“Kyra is not yours to take either.”
“She is born of me,” the vampire said. “More than that, I have watched over her these last many years as she grew. You know the power stirs within her. She will never be accepted by the humankind.”
“She is no vampire,” Lady Caspen said. “She does not have the lust for blood, nor does she have any of your undesirable traits.”
“Come now, Zana. You know that to become a vampire one must be turned. The child of a vampire is at best born with demon blood within them. I would not expect her to lust for blood, because I never turned her. That is only accomplished with an intentional act, a bite in which I can transfer my essence. However, you also know that the darkness within her will grow. If her true nature were ever to be discovered, her betrothal will be nullified and she will be expelled and exiled from the Middle Kingdom. All this work your husband goes through to sell her to the nobleman like some fancy chalice will be for naught. Even if she was not expelled and shunned, some hero will come looking for her, hoping to make a name for himself by taking her head. Within weeks she will be fourteen and she will be sent to Kuldiga Academy. I cannot let that happen. You know what will happen when she reaches her sixteenth birthday.”
“I will prepare her for that when the time is right,” Lady Caspen swore. “Besides, why would a monster such as yourself possibly care what happens to my daughter?” Lady Caspen asked.
“I know you saw them,” the vampire replied. “There is a shadow, a demon that follows her. You may have thought that your wards and spells had kept me at bay these last thirteen years, but the truth is they have done nothing to stop me. I have come many times, to strengthen your defenses and protect her from the others that seek her.”
“Then why not come to take her before now?” Lady Caspen asked.
“Because until now the wards and spells did manage to keep the others at bay. That is, until last night when the shade was able to not only approach the manor but enter it as well. It seeks the darkness within her, and it will not stop until it has her. I can protect her, and I can protect you. I know you can tolerate the life you have here, but I also remember that you told me there was no love in your home. You may think me incapable of such things, but since the day you left me I have not been able to erase you from my memory. Come with me.”
Lady Caspen felt a tug at her heart that she could not explain. There was indeed a part of her that was more than a little enticed by the offer. She also had to admit that the intruders that had come did not fit with anything she had ever known the vampire to employ in his service. Still, she knew that a vampire’s words, no matter how sweet, were only a means to an end. These were not the sincere confessions of a loving heart. They were the manipulative words of a controlling monster, a selfish creature that cared only for its own pleasures. If he did want Kyra, it was certainly not to protect her and help her grow into a happy life.
She knew that she would regret what she was about to do. It would likely create a splinter within her that would worm its way into her heart for the rest of her life, but she also knew that it was the right thing to do. He was right, there was no love in her home. The fact that Lord Caspen had never personally gone looking for her when she had been kidnapped those many years ago had certainly never been lost on her. Nor had his lack of interest shortly after Kyra’s birth. For a while she had hoped that Kyra would help them rekindle something that had really never been there in the first place. For whatever reason, whether Lord Caspen suspected that Kyra was not really his, or perhaps he had been disappointed by the birth of a daughter instead of a son, the child did little to pull them together. Still, the life she and Kyra had now was better than any life they could have hiding and skulking about with the vampire. So, while she knew in her heart that she would always regret her decision, she knew what she had to do.
Lady Caspen flipped the dagger over in her hand and sent it flying toward the vampire’s heart. The vampire vanished into a cloud of smoke and the dagger flew through the air harmlessly. A moment later he reformed with a long sword in his hand.
“So, I have your answer, then?” he asked with a hiss.
“How quickly your temperament shifts,” Lady Caspen noted.
“I will have her, with or without you.”
Lady Caspen sneered. “As I thought, a monster like you is incapable of love.” She rushed forward, calling down a maelstrom of fire from the sky that blasted into the trees and forced the vampire back. He tried to flank her to get close enough to use his sword on her, but Lady Caspen knew how he fought. She had not only watched him while he defeated the many rescuers who had come to save her, but she had studied and memorized his moves. When he appeared next to her and chopped down with his sword, she ducked aside and flicked a small bolt of lightning from her wrist to his eyes. It wasn’t lethal of course, the vampire could easily shake off such an attack, but it left him blinded for a moment. In that moment Lady Caspen called back the dagger she had thrown and sent it flying straight into the vampire’s heart.
The vampire smiled wickedly, exposing his two long, curved fangs as he dropped his sword to the ground. “You kept my dagger,” he said. “Then that is what the others hunt.”
Lady Caspen ignored the vampire’s words as she finished what she started. “You may have forgotten,” Lady Caspen began, “but every time you offered to give me the gift, as you called it, you also explained that only an enchanted weapon, such as this very dagger, could ever end our lives. So on the day that I helped you escape, I stole it and replaced it with an illusion. You were always so sure of your own intelligence that you never suspected I might try to trick you.” Lady Caspen snapped her fingers and fire engulfed the ruby encrusted handle of the dagger and spread into the vampire’s chest.
