The Dracula Chronicles: Bound By Blood - Volume 2 Read online

  Radu knew he had him rattled. For the first time ever he had his brother’s measure, and it felt good. No one had ever given Dracula a real test with the sword. Even the few great swordsmen of their day had fallen to him. Dracula did not know how to cope with this. He watched his brother’s eyes and saw a focus so intense that it worried him. Now he began to search for that one opening to deliver a fatal blow.

  Dracula upped the ante. He launched one last furious attack against his brother. Radu continued to frustrate him. He blocked and parried every blow with real finesse. Dracula ended the move with a direct lunge at him. His brother anticipated the manoeuvre and blocked low before running the tip of his own blade across Dracula’s throat.

  Radu felt the fear in his brother’s heart. The blade sliced a deep gash in his flesh, leaving a hole in the front of his windpipe. He looked on in triumph as his brother dropped the Fier Negru to the floor. Dracula clutched at his throat with both hands. Radu paused for just a moment. He readied himself to finish his brother and send him straight to Hell.

  They gazed with real hate into each other’s eyes. Dracula knew this could be his final moment. Radu changed the grip on his sword. He held it aloft like a dagger. Dracula looked up at the blade, aware he could do nothing to stop it.

  Ilona sensed his fear. Hitting the wall had left her dazed, but she quickly came to. Her instincts alerted her to the danger her husband was in. She got to her feet and flew across the room. Radu brought his sword down. Ilona summoned every bit of strength she had left and dived across her beloved, covering him with her body.

  The sword ripped through the flesh of her back. However, it deflected the angle of penetration to Dracula’s heart. It found its way through her ribs and continued on. Dracula fell back under her weight. The blade pushed deep into his stomach, impaling her to him.

  Her cries filled the room. In the next moment Mihnea and Varkal flew through the window. The two women entered just behind. The four of them looked down in disbelief at the floor. Radu grabbed the hilt of his sword and yanked it out with real force. Ilona groaned hard when he did, and slumped almost lifeless against the body of her husband. Dracula still held his hands to his throat, trying to stem the fast flow of blood. He knew if he lost too much of it then he would die. It gushed from his wound through his fingers and covered the floor all around.

  The four vampires surrounded Radu. For Mihnea and Varkal, this was a chance they had only dreamed of. Radu was here in their midst and they had him trapped. The sight of their father so badly wounded on the floor, and Radu’s obvious lack of fear, gave them due warning to exercise caution.

  In spite of that, the urge to kill him burned within them. They bared their fangs, showing their intent to rip him to pieces. He waited for the first of them to attack. With his sword in hand he was ready for them.

  Varkal came at him first. Radu stepped to one side and struck him across the side of the head with the back of his forearm. It sent him reeling across the room. He crashed down onto his hands and knees, unable to believe the ease with which his uncle had cast him aside.

  Radu moved forward. He struck Anya hard in the face with both fists. It knocked her back with real force into Ruxandra. Both women fell in a heap on the floor.

  Mihnea tried to step across his path. He hated Radu more than any other. And more than any other he wanted to kill him. His mother had jumped to her death when Radu laid siege to his father’s fortress in 1462. He still blamed him for that.

  Radu was too fast for him. He managed to leap into the air above Mihnea. The elder of Dracula’s two sons watched his exit through the window. He led the pursuit through the night sky. His uncle managed to extend the distance between them despite their best efforts to catch him. In the end they quit the chase. They returned to aid Ilona and Dracula.

  The vampires helped them back to the safety of their estate to the south of London. Mihnea and Varkal gave them transfusions of their own blood. At the same time the women scoured the countryside for fresh victims. They found four unfortunate souls whom they dragged back for Dracula and Ilona to feed on.

  The injury to Dracula was a serious one and it took a long time to heal. Even then he found it difficult to speak. More than three years passed before he could do so properly again.

