Princes of the Undead

Part 31

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"I want to try and communicate with the people you ate last night."

"You want to what?" Of all the things he had been expecting Agatha to say when he finally came to bed that night, Dracula had not expected her to say that.

Yet the longer he stared at her, sitting cross-legged in her pyjamas on the bed, her still shower damp hair falling about her face, the more he realised she was being serious.

"I just think we are missing part of the picture." Agatha added when Dracula didn't speak.

In truth they were missing most of the picture, but Dracula doubted this would do any good, in fact it could do a great deal more damage. Knowing he had killed all those people, was very different, to seeing it. If Agatha saw it, saw what he had done, would she be able to forgive him, would she still love him? Would it even be worth the risk?

"Agatha it won't do any good, we both know I killed them all, there is no changing that."

"We know nothing of the sort, all we know for certain is that you were there, and you drank their blood..."

"Agatha stop, now who is being ridiculous. I'm a vampire, I drink mortals' blood and then I kill them, it's what I have been doing for centuries. I don't need to dig over all the details to know I did this, and honestly I don't want you seeing it either."

"Why not?"

"Isn't that obvious?"

"Not to me."

"Well then you are being deliberately obtuse."

"I just want to help."

"You can help most by leaving this alone." Dracula snapped, his decision was final.

Losing his freedom for a while was one thing, losing Agatha's love and respect was another. She was still too human in many ways, she would never understand, never be able to see him kill like that and still love him. It had taken too many years to find this happiness, Dracula would do whatever he had to, to keep it. Even if that meant protecting Agatha from the truth of who he was.

"My answer is no, and it is final. We should be concentrating on the future not the past. I have been in contact with Renfield, the castle is habitable, even if it won't be particularly luxurious. Still there will be plenty for us to do, I imagine the time will pass quite quickly, and before you know it we will be home. One of the many blessings of being a vampire, time is something we have plenty of."

"Us?"

"Of course us." Dracula countered, Agatha was really testing his patience now. "You will be coming with me Agatha, you know it and I know it. Oh, you might witter on about asking and not telling, but we both know you will come with me anyway, and I frankly I am tired, so there is no need to waste time arguing about it. Now can we please go to bed, it has been one hell of a day."

Pushing herself off the bed, as Dracula pulled back the covers, Agatha was on the very edge of storming out and finding herself somewhere else to sleep. She stood there boiling with rage at him, first for putting them in this situation, then for not taking it seriously enough, and now for steamrolling over her ideas and opinions.

"Agatha stop being difficult and get into bed, you can yell at me all you want tomorrow, and I will listen with as much patience as a man can possess, but for tonight just do as I say." Dracula huffed, getting into the bed, his nose wrinkling at the decidedly poor quality of the sheets.

"Oh you...you...are an arse." Agatha seethed, all but shaking with rage now.

"Yes, I know, but I am your arse, so get into bed." Dracula insisted, patting the space beside him in bed. "I promised you can yell all you want tomorrow."