Tayanna: A Vampire's Tale

Chapter Five: Secret loves and power

The Blackness uncovered itself for a second time and I was awake again, standing a little confused as I stood in front of the wall I just walked out of. It didn't get more familiar the more you did it.

Now fully awake, I noticed that no one was in the room with me. I turned around to look at the wall, Dracula wasn't there. I peered into Verona and Aleera's coffins but they were empty as well.

I looked around to see if someone was standing anywhere, I was alone. I caught my eye on something that shined in the candlelight, in the corner of the room. As I got closer to the shine, the outline of a table emerged. On it were many trinkets and dusty books.

The thing that shined at me was a golden locket in the shape of an oval. I picked up the locket and clicked it open. Inside was a picture of a baby girl laying in a bassinet in a white dress. On the other side were the engraved words,
"Forever my love"

The baby girl was cute. She looked to be a year old with dark hair and big eyes. She had a little birth mark on her shoulder, it was a small patch of darkened skin which in a way, looked like a deformed bat, and the baby seemed to be looking up and smiling at something or someone. There was something familiar about her and she seemed to look like Dracula. Her dark hair and eyes and white skin, I studied her until,

"You're up, I see" I heard a voice say behind me.

I turned quickly, startled. Dracula looked at me from the centre of the room with a stern expression.

We stared at each other for second before I looked down at the locket, I still held in my hand, then up at him.

"Who was she?" I asked.

He saw the necklace in my hand and his expression fell sad but he tried to hide it by pulling up his posture and coming towards me.

I held the open locket up in the palm of my hand as Dracula approached me and gently took the locket from my hand.  He looked deeply at the picture. His eyes softened and he grinned slightly.

"She was the only thing in this world I truly loved." He said, "After I lost, I couldn't speak of her and I didn't do very much for a while."

He became sad again and lowered the locket, he's eyes looking at the ground but seemed to be lost in memory.

"I became more hollow" He finally said.

He lowered silently into a wooden chair that sat beside the table, still lost in thought. The locket twirling in his fingers.

"What happened to her?" I asked, sitting on my knees beside his chair, my eyes adjusting to the light and I could now make out Dracula's features.

He seemed hurt and looked over at me. "Her mother was in love with me. She would have done anything I had asked knowing who I was, she was not afraid. Then we had her," He opened and looked at the locket, "and she was the light of our lives." He smiled at the thought of the child but he frowned again.

"But her mother did not accept what I wanted to do and she took my child away, hid her from me and then died herself." He looked slightly at me.

"I searched for her for as along as I can remember, but never found her"

He closed the locket gently and shut his eyes. I placed my hand on his hand that rested on his knee. He looked at me.

"I'm sorry" I said and he grinned.

I grinned back and we stayed there for a second before Aleera and Verona crashed through the glass less window in bat forms and thudded loudly on the stone floor. Dracula and I sprang quickly and ran to the two as they morphed back to their human selves.