Prince of the Damned

by Ana Calin

  Rux lifts her dress and places a bare foot on the man’s shoulder, pushing him back down. He grunts, yet I know it’s not her physical strength that sent him to the floor, but the pain she’s causing in his body.

  “I’m giving you one last chance. Who and where is the Devil’s Son?”

  Conrad the Sultan breaks down under the pain, and finally cries out, “The media, he’s—”

  But that’s all he gets to say before his head pops open like a water melon, his brains splashing all over the place, including over Rux’s feet, calves, and the rim of her dress.

  We all just stare in shock for a few moments. The smell of his blood becomes unbearable, but I clench my jaw and refrain from throwing myself at his still warm body. The vampires behind me are going crazy, but I’m still in their way like a wall.

  “Let them have him,” Rux says, standing beside the dead body with the scattered brains as if it’s nothing. But I can tell it’s shock rather than insensitivity that causes this attitude.

  “I lost control over my power,” she says only a few moments later, shivering. The blackness in her eyes retreats, and some colour returns to her cheeks as she assumes full human form. “I only meant to hurt him, I didn’t mean to kill.”

  She falls to the floor, taken by shock. I hurry over and pick her up in my arms, the vampires behind me flooding in and falling over the dead Sultan, as well as over the other men crouching behind the table. Screams and sucking sounds fill the room as the rabid vampires bite and claw the others, but I don’t care, all I want is to get Rux and Irina out of here.

  “Keep your dark power down, don’t let it come to the surface, no matter what,” I whisper to Rux as I carry her out of the club, Irina in front of us, pushing people out of the way. “It’s easier for me to resist your scent if you’re in human form.”

  Rux

  WE ARE IN SOME KIND of service chamber in the sewers under Bucharest. Even in what felt like fever, I registered some of the surroundings as Vlad brought me here.

  I sit up heavily on the cot, massaging my temples. Then I look up, and my heart jumps into my mouth.

  Vlad sits on a stool across from me dressed in leather, legs apart, elbows on his knees, fingers steepled in front of his mouth. He stares hard at me from those blood-filled irises, thin veins coursing like threads of lightning down to his cheekbones, adding to his dangerous air. It would make any human shudder, but for me, it’s sharply painful.

  “Vlad,” I whisper, tears threatening behind my eyes. “My God, you look like a tortured beast.”

  “Only one thing is torturing me. What the hell happened at the club, Ruxandra? What were you doing when I walked in?”

  He’s angry as hell.

  “I tapped into the dark power that was latent inside me. We both expected that it would come out of me one day, so why do you act as if I should be feeling guilty? Like, for things other than having killed a vampire without meaning to.”

  He balls one of his hands into a huge fist, massaging it with the other.

  “Just remember one thing, Ruxandra. If I ever find you half naked in the midst of horny men again, I will beat them to pulps, and I’ll have you watch. It will not be a pretty sight, and it might mark you for life, but if that’s what it takes for you to keep your clothes on—”

  “What??” Anger makes my cheeks burn. “Firstly, I wasn’t half naked, and secondly—how dare you reproach me anything?” I stand up, looking down at him.

  “The other night, I thought of you so hard I thought I’d throw up, I called to you with all I had. Needless to say you never came, because you were too busy sucking the blood from those two—” I want to say the b-word, but I bite my lip, forcing myself to see things clearly—It’s not the poor women’s fault that Vlad chose to keep his fangs inside their throats instead of responding to his wife’s calling.

  “I wasn’t myself,” he says, but his brutal features are still locked in anger. “That vampire at your conference, his blood infected me with this disease, and I can’t resist vampire blood. I heard your calling, but...” His voice trails off, and it’s like my worst fear has come to pass. He’s going to admit he wanted their blood more than he wanted me.

  “The call of the vampire blood was stronger,” I breathe.

  He looks down, and I know he’s feeling guilty, but it doesn’t help. The pain inside turns to burning, making me clench my jaw. I could punch him right now.

