Page 7 of The Vampire Always Rises
“That’s all vampires are, my precious. Just dreams.”
I shook my head, more to clear it of the remembered dream than to negate Ellis’s comment. “My aunt Roxy swears they’re real. She said there’s a whole group of them that no one knows about. Only a few people know who they really are, and she happens to know the head honcho of the vampire organization.”
“I’m sure you’ll have a very nice time in the Czech Republic, and will be relaxed and ready to enjoy yourself in Italy with me.” He smiled and, with a sigh at the clock, got gracefully to his feet. “I’d better get home or I’ll be just dead tomorrow. Smooches, darling, and I hope Miss Thang down there feels better tomorrow. E-mail me when you get settled with your aunt’s friend.”
“Thanks, Ellis, I will,” I called as he swayed toward the door, grateful that I’d picked an apartment on the same block as him. “Don’t get run over by one of those strange metal horseless carriages that you heathen folk use.”
He stopped at the door to give me a look. I giggled in response.
“I’d say you’re going to hell for that blasphemy, but I suspect it’s a little too close to what used to be home. Kiss kiss, darling. Happy flight tomorrow.”
I curled up on the couch after he left, an ice pack strategically positioned, and one of C. J. Dante’s deliciously wicked Dark Ones books at hand. I dipped into the book at random, and thrilled at the tall, dark, and decidedly sexy description of the hero.
“This is going to be the best vacation ever,” I sighed to myself, and gave myself up to the joy of sinfully desirable vampires.
I just hoped they’d be as good as the one in my dream.
Chapter Two
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“I’m here!” I announced to my aunt Roxy almost twenty-six hours later. “Jet-lagged and hungry, and confused by the language, but I’m here in the Czech Republic, and I’m waiting on the train to take me out to Blansko. How is Australia?”
“Gorgeous. Both the scenery and the men, but that’s a tale for another time. Did Allie text you? I gave her your number and she said she’d try to get in contact before you arrived.”
“Not that I saw. Thank you again for asking her to take me in.”
“Pfft,” Roxy said. “What are old friends for if not inflicting nieces upon, even if they are nieces you’ve only talked and written to, and not met in person because your sister’s husband was a nutjob? Oh, sorry, Tempest.”
“No apology is needed, and I’m looking forward to seeing you in person just as soon as we’re both back home. Love to Uncle Richard.”
“And to you. Just be sure to give Allie and Christian a kiss from me, only don’t go wild on Christian, because Allie will take you down. Laters, kiddo!”
“A real vampire,” I sighed to myself a few hours after that, peering out of the windows of a taxi on my way to Drahanská Castle. “I hope this vampire has some single friends. Just one would do. That’s all I ask for, just one needy vampire.”
“You want something?” the woman driving the cab asked, glancing at me in the rearview mirror. “You want stop?”
“No, no, keep going. I was just talking to myself.”
“Hokay,” she said, and turned up the volume of the radio, which was pumping bright, tinny music into the car.
Fifteen minutes later, we drove past a gatehouse, and started up a winding gravel road. Lining the road were torches, actual burning torches, not the electric kind.
“This is just awesome,” I said, peering around first one way, then another at the torches. The trees blocked my view of the castle itself, but the flames dancing in the breeze set an eerie, anticipatory mood that I reveled in.
We rounded a curve, and my breath caught in my throat. Ahead of us was the castle, its bulky shape inky black against the night sky. Several small buildings were adjacent to the road, including one giant vault of stone that was topped by two massive eagles, their wings outstretched, and their heads thrown back in what looked to me like a victory howl. “Assuming eagles howl, that is,” I murmured to myself, just about twisting myself in half as I peered back at the beautiful, but frightening, building.
I knew from my guidebook that along the front side of the castle were immaculately groomed lawns and a formal flower garden where the GothFaire would hold their All Hallows’ Eve festival. As the gravel drive curved around toward the back of the castle, we passed all sorts of black, menacing shapes that indicated outbuildings.
“Here is castle,” the driver said, pointing at the large building in front of us.
“So I gathered.” I leaned forward and rolled down a window, so I could stick my head out to better see the approaching behemoth. Spires jabbed upward into the indigo sky, offsetting gabled towers that sat on either end of the building. The blank back of the castle—we were approaching from the service side, the front evidently being taken up by an elaborate garden—bore numerous tall, narrow windows framed in a softly glowing white stone. Or so it seemed to me, with the light of the moon falling on that side.
The taxi stopped at two large wooden doors recessed into the wall, flanked with torches. I got out, my mouth open, and my eyes bugging with amazement as I tipped my head back to try to take in all five floors of the building. “That is truly amazing. OK, I want my vampire to have a castle. I could so live in that.”
“Here is castle,” the driver said again, a bit more forcefully, and added, “Twenty-five euro.”
“Oh, sorry. Sure. Here, I think I have ... yeah. Here you go.” I doled out the appropriate money, gave her a sizable tip, and, with my suitcase in hand, approached the doors.
