Chapter 18 Lust and Death

In a rite of forbidden love and lust, Leila and Ardith lied naked on the bed. Their bodies embraced, moving in smearing frenzy, consummating an act that was by all means sinful and dark. Ardith moaned exhaling pleasure every time their hips collided, her body shaking both and passion. With the Swabian countess on top of hers, mastering the arts of seduction and sex, Ardith subdued to the demonizing influence the other one inflicted in her weakened body and will, gasped entranced in the moment Leila sank her gored her fangs into her niveous skin.

For the last weeks, friendship evolved in a dark symbiotic relationship in which Ardith was the host and Leila, the parasite. The evil raven-haired beauty used her charms, and used them well to wickedly twist the innocent young lady's mind and night after night, the duchess partook in a doomed game, playing only to lose. There was no more evil predator than Leila, an entity one of her kind, so powerful and deadly in the human's world and poor Ardith was her prey. She was a vampire that had been draining her blood and her life day after day without resistance making of the duchess a vessel from which she fed both on blood and flesh, of pleasure stealing the virgin's moral and the purity of her soul.  Leila weaved and wrapped her in poisoned silk spider-web from which it was impossible to escape.

It was the point of no return for the daughter of the duke of Harzburg. Having drunk enough of her blood, adhered like a leech from the blond's collarbone, the vampire finally released her, placing her carefully on the bed and licked the wounds to seal them.

Curving up her lips mischievously, Leila rose from the bed, turning only to contemplate  her now feeble victim with an air of self satisfaction and plenitude. Her face glowed with otherworldly beauty, looking replenished and full of life, contrasting with the paleness and decay on Ardith's face.

For the night she was done and there was no other reason for her to stay longer in the room, so Leila grabbed her robe and got dressed.

"Why are you leaving so soon?" Ardith spoke in a barely perceptible voice tone after noticing Leila was already leaving.

"I think is not prudent to stay here for too long. My dear, you must understand that we have to keep this in secret. You know what would happen if someone finds us? We wouldn't be able to be together for the eternity as we wish for. They would kill me and I wouldn't be able to take care of you and protect you. You know the punishment imposed by your church for what we are doing." Leila walked back towards Ardith and stroke her face with tenderness.

"I don't want that to happen! I want to be with you forever. I love you, Leila. I don't care about the Church or the priests anymore if they condemn us! You know I would give my life for you."

"I know... I know that you' would give your life for me." After kissing the duchess' lips, the woman turned her back and left the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

In the rear corner of the hall, Orla watched Leila as she sashayed away with a triumphant lilting pace and it blowed cold in her stomach. She'd been locked in the room with Ardith for nearly an hour and one thing was for sure, she couldn't be doing anything good in there. Orla had a bad feeling about Leila since the very first moment the hideous woman was brought by Ardith herself to the castle. There was always something dark enveloping this supposedly-to-be-a-countess, and the maidservant bet it was her soul.

The old nanny waited until Leila got closer to her room to make her move and check on her beloved child, hoping everything was alright with her. When the dark haired lady was out of site, Orla tiptoed to Ardith's dormitory. Trying to make the least noise possible as she took out the set of keys from the satchel tied to her waistband, she heard a female voice talking from behind her ear.

"Do you accustom to spy on people frequently in these late night hours?"

Tensing her lips, Orla took a deep breath after turning around, knowing exactly who was standing behind her. The maidservant clenched her fists, beaming a severe and intended to be intimidating gaze, but when he turned around, Leila's expression was by far more menacing and terrifying. The old lady tried to compose herself and swallowed the lump of fear growing in her throat. She knew that if it wasn't her, there was no one else to stand for and take care of her child. "I'm not spying on anybody, milady. I just came to check on my daughter Ardith, like I do every single night, because I think you know she's been sick, don't you? And that takes me to ask you now, what were you doing in my daughter's room?" Orla took her chance and replied in a more challenging tone this time.

"I was doing the same thing as you. I was corroborating that my friend is doing fine." Leila answered glowing an evil grin on her face.

"Do you think I believe you? I might be old but I'm not a fool. I have noticed that you are playing this small theater to my precious daughter while you shamelessly seduce the duke. It seems you've been able to bedazzle everyone in the castle with your unnatural charms, but not me. And if you allow me, I will go on and revise my child." Defiantly, the woman veered to open the bedchamber's door but when the maidservant was about to enter the keys in the huge iron bolt, Leila grabbed her by the arm and hurled her across the hall. Orla crashed against the opposite wall and smacked her head badly before falling to the ground. The keys she was holding, slid a few meters away.

It took a moment to the nanny to recover from the attack as she grabbed her head, moaning in pain. She opened her eyes only to see Leila enraged, transformed, her red flickering eyes darting her and a pair of oblong pointy fangs protruding out her grinning lips.

Orla was never wrong. Leila was evil, a dark soul in a female body, a demon with a stunning face, nonetheless a demon. All those stories she heard when she was a young girl from blood sucking creatures rising from the graves to torment the living ones were not invented to force kids to go to bed earlier. The legends were true and Leila Von Dorcha was one of them.

In the dimness of the hallway, Leila charged against the poor lady. A defenseless Orla crawled backwards desperately, her body shaking and eyes glowing ice cold fright, only to find the cold wall behind blocking her path. With one sole hauling movement, the vampire lifted Orla from the ground. As the countess grabbed the old woman by the neck, her feet dangled above the floor .

"Listen to me you stupid woman. The last thing you'll see is the face of the new Duchess of Cuthberht. When I've sucked dry your beloved Ardith I will marry Lord Aelderic, then I will kill him too. And you would not be able to stop me because you, old busybody, will be burning in the dark pits of hell." Leila buried her fangs into the maid's collar bone. With one arm the vampire held Orla's body and with the other, she covered the woman's mouth to choke her screams. The nanny let escape a tear from her eyes, realizing her life would end with every drop of blood drained and that nothing she'll be able to do to help the ones she loved. She stopped screaming and only gasped, her last exhalation was a prayer directed to the souls of those who would remain vulnerable in the hands of this monster called Leila.

When she was done, the terrifying creature withdrew her fangs off the extinct woman's neck. Satisfied, Leila flavored the last moment meal. Effortlessly, the vampire lifted Orla's lifeless body and carried her on shoulders like a ragged doll down the hall. The deadly path illuminated by flickering faint torches until both vanished into the night's dimness.