Vampyres, Prt 2.

Hey, I've gotten some pretty good feedback about my last part, particuarly from roon, so I posted more. Again, please tell me what you think.

Oh yes, since I can't find the 'rate' button, I'll just tell you now. PG-13. Possibly R.

You are probably confused now. You are probably thinking, ‘How can she be dead if she wrote this?’ Well, if you’ll have a little patience I’ll tell you.

I fell.

I didn’t fall very far though. For at that moment, a white hand snaked over the edge of the bridge and caught my wrist. I gasped. The hand was icy cold. The next thing I knew I was on the bridge again.

Standing in front of me was a man. He was of regular height, with black hair and black eyes. He was wearing a black robe. But the most noticeable thing about him was his skin. It was pale white, almost like snow, and there were no marks on it at all.

He walked over to the carriage, which was dangerously close to falling. He stepped in between the horses, which I thought was rather dumb, and grabbed the bar that the horses were tied to. With one deft movement, he pulled the carriage onto the bridge.

I was amazed. The man who had been controlling the horses was sitting in his seat in a daze. He jumped off of his seat when he saw me.

“Princess, forgive me! The ride was so long that I dozed. The next thing I knew the carriage was hanging off of the bridge!” He got on his knees before my feet. I smiled and leaned down, pulling him upright by his shoulders. “There is nothing to forgive. I would have done the same in your position.”

He kept his head down. “Thank you Princess.” I looked for my rescuer. He was gone.

I got back inside my carriage and we rode on, the driver being careful to stay in the center of the bridge. We made it across quickly.

Now we were in a dark forest. The trees threw shadows on the ground like pictures in black ink, and to my left I could see the sun setting. That was the first odd thing. The sun shouldn’t have been setting for several hours. I watched it sink below the horizon. After a while the moon came up. It was a full circle, and as white as the man’s skin. I put my forehead against the cool glass of the window. I was tired, and I found myself nodding off. I fell asleep. I had no way of knowing that this would be the last natural sleep that I would ever have.

When I woke up the carriage was stopping. Outside of the window I could see a black castle. It was huge. There were several towers and battlements, with a large drawbridge over a moat. The water was black as well, and looked like silk in the moonlight. The drawbridge came down, as if I was expected.

I was rather nervous. The carriage trundled over the drawbridge. I noticed that there were no guards around the castle. We went past the main walls. We were in a stone courtyard, with a fountain in the center.

The carriage stopped and I got out cautiously. The courtyard had three doors. There was one door on both sides, and one door straight across. The two on either side were of normal height, width and look, but the main door was amazing. It was a double door, ten feet high, and made of black wood. It was engraved with frightful creatures. Demons, dragons, hydras, and many more things covered it.

The door opened without a sound, and a person came out. His face was expressionless, and he watched the driver and I with empty eyes. His hair was black, and his skin was pale. Everyone from around here seems to have pale skin. I thought. He turned back inside and beckoned for us to follow him.

I began walking. I motioned for my driver to stay behind. He did so reluctantly. I was very nervous now. The man continued walking. I followed him inside.

I was inside of a hallway, made of the same dark rock as the outside. It was dimly lit with torches. I walked for what seemed like hours, but could only be a few minutes, following the man closely. Eventually I got to another set of double doors that looked exactly like the doors before, but much bigger.

The man pushed them open and I walked in. I gasped and it echoed around the room I was in.

It was rather large, made of the same black rock. On the floor was a thin red carpet, the only thing that I had seen that wasn’t colored black in the entire place. At the end of the room, across from me, was the man that had come to our castle three years ago.

Lying randomly across the floor, some leaning on one another, were other people that had the same skin and hair as the rest of them. They were also all wearing black. He was sitting on a black throne that seemed to be growing out of the wall behind him. The rock twisted and curved in such a way that it looked like a black tree.

He was sitting sideways, with one of his legs draped over one of the arms, the other tucked behind the arm, and his back against the other arm. He smiled when I came in, and I saw his oddly shaped teeth again. And once again, they sent a shiver down my spine that I couldn’t explain.

He wasn’t wearing his cloak this time, but was dressed in black pants and a black shirt. His pants were unadorned, but his shirt was encrusted with black onyx stones. “Welcome Princess, to my abode. I have been expecting you.” His voice chilled me to the bone. I was afraid of him, and I could tell that he knew I was.

Struggling to keep my voice even, I said, “Well, if you have been expecting me I can get straight to the point. My father has sent me here in regards to our trade agreement that was made between our respective kingdoms six years ago.”

He laughed. “Why so formal Princess? We’re all friends here.”

I wasn’t so sure.

“You will not send us weapons or anything else that you promised us, but demand that we continue sending you people. Why?” He continued smiling in an unpleasant way. “Your father sent you eh?” I nodded. He laughed again.

“ That naïve fool. Sending his only daughter into the very country that has been planning war against him unguarded. What is the world coming to?”

The blood drained from my face. “W-war?” I felt like I would faint. I regained control of myself difficultly. “Why would you be planning war against us? You have been supplying us with weapons for six years now.”

He gave me the same I-know-better-than-you look that he had given my father six years ago. “Ah, the weapons that we made from iron marinated in water from the pond of weakness? Rather obviously named, but effective.”

I gaped at him. The pond of weakness could weaken anything, to the point where it was flimsy as thread. He smiled. “You understand now don’t you? Those idiots in your own country replaced their good weapons with weapons that couldn’t be used for cutting butter, let alone protect anybody. Our smiths here can do something with the metal that will make the flimsiness unnoticeable, until used against our own weapons.”

I stared at him in horror. His words hit me like blows to the heart. He sighed.

“Well, I really am sorry about this, but I’m afraid that I can’t let you or your driver waiting in your carriage go back to your kingdom and tell everyone.”

I saw out of the corner of her eye that the others around the room were standing up and looking at me like I was going to be their next meal. I began backing away, but I bumped into hands, pushing me back towards the man on the throne.

He was still smiling. He stood and began walking towards me. I couldn’t move, couldn’t do a thing. I was frozen by terror.

“It would be a shame to waste a pretty body like yours.” He said, his smile growing wider. I noticed that some of his people were closing behind him, making an impenetrable circle around us.

One of them came forward and whispered to him. “Are you sure about this sir? You may lose control, and she may rebel.”

He glared at him. “Of course I am; do you doubt me Smith?” The man shook his head and stepped back.

He continued advancing on me. Soon he was right in front of me. He reached out his hand and cupped the right side of my neck. His head snapped back as soon as he touched my skin. He breathed deeply through his nose, and his head came forward and he sighed, as if refreshed.

“Well then, let’s get started.”

I noticed that his eyes had turned a dark wine red, the same color as my dress. Suddenly the people around us closed in as tight as the circle could get, and hands grabbed the back of my head and pulled it back, exposing the flesh of my neck. He leaned forward, and I felt teeth on it. I felt them puncture my skin. I screamed.