Inflaming the Vampire's Stone Heart

Chapter Two

When the train came to a standstill at Bucharest station Julia and I left the cabin together following the boys. We all travelled light, just with a single backpack. I wore my same denim jeans and now a black tank-top shirt with my two-inch black leather boots. I was just a scenic tourist, not a romantic involvement, to Nicolae’s disappointment if he is going to actually try anything. 

We met Nicolae in the baggage area. It looked like he travelled light as well. He did not have a single item on him. No bag, nothing. That has me thinking that he was he only on that train for a day. Which raised another realization, I don’t remember once seeing Nicolae apart from last night during the entire journey. I had seen all the other passengers at least four or five times at some point over the last two weeks. 

His long locks of brown curly hair were now tied back into a leather band. I was not really into guys with long hair, but the look fitted him rather well. Given his age, there is only a few hints of grey among those locks. His muscular physique in a simple blue cotton shirt shows that he is active for his age as well.  

Carla was in a free-flowing white dress with sandals. Eddy was wearing shorts and a simple blue top and Carl, as if trying to state his purpose in life was in cakey pants with an Octoberfest shirt; typical. 

“So how do we get to this village of yours?” I was the first to ask. 

“First, we have to get you the appropriate clothing so that you will even be allowed in. I am afraid that it will only insult the locals if you do not wear the same clothing that everyone else does. I hope that is alright with everybody?” 

“Yeah, sounds like fun.” Julia said flicking her hair tied back over her shoulder. 

“Good, I know a boutique costume shop. From there we can all change at my house on the outskirts of the city and leave for the festival this afternoon.” 

Nicolae insisted he drive us in his car, a brand-new Lexus. That Lexus confirmed his affluent appearance but I still feel like there is something off about him.

“I insist that I will pay for all the costumes you each choose.”

“That is sure generous of you.” Forward was more like it and I do not intend on accepting. I can pay for my own costume. 

“I love to share my home with outsiders. It is not often that I am able to share something like the full moon festival.” Nicolae explained. 

Julia squealed as she rummaged through Renaissance style dresses. She insisted she choose the correct outfit for me, as she now shifted through exquisite looking corsets that looked like they were straight out of Marie Antionette’s collection. 

Carl and Eddy were laughing with their selections. Both of them were choosing straw-white loose linen shirts covered in simple black vests with hats that did not match and looked like they were part of a musketeer style. Just please, don’t give them play swords, I beg to myself. 

“Shoes…” Nicolae ordered.

“I’ll be fine wearing my own shoes.” I commented looking down at my favorite two-inch ancle high black leather boots I had worn every single day of this trip.

“Alright.” Nicolae seemed a bit upset. 

“I would like to pay for my own dress.” I said to the attendee at the counter. 

Nicolae looked at me pulling out my wallet from my bag. 

“It is fine. I do not mind.” He offered as the woman separated the dress from the other items into another large bag. 

“I insist.” I repeated. 

I was not at all comfortable letting some man I just met buy me an expensive costume. I paid the cost of roughly just over one hundred and fifty euros from my bag and then made my way back to his car. He drove for two hours out of the city of Bucharest which had my nerves growing the further we traveled into the country. He finally stopped at a gated driveway, got out to open it and then we made our way down a long coarse stone driveway line by trees. There was a carriage waiting at the front of a two-story house. 

The house was decently large and appeared ancient. Wood frames around the windows and doors of the two-story structure looked like they were in need of quick repair. Not a single light was lit. The place looked… well abandoned. 

Old-style carriage was definitely what that thing looked like at the front door but it was beautiful. Four black horses that were pristinely well looked after stallions were shinning in the light of the sun. They were muscular and stood poised like they could drag a Roman Commander around a colosseum in a chariot.

I walked over to one of the horses. It was so magnificent as I pat its loose mane. He looked back at me with gentle curiosity and snarled slightly with its hoof scratching at the stones beneath it. 

“You know horses?” Nicolae asked opening the front door with a key. “The village only has horses and a few carriages like this one of mine. No cars.” 

“I grew up around horses.” I whispered back not caring if he heard me reply or not. 

My parents died when I was a child. I missed them yes, but I also did not really remember them. I was only four when I was told the news that they were killed in a plane crash. I went to live with my aunt, Rachel, who was ill with cancer and died only five years later when I was nine. She left me her property with horses where I stayed until I was old enough to go to University. I could not give the place up so instead, I rented it out to a kind young family in exchange for a very small income and the understanding that they would look after the livestock. 

