After many months of getting beta reads and advice from my group, I think I have achieved a final version of this book. It starts and ends much differently than the first draft I posted on here. It is the second book in a series so you might want to...
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Stefan
Stefan blustered into the House of cel Mare. Shivering, damp, yet overheated from a desperate charge into the forest to the ruins of Castle Drag, he ran into the drawing room to find the Baron staring at the fateful wedding linen now spread out at his feet like a carpet to be trod on. The sign and seal of the bloody red dragon glared like the Devil's jester, mocking Stefan's failure to save his beloved Analise.
"Where have you been, son?" The Baron's voice was tired.
"To that damnable ruin!" Stefan tore his coat off and threw it over a chair.
The Baron's eyes shot wide. "Where is Analise?"
Stefan drew another chair up to the fire, and glowered into the flames.
"I will find her."
The Baron seemed to study his son-in-law's face for a long time, then he shot to his feet. "Where is she?"
Stefan paced to the window and stared out at the forest. "You see it laid out before you. Dracula."
He turned to see the Baron drive his cane into the heart of the red dragon on the sheet. "Why, my son, did you go to Castle Drag?" He ground the ferule of his cane into the heart the beast as if to stake it to the ground.
"It seemed the most likely place to find her. I thought..." Stefan couldn't talk any more.
The Baron sat back in his chair, and grimaced at Stefan. "I was taught, since a boy, that we'd destroyed Dracule centuries ago." His eyebrows met in a frown. "I thought the marriage vows...were a sacrament. That they would redeem my Analise."
"So did I. So did I." A wave of anger swept heat up to Stefan's hairline.
"How was he able to take her?"
Stefan's heart leapt painfully. "I don't know. Perhaps he's stronger than we think." This was obvious. They were groping instead if acting. He had so little time to save her.
The Baron ground his cane into the carpet now as if to drive it through the floor.
"You saw his footprint in the snow after the wedding. You saw what happened to Analise." The wedding that should have been so joyous, had been a field of battle for Analise's soul.
The Baron sighed and leaned heavily into his chair. "So, God has abandoned her." The implication hung in the air like sleeping bats. "We must decide what to do."
"You don't blame me, for...for failing?"
"No. Dracule's powers are formidable."
Stefan turned back to the window and recalled the scene at the cathedral where the Devil's footprint had appeared in the snow and caused the horses to bolt with Analise in the carriage. He clenched his hands so hard that his nails tore his flesh.
The Baron's voice was cold. "If I get my hands on the scoundrel that roused that fiend..." The Baron brought his hands together as if to strangle someone.
Stefan suppressed the urge to protect his neck.
Stefan was grateful to the Baron for not taking his rage out on him. It would have been easy to accuse Stefan of murder, order the mob to drag him through the streets, and hang him from the Tree of Death. But the Baron knew that wouldn't solve anything. Vengeance might be satisfied, but Dracule would still walk.
His stomach roiled, his head ached.
The Baron and Father Sebastian had seen the Vampire at work, but only he knew the whole truth. Cornu warned him not to go into the ruins of Castle Drag. His stubborn refusal to listen tormented him. Then he found the mirror and the comb lying by the well house, in the snow, as if they'd been discarded. He played the scene over and over in his head, trying to figure out how he could have resisted taking them, but the mirror was so clear, the reflection so sharp. It was the perfect gift for Analise who had never seen her true beauty. A blurry reflection in a sheet of polished silver was all she'd ever known.
A sorceress could not have conjured a more perfect enchantment to snare him.
And that girl, Giselle...He'd hardly thrown the blasted looking glass back into the castle courtyard when she was there to snatch it up. She was a curious creature. Perhaps Giselle was the one who'd left the mirror and the comb out in the open to trap the unwitting explorer. By use of demons trapped within, they'd lured, enticed, and captured the victim so that, all unwittingly, he would rouse Dracule from his sleep of centuries. And he, Stefan, took the bait.
How he suffered for his folly!
Fidgeting under the Baron's scrutiny, Stefan stifled his grief. The Vampire had had plenty of time to do what he wanted with Analise, but it was imperative that he brave the wolves again, go back to the ruins, and find her.
"I am her husband, sir. I will bring her home."
The Baron got unsteadily to his feet. "I will order the horses and go with you this time."
"No. I want to face this creature down myself," Stefan said.
The Baron seemed to have aged, as if the strange events at the wedding, and now this tragedy, were more than he could withstand.
"You must get help. Destroying a Vampire as old and clever as
Dracula is no easy task. It will take ten brave men to defeat him."
"I will get them. I need you to stay here in case Analise comes home."
Doubt clouding his face, the Baron sat down again, his face red with a mixture of shame and resignation.
Passion raged through Stefan. He grabbed the bloody sheet.
"This time, I'm bringing a gun."
"You'll need more than that."
"It's a start. There are wolves."
The Baron's face was grim.
Stefan raced to the stables. First he must confer with Father Sebastian. He'd presided over their wedding----just yesterday----and seen the Devil's footprint. He must know what the monster had done. Together, they would gather a cache of weapons lethal to Vampires.
