Chapter 25 Weddings and Memories
In the way she loved to, Leila admired herself in the mirror with vanity and pride. Her lips curved up mischievously recalling the latest events that in the morning filled her mind with wicked joy. Seeing that woman, the gypsy who dared to speak against her in the market, twitching, screaming and writhing in the flames as she was burned alive for being a witch, felt extremely satisfying and somehow invigorating. She enjoyed every second of the execution. Leila always thought that dying burnt in the pit was much more horrible than being hung, she knew it well from a somber past when she was chased after been discovered and chased in Argengau by a horde of villagers, and it was something that made her feel a bit unease. So, as contradictory as it seemed, the sensation resulted both thrilling and morbid for her, knowing that the the only way to destroy avampire was to burn it in the same way the witch was. In the end being the witch a human, Leila found it a bland spectacle, yet glorious, yet the damned sorceress deserved to die in the most terrible ways after messing up with her.
The smell of burnt flesh and blood made her hungry, but she would had to wait until the night fell night to go hunting. Something was true and it was that she needed to be replenished for the wedding day, if not the poor Duke would suffer the consequences and so her plans could collapse.
It was almost by midnight, the crescent moon beamed a wicked smile high in the night sky, when Leila slipped out of the castle, concealed by the shadows. She hustled her way into the suburbs without being noticed. The miserable drunk that tumbled by the town's inn was an easy pray for her, a poor fellow that became a remedy for dinner but that was better than nothing. There was a bittersweet taste of alcohol in his veins that was not completely to her liking. It tasted of cheap mead and she rather preferred the sweetness in the blood of a good Italian red wine or the purity in the veins of a virginal maiden like Ardith... Oh, Ardith her blood was pure and so delighting. That is why she had kept her alive all this time. Leila had been drinking slowly her blood, little by little, day after day and she enjoyed every sip of it... Every single drop of the red elixir... and the fresheness of her soft skin filled her wholeness with lust.
When she was done, she tossed the drunk man's body behind a stable and walked back to the mansion. Only a few hours left and she'll become a mistress again.
Back in the castle, Leila waited impatiently in her room, she watched the moon arch down and the sun peeping out the mountain range and morning had never appeared so glorious to her. It was her wedding day couldn't be happier. Her eyes reflected a special glow, that special brightness that gave the satisfaction of knowing herself a winner. Within a few hours she would marry the wealthy Lord Aelderic and all the duchy would be hers.
Everything had gone as she planned. Leila remembered the first day she saw Ardith in the woods and instead of draining her blood in the cemetery that morning, she knew well the duchess meant something more for her. Her destiny was marked to ever find Ardith, to be in Harzburg some day after two centuries. Hiding behind the mausoleum in the graveyard, Leila had observed Ardith for weeks graveyard, waiting for the right moment to begin her act. An act she'd been performing for two hundred years from time to time every time she needed or wanted a new castle, or a husband with a position or a large state, but no one as powerful as Lord Aelderic and this time in Saxony, far enough from the church intromission and the inquisitors. Yes, had to marry the duke without doubts and then, there was Ardith.
The young duchess represented for Leila more than a blood vessel. This frail woman resembled what she was once a century ago, to be so young and stunning, gracious, full of life and to have promising future... To love. She pressed her lips to remember. There were many pretending her, but no one was good enough for her according to Lord Bruce and she, well Leila was an impetuous young lady and rejected everyone only to contradict her father.
Then Leonardo appeared in her life and she fell in love with him, her doom.
She gave her life, body and soul to the vampire prince. Leonardo Draccomondi seduced her, taking with him more than her virginity. The handsome young man stole all of her that day in the woods when she gave herself to him... completely.
When she woke up turned into a vampire, she understood she had lost everything: family, wealth, social status and a home. Chased and exiled from her lands, Leila wandered... and wandered for decades from south to north roaming around the Germanic empire destroying entire villages to appease her bloodlust. Leila bewitched dozens of men to then killed them to seize their wealth and properties. But none as powerful as Lord Aelderic... and she met no other than Ardith. Oh... Ardith was something special. Her mouth watered with the sole thought of having the virginal maiden in her arms.
