The Voyage of Galilea

Though I still burned with fever and my body ached profusely, I asked Aleera if we could cut our trip short. With deep sadness I left Istanbul behind, but I kept the memories deep in my soul.

This time, Aleera made the trip with me in the carriage, to make sure I was safe and to put cold compresses on my forehead. She seemed so maternal, so caring…I though to myself that she would have made a lovely mother, if it wasn’t for the fact her children would have been used to destroy humanity. Yet, as I saw her leaning over me, protecting me…I saw no evil.

She held my hand and very little words were spoken. The carriage was traveling light, for the luggage stayed back in Istanbul. It wasn’t needed any longer.

Aleera looked outside the window with a smile.

-“It’s been literally ages since I traveled by ground….”

We laughed soundly.

-“You should do it more often….”

-“It would present a danger…The Queen taught the brides to fly for a reason…”

-“Aleera….With all due respect…but I think that a lot of the things you were taught are just absurd and obsolete…Live a little...”

She smiled shyly.

-“The master won’t allow it…”

I sighed deeply and rested my head on Aleera’s shoulder.

-“So many things just got to change…so many things…”

Those words were the last spoken during our trip back to Romanian soil. Soon, the shadow of the thick forests and the Carpathians got closer, ready to welcome us back.

My heart was turmoil of confusion. My body hurt intensely. This intensity was the aftermath of pleasure received. Sinful abundance. Unforgivable wantonness. Love…Love to its ultimate power. I was content in the knowledge that my lover had felt it too. Yet, I was trying to make sense out of his behavior…I was trying to find a simple way to deliver him from such horrible pain…Four hundred years of pain were just too much time….

We arrived back in the castle. After the wonders and colors of the palace we left behind, the fortress seemed more and more miserable. Slowly a thick veil of fog enfolded the two giant towers, half-blocking our visibility. We stopped the carriage by the main gates. I took a moment to pet my noble horses which so dutifully completed their mission.

I wiped a couple of tears and I went inside the castle. I asked Aleera to please leave me alone with the Count for a few moments. I so needed to see him. I so needed his embrace. My eyes were thirsty for his beauty.

I had to pass by the nursery again, and I tried no to feel so disgusted by it. It was hard to do. I followed the staircases up to the main level and I walked around the castle as if I had been living in it for as long as it had existed.

The doors of the library were closed. I knew in my heart he would be there, yet I hesitated. I took a deep breath…I pulled the doors and entered the room, which was completely in the dark, except for a torch burning quite a few feet from the ground.

The Count stood on the top of the chimney, about 10 feet above me. He looked devastated. His eyes were looking up. His hands to his back. His hair was groomed carefully as usual with just a couple of bangs round his face.

I closed the doors behind me and this startled him. We looked at each other for what it seemed ages and he flew down and stood merely inches away from me. We didn’t dare to touch. I fought back the tears. I had made up my mind.

Unable to contain myself, I crossed the line and jumped to his embrace. He held me close and tight for a few moments, without saying a word. I spoke the first word.

-“Vladislaus….”

The Count pulled me back a little and frowned.

-“What’s the matter…?”

He smiled mildly and with a grave tone he said, clearing his throat.

-“None of my brides has ever called me by my name….”

I touched his face softly.

-“I am not your bride, Count…am I?”

I had gained enough self-confidence. He smiled and turned himself from me. I followed him and stood behind him as he faced the chimney. My hands circled his waist and my face rested on his back. My nose ticked a little by the touch of his long pony tail. I felt my lover’s arms folding themselves around mine as I pressed my body against his a little more. Silence was golden.

-“Vladislaus…I have made up my mind….I want to stay here with you and Aleera…”

He chuckled.

-“You know you are welcome to stay with us for a while…but eventually you will have to go back…”

I took a place between the chimney and his body and faced him. My arms were around his neck. I kissed him softly.

-“My dear Count…Tell me that what happened in Istanbul had some meaning to you…”

He tried to move away, but I didn’t let him.

He took my arms from his shoulders and kissed my hands. He walked towards his chair. He sat and let his back relax. He sighed.

He looked up and met with my inquisitive gaze.

-“You know too well it did…..”

I walked towards him. I had a smile on my heart larger than life, but I kept my composure and I sat on the arm of his chair, like I had done before. His pony tale rested on his shoulder. I took it in my hand and played with it childishly. He took my hand and stopped me. He kept my hand in his for a few moments.

-“Count, I have nothing to back to…I have lived my entire life to find the means to come see you…and that’s now done. I am not the same woman anymore….There is so much to do still…Vladislaus, look at me….”

