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The Count returned at
“Now is the time,” the vampire proclaimed. “My esteemed ancestor will be resting now. While the sun shines it will be safer to approach him.”
“What about you?” Larra asked. “I understood all vampires had to hide from the sun.”
“That is why we are meeting in this cavern and also why I need you. If there is trouble you will be able to save yourselves by retreating into the light where the vampire lord cannot follow. You will also be able to move to areas of the castle during the day that are barred to me.”
“What is your plan then?” Larra asked.
“I’ll talk with the vampire lord. If that doesn’t work then we’ll have to take other measures.”
“Talk to him!” Melissa exclaimed. “That brute raped us until we were almost dead. Then he killed every SS man in the castle. He doesn’t really seem to be the sort of … thing that will listen to reason.”
“I am afraid you are right, Melissa,” Rodna answered. “In that he resembles my brother.”
“Your brother?”
“My older brother. Like my many times removed ancestor, he was corrupted by the mystique of the vampire. He lived for sex and murder and he died because of it.”
“What happened to him?”
“He fled
“The Jade Dragon,” Larra mused. I can’t say that I’ve heard of him. Sounds like some sort of oriental gangster.”
“I understand that the Jade Dragon was a her, but that is all I know. In any case,” the Count said with a sigh, “it is probably no more than he deserved. And now we should get back to the present situation.”
“Alright,” Larra said, “we’ll try your plan, but if it goes wrong…”
“I will not be harmed,” Rodna said. “Don’t forget, I am not really alive the way you think of life, and the vampire lord if very unlikely to drive a stake through my heart. It is you who will be in danger, which is why what we are to do must be done in daylight.”
“How will that work in the crypt?” Larra asked. “There is no daylight there.”
“No,” the Count agreed, “I am aware of that, but I can think of no solution.”
“We’ll just have to play it by ear I guess,” Larra said. “Lead the way.”
The count led then through the cavern to a staircase. He pointed upward. This will take you to the outer castle. You will be safe there as long as the sun shines. I will go to the crypt and talk to my many times great grandfather.”
“Good luck,” Melissa said.
The Count nodded his appreciation of the comment. “I will look to see you in an hour on the castle wall.” Turning, he moved off into the darkness, leaving Larra and Melissa to find their way up the stairway.
For a brief instant Larra considered following the vampire and then realized that attempting to follow a creature that could see in the dark and who had ears more sensitive than a bat was probably not very likely to succeed. “Come on,” she said to Melissa. “Let’s see if we can’t find some way to deal with the monster who raped us.”
The Count called to them from the shadow of a window. Larra knew even before he spoke that the vampire had not succeeded.
“He simply laughed,” the Count said, “and accused me of being a traitor to my kind. There was nothing I could say to convince him that his way was wrong. Unfortunately that leaves me with only one other choice.”
“What would you like us to do?” Larra asked.
“Tomorrow a team of German engineers will arrive. Von Jagger told me about them. Their mission is to blow up the castle. I have no doubt that if it is done properly it will be the end of the vampire lord.”
“And the end of your home,” Melissa added.
The Count shrugged. “I am afraid that is the way it must be.”
“Wait,” Larra said, thoughtfully. “There are no mirrors in the castle are there?”
The Count smiled. “Vampires are a little sensitive when it comes to mirrors. We don’t reflect an image.”
“Is that the only reason?” Larra pressed.
The Count thought for a few seconds. “I can’t think of anything else.”
“I can,” Larra replied. “Where can I get a supply of mirrors?”
“In the village, I suppose,” the Count responded, his face creasing in puzzlement.
“Then that is where I am going. I hope I can get there before sunset.”
“There is a German staff car in the courtyard. Take it. You still have four hours before the sun goes down.”