With planned anticipation Leila had run off her enemies: the nosy maid who discovered her while drinking Ardith's blood for the first time in her room; then, both Orla and the messenger. Leila smiled remembering reading the stupid letter that was sent by Lord Edmund to Lord Aelderic that revealed what she was. Edmund! How much she hated him! Yet, that pusillanimous human served to her purpose after all. Edmund destroyed the army of vampires in the south of the Empire. Something unexpected, but then again the idea was not so terrible. Although initially she had gamed with the idea that generals Ardo and Pelagius would succeed in seizing the Holy Empire. She would be declared duchess of one of the most important Saxon bastions of the region, and the Draccomondis would be vanquished to her orders.
Things resulted a slight different but well,who knows this Edmund served as a better general. Once he got to Harzburg, Leila could turn him into a vampire.
Musing about about all this made her smile to her own wickedness, but there would be plenty time of thinking about everything later. She was extremely happy now. Behind her, the maids helped her get dressed in beautiful yet simple white and black silk dress with pearls and golden accents. Her hair was braided and accommodated in a high chignon decorated with ribbons and white flowers. Like a goddess, she'd been applied on her porcelain skin safflower blush and her huge black eyes were delineated with kohl, making her exotic beauty to reach divinity.
"Lady Leila, certainly there is no other woman more beautiful than you", one of the maids told her.
"Thank you." Leila had to play humility this time and smiled to the servant. There would be time to be arrogant but it had to wait after the wedding.
Outside, patio was decorated beautifully. There were few guests since the wedding had been arranged hastily, buy it went well, she did not want more people staying in the castle than the one she could control... or kill.
When she made her entrance, parading into the wedding area, everyone stared at her stunned. The guests rose to their feet in an attitude of reverence and respect at the future Duchess of Cuthberht's first nuptial parade. Leila sauntered with cadence beaming lavishly, her lilting pace synchronized to the rhythm of the soft music produced by the harps and flutes played by the small orchestra in a corner.
The bishop, one that she didn't know and that was perfect, stood under an arch lined with white and red flowers. Lord Aelderic wasn't able to hide his happiness and the pride he felt to become such a gorgeous woman's husband, his blue eyes glowing elated. Leila has been lucky this time, even though the man was in his mid fourties, he was extremely handsome.
Lord Aelderic reached his hand to Leila and whispered to her with tenderness. "My love... you look so beautiful."
"Thank you, my beloved." Leila smiled.
The priest began the ceremony. "Dear brothers in the faith of the Lord. On this day that the Creator has given us, we are reunited to celebrate the marriage of Duke of Harzburg." The priest officiate the rest of the rites in Latin, as it corresponded according to the wedding ritual for the nobles by the time. "Hodie est Deus dies dilectus munera fecisset celebritatem inter nuptialem Lord Aelderic Cuthberht Lowe et Lady Leila Von Dorcha and Fleischer..." After the votes were offered by both Leila and the Duke, the Bishop petitioned the rings. "Quod signum anuli adducamus nuptiis amorem joined in..."
Lord Aelderic placed the glittering golden ring in Leila's finger. The woman's onyx eyes reflected the glow of the garnet in the wedding jewel. But something was wrong, she sensed it. Someone was coming.
The huge iron gates in the castle's the back yard opened wide making a thunderous noise. A dozen horsemen broke into the outer courts where the ceremony was taking place. The guests stood up in shock and fear. The horses advanced and neighed rampantly. It was the Holy Roman Empire soldiers that had arrived, led by Edmund Wigheard himself.
YOU ARE READING
Ardith - A Vampire Story (editing)
Vampire(Featured Story in Spanish) Ardith Cuthberht is the daughter of the powerful duke of Harzburg. When she was a girl she lost her beloved mother and as a grown lady the man she loved was sent to battle in far away regions. One day Ardith found a seve...
