by Ana Calin
“You melted my heart, made it sensitive to love,” he whispers. “It is said that we, evil creatures, can only be cleansed of evil when someone comes to truly love us despite our nature, or when our hearts know love. The only people for whom I’d felt that emotion before were my mother, and....” He turns his back and walks to the window, pushing his hands into his pockets. I imagine he doesn’t want me to see the vulnerability in his face.
“And Vlad,” he continues, talking more to himself than to me. “I loved my father, too, you know. Both Vlad and I did. But maybe it was exactly our love for him that initiated us on the path of evil. Our father made us do terrible things, out of love for him, and that must have perverted our hearts.”
I can feel the anger rising inside of him, but he casts it away. I can sense him deeply, in the very center of my heart, probably because my channels remained open after Ruxandra.
Radek turns to face me, and the expression I read in that beautiful face knocks me back. His dark rose lips that have always driven me crazy are drawn in pain, his eyes soft and hurt. By God, he’s completely open to me.
“I’ve always loved you, Juliet.” He shrugs off his suit jacket, and lets it drop to the floor. He rolls up one sleeve, then pulls it up high enough that I can see the deep scars on his muscled forearm that I know feels like marble under my touch.
“I hurt myself because I couldn’t bear the desire I felt for you, I already admitted that,” he says. “But there’s one little detail that I never mentioned.”
I wait for it with my heart beating in my throat. I need to hear this so badly.
“When you healed me of the midnight monster, you also healed me of my lust.” He walks to me as he talks, his eyes becoming darker, more dangerous, announcing he won’t hold back anymore. I stiffen with the tea in my hands.
“The midnight monster was lusty because sex kept it alive, you know that. But me—” He motions to himself as he advances toward me, using the hand with the naked forearm that bears the marks of his dark desire for me. “Prince Radek, cannot even feel lust like a normal man.”
He stops in front of me, bending down with hands on the back of the couch, trapping me between his arms. My eyes search his hungrily. I want this.
“I can only desire a woman if I’m emotionally involved,” he says. “Let me tell you something that I never thought I’d tell you—I haven’t slept with any other woman since you.”
That knocks me back like freaking lightning. My jaw drops.
“What?” I barely manage.
He smiles dangerously, bending his elbows and bringing his face closer to mine, so close that I see him in a blur, and there’s no space left for me to push myself away from him. I’m trapped between him and the couch.
“For five fucking years,” he says darkly, “I’ve only jerked off thinking of you. I couldn’t bear how badly I missed you, I couldn’t bear the void you left in the place where I should have felt my heart, so I went down to the cellar and activated the mirrors. I’d stroke my cock while watching you.”
My nub pulses, need rising in my lower belly. I swallow hard.
“I felt you,” I breathe.
“Yes. You did. Often I wondered if that was the reason why I never saw you with another man. Because you felt me, and were afraid, or ashamed, or—” He searches my eyes.
I sense that he’s giving me time to answer that, but the truth refuses to leave my mouth, I even press my lips together to keep it in. No, I can’t trust him yet, I can’t tell him I couldn’t even imagine being with another man, that I masturbated to him as well, but only in places where there were no mirrors, because I felt watched all the time—even though I thought that was only in my mind.
“Why don’t you say anything?” he presses. A glint of metal crosses his eyes, the same one that did whenever he was jealous. He grabs my shoulders, his fingers sinking into my flesh.
“Have you been with other men, Juliet?”
But all I can do is answer with further questions. “If you only wanted me, then why did you do what you did, Radek? Why did you bring Irina, asking me for a threesome? All that talk about you needing freedom, about other women, about wanting an open relationship—”
“All bullshit,” he says through his gritted teeth. He kneels in front of me, his powerful hands kneading my upper arms possessively.
“Vlad,” he begins, but then stops, probably reassessing his decision. He wets his lips, those dark rose lips, and I can’t help sinking my teeth into my own. I love that mouth of his so much, I want it opening against mine, I want his tongue invading me....
Radek takes a deep breath and screws his eyes shut, as if making an all-important decision. When he looks me in the face again I see resolve.
“When I went to see Vlad,” he begins, “he first staked a claim. You see, before you and I became us, I made a mistake—I promised to pass you on to him.”
That snaps me out of the murk of desire. “You did what?” I struggle, wanting to free myself from his grip, but he won’t let me.
“It was for your own good.”
“How could being passed on from one man to another, fuck, from one brother to another be good?” I shriek, determined to get his hands off me, but they clamp harder on me, making me whimper.
“Listen. I did it because I liked you as a person. It was right after our first dinner together at the castle. I already decided I’d feed from you, but I somehow wanted to repay you with something truly valuable. Cars and houses and a stellar job just weren’t enough, not for you, because you had a special heart and I—” He looks down, as if mustering his strength, then looks me intensely in the face again. “I was already falling in love with you, fuck it, I’d fallen in love on the first sight, but I didn’t understand it. I’d never been in love before. I wanted to do something nice for you, I wanted to do you good, and—”
“And your brother’s fangs piercing my carotid seemed like something good, yes?”
“My brother’s fangs into your carotid meant immortality, Juliet! Immortality and eternal youth!”
