The Dracula Chronicles: Bound By Blood Read online

  As he finally rose to his feet again, he turned his head to look at the light. Its power forced him to still use his hands to shield his eyes. Despite this, he saw a gathering of beings, not human, that dwarfed him in size. Their vast white wings rose up high above their heads. His eyes fell on their mighty arms and then to the swords, longer than him in length, that hung from sheaths strapped to their white togas.

  The presence of the Archangels could mean only one thing. Christ himself was coming to the field. Only a short time ago, Dracula felt as though he ruled the earth. Marvelling in his new abilities, and his supernatural strength, he viewed those around him as insects he could crush under foot. Now, that bravado was all but gone, and he felt weak and insignificant. Though his need to get away was strong, he could not combat the desire to see Christ in the flesh. He lingered there for that reason, although he continued to inch backwards and away from the light.

  The Archangels knew he was there, but paid him no heed. Their sole purpose was to guard the soul of the abbot should any of the dark forces try to intervene with his crossing over. He had shown immense courage in the face of great evil, and had died in the defence of his faith. For that, he would enjoy the greatest reward. And now, the abbot’s soul levitated above his corpse, the agony of his death but a memory.

  Dracula stopped when he noticed a gap appear in the light. And then he saw him. For a moment, he gazed in awe at the image of the bearded man standing there. He became conscious suddenly of his naked state, and of the beast he had become. When Christ turned to look at him, his fears consumed him once more.

  Christ spoke, his voice barely above a whisper. “Get thee gone, Demon.”

  Dracula turned away and disappeared into the night, his heart thumping in his chest. When he had gone, Christ took the abbot by both hands.

  The Son of God smiled at the little man, filling him with an overwhelming feeling of joy. “Come, Brother,” he said. “Our Father awaits you.”

  FRANCE. THE STREETS OF MARSEILLE.

  LATE MAY, 1481.

  Dracula left Wallachia after the night at Snagov and travelled across much of Europe. By day, he slept in carefully sought out hiding places. At night, he hunted.

  He felt exhilarated by the thrill of the kill. No other feeling he had known in his mortal life compared to it. There were times, though, when he was just as happy to observe the world around him.

  His new life as a vampire had its perks. It allowed him to mix with royalty in the places he visited. He never let them know his true identity. And after leaving his homeland, he lost his long moustache. He only had to will it for it to disappear, or reappear again. But he knew it a wise move to change how he looked. In these circles, he knew someone could recognise him from a portrait, and he did not want that.

  He fascinated every one of the royals he met and engaged in conversation. They liked him for his knowledge, his wit, and his charm. He never failed to dazzle, though his appearances after sunset did raise the occasional query, which he explained saying he had an aversion to sunlight. His claim to be a noble from the east always gained him access to their courts. They liked that he could speak their language. That in itself hinted to them that he came from noble stock. Since his change, he could speak any tongue of his choosing. Man could hold no secrets from him, and it was one of the things he liked the most about his new life.

  Most of all, it was a time of searching. He needed to understand what it was he had become. More than that, he had to know his new powers and develop them.

  He learned that the more he fed, the stronger he became. There were times when his thirst knew no bounds. Then he would feed as many as four or five times in a night. His preference was for the blood of a female. It had a sweeter taste, and he had a real craving for it, especially in the early days. The taking of a woman also added a sexual edge, which he found invigorating.

  An early discovery he made was that the blood of a virgin, of either sex, was the most potent of all. Its richness lay in its purity, and the taste remained on his palate long after he had fed. This blood gave him that same rare buzz that alcohol gave to a mortal.

  When he died, his body expelled all it did not need to exist as a vampire. Many of its fluids and major organs it had discarded. Only the brain; lungs; heart; kidneys; bladder; and testes remained. The brain still controlled every function in the body.

  The lungs remained to breathe in oxygen and move the blood faster through his veins. He did not need to breathe the air to survive. The vast network of arteries, veins, and capillaries he had also retained. The metamorphosis after his death had seen him grow many new ones. An artery now extended from the roots of each of his fangs to carry the fresh blood to his heart. A new network of capillaries existed too, to channel off all the excess water in the blood he consumed. Some of it he retained in his own blood, but the bulk went to the kidneys and then the bladder so his body could discard it. Chemical changes caused by this process made his urine quite acidic. To accommodate this, his urethral lining changed in texture and became five times thicker and stronger than before. Changes also occurred in his saliva glands in the event he might consume any organs from his victims. The saliva dissolved any bodily tissue that he ate so that it became a fluid that could pass directly into his vast network of veins. This was necessary as his alimentary canal no longer existed in parts, and what remained of it was redundant. The change in his saliva also made his bite lethal, even if he did not kill his victim right away. Not only did it contain enzymes capable of dissolving human organs, but it also contained the elements of Lucifer’s blood that would prove toxic to humans.

