VROLOK

by Nolene-Patricia Dougan

  “Give the lady back her hand, Quincy,” his father said to him. Quincy suddenly realised he was still holding it and quickly let go.

  “I am sorry,” he apologised and laughed nervously.

  “There is no need to apologise.” Isabella threw him another coy smile to reassure him, and then she looked away, even managing to blush, as if she actually was slightly embarrassed by his constant intense gaze. “This is my brother Cole.” Quincy outstretched his hand to take Nicolae’s. At this exact moment Isabella dropped her glass of champagne on Quincy‘s trousers. As Quincy bent over to dry himself off she batted Nicolae’s hand away. She was determined the Vampire and the Dhampir were never to touch. “I am afraid it is my turn to apologise; how clumsy of me,” Isabella continued.

  “Nonsense, I think it was my fault,” Quincy stated. Mina and Jonathon looked at each other knowingly. Quincy had never shown any interest in young ladies before; they were pleased by his sudden interest in this one, who seemed like such a well- brought up and accomplished young lady.

  “How long are you staying?” Mina asked.

  “At least a year.” Isabella answered. “I am afraid it is the fashion in America for a young woman to have at least one London season.”

  Mina smiled. “And you sir, how long are you going to stay here?”

  “Our parents are dead and I am my sister’s guardian, so I will stay as long as she does,” said Nicolae.

  “I am afraid Cicely was right about one thing. The London weather is doing nothing for my pallor,” Isabella stated, knowing that young women of this time were restricted to conversations about the weather and the latest fashions.

  “You should come to Whitby, then,” Quincy said enthusiastically.

  “Whitby?” Isabella enquired, seeming slightly curious.

  “Whitby is where we are from,” Mina answered. “It is a seaside town; it would do wonders for your complexion,” she continued.

  Isabella looked at Nicolae and Nicolae, interpreting her gaze accurately, said, “My sister and I will certainly consider visiting Whitby.”

  “It sounds absolutely lovely,” Isabella enthused.

  “Sister, there are the Baileys—we must go and present ourselves to them.”

  “My brother is right, you must excuse us, and I hope to see you again someday.” As Isabella said this she looked solely at Quincy and no one else. The two walked away from the Harkers and Quincy was once again scolded by his father.

  “You mustn’t act too keen, Quincy.”

  “Nonsense,” Quincy answered back. “If she looks back, she loves me.”

  “Quincy such foolish talk, you should be ashamed of your behaviour tonight.” Mina said not really meaning the words she spoke. Even though both parents had scolded their son, they too watched with him to see if Isabella looked back. The three people watched her for what seemed like an age.

  “It looks like she is not going to look back. That is too bad.”

  “Have faith father just another few seconds.” As Quincy spoke these words Isabella turned her head slightly towards him. When their eyes met she smiled and then quickly turned away.

  “That‘s it, Father, it is confirmed she loves me. I bet she will be in Whitby before the end of the month, and when she does come we shall have to get Holmwood to throw the grandest party for her.”

  Isabella and Nicolae waited three weeks and then made their way to Whitby. When they arrived at the inn at Whitby there was a letter waiting for them.

  “Who is it from?” Nicolae asked.

  “Need you ask?” Isabella responded. “Quincy welcomes us here and begs us to call on him as soon as we arrive. How long has this letter been here for us?” Isabella asked the innkeeper.

  “It is the strangest thing, Miss Hawthorne. He left it for you the day he came back from London. He must have known you were coming before you did.”

  Isabella smiled. “He must have, thank you.” Isabella went over to Nicolae.

  “He is smitten.” Nicolae said.

  “He is.”

  “It’s working then.”

  “It is.”

  “We must start distancing ourselves from each other to a certain extent.”

  “Why?”

  “If one or other of us is found out, the other must be in a position to be totally trusted by them.”

  “How could they find out?”

  “Remember we are dealing with a Dhampir; we have no power over him,” Nicolae laughed.