The drive to the village was the most hair-raising of Melissa’s short life. Larra wasn’t a licensed racing driver, but she took the mountain curves as if she was practicing for such a career. It took all of Melissa’s faith and confidence in her mentor to sit in the passenger seat and not chew her nails. Mirrors were not a plentiful item in the peasant village, but between then Larra and Melissa managed to round up a three dozen or so in the hour Larra allowed herself. Then it was back into the car and another half hour of terror. Melissa reminded herself never to get into a car with Larra again, unless there was absolutely no other choice.
Reaching the castle courtyard, Larra began unloading the mirrors. “Some of these are large enough to break into two or three smaller mirrors. If we do that there might be just enough.”
Melissa held her tongue about the seven years’ bad luck that would come from the breaking of each pane of glass. Larra had explained her plan during the drive and desperate as it was, it seemed their best hope.
Slinging a bag of mirrors over her shoulder, Larra strode to the room where she and Melissa had been taken the first time they had been saved by the Count. It was the highest point in the castle and would catch the rays of the sun the longest. Melissa followed. Once there Melissa busied herself removing the shutters from the sunward windows while Larra sorted through the mirrors. “I think we might have just enough,” she said.
Larra heaved the bag of mirrors over her shoulder and strode toward the secret passage. “Remember to stay as close to the top of the passage as you can. When I yell I will need you to act immediately.”
Melissa nodded. In her hand she held her own mirror. It was critical that she use it with mathematical precision. Larra and she had worked out a method of making sure that she placed her mirror properly as the sun slowly changed position. It was simple, but they hoped, effective.
Larra moved only a few steps into the passage before she placed her first mirror. The first placement would be the easiest, after that it would be more and more difficult. Melissa held her mirror so that the light from the sun reflected onto the mirror Larra had placed in the stairwell. Larra then moved a few steps father down and placed a second mirror, aligning it so that it caught the reflected light of the first.
It was precision work, and Larra was working against time. She had only two hours of sunlight left and then darkness would take away her only weapon. There was also the worry of whether or not she would have enough mirrors to reach to the bottom of the stairway. The bag of mirrors she held was staggeringly heavy, but there were about 600 steps of stairway to cover. It would be a near thing, both in terms of numbers of mirrors and the time needed to place them.
Slowly she worked her way down the steps, placing mirror after mirror. Occasionally she double checked by using a flashlight to send light back up the stairway to Melissa. If it failed to register on the topmost mirror Melissa was to give a shout, but Larra’s patience paid off. Each mirror continued to receive the reflected sunlight, allowing Larra to descend closer and closer to the crypt.
Halfway down she was joined by the Count. He kept well ahead of her. Even the faintest gleam of sunlight caused him pain and so he stayed several revolutions of the tower below her, leading the way, but not endangering himself.
She arrived at the doorway to the crypt with only minutes to spare. She had just two mirrors left, one more than she needed. Using her flashlight she aligned the last mirror. No sunlight was used here. There was no point in alerting the vampire lord. She listened for Melissa’s shout and sighed in relief when the girl’s silence signaled that the last mirror was correctly aligned.
Larra nodded to the Count. For her benefit the vampire held a lantern in his hand. Its limited light illuminated the dark entrance of the crypt. He started toward it, but took only two steps before a dark form loomed in the doorway. A wave of fear so powerful that Larra was almost physically ill swept from the crypt.
The vampire lord in all his hideous and fearful majesty stepped into view. The monster’s lips drew back in a sneer as he spotted the Count and then his expression changed to one of undisguised lust as he spotted Larra.
“What, have you brought me a present?” the vampire lord leered as he drank in Larra’s inviting form. She had deliberately left the top buttons of her blouse undone in order to provide a distraction and the ploy seemed to have worked. He paid little or no attention to the Count his tongue flicking over his fangs as his gaze fixated on Larra’s breasts.
The Count stepped forward.
“She is no gift.
“It is already too late,” the vampire lord replied. “Too late for your female companion. She will be the first of my disciples as I once again rebuild vampire power. This time I will not allow myself to be trapped in this tomb. I will build up an army of followers that will extend my power far beyond this castle.”