  Catherine fell ill in the next month. She lost her fight for life in the first week of the New Year. In that same month Anne Boleyn miscarried again. It signalled the end for her as queen. The king’s men brought trumped up charges against her. They accused her of adultery, incest with her brother and plotting to kill the king. She faced trial where her enemies found her guilty on all charges.

  In May it all came to an end. She stood at the window of her cell in the Tower. Down below she watched the executions of the men implicated with her. Two days later she endured the same fate. Just before this Henry took Jane Seymour as his third wife.

  Jane soon fell pregnant. He induced her labour when he pushed her over in a mad rage. She gave him the son he so badly craved. It made her the most revered woman in all the land. But she did not join in the celebrations. Within a week she died. Before that fateful day, Dracula and Ilona left England. They would not return again in Henry’s lifetime.

  Ireland. The O’Neill stronghold in Dungannon.

  June 1541.

  Dracula took a long time to recover. The mental scars ran far deeper than those on his neck. Radu had bettered him with the sword. He could not come to terms with that. And so it heralded the dawn of a difficult time for him. He had lost his air of invincibility. Once the others had looked on him with a degree of awe. He knew that had gone now.

  His time in England had come to an end. Events there could proceed without him. The split with Rome was final and nothing could reverse it now. He and Ilona went back to Madrid. They felt the warmer climate would aid his recovery.

  Even darker days lay ahead for the Church in England. Henry came down on it with a vengeance. He closed all of the monasteries and seized their wealth. His soldiers ravaged these houses. Those that did not flee to safety they killed.

  Charles was not as happy to see them as before. The events with his aunt still angered him. He thought Dracula would have stopped the split from Rome. Ilona convinced him nothing could have stood in the way of it. Henry wanted a divorce. When the Pope did not give it to him he resorted to other means. She told him they had tried, but could do little to sway the outcome.

  He gave the matter a lot of thought. In the end he saw they could have done nothing. Ilona told him of Radu. She said he had managed to influence Henry in all that he did. When they tried to stop him he wounded Dracula. Charles believed her and took them back into his home.

  In time Dracula returned to full health. Varkal and Anya stayed close. They feared Radu might strike again. The two continued to indulge in all manner of debauchery. Madrid proved a haven for their needs.

  Ruxandra fell into a long depression. Her great love was dead. Nothing could heal her broken heart. She developed a deep hatred for Henry. Her only desire was to kill him and all those who conspired to end Anne’s life. Only Mihnea stopped her going back to England and doing just that. But the hatred remained and festered inside her like a cancer.

  Once Mihnea had hated life as a vampire. He wished his father had let him die. But that had all changed now. Radu had given him the purpose he needed to go on. The chance that he could avenge the death of his mother made him glad he was what he was. He felt Radu would return and his desire to kill him grew with each day. Surely his uncle would want to finish what he had started. If so, then his father would be the bait to lure him back. For that reason he stayed in Madrid. He wanted to be there when Radu did return. Radu had caused his mother to die. For that he would see him dead, even if it took him centuries he would do it.

  Five years came and went. Radu did not come to Madrid as he had hoped. Dracula grew tired of the city once he had his health back. There was nothing more for him here. Charles had changed with age. The burden of
his empire had weighed him down. Dracula no longer felt excited by him. He was ready for a new project and his thoughts turned immediately to Ireland. The words of Lucifer remained strong in his memory. Yet he had still not gone there. He felt it held the key. If he could break the faith there then the rest would prove easy.

  He saw two ways to break the hold Catholicism had over the people of Europe. One was the spread of Luther’s ideas. The other was the spread of Islam with Ottoman expansion.

  Dracula despised them still. He had fought them hard to keep a grip on his kingdom in the last century. Even now they continued to gnaw away at the states on the edge of their empire. But he did not want them to expand even if it were at the expense of Rome.

  The rise of Lutheranism though, did suit his purpose. He welcomed it and had propagated it from its earliest days. When the young emperor needed to focus on the German states he had distracted him with the war against France.

