Dracula and His Brides Page 18

  Andreea had explained precisely where the hydra had been buried. “Due north of the largest floating reef island.” Near there would be the showdown.

  Carefully, slowly, we made our way to that particular floating island. Now that we were in position, all we could do was wait for Van Helsing to arrive.

  Andreea too for that matter.

  My body twitched, anxious, hating to be still for so long. I just wanted to go, go, go. Stupid speed serum. I needed to calm down and focus.

  A slight crashing through the underbrush and Andreea appeared. She had a shovel in her hand, and she openly wept as she began to dig. She shoveled faster than a human but not nearly as swiftly as a vampire could, even a non-enhanced vampire. Would Van Helsing realize that and think something off? Or would he chalk it up to her emotions?

  A stick snapped, and Andreea paused. A form emerged from the shadows of the swamp.

  Van Helsing slowly stalked toward Andreea. He didn’t seem to care at all that he was walking through ankle-high water.

  “You truly mean to do this,” he said.

  "I do." She hadn't turned to look at him. The moonlight shrouded her, giving her an ethereal glow. Andreea looked more like an angel than a vampire at this moment, and my heart beat triple time, once for her, once for Stela, and once for Catina.

  “What made you see the light?”

  “I…” She choked back a sob. “He compelled me. Anton, please, you know me. I could never willingly become a vampire!”

  Van Helsing just stared at her. I could only see his profile from this angle, and it appeared to me that his expression was indifferent.

  “I would rather die than suffer this thirst any longer,” Andreea said.

  “How was the compulsion lifted?” Van Helsing demanded.

  She snorted a laugh that almost came out a sob. “He was so arrogant. He thought… He actually thought that I truly wanted this, wanted to be with him. Can you imagine me being willing to share a man with two other women? Never!”

  Van Helsing said nothing and watched as Andreea continued to shovel. After a moment, he said, “You know, there is a much easier way for you to die.”

  Andreea sniffled. “I don’t want you to slice my head off,” she said.

  “What about standing in the sun?”

  “Burning to death? I… I think it would be fitting to drink something and die. It would almost be… poetic.”

  “Andreea…”

  She stiffened but did not turn to him.

  Soon, very soon. It was almost time to spring our trap. My muscles screamed to be put into motion, but I waited.

  “There’s no cure,” she murmured. Now, she turned to face him. “There’s no cure.”

  “Only death,” he agreed.

  “Will you… Will you stay with me? Until the end?”

  “You deserve no mercy,” he said. “No comfort.”

  She flinched and lowered her head. “I don’t.”

  “But I will stay.”

  “I brought along another shovel,” she said, picking it up off the ground and handing it to him.

  How could she sound so innocent?

  The moment Van Helsing touched the handle, Andreea shifted to her werewolf. She launched at him, ready to bite his jugular, but he managed to yank the shovel out of her claws and slashed at her throat with it.

  Naturally, we had used only the dullest of shovels. We didn’t want to actually arm the vampire hunter with a tool against us. Andreea gave an animalistic-sounding laugh as she lifted Van Helsing into the air and then slammed him down into the water.

  Here was where we had to wait even longer. I hated to watch Andreea struggle to drown Van Helsing. We all knew that even with our super-enhanced abilities Van Helsing might not succumb here.

  And he didn’t.

  Somehow, Andreea was the one on her back in the water, and that was all I needed to burst forward.

  Catina was in her panther form, jumping from log to log, but Stela and I maintained our vampire forms. With all this water surrounding us, it wouldn’t be smart for Stela to turn into her giant fiery bird.

  Van Helsing’s size was even more impressive than before. We hadn’t been the only ones to enhance ourselves over the past day.

  Catina and Andreea attacked him first, the werewolf as if possessed by an angry fighting spirit, Catina as if Van Helsing was the largest, juiciest steak she had ever seen.

  Van Helsing, though, wasn’t taking the beating. He fought back, and he fought back hard. He almost slashed off Andreea’s ear, and he did cut off the tip of Catina’s tail.