Larra fought back the terrible fear that consumed her. Vampires used fear as a weapon, infecting all around them and paralyzing their prospective victims. Sweat poured from her body even though the cold of the crypt should have had her shivering. Calling on her strength she forced herself to remain calm and delivered her speech.
“You do no realize that times have changed,” said Larra. “Mankind has grown strong during the centuries that you slept. If you return to your former ways men will not come at you with swords, spears, and torches and seek to seal you in your crypt. This time they will come with mighty weapons capable of killing at a distance, and deadly chemicals that will fill the air with poison that will eat the flesh from your bones. You have only one chance for survival and that is to emulate the Count and give up your days of rapine and murder.”
The vampire lord glowered at her. “I do not remember giving you permission to speak. You are a mere women and not fit to be in my presence except as an object of pleasure. I enjoyed you the first time we met. I shall enjoy you even more this time. Be assured that I shall make you scream until your vocal cords burst and then I shall drink you blood until you are nothing but a lifeless husk.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” the Count said, stepping between Larra and the advancing vampire lord.
“Out of my way, you pathetic fool.” The vampire lord hardly broke stride as he batted the Count to one side, smashing the smaller vampire against the wall.
The delay was just long enough for Larra to act,
however. Aided by fear her voice
rose in an ear-piercing shriek.
“Melissa!”
High above, Larra’s companion heard the terrified scream. Tilting her mirror she caught the rays of the dying sun and reflected them on to the first mirror. Down at the bottom of the tower light flared down the staircase. Larra, standing her ground, angled her mirror to catch the light. She had calculated correctly. She was perfectly placed to direct the sunlight onto the unsuspecting vampire lord.
The effect was immediate, horrific, and
spectacular. With a shriek that
Larra would remember all her life the vampire lord burst into flames.
Mercifully there was no smell
of burning flesh, but the writhing and screaming of the vampire lord as the
flames consumed him was horrible beyond
belief. Only a woman as disciplined
as Larra could have continued to hold the mirror in place as the vampire
lord burned to ashes.
Shaking from the experience, Larra collapsed, dropping the mirror to the stone floor. Immediately she felt the arms of the Count surround her. “Easy, my dear,” he soothed. “It is all over. We have won.”
It took several minutes before Larra stopped shaking and got to her feet. “Do not be ashamed,” the Count said, as if guessing her thoughts. “I doubt that any normal woman could have survived the vampire fear. It should have left you completely at the mercy of the vampire lord. Instead you somehow overcame it. You are a most formidable opponent. One that I am proud to have as my friend.”
“Larra!” The shout came from Melissa who had apparently charged down the several hundred steps with only a torch to help her find the way.
Larra folded her body against Melissa’s as the girl embraced her. “I heard your scream and felt the fear generated by the vampire lord,” Melissa said her voice filled with emotion. “I thought maybe…”
“I’m alright,” Larra replied, “but facing a vampire in its lair something I wouldn’t want to have to do every day.”
“Come,” the Count said, placing his hands on the shoulders of both women. “Let us retire to my quarters. Tomorrow the German engineers will arrive. However, I think I can convince them to leave the castle alone now that von Jagger is no more. In the meantime I think we all deserve a bit of rest.”
“Rest?” asked Larra. “I thought vampires stayed awake all night, and I’m too keyed up to sleep.”
“Then,” said the Count with a smile, “perhaps we can think of something else to keep ourselves occupied. I don’t believe you have ever seen the castle’s main bedchamber. It is a place well worth visiting.”
Larra and Melissa both smiled. In spite of the horror that had infused them only a few minutes before, their courage had returned and with it their indomitable spirit. They had all of the night ahead of them and they knew just how to spend it. Arm in arm the two women followed the Count to his bedchamber. It was a night they would long remember.
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