Diaries of the Family Dracul - The Covenant with the Vampire Part 19

Rea.s.suring myself thusly, I struck again-and wept aloud as she, too, came to life and screamed as heartrendingly as her husband had. I knew then that V. had intentionally deceived me for some terrible purpose.

"How unfortunate," he whispered, when it was over and both bodies had been decapitated.

"It seems they were both alive. But how could this be?"

I could only look on him with hate. Did he expect that I would be broken and do whatever he bade? "I have done what you asked," I said heavily. "Now take me to my wife."

"Very well," he replied, and conducted me to a doorway hidden behind the throne. This opened onto a dark narrow pa.s.sageway, which led to a heavy wooden door, from behind which came, very faintly, my wife's agonised cries. V. put his hand upon the door, then hesitated, and turned back to face me, half smiling.

"You have performed admirably, Arkady. There is but one more small thing. I have an unexpected visitor who according to his letter has been waiting in Bistritz since dawn for my caleche to arrive. But Laszlo was indisposed this morning"-and here his smile widened- "and now is even more so. Could you... ?"

"I cannot leave Mary! And I have not slept in days-"

V. gave a gracious nod. "In the morning, then? After you have had time to sleep? Only this one small thing, and then you may remain with your wife as long as you wish..."

I heard the threatening undercurrent in his tone. At that moment, I could scarcely bear to stand listening to my wife's groans, could not bear to think of anything keeping me from her side, knowing that she was so close by, and so I agreed wearily, "Yes, yes, of course-I will go in the morning."

"Excellent." V."s smile widened again to reveal teeth; he turned and pushed open the door.

The chamber beyond was windowless and small, and like its owner, full of glitter edged with decay-festooned with cobwebs, limned with dust, but magnificently appointed with golden candelabra, cut crystal, and a great canopy bed draped in gleaming gold brocade. Dunya sat at the bedside on a velvet stool, and when the little chambermaid glanced up at us, her gaze went blank, vacant upon meeting Vlad's.

I shuddered, unable to hide my disgust and dismay at the revelation that V. had used her to betray us. He saw my expression, and the ironic smile returned to his lips. "I will leave you now to your privacy on this remarkable occasion," said he, and left, closing the door behind him.

On the bed lay my struggling wife, her golden hair damp and dark with sweat, her face flushed bright with effort. I went at once to her and took her hand, and we wept together.

"We cannot trust her," Mary said tearfully, in English. "Her neck... I have seen her neck."

She did not so much as glance at Dunya, who sat beside her with the most innocent of expressions, unable to follow our conversation. "He has bitten her?" I asked softly; Mary nodded and bowed her head, overwhelmed by grief.Soon the pains began again in earnest. I wished to do something to help, but apparently my dismay at seeing her in such agony added to her distress. And so I sat just outside the doorway, where she could see me and be rea.s.sured by my presence, but could not glimpse my tormented expression.

For a few moments, when her labour grew intense and she and Dunya were distracted, I slipped downstairs to learn that the doors leading out of the castle have been bolted from the outside.

So I sit outside my wife's elegant prison, writing it all down on the perfumed stationery I discovered within the room.

G.o.d help me, I am twice a murderer. And we are prisoners, with no hope of escape.

Chapter 13.

The Diary of Arkady Tsepesh 21 April, mid-day. Addendum on separate parchment.

Exhaustion at last overtook me and I slept in the hallway with my impromptu diary upon my lap until the grey morning light filtered through the open door. Heart pounding with fear, I leapt to my feet as I recalled our circ.u.mstances, then dashed into the room where my wife was confined.

The child had still not been born. Mary was so worn and pale, her lips so grey, that I was frightened. Dunya, her face somber with concern, said Mary must not be moved at all for fear she might bleed to death. This I believe to be true and not some suggestion put into her mind by V.; a glance at my poor wife confirmed it.

Even so, I asked Dunya how much longer the birth might take. She shook her head and opened her mouth to speak, but I could not hear her reply for my wife's sudden anguished groans.

The sound caused tears to fill my eyes, for it seemed she was crying out because of the misery I had caused her, bringing her here. Dunya saw my distress (Poor child. The horror of it is she is still herself, with a good heart; I do not think she is even aware V. controls her), and immediately ordered me to fetch more pain-relieving herbs from the kitchen.

I hesitated to leave Mary; but I had heard the servants' whispered claims that the strigoi slept by day. Certainly, this was V."s custom, and so I felt Mary was safe -at least, for the moment.