He didn’t turn his face. I leaned towards him and pressed my lips to his temple.

-“Vladislaus…eternity is a very long time to live the way you do…I believe it in my heart that so much still needs to be done…Together, the three of us could change the scheme of things…I believe Lucifer, being the wicked angel he is, has not taught you but one side of eternity…and it’s time, Count…It is time to change, to move on...We could re-build this fortress…See…I know from great sources that you once were deemed a genius by many colleagues. I’ve heard that you had a gifted mind and that you were once a magnificent inventor…I am a woman of science too, Count…I’ve created a successful time traveling machine…I know I am young, but you could teach me to be better….”

-“How do you think we can accomplish that, my child?”

-“I come from the 21st Century, Count…It is a new century…a new era and a wonderful one if I may say so myself. Knowledge is everywhere…It’s an endless world of possibilities…I could teach you everything I know…”

-“The 21st Century presents a challenge for me, Galilea…Perhaps it has not been clear to you, but I know my limitations….”

-“Vladislaus, the sky is the limit…and, forgive me, but I don’t think fear suits you well…”

He didn’t utter a word. He stood up and walked around the room. I knew too well he was listening. He listened with every sense he had.

-“Count Vladislaus is a sad man…I can change that…not for one night, I can change that for all eternity…”

-“Galilea, my darling…You won’t be around for all eternity, will you?”

I relished the irony in the phrase.

With my head up high and my heart beating with frenzy I walked towards him and intercepted his path.

-“I could be…I want you to turn me into an immortal….”

His face flushed. His gorgeous blue eyes opened wide in astonishment. He moved away from me, burying his face on his hand…He was visibly shaken. Bitterly, hissing as he spoke, he answered.

-“Never. No. Never! Never! You hear me? Never!

He disappeared.

My heart sank and I broke into tears. His voice was unforgettably severe and it echoed in the room as well as in my soul.

Still feverish and with my heart broken into pieces, I managed to find my room and I threw myself on the bed where I sobbed, wishing for death to come find me.

-“Death is too lonely, my darling…You shall not wish for it…”

Aleera sat next to me and wiped my tears.

-“Nothing would please me more than to have you by my side forever….But, this is not a life you would choose for yourself….”

-“You don’t understand, Aleera…It won’t be like it was with you and the others. I am willingly choosing this life…”

-“Soon, he’d make you into his slave. He’d bring others and, like me, you’d spend your existence fighting and praying for his mercy, so he’d not abandon you. You’d be reduced to nothing…”

-“It would not be like that, Aleera…You know it…He won’t be my master. He’d be my husband, my lover, my friend, my colleague…And so would you…I called him by his name today…”

Aleera laughed. She laughed long and openly.

-“Good for you…I have tried so many times to do so…Not even the Queen ever called nothing but Master…or My Lord, for that matter”

I wanted to take my traveling clothes off. Because I had a fever, the clothes were making me sweat too much and I felt uncomfortable.

-“You said you had a fever too, the first time he touched you, Aleera…”

I sat on the bed. My legs to my chest. Aleera sat behind me and started unbuttoning my dress on my back.

-“I did…Right after he kissed me in my garden….It was very intense…When he kisses you, the light of the sun completely enters your body…In my case….”

She smiled.

-“…In my case…my fever was brief…an illusion…I died in his arms, and when I woke up…I was no longer a woman…I was a vampire….”

I helped her take my dress off and I stayed naked on my bed, embracing my legs. Aleera tried her little games, touching my back with her fingernails, licking my earlobes…I just wasn’t in the mood. Aleera then searched my purple robe, the one I wore my first night in the castle, and helped me dress with it.

I let my body down and Aleera lay next to me silently.

Suddenly, we were both startled! The Count appeared in my room. He had my original street clothes on his arm. His face was pale. He had dark circles around his eyes. His lips were merely a line in his mouth.

-“What is it, Count?”

-“Galilea…I want you to leave this castle immediately. I will have a servant escort you outside the fortress. Here are your clothes. He threw them in my face…”

My heart stopped.

-“Nooooo! Master! Master I beg of you!”

Aleera cried bitterly, screaming, holding on to me.

The Count spoke no other words. Aleera went down on her knees in front of him, but he disappeared into the wall like a ghost…

Drowned in her sobs, Aleera gave me one lasting desperate embrace and disappeared on face.

At a distance, a loud rumble of thunder made me shiver. The skies were gray and heavy, and so was I. A servant appeared in the room. She helped me dress. I had no coordination of my movements, but, somehow, I got dress. The clouds burst into a river of tears. My heart burst into a hole of darkness.