Breathless (17 page)

“
From what I have heard, she looked a lot like you,” my grandma added unexpectedly. I had never thought of myself as beautiful. Tanned skin, straight blond hair with blue eyes were the epitome of beauty in today’s world, but maybe by the standards of another time and place, someone like me could be considered above average.

From there, my grandma explained how Lorelei’s hand had been promised to the son of an elite attorney. The young man, Louis, was studying to follow in his father’s footsteps. He was handsome, intelligent, wealthy, athletic, and chivalrous. Despite the fact that Louis was the perfect gentleman, Lorelei had a strong head on her shoulders and was morally opposed to having an arranged marriage. She was in love with an artisan from Romania named Alexei. Alexei had little to offer someone of Lorelei’s caliber other than his whole heart. With him at her side, she felt safe, happy, and complete. They would have little in the way of money and security, but they
would
have happiness.

Lorelei’s lot in life was set. Her family forged ahead with wedding plans for her and Louis. All the while, she and Alexei prepared to escape on the eve of her wedding. They would take off under cover of darkness, leaving no trace of their route. Lorelei’s father was a powerful man with many connections in the royal guard, so they would have to move quickly or risk being caught. Alexei would be arrested, and Lorelei would be doomed to a loveless marriage.

The plot was foiled when one of Lorelei’s handmaids overheard a conversation between the two young lovers a few nights before the wedding. The maid confronted Lorelei, claiming she would reveal the ruse to her father if she did not comply with the wedding plans. Lorelei feared it would result in Alexei’s arrest. After a restless night, she knew what she had to do. At the exact moment she was to meet Alexei in the woods outside the city limits, she sent her most trusted assistant to the location of their secret rendez vous. Immediately, Alexei understood. He read the note Lorelei had sent and ran off into the night. First, he vowed his revenge to the young maid. Though he did not say any more, the young woman returned and told Lorelei his words. Only she understood the depth of their meaning.

Lorelei knew Alexei’s deepest secrets. Though he loved Lorelei very deeply, he was capable of inflicting great terror. According to legend, his mother, Simona, had been very ill when she was pregnant with Alexei. For weeks before his birth, she suffered from a terrible fever. She lay in bed at night screaming from the pain, begging for death to take her but to spare her child. One night, she was visited by a dark stranger. He assured her that he could make the pain go away if she would just trust him. For now, he wanted nothing in return. Each night, he visited, bringing with him an elixir that seemed to quell her pain. Though she still suffered, she could no longer feel the effects. No one knew what the tiny vial contained, but the brooding gentleman made Alexei’s mother drink every drop of its contents. Her husband and doctors were satisfied with the results, and they continued to allow the man to dose the woman throughout her pregnancy.

Finally, one night, Simona woke with a start. Contractions ripped through her body, and she called to the doctor to aid with her delivery. Without the elixir, she seemed to suffer immeasurable pain. The doctor could not cope with its effects, and the woman succumbed, but not before she bore her only child, Alexei. The child was the image of perfection with marble skin, dark tufts of hair, and vivid eyes. Distraught by his wife’s death, Alexei’s father wanted no part in the rearing of his child. That night, the dark stranger came calling one last time. He asked for the child, and his command was granted. Alexei was given freely to the brooding man.

Baron Vladimir Strigoy lived alone in an enormous castle in the countryside. He had lived there for hundreds of years. The immortal being had been seeking a companion for more than a decade, and when he heard of Simona’s difficult pregnancy, he took the opportunity to make his move.

The elixir, which was made up of Vlad’s blood and some common spices to dull the flavor, did nothing to help Simona’s condition. It merely numbed her pain. Instead, it provided nourishment for the young child growing within her, ensuring the baby would be born strong and healthy.

“
But the blood did something more,” my grandma said more softly now. “It changed him.”

“
What do you mean by changed him, grandma? He was only a baby—a newborn,” I replied.

My grandma walked over to where I was sitting and wrapped her arm around my shoulder.

“
Your mother will be home soon, so I’m going to have to move quickly through the rest, sweetheart,” she said, squeezing my shoulder slightly. “You’re going to have to keep an open mind.”

I nodded, and she got up to pace the room as she continued her tale.

She explained that Vladimir was not like other people in the small Romanian village where he lived. She repeated something I hadn’t paid much attention to the first time when she had said it earlier, but I could not ignore it now. She called him an
immortal
.

“
Wait a minute, grandma,” I said, holding up a hand to halt her speech. “Did you just say Vladimir was an immortal? I thought you meant his
family
had lived in that castle for centuries…not him.”

“
We don’t have much time, sweetheart. I need you to just keep listening.”

My grandma had always been a bit of an eccentric. She had weekly tarot card readings for as long as I could remember, wore crystals representing various chakras around her wrist, and hosted séances for friends when they lost a loved one. My mom had never been fond of grandma spreading her holistic and supernatural beliefs around our house, so grandma tried to keep it to a minimum when she was visiting. With my mom still at work, she took this opportunity to taint my thoughts with this bogus nonsense. I suppressed a laugh and decided to humor her anyway despite my better judgment.

“
Though he’d been discrete, people had their suspicions about the man who never seemed to age. He was tall and broad, with thick dark hair and bright eyes. His flawless skin was fair, with only the slightest flush in the apples of his cheeks. Women were mesmerized by even the weakest stare from this mysterious man,” grandma continued.

Vlad had avoided detection by expertly entrancing the people in the nearest village with his charm and wisdom. For some reason, they were unable to see his obvious flaws. He had never aged. Not one day. Year after year, he was able to live in peace, but he was more than just immortal. Vlad had a much deeper secret.

“
I’m on the edge of my seat here, grandma. Why don’t you just spit it out,” I interjected.

