Chapter Seventy-three

Bram and the children were the first ready. At the moment, Jen and Izabella were both in the bathroom doing their hair. He could hear them giggling, though tried his best not to listen to their conversation. When they finally came out Bram couldn’t help but stare. This was the first time he’d ever seen Izabella in makeup. Her lips were bright red, matching the silky dress she wore. He liked this one almost as much as the one they’d bought together. The skirt fell in numerous panels that tapered into points, looking much like lily petals falling across her thighs. The front had a v-cut in between her breasts, and straps crisscrossed over her chest and back and between her breasts. She had a cute headband with a red bow off to the side of her head.

Though she was blushing at him, she twirled, and the skirt billowed out. This made all the girls excited, and soon they were all twirling around, he couldn’t help but appreciate the joy they all got out of such simple pleasures. Gabe was watching with a blush too, his eyes riveted on Jen. Bram smirked. They were going to have to have a serious conversation. Especially with all of them living under the same roof.

“With all these beautiful new dresses, I might have to have you take me out somewhere to go dancing.” She smiled at him.

“You look stunning. When we get back to the city, we’ll have to go out. I can’t leave the kids here alone. Maybe we should just take an extended holiday and travel across Europe once the adoption is finalized. It would be fun to take you out on the town in Paris.” He stood, pulling her into his arms and twirling her around the room.

“Paris? Really?” Her eyes gleamed up at him.

“Yes, other than home, Paris is my favorite place in the world. I have a feeling you would love it there too.” Twirling her back into his arms, he kissed her nose. “For now, though, let’s go enjoy Brasov. It’s a lovely city.” He led everyone down through the castle and out to the front, where a limousine already waited for them. As they drove down the winding road to the city, everyone clung to the windows looking outside.

“Look!” Jen’s nose was practically pressed against the window, “They have a sign on the mountain, just like Hollywood!” Everyone piled to that side of the car too look. Bram didn’t bother though. He may not have been home in years, but he had always paid attention to what was going on in his hometown.

“Where to, Sir?” The driver looked back through the mirror, speaking to Bram.

“Take us to the historical side, I want to show them the Black Church and take a trip down memory lane at the museum.” Bram wrapped his arm around Izabella’s waist. “Do you want to go see the church? I can’t go onto the grounds with the rest of you, but it’ll be safe. I think you’ll enjoy it.” He pulled out his phone, “You can take this and take some pictures if you’d like. I’ll wait in the car until you’re done. I have some work I can do from here.”

She pouted, “But I want you to come too.”

“You know I can’t go into a church. But if you want to skip that, there is a museum that we can go to.” As the car came to a stop outside the church gates, Bram opened the doors. “You tell me what you’d like to do. There’s a zoo not that far from here, and we can always walk to the main square. The architecture on this side of the city is more fun. They have quaint little diners where we can stop for refreshments. There’s a park not far from here too, where we could go walk around the gardens. There’s a gorge we could take a hike through, I haven’t been down there since the wars.”

At the mention of the zoo, the kids went crazy. The driver explained there was an ice cream shop not far from here too, and Bram walked with them, showing them the old town. “Once this was all of it. It’s continued to grow outward, but this is all that there was when I was a child. The church once tried to hunt me down, it’s called the black church now, because they made me angry and I nearly burned the place down.”

“You have a lot of memories of people trying to kill you.” Gabe looked at Bram a little too excitedly over this comment. “How old are you again?”

Bram shrugged, “Over nine-hundred. I’ve lost count though. I was born sometime during the first century.” Bram felt fingers graze the inside of his palm, he smiled, realizing it was Izabella and not one of the children. “Everything looks so different from what I remember.” He regaled them with stories of what the town used to look like, things he’d done and how the war had changed the face of the country. When they were in the museum, he got a kick out of being able to show them his sword, the kids thought it was amazing to see his likeness in the museum, and the curator actually caught wind that a look-a-like was here and asked if he could take Bram’s picture with the painting. When Bram explained he was actually a descendant of Vlad, the curator took them through an exhibit that was currently closed at the request of Bran Castle. They were trying to change the image there, and the hero of Romania no longer fit into that scope.

