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“At least take her to the other side
of the manor, Elizabeta. Please.” Aleksi pleaded.

“Oh, Aleksi.
Whenever will you learn?” Elizabeta sighed before walking over to me. Without a word, she shoved the bit in my mouth. “Bite down hard, precious girl.” I did as instructed and she turned from me. “Tristan darling, come hold Autumn. We wouldn’t want her to hurt herself now would we?”

I turned as Tristan walked out of the crowd wearing a garnet color tuxedo jacket with an open black shirt and tight black pants. His blonde curls almost seemed platinum with all of the dark colors he wore. The expression on his face—like most of the vampires in the room—was a somber one. Still he bowed his head to Elizabeta and knelt behind me. His long, lithe dancer’s arms wrapped around me, pinning my arms to my side. He didn’t even need to be told what to do.
Because he’s done this before.

“W-what should I do?” I whispered around the leather in my mouth as I glanced back at him. His full lips were set in a hard line.

“Try to relax and breathe as deep as possible. Shut your eyes if she’ll let you, you don’t want to see what Aleksi will look like at the end anyway.”

“W-will…w-will I
be… be able to feel it all?” I mumbled out, the words feeling misshapen in my mouth as I forced them around the gag. He took a slow breath, and I heard a crack. Instantly the wind was knocked out of my lungs and the gag fell from my lips.
Your answer is yes.
I screamed bloody murder. It was high-pitched and shrill. One hit and I felt like I was going to die. My back was on fire, and I was sobbing. Tristan scrambled to force the leather back into my mouth. I couldn’t make sense of the room anymore, all I felt was pain.

“Breathe, Autumn.” Tristan murmured before that crack sounded again followed by the pain which only seemed to grow worse. My body arched against Tristan, who held me firmly in place, his arms kept me from going too far.
This is what happens when humans date vampires.

I couldn’t count the blows and I had no clue how long it went on for. Ten minutes? An hour? Six days? Ninety Years? It seemed like an eternity. My back felt like it was ripped open, and every slight draft in the room brought a new scream from my chapped lips. That air on the phantom open flesh was worse than the whip biting into it. I was vaguely aware of the humans sheltering behind their vampires of choice.

“Stop, that’s enough.” Gregory yelled during a lull. Tristan pressed his head to mine and rocked me as I sobbed wordlessly and twisted in his grip in the throes of pain.

“Enough? I thought I didn’t have the heart to punish my people properly?” Elizabeta hissed, her voice bitter like dark chocolate.

“This… this is barbarous, at least take the girl out of the room.”

“Barbarous? Have you forgotten who my sire was? Who my lover was? Oh no, this is nothing. I am capable of so much more. I’m not done yet, Aleks
i hasn’t screamed.” She turned. “Did you bite through your tongue, Aleksi?”

“No, Sire,” Aleksi’s voice rang clear through the room, it was like he wasn’t fazed by the pain. My sobbing cries continued to fill the open space as Tristan sustained his attempt to soothe me. He kept whispering for me to breathe
. Listen to Tristan and tune out the rest.
The whip cracked again, and I squealed and my body spasmed. Tristan lost his grip on me and I slipped to the floor. The whip cracked again and without Tristan’s grip on me my body felt like it was going to tear itself apart. I thrashed on the cold tile. I heard the whip tumble to the floor, and those ominous heels clicking against that ornate patterned marble. She stopped at the cabinet and retrieved something that shimmered in a coil in her hands. A silver plated Bullwhip?

“Scream for m
e.” She commanded before a whip cracked sounded again. Aleksi certainly screamed then, and so did I; our cries married in harmony. And then I mercifully lost consciousness.

I woke up alone in an unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room. The room was huge and all black and white—with the exception of the bed. It was covered in that bright red color of Aleksi’s. Everything was ultra-modern, ultra-clean lined and seemingly ultra-expensive—but I was never one for modern furniture. On the ceiling was a very unmodern mural of a dark red dragon curled up on a black background. Was it Aleksi’s room? If it was, there was no trace of him, or anyone else in it. I had stayed in hotel rooms that felt more lived in.