  “I won’t lie to you, Vlad,” I manage, struggling to keep the rage in check. “Even though I understand logically, and I understand it’s not your fault, I still blame you.” My eyes dart around the small room as I try to make sense of my feelings, and not to look at him. “Remember our wedding night? The tower chamber, the window open, you and me laying naked in the breeze? You caressed my face and stared at me like I was made of gold. And, when you finally spoke, you said you’d never wanted anything in your life the way you wanted me. And then you swore, Vlad, you swore to me, you’d never want anything or anyone more.” I blink the tears of rage and betrayal from my eyes. “Even though I understand it’s not your fault you now want something more than me, I can’t help feeling that you broke your promise. Your wedding promise.”

  “If it makes you feel any better,” he says, his voice deep and dark, his head still down. “Now I want you more than I ever thought possible. I want your blood even more than I did in the very beginning, when you were still Dracula’s Grail, and I hadn’t tasted you yet. But.”

  His eyes shoot up, intense, bloody, the lightning-like veins under them cracking more of the skin on his cheekbones.

  “That means I’ve become a mortal danger to you,” he says through his teeth. “Tonight I felt the call of your blood so strongly that I couldn’t resist turning from the actual target and coming to where you were. I was all instinct. Ruxandra, I would have torn you apart before you would have even known it was me. I still don’t know by what miracle I didn’t do it, but I don’t think I’ll be able to resist you in that form again.”

  My chest rises and falls rapidly, my blood running wild with his confession. “But you can resist me as a human. In this form.”

  “I have trouble, like I did before all this happened, but it’s more bearable. When you activate your dark power something changes in your blood, and the need to take it drives me, well—” He points to his eyes. “Rabid.”

  I take a step toward him, dying to close the distance between us, but he shoots up from the chair, stopping me.

  “Don’t.”

  “But I’m in full human form,” I protest, motioning to myself.

  “I. Am. Rabid,” he repeats, stressing every word. “I don’t know what I’m capable of, and I don’t want to hurt you.”

  Rabid vampires, craving the blood of other vampires. The picture of Irina lights up in my mind, along with the sucking sounds and cries of the vampire mobsters as the rabid creatures feasted on them. I panic.

  “Irina! Where is she?”

  “She’s fine, relax. She had to get back to the hotel. I couldn’t have let her stay here, among these creatures that are rabid for her blood.”

  I stare long at him, my heart breaking. I thought the love of my life was forever saved from the evil that he’d been engulfed in his entire existence, but look at him now. Standing in front of me as an even more savage version of the Dracula I knew years ago, more bloodthirsty. His angular warrior features express even more violence, his physique crushing with those broad shoulders, and all the leather he’s wearing.

  No doubt those two vamps flanking him last night drool over him every time they lay their lascivious eyes on him. Jealousy pools in my stomach. I close my eyes and shake my head, switching focus.

  “Whoever is behind this, Vlad, has planned it for a long time. They knew they couldn’t destroy Vlad Dracula, so they found a way to use you as a weapon. Smart move, you have to give them that. Why defeat the devil when you can rise above him and use him for your own agenda?”

  “I tol
d you before, Rux, the devil is a cunning ally. You never know when he’ll turn the tables in his favour.”

  “And I think the rabies originator knows that, too. That’s why he or she keeps in the shadow, having you attack the strongest vampires, especially those with supernatural powers, enslaving them. They have you do things they’d probably never be able to do themselves. But who could it be, Vlad?” I walk closer to him as I reason, and he starts moving away from me, pacing the room.

  “Which one of your enemies could be behind this plot?” I insist.

  “All I know is that the originator is male.”

  “And how do you know that?”

  “I can’t explain any more than I can explain how he manipulates my instincts. He sends me an impulse, as if he’s making a decision using my own head, and when that connection is created, through the venom, I sense the source of the energy that’s driving me. I sense it’s the energy of a male.”