“I hope for your ancestors’ sakes, you can convince those that live at the castle currently to change their minds. It’s one of our countries biggest claims to fame! Especially here in Brasov.” Bram was busy interpreting for his crew.

Izabella flittered around, the girls weren’t near as interested as the boys who all found the idea of war fascinating. Devon was completely awestruck, bouncing off the walls and enjoying every picture and reading each plaque. He pointed at a painting of his father and mother. “Things don’t much change, do they.” They still looked exactly the same as before. Below, there was a “Legend of Dracula” reading beside it. An original copy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula book, a signed addition.

“Did you ever meet him?” Izabella whispered to him. “I mean, I’m guessing you did, since you took his name.”

“I did. He was already older when I met him. He let me stay in his home with his wife and son for a few years. I was pretty lost at that time. Tyler and I had just decided to take a break, and I was alone. We met while I was visiting Dublin. I was pretty drunk at the time, and guess I spilled a few beans about the family curse. He was enthralled. We ended up becoming good friends. When he asked if I cared if he wrote about it, I told him I didn’t mind, he just couldn’t use any of our names. As long as he didn’t care if I used his name after he passed. Bram thought that was a fine deal and agreed. One of the few humans who knew what I was and didn’t ask me to turn him. He was refreshing compared to most.” Bram wrapped an arm around her, smiling at the picture of the large bearded man he’d once been honored to call friend.

“It’s amazing to think you have been able to change the course of history. That’s real power, right there.” Gabe said, his arms crossed while he read the legend platelet.

“You have no idea.” They moved to another section of the museum, this spoke about the wars that Vlad the Impaler had waged. “These for instance… Vlad the Impaler is considered a hero here in Romania, but honestly, if I hadn’t had such a wild blood lust when I was younger, they never would have come after Romania in the first place. The people outside my country at the time feared us, because I would waste full towns along the outskirts. I didn’t care, because they weren’t my own. Eventually, they amassed enough power to fight back. I’m considered a hero today, because I defeated them all and helped secure our country enough to become what it is now, but none of that would have been necessary if I hadn’t been born at all. You’d shit your pants if you knew half the fucking shenanigans I’ve been part of.” He gave Izabella a sideways glance as she pinched him.

“Father,” Sarah chided, “language.”

“Sorry, princess. I didn’t realize anyone else was listening.” He mussed her hair, which gained him a pretty good screech for him to stop.

“So, if you were a king, does that mean I’m going to be a real princess if you adopt me?” Her eyes sparkled up at him.

“Technically, yes. And there’s no *if* I adopt you. The paperwork is already underway. The castle we’re staying in is my inheritance. If you decide you want it, maybe I’ll just kill my parents and let you all have it.” He chuckled. “Princess of Bran castle, how’s that sound to you?”

Izabella shook her head. Half laughing.

“Why have you allowed your parents to survive if they’ve tried to kill you so many times? I mean, you’ve taken everyone else out, right?” Jen asked, her own curiosity now spiking. “Do you know the amazing Halloween Party we could have there?” She laughed.

“Because, there’s one thing I need them for.” Bram looked up at the painting of his parents.

“What’s that?” Jen asked, pressing between Bram and Gabe.

“If I ever decided to have a child, I would need them. I could easy get a woman pregnant, but if I wanted to have the woman survive, I would need my mother to make sure she’s safe. I don’t need my father, but if I ever did anything to him, I’d stand no chance of ever getting her help. I would need her to help maintain the child also. I don’t know if you heard her call me the impossible child, but it was true. I was the bane of everyone’s existence. Blood lust is most powerful in the young. Imagine me with no will power and no conscious. An infant with nothing but the desire to feed, and the strength of an arm capable of doing so.” Izabella shivered, hanging onto his arm.

“That’s terrifying. So, you keep your mother around incase you decide you want to have a baby because you’re afraid of what would happen otherwise?”

“Correct.”