My ears buzz as everything he just said moves in crazy circles through my brain. I’m not trying to struggle from his hold anymore, I know it’s useless and he won’t let me go, so I just look down at the saucer with the cup of tea I still have between my hands, having placed it on my knees. It didn’t spill despite my struggling, because Radek’s hold on me had been too tight.
“So he summoned me three days before our wedding, as you know,” he continues, forcing the rest of the story on me, despite my shaking my head and my nails scratching the saucer between my hands. “He staked his claim, or he would start a war again. He knew I wouldn’t gamble our truce, but he also knew I’d stop at nothing to protect you. In order to shield you from him and his schemes, I tried to act like I didn’t care, like I had second thoughts about the wedding. He didn’t seem convinced, but his ultimate purpose was another anyway. By staking his claim on you, he wanted to force me to concede him something else.”
He pauses until I look up at him. He glances to the stairs, and I realize he means Ruxandra.
“That’s when he asked you to find the Grail for him,” I draw the conclusion.
“Yes. Vlad asked me to go in search of the Grail because he, being sensitive to sunlight and silver, couldn’t do it himself. He didn’t think anyone else from his circle would have been able to do it. He threatened that, sooner or later, he would kill you if I refused. So I accepted to help him find the Grail, and I decided to push you away, hoping he’d forget about you in time, thinking you didn’t mean jack to me. That’s why I staged that whole scenario with Irina. Believe me, Juliet, it hurt me more than it hurt you but, at the time, it seemed like the best thing to do in order to keep you safe.”
He pauses again. I stare hard at him, fire in my eyes.
“At the time?” I repeat quietly, but inside I’m whirling. “What changed now?”
Desire burns in his eyes, fixed on mine, determined.
“Let’s run away together, Juliet,” he says, his warm breath in my face. “We’ll raise Ruxandra as our own daughter, Dracula will never get his hands on her.”
The words send a sharp chill through me. “What?”
“I know this is happening too fast, but think about it, my love. If we don’t protect her, who will? What chance does she stand against Dracula? I saw and felt how you bonded with her. You’ll become a mother figure to her quicker than you think, and she needs a mother so desperately. I feel that you could love her, and I love whatever you love.” He looks deeply into my eyes. “I’ll tell you a secret. Many times I dreamed of putting a baby inside of you, Juliet. Yes, it’s true. These past few months I even considered doing it in order to tie you to me, even against your will, but I couldn’t risk it, considering my biological legacy....” He trails off.
“The midnight monster,” I whisper. I can’t deny that I’d thought about it as well, right after I ran away from the castle and dropped on the mat at Magda’s door. In my despair, I cursed myself for not having trapped him with a baby.
“You’ve hurt me so much,” I say, “in so many ways.”
Radek looks down, offering me the top of his head, his chestnut hair thick and glossy, making me crave to sink my hands in it and tug. Punish him, yes, I want to punish him for five years of misery I can’t even begin to describe.
“First,” I recount, “you purchase my services from Herald Gruff, baiting me to your dark castle in the Carpathians. There, you make me think we’ve fallen in love. We fight the forces of evil together, we almost lose our lives. In the end, I’m convinced you love me so much you’d die for me, but then you leave me for another woman. Or for more women. Now, you expect me to believe in your love again, after you just admitted you wanted to pass me on to your brother—”
“Juliet, I was always in your service, I always—”
“And now, after five years of suffering you propose that we jump into raising a child together?”
He looks imploringly into my eyes and, because we’re connected at the deepest level, I feel his love pour into me. His love is real, I can feel his heart welded to mine, and it sends pleasure all through me. But can I trust its stability?
“Juliet, I would do anything to keep you.”
I pause, eyes on him. “Even if I were to risk being with you again, I don’t know about you and me raising Ruxandra together. Dracula will sure be on our trail forever.”
“And if we stay, what are the options? Give this poor girl over to him to feed on? He’d sink his fangs into her and suck her dry, Juliet, with no remorse. Then you’d always be in danger from him, because Rxuandra’s blood will make him so powerful that nothing will stand in his way anymore, not even me. Or I could start an open war with him, you think that’s a good idea?”
Connections form in my head as I’m listening to him. The more I think about it, the more I realize his proposition might truly be the only option, at least at the moment.
“We’ll have to take the girl to Magda first,” I whisper, inwardly already having given in to his proposition. “She’ll use her magic spells from the books in order to close the girl’s channels to her bloodline and to her own past, making her forget everything that happened until now.” I glance at the stairs. “I can heal her body and help her cope with certain trauma, but I cannot block her memory.”
“It would be dangerous. Magda is right under Dracula’s nose.”
An idea hits me. “Can’t you bring her over here?”
“I could, but she’ll most probably need her house and her books, the entire shrine she’s built there.”
I stare long at this beautiful prince, picturing our lives together from now on. His eyes cling to mine with hope, making him seem more vulnerable than ever. If I accept to do this—the only chance we have, really—he’ll be completely mine. We will be together every waking hour, at least at first. He says it may be too much to me, but deep down I know I’ll enjoy it, because my love for him is as much a disease as his for me, even though I try to hide it.