“Then I curse you, witch.” The vampire raised his right hand and made a couple of swift movements in the air. “Inasmuch as the one I love has been kept from me, so too shall Kyra be kept from the one that she loves. And as my child is the reason I am dying, should Kyra ever conceive a child, it will destroy her from the inside and she will die.”
Lady Caspen moved in quickly to counter the curse, but the vampire waved his hand and a magical force knocked her to the ground. As flames consumed the vampire, the glowing rune in the air solidified the demon’s curse.
*****
Lady Caspen returned to the manor quickly, but she did not go into her room. Instead, she went straightway to her study. She walked up to the third bookshelf from the far window and tapped the top of each book as she counted seven books in from the end. Her fingers fell upon a large book and she pulled it out hastily. She knew she should finish setting wards about the house, but only now was she hearing what the vampire had said when he had seen the dagger.
“That is what the others hunt,” he had said.
What could that mean? Why would anyone want this dagger? It was powerful enough to kill a vampire, but there were other such weapons in existence. She turned the blade over in her hands, marveling that there seemed to be no soot or dirt staining any part of it. The dagger was as pristine now as it was when she had first seen it on the vampire’s desk in his large library. Whatever it was for, she had to get rid of it. She couldn’t risk demons hunting the blade and imperiling her daughter.
She turned around and slammed the large, red book on the nearest table. She opened it hastily, fumbling through the pages until she came to the middle of the book.
“Web of fate and silk of destiny, suspend this offering in your grasp and release it not. Hoon’do ro’kimith. Habera bon’des derion, cul hemeth.” Lady Caspen placed the dagger on the pages and then shut the book. A sickly vapor emerged from the magical book and a green light poured over it. The book shrank and fell away into a large rift that tore through the fabric of the air in front of her. A great, black hole opened up and swallowed the book and the dagger.
After the rift sealed itself, Lady Caspen went to her desk and pulled out a small piece of paper. S
he hurried to write her message and then cast a spell over it to change the words. The true message was meant only for Kyra’s eyes. To any other who opened the letter, it would appear as a plain letter from home, written by a mother who missed her child. She slipped it into a small envelope and then hid it in a drawer.
A sudden scratch at the glass startled her and she whirled around to see a gaunt figure with narrow eyes staring back at her as it scraped its long fingernails over the glass in an effort to raise the window. Lady Caspen didn’t waste any time. She cast a spell to blind the creature. It screamed and fell back into the night.
Lady Caspen rushed to the window and threw it open. The pale, thin man writhed on the ground below. A quick bolt of lightning ended his life. She glanced around, checking for any other sign of intruders. If the vampire had been telling the truth about adding his protection to the manor, then she knew there was a good chance that many others could be lurking about in the shadows now that he was dead.
She had always been prepared for them to come for Kyra. It seemed that monsters spawned from demons and hell always hunted out their ilk, even if they were only half-bloods, as Kyra was. She had been so careful to hide and protect her. How was it that the monsters seemed to have found her now? Or was it truly the dagger they sought?
Lady Caspen closed and locked the window. She took in a deep breath and calmed her nerves. If they were after the dagger, then surely they would stop coming around the manor now. If it was possessed by some evil enchantment, then the scent of its magic would no longer taint Caspen Manor.
Lady Caspen heard a scream from down the hall. It was one of the servants.
She rushed out and nearly threw herself down the main stairs, but when she reached the entryway she saw her husband standing with a perplexed look on his wide-eyed face holding a poker from the fireplace. To his right, Hilda, the maid, was standing on top of a chair and flinging her fingers about as she nervously chewed on her lower lip.
“What is it?” Lady Caspen demanded.
Lord Caspen pointed with the poker to a rather large rat cornered against the wall.
Lady Caspen was so relieved that she broke out into a soft laugh and turned to go back up the stairs. Her husband could deal with a rat, she had wards to finish that would ensure no more monsters came to the manor.
“Are you feeling better?” Lord Caspen called out after her.
Lady Caspen shook her head and continued back up to her room.
CHAPTER FOUR
A week after the incident with the vampire, Lady Caspen found herself in the south parlor offering tea to the very man who had come to rescue her from the vampire those many years ago. Janik was a handsome man, albeit now disfigured. His left leg dragged behind him stiffly, and his left hand was curled backwards at the wrist like a fleshy hook. Perhaps that was why he wasn’t asking for Kyra’s hand himself. Instead he was negotiating with Lord Caspen to arrange the marriage between Kyra and Janik’s younger brother Feberik. If Janik was handsome with his dark hair and green eyes, Feberik was more so with eyes the color of the sky and dark brown hair with streaks of reddish blonde running through it. Feberik was large, and much wider at the shoulder than most other men. His black silk shirt only barely managed to cover his chest and shoulders without ripping at the seams. His smile was soft and kind and his voice was so deep that it almost resonated inside Lady Caspen’s chest when he spoke.
