CHAPTER 4

In Redicz Castle in the Carpathian Mountains of Roumania sat a very bored Count Vlad Tepes. It had been five years since his transformation to humanness but the people of the Carpathians could not easily forget the havoc he wreaked upon them as Alucard. The vampire Alucard was feared by all, treated with the utmost respect. Not a man would dare approach his castle!

Yet, he had noticed, on his weekly attendance at Sunday Mass, there was a certain lack of deference. Just last Sunday, as he entered the church, he found himself jostled by other communicants. Until the past few months, no one would dare enter the church at the same time as him. He was further disturbed to find the pew behind him occupied as he took his place in the front pew. The temerity! How long before someone had the courage or lack of respect, to sit near his pew?

These were very troubling thoughts for a man who had been vampire. Vlad had tried to express these feelings to his local priest in Confession, who did nothing more than express his concern about the sin of pride! Vlad did not feel especially prideful, but, after all, he was the Count Tepes and was entitled to the respect that the title had earned over many centuries.

A further problem to being human was the sexual feelings that bubbled up within him. Since the evening he spent with Carrie that made him human, when the papal documents had been proven, he had had no further intimacies with women.

As someone of royalty he could only be seen in the company of ladies born to the purple and the pickings were few. On his trips to Bucharest for the opera season he had attempted to fit into society.

Although he was treated cordially, none of the families had approached him about their unmarried daughters. For an unmarried man of royal blood it would be expected that a young single woman would be assigned as his dining partner at any of the Balls he attended. But for the former Alucard, this was not to be.

The fear that he had engendered as vampire could not be erased and he sat in his box at the opera, alone. As vampire he had learned to deal with loneliness, especially after killing Mondrian, but as man it was not so easily defended. Ah, but at least he had the music!