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She didn’t know how she was able to accomplish this. Dracula, the first vampire, known to legend as a monstrous beast and bloodthirsty warmonger, sitting with her in broad daylight in the fields near his castle, partaking in human food with her.
“I was under the impression that sunlight killed vampires,” she said, trying to break the ice after a somewhat-uncomfortable silence. She took a small sip of her tea. “I assume that’s why you’re in a hooded cloak, but…I’m still curious.” She also felt the need to add very quickly, “If you don’t want to be awake right now, we can go inside and you can rest. We don’t have to do this right now.”
The vampire chuckled. “You are considerate as always, my dear,” he said. “Sun does harm vampires. But I…have been around too long. I’ve developed a bit of an immunity to it in my old age. All it does now is make me very, very tired.” He turned up his nose indignantly. “I don’t understand how I managed it when I was human. It’s so bright and yellow and it burns my eyes when I’m tired.” He took note of the increasingly-worried look on her face. “But…” he began to backpedal. “I wanted to see what you looked like during the day. The way your God meant His children to be seen.”
Allison chuckled to herself. “Is it to your liking, King of Vampires?” she asked.
“Immensely,” he sighed. “You look just as beautiful in the sun as you do in the firelight of my castle. Though I will say…I much prefer seeing your body bathed in moonlight. You look so much more…” He pondered, swirling the blood in his glass. “Natural.” He shrugged, smirking to himself. “And, of course, I don’t have to strain my eyes to be able to look at you.”
She laughed. “Vlad, we can go inside. We don’t have to sit out in the sun. Don’t be a martyr just because you think it’ll make me happy.”
“That’s where you misunderstand, dragă mea,” Dracula chuckled. “I would do whatever I could to ensure your happiness.” His expression grew solemn. “But…you did not ask me here just to discuss my vulnerabilities, did you?”
Allison’s face fell, and that’s when he knew. She sighed. “My family has been sending me letters,” she admitted.
Dracula’s voice came out in a low growl, “About your betrothed.”
“They keep asking me to come back to the States,” she continued. “They’ve begun to make plans for the wedding.”
“To your fiancé.”
“Arranged and former fiancé, Vlad,” Allison corrected him.
“And what will you write them back?” Dracula asked, a restrained anger showing through. “You have become seduced by a monster of the night and live with him in his castle, where you are doted on night in, night out by his affections, and waited upon by his servants?”
“I’ve already written them back.” Allison cut him off. With each sentence, her voice grew softer, more subdued. “I’ve told them circumstances have changed. Their most recent letter has told me that they’re coming to Transylvania to meet the fiancé I’ve disgraced them for.”
Dracula was quiet. Allison went on, “I’ve already told enough lies about us. I didn’t want to tell any more. I told them the truth: that I’ve fallen in love with a count from Transylvania who makes me happier than I’ve ever felt.” She ran her thumb over her engagement ring. “And we’re engaged to be married.” She looked up at him. “I want my family to be involved in this, Vlad. Even if they never know I’m going to become a vampire…I at least want them to know my husband.”
His voice was soft, subdued, as if he didn’t know what to believe. “You would want your family to know of your union to a monster?”
“You are not a monster,” she snapped, the sharpness of her tone surprising him. She took a small breath and collected herself before adding “Not to me.”
A soft breath escaped him. He looked into the red occupying his glass and thought for a moment. “I…I may need to lock the Sisters away for their visit,” he said. “Florina and Michaela are very well behaved, but I can not risk them being influenced by Monica’s behavior.”
“It’s fine. I understand.” Allison reached into the basket and picked two of the grapes from the vine they’d brought. “I...I hate saying that about something that sounds so awful, but it’s the best option. If Micheala was left to her own devices, she could…” She paused, swallowing softly. “She’d kill them.”
She felt her shaking arm steady when his free hand took hers. “I know,” he said softly. “But I also know that there is one of them that you wouldn’t mind burying.”
“Vlad.”
“Dragă,” he said, tightening his hold on her hand just a bit. “You only need to ask me to, and I will make sure he can not harm anyone again.”
“He’s my father, Vlad.”
Dracula bared his fangs. “A father should not treat his children like tools to gain him status. You are you. And he should do well to accept that people have thoughts and feelings.”
Allison’s face fell. She couldn’t help it, but a dark thought came to her mind. “If you had never met me…” she asked, her fingers closing around the grapes she was holding. “Do you think you would have agreed with what he does?”
He was quiet, but still kept his hold on her hand. “In the past...perhaps I would have,” he said. He set his glass of blood inside the picnic basket and his other hand lay itself on her closed fingers. “But I am not that man anymore.” One of his hands came up to gently open her fingers, revealing the grapes inside her palm. “As long as I can remember, I have been taking what I wanted. But even after I tried to take something from you…” His fingers rolled one of the grapes around her palm. “You gave something to me. I can’t remember the last time something was given to me without having to force it to my possession.”
He picked up the grape he was playing with and held it out to her. “I want to give you something back.”
Allison stared at the grape, and closed her eyes. When she opened them again she looked up at him, as if she were trying to stare into his soul. “You’re trying hard to change, Vlad. I know you are.” She reached up and held the side of his face. “I don’t want my father to make you go off the edge. That’s what he does to people. He purposefully eggs them on and uses their snapping as a reason to discredit them.” Her gaze fell to the soft blanket underneath them. “He’ll use whatever he deems negative to turn you into an enemy. I don’t want you to prove him right. For your own sake.”
They sat together in a moment of silence. Then Allison leaned towards his hand and bit down on the grape he was holding. Dracula watched her with surprised eyes. “Why, you little thief,” he laughed, shaking his head at the big smile on her face.
“I was going to eat those first,” Allison insisted.
“And talking with your mouth full. Oh, you rotten child. You were so proper when you first got here.”
“You’re always so feral when you drink from the trespassers. Not to mention how often you spook me in the castle halls.” She shrugged, popping the other grape into her mouth. “You made me this way. Accept it, King of Vampires; you’re corrupting me.”
Dracula sighed. “Well, I can only hope I don’t pull you too far down. If nothing else, I would at least like you to remain chaste until our wedding night.”
Allison looked back at him. “What makes you think I wouldn’t?” she asked. “I don’t have anyone else I want to run to.”
Dracula smiled at her. He reached down and took her hand, brushing his lips over her engagement ring. Allison watched him, returning his smile. “Would you like to go back inside?”
“Yes, please,” he responded almost immediately.
She couldn’t help but laugh. “At least consider my proposal.”
Dracula smiled. “I’m just very tired.”
“Alright, then. Let’s head back.” Allison picked up her cup from where she’d set it on the blanket and tried to finish drinking what she’d had left. Dracula, meanwhile, picked up the bottle in the basket and poured the blood back inside. Allison set her cup back in the basket and closed it up before standing up and getting off the blanket. “Do you want me to carry-?” She was cut off by Dracula picking up the blanket and suddenly pulling it off the grass. “Alright.”
Her fiancé smiled an impish smile. Tucking the blanket under his arm, he held his hand out to her. Smiling back at him, she took his hand, threading her fingers between his, and followed him back to the castle.