Chapter 13 #2
Lilith showered—sadly, alone—at vampire speed and applied a light coat of makeup before slipping back inside Spencer’s room at the most opportune time.
He stepped out of the ensuite bathroom naked, his skin pink from the heat of the shower.
His pheromones flared when he glimpsed her sitting on the bed, the most alluring fragrance of spices and home.
He chuckled and grabbed a pair of boxer briefs from his bag. “Couldn’t wait, huh?”
“I wanted a sneak peek of the promises that await.”
He held out his arms and turned in a circle. “All this can be yours for the small price of a little patience.”
“Patience has never been one of my virtues, but I will try my best.” Watching the man perform the simple act of getting dressed made a chocolate fountain bubble in her core, the gooey warm goodness spreading through her body, delighting her in a way she’d never experienced before.
They met the others in the library, and Lilith sat in a cigar chair next to Andrei as they set up their equipment. Rebecca positioned a strange, rectangular light covered in white fabric to shine on Andrei, and Spencer attached his camera to a tripod.
“Do you mind if I take that seat?” Alan asked.
“Of course.” Lilith moved to a small couch adjacent to the chairs and crossed her legs, clasping her hands on her knee. Spencer counted backward from five on his fingers, pointed at Alan, and the show began.
“Greetings, fellow cryptid hunters. I’m in the castle of the village’s resident vampire, Andrei Lupu, the fourth. Tell me, Andrei, what makes the people of this small town believe you’re a creature of the night?”
“My family has lived in this castle for hundreds of years. I bear a strong resemblance to my dearly departed father, Andrei Lupu, the third, and he to his father.” Andrei steepled his fingers as he spun the tale.
He had explained to the village elders, many times over, that he was simply a descendent of the original owner.
He even convinced them one of his servant’s sons was his own.
Still, the rumor…the truth…spread through the village like a fable parents told small children to make them stay in their beds at night.
“My son, Andrei Lupu, the fifth, will one day be the man of this castle, and I am certain he will be accused of being a vampire, as I and my father and grandfather were.”
“So the rumors of bloodletting, of virgins being sacrificed in blood orgies, of townsfolk venturing too close to the castle and disappearing…? All untrue?”
“Nothing more than gossip. Ask Lilith. She has stayed in my castle on several occasions. Did we sacrifice any virgins that you are aware of?” Andrei gestured, and Spencer panned the camera toward her.
Lilith gave her head a tiny shake and smiled. “Andrei has been accused of many things. He’s a brute, a snob, and he tells horrible jokes that no one finds funny. But a murderer, he is not.”
Of course, she wasn’t certain about the murderer part.
Killing villagers wasn't in Andrei’s best interest, but Lilith was the mother of vampires, not the queen.
How they governed themselves was up to them.
If she’d known her children would have the power to create more vampires, she might not have turned the dozen or so she did in the beginning, but what happened happened.
No sense in dwelling on the past, especially not when her future was grinning at her from behind a camera.
Alan spoke, and Spencer turned the lens back to him. “So far, Andrei’s bloodline has been spared the stake, but others haven’t been so lucky. I hear the oldest cemetery in Romania lies on your property and that the people buried there were done so with an interesting ritual.”
Andrei nodded. “The belief in vampires runs backward for hundreds of years. Many plagues have swept through the land that caused unexplainable bleeding from the orifices, jaundice, agitation, and a plethora of other symptoms. Medicine being what it was, the only explanations that made sense to the people of the time were supernatural.”
“What happened when these people died?”
“The villagers feared death was not the end for these sufferers, and they staked them to the ground when they buried them, believing the corpse would not reanimate if it couldn’t leave its grave.”
“So if we were to dig up one of these graves, we’d find a skeleton with a stake through his heart?”
“The heart, the stomach, the throat, and you wouldn’t be the first person to uncover the deceased. People frequently dug up the graves of their loved ones to check for signs of vampirism. Unfortunately, ignorance about the way corpses decay caused even more panic…and more staking of the dead.”
Alan rested his elbow on the arm of the chair, leaning toward Andrei. “Is this still in practice today?”
“Not in my cemetery. This is private property, and I do not allow it.”
“Would you be willing to let us excavate one, so the people at home can learn about this ancient tradition?”
Andrei inhaled deeply, as if contemplating the question, even though he’d already agreed. “In the name of education, yes. I will permit your team to disturb a single grave, as long as it is recovered and left as you found it.”
Alan grinned at the camera. “Get ready, folks. We’re going to find ourselves a vampire.”