Ardith - A Vampire Story (editing)

Chapter 11 A Dead Beast

Chapter 11 A Dead Beast f

I

"Oh, there you are Leila." Relieved to see her friend, Ardith ran to embrace the lady who  approached in a lilting walking down the aisle.

Leila hugged Ardith back politely but her face showed more surprise than contempt. "Here I am my beloved friend. What it is? Is there anything wrong?" The raven haired woman held Ardith's hands, studying her face.

The duchess told her friend everything that happened as they walked down the hall and descended the stairs to the first floor. By the moment Ardith finished informing Leila of the late events in the mansion and described the gruesome scene in the stables, they were sitting in the main hall.

"Poor thing! The last person that saw her alive should've been you, Leila. Isn't it eerie?" Ardith told Leila, but the countess' remained unscathed. Her face revealing no emotions whatsoever after hearing the hideous events that took place in the castle. "Aren't you afraid Leila? How is that so? I'm scared to death!"

"Oh, no, don't misinterpret my silence. This is macabre in every sense. It must have been a horrible for everyone finding that maiden decapitated. I'm lucky I wasn't there you know. All this had left me speechless, a little... shocked I guess. Thinking of a raging beast roaming in or nearby the castle lands is terrible. I apologize for my lack of scruples at first, though I think it's because all the horrid things that I endured myself in the time I was kidnapped that certain things don't affect me in the way they should anymore. Believe me it left a mark on me... Oh, my friend you can't ever imagine how I believed myself lost or soon to be dead. There were times when my perils seemed to be perpetual!" Leila cried.

Ardith couldn't help it and hugged Leila tightly. The young maiden felt guilty to err in assessing her new friend's feelings. She forgot how terrible it must have been for Leila to be repeatedly raped in the forest and left for dead by those ruin men.

In a very sweet and heartbreaking moment, Leila stroked Ardith's hair, intertwining her delicate fingers between her golden locks. To feel Leila's warm breathing on her neck, provoked a chilling sensation running up her spine that made her shiver. For some strange reason, she found those fondling manners refreshing. In the way the beautiful countess caressed Ardith's head and face with so much tenderness, both girls' stares locked. Hypnotized by Leila's intense gaze, Ardith got lost in the black orbits of the brunette belle.

The Countess of Swabia kept playing with the loose curls of the beautiful maiden with one hand and with the other caressed her cheeks. Their bodies were just a few inches apart from each other. Ardith contemplated delighted the freshness irradiating from Leila's face and the sudden blush that had appeared on her cheeks. The headstone paleness and the purple dark circles had faded away completely, giving the woman an almost divine beauty.

"Ardith... Have I told you before how beautiful you are?" Leila whispered in a very sensuous tone as she she leaned closer to the duchess.

"Oh, not you my friend, thank you. Only someone told me he found me beautiful... my fiancé Edmund." Ardith replied crestfallen, her gaze wistfully at the memory of her love that broke the odd trance.

Leila's face changed color and stood up looking upset to Ardith's last words. Giving a few steps back she reacted. "You did not tell me you were already pledged by... Is this Edmund you are speaking about, the same one you mentioned before? The man that left to battle? You are not his woman yet, don't you?"

"It's the same man yes. Edmund, the man I love, but what question is that Leila? Of course I'm not his woman yet! We are not married? Fornication is a sin and God forgives me to ever think about... well, about having intimacy with Edmund, or any other man before getting married! That's impure!"