Fifty-Six

It didn’t matter how many times she told me not to worry about this Sean, Shawn… this man. I will never get over the fact she had been with the guy and had feelings for him, romantic ones or not. The point was, she felt something for him. She was fond of him, and it made me furious. I didn’t care if time changed, like she was always telling me. She was mine, and someone else dared to touch her.
Alexandra left the room, all flushed and hot. I had to remind her to whom she belongs. I had centuries to learn and as time passed, I could say I got more civilized, but with Liz I was still set in the Dark Ages. It would always be this way. She was mine, and I’d pulverize anyone I thought to be a threat to us. More and more her past self was catching up with the present one, and she didn’t even realise it. I trusted Liz, but I didn’t trust whoever dared to spare a look at her.
I took the time alone to understand this internet tool. It wasn’t that difficult. I followed her directions and was eager to get news about my land, now called Romania. It took a few centuries for them to unite the three regions and become a full country in 1918. A few decades later, they had a terrible period in the hands of a tyrant. One may say I was also one, I know, but I’d never put my people in such misery for my selfishness and agenda. It saddened me they still didn’t reach their potential and still were in the hands of not so worthy people.
Did people today read books? As far as I understand, all the books were inside this little box. I stumbled at my name in one of these researches, and the amount of information took me aback. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Reading them, I asked myself if they were really talking about me. My blood boiled in my veins reading some of these facts about myself. I tensed and ground my teeth, trying to contain myself, not to punch the screen in front of me. I stood up, pacing from one side to the other in the room, my mind in a red haze.
“LIZ!” My angry voice resounded.
She materialized in front of me, wearing concern on her face. Concern for me. Her anxious eyes checked me up and down, trying to figure out what was wrong with me. There was nothing wrong, but I felt overwhelmed and annoyed with my findings.
“Did something happen? Are you hurt somehow?” She came to me, and I felt bad for making her worried, but I was beyond pissed off.
“No, I’m not hurt.” My tone was flat, and Liz's eyes narrowed at me.
“What’s the rush, why are you so upset?” She put her hands on her hips and stared, waiting for my answer.
“I found this internet not to be that accurate about facts, and it aggravates me.” She moved around the table and flipped to all the pages I’ve been to, and with a smirk, she turned to me with mischief in her eyes.
“I see you got the hang of it. Congratulations, Grizzly!” Liz had a funny semblance when she faced me. “Sorry, I didn’t warn you about what you could find there. I didn’t think you’d go so far. The internet is an amazing tool to those who use it well, but it can become a weapon to those who don’t know how to handle it.”
“I’m no monster, Alexandra!” I barked, settling my eyes on hers.
“No. You’re not, but you impaled people, honey!” She cupped my cheeks, making a disgusted face at me. “That precedes you until today.”
“I fought with the weapons I had, besides what untalented person painted my face? I don’t look like that at all!”
“Of course not.” Something told me she was enjoying the situation.
“I should have impaled him for portraying me in such an awful way!” I was right. She burst into a laughing fit in front of my aggravated self.
“Vlad! You sound like a spoiled brat! Forget about that for a moment and come with me.” She got me by the hand, dragging me out of there to the living room, sitting me on the couch, then she looked in my eyes. “Did you imagine, for once in your life, that you’d be known in every corner of this planet?”
“I could never imagine such a feat. Get to the point, Liz!”
“Grizzly, we must work on your patience skills.” She grinned at me. “Vlad, you’re a sort of celebrity, an infamous one. Everybody knows you. Your story fascinates people in a good as in a bad way. Some love you while others, not so much. Scholars want to understand your ways, they want to know what was going on in your mind when you condemned people to such cruel fates, and the drinking of blood part just made it worse.”
“Nothing much was going on in my mind! I just had to do what I had to do! My means of torture weren’t new. I didn’t invent them, I learned from my captors, and believe me they were worse than myself!” I growled at her. “Those were my only way of keeping them from taking over my land! Those bastards killed my father, put my eldest brother into excruciating torture before burying him alive, turned my youngest brother against me, killed and enslaved my people, and ransacked my land!” Frustration swamped over me.
“Listen to me…” There was an impatient bite in her tone.