  By now, Stela and I joined the fight. Stela had found the remains of bones from when I had concocted the vampire-enhancing potions. She had sharpened both ends of a femur, and she held it ready as she jumped onto the back of Catina’s panther. Together, they charged Van Helsing, who grabbed Andreea by her wounded ear and used her as a vampire shield.

  The bastard.

  My fangs begged to rip into his flesh. Before I could move, Catina leapt into the air, high above Andreea. Stela aimed her bone spear.

  But Van Helsing threw Andreea right at the panther.

  The three tumbled to the ground.

  I gripped the fiend by the back of his neck, holding him in place. Stela stood first. Andreea handed her the spear, and Stela threw it.

  Van Helsing stood there. He didn’t even fight me. I watched the spiral on the spear as it plunged deep into his shoulder.

  The vampire hunter calmly yanked it out and tossed it onto the ground.

  “What the hell did that doctor do to you?” I demanded.

  Van Helsing whipped around, freeing himself and plunging the bone spear into my knee. While it didn’t kill me, I couldn’t deny that it caused me some pain.

  The vampire hunter grinned manically. “He turned me into a kind of superhero, a special man unlike any other. I’m essentially—”

  “He’s a vampire without the bloodlust,” Andreea cut in.

  “Exactly so. The perfect being to hunt down and kill every last one of your wretched kind.”

  With that, Van Helsing lifted his hand to grab my neck. His fingers turned into claws. He opened his mouth wide, his teeth changing into fangs, and I slammed my elbow into his mouth.

  None of his teeth came out, and he staggered back but recovered faster than I anticipated. No matter. My brides all converged on him, fighting and nipping at him, slashing and carving into him.

  Even so, he fended us off. Weapons appeared out of nowhere, and he hacked at us, never letting more than one of us close at any one moment in time.

  Enough. This had to end.

  I transformed into my fog and lifted Van Helsing into the air. Stela let out a whoop, jumping up and shifting into her fiery bird. As soon as her claws pierced his shoulders, I transformed into my bats.

  As with the last battle, I bit into him all over, racking my teeth across his skin to form larger gashes so more blood would leak out before his wounds would heal. Decapitation might be the only way to end him or else ripping out his heart. Yes, that would be most satisfying.

  Before I could converge back to my vampire form and grab him to burst through his chest with my fist, Stela suddenly released Van Helsing. No way could I reach him and seize him as my vampire from mid-air. Instead, I continued to bite him all the way down as my bats when a drop of blood landed on my tongue.

  It wasn't human blood but vampire.

  Stela’s.

  I glanced up at her. She was freefalling, her descent wild and swift.

  Immediately, I ignored Van Helsing, hoping the fall would be long and far enough to at least hurt him. I shifted back into my fog and guided Stela’s descent. Every fiber of my being hoped and willing her to change back to her vampire form so that her fiery bird wouldn’t come in contact with the water. When she did exactly that—change to her vampire—I almost dropped her in horror.

  Her throat had been slashed. She was bleeding profusely.

  Fuck Van H
elsing! He had nearly decapitated her!

  The werewolf glanced from Van Helsing's still-falling form to me. I caught Stela in my vampiric arms and nodded toward the south of the marshland. We had to leave the delta and now if Stela might have a chance of surviving.

  Without delay, I zoomed away with every bit of speed and grace that I could muster, not wanting to jar Stela or cause her to bleed faster.

  She couldn’t die. She just couldn’t!

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  My heart beat so hard against my ribs that I thought some might break again. It was only after my other brides joined me that I was willing to halt. We hadn’t yet reached the mountains, but Stela needed blood and now.

  Holding her slumped against me in one hand, I bit my other wrist and shoved it to her mouth.

  “Drink,” I urged. “Drink, damn you!”

  “Lie her down,” Andreea urged. Catina remained in her panther form, Andreea her werewolf. Her normally lyrical voice sounded more guttural than normal.

