Wife of Vladimir ||Book One||

Her Kiss

"Days after I discovered the unopened letter, my time had come to take my position as the Count of the Dracula family. It was hard to determine how I felt about the matter as the ceremony quickly began approaching in the evening. While it had almost been two weeks since my father's passing, and since Rosetta and I had wed, it felt too soon. It would always be too soon.

In my mind, my father was still alive. Perhaps he was hidden away somewhere or on some grand adventure around the globe. In a way, I supposed he was.

I had dreamt about him nearly every night since we had returned home. It was hard not to, given the last time I had seen him I had been awfully angry with him. I longed to know if he knew how sorry I was about that day.

My eyes watched as Rosetta fixed my attire, adjusting buttons and smoothing out wrinkles. She moved some of my hair back into place ever so often until she thought she had done perfection. It was fascinating watching her focus on something that hardly mattered in the scheme of things. Watching her took my nerves away as I absorbed myself into the image of her.

Rosetta had tied half of her hair up into a bun, pinning a dark blue bow directly beneath the bun. She wore a mainly blue dress that matched the bow. The texture of both appeared similar, leaving me to believe it was made from the same material. I smiled to myself, knowing that the tailors had been busy making Rosetta an entire wardrobe that was customized entirely to her. She admitted to me later that she had never owned so many things that she personally loved. A single red ribbon wrapped around her waist, displaying two of our country's colors. The third, yellow, appeared in an overlay of lace that hung over her dark skirts and over her sleeves. About halfway down her arm, the lace broke away from the main sleeve and hung down gracefully to further accent the sleeve.

As she busied herself with my matching shirt, vest, and cape. I was decorated in my father's medals, each displayed proudly across my chest and attached to the neck part of my cape. I didn't have any of my own yet. The worry grew with each medal Rosetta pinned to my vest as I bore the weight of them all. The people had loved my father, but how would they ever come to love me? I had yet to earn any of their respect.

I took a deep breath and refocused on Rosetta's lips that had been painted red as my mind raced to calm my raising anxieties. Transylvania had been under the control of my family for many generations. Originally, we were never supposed to have any kind of authority over the people. It wasn't until a distant grandfather of mine wished to help relieve the king of Romania of some of his stress that it was handed to us. After that grandfather passed, his son took it over without any questions. The king never asked for control back, so we never asked to give it back. It was an honor to be able to lead and protect Transylvania.

I pulled away from the past long enough to try and peer into the future. Generations of the Dracula family had ruled, soon enough it would be the job of my eldest son to take over my work just as I had done for my father and his father before him. As my eyes traveled up Rosetta's face, locking onto her gem-like eyes, I couldn't help but imagine a young boy with eyes just like hers.

Her nose suddenly wrinkled as her hands pulled away from the last medal, seeing that the fabric was now scrunched. While Rosetta fixed it, she spared a glance up at my face. 'Don't look so worried, Vladimir.' Rosetta spoke softly, her voice only slightly louder than a whisper. A smile took over her lips as she adjusted the medals.

I hesitated, waiting in the silence to see if she would laugh. I had found that often after she smiled, a laugh would follow. Her laugh was enough to make anyone melt, no matter how they felt. 'I'll try.' I replied as the familiar itch grew in my throat. 'I just wish they would move this further off, or even grant me my wish of not having it. I'm not ready yet.' When the itch refused to go away, I turned away from my wife and coughed into my arm.