Blood Martinis: The Gypsy Vampire's Curse

Ch. 8 ... Malady and Nightmares

The reception was held, after pictures, in one of the larger dining rooms. White clothes covered the tables, and bows backed the chairs. Fine Irish crystal sculptures were used for centrepieces, with rose petals laid around them on a silver platter. The hotel had arranged a scrumptious four course dinner, with petit fours for dessert, and champagne for the toast. The best man, Kilian, and Maid of Honour, each gave speeches. Brianna's parents and Bennet's father sat on either end of their 'family' table. All was meant to be right in the world, besides this sinking feeling that at any moment she would turn back into a wolf and eat all the guests.

At some point, Bennet took her hand in his and led her to the dance floor. They looked longingly into each other's eyes, with smiles on their faces, as cameras flashed in the background. One, two, three, four… One, two, three, four… Don't, think, about, it… Don't, think, about, it. She kept the thoughts at bay as best she could. Bennet looked to be enjoying himself, and although she didn't know why, she was happy for it.

She needed to know something. While the monstrous issue of now having a tail hung in the forefront of her mind, this had been niggling at the back of it all day. After the first dance, and the second, when the coast was clear- she broke away to sit down beside Dylan.

“Congratulations,”he said.

“Thank you,”she chimed like a record, spinning the same track all night.“Where is Kate?”

“I don't know,”he said.“I lost her last night.”

“How?”she asked.

“I was chasing a vampire, I think,”he said, as if that were normal.“He took her right in front of me. I couldn't keep up. I heard her scream, but I just couldn't keep up.”

“Why didn't you keep looking?”she asked.

“At some point I realised it was too late,”he said.“If I found her, I'd have to put her down.”

“What?”

“Will you tell me about my mother?”Kate asked.

“What do you want to know?”her father questioned.“She was beautiful.”

“I want to know more than that. The man last night told me I couldn't be… 'compelled' because of her,” she said.

He took a deep breath,“What man last night?”For a second, she thought she could hear his heart double its beat – DUM, BA DA, DUM – a little patter like a drum.

“The one who took me,”she said.“He hurt me. I thought I was going to die. I tried to fight him off, but he was so quick and so strong. I bit him, and he slapped me. It felt like he broke every bone in my body. I thought I did die.”She broke down into tears.

“Oh, darling,”he said, putting his hand on the side of her face for a moment before roughly grabbed her jaw, prying open her mouth. He poked a thumb into one of her canines, while staring intently at them.

“Daddy, the Blackburn's have people locked up in a prison in their back garden,”she mumbled as he prodded above the other canine.

“I think it's about time we spoke properly,”he said.“Kate, your mother was a gypsy, and a royal one at that.”

“What do you mean my mother was 'royal'?”Kate asked.

“It's why I fell in love with her. She was one of the Russian Royal Roma. She had a wild spirit and was full of life,”he said.“I couldn't keep my eyes off her.”The pain in Kate's mouth increased as he spoke.“You were born Princess Katia of the Badi clan. They were the highest family among the royals, and until I met her your mother was a beloved princess herself.”Despite the sweet sentiment, Kate was starting to feel nauseous.

“Why did you never tell me this?”she asked.

“Because I couldn't tell you what came next,”he said.“Your mother was shunned when they found out we had run away in the middle of the night to marry. And when they found out about you,”he paused to look at her.“Well, I guess there's no point in trying to hide it from you now.”

“Hide what, daddy?”she asked.

“They tried to have you killed,”he said.“You were so young, and you couldn't control the powers that came with being of the royal line.”

“What powers?”she asked.

“It doesn't matter now; your mother took care of it. You don't have them anymore,”he said.“I tried so hard to keep this from you, to protect you from it.”

“Is that why the man was after me last night?”she asked. She started hearing his heart beat again, and this time it felt as if she could smell the blood in his veins.

“I don't know. I wish I did. What I do know is that was no man, sweetheart,”he said.“That was a vampire.”

“How do you know?”she asked.

“Because, I can see it in you,”he said.“Your skin has paled, your eyes are slow to refocus when I move, when the light hits them they reflect like a cat's, your canines extend when I press on your gum, and you're that bit colder.”