  But Europe did not concern him. Luther’s ideas would spread like a forest fire on the mainland. Apart from the staunch few the nations of Europe were succumbing one by one. It did not matter if Spain, France, Italy and Portugal resisted it. They would fight wars with those that had not. In time they might even swing the other way too.

  Ireland was the exception. She was an island nation, cut off from the rest. Dracula had to act now. If not it would remain the last firm bastion of Catholicism. He wanted to see the Irish seriously repressed. Only then could this change. Lucifer knew it too. The Irish possessed a spirit that few words could describe. But the break between England and Rome had other effects. It could prove the first stepping stone to crushing that spirit.

  For that reason he had talked at length with Henry about Ireland in the days before he left. He reminded him that he was also the king of that country too. Therefore it was time he brought the rebellious Gaelic chieftains to heel. Back then Henry did not have the resources to do much there. But the plunder of the monasteries had changed all that. Henry now had the money to send an army.

  Henry was only the Irish king by the decree of the English Parliament. The Irish did not recognise him at all. They did not fear him either. Fierce warriors in the main, they divided their lands by clan. For well over a thousand years the O’Neills had proved the dominant force there. Their stronghold lay in the north in Ulster.

  During Henry’s reign the Fitzgeralds in Kildare and the Ormonds had come to prominence. Offaly and Fitzgerald rebelled against the Crown in 1534. But it soon fizzled out. Fitzgerald died in the Tower after Henry’s men captured him.

  He took measures against the Irish after this. In the main these attacked the use of the Gaelic language. He ordered that they speak English in all their legal and commercial transactions. Children could not speak Gaelic at school. He forced the monasteries to surrender their lands. When they did he granted them back.

  The clans of O’Neill and O’Donnell had warred for decades. These measures by Henry prompted them to form an alliance and they took up arms against the English. Lord Grey defeated them at Bellahoe. The English compounded this victory by declaring Henry as King of Ireland in 1541.

  It was not long before Henry forced on the Irish his policy of Surrender and Regrant. This made the Gaelic chieftains give up their lands. The Crown then gave them back under English terms and with English titles. It helped avoid the need for war. The Irish knew it still meant subjugation, but without the spilling of blood.

  Conn O’Neill resisted it. He proved more stubborn than any other in doing so. Whispers spoke of a mysterious, but handsome foreigner advising The O’Neill. They said he warned the head of the clan against making any deal with the Crown.

  These rumours even reached Spain. Dracula knew at once it was Radu. The others thought it too. That very same day they set off for Ireland for the first time.

  Radu had indeed spent time with The O’Neill. He knew of the ideas his brother had for Ireland. Its subjugation would mean a major victory over Catholicism. He was determined to fight this and thwart his brother. In time he knew his presence there would draw them to him. By the time they arrived he had gone again. He rarely stayed in one place for long. By moving on he knew he could stay one step ahead of Dracula.

  The vampires watched the O’Neill fortress from afar. They saw a sprawling camp. Only wooden palisades protected it from attack. They would have no problem getting inside.

  “Radu is not there,” Varkal scowled. He did not want to be there either. Anya and he loved Madrid.

  “Did you think he would be?” Mihnea said. “He is wily. We will need to employ better means if we are to catch him.”

  Dracula said nothing. In truth he had not expected to see his brother here either. Now that he was in Ireland he decided to assist Henry. After all, the monarch had gone a long way down the path he had urged him to follow.

  He knew Henry still lacked the resources to engage the Irish in a full-scale war. That meant he would have to employ other tactics. The Irish feared very little. That much he knew. He decided he would have to rely on his powers to achieve what he wanted here. Only the real threat of annihilation could sway The O’Neill.

  “Let us return to Madrid then,” Varkal said, looking up at the dark clouds overhead. “If he is not here then why are we?”

  Dracula spoke up for the first time. “No,” he said, looking at his son. “There is much we can do here. Come.”

  It was a crowded and busy camp that the vampires entered. They walked straight through the open gates. More than a hundred fires lit up the vast area. A lot of armed men stood around, not all of them Irish. Mihnea eyed the groups of gallowglasses. These were Scottish and Irish mercenaries. The presence of these men showed intent from their employer to go to war.

