The Voyage of Galilea

I plunged.

I plunged thousands of feet from the moon. I tried to scream and my voice was cut dry in my throat. I floated amidst clouds as I dove inside an ocean of vertigo.

My lover had burned my heart out.

I muttered.

-“I don’t want to sleep…Don’t put me to sleep…”

I was delirious and a voice soothed me and cradled my fears…

-“Let go, Galilea…Let go….Let go, my love…..”

The voice echoed…I lost my sense of direction and I got lost and blind…I felt the voice inside…It was my lover’s voice…

I was blinking fast.

I looked below me as I plunged and I saw my naked body, complacent and warm…I saw my body fresh from making love…I saw myself…

-“Let go…”

I blinked. I blinked again.

I regained consciousness and I babbled.

-“I don’t want to sleep….”

I was distressed…I had lost my sense of direction.

Soon, though…I could perceive my surroundings. I didn’t know where I was, but I could see that I was inside a dark room. Beautiful and delicate, with little furniture. I tried to move. I had little space. I sat down and I screamed. I was blind. I couldn’t see…

I felt hands on face and I felt lips brushing my skin. Vladislaus. I whispered. Little by little my eyes cleared out and I could recognize a few colors and shapes around me.

I turned my face towards the voice that soothed me. I met my lover’s lips in a fiery kiss. I drank comfort from his lips. He sat beside me and held me close to him, cradling my body like a child.

He spoke in Romanian and he sang…He sang a lullaby in his native tongue and I felt safe and protected…

I pulled back a little bit and I could admire Vladislaus’ beauty. He had become even more beautiful. My eyes had not grown accustomed to his beauty. His skin was glowing…There were lamps burning in all four corners of the room. I looked about me…Then, I noticed I was seating on a cushion…Underneath me….My coffin.

I took my hands to my face, muffling my scream.

-“I shall have a coffin made for you, my darling, worth of your beauty….Let go…I am here…I won’t let you go….Look at me….Look at me….”

I could see love written across his face. I realized what had happened. In a matter of seconds…There he was, wrapping me up in his embrace, my lover…My executioner…My husband….

I looked at my hands…My fingernails had grown…My skin was paler…I touched my face…My features were the same, but somehow, I felt a lot different…more beautiful. I thought.

-“I am trying to find the words of poets to describe you, my love…You have blossomed into a divine fairy…my fairy….I shall cover you up with jewels…I shall steal the bounty of a pirate to bring you jewels that are worth of you….”

A couple of tears fell unconsciously. He dried them up with his thumb. My skin was flawless….

I smiled.

-“Why is it so dark?”

-“For a vampire, you are a newborn…You cannot stand light just yet, but we shall teach you…Now, outside there is someone who wishes to see you….”

-“Aleera!”

I cried with happiness.

There was a heavy door down the room which opened slowly making a loud screech. My! It was too loud…Every sound had multiplied its intensity…

A servant entered my chamber. A young woman clung to his arm. She had a bit of difficulty walking. She gasped. She began crying and swiftly she ran to my side and cried in my arms with contentment. Aleera. My new sister. My beloved Aleera.

I noticed her hair was weak and her skin didn’t have the glowing I remembered. It was dark, though…She looked at me and framed my face in her hands…She tilted her head…She looked up at her husband.

He smiled.

Just then she realized I was one of them. An immortal. She didn’t know what to do for a few moments. She buried her nose on my neck. She sniffled.

She touched my face.

It was fascinating to see her discovering me…my new eyes, my odor…my new silky skin…I was a newborn and she was showing me a maternal side of her…Had I been one of her children she would have nursed me.

-“Thank you, master…Thank you…”

She kissed his hands in submission.

-“Aleera, his name is Vladislaus…There will be no more master…Vladislaus, from now on until forever….”

I looked at my lover. He assented. He smiled.

-“Vlad…Vladislaus…..Vladislaus….”

She discovered that too. It sounded like chime bells in her tongue…The name of her one and only love…She learned to speak a new language…So much still to learn.

With the help of Aleera I climbed down the ugly coffin I was put in. My legs failed me and Vladislaus helped me up.