“I didn’t have a disturbed, perverted mind as I read. Those were savage times. Only I know what I had to do to keep myself alive, but my enemies bested me, right? About the blood? That was just a strategy that I regretted later. I hated to put that shit in my mouth, but I was losing control of my reign, and we came up with that crappy plan!” I ended my rampage and averted my eyes from her face.
“My father should be ashamed of himself!” She rolled her eyes at me.
“Well, he tried to dissuade me from the idea, but when he understood I was dead-set on the plan, he went along with the insanity,” I muttered, still not facing her.
“And it rendered you the fame of a vampire. Let me show you.” She went to the shelves and came back with a few books. “Here, this one says that when you raided terror throughout Transylvania…”
“It wasn’t like that.” I cut her off, and she gave me a sharp look. I opened my mouth, but I preferred to keep it to myself when her lavenders shot daggers at me.
“Yes, it was.” She said and held my gaze in a challenge for me to say otherwise. “You could have used other ways to deal with it.” It was my Liz staring back at me. She was coming back. Then she blinked and continued, “The Saxon monks, they had to flee and when they got to their refuge, they narrated to the scribes everything they saw. There was this ‘Brother Jacob’. He was the culprit behind it. He’d even drawn a few scenes, like these.” When she showed me, it was like watching through a portal, and yes, it was gruesome to see it, but I rolled my eyes and focused on her.
“By these awful drawings, he must be the same untalented one who drew me in those pictures on the computer.” I was being senseless. I had more to worry about than those pictures, but it was too much information at once. “Pesky monks, I shouldn’t have missed this one…” I murmured to myself.
“Sorry, I didn’t get that.” She looked at me with anger flashing in her eyes.
“Nothing.” It was a grunt.
“We must work in this short temper of yours!” She gave me a pointed stare. “Throughout the centuries, people have sworn to have spotted you here and there.” She was nagging at me. What’s wrong with this woman, she should be on my side.
“I can’t say that sometimes I got carried away with my enemies in the heat of a battle or business, and yes there were a few witnesses, but I got so enraged I couldn’t care less, but that’s beside the point here! Do you blame me?”
“No, I don’t. I’m trying to make you understand your role in this world. Who gave you the blood-sucking fame was a writer who published a novel titled Dracula, the story is outstanding, but I swear to God, I don’t know where he got the info from, since none of them make sense, from all the castles and houses that belonged to you, not even that he got it right, putting you in a castle you’ve never set foot in. But like I said, the book is brilliant, people loved it and it created the legend. Vlad Dracula, the blood-sucking vampire!” She put the book in my hands. “From there, it became like a snowball.” She set a small pile of books in front of me, tapping on them.
“Bloody hell! I’d never thought it would escalate to this!”
“Look to the bright side. Even though people think you’re dead, you’ve got to live on forever in their minds, books, and movies. You are a hero to your people, and that is the best part, they cherish you for fighting for them!” She sat astride on my lap, caressing my face. Everything she told me was so overwhelming, but only one thing mattered. Liz.
“And how do you know all these things about me?”
“You were present in my nightmares, and although I didn’t want to believe that you and the historical figure were the same, your lifetimes and history fascinated me since I was a little kid.” She pecked on my lips, never averting her eyes from mine.
“Why didn’t you want to believe?” I needed to hear her answer.
“I don’t know. Maybe I was trying to protect myself. I already believed I was a freak of nature and if I had made a connection, it would be too real for me to deal with.” As I listened to the sad tone she spoke, a pang of guilt flooded my heart.
“How do you feel about me and everything you’ve learned about it?” I had to know it was eating at my damned soul.
“If you’re worried about me passing judgment on you, no, I’m not. You’ve done what you had to do. It’s no wonder history calls that era the Dark Ages. It was a dark time in history.” A tremendous weight lifted from my chest at her answer.
“Thank you.” I breathed out and her lips took mine, different this time and without rushing, exploring my mouth in a sweet dance, taking her time savoring me. As she deepened the kiss, my body reacted to her scent, her warm skin brushing against mine, and when she breathed out of contentment on my lips, I fell under her spell. I may have made her think she belonged to me, but I belonged to her forever.