“What about Lazarus and Isolde?” I put the last question. “When he realizes we disappeared with his Grail, Dracula might go after them to make us return.”
Radek’s jaw tightens like he doesn’t exactly like what he’ll say next, but he has to. “After I bring you and Ruxandra to safety, I’m going to come for Lazarus and Isolde. They can live with us.”
His idea surprises me, making me look long at him. I take in a deep breath. “Okay. This seems like the only option we have at the moment. But, if everything goes according to my plan, soon we’ll have more possibilities.”
He narrows his eyes at me. “Your plan? Possibilities? What do you mean?”
“You heard me when I told Lazarus and Isolde that Ellis, my personal assistant at the Hellhound, wouldn’t be in the office because I put her up to something else, something involving Herald Gruff.”
“Yes.”
“Well, I set them on the path of finding people or organizations powerful enough to pose a challenge to you and Dracula. They don’t know that they’re looking for supernatural beings, of course, but I set them on a path that’s sure to lead them there.”
“Tell me more.”
“I drew up the personal profile of such a person. How would someone who could—and want to—oppose Dracula behave? What would be their characteristics? So they’re now searching for people with power and money who seem obsessed with the myth of Dracula, searching for evidence that he existed and ways to kill him. People who pay an awful lot of money at auctions for objects that are related to either Dracula or his brother, Radu the Handsome, especially lethal weapons.”
Instead of going angry, which is what I expected, Radek smiles appreciatively.
“Oh, I love how smart you are, Juliet.”
My gaze on him darkens. “Does it still turn you on?”
My change of expression and tone fazes Radek. He freezes, taken aback.
Slowly, I place the cup of tea by my side on the couch, then put a hand on his chest, pushing gently. I need release, and I crave this man.
“You must understand, Dark Prince,” I say huskily. “I have to punish you for your betrayal. You say you did it for my own good, but it still hurt so bad I wished for my own death.”
My last words cause him pain, I can see it in his eyes. Giving in to my hand, he sits back, allowing me to come to my knees, face to face with him. He’s taller than me, so at first I look up at him, but that’s about to change.
“You’re going to lie back,” I say, pushing him now with two hands, “and I’m going to sit on your face.”
His hiss tells me he loves what he’s hearing, his body giving in to me until he’s lying on the floor, me straddling his hips. This man is all mine....
I rip open his shirt, breathing in sharply when the buttons fly off, revealing his elegant, ivory muscles to my eyes. I begin groping him lustfully, my palms enjoying him shamelessly. I undo his belt with eager fingers, watching his once bad boy face lighting up with lust. He makes to grab my hips, but I take his wrists and push his hands above his head.
“No, slave, you don’t get to touch me. I’ll use you until you beg me to be good to you.”
“Yes,” he breathes, trembling with pleasure.
I stand up over him and take off my stockings, then my panties.
“Oh, yes,” he says satisfied.
Now completely naked under my pencil skirt, I roll it up until it reaches my ass, and straddle Radek at the level of his neck, stretching forward and tying his wrists with my stockings. H
e writhes under me, barely keeping low moans in check.
“You like this slave?”
“I love it.”
“Beware. I’m going to punish you, and not all of it will feel good.”
“I’m going to love whatever you do to me, my lady,” he says, his eyes dreamy as if he’s in a pleasant trance already, high on a drug.
Horny as hell at the mere idea of using him, I bring my folds to the level of his irresistible red lips that have always been my soft spot, touching them to his mouth.
He opens his lips on my folds, pushing them aside, his tongue stroking my clit thickly. I shudder with pleasure as he French kisses my pussy, throwing my head back and sinking my fingers into his hair that slides like silk between my fingers.
Tightening my fists in his hair, I ride his face, harder and harder, until his tongue pushes inside of me, writhing, then back out, licking, kissing me down there with his carnal lips. God, he’s hungry for me!
“I’m going to punish you, slave,” I heave, the skin on my chest, neck and face burning with pleasure and effort as I push against his mouth, my thighs clenching. “I’m going to come on your face.”
Radek growls, writhing under me as if he’s coming at the mere sound of my words combined with the taste of me. How I love tormenting him....
I lean back, grabbing his manhood through his pants. His knees jerk, his cock big and hard, pushing against his fly. I want to torture him with pleasure. I spin around, placing myself in the sixty-nine position on top of him.
He’s breathing hard against my folds, pausing while I open his fly with feverish fingers, my small hand wrapping tightly around his cock, peeling him back hard, causing him pleasure and pain at the same time. He lifts his hips from the ground and pushes into my grip.
“I told you not all of this is going to feel good,” I say, breathing down on his cock, and causing him more pleasurable torment.
“If this is hell, I want to live in it forever,” he cries.
Smiling wickedly, I open my mouth and slide down on him, the salty-metallic taste of his pre-cum going down my throat. Growling and banging his head against the floor, he lifts his hips into my mouth, his hands gripping my butt cheeks greedily, parting them, and his tongue pressing into my butthole. He must have ripped the tie I made of my stockings, and I want to protest, but when I try to let go of his cock he pushes it harder into my mouth.