The Vampire's Crimson Kiss (Editing)

Chapter 26/Rise & Regret

Victoria's POV.

Next morning, I awoke as if emerging from a cocoon of shadows, the world unraveling before me with newfound clarity. A throbbing headache pulsed at my temples, a lingering testament to the night's escapades.

"Good morning, Mary," I croaked, my voice echoing the ancient dialect of the shadow tongue. "What time does the clock mourn? But tell me quietly my head seems to have shrunk."

I had felt worse but couldn't easily recall when. Too much drink or too much venom, or perhaps both, would leave me in this state. I had lived to excess with Electra, so the lead in my head and the barbells on my eyelids were no surprise.

Mary's silhouette loomed in the dim light, her eyes reflecting a mixture of concern and curiosity. "Is she awakening from her slumber? What fragments of the night do you hold in your memory?" she inquired. I wasn't sure why I had started speaking in the shadow tongue. I had begun dreaming in it occasionally, and Mary had mentioned that this indicated I was truly grasping how to speak it.

A mosaic of recollections fluttered through my mind. "Well, I remember going to the Feast of Fools. Drinking, venom. Oh, I remember the music; it was loud. You said it was ancient music from before our fathers. It went right through you. You showed me how the familiars danced. After that, I'm strangely empty, like an unwritten page."

Mary's lips curled into a knowing smile. "So you remember wine, dancing. Do you remember kissing people? Do you remember kissing a woman?"

Confusion and a tinge of panic swelled within me. "'Your jokeing?!' I said. 

Mary came over. "Do you remember we sat down and met those nice boys, Fit and Fast?" she said, handing me a glass of water.

Their names flickered at the edge of my consciousness, distant and elusive. "Vaguely. I'm not sure," I replied.

'You don't remember that Fast turned out to be a vampire?'

My mind scrambled to assemble the fragments, switching back to English. "Arrogant, treacherous, and demanding—who could have guessed he was a vampire? Go figure. Did he?"

"Discover the silver collar? No, something else," Mary hinted.

"Wait. I vaguely remember watching everyone start to... gurhouben. First, some of them, then eventually the whole room was writhing like a pit of vipers, slithering over each other, thousands of them. People started making out, floundering like a net full of freshly caught eels. By the blood god, I was horny. Something stopped me."

"Yeah, that was later. That's the feast of fools tradition. You passed out." Mary said "Duke Sadismann found you."

I moved slowly; my head was hurting. "I have this weird mental picture. I think he told me he loved me."

I wasn't sure. I think he did it after I used my voices on him.  The more I thought about it the more I didn't think I had. I hated not knowing. 

"Which could explain why he brought you to his bedroom," said Mary.

"What?" I said, opening my eyes and sitting bolt upright and feeling dizzy.

I got up and looked around. In the Duke's bedroom, shadows whispered secrets along walls draped in opulent crimson velvet, the fabric undulating softly as if alive with the night's breath.

The walls of the chamber were draped in rich, velvety tapestries that depicted scenes of vampire lore and conquest, their deep crimson and midnight black hues adding an air of mystique to the space. Enormous candelabras adorned the walls, their flickering candles casting a soft, haunting glow that played tricks with the shadows.