Grateful to be of help, I went downstairs, and en route discovered that the main entrance had been unbolted and flung open sometime in the night. The morning sky was grey, filled with ominous clouds; the air smelled of imminent rain. Beyond, near the front steps, awaited horses and the caleche. The sight brought both gladness and dread: gladness, because here was a chance at escape; dread, because I remembered my promise to retrieve the new visitor from Bistritz.

I stepped down into the courtyard. The horses were rested and groomed, despite the fact that every servant had disappeared from the castle. As I stood staring at them in wonder, I felt pulled in four directions by varying impulses.

First, I wished to flee, to carry my suffering wife down the stairs and gallop off with her in the caleche, despite the danger to her; second, I wished to go to Bistritz to warn the visitor to return from whence he came.

Third, I wished to go to Bistritz, retrieve the visitor, and deliver him into V."s hands- knowing it would purchase the safety of my wife and child. What was one more death when the Muellers' blood was already upon my unwitting hands?

Yet if the legend was true that the vampire slept by day, then I needed do none of the foregoing-only to kill V. as he slumbered. I knew the method, and had the means.

I made my decision just as the soft sunlight began to burn through the mist, which hung low to the ground. When it seemed that the white swirls beside me grew solid, I judged it a trompe I"oeil born of exhaustion, and paid it no mind until I heard a familiar, agitated voice whisper: "Kasha... !"

The horses snorted nervously and stamped.

I glanced up. Zsuzsa stood, clutching the wispy white cerements of the tomb about her like a cloak of fog. She seemed younger, a woman of barely twenty years. Her body was still straight, still perfect, still possessed of unearthly beauty, yet in the light of day, her supernatural radiance was dimmed. She approached with movements graceful but so entirely human that sorrow clutched my throat. I stared into eyes striking and full of allure, but no longer distant and predatory; a hint of their golden l.u.s.tre remained, but the dominant hue was soft brown-the colour of my dear, dead sister's eyes.

Her cheeks were wet with tears.

"Oh, Zsuzsa," I whispered, and closed my eyes. When I opened them, the vision remained. I swayed, suddenly dizzy.

"Kasha," she said urgently, and caught my wrist; I s.h.i.+vered at her cool touch, and saw that she, too, shuddered-at the sight of Ion's crucifix, which I had drawn with my free hand from my pocket, and displayed in my open palm. She recoiled at once, as if my skin scalded her like vitriol. "I have been waiting for you to venture where she cannot hear. Kasha, I must talk to you at once! We must save you-you do not know what he plans! But let us go into the shadows; the light pains me."

I straightened, unsteady; she gestured as though to help, but was forced by the crucifix to keep her distance. Together we walked into the shadow cast by the castle, and there she reached out to embrace me-then dropped her arms, helpless in the presence of the cross.

Yet I sensed no attempt on her part to mesmerise.

"Kasha," she repeated, in a low voice that shook with desperation. "I know that you were there last night. You saw me feed-"

"I saw you kill a woman," I said.

Her lids lowered. She did not meet my gaze, but there was no trace of guilt in her voice, her expression as she said, "Yes, but I had no choice. You cannot imagine the hunger, the pain; I was not myself. Not myself at all, but I am what I am now, and I cannot change it. I do not say these words to entice you, but because I mean to help: Kasha, you must let me bite you.

You must let me make you as I am! It is the only way; otherwise, what happened to poor Father will happen to you!"

I raised the crucifix and held it before her face, wondering at its effectiveness-so the peasants' tales are all true!-and wis.h.i.+ng I had thought to use it last night, to save Frau Mueller from the creature standing before me. She grimaced and drew back, raising her hands as if she feared I might strike her, but she showed no anger. "Go back," I commanded. "Go back to him, monster. My sister is dead."

She let go a single bitter sob, but stood her ground, though clearly the proximity of the cross tormented her. When she had gained some measure of control, and wiped her eyes with the edge of her burial clothes, she said, in as determined a voice as I had ever heard the living woman use, "I am your sister, Kasha. Yes, I am undead-but I am still Zsuzsa. You must understand; Vlad has always been as he is, a cruel tyrant. Death and immortality have changed him-and me-but little. Do you not wonder why I have come now, in the morning, when you have never seen him?"

I had no answer to this, for in fact I was amazed. My silence brought her faint satisfaction.