  I complied, keeping my wrist to Stela’s mouth. Andreea worked Stela’s throat, and slowly, Stela swallowed some of my blood despite remaining unconscious.

  Hopefully, that would tie her over, and a minute later, we entered the castle. My other brides brought up humans, and we had to force feed Stela blood. It took her some time before her eyes blinked. Seconds later, the wound healed.

  “Damn that bastard,” Stela muttered. “I thought he had me. I thought I had knocked away all of his weapons, but he waited until the last second to get me with one.”

  “The potions worked but not well enough,” Andreea mused.

  “Worse, we have no way to lure him out anymore to wherever we want to next fight him,” Catina said.

  “First, we need to make sure Stela has healed properly.” I scanned my gaze over the others. All of their wounds seemed to have closed and healed already, but I still shoved compelled humans their way so they could drink.

  “Second?” Stela asked.

  “Well, for the matter of making him show up wherever we want, that’s easy.”

  “How so?” Catina asked.

  “We just round up a bunch of humans in public and feast on them.”

  Stella scowled.

  I held up my hand. “We don’t have to kill the humans,” I added.

  She nodded, but her eyes were covered in a sheen of wetness.

  Immediately, I enveloped her into my arms. “What’s wrong?” I whispered into her ear.

  “I…”

  Her arms wrapped around me as if she never wished to let go. Her lips found mine, and her kiss reached into my very essence, my soul.

  When she pulled back, those tears were now on her cheek. Unsurprisingly, her tears were blood.

  My breathing hitched. Was this goodbye?

  She wiped my face tenderly, and I realized I was crying, too.

  “I almost died a second time,” she whispered.

  “I won’t let that happen.”

  "I almost died, and the first thing I thought of was that I never told you how I feel."

  “Actually, you did. You hate me for turning you. You—”

  Stela pressed a finger to my lips. “Will you let me talk without interrupting for once?”

  “I don’t talk that much,” I protested despite her finger still touching my mouth.

  Andreea coughed.

  Catina smirked. “You do like to talk.”

  I grimaced but nodded for Stela to continue.

  “I did hate you at first, and I hated myself for what I had become. I didn’t know who or what you were at first and to be turned…”

  I nodded. I hadn’t intended to turn her, and it most likely hadn’t helped any that I had still been learning about my vampire self at the same time.

  “It was an adjustment, and then getting to know you, needing to reconcile myself with who you actually are versus my initial impression… None of that was easy for me.”

  “Yet you married him in a joint ceremony with us,” Catina said.

  “This is kind of a private conversation,” Stela muttered.

  “There are no secrets between us,” I said, moving her hand away from my lips and entwining our fingers.

  “Fair enough.” Stela inhaled deeply. “Yes, I married you, but it was almost… I’m ashamed to admit it, but it was more or less because I wanted to lay a claim on you.”

  I lifted my eyebrows. “I’m just a piece of steak to you?”

  She groaned. “Keep that up, and I’ll shove a stake into your heart.”

  I squeezed her hand and lifted my eyebrows. “So you say.”

  "I do say." She tilted up her chin and winked at me. "Not the best of reasons to marry a person, I know."

  “A vampire,” Andreea cut in. “Sorry,” she added sheepishly.

  Stela glared at her, but there was a teasing glint in her eyes. “I love you, Vlad or Dracula or whatever you want to be called.”

  Catina brought her fist to her mouth and coughed subtly.

  “I guess I love you too, Catina,” Stela said, “and Andreea.”

  “Just you guess?” Catina said, pouting.

  Stela swallowed. “This is all still new to me,” she confessed. “I’ve never been in a relationship like this.”

  “A harem,” Andreea supplied.

  “My harem,” I said, hugging Stela with one hand and motioning the other two over.

  After a long embrace, Andreea pulled back first. “Your harem won’t last long if we can’t figure out a way to defeat Van Helsing.”

  “He’ll never stop coming after us,” Catina said.