  “I think you are wrong about that,” Isabella smiled. “His infatuation with me will dissipate when he realises what he is. But how can he be a Dhampir?”

  “Do you think Vlad had another child?”

  Isabella threw Nicolae a malicious look and he regretted saying it. She softened when she realised it was the logical conclusion.

  “No, remember his mother was a Vampire for a time. He obviously was conceived when she still was,” she said.

  “That is another thing I wonder about. How could she have turned back into a human?”

  “I don’t know. Vlad died before she killed anyone; perhaps that is the answer. As soon as you kill your first you are eternally condemned and if the one who made you…dies first, then perhaps you are granted a reprieve,” Isabella answered.

  “Do you think there was a chance for us all?”

  “There was no chance for you.”

  “What do you mean?

  “If that is the way it works you would have had to kill me, and love you though I do, you are far from capable of killing me,” Isabella smiled, Nicolae reciprocated and a few moments passed in silence. Nicolae was still thinking back wondering if he had a choice.

  “Do you remember when you turned—did you have a choice?” Nicolae asked.

  “I was not aware of any choice but I would still have chosen the path I did, even if I had known of any alternative.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because my first kill was my sister and I would have endured more then this to watch her die.”

  From this moment Nicolae understood that there was a coldness within Isabella and that coldness had not just came upon her as a result of being a Vampire.

  A few days passed and Isabella and Nicolae were invited formally to the Harkers. They entered the house. It was unpretentious, an understated house befitting a solicitor who had inherited money. They were simple people with no pretensions above their station.

  “So good to see you again,” Quincy began. Isabella looked to the floor coyly, avoiding his gaze, acting shy but receptive to his compliments. As Isabella was acting like a demure and well-brought up young lady, another young lady entered the room who was not so demure. “This is my sister, Lucy,” Quincy said on her arrival.

  “I am glad to meet you,” Isabella said, extending her hand to Lucy. Lucy sighed when Isabella said this with such meekness. Isabella chose to ignore Lucy’s rudeness and said, “This is my brother Cole.” Lucy looked over at Cole with absolutely no interest.

  “Where are mother and father?” Lucy asked.

  “In the drawing room.” Quincy was disgusted at his sister’s rude behaviour and wanted her away from this company as soon as possible. “Why don’t you go and speak to them?” At this Lucy knew her brother wanted rid of her, so she was determined to stay.

  “Quincy, why do you want to be rid of me?” Lucy asked. Quincy was now getting angry with his sister.

  “Lucy, if you can’t behave yourself you should not inflict your company on other people,” Quincy scolded.

  Lucy sat down in a chair beside Isabella, trying to intimidate her. Isabella acted as if Lucy was being successful. When Isabella looked over, Lucy made a face and Isabella immediately looked to the floor and then looked up at Quincy with an uneasy smile on her face. Nicolae was watching Isabella’s flawless performance in front of Quincy and he wondered, did Isabella do this with everyone? Did she show everyone the side of her that they wanted to see?

  Quincy and Lucy’s mother
then entered the room and she knew by looking at Lucy that she was causing mischief. Mina looked at Isabella, who seemed slightly uncomfortable by Lucy’s brash nature and at Quincy, who desperately wanted Isabella to feel comfortable in his home.

  “Lucy dear, I think your father wants to talk to you in the other room,” Mina said gently.

  “Mother I am being entertained in this room by Quincy’s friends. Although this girl that my brother has taken a fancy to has not said much. Does she ever speak, I wonder?”

  “Lucy!” Quincy shouted. “Leave the room!”

  “You can’t order me to do anything,” Lucy retorted back at her brother. Mina had raised her children with such high spirits; she was now wishing she had been a bit stricter with them when they were young, but that was not in her nature.

  “Lucy, I think you should go and talk to your father.”

  “All right, mother. I will excuse myself from this riveting company and leave Quincy to be bored by himself.” With this Lucy left the room and slammed the door behind her. Isabella pretended to jump at the loud bang of the door.