"He can move at day, if emergency demands it," she continued, "but the light is very uncomfortable, and he does not like it, for his powers are greatly reduced. He must rest for a portion of each twenty-four hours, more when he has fed, and so he chooses most times to rest at day. But I fed and rested last night; and I appear before you now at the time when I am most vulnerable, as a sign of trust. Oh, I am still stronger than you, and I could try to control you-but I will not. Arkady, you must listen and believe!"

Her tone was one of anguished sincerity; and I could not deny that she was not attempting to hypnotise me, as she had the night she first rose. And so I asked, "Listen and believe what?"

"The truth." Her face contorted with pain. "He does not love us. Oh, Kasha, he has never loved us! I thought, when he came to me, that he did so because he had feelings-but it has all been a lie. He controlled me then, he made me feel and believe things, and even when I drank his blood-"

Here, she lost her composure and lowered her face into her hands and wept; her dark hair, free now of any trace of silver, fell forward from beneath her white veil. After a time, she raised her face and continued, in a shaking voice, "When I drank his blood, I knew all that he knew. I learned then the terms of the pact-"

"The covenant," I said.

"Yes. I learned everything about it then; but he still controlled me, and forced me to forget what he did not want me to know. He thought-his arrogance knows no bounds!-he thought I would be so grateful to him for my immortality that I would continue to be his slavishly adoring little Zsuzsa, that once I rose as strigoi and remembered everything, I would still love him. Perhaps he thought I would become as heartless as he! But you are still my brother, and I am still Zsuzsa, even though changed. I still love you, Kasha, and cannot bear to see him use you so.

"He made me strigoi because my wors.h.i.+p of him appealed to his ego; and so, in his hubris, he decided he would appease his hunger, silence my opposition to his desire to go to England, and have an immortal partner who would forever revere him as the voievod. You see, he has surrendered control of me-he does not know my thoughts, does not know where I have gone. It is part of the bargain he struck, in order to break the covenant and make one of his own family strigoi. He could not do so without paying a heavy price, for to make one of his own a vampire meant the soul would be trapped eternally between Heaven and h.e.l.l, so the Devil cannot have it; so he chose that, once I rose as undead, he would forfeit his ability to enter and control my mind. He was that sure of my loyalty."

"Bargain with whom?" I interrupted, but her eyes narrowed at this and she could not seem to bring herself to answer, but continued rapidly.

"And so I remembered none of the truth of his pact when I was changing, before I died, because he still directed my thoughts then; and when I rose from my coffin, I could think of nothing except the horrible hunger. Only after I had drunk the woman's blood and rested was my mind clear enough to think; and then I was horrified for your sake. Our poor father suffers in h.e.l.l now, in his place! Vlad could have saved him, could have done for him what he did for me-trap my soul upon earth; but instead, he made sure he would suffer eternal torment! Do not think he kept his teeth from Father's neck out of kindness! And he will do the same to you- entrap you, force you to commit crimes out of your own free will. You should hear how cruelly he laughs when he speaks of sending you to Bistritz to see the jandarm. He delights in your torment; it is all but a game to him, watching your growing dread as you realise the truth, bringing you to the edge of madness in hopes of breaking your spirit..."

I closed my eyes, thinking of Radu's letter: He is like an old wolf who has made so many kills he grows bored and must find new pleasures; destroying innocence is one of them...

This entertainment remains fresh for him, for he can only enjoy it once a generation.

"The Muellers," I said abruptly as I opened my eyes, realising that V. had killed Laszlo in order to force my complicity. At Zsuzsanna's quizzical glance, I added, "The visitors. He tricked me into driving stakes through their hearts before they were dead; tricked me into murder, when I thought I was only preventing them from rising as undead."

"You did not kill them," she said, with such certainty that I believed her. "I felt the girl die."

"But she screamed-"

"As the undead do, when they are destroyed." I felt a relief so deep my eyes filled with tears; but my sister shuddered at the thought as she added urgently, "Have you harmed anyone else? Brought anyone to the castle, knowing what Vlad was, and what he would do to them?"

"No."

My sister clapped her hands in a childlike gesture of glee. "Then perhaps it is not too late!

Perhaps there is no need yet to make you one of us! You have committed no mortal sin yet.

He tried to deceive you into thinking you have already done so, and that therefore future crimes will not make any difference."

I shook my head and said, in a tone filled with irony, "Whether it was sin or not will make no difference to the authorities in Vienna. They will know only that I wielded the stake and knife-"

"Kasha, I do not speak of anything so unimportant as the jandarm in Vienna! I speak of the pact, the covenant! Your eternal fate!"

For an instant, we stared at one another, each realising the other did not understand.

