Free Lord of the Vampires by Jeanne Kalogridis Page B

an invisible force (ah, Elisabeth, my powerful saviour!). His eyes reddened with rage, and he parted his lips and released a low lupine growl, his face contorted into a Medusan mask.
    Stay away from her, Zsuzsanna. Stay away, or I shall be forced to retaliate!
    I said nothing, only watched him spin on his heel and storm out, slamming the door behind him with such force that it rattled for several seconds.
    Dunya stepped up to stand beside me; I think she had been cowering behind me all this time. She put a soft hand upon my shoulder and whispered, Doamna. Do you think he can really hurt us if we see Elisabeth again? She is so kindly
    Again I slipped an arm round her waist, but stared ahead at the trembling wooden door.
    To hell with him, I said slowly. To hell with him.
    Chapter 4
    The Diary of Zsuzsanna Dracul
    5 May 1893.
    I woke from a sweet dream to the sound of my dear dead mothers voice calling softly:
    Wake up, Zsuzsanna. Wake up, child, its almost midday
    I opened my eyes, not to my mothers worn face, but to the exquisite and youthful countenance of Elisabeth. This time she wore a fetching gown of cream-coloured moire, with a narrow standup collar of stiff lace that fringed a more daring decolletage.
    I smiled at the sight of her; but then my expression turned to wide-eyed awe at the realisation that beyond her, a yellow shaft of sunlight was streaming in through the unshuttered window.
    And it did not pain me. Nor did I feel in any way weakened by it.
    Those revelations widened my eyes even further, and I emerged once more from my grim resting-place with a bound and hurried over to the window to gaze unblinking out at the beautiful day. Above, in a blue, blue sky, the sun blazed.
    It is mid-day! I cried, and whirled round, slack-jawed yet smiling, to stare in tearful gratefulness at Elisabeth. How is this possible?
    She returned my gaping grin and, rather than reply to the posed question, said instead: Will you accompany me for some fresh air? At my hesitance, she added, Vlad is sleeping, as you know. I have made sure he will hear nothing. We can meet now during the dayevery day, if you wishand he shall never know.
    I believed her gladly, for I remembered that yesterday night, he had not perceived my beauty. In answer, I grabbed her arm and together we ran giggling down the winding staircase through the grand hall and out the great spiked door into the blessed outdoors.
    Elisabeth slowed upon the steps and let go my hand. I scrambled down them onto the grounds and pulled off my slippers. The instant my bare feet touched the soft, cool grass, I could no longer resist: I spread my arms like wings and spun round in circles like a frenzied child who has been closeted for a long bleak winter.
    Such an intoxicating spring! The plum trees were fragrant with blossom, and the open lawn was scattered with wildflowers: bluebells, crimson poppies, daisies, snowy alyssum. The air echoed with the cheerful calls of birds larks and robins, not the melancholy song of the nightingale nor the mournful cry of the owl, the only birdsong I have heard for half a century.
    And as I spun in joyful delirium, I closed my eyes and lifted my face to the skyto the sun, whose warm, soothing light upon my face seemed at that moment more delicious, more precious, than anything I had experienced as an immortal.
    When at last I fell, dizzy and laughing, onto the cool ground beside a patch of intricately delicate Jack-in-the-pulpit, I rolled over onto my back to stare at the clouds in the turquoise sky, and called out to my benefactress:
    Elisabeth! You have been so good to me! You have returned my beauty, my strengthand now you have returned to me the whole world! For that is how I felt: that I had been confined to the night, living only half an existence. And now the other half of life had been restored to me. Can I do nothing for you in return?
    You can share with me the young gentleman guest.
    A guest? I sat suddenly, pressing my fingers behind me