It seemed like the night before had been a bad dream, the only evidence of the agony I endured was a dull ache in my muscles from straining against that sharp biting pain. I peeked under the covers. I was still in the corset—only now I had a heavy matching robe on over it, with black fur at the collar. I was confused about oh-so-many things as I slipped from the warmth of the sheets and out of that room of the too clean lines.

Outside, the hall was illuminated by a skylight, but the lighting seemed off. It didn’t quite seem like sunlight. Was it morning? Afternoon? The next day? I continued through the halls exploring. The massive building was silent as a tomb, the only sound that seemed to exist was my breathing and the faint shuffle of my bare feet on the floor. The corridors seemed to go on forever. Though once I started down one of them I felt my back start to itch, and then with a few more steps the itch turned into a dull burn
. He’s down here, and the closer you get to him the more of his pain you’ll be able to feel.
I turned on my heels and started back the way I came. Luckily there was no shortage of space to explore.

However, I wasn’t alone in silence for long. I heard a faint voice echoing down a hall and I followed it.

The hall in question opened up into an ornate shrine draped in black and red banners. A black suit of armor sat in a case holding a silver sword in its clutches. At the back of the sanctuary, carved on the wall was an inscription in Latin. It was something about the sacrifice of the Uniter. My Latin, however, was horrible.
You should have paid better attention in class.

Under that inscription was an altar of sorts. I couldn’t exactly make out what was on the altar, but beside it sat Elizabeta who was whispering softly. She was dressed like she was ready to take on the corporate boardroom. A cream colored sheath dress hugged her exaggerated curves and accentuated her pallor. Pearls wrapped around her throat and dangled from her ears. Again her hair was wrapped up in an elegant Chignon, her makeup was far more understated than it had been the night before. Her lips were a soft pink instead of bright red.

“…He still reminds me of you. I think you’d like his servant, she is
submissive and docile with that… what did you call it… ah yes, the hidden strength that you were so certain I possessed.” Her voice was so soft. I stepped further into the room and saw that on the altar was the body of a man wrapped in black velvet from the waist down. There were similarities to Aleksi in the face, and their hair was almost the exact same color. As I moved closer I became more aware of the fact that Elizabeta was crying, tears streaked down her pale face. “I suppose you hate me?” Her voice was no longer a whisper and those blue eyes settled on me.

“I-I… I’m not sure.” I stammered out as my gaze traced around the room.

“I had to, Autumn. I don’t expect you to
understand since you have only been with us one night, but I had to do it.” She wiped her eyes and turned back to the form on the altar.

“W-who is that?” I nodded to the body. She smiled down at the figure and smoothed his brow.

“You know who it is
.”

“
Dracula
”
coiled through my mind in a soft foreign
hiss and I shivered. I swallowed and chewed on my bottom lip. My nervous tick set in and I pulled that robe tighter around me and straightened the
sash and panels.

“Vlad the third, son of Dracul, The Uniter. Before there was the Council, Vampires were scattered and under
the control of the Five Lords. They constantly vied for power, he fought for Lord Flavian, his sire. No one had power like he had, not even Flavian. All of those myths, dispersing into a murder of crows or bats, flying, control over animals, changing into any animal of his choosing, he could do all of it. No one could heal as fast as him either. But power has always been a double-edged sword to us.” She sighed heavily. “He defied his sire at every turn. Which didn’t matter until… Flavian had leverage against him. After he marked me, we were laying in each other’s arms...” She trailed off and smiled tapping her fingers against his chest. “I had my hand on his chest. We had just finished making love and he looked… glorious. The door was thrown open by Flavian’s men, and they grabbed me and pressed a knife to my throat. They took us to Flavian’s castle and bound us together with silver chains… and Flavian proceeded to beat him, savagely with a silver lined whip… not unlike the one I used last on Aleksi. I felt everything. After I blacked out for the third time, he begged Flavian for forgiveness and we were taken down. Flavian told him to kiss his feet, and after he knelt at his sire’s feet he rose and ripped out his heart with his bare hand. After that Vlad took Flavian’s army and defeated three of the remaining Four Lords. One of the Lords, Lord Ulrich shared his vision, and almost immediately joined forces. Ulrich still sits on Council. They all pay respects when they hold meetings here. This is our holy site—our savior’s tomb.” She continued to stroke his brow.