-“Your wings are still not completely developed, my child…Come…Take only a few steps at a time…”

I sat on a chair.

Aleera sat by my feet. I was dressed in my purple robe, the one I wore the first time I visited this castle.

-“My family…”

I was now living among the dead. My life as I knew it was left behind. I thought of my parents, my brother Colin…I tried to reconstruct what had happened…What took me back to this place…God…My whole world was a book, whose last page I had written in one night…I was now dead…Yet, I was unbearably happy…I was now married…

I laughed.

-“It will all make sense to you, my darling…That’s a promise…Now I must go…I must bring you nourishment…I don’t want to see you hungry….”

Vladislaus disappeared.

-“Will I be able to fly soon, Aleera?”

-“Oh yes, my dear…I will teach you to fly…Let me look at you…I have not seen so much beauty in any of my sisters, not even the Queen herself. You are the Count’s masterpiece…Perhaps is because he conceived you out of love…”

I smiled.

I stood up. Aleera offered help, but I politely let go of her hand. I wanted to take a few steps on my own….I walked slowly with my head up high…I did feel like a queen…

-“I’d rather see him as an equal, Aleera…He is now my husband…I don’t feel comfortable with the idea of being conceived by him…”

-“Don’t take it the wrong way…”

Aleera laughed her lovely, melodic laugh which I had missed so dreadfully.

-“You are a new woman now…His woman…My woman…I shall teach you everything I know…At first, well carry you in our arms and we’ll fly and we’ll hunt together…As your skills grow keener, you will be able to fly solo…We shall celebrate that!”

At that moment, the Count returned.

-“Come, my darlings…Feed…”

He put his arms around us. Aleera began sniffing his neck and licking his face…To my surprise I did too…He held me tight and he repeated his words…

-“Feed…”

From the inside of my mouth, fangs slid easily, effortlessly and I sank my fangs on my husband’s neck. It was instinct. He moaned. Aleera did the same. Blood began flowing inside my body. Sweet like honey. Fresh like a spring. I drank surprised of my own thirst for blood. Soon I was satisfied. My fangs disappeared as did the little marks on the Count’s neck. He kissed me. His tongue tasted the blood from mine. He kissed Aleera. It was the first kiss I witnessed between them. I felt a strange kind of jealousy. Quickly, Aleera read my thoughts. She smiled at me. I felt comfort. Nothing to worry about.

I was taken on a tour around the castle. Every corner of the castle had a memory. My new home, I thought. Servants bowed at me, like they did to their master. I smiled at them. They didn’t know a smile.

I knew instantly everything had to change!

A wonderful and powerful energy invaded my whole being. So much had to change!

I was now a lady of this manor…I remembered thinking how many plans I had for all of us!

That night, Aleera and I joined our husband in the library.

-“We would start here, my love…We will rebuild this library and we will have the books reshelf properly…The chimney will have a fire again to warm us up…We’ll bring a beautiful rug from Persia to decorate this place…Wouldn’t you like that?

Persia. Blessed be our ability to travel through time! In the 20th Century, Persia was Iran, very different indeed from the opulence that came to mind in the 15th Century…

-“We’ll do as you wish…Aleera, my dear…What do you say?”

-“Oh, mast…Vladislaus…It will be wonderful!”

I winked at her. Vladislaus. Well done.

Weeks or was it days or maybe minutes passed…Time was a commodity we didn’t have to worry about…Time was endless….

We summoned all of the servants in our castle. From then on, they would be assign specific tasks. They would be paid for their work generously. We asked for additional help and soon, the fortress was put upside down!

My husband made an incredible architect. I trusted Aleera’s exquisite taste. We were brought ancient treasures and statues fro all over the world. We had sent special merchants to the Silk Road and we had brought the finest linen to make new dresses for ourselves. From India, we learned about exquisite and fragrant spices which were used for incense. From France we brought perfumes.

Deep inside one of the towers, there was a lab. It had been completely brought down. The instruments laid broken into pieces. Cables sprung from the ceiling. However, the space was incredible and the possibilities were endless. We would build a time traveling machine. Yes!