“
Vlad needed to drink blood to keep his body from decomposing,” she announced. “I suppose it would be fair to say he was a vampire.”

I started to snicker before I noticed the sincere look on my grandma’s face. She believed every word of this legend was true, and I felt a bit badly for laughing. I pursed my lips and cocked my head to the side to feign interest.

She explained that, over the years, Vlad had been very careful about how he acquired blood. For the most part, he had drained it from those who were terminally ill and begging for death. Technology was limited, so their loved ones often believed they had simply succumbed to their disease. Other times, he fooled unsuspecting beggars into believing he was a doctor and needed blood for pending transfusions. As money was no object for the wealthy immortal, he would pay the poor to donate their blood willingly. He kept a steady supply stocked in a cellar beneath the castle.

After hundreds of years of living alone, Vlad’s life was empty. Though he had searched the four corners of the world, he had never found another like himself. He knew they existed, but none had made themselves apparent to him, and he was uncertain how he had become this half-dead creature. Vlad decided that he would find a person to share his way of life, even if it meant he would have to create one.

When Vlad learned of the pregnant woman who was writhing in agony, he ceased the moment. He had studied his own blood intently for many decades and knew that it was capable of amazing feats. He put his theory to the test by giving it to Simona to drink, and while he knew it would not save her life, he hoped it would be enough to protect her unborn child from suffering alongside her.

Sure enough, the child was born in perfect health. Alexei would provide the companionship Vlad so desperately longed for. From an early age, it was evident that Vlad’s blood had a greater effect than simply keeping the child alive during his mother’s difficult pregnancy.

Though Alexei did not need blood to survive, it provided him with extra abilities. He was incredibly strong, and his vision was far beyond that of any human child. He was exceptionally intelligent, and his athletic stamina was incomparable. Vlad took great pains to ensure the child had an exceptional upbringing. Alexei wore only the finest clothes, attended the most prestigious schools, and received the best care money could buy.

As he grew, Alexei began to realize who the man he called father really was, and he came to resent the man. He believed Vlad had killed his mother and stolen Alexei from his home. No matter how many times Vladimir tried to explain the real story—how his own father didn’t want him—it was no use. Alexei had already formed his own opinion. Though Vlad’s blood ran thick through his veins, he was completely human in all other ways, and on his eighteenth birthday, he escaped to England.

Alexei took what little money he could find around the house, packed a few items in a sack, and took a train across Europe. He sailed by boat from Paris to London. He had only been there a few weeks when he met Lorelei.

Their attraction was immediate. Though she knew her destiny, she couldn’t keep away from her new love. Alexei had been using his impeccable skills as a portrait artist to earn money by sketching tourists on the sidewalks along the Thames. He’d been trained by some of the best eastern-European artists, and his ability to capture the essence of a person’s face was incomparable. It was likely that this superhuman skill was enhanced by Vladimir’s blood. Lorelei and one of her friends stopped to have their picture composed one morning after enjoying brunch at an upscale cafe. The moment she looked into Alexei’s eyes, she knew she could never look away.

He had a strange hold on her, and she couldn’t explain it. Though she knew her family would never accept Alexei, she continued to see him without them knowing. Each day, she would tell her maids that she was going for a walk alone by the river, and instead, she would meet with him. At night, he would climb the trellis to her bedroom window and spend the evenings entwined in her arms. Lorelei couldn’t bear the thought of breaking his heart, but she knew she would someday. She didn’t know much about Alexei’s past or that he would be capable of terrible acts should she reject him in the end.

On the eve of her wedding to Louis, Lorelei knew she would break Alexei’s heart. She wanted to run away with him, but she knew her family would never rest until she was found. It would only end badly for both of them, so she decided to spare Alexei the pain. She would doom herself to a loveless life in order to ensure he could go on living freely. She was sure he would move on. With such wisdom and beauty, no woman could resist his charms.

Lorelei was alone in her dressing room adjusting her trousseau just prior to walking down the aisle when the window blew open. Alexei stood on the sill, waving his arms in fury and uttering something in his native tongue. He cupped Lorelei’s face in his hands, kissed her full lips feverishly, and turned to leave. Before making his final exit, he whispered his parting words to her.

“
This is not over,” he said. “One day, I will return to claim what is rightfully mine—the girl with the crimson curls.”

With that, he was gone. The wedding proceeded as planned, and Lorelei and Louis began a life of bliss together. Over time, she grew to love him, and they had two beautiful daughters together—one blond, and the other brunette.

Forty-seven years passed, but Lorelei had never forgotten Alexei and the love they had shared. She was old and frail, suffering from tuberculosis, when a beautiful man came calling on her one day. Lorelei’s nurse announced his presence, and Lorelei agreed to see Alexei, not knowing what to expect. When he walked through the solid oak double doors leading to the room where she lay helpless and dying, she became painfully aware of all she had lost. Alexei stood before her, as beautiful as the day they had met. She was in awe at how unchanged he was and embarrassed at how her own beauty had faded so entirely.

Alexei bowed down at Lorelei’s side, and taking her tiny hand in his, he kissed her forehead gently.

“
I’ve never left you,” he said. “Not for long, anyway.”

He explained that after she had made her choice so many years ago, he returned to his father’s home in Romania. His fate was inevitable, and he had decided to face it sooner rather than later. He told his father everything that had happened in London and begged for his forgiveness. He understood now that Vlad had only had his best interests at heart, and he asked him for the truth about who Vlad really was. Vladimir had given his son everything his heart desired, and he could not deny him this. He started at the beginning and shared every detail of his immortality. After, Vlad asked Alexei if he wanted to join him in eternity. Without hesitation, Alexei accepted his father’s offer.