  I narrow my eyes as if zooming in on the idea. “Venom, rabies. That sounds like serpent business to me.”

  Vlad’s jaw locks, as it always does when someone mentions the creature who captured and whipped him to the bone long ago. He looks away, as if staring into the past. “I thought about that, too, but it’s highly unlikely.”

  “Why unlikely? He’s a science freak, always researching for ways to transform into a better, stronger version of himself. I even think that’s why he sends you after vampires with superpowers. He must have a scientific purpose in the end, like harnessing their powers for himself. From what I deduced, his ultimate target is the so-called Devil’s Son. I understand no one has ever seen his face, not even Tristan.”

  “Tristan told you what happened?”

  “Not in detail, but he mentioned he never saw the Devil’s Son’s face, and no one had up to that point. Have you?”

  Vlad shakes his head no. “That theory would be the best and most logical one, but I’m afraid it doesn’t stand.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because the Serpent Lord saved the Devil’s Son’s life centuries ago, and took him under his protection. The Devil’s Son was a teenager at the time, but already a vampire, and it is said the Serpent Lord raised him as his own child. So he can’t be sending me for his own right hand.”

  I stare at him with an open mouth, incredulous, stunned. “The Serpent Lord, raising a vampire?”

  “There are cats that raise mice, aren’t there?”

  “Yes, but cats have maternal instincts and compassion, which I can’t imagine the Serpent Lord having, not after everything I discovered about him in my research.” My eyes rest on the profile of Vlad’s face, edgy, brutal, but I know the vulnerability behind it, and it melts me on the inside. “And after everything he did to you.”

  Vlad snorts. “I wasn’t exactly an innocent teenager, like the Devil’s Son, Rux. I was the King of Vampires, had been for a long time, and I’d done things to piss him off.”

  An idea lights up in my mind.

  “What about Gruia, Victoria, and the Old Priest? We never found them again. Could they have their hands in this?”

  “I thought about that, too, but....” He walks around, eyebrows knitted as he makes his argument. “Both Gruia and the Old Priest are vampires that I made. Had any of them originated the rabies, I would feel it differently, and they would still be bound to me.” He motions with his hand to the door. “Those creatures outside would listen to me, they’d do my bidding because they’d be compelled to. But they were disconnected from me the moment they were infected. So whoever made them isn’t bound to me.”

  I stare ahead as he talks, thinking hard. “Let’s do something to track the originator down, Vlad. You say you can sense he’s a man, and you know it’s someone who’s not bound to you. You say that, when he gives you a command, in the form of an impulse, you sense a connection. We could wait until such a moment and then you could make an effort of will, and feel your way to the source of the impulse. I will help you, if you sense him the same way I used to sense my demon years ago. Do you think that would work?”

  He stops at the door of the small service room, leaning with his hands against the doorframe, his back to me.

  Just a few days away from each other, and I’m again in awe at how big he is, as if I haven’t seen him in months. He’s as tall and broad as the door, the leather jacket hugging his muscular back, his hair falling wild over his shoulders.

  I run my tongue over my dry lips—he’s every bit as delicious as ever. But I’ll have to make him pay for having preferred to keep his fangs in those women’s throats last night instead of responding to my calling. Otherwise I’ll loathe myself for giving in to the attraction, no matter how deeply in love I am.

  “I could try to focus on that,” he says. “But I don’t know if I’ll be able to control the thirst or, even if I do, for how long. Simply put, I don’t know how long I can stay rational enough to try and track him. But I’ll try.” He takes a deep breath, as if making a difficult decision, then he presses the latch and pushes the door open. “Which I’ll have to do without you, because we have to get you out here. Until this is over, I need you to stay away from me.”

  “What, no!” I hurry over to him. His back muscles tighten, I can see it through the leather.

  “I’m not leaving you, Vlad, and you’re sure as hell not sending me away.”

  “How many times do I have to tell you, Ruxandra? I don’t trust myself around you.” He grips to both sides of the doorframe as I touch his back, his fingers drilling into the mortar around it like bolts. “Heaven’s sakes, please don’t do that.”