  The rest was of no use to him as a vampire and discarded at death. He no longer required food or drink. Blood was the only essential. That, and the oxygen to pump it through his veins. His body and his powers, when used, took up much of that resource. To replenish it, he needed only to feed again from the living. And for this, Lucifer bestowed him with fangs. They could grow to a length of more than three inches when fully extended. He kept them hidden always, unless ready to feed.

  Lucifer had allowed him to retain his sexual organs so that he could still function in that way. He deliberately created the association between drinking blood and sexual arousal to encourage Dracula to feed. The pleasures of the flesh Dracula enjoyed much more now in his new form. Indeed, he found his needs had increased since the end of his mortal life, just as Lucifer had wanted it. After feeding, his urge to have sex always grew stronger. It restored the fluids inside his testes, and fresh blood always left him erect. For that reason, when he did liaise with the opposite sex it was most often straight after a kill. That supplied him with both the appetite and the means.

  He needed only to find a partner able to accommodate his size when filled with the blood of a kill. This had not always proved easy, as he had to feed to be able to function in that way. Without that fresh supply of blood in his veins, he was impotent. Because of this, he tended to engage sexually with those he fed on, and he often fulfilled both needs at the same time.

  Dracula recalled one occasion a year ago with Charlotte of Savoy. Charlotte was the Queen of France and, in her mid-thirties, she remained a beautiful woman. She had endured a lot of heartache, losing five of the eight children she gave her husband. Despite this, her husband, Louis XI, had neglected her for much of their marriage.

  When she found Dracula she was only too keen to bed him. Her eight pregnancies, and births, enabled her to have a physical relationship with him, where many women would have struggled. They met in secret and had an affair that lasted a year. He lavished her with the attention and deep physical gratification that she never got from her husband, the king. She did not care about the amount of corpses that piled up in the region; those he had fed on before going to her. Their affair ended only when he bit her in the throes of passion. A bite would cause a fatal infection, even in those he did not feed from.

  He fled her bedchamber and never returned. It took him a god while to come to
terms with what he had done, and he cursed himself for it. Sometime later, he learned that she had recovered after a short illness. The news baffled him as no one had ever survived a bite. Still, he was fond of her and pleased to know that she was well.

  Dracula travelled again for a time. He returned first to his homeland. Only there did he ever rest really well. When he was abroad his sleep was always troubled. His blood felt cold and it required him to feed even more.

  He returned to France in the spring. French women seemed more passionate than those in any other country. For that reason, he liked to return whenever he could and indulge his needs. His new life often left him feeling lonely and isolated. After a short time in Paris, he moved south. He preferred it in and around Marseille. Here, the streets and the docklands bustled with life, and the air felt warmer in the nights.

  From the rooftops, he scanned the streets below. He watched the people milling about, living out their mundane lives. In the distance, he heard the sound of fighting in the docks. A host of new vessels had moored there, which often brought trouble. The sailors and merchant seamen got into many a brawl.

  Dracula liked it there. The docks heaved with people, even at night. He always found rich pickings in that area. The narrow web of streets nearby gave him the same. Whores crowded around on the corners of these. They offered themselves to each new batch of sailors that entered the busy port. He had his eye on one of them now. After his first kill of the night, he planned to spend some time with her.

  Taking his eyes from there, he looked beyond the docks to the dark waters of the Mediterranean. He thought of Lucy for a time. It was always in moments like this that she would come to him. He knew now that she had been Lucifer all along. Still, he missed those times with her. Lucifer was the prince of many faces after all. That was the one he liked the most.

  “You should not look back,” a voice said from close by.

  He did not turn to look at the one who had converted him. “I wondered when I might see you again.”

  “You do not seem too overjoyed.”

  He shrugged. “I am neither happy nor unhappy.”

  “Then I shall leave you.”

  Dracula looked at him for the first time, seeing the image of an ordinary man. “You do not have to go. The life you have given me is such a lonely one at times. I would welcome the company.”

  Lucifer sat back down on the rooftop. “Are you enjoying your new life?”

  “It has its good aspects. It has opened my eyes to many things.”

  “Good, I want you to enjoy it. Indulge yourself as much as you can, and bend these monkeys to your will. There is time before you begin with your task, so make of it what you can. Build your strength. You shall be in need of it in the future.”

  “Yes, I still have much to learn and do.”

  “Indeed, you have much to discover with your body and your new powers.”

  “Help me, then. Tell me the things I need to know.”

  “No,” Lucifer declined, shaking his head. “Those are for you to discover on your own. It should make it all the more enjoyable for you.”

  “Then talk to me of Lucy.”

  It was a subject Lucifer did not want to discuss. Still, it had to come up at some point. “What do you want to know?”

  “Why did you come to me as her? Why not as you are in the present?”

  “You were a boy when first we met. It was easier for you to see me that way.”

  “You mean it made it easier for you to manipulate me?”

  Lucifer laughed. “Yes, in a fashion.”

  Dracula did not see any humour in it. “I never had a chance of a future, did I? You orchestrated my whole life for me.”

  “You achieved many great things in your life. You were a great and feared ruler, but you have an even greater future. More than that of any other, living or dead.”