  “I do apologise for my sister,” Quincy said.

  “Don’t apologise, I admire her vitality… I… I wish I could be more like her.”

  “Sister, I think it is time we were going,” Isabella sensed Nicolae was annoyed.

  “Yes, we should probably be leaving.” Isabella stood to leave. Quincy practically ran over to open the drawing room door.

  “I have asked Arthur Holmwood to set up your ball; he is arranging it for the first of next month,” Quincy said as he escorted her out.

  “It is most kind of you to go to so much trouble for us, Quincy.” By this time Lucy had re-entered the room.

  “Oh Lord…save me from such banality,” Lucy said.

  “I know how you feel,” Nicolae whispered.

  Quincy threw Lucy a chastising look. Isabella, however, would have to wait to chastise Nicolae.

  “Well, thank you again,” Isabella said.

  “The ball will be the first of the month,” Quincy said.

  “I look forward to it.” With this Isabella and Nicolae left the Harkers’ home.

  Nicolae sat silent during the coach ride back to the inn.

  Isabella was not in the mood to have him sulking for the rest of their stay there, so she asked, “What is it?”

  “Nothing,” Nicolae replied abruptly.

  “Your tone indicates that it is something.”

  “You see, that is the Isabella I know, a woman with an answer for everything. Yet you turn into this shy meek woman, a totally different person from the one I know, when you are around Quincy.”

  “I am the person Quincy wants me to be.”

  “That is exactly what concerns me.”

  “What do you mean, Nicolae?”

  “You do it so well. You trick and manipulate them so well.”

  “I am a Vampire, Nicolae, I trick and manipulate everyone. I have to and so do you.”

  “Why don’t you kill them and be done with it. I cannot stand this deceit.”

  “Killing them is not enough.”

  “Why Isabella? Why is it not enough?”

  “Because it isn’t.”

  “Why, Isabella, why?” Nicolae asked.

  “Because they have to suffer as I have.”

  “As you have?”

  “I mean as he did.”

  “No. You said as you have.”

  “Nicolae, if you want to leave, then leave.”

  “I don’t want to leave you…” Nicolae turned from her. “Not yet, anyway.” Isabella placed her hand gently on his shoulder and Nicolae turned back to look at the woman he still loved. Nicolae’s heart lightened and he tried to end the tension between them. “I am sorry; I just want to kill someone.”

  Isabella smiled but her smile was poignant; she knew and Nicolae knew that this issue would come between them again.

  “I promise that you can kill someone at this ball he has arranged for me.”

  “That will make me feel so much better,” Nicolae said sarcastically.

  “Good.”

  Arthur Holmwood’s house was quite different from the Harkers’. It was a grand old lavish English mansion. Even Isabella was impressed by it. It had thirty bedrooms and an exquisite ballroom. When Quincy saw her he rushed over to her and brought her over to one of his father’s old friends to introduce her.

  “Isabella, this is Doctor Jack Seaward. Along with Arthur they are my family’s oldest and closest friends.” Isabella of course recognised the name immediately; this man would be the first to be punished.

  “I am honoured to meet such a trusted friend of the Harkers.”

  “Isn’t she stunning?” Quincy added.

  “She certainly is,” Jack agreed.

  Nicolae left Isabella’s side; he was sickened by this deception. He went over to the waiter to get a drink, and Lucy followed him.

  “Your sister could not be as innocent as she makes out,” Lucy quizzed Nicolae. He was startled to have someone talking to him. He thought this was Isabella’s show and if truth be known, he did not want to be involved.

  “Sorry to disappoint you—she really is that innocent; she has had a sheltered life,” Nicolae lied.

  “Oh, I am not disappointed,” Lucy replied. “Just bored with these social drones,” Nicolae smiled.

  “You sound like someone I used to know.”

  “Who?”

  “Oh, no one of any importance. So you are bored with Whitby?”

  “I am. I was very disappointed in your sister, when I heard you were both from America I thought you both would be something different but it turned out you were just the same.”