“Is he dead?”

“I don’t know. Sometimes… I think I can hear his voice when I talk to him. Sometimes like tonight… I
’ll find tears on his cheeks.”—She wiped his cheek—“He doesn’t like it when I publicly discipline Aleksi.”

“Why?”

“Don’t you see the resemblance? I see it the most in the mouth and the eyes… they have the same smile when genuinely happy. Granted you can’t see his eyes, but they are that same shade of impossible blue. Aleksi is his great-grandson, twelve generations removed.”

“S-so Aleksi is
a super-powerful om-omnivampire?” She laughed.

“No. No one really knows where those powers came from—but Aleksi does not have them. He is powerful, and in two hundred years or so he might even be able to earn the title Prince—if he survives that long.”

“H-how long has he been like this?”

“A while. A very long, very lonely while.” She stood a
nd started out of the room then. “It's
early, you should try going back to sleep.” She left me in the room by myself, or rather with Dracula. It seemed so weird to me. I knew Vlad Tepes
existed. While doing my bachelors I took a few European history classes. Everyone knew about Dracula, but no one confirmed if he was indeed a vampire. Vampires were secretive, and those who came out of the coffin so to speak with the Titanic disaster said they wouldn’t answer questions about historical figures.

Cautiously I approached the figure on the altar. I was drawn to him, it felt like unseen hands were urging me forward, pressing me towards him. Before I knew it, I was kneeling on the chair where Elizabeta had sat, my hands braced on either side of the body, sinking into that soft brushed velvet. The very air seemed to hiss and pop around him, it was like listening to a record player after a record had stopped, or radio static. It was white noise and it was both comforting and discomforting as I stared down at him. As close as I was I couldn’t help but to notice the lines on his face, he was older when he was turned—I’d bet early to mid-forties. Not necessarily old, but older than most vampires I had encountered so far—most of them seemed as though they were around my age when turned, or younger. I traced my fingers over the delicate lines on his forehead and I found myself ensconced in that void of cerulean blue once more.

      
A sigh escaped my lips as I felt myself tumbling through the waves of satin and silk. Images flashed before my eyes, images I couldn’t make sense of. Writhing bodies with limbs entangled, rose petals, a pointe shoe, a sword and myself. My body lying in a puddle of blood in a pristine snowy field with Aleksi, Elizabeta and this vampire standing in a circle around me. The circle shifted, and more and more vampires were added until my body was the eye of a storm of vampires.
“Seer.”
That voice hissed through my mind. I then saw myself in those flashes, only blonde and pale. My face was the same, but the coloring was wrong. I was in the throes of passion with no other than Dracula himself behind me, with his hand twisted in my long golden hair. It was disorienting to watch what looked like a shade of myself writhing under his powerful form.
“Maria.”
It hissed again. Slowly the images became more and more graphic, and the details more vivid.
Fight it
.
I fought against the images. As I struggled with my will against that sea of cerulean blue, I heard whispering rise around me like a chorus of waves beating against the shore.

“Autumn?” Aleksi’s soft, inquisitive voice broke the hold that the sleeping vampire had on me. I blinked as my surroundings slowly came into focus once more. I was straddling the body on the altar, my hand around his throat my thumb stroking his
Adam's apple like it had a life of its own.

When I noticed what I was doing I panicked, and in my hurry to dismount The Uniter, I tumbled unceremoniously to the cold, hard, marble floor. My back started to ache—Aleksi was nearing me. To my surprise, as I peeled myself off of the floor he stepped passed me and glared down at Vlad. He wore only loose fitting red satin pajama pants that sat low on his hips—so low it boarded on indecent
—and surprise that red was the same color I was wrapped in. His back wasn’t in ribbons like it had been the night before. However, it was crossed with two pale pink lash marks, which I guessed was where that ache was coming from. “You have some nerve.” Aleksi grumbled, and for a moment I thought he was talking to me.