  “What can we do, though?” Stela asked, her hand coming to her throat. “The potions’ effects won’t last forever, right?”

  “No, most likely not,” I said.

  “Well then?” Catina asked. “I’m fresh out of ideas for trying something new.”

  “Maybe we don’t need new,” Andreea murmured. She rubbed along my neck. “I never feel closer to you all than when we feast, feed, and fuck.”

  “We don’t fuck,” Catina said almost angrily. “We make love.”

  “I was going for alliteration,” Andreea said, rolling her eyes playfully. “Anyhow—”

  “Yes,” Stela said.

  “Yes what?” Catina asked, almost whining.

  “Strengthening our bond, our love strengthens us more than human blood,” I murmured.

  “That combined with the potions…” Andreea shrugged.

  “But what if the potions’ effects wear off?” Stela asked. Her jaw tightened, and I hated that she was nervous and worried.

  “Then we won’t be able to have a long lovemaking session,” Andreea said seriously.

  “We can once we celebrate Van Helsing’s death,” Catina said, grinning mischievously. She wiggled her hips and was naked in the blink of an eye.

  “You honestly think this will work?” Stela asked. “It seems so… It seems too…”

  “Too good to be true?” I supplied.

  She nodded.

  “Vampires are said to be creatures of darkness,” Andreea said. “We’re supposed to prey on humans, to be their worst nightmares. We need them to survive, but we don’t have to kill. Not many have the self-control we do.”

  I gulped.

  Andreea smiled apologetically. “I still want to do research on you to see if you are Dracula reincarnated or if you are his descendant. Either way, that might make it harder for you to control your impulses all the time.”

  “Sounds like an excuse,” I muttered.

  “Regardless,” she continued, “we aren’t typical vampires. The children of Ambrogio and Selene cannot be in the sun without being burned. While the sunlight weakens us, we do not die during its light.”

  “You mean to say we’re both darkness and light,” Catina said.

  “Traditional vampires are said to be incapable of love, only lust. We know that’s not the case. I love you all, and I always will.”

  “Since eve
ryone is declaring their undying love, I might as well too,” Catina said dramatically, and she burst into a fit of giggles.

  “I will always love you,” I said seriously, looking them all deeply into their eyes. “I don’t know if sharing our love and our blood will be enough to help us finally defeat Van Helsing, but I am more than willing to try.”

  “Of course you are.” Catina winked as she ripped my clothes off and threw me down.

  Loving them, being with them, entering them… If I could do this every day and night for the rest of my life, I would be the happiest vampire ever to exist. Their love was all that mattered at the moment.

  And their pleasure.

  I couldn't say how many times each of them came, but I only lived to serve them and they to serve me. Each time I drank from one of them, my love for them grew, and my cock throbbed, ready for their walls or their mouths or their hands to force a release.

  Andreea took control first, sitting on my face as I lay on the ground. Catina sank her dripping wet pussy onto my cock, and I could barely keep my eyes open because of the pleasure, but I still spied Stela standing before Andreea, just the perfect height for Andreea to lean forward slightly and suck and finger her as I sucked and nibbled on Andreea’s clit.

  Stela and Catina warred with each other as far as who could moan louder, and I had just made Andreea come a second time when Catina gasped out, “Dracula!” as she orgasmed. The force of hers caused me to join her, and Stela shrieked too but a few seconds later.

  Damn. If only we could time it for all four of us to find that exquisite joy at the same moment.

  On and on, the pleasure went, with us moving at vampire speed instead of human so that we could come more often in less time. We could not risk Van Helsing once more enhancing himself.

  After I came in each of their holes once, only a half hour had passed, yet for us vampires, it had felt as if five times that and yet even quicker.

  Instead of a post-sex haze, I felt rejuvenated, renewed, and revitalized. One look at my brides and I knew they felt the same way.

  In all, an hour had passed since we had fled the battle. The moon willing, that wasn’t enough time for Van Helsing to see the doctor as it would take us only minutes to locate humans for the trap.