While Aleera took care of the redecoration of the castle, the Count and I would spend long, mercilessly tired hours inside the lab, looking at blue prints and supervising the rebuilding of the laboratory. There was a whole on the roof of the tower, where the victims would be taken strapped to the electric platform. Instead, the whole was filled with the lens of a magnificent telescope, a replica of Galileo’s. I taught my husband the name of the constellations.

One day, my husband took me to a chamber which was located underneath the castle. To my astonishment, he showed me what was to be my coffin. It was wide, very wide, and the cushion was made of red velvet. The casket was made of glass.

-“It is Austrian crystal, my love…Worthy of your beauty…It’s wide enough for the both of us…I shall join you from time to time…Would you like that..?”

He used that voice which was seductive and devilish, which drove me out of my mind…

We kissed. There were plenty of kisses! I lost count how many times we had made love! Making love to him was hundreds of times more intense than ever before. It was wild! I had found out through Aleera that we could mate with our minds. That explained how many times I felt these unbelievable urges and I would climax on my own, without reveling an inch of flesh or without touching or being touched.

I learned the castle had 200 rooms! Each room would have a color! Aleera and I would make love insatiably in each one of those rooms. We got immersed in the pleasures of sisterhood. We had become confidents. Far had it gone both the fear to be abandoned!

We were in love.

The foyer of the castle was cleaned up. The torches were rebuilt and new oil from Jerusalem was used. I ordered the bodies and skeletons burned. No more trophies of absurd battles. No more ancient glory.

One thing remained that had to be done.

It was difficult to convince the Count. Yet, I trusted he would come to his senses. The cocoons had to be destroyed. He refused. At first he would scream out of rage. He would not speak to me. He would not even lay with me. I was determined. The castle had to breathe. There were remnants of the pygmies all over the castle, not just the nursery. One time, I found Aleera crawled up in a corner of the nursery, wailing holding in her arms the cramped body of one of her children. I made up my mind. Whether my husband liked it or not.

I comforted Aleera and begged her to understand…We could not live with ghosts from the past. He had to move on if we wanted to survive. The past was making us weak.

The Count understood those words.

Servants were ordered to build a pyre in our courtyard. One by one, the cocoons, with or without the progeny, were burned. The odor was unbearable. It took a long time for the nursery to be rid of the pestilence. Towers of cocoons were brought down and destroyed. Thousands of dead children. A waste.

Aleera and I stood in front of the pyre.

-“Aleera…live with the thought that at least you were a mother…You know…that’s a joy I shall never have….”

The day I learned to fly, I ad Aleera and my husband take me to the top of the highest tower. The wires no longer hung. The sunset painted the sky red and the warmth of the sun no longer bothered me.

Without much ado, I was pushed down the abyss!

I did scream and shut my eyes, but immediately my wings spread from my body. My clothes melted in my own skin and I saw myself transformed into a soft and sylphlike woman, my color was the color of the moon…My ears were spiky…I was naked and yet I had no nipples. My feet were those of a bat, but far more stylized. My hair had now highlights…My hair flowed in the air and I felt as free as a butterfly!

When I arrived in the castle and regained my human form, my husband and Aleera applauded me earnestly!

-“Aleera, you promised me a celebration when I learned to fly…remember?”

-“Yes, my love…I remember…”

My husband looked at us, trying to read our minds. Yet our minds played him tricks. I admire him. Aleera and I had brought a smile to his face and we had rekindled his heart. He was content.

-“My darling, I propose that you have a ball in my honor…That way, we will celebrate our marriage…and your closest friends we’ll get to meet your brides…What do you say?”

Aleera clapped enthusiastically and tip toed around us!

-“Say yes, my love…It will be a great ball…Greater than any ball you have ever hosted! We could go back to your palace in Budapest! Please say yes….”

The Count smiled broadly. He took us in his arms again and lifted us in the air with ease.

“It shall be done, my beauties…It shall be done….”

With a simple thought, across the universe, we found ourselves in the gothic ness and charm of the streets of Budapest. Standing proud and ancient and magnificent and opulent stood the summer palace of Lord Dracula, my husband.

We would prepare the finest ball in many centuries, my first party ever!