The only real memories I had from childhood were riding through the English countryside on stallions such as this before I left for school. I often wondered if my lack in a loving childhood environment without the relationships of family or many friends was why I was so anti-social.

We made our way indoors to change. We are taking this completely insane horse and carriage into the middle of a haunted looking forest. I try to calm my worry. Surely, we are not going to be that far from anywhere where there is another town after all. If we get mixed up in something unpleasant, there will be another hotel or something that we can stay at in the closest town to the one we are going to. Nicolae said there was an inn. The second we arrive I want to check in and make sure all of our things are locked up. 

I tied the beautiful dark blue silk corset that matched Julia’s eyes and she was sure to make my gold and black one tight. I prided myself on having a good posture but this corset forced my back to become even straighter. My red hair was long and matched my emerald green eyes in a striking contrast of color. 

I turned and looked in a full-length mirror that was leaning against the den wall. The corset accented the curves of my waist with my breasts constricted so tightly they were lifted up to be on visual display. The long length of black silk fabric of the skirted gown lay just below the corset. It allowed a small bit of black fluff over my shoulders before it tucked into the corset and flowed out evenly to the floor in beautiful strikes of shinning black, just like the horses outside ready to take us away. 

I was such a casual dresser all of the time. I wondered what it would be like if I was born in another century and able to dress exquisitely like this every day. It was not boring. It was fun. The way I felt wearing this dress as it fell against my skin was another emotion all together. I feel… beautiful. 

“Damn you look great.” Julia commented leading me to blush.

I had to agree. I loved the costume. I looked good. Great, now I will have to work harder to fend off Nicolae.

“You know this guy Nicolae gives me the creeps.” I said to Julia grabbing my bag as we emerged from the room, “He is a complete stranger. Are you sure you want to go to this?”

“Yeah. I saw the way that he was looking at you today, as well as last night on the train. He likes you for sure.”

“So, I am not the only one that noticed that huh?”

“I take it you don’t feel the same?” She asked me. 

“Feel the same!” I yelped a laugh. “Nicolae is good looking I’ll give him that. But he is like ten years older than me.”

“Well, I am sure if you brush him off like every other guy you meet with your icy cold glare that I know so well he will get the hint. In the meantime, don’t worry so much Laura. Did you see that carriage outside? It looks like the same sort of thing that would carry the Queen of England to church! We are on an adventure.” Julia used the same words that Nicolae had chosen earlier; an adventure. 

“Yeah, whatever.” I rolled my eyes not wanting to admit that stepping into the past was exactly what sounded so appealing to me. “So, you are going to give up your interest in Eddy to sleep with some royal guy?”

“I am joking. Of course not. Meeting him and flirting with him just to tease and upset Eddy will be fun though.”

“Oh Julia! You are incorrigible!”

Julia was intent to meet the royal line that Nicolae had mentioned; Lark. To me Lark did not sound like a Romanian name. I would have thought the ancestry of such a name was Scottish or even Irish. But if such a blood line had lasted through centuries perhaps that history led to a mixture of what was now Europe. Nicolae told Carl that this traditional feast was really over four hundred years old then that placed the time period all the way back to the seventh-century.

Unlike Julia, I am not getting my hopes up about meeting some rich count or something. This mysterious Lark fellow might be royalty but he is just the descendent of some ancient sounding family. I doubt that the wealth of nations would last that long, and having never heard of his name before in the history books, I am sure his family has probably fallen into obscurity and whatever wealth they may have once held, with it. 

The boys were ready to go as they sat, now changed, in the open-air carriage that was drawn by the four black horses. The driver was a skeletal man who spoke Romanian with Nicolae before looking us over. The driver nodded after eyeing us up head to foot, which made me tense. I hope that he was only ensuring that we were dressed appropriately for tonight. 

Julia and I stepped up into the carriage. I ignored Nicolae’s quick glance over the dress I was wearing. The corset was so tight my breasts were clearly defined and I know that he was enjoying the formation of my bare skin and the graceful lines that led to my waist. Thankfully, he did not join us in the carriage. He took the seat next to the drivers’. 