  “Well, perhaps I can prove to you I am not the same.”

  Lucy for the first time realised how handsome Nicolae was; she had never looked at him before, not with her mind’s eye. “I doubt it,” Lucy said not wanting to give any hint her new found attraction to Nicolae.

  “You could at least let me try,” Nicolae said.

  “What is your name again?”

  “You know what my name is,” Nicolae said.

  “I don’t,” Nicolae looked suspiciously at Lucy who was trying her hardest to act indifferent towards him. “I don’t,” she repeated. Nicolae kept looking at Lucy he was smiling sceptically. “I really don’t, Cole.”

  “Ah ha,” Nicolae said. Lucy and Nicolae started to laugh together. Isabella had not noticed Nicolae talking to Lucy but two other people in the room had.

  “Look over there,” Mina said to her husband.

  “It appears we may be getting rid of them both,” Jonathon said.

  “That’s unkind, Jonathon.”

  “I know the house will be a lot quieter without Lucy in it.”

  It was the middle of the night and Jack Seaward was petrified. He was running towards the Harker’s house, falling over himself, panicking, constantly looking behind him, straining his eyes trying to see if anyone was following him. When Jack arrived at the front door he started pounding his fists upon it and shouting.

  “Mina, Jonathon, please open the door!” Slowly the lights started to shine from the house into the gloom of the darkened street. Jack could hear someone coming down the stairs and he shouted again. “Hurry, let me in!” Jonathon let his old friend into the house. As soon as he was inside Jack turned around and locked and bolted the door behind him.

  “What is wrong?” Mina asked. Jonathon helped him to a seat.

  “It is happening again,” Jack said. By this time Lucy and Quincy had awakened and followed their parents down into the hall. Mina looked up at Quincy and Lucy and said.

  “Quincy, Lucy, go back to bed.”

  “No mother, not until we know what is wrong with Jack.”

  “Nothing is wrong with him—go back to bed,” Jonathon scolded.

  “But mother, there is obviously something wrong,” Quincy shouted.

  “Go to bed, children!” Mina shouted. Both L
ucy and Quincy were shocked. Neither of them remembered a single time in their lives when their mother had raised her voice to them. All three watched as the two youngest Harkers ascended the stairs and left their parents with Jack.

  “I am sorry,” Jack said, trying to catch his breath.

  “What have you seen?” Jonathon said.

  “Him… I have seen him.”

  “Jack,” Mina said calmly and softly. “You know that is impossible. We killed him.”

  “I know, my head tells me it is impossible but I cannot dismiss the evidence of my own eyes…I saw him!” Jack shouted.

  “Think about it rationally, Jack. We saw him turn to dust,” Jonathon said.

  “I am telling you I saw him.”

  “You couldn’t possibly have,” Jonathon stated. Jack opened his shirt collar and showed Mina and Jonathon two puncture marks on his neck.

  “Now do you believe me?” Mina stumbled back into a chair and sat down, horrified. Was it truly happening again?

  “All right, tell us exactly what happened,” Mina said, gathering her composure.

  Jack Seaward was not able to sleep that night. He decided to go for a walk in the hope that it would tire him out. He got up and walked to the end of the street. The street was silent and all Jack could hear was the hum of the streetlights above his head. He walked for another mile, but then an unsettled feeling came over him.

  He walked a few more steps and then the silence was suddenly broken. He heard someone running, and then heard whoever it was stumble and start running again. The sound of the steps was getting louder and louder. It seemed as if they were just around the corner. But then there was silence again.

  Jack decided it was time to go home. He thought his mind was playing tricks on him. He started to walk briskly, refusing to run, thinking that he was being foolish. His head was telling him that there was nothing there and to run would be stupid—he was not a child. When he was within a few steps of home, he began to hear the running footsteps again and they sounded very close, as if they were behind him. He spun around, but nothing was there. All was silent again and he resumed walking, dismissing the noises as just nighttime jitters.