.

The edges of the bag fell away and huddled before us was a small child about the age of three. It was a young boy, his tiny soft limbs browned by the sun, his wide brown eyes staring out at us from beneath the bangs of his brown hair.

“Oh, how lovely he is,” Elina exclaimed.

I gripped Vlad’s arm and he looked into my eyes. “You wished to feed, did you not, dear wife?”

“We cannot,” I protested.

Ariana fell to her knees and gushed over the child, petting his head, tweaking his tear-stained cheeks. “He is such a beautiful little boy!”

“I promised you a fine feast, dear Glynis. Enjoy!” Vlad smirked, turning to leave.

I did not relinquish my hold on his arm as my fingers dug into the fabric of his coat. “We cannot!”

Leaning down, he cocked his head and stared triumphantly into my eyes. “Ah, but you will.”

Suddenly, my grip was empty. He had merely vanished.

The door to the chambers slammed shut with a loud crack.

I trembled with the horror of what was happening, but I knew I could not stop what was about to happen. The hunger was upon us. Our feeding from the previous night had barely taken the edge from our desperate need. Already, we looked pale and drawn. The need for blood was strong within us all…within me.

Cneajna drew the child into her gentle embrace and kissed his forehead tenderly. Laughing, the Brides gushed over the child and his fear began to fade away. Ariana lifted him high into the air and spun him around until he was gleefully giggling. Elina stole him away from her sister and bounced him on her hip while she sang to him. Cneajna was enraptured by him as she ran her hands over his silken hair and caressed his baby flesh.

I could not move. I froze, clinging to the column by the doorway. It was as if the world had suddenly stopped all motion except for the movements of my vampire sisters. With gay laughter and chilling adoration, the vampire women fussed over the child, hugging and kissing him with affection.

“We cannot,” I whispered in protest.

Cneajna whirled about the room with the child cradled in her arms. Her eyes were bright with the hunger, and I pressed my hand to my mouth in anguish.

The hunger was eating at me with savage desperation.

Ariana took hold of the child and drew him away from Cneajna. Taking his hand, she led him into a little dance. Elina laughed and took his other hand. They danced around in a circle as the child’s laughter echoed through our dark chamber.

“Please, please, we must send him away,” I said. I felt tears on my face while my body burned with the hunger.

Giggling, the child ran away from the Brides and playfully hid behind the furniture in the room, peeking out to smile before he ducked back down. Ariana dropped to her knees, her eyes sparkling dangerously and chased him around a table as the child giggled with delight. Elina caught him in her embrace and kissed his cheek with her dark red lips. She cuddled him up against her and looked at me with slitted eyes. With a small smile, she set him down on the floor, nudging him toward me.

He ran and threw his small, chubby arms around my legs. Stricken, I let my hand fall onto the top of his little dark head. I covered my face with one hand, unable to look into his eager face.

Cneajna hurried after the child as he let go of me and raced away. I felt Ariana brush past me followed by Elina. My sluggishly beating heart felt heavy and painful in my chest. The child ran past me and my hand snagged his shirt. Pulling him into my arms, I kissed his cheek, feeling my long vampire teeth descending behind my lips. He sloppily kissed me back, hugging my neck tightly. Slowly, I sank to the floor, embracing him. Ariana knelt next to me as Elina settled on the floor, both of them watching with bright, deadly eyes.

The little boy grew silent, his dark eyes staring into mine.

“Sleep now,” I whispered to him. My voice caught in a sob.

Cneajna slowly knelt before me.

“It is her right to begin. She is the first,” Elina said to me.

Sobbing, I held his sleeping form tighter. His body was so warm. I could feel his heart beating in his chest and hear his blood rushing through his veins. My hunger growled within me, and I cried out in anguish.

Reverently, Cneajna took him from my arms. I covered my face with my hands, too horrified to speak. Finally, I lowered my hands to see Cneajna tracing the child’s little lips with her fingertips.

Ariana and Elina drew closer, their eyes burning with hunger.

“We cannot,” I murmured.

Cneajna slowly turned the small head with her fingers exposing its delicate throat.

“It is our way,” she said in a low voice, her fangs suddenly very visible and sharp.

Then the hunger spoke and we fed.

In the aftermath of the feeding, I stumbled through the castle. I wanted to retch but my wretched undead body was already burning the blood to restore my life. Weeping, I pulled at my hair, my dress, and my body. I was in agony and could not find release.