  “What do you want here?” a young, but strong voice asked them.

  Dracula looked around at the boy. He was not yet in his teens. The vampire admired the authority in his voice. He was tall with flowing red hair falling about his shoulders. His eyes seemed just as wild. They hinted at a strong anger and contempt within. He did not return Dracula’s smile.

  It was the first time he had heard the Gaelic tongue spoken. He liked the sound of it. In fact they all did. Dozens of the Irish warriors stood around the boy. Dracula saw it was more to protect him than to threaten them. The boy had to be important.

  The vampires stopped and stood their ground. When they did not step back the attitude of the men took on a more sinister tone.

  “You are the son of O’Neill?” Dracula asked the boy.

  Of the six vampires, only Ruxandra and Ilona looked like they were from Ireland. Like many of them there they had red hair and pale skin. The others did not have that look about them. The Irish knew they had come from another land. So it surprised them when Dracula spoke in perfect Gaelic.

  The boy was indeed Shane O’Neill. He was the eldest legitimate son of Conn Bacach, The O’Neill. The young Shane was tall for his eleven years. Already he had acquired talent with the sword. He also showed some of the qualities he would need to lead his clan one day. Dracula liked him.

  When the boy did not answer Dracula smiled again. “You are strong like your father. You will make a great leader one day.”

  “He is the son of The O’Neill,” a man said from behind him. “Who are you? What do you want here?”

  Dracula did not turn to look at him. The man walked around he and the others. He took a position in front of the men protecting the boy. Looking the group over he sensed a threat. The fact that half of them were women did not fool him.

  “I wish to speak to The O’Neill,” Dracula said.

  “The O’Neill is seeing no one,” the man advised.

  Dracula felt his temper build inside. He hated having to deal with men such as these. When he ruled in Wallachia he would never have tolerated such an obstruction. But then this man did not know him. It was his job to protect his leader. Dracula did not care. He wanted to see The O’Neill and he was going to.

  As many as fif
ty men surrounded the vampires. They drew their swords to show their intent. Dracula kept his calm. His focus remained on the man in front of him. Varkal and Mihnea knew what their father had in mind. They placed their hands on the hilts of their own swords.

  “I am going to speak with him,” Dracula assured the man. His tone was strong and cold. It unsettled the Irish. This was in spite of their great resolve and much greater number.

  The man prompted the others to take the boy away. He turned once again to Dracula. “You can leave at once,” he warned. “Or prepare to meet your maker.”

  Dracula drew his sword. He moved forward with blinding speed. Just as the man finished speaking Dracula swung in an arc. He ran the tip of his blade the length of the man’s neck.

  His eyes filled with water. Blood spilled out over his lower lip. More of it gushed from his throat. The assault stunned his Irish comrades. It meant they were slow to react to it.

  Dracula did not waste a moment. He hit the man hard with his shoulder to knock him out of the way. The man was still gagging and choking on his blood. He hit the ground hard when Dracula barged into him. The impact was such that it ripped his head from his shoulders. It rolled along the caked earth close to Dracula’s feet.

  The former voivode pressed on. He brought his blade down against the head of a second. The man could do nothing as it sliced clean through his ear. He did not even scream. The blade cut a three-inch wedge into his the side of his skull. When it splintered the bone and ate into his brain tissue he fell down dead.

  The Irish came to life. Varkal and Mihnea fought savagely to cover their father’s back. No one could match their speed or strength. They took out two each in a matter of moments. The three women took to the air. They found a spot near to O’Neill’s tent. Their action mesmerised all who saw it.

  Dracula carved a path through the men to the boy. His speed and skill with the sword found no match amongst them. His sons stayed at his back. They warded of all attacks from the rear and to the side. Dracula came face to face with the youngster. Shane grabbed the sword of one of his defenders. He held it before him and squared up to Dracula as bravely as any man might.