Free The Vengeance of the Vampire Bride by Rhiannon Frater Page A

obeyed and slowed, trotting briskly across the
courtyard to the far side of the castle. I felt a pang of sorrow
when I considered that this was where the dear countess had lost
her family and her mortality.
    We found the outer buildings that dwelt
in the shadow of the former fortress abandoned. The inhabitants
appeared to have recently vacated. Wagon wheels and animal tracks
indented the moist soil and an oven still smoldered in one
hovel.
    “Who lived here?” Magda
wondered.
    “Vlad’s gypsy servants,” I ventured.
“They are gone now. Odd.”
    I held onto her hand as she slipped off
the horse. I dismounted and released the horse to do as it pleased.
I knew it would not wander far. It tossed its head and trotted over
to a trough to drink. Magda arranged her scarf and attempted to
tidy her long skirt. My hand resting on the hilt of my sword, I
surveyed our surroundings. All the small buildings had the windows
tightly shuttered under wreaths of garlic and vervain. Large,
hastily-made crosses were secured to all the doors.
    “If they are Dracula’s servants, why
were they protecting themselves from vampires?” Magda knelt down to
examine a shattered door. A cross was bashed to splinters near a
building that was partially demolished with the windows ripped away
and the roof a burned wreckage.
    “It does appear that they brought down
the fury of the vampires upon them,” I surmised. Peering into the
destroyed abode, I smelled and tasted the coppery reek of the blood
sprayed across the walls and destroyed furniture.
    Magda crossed herself as she regarded
the castle with dread.
    I wondered if perhaps the Countess had
done more than merely ward the castle so it could not be entered
from without. Perhaps the ward had also not allowed those within to
venture beyond the crumbling walls. All indications were that it
was just this morning that the gypsies had found that they were
free to flee, which would coincide with when Countess Dracula had
agreed to allow me within the ruined castle. I was now certain that
the countess held the power of her husband within her veins and my
curiosity about his unknown fate grew.
    Looking upon Magda’s expression, I
could see she was startled, afraid, and attempting to piece
together the puzzle about us. Whatever her thoughts were, she kept
them to herself.
    “We should make haste. We do not need
to be here any longer than necessary,” I said.
    I walked to the door that led into the
kitchen with Magda following in my shadow. The crumbling wall
around the castle must have been impressive at one time, but now it
was the roosting place for birds that called out as we
passed.
    “The house in Buda was nothing like
this,” Magda observed. “How could he make her live
here?”
    “His power is tied here,” I answered.
“He can never be too far from his native soil.”
    “Is that why he carries it with him?”
Magda furrowed her brow. “I wondered why he always brought boxes of
soil with him. We would have to lay it about the outside of the
house and the platform of his bed was filled with it.”
    I found this to be intriguing and
arched my brow at her. “Truly? That is fascinating.”
    Magda shrugged her shoulders. “He is a
man of very odd tastes. After a while, we all just ignored the
idiosyncrasies. Besides, he is a vampire.”
    “True enough.” I tested the door and
was surprised to find it unlocked.
    We entered a long corridor that led to
the castle kitchen. It was obviously in disuse. Over the cold
hearth, laundry swam in tepid water. Bed clothes and curtains were
strewn about the floor and in one corner a heap of fine women’s
garments were shredded.
    “The servants left in a hurry.” Magda
knelt down beside a candle that had been crushed under someone’s
foot. She picked up a discarded candle from nearby and lit it with
the touch of her finger.
    I was startled by her
action.
    “I have drunk enough of his blood to
gain a few...” she struggled for the