Night Sweats, Necromancy, & Love Bites by J. C. Blake

Author:J. C. Blake [Blake, J. C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Redbegga Publishing
Published: 2021-01-09T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

I was dumbfounded and stood mute.

Vlad and Martha stood as statues as they glared at one another.

Igor appeared from the passageway but quickly retreated.

Vlad’s eyes flashed red and he hissed, baring his fangs. Undaunted, Martha returned the scowl with a hiss of her own. Like two cats preparing to fight, they were on high alert, ready to attack at any moment.

Then Vlad’s demeanour changed, and he took a step away from Martha and turned to leave. With a dismissive flick of his hand, he began to walk away.

“Hah! Walk away! It is what you always do.”

Vlad spun back on his heels. “I have told you to leave me alone! Why must you always follow me?” He turned back to me with a pained expression. “Always she follows,” he said. “Stalking me wherever I go! She is not right.” He tapped at his temple, “up here!”

“And whose fault is that?” Martha spat.

Vlad groaned. “Here we go,” he muttered.

I became a spectator in their marital spat as Martha rounded on the Count.

“I was just a trophy for you! You took me from my family. You stole me from my husband!”

He groaned. “Blah, blah, blah! It is always the same. You stole me from my husband. Five, four, three, two, one ...”

“I was the wife of Ivan the Terrible. I had a place in society. I was loved and adored, but you stole me from life.”

“Are you listening to this, Livitha?”

I nodded. I was more than listening, I was fascinated.

“You murdered me just to add me to your collection of wives!”

A flicker of pain passed through the Count’s eyes. “Martha, for three hundred years I have listened to you tell me about how wonderful Ivan was! The man was a monster! I rescued you!”

“I did not need rescuing!”

“I saved you, Martha!” Vlad turned to me. “She was dying! Her own mother fed her poison.”

“Not on purpose!”

“To make her more fertile. Hah!”

“And I would have been fertile. I would have given Ivan many babies if you hadn’t stolen me!”

“Not this again. Martha ... you were dying! I saved you. I gave you eternal life! You should be grateful.”

“I was grateful for three hundred years and seventy-two days and then you threw me away! I gave you the best years and then you traded me in for a younger model.”

He groaned and squeezed the bridge of his nose. “And for every one of those three hundred years and seventy-two days I tried to make it work!” He said this with emotion, and I sensed the depth of his pain. “But it just doesn’t. You must accept this!”

“You never loved me!” she threw back at him. “Never.”

“I love all my brides,” he said softly.

“But you never really loved me!”

“I did my best to love you, but I have only one soulmate and she-.”

Martha raised a hand. “No! Do not tell me. ‘My Mina!’

“Yes! Always I walk through the shadows-.”

“Seriously, Vlad! Are you still on about that! You sound like a stuck record. Mention the woman’s name and out it comes, ‘My Mina.

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