Chapter 9

The Next Day
Dracula Forever

Tanya opened her eyes, still dreaming, and screamed! She was hanging over a cliff! The echoes of her shriek bounced back at her, echoing from far, far below.

“Ah, you’re awake, I see,” Tommy said from behind her. “I’m almost finished, so please wait just a moment. You have incredible muscle control, My Lady. Your awakening felt fantastic!”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Tanya exclaimed, indignantly looking over her shoulder at the ranger fucking her from behind.

While she was at it, she also examined this incredible device – she could only think of it as a wooden ‘crane’ – from which she was suspended. She was literally ‘wrapped’ in a single rope that ran directly up from her naked body to a pulley, then down to where it was tied off in a slipknot next to that sorry-ass ranger who was fucking her. She could see the ranger’s cabin on the hill behind them.

She kicked at him. Tommy laughed and dodged her easily. “I can feel any movement inside you long before it reaches your extremities, My Lady. But please continue – it feels wonderful, and I don’t often have the opportunity to seduce a beauty like yourself.”

“Being drugged and tied up isn’t my idea of seduction, you sorry-ass bastard,” Tanya snarled. “When I get loose...”

Then she realized...

“Oh, God! This is what you used when you staked all those people...”

“Very observant!” Tommy congratulated her, still gently shoving his cock in and out of her very wet pussy. “However, your statement also indicates that you are here because of that well-publicized exhibition. You are not the vacationing camper you pretend to be.”

“So we both lied to each other,” Tanya grunted, trying to ignore the sensations that the danger and his fucking were creating in her body. She wasn’t being very successful. “What else is new?”

“New?” Tommy asked, increasing his thrusting as he began to orgasm. “I’m not ... not looking for new ... Oh, Yes! I knew it!”

Tommy started pumping cum into Tanya’s excited pussy. The instant she felt his cock twitch, she started coming as well, biting her lip to keep from crying out in pleasure. She didn’t want this monster to know she liked what he was doing to her.

“Ohhh, yes!” Tommy exclaimed, shoving his pulsating cock into her pussy one final time. “I knew it! You enjoyed that! I could feel you move!”

“So what!” Tanya gasped. “It’s still rape! So fuck you anyway...”

Tommy smiled at her, realizing she was only angry because of her lack of control over her own body.

“Are you juicing me up so the stake will go in easier?” Tanya asked, sounding belligerent, completely unwilling to show him how terrified she was.

“You’re asking if I am about to stake you?” the Ranger asked, false surprise showing on his face. “Only with this modest stake which you have already joyfully experienced, My Lady.”

The look of disgust was quite obvious on Tanya’s face as she glared at him, not willing to admit he’d given her an orgasm.

“You couldn’t help it, My Lady,” he explained. “It’s the danger that excites you. The Old Race lives for death-defying adventure and excitement.”

“The ‘Old Race’?” Tanya asked, perplexed. “What do you mean?”

“Still you pretend?” Tommy sighed. “Very well, then, I shall explain. Two nights ago, your wild cries in the night drew me to you. I watched while you fed the bloodsuckers – making love to those creatures nearest your own kind by offering yourself to their thousands of greedy little beaks. Yet, when it was light, you showed no ill effects from your small sacrifice – your flesh still young and smooth as ever, although somewhat soiled.”

“You came into our camp?” Tanya asked, stunned by the knowledge that she’d been watched during that very private time with Frank.

“Indeed,” Tommy admitted. “But I left quickly when those two ruffians appeared. I watched you burn your own flesh for your pleasure and theirs, and I felt the joy with which you took that man’s life. I presume the only reason you didn’t feed at the time was that you were with your thrall. Feeding on a kill is a very private thing...”

“I...” Tanya started, then stopped. Things were starting to fit together in a very scary way.

“You were...” she started again. “You did all this to get my attention? You wanted me to come here?”

“Yes!” Tommy exclaimed, then laughed. “Very good! I knew that a great bloodletting would attract one such as you. I was told there were none left, but I gambled that the dark ones were wrong.”

He sighed happily and grinned at her. “So, here you are. Perhaps there are no dark ones left. You are the first Arian one I have met.”

“Alright,” Tanya said, quieter now that her body wasn’t distracting her except for that itchy leaking down there. He sure came a lot. “If you’re not going to stake me, what are you going to do?”

“Well, My Lady,” Tommy replied. “I will conduct one more test to prove that you are what I believe you to be, then ... Well, we’ll see.”

“What kind of test?” Tanya asked, not sure she could play this role. “I’ve already demonstrated that I can’t be hurt...”

“Yes,” Tommy replied, “and you love danger and sex, too. But the weak, pathetic humans occasionally display those traits as well; especially the ones who indulge in what they call ‘extreme sports’.”

Tanya was getting more worried. While Tommy was talking, he was also cranking the wooden crane, holding her aloft, out and away from the top of the cliff. She was now swaying much farther over the edge than she’d been a moment earlier.

“What is this ‘final test’?” she asked again, trying not to get too dizzy staring down into the abyss as her body swung back and forth.

“You shouldn’t even have to ask, My Lady,” Tommy replied. “The last test will determine whether or not you can fly.”