He was a fine catch for any woman, Lady Caspen knew, but it was highly unlikely that he would be suited for Kyra. For starters, although he was several years younger than Janik, Feberik was still twenty years older than Kyra. It wasn’t highly unheard-of for matches to be made with such differences in age, but Kyra was anything but the average young woman and she was not going to like it one bit. Still, Lady Caspen kept her mouth closed knowing that in this instance her silence would serve Kyra better than any protest she could offer.
Janik scooped a small teacup into his right hand and brought it up to his lips. “I do love mint tea,” Janik said just before taking a small sip.
“Yes, my wife has a way with mint tea.” Lord Caspen reached up to push the gold rimmed spectacles higher on the bridge of his nose. He then flattened the front of his shirt with his left hand and brushed a pair of crumbs off his left leg that he had somehow inadvertently dropped while eating a biscuit. “I must say that just last week we had several suitors come by,” Lord Caspen said in his nasally voice. He shook his head as if doubtful an arrangement could be made and then he leaned forward placing his empty teacup on the mahogany table before him. “The offers that were presented were, substantial.”
“More substantial than rescuing your wife?” Janik asked.
Feberik put a hand on Janik’s shoulder, and even from a distance Lady Caspen could see that Feberik was squeezing his brother’s shoulder to quiet him.
“Of course we have an offer to make as well,” Feberik said.
Janik slipped out from under his brother’s grasp and nodded. “Yes, of course, I only wish to remind Lord Caspen that some connections are deeper than gold.”
“It is true we go back quite a long time,” Lord Caspen agreed. “In part one could say that I owe not only my wife’s life to you, but my daughter’s as well. However, I should like to remind you that you were paid for your task. You do recall that I gave you title and deed to all of my wife’s properties that she brought upon our marriage, do you not?”
Lady Caspen hated sitting through these negotiations listening to her husband, the one man who should still be overjoyed at her return, casually talking about her as if she were nothing more than an artifact or perhaps a book that had been lost and then returned to him. No, she knew that was an unfair comparison. If he had a book lost and returned he would likely have spent more time with the book after it had been found. Still, she reminded herself that she wasn’t here to support him. She was here for Kyra. As smart as Lord Caspen thought he was, he needed her help negotiating a proper dowry.
“Yes actually I remember the property very well. I had thought that the property itself might make a good gift.” Janik said.
“No, that won’t do. Why, my husband had planned on giving those lands to our child, don’t you remember dear?” Lady Caspen offered a soft smile to her husband accompanied with a short, sly wink.
Lord Caspen nodded. “Quite right, I had intended that those lands would go to our future child from the day that I married my wife.”
Janik was about to say something, but before he could get the words out Feberik jumped in. “Then it is settled, the lands shall be returned in full to Kyra, as they had always meant to be. That is not the only thing that we offer, is it brother?”
Janik bristled, his face reddening slightly. He took another sip of tea and set the half empty cup the table in front of him. “No, it is most certainly not the only thing we bring to offer.”
“I do hope it is something fairly substantial,” Lord Caspen said. “Because Lord Higbee was here last week and he made an offer that I cannot in good faith refuse, except you are able to match it. Surely if you can match what he offered, no one can deny the balance to be tipped in your favor for services rendered in the past to House Caspen.”
Services rendered in the past. Lady Caspen stifled her emotions as she had learned to do, taking in a deep breath through her nose and letting it out quietly so that nobody could see nor hear her displeasure.
“I can do better than that,” Feberik said. “Whatever Lord Higbee offered you, I will offer you an additional fifty percent more.”
Lady Caspen saw her husband’s nostrils flare and his eyes went wide for a fraction of a second. The only thing he loved as much as his books was gold. Lord Higbee had offered a lot of it. Still, Lady Caspen was not here to sit idly, she was here to broker a good deal for her daughter. So, under the guise of a sly, supportive wife she continued to bargain before her husband could open his mouth and accept the offer as it was.
“So if I understand correctly, you are of
fering to put the title and deeds to the property that used to belong to me into Kyra’s name. Then you will pay one hundred and fifty percent of the offer Lord Higbee offered.” Lady Caspen smiled and took a small sip of tea making sure her pinky stuck out from the cup as is proper. She then gently rested the cup back into the saucer and held it in her left hand. However, as she brought the cup away from her mouth, she whispered the words of a minor charm spell. All three men turned to listen to her. “It is a handsome dowry to be sure, but I wonder if it is a little dry. Kyra has four years at the Academy before she will be able to wed. It might be prudent if her future husband were to contribute to her expenses directly as well. Perhaps if you could find it in your ability to double Lord Higbee’s offer, then the additional fifty percent that I’m suggesting could be given directly to Kyra.” Lady Caspen looked to her husband and smiled sweetly before continuing. Then she glanced back to Feberik. “It is proper that the lady of the house should be able to administer all matters of the house. This additional amount to her dowry could be paid now in an effort to help her learn how best to manage funds of such a nature. Then, naturally as she is going to be your wife, whatever remains from her portion of the dowry by the time you wed returns back into your home and your treasury. It will show Kyra how much she means to you, and in turn it will help your wife become trained in the matters of home economics.”
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