  “Come with me. Let’s get out of this place together. Maybe a change of scenery will do you good, it will help you get clarity of mind.”

  “I can’t leave these rabid vampires alone down here. They could lose control, and all hell could break loose.”

  I stop touching him as another realization comes to me. “Vlad, if these vampires are no longer bound to you; actually, the venom binds them to someone else, but then why do they follow you around like puppies? Why do they listen to you?”

  Vlad gives a low laugh, the laugh of a man disappointed rather than proud. “Fear gives respect. They did try to attack me when I first joined them. So I had to make an example of some.” He snorts again. “But I know I deserve their hate. Hell, I even deserve that they try to kill me. I was vile before I met you, I won’t deny it. I punished even the intention of treason harshly. I impaled vampires from the stalactites in my cave, their blood pooling in golden chalices under them, and many of the vampires here heard the stories.”

  Shudders run through me, and Vlad senses it.

  “I never showed you my entire dark side, Rux.” There’s more than bitterness now in his voice, there’s pain. “How stupid was I to believe I could hide that part of me forever? Even before all this began, it had started to rear its ugly head. I couldn’t even make love to you anymore without wanting to take your blood. Plus that I always craved the hunt, violence, blood that carried power. I should have known those cravings would win, they always do.”

  “I always knew who you were, Vlad, but I also saw beyond all that,” I try to soothe him. “I didn’t exactly expect you to be a white prince.” I pause, deciding to be completely honest with him.

  “The compulsive attraction that we felt for each other from the start wasn’t just chemistry, at least not for me. This would probably sound wrong to the entire world, but I admired you, Vlad, and I still do. Not the criminal behaviour, of course, but the traits underlying it. Your behaviour was nothing but an ill expression of all those traits, because you grew up with violence, and you lived by its rules for six hundred years. But for those traits I always admired you, Vlad.”

  He turns at stares down at me as if I just said the most preposterous thing ever, but I keep my chin up, and hold my ground.

  “I don’t know what you’ve done in all the centuries that you’ve been alive, but I know that, at least in all the time tha
t my dad has known you, you never attacked an innocent person in order to feed. Maybe that was simply because the blood of the innocent doesn’t feed you or, better said, doesn’t satiate you. You need the blood of the powerful, the abusive and the vile. But, no matter how you look at it, Vlad, you always picked on those your own size, never the weaker.”

  He shakes his head like I got this all wrong. “Humans, no matter how powerful or vile, are hardly my size, Rux. And many of those I killed were humans.”

  “But many of them weren’t. You always preferred to go for supernaturals, for those who stood a chance against you.”

  I step forward, now chest-to-chest with him. This time he doesn’t back away, but he looks down at me like he could eat me alive. He’s wearing the leather jacket over a torn dark top that’s full of dry blood, making me feel to the marrow of my bones that I’m facing one of the most deadly predators out there. The dark-red eyes with the veins that spread like devilish cracks to his cheekbones give me the chills, but I manage to repress it.

  “Still, that doesn’t make me safe for you,” he says, turning his back and walking out of the small service room. He has to bend his head a little to get out through the door. I follow him.

  “You can’t reject me, Vlad, I’m your wife. And I demand that you keep me with you.”

  We emerge into the sewers, water dripping from the cracked copper pipes that run along the ceiling like metal snakes, turned green by time. We slosh through dirty water, the smell pungent, forcing me to pinch my nose in order to keep from puking. But the most disturbing thing about this place is the vampires lurking by the walls and crouching in corners, sucking at bits of flesh that they managed to rip off the Sultan and his men. My stomach turns in somersaults.

  “Heaven sakes,” I cry from behind the hand I hold to my mouth, still pinching my nose, but breathing through my mouth I can almost taste the smell.

  Vlad grabs me by my waist and pulls me to the side, where we draw less attention, but from where we also have an all too clear view.