Opposed to the village costumes that Carl and Eddy had chosen from the shop, Nicolae was dressed in a purple silk shirt with silver buttons beneath a long black tailcoat jacket. Over the collar, breast, and cuffs of that jacket where grey woven floral motifs. I might have thought he was attractive before, but in such a suit that looked like it was from the Victorian period, he was gorgeous. It still does not change my opinion of him though.  

An adventure, live a little. I demand of myself to follow my friends’ instructions as the horses turned around to the back of the house. The path, if a path is what you would call it, before us now was narrow into the trees. It did not look like it was travelled often at all. There was a single line of fresh tracks that were visible by the snapped twigs and leaf’s lining it. 

At what I can only estimate was about four hours later and we were definitely in the depths of some exotic forest. I did not see a single town pass by us. If I did not like the final destination of the carriage, the only way back was this in the complete shroud of darkness. The more we travelled into the forest the darker, larger and older the trees around us became. Finally, I could make out the roofs of houses that were definitely old lining the base of a mountain range. 

We came to a stop. We all got out, except for the carriage driver. I could hear a stream was off in the distance by the loud clack of water over rocks. Gypsy music was playing. Waiters dressed in expensive black suites with the most incredible crimson red stitched vests moved around serving mulled wine in old pewter cups to the locals. One of them spotted us and came over. I took a cup and so did the other three of our group. My glance fell to the sparkling vest the server was wearing. What looked like real gold twine was hand stitched into the most intricate design across the fabric among the darkest shade of red. 

“Laura.” Nicolae touched my arm which had me spinning in his direction not expecting the physical contact. “See. Everything is fine. I told you it would be an experience. I will have your belongings taken to the inn at the beginning of the village road and then I will find you again. Enjoy yourselves.” Nicolae leapt easily into the carriage once more. 

I shot my glance at Julia thinking that it was stupid to leave Nicolae with our things but she did not look back at me as she moved to start dancing with Eddy. 

“See you soon Laura.” Nicolae stated from the carriage as the driver flicked the horses to lead another direction. 

Nicolae’s words were strange. He said it slowly, darkly. Almost… as if those words were not a see you later, more indicative of a final farewell. But what he said did not matter. It was too late for me to stop him as the carriage rolled on down the road. I thought about following for a minute, knowing that my bag was in that carriage but there was not much point. Those four horses were far faster than myself. 

I try to ignore the feeling that we have all just been robbed. After this glass of mulled wine, I am going to find that inn and book us all a couple of rooms. 

I took a sip of the wine. It was warm, not hot. Its aroma was cinnamon, mulberry, nutmeg and orange peel. It was delicious. I have never had anything like it before and absolutely love the fact that it was homemade in this village.

“They are playing Lelita Saftita.” Julia nearly shirked her excitement as she looked at a group of four men playing a Romanian folk song on violins. 

I knew they were playing that song only because Julia had taught me the names of my favorite works by violin. Lelita Saftita was a classic. 

Julia and the boys took off to look around. I heard the water of that stream in the distance behind a few houses. I would rather look at that before the sun completely sets. I like the old architecture of this village very much, but the stream sounds peaceful. I leave the group, who did not even notice my departure, and head towards the trickling sound of the water. 

The sun has nearly completely set in the sky. Looking up, I can hardly make it out. The cloud covering the trees with enclosing grey clouds make it nearly impossible to see the canopy. I lean against a rock that is ten times as large as myself. It is gorgeous here.

I hear the caw of a bird that could only be the sound of something I have heard in a zoo. I look up to a tree and spot that at Falcon is perched cleaning her wing with her massive beak. Hazelnut brown, and pearl white feathers are regal and majestic. She spots me with a speedy jolt of her beak and her black eyes sheathed by golden yellow show how perfect her vision is. I am sure she can see every detail of me, hear my breath, and probably even sense my awe of her as she peacefully sits perched in that tree. I hear a rustle on the other side of the stream and look down from the tree to see the astonishing sight of a deer. The stir it made has led the Falcon to flee towards the sight of the rising moon. 

The deer is standing there drinking a small amount of water. Our eyes meet as she looks up. I think that she might run. Rather, she only looks at me. There is a moment between us. She swallows the water and she gazes on with quiet interest. What a beautiful sight. 

My heart stops the second that I see an arrow strike through her neck, killing her instantly.