Bride of Blood:: First Kiss (25 page)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anton awoke suddenly and sat up.
 
He glanced down and saw her naked body wrapped in sheets.
 
She was still breathing, so he was relieved that he hadn’t killed her.
 
He had killed mortal women in the past.
 
Mostly they were evil, cut-throat prostitutes or black widows.
 
Occasionally a mortal woman’s body just simply gave out.
 
But Molly had been strong.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
He stretched and jumped to his feet.
 
One glance at the clock told him that he had been asleep for only a few minutes.
 
He had plenty of time to feed again before he went home.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Before he left, he carefully untangled her from the sheets.
 
Then he put her in a comfortable position with her head on the pillow.
 
Lastly, he covered her with the sheets and the blanket.
 
He wanted to make sure that she was warm while she slept since her body had lost quite a bit of energy and heat.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
After that night he didn’t see Molly again.
 
A week later he received his first message from Velara, so she passed out of his mind until he saw the store.
 
He knew that he wouldn’t see her again.
 
Anyway, next time she might not survive.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anton stood on the beach and looked out into the night.
 
The moon’s bright light showed beautifully on the water’s surface.
 
The wind was cold that night, but Anton bent down and touched the warm, foamy water.
 
It was always strange the way water could be so cold during the day, yet at night could be as comfortable as bath water.
 
It was just one of those natural phenomena that was always so fascinating to him.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Suddenly he remembered exactly where he was.
 
There had been a nagging feeling in the back of his mind, but he couldn’t quite place its cause.
 
Perhaps it’s just hunger, he reassured himself.
 
For weeks since he’d left Christina Michelle, he’d wandered almost aimlessly.
 
During the day while he slept, Velara appeared almost daily in his dreams.
 
She always seemed to be beckoning him toward her.
 
It was almost as if she, herself, possessed the ability to travel to him, regardless of time and space and then penetrate his dreams.
 
This was quite possible since a vampire’s powers were almost limitless, and many of them never fully tapped into their potential.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
On the rare times when he wasn’t dreaming of Velara, Christina Michelle or Lady Bernadine would slip in.
 
The dreams were never sexual, though he would have welcomed it.
 
The worst dream he had was the one where he actually saw Shannon die. He was frozen to the spot and unable to get to her in time.
 
He struggled to break free from whatever held him.
 
Her screams came through the fire.
 
Then he actually left his body and dove straight into flames.
 
He tried to find her as the fire, unable to injure his spirit body, roared around him.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Finally he made it to a clearing and what he saw would forever be burned into his memory.
 
Shannon lay dead on the counter, close to the spot where Anton usually sat when he visited her.
 
Her clothes were torn from her severely burned body.
 
But her face was almost untouched from the fire, which was how he was able to recognize her.
 
Although she was quite dead, her eyes were wide open with terror.
 
Two young vampires held her arms down and were laughing, as if totally unaware of the fire around them.
 
Another vampire was between her legs and was raping her lifeless body.
 
As the smoke cleared, Anton could see who the vampire was: Drago.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Drago cackled as did his fledglings who still held Shannon down.
 
It was pointless for them to pin her down because she was dead.
 
This was more about humiliation and tormenting Anton than anything else.
 
Drago was thrusting himself into her deeply and savagely.
 
Suddenly, Anton felt himself held to the spot once again.
 
Drago opened his mouth as he reached climax and bit savagely into Shannon’s neck.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
He tore a large gash out of her throat and jets of dark blood spewed from her open wound.
 
He pulled himself out of her, his penis was covered with blood.
 
He pulled a knife from his cloak and nodded to the fledglings.
 
To Anton’s horror Drago began to cut into her chest.
 
He used the knife like a pencil as he carved something into her.
 
Anton still could not move, nor could he speak as he tried to scream for Drago to stop this madness.
 
Finally Drago was finished.
 
The fledglings picked up Shannon’s body and held it up proudly.
 
Carved into her chest was the symbol of The Order of the Dragon.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
It was then that Anton awoke.
 
For several minutes, which seemed to him like hours, Anton simply sat in the sand and thought about the dream.
 
Could that have been the way Shannon died?
 
He briefly considered calling Chelsea and asking but decided against it.
 
Any details like that wouldn’t have been in the paper or the news, which was where she got her information from in the first place.
 
It was possible.
 
But he also considered the fact that Drago had found a way to penetrate his dreams, much like Velara had.
 
He had no way of knowing exactly where Drago had been or was now.
 
At one time The Order was headquartered in Romania, but that had been when Prince Vlad and Prince Radu headed it.
 
Later after the coup, it was rumored to be somewhere in the northern reaches of Finland.
 
Now, with the war going on, it was impossible to say where they were.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anton stood up and removed his shoes.
 
He stepped quickly into the water and sighed.
 
The water crashed into the rocks and a mist suddenly began to surround him.
 
He didn’t notice for a few seconds because he was simply enjoying the feeling of the warm water on his bare feet.
 
One of life’s natural phenomena.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Then Anton became aware of a presence.
 
The mist was surrounding him like he was in a Stephen King novel.
 
He smelled jasmine and knew right away who it was.
 
From out of the mists came Lady Bernadine.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anton didn’t turn around and look her right away.
 
He was still kind of lost in his thoughts and the sting of the dream was affecting him.
 
Bernadine knew the cause of Anton’s rebuff, but she approached him anyway.
 
She put her hand on his shoulder.
 
He touched it and kissed it.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“The dream,” she said quietly.
 
There was a slight echo in her voice as if she wasn’t really there, although Anton was fairly certain that he wasn’t in the midst of another dream.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“Was that how she died?” he asked her.
 
He really didn’t want her to answer.
 
Deep down inside he wanted the answer to be no.
 
But a sinking feeling in his gut told him that it wasn’t.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“It was,” she replied.
 
As the words left her mouth she almost regretted telling him the truth.
 
She had seen Anton’s rage before.
 
Though never directed at her, she knew that Anton would undoubtedly want revenge.
 
Hatred would cause him to lose his focus and make him careless.
 
She had seen it before.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“Damn him!” Anton said with clenched fists, and tears of blood running down his cheeks.
 
“Damn him!”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
It was then that Lady Bernadine knew that the only way to save Anton from his own anger and hatred was to remind him of a time when he had wanted revenge and it had been a disaster.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
She put her arms around him and whispered in his ear, “I took away a memory from you, Anton.”
 
She closed her eyes and blew in his ear.
 
“But I’m going to give it back to you so that you don’t ever do what you did again.
 
Do you understand me, my love?”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anton sniffled and nodded.
 
True.
 
He wanted revenge.
 
More than anything.
 
He knew in his heart that it had been Drago who’d killed his dear Shannon.
 
How it had happened and how gruesome her death had been, he hadn’t known.
 
But Drago had wanted him to know.
 
Somehow he’d gotten into Anton’s head as he slept and had shown him.
 
He showed him how he tortured her, raped her, burned her, and killed her.
 
He wanted to show Anton how evil he was and how nothing was too vile or too sick for him.
 
He would do anything to win this war and destroy the world.
 
Anton realized then and there that Drago was an enemy who had to be stopped and destroyed at all costs.
 
But he also realized that it was to be done Lady Bernadine’s way.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
“Now close your eyes and let your mind wander,” Bernadine whispered into his ear in her far off, echoing voice.
 
“Let me enter your mind and show you a memory that I took from you and I’m now giving back.”