Watching his tortured movements, Jane gently caressed his arm, frowning at the damage the silver chains were doing to him. Asher's wrists were scorched badly, the chains' links beginning to dig into the puffy, raw spots. "I'm sorry, my love, for what they have done to you," she said sadly. "But we will have you free soon. Just as soon as my family arrives. I was the diversion until the troops arrive."
Asher shook his head angrily. "Jane, why did you risk your life for me? Why did your family allow you to employ this dangerous stratagem?" If he left Dracul's alive tonight, he was going to have a long, harsh talk with the major.
"I came to save you! The Van Helsings are coming to destroy the Prince of Darkness. Well… Brandon actually wants to save you too—for me."
Asher glanced over at Dracul and Lady Montcrief, who had just finished copulating. "Then where are the troops?" he asked, clearly unconvinced.
"You don't believe me," Jane said.
"You, I believe, Jane. Don't you realize that my bond to you is stronger than these chains of silver? What I do believe is that I love you, in spite of this crazy world going to pieces around us. But your family is…" Asher halted abruptly as Count Dracul turned his attention back to them.
"Oh, Asher, I really could kill you," Jane murmured, her eyes sparkling with tears. "Now you tell me you love me, when death is at the door." Tenderly, she stroked his cheek.
"Kiss me, Jane, and let this memory carry me through eternity," her husband whispered softly.
She did just that, letting her lips and heart speak all the wondrous things in her heart. Things too new and special for words.
"How touching. Lovers," Dracul sneered, causing them to break apart.
"Oh, how it shall hurt when I take her with my eternal kiss, Asher. You shall know the agony of defeat, of wanting what you can no longer have. Of knowing I have taken your wife in every elemental way there is." The Prince of Evil's eyes sparkled with hate and blood-lust, and he yanked Jane back into his arms.
"I don't think so. I don't want to be a bride of someone who's always hissing at people like they're under-cooked steaks," Jane snapped, her voice quavering. Why was her family so late for this very important date? Where in bloody hell were her cousins, the barbarians at the gate?
The Barbarians at the Gate
"You have no choice, you foolish creature. You're going to be my immortal bride," Dracul snarled, all semblance of humanity gone. Jane's scorn had fallen upon him like drops of holy water, burning hot. His fangs were some of the finest of all vampires, two and a half or three inches in length. A length to be proud of.
Jane yanked on her arm in vain; the count's strength was too great. Terror tore through her, ripping at her with its sharp talons.
Dracul savored her fear like a rich dessert, holding her arm tightly in his grasp. "Soon you will be my blushing bride," he warned spitefully, an evil leer on his handsome features. He motioned for O'Hara to take a firm hold on Asher. "Make sure the Earl of Wolverton enjoys the view," he commanded.
Slowly, he drew Jane adjacent to him, toying with her, enjoying her terror and Asher's rage. Pulling both of Jane's hands behind her back, he caught them in one of his hands, despite her struggles. This left him one hand free to toy with her breasts.
"Wait! Count Dracul," Jane shouted, knowing that it was a deadly thing to provoke the undead—rather like stirring a nest of hornets with a small stick. "I prefer my husband to you any day of the week," she said.
Dracul glared at her, his eyes blazing.
Jane smiled. "You know the old adage: 'A vampire in hand is worth two in chains.' " She quoted fearfully, shivering in repressed revulsion at the hungry expression on the count's face. He wrapped her in his arms, hurting her with his cruel strength.
"I'll give you another saying. 'When a Van Helsing knocks, open the door,'" he said slyly.
"I always heard it was, 'When a vampire knocks, open the coffin,'" Jane argued, her heart beating furiously against her ribs.
Dracul arched a brow. He was beauty incarnate, if very, very evil. " 'To kill a Van Helsing a day keeps the stakes away,' " he taunted.
" 'A vampire a day is the Van Helsing way,' " Jane replied, struggling against his vastly superior strength even though she knew it was useless. Yet fear gave her both courage and strength. Unfortunately, she only managed to hurt her foot when she kicked his leg.
He chuckled, amused by her attempt. "Such a feisty little human."
"I do believe I was feistier," Lady Veronique spoke up from the corner. Only Rudolph paid attention.
In sick horror, Jane watched Dracul's face move closer, and time seemed to slow down. "There is one pertinent adage," he remarked. "'Never look a gift vampire in the mouth.' " His fangs were glistening a deadly white in the glow from the Venetian chandeliers. Jane did not want to be the Prince of Darkness's bride in any form or fashion. She really was going to have to speak to her family about their terrible timing. The diversion she had created had become her downfall.
"Wait!" she heard herself call. "Isn't that the children of the night calling you?"
Dracul cocked his head, listening. "I hear nothing."
Jane shook her head back and forth like a rag doll. "I thought I heard wolves."
"No," Dracul said coldly. "But I like the sound of that. The children of the night. I'll have to use that little saying for my own." He bent back toward Jane, fangs extended.
"No! Halt!" Asher shouted, enraged, his eyes glowing a fierce blue. He struggled against hook, chains and the skeletal butler. In this grave moment of loss and fear, guilt seemed to extend time, causing it to slow down. So many shallow moments in his life flashed past, and he realized Jane was everything he could ever hope for in a true vampire mate. She should be by his side in eternity, not Dracul's. And if he was right about the sound he thought he'd detected a moment earlier, then the Van Helsing cavalry was at the door. He had to stall his archenemy. "The condemned man requests a last favor."
Dracul laughed, along with the other vampires of the nest.
"How touching," Lady Montcrief jeered. The sound was chilling. "And what would this last favor be?"
"I wish to give a final farewell to my wife."
Dracul released his hold on one of her arms, bowing mockingly. He said, "Yes, this makes the moment all the more terrible. You have a few moments… so begin."
Staring at his wife with all the love in his heart, Asher quoted, hoping Jane would understand that help was on the way—if only they could stall long enough. "Ah love, let us be true to one another! for the world which seems to lie before us like a land of dreams, so various, so beautiful, so new, hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, nor certitude nor peace, nor help for pain; and we are here as on a darkling plain swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, where ignorant armies clash by night.'" Asher prayed that he had bought them enough time, since he had heard footsteps and a loud thump upstairs, directly above his head.
Dracul threw back his head and laughed. "What an imbecile you are. A weakling. Your favor is to quote poetry to your wife?" He sneered in disdain. "But, then, Asher, you always were a fool for the mortal word. I remember how you used to fawn over Shakespeare, following him about, never missing one of his silly plays."
Jane gasped. Her husband had known Shakespeare and never told her? Just wait till she got him alone; she would so give him a piece of her mind.
Asher sheepishly noted his wife's exotic eyes turn a deeper shade of green. She was in a huff. He only hoped she—
"You knew Shakespeare personally and you never told me?" She asked, clearly furious. "Asher, how could you be so stingy? How could you keep something like that from me?"