“Dylan said the people in cages were vampires,”she said.

“Then they probably were,”he said.

“What do you know about vampires?”she asked.

“When they're young, like you, they're easily hurt and they find it hard to control themselves,”he said. “Eventually, like most supernaturals, they learn compulsion.”

“What is that?”she asked.“Like mind control?”

“It only works on humans- the ones who aren't Roma,”he said.

“Why is that?”she asked.

She tried to listen to his response but was losing track of the conversation. All she could think about was the pulsing sound of his heart and imagining the blood traveling through his veins and into her mouth. She realised she needed to get out of there.“I'm sorry, daddy,”she whispered as she flipped out of her chair and ran toward the door. Unaware of her new speed, she ran straight into it. Taking a second to right herself, she unlocked it, ran out at an unnatural pace and about half a mile down the road stopped when she saw who stood in front of her.“Kilian,”she said, and she put the pieces together.“It was you on the phone.”

After much of the bar was cleared out and the sound of merriment turned to a drawl, Bennet led Brianna up the red carpeted winding staircase and into their presidential suite. It wasn't quite as luxurious as the rooms in their estate, but it had a rustic charm to it that he admired. A Georgian four-poster canopy bed reached nearly to the ceiling in the middle of the room. A solid oak night table in chocolate brown, with a simple lamp, stood on either side and a large ottoman sat at the end of the bed. The room had a desk on one side, and a small round chocolate table with two plush cream chairs (that matched the drapes) on the other. And plenty of windows let in plenty of light during the day, but right now it was night. They could barely see into the fields around the hotel, but that was the way he liked it.

As one- she turned and he unzipped her dress, he sat on the ottoman and she turned to look at him. “Take it off,”he said, and she slid the dress down around her ankles. He looked her up and down, paying careful attention to the way the lamps' light highlighted her features. She blushed and stepped back, turning her hip to try to make herself look more slender.“Don't be shy,”he said. She took a deep breath, stepped out of the dress and sat on top of his lap, straddling and facing him. She knew this was the moment. If she could get through this, she was home free.

Before Kate knew what was happening, Kilian had grabbed her arms behind her back and cuffed them together. He strapped a horse's bit into her mouth, threw her into the side seat of his jeep, and took off to the Blackburn Estate. Crossing over the cobblestone drive and onto the lawn, he drove up to the maze, pulled her out and threw her over his shoulder. She was getting sick of being carried around like this. Traversing the maze in a flash, and running through the red door, he dropped her onto the floor inside the shed.

“I hoped this wouldn't happen to you,”he finally said. He unravelled some chains on a metal spin-able cross, and then gently pulled her up to her feet.“You know, there was a time back at university when I thought you and I should be together. I might have even loved you,”he said, as he uncuffed her hands and chained them to the posts.

Dylan must have seen us come in, she thought. He'll come.

“I love you, husband,”Brianna said, and hoped she meant it.

“I love you too, wife,”Bennet parroted. He stroked her cheek with one hand and, with his other around her waist, pulled her breasts into his face. He kissed them each, seemingly not knowing which to go for, then began to kiss down her stomach as his fingers fiddled with the clasp on her bra. Pulling it off, he looked up at her like a surprised puppy with too much admiration. He plunged his face back at her right tit and started making out with it, while forcibly grinding her against him.

“Slow down, hun,”she begged. He smiled up at her, picked her up and put her backside on the bed. Undoing his shirt and then his trousers, and finally taking off his shoes, he climbed on top of her. This had given her too much time to think.“Bennet, were you planning to do this to me?”she asked.

“Do what?”he asked, kissing her neck and positioning himself.

“Turn me…”she said,“… into a… were-wolf.”

“Of course, eventually,”he said.

“When?”she asked.

“Tonight,”he said.

“I could have been good for you…”Kilian said,“… but Bennet asked me not to go after you, because he wanted to,”Kilian laughed.“I should have known two masochists weren't meant to be together.”He fastened her legs separately to the remaining chains.“I could have taken you for myself… maybe we could have avoided all this mess.”