  “Yes, the future you want for me.”

  “I would not deny that.”

  “But why me? You could have chosen anyone.”

  “I had my eye on many of your station. I saw you for the first time the night you were born. Even before your mother held you in her arms.”

  The news did not please Dracula. “You were there?”

  “Even then, I knew you were the one to pave the way for my return to Heaven.”

  Dracula looked away, realising Lucifer had mapped out his whole life for him. This was even before he opened his eyes for the very first time. He took it hard. Was there ever a time when I was truly my own man? Or have I always been a puppet for others?

  “You know that is not true,” Lucifer said. “You were always your own man.”

  “Then what is all this for?”

  “I identified that special quality in you. You were the one.”

  Dracula picked up a pebble from the rooftop. Rolling it between his fingers, he tossed it down to the streets below. “Well, that is truly the case. You and I are bound by blood.”

  “Do not look so glum over it. You are a part of me for always.”

  His protégé did not answer.

  “Believe me when I say this to you. There are much worse fates you could endure than this. The life I have given you offers you the chance to do things no other man shall ever do. Things no man ever could. You were always coming to me. Be glad this is what I chose for you.”

  “I shall grow used to it.”

  “You shall relish it!”

  Dracula nodded. There were many aspects of his new life that he enjoyed.

  “I came to you on this night as the bearer of good news.”

  Dracula turned his head to look at him. “What might that be?”

  “Mehmed is dead.”

  The news brought a smile to Dracula’s face for the very first time that night. Mehmed was one of two men he hated the most. The other was his brother, Radu. They had fought a hard campaign in 1462. It felt good to know he was dead at last. “When did he go?”

  “Earlier this day.”

  “Good, I hope the bastard burns for all eternity.”

  “Have no fear. I have a torrid time planned for him.”

  “He deserves it, if anyone does.”

  “He shall only ever know pain and misery from this time forward.”

  Dracula thought of that for a moment. He only wished he could be a party to it.

  “You need to leave this city,” Lucifer said.

  “Why? I like it here.”

  “Look around you,” he said. “There is nothing for you here. You can find a good whore in most places.”

  Dracula smiled again. “Not as good as the ones in Marseille, I wager.”

  “Broaden your horizons, Vlad. Try Florence, or even Rome. I can guarantee you shall like them both.”

  ROME PROVINCE.

  THE VATICAN ENCLAVE IN ROME.

  AUGUST, 1484.

  Lucifer was right in what he had said. Dracula enjoyed his visits to Florence and Rome. Of the two, he loved it in Tuscany most of all. Even by night, its beauty was not lost on him. But then, he saw the night as a mortal saw the day.

  Over time, he felt changes in his body. His muscles tightened, although his limbs grew more supple. He no longer had an ounce of fat inside him. Solid muscle and the blood that fed it was all that lay beneath his skin.

  He discovered more about his powers and, by the same token, the things that restricted him. With practice, he learned to control his strength and his speed of flight. The millions of sounds of the night he found he could harness. Once the thoughts of mortals had tormented him, but now he could be more selective of them. He could drown them out if they were of no interest.

  In the last year, he learned of the greatest of his gifts. The power to be invisible would make him the envy of all men, if they were to know of it. He learned as well how to transform his image. It had benefits, but drained him of his energy. He would wait many years before he could master the technique and do so without it sapping away his strength. Even so, he could change into a bat or
a wolf or any other creature of his choosing.

  One such occasion almost cost him his life. He had spent an entire night as a wolf. The feeling of running close to the ground and hunting other wildlife was one he loved. When he changed back to his natural form, it left him devoid of strength. He lay dormant in a field as the first rays of the sun lit the horizon. The heat burned his naked skin all over. He only just made it to safety before his body caught fire and dissolved. A creature of the night could only exist safely by night.

  It cast his mind back to his first days as a vampire. There was an occasion where the daylight had not burned his skin. He racked his brain for weeks trying to figure out the reason for this. It was because he had fed on an unborn foetus.

  The foetus did three things for him. It gave him vital protection from the harshest rays of the sun. This allowed him the time he required to find shelter if he misjudged the sunrise or on the rare occasion he needed to venture out in the sun. As well as that, it held amazing healing properties. The third made him invisible to the human eye, if he willed it. The foetus also had a very unusual taste, and an equally unusual effect on him. Any time he had consumed one, he felt a surge of power through his body that electrified him. That was what he loved most about it, and he would crave it just for that, despite its uses for him. The soft jelly he found a real delicacy, though with the most startling effects.

  After the day the sun had burned him, he did not show himself for a whole year. When he needed to feed, he attacked people as they slept in their beds. His body healed in time, and he returned again to the world of men.

  One thing had intrigued him since the night of his change. The marble floor of the chapel had scorched his feet, yet it did not have any effect on his master. Lucifer was once among the hierarchy of angels and, unlike Dracula, he was not a creature born of Darkness. This meant consecrated ground could not harm him.