I spoke first, softly. "I know about the covenant. Dunya spoke to me of the one he has with the villagers, for their protection; and V. himself explained the agreement he has with our family: the eldest son's service in exchange for the family's protection and wealth."

"Oh, no," said she, in a whisper so harsh it cut through the air between us, cut through my heart as easily as V."s dagger cut through a child's tender skin.

"Then you know nothing of his true covenant-with the Devil."

"Your soul, Kasha. Yours, and that of your father, and his father before him. The soul of the eldest surviving son of each Tsepesh generation: that is the gold with which he purchases his immortality." * * *

Zsuzsa told me more, in a low voice that shook with horror as we stood in the castle's shadow. After V. had escorted me to my wife's side, he had returned to the inner chamber and turned on Zsuzsa in a fearsome rage, screaming that she had betrayed him.

"He accused me of bewitching you," she wept, "of entering into my own pact to set you free from his control."

"It's true," I said. "He no longer controls my mind. Not from the moment you rose from the tomb..."

She nodded sadly. "Vlad meant to entangle you further, to tie your child to him with the blood ritual before returning your will to you. That is why he was compelled at the last moment to abduct Mary-to bring you and the child to the castle, since he could no longer mentally summon you here. But I suspect he was tricked by One even more evil and cunning than he. Perhaps the price of my will was not enough payment to break the covenant and make me strigoi; perhaps yours was needed, too... for he threw me from the inner chamber, and his wrath was so frightening that I have not yet returned. But I lingered near the outer door, and I could hear him shouting at someone-something-inside."

I thought of the black altar at the head of V."s coffin and shuddered. My mind still could not believe, could not comprehend, but my heart accepted Zsuzsa"s words. For if something so heinously evil as V. can exist, there must surely be a Devil.

"Zsuzsa," I whispered, as the realisation dawned. "He has asked me to go to Bistritz, to retrieve another visitor..."

"Kasha, you must not go! If you deliver a victim into his hands, then he has won-and your soul is lost."

"Then help me kill him! He is asleep now, and vulnerable-"

She jerked her face towards me, and her eyes gleamed not with gold, but with the dull, angry red of dying embers. "Do not speak of such a thing again! How can you ask-"

"He is a murderer a thousand, a million times over, Zsuzsa! You said yourself you no longer love him."

"No," she said slowly. "No... I do not love him. I despise him for what he has done to you and Father, for how he has misled me. But I came to you because I wish to see no one harmed. Not even him."

"But he might hurt Mary!"

She lowered her beautiful face, with its faint rosy blush, stolen from Frau Mueller's cheeks-and sighed in reluctant admission. "Yes... he would do anything to corrupt your soul-would kill your wife, your child (so long as you live to sire another). But he will not harm you, not as long as you remain innocent."

I lifted my head, my heartbeat quickening as another, more powerful revelation presented itself. "And if I die uncorrupted... ?"

"He would be destroyed."

"Zsuzsa!" Forgetful of the crucifix, I seized her hand; she drew back with a small cry of pain.

"Zsuzsa, you must promise me, then, that you will explain everything to Mary and see to it that she and the child are well-" I reached for Father's revolver, hidden beneath my waistcoat.

She threw out her arm to stop me, wincing as our flesh touched. "No! It must be an innocent death, Kasha. If you die by your own hand, or with your complicity, your soul is forfeit, and the covenant upheld."

I knelt before her. "Then kill me!"

She averted her face and stared for a moment at the sunlight dappling the forest before she whispered, "This life is grotesque... yet too beautifully strange for me to abandon, Brother. I have powers, abilities, beauty I never dreamed of in my pathetic little human life. Do not ask me to surrender it so soon..."

"Zsuzsa, I don't understand..."

She drew in a breath and turned back towards me, her perfect features marred, twisted by inner turmoil. "If you destroy Vlad, you destroy me."

I looked into her eyes and knew then that she still loved V. as much as she hated him; that I would get from her no help beyond that she had already offered. Indeed, I saw in those eyes the dawning of regret.

Abruptly, she added, "Flee, Kasha. Flee. Stay alive, for the baby's sake, and see it is taken far from here. Because the moment it is born, Vlad will tie it to him with the blood ritual...

unless you prevent him."

And she disappeared. Not subtly, not gradually, backing into the shadows, but as abruptly as my brother's small spectre had vanished before my eyes in the forest. One moment I stared at the image of my radiantly lovely sister; the next, at the grey morning and the tall, distant shapes of trees.