Dylan will find me, Kate thought, as she tried to scream. Kilian picked up a glass bottle filled with what looked like blood off an old work bench.

He slid a blade across her finger delicately, but firm enough to make it bleed.“You see, now you're a vampire… I cut you and you heal. I can't compel you to do as you're told. You'll never grow old. You'll never die, unless someone kills you. And if I cut someone else…”he said as he popped the top off the bottle,“… you'll do anything to lick it up.”

She tried to argue but the bit got in the way, and her new fangs protruded.

“Were you going to ask me?”Brianna questioned.

“Ask you what?”Bennet responded, trying to figure out how to penetrate her.

“If I wanted to be turned,”she said. He paused.

“Uh, I think so,”he said.

“Were YOU going to do it?”she asked.“Have you ever done it before?”

“No,”he said.“I mean, yes I was thinking about it, and no I haven't before. I wanted to, but I was… nervous I wouldn't do it right. To be honest, it's better Kilian did it.”

“You're a killer now,”Kilian continued, setting the bottle down.“You may not have done it yet, but that's all you are. Nothing can save you. No one can bring you back. You may look like the meek little thing I desired, but you won't taste like her and you won't love like her.”He ran his hand up her thigh and she froze. Somehow, he seemed more intimidating now than ever.

Dylan's got to come, she thought.

“You should know, I never would have gone so far if this hadn't happened to you,”he said, pulling aside her knickers and feeling her wetness. She tried again to scream and make noise, so he used his other hand to free her mouth from the bit.

“Please, Kilian, stop. It's me, it's still me,”she begged.

“You certainly sound like her, don't you?”he mocked, undoing his trousers.

“Don't, don't, don't, no, please,”she pled until it was too late and then she just screamed and kept screaming, but no one came. He kept pushing himself on her, and tightening a hand around her throat. Now she knew Dylan wasn't coming, no one was coming. How could they? She was so far here from the house, even from the garden. And it was too late.

Something about that made Brianna's heart hurt.“Has Kilian done it before?”she asked.

“Well, no,”he admitted.“But he's better at those sorts of things.”Just then he managed to press in between the folds of her skin and plunge himself into her. The talk was over. With his face to the side of hers, he rocked up and down, pulsing inside her and it was over within seconds. Tears welled in her eyes. This certainly did not feel like love. He went to roll over and kissed her face on the way.“Why are you crying?”he asked.“Jesus, Bri, it wasn't that bad.”

“I didn't say it was,”she said.

It was over. Petrified immobile, Kate tried to catch her breath. She realised she was starting to hyperventilate. How could he do this? She wanted to say it to him, to ask him, how could you do this? But she stayed quiet, unable to leave and unwilling to speak, waiting for him to move. When he had come down enough, he pulled out, pulled up his trousers and straightened himself. He seemed satisfied. He unchained her legs, then her arms one at a time and wrapped them behind her back.

“Whatever,”Bennet said.“It was my first time, you can't expect perfection.”Angry that Brianna was letting her real feelings show, now that they were married, he got up out of bed and put his trousers on.“I guess now that we're married, you don't have to pretend anymore.”

“I'm not pretending,”she said, but instantly knew it was a lie.“I'm just not loving this new transformation and having to worry that at any moment I could turn into a dog.”

“A werewolf,”he demanded.

“Whatever,”she repeated.

“You're just loving the fact that you've married into real money, but you don't want to have to work for it,”he shouted before slamming the door behind himself.

Kilian marched Kate out to the pens and opened the door to one in the corner.“Because you're special, I'll let you stay away from the others,”he said. She felt disgusting. She didn't care what happened anymore, she just didn't want to hear his voice or be near him.“One more thing…”he said, as he shoved her in and locked the door,“… if you don't drink blood, you won't turn completely. You won't shrivel like the others and look like a fiending crackhead, you'll just die. So, I'll let you choose if you want that death, if you want me to put you out of your misery with an honourable death, or if you want some of the bagged blood that they're drinking… you'll never be free, but you'll live and prove to both of us the monster you really are.”