“What?” Tanya shrieked. “I can’t fly! Are you nuts? If you drop me down there I’ll be killed!”

Tommy frowned at her terrified display. Tanya shut up, realizing she’d blown it. He was going to drop her. She stared desperately at him, trying to think of what to say to save herself.

“Mister Ranger,” she fumbled, fighting down this new wave of terror. “Your Grace...” He looked at her more intently.

‘I’m on the right track! Think, dammit! He’s some kind of royalty!’

“Count...” she addressed him. Then she knew!

‘Oh My God! There are male vampires, too! It makes such total fucking sense! That monster is ... Count Dracula!’

“Count Vlad ... Vladimir...” she whispered softly. “Dracula ... My Lord...”

“You have a final wish, My Lady?” Vladimir asked softly. He was slowly pulling on the pull tie that would release the rope binding her.

“Please, My Lord,” Tanya pleaded, trying to remember what Jake had said in the cabin that had made Frank so angry on that fateful day when she became immortal. “Even our kind can be crushed and killed. Dropping me will not prove anything one way or the other.

“Please, believe me when I say that only the dark ones could fly. I do not have that power. If you drop me, I will be crushed by the fall, and I will die. I do not wish to die. If you offer me a choice, I would serve you, instead.”

“Eloquently spoken, My Lady,” the Count replied. “And I have seen how well you serve those you are loyal to. But why should I believe you?”

‘Keep him talking and for God’s sake don’t look at the figure by the house ... Jesus Christ, Frank, you’re alive! Save me! Why would Dracula want me? What can it be?’

“Well, I...” Tanya stammered. “If you’re wrong and I’m right ... and if you kill me, then ... another one of us might not come to you.”

‘He blinked! I hit a nerve! What the hell is it?’

“Ah, then you admit there are others like you?” Vlad asked, suddenly more interested.

“I admit nothing!” Tanya exclaimed. “I’m pleading for my life! And for...”

‘That’s it! I know what he wants!

“And for your eternity!” she exclaimed, suddenly sure of herself. “I can’t fly! But if you drop me, no more will come, except perhaps to kill you and avenge my death! You will eventually age and die. Think carefully before you pull that knot loose! This isn’t only about ‘me’ anymore!”

“Perhaps you are correct,” the Count said, looking thoughtful. “There are other way ... uh!”

Dracula began to fall forward. At the same instant, Tanya heard a shot ring out from up the hill toward the house. Vlad began to fall, still tightly clenching the end of the rope.

“No!” Tanya shrieked as the knot pulled free.

Suddenly loose and carrying Tanya’s entire weight, the rope jerked out of Vlad’s numb fingers and sang through the pulley. Tanya’s body began to spin like a yo-yo as the rope slipped around her body, burning her tender flesh as she swiftly unwound from it.

Desperately she grabbed at the rope that was flying away from her! Then she was swinging wildly with one hand gripping the rope as hard as she could. The side of the cliff came up and smacked against her swinging body and she lost a few more inches of rope and skin on her hand. All she could see was sparks and she didn’t know where she was.

‘Am I falling?’ she thought in a blind panic. ‘Where’s the rope? I can’t feel it!’

Then Frank was there, pulling her up. She cried out in pain and relief as she felt him grab the torn, slippery flesh of her wrist and prayed that she wouldn’t slide out of his tenuous grip. She felt her breasts and belly being painfully scoured as she was pulled over the cliff edge and flat along the ground. Then she lay gasping and sobbing in relief and terror.

“Very clever...” a voice gasped from behind Frank. Vlad was crawling to his knees.

“He’s like Béla!” Tanya cried out, gasping for air to warn Frank. “He heals fast!”

Frank swung around quickly and slammed his fist into the ranger’s face, knocking him backward as he tried to stand.

“Don’t let him up!” Tanya screamed, scrambling up on her hands and knees. “Don’t give him an inch!”

Frank took her advice and kicked their host in the face. Vlad leaned sideways, easily deflecting most of the blow and grabbed Frank’s foot, twisting it and pulling him down.

Tanya was on her feet, now, all five-foot six-inches of naked blond rage. The monster that had terrorized her was going after Frank! She leaped at him. At the last instant, she realized her error as Vlad threw himself sideways.

A shiny, slender flash was all she saw, then Bram Stoker’s cane sword was buried in her stomach and sticking out just above her rump. She twisted around, trying to avoid it even as it pierced her belly and pulled it out of Vlad’s hand, instead. As she rolled away on the ground, the sharp end jarred painfully on the ground behind her, then snapped off.

Tanya cried out at the jarring, white-hot pain of the narrow flat sword in her middle. She lay on the ground, stunned for a moment, and just watched as Vlad and Frank staggered to their feet. She felt her body starting to go into shock and realized she had to pull the sword out or she wouldn’t be able to heal. In her rage and fear, it was a difficult and incredibly painful task that left her shaking and barely conscious.

Frank and Vlad fought ferociously for a moment while Tanya staggered back up on her feet mostly using the broken cane sword for a cane. Then she was back in the fight, hoping she wasn’t bleeding to death internally because she couldn’t wait for her wound to heal. From somewhere, Vlad had produced a wicked-looking fighting knife and Frank was getting cut up pretty bad.