Chapter 4 Lightnings and Blood

In the distance, the lightnings flared up in the dim night skies. Not a single star shone through the dense veil of clouds, there was only darkness. The intervals between the flashes and the thunders were only of a second, putting the storm only a mile away from the valley in Southern Argengau. Swirling up, the cold breeze made the leaves fall from the trees before it was supposed to over the green grassy carpet of the Von Dorcha's private cemetery.

By midnight a tearing scream broke the stillness in the graveyard. The bats, perched from the birches' branches flew away terrified, screeching and flapping their wings in frantic commotion. A second scream was heard, a plaintive and frightening scream. It was the voice of death meandering amongst the gravestones and the iron forged crosses. It was a woman's grieving clamor calling "Leonardo!"

Meanwhile in the Von Dorcha's castle, everyone slept. The sentinels lurched their night shift, guarding half eyes opened behind the mansion's stoned hedges. The night was unusually still, except for the intermittent lightning flashes and the sound of the distant thunders.

One of the guards laughed to himself. A grin curved up on his face recalling when he'd stumbled upon a guard and a maidservant fornicating in the back yard just a minute ago. In the most brazen way, the shameless couple romped and rolled on the grass when the soldier on duty caught them unaware. Now, the man cracked to the memory  of the shock drawn on their faces after being surprised naked on the floor. It was worth it to remembered... Well maybe not for the couple.

The guard whistled some merry tunes as he strutted across the garden, his path illuminated for brief moments by the lightnings in the sky. As he bordered the castle's outer walls, the flickering torches blazes danced to the breeze and drew creepy silhouettes on the walls. The air was filled by the smell of moistened soil; rain knocked on the castle's doors threatening to downpour heavily. Some of the torches fire extinguished after the first droplets fell and the guard walked through the narrow pathways between the hedges, groping for the safest place to walk in the darkness. Thunders and lightnings were one over the other, meaning that the storm was already there, and the soldier knew it was time to fast the pace up or he would be trapped by the darkness in the mazes of walls.

Rain droplets fell heavier now, making a thumping sound as they hit on the cobblestoned floor. The sentinel hustled out the set of guarding hedges to make it on time to the barracks. He only needed to walk half the perimeter and his time in duty would end. But the slippery floor made it a bit difficult to move at the pace he wanted and the man gripped to the stoned walls to make it steady and now the stormy night produced the light enough to at least see the path he was taking.

Something, a dark figure blurred in front of him, and he stopped walking. The guard scanned the area, wiping the rain drops dripping down the forehead to his eyes, making it even worst to catch more than a few meters ahead of him. For a moment he saw nothing, nothing when the torches on the wall vaguely illuminated the perimeter.

Another thunder stroked and the man jolted back. A second after the white flare lighted up in the sky making everything clear. "What the hell!" He squealed. In front of him the slender figure of a woman appeared out of nowhere. The guard gave a few steps forward and then backwards when he realized he knew the lady approaching. His eyes didn't give credit to what they saw. The young woman was dressed in white and her dampened black hair adhered to her shoulders and back. Her bared feet moved light yet gracious and her face... it was even prettier than he recalled.

"No... No, this can't be true... You're dead!" The scared man walked backwards with the same urgency he had moved forwards before. Instinctively, he unleashed his sword. Was he seeing a ghost? He wasn't sure, but the woman in front of him was hauntingly beautiful, yet dreadful. Her paled face was illuminated by the lightnings, and every step she gave forwards no trace of doubts was left... That was hers. But how could that be! She was dead! He was one of the men carrying the coffin where she lied... Dead! Dead! That was impossible! In front of him there was, standing, walking, smiling, Leila Von Dorcha, countess of Argengau.

Three days ago, that woman had been buried and despite of showing any kind of bloating or being discomposed, she looked radiant, glowing with life. It was not like the type of ghosts he had heard of, not a translucent specter. She didn't float in the air. Leila Von Dorcha appeared to him in flesh and blood, so tangible and beautiful as he remembered her before. Moving towards him with exacerbated cadence, the dead-lady blocked the narrow pathway. A mischievous grin beamed wide on her plump red lips. She was like a wolf, like a wild cat chasing him and he felt a cold shiver running up his spine, placing him in the role of the prey. He has heard of this before, she was not a ghost, The countess was something even worst, scarier and deadly. His heart hammered arrhythmically inside his chest about to explode, knowing that death had taken the form of Leila Von Dorcha.

The sentinel tried to run backwards but he tripped and fell and the ghastly woman was over him in a second. Thunders! Lightnings! The guard attempted in vain to wrestle, to push her off and escape. But she was heavier than him and stronger and pressed with her body. Another lightning stroke and the guard saw her, leaning closer, smiling... Mocking on his misfortune. A pair of white sharp fangs revealed and the woman's eyes glistened like fulgurous rubies.

"No...God", he whispered, exhaling a feeble scream that choked in his throat when in his clavicle he felt a piercing sharp pain. Thunder! Lightning! Pain... His life extinguished like the flames in the torches while Leila sucked his blood in big gulps making his body convulse every time she swallowed.

When she had drained the last drop of blood from the soldier's body she raised the cadaver in the air and like a sack of garbage she tossed it away. His bones snapped to hit the wall. Holding his tore off head in her hand, Leila licked her lips, savoring the last drops of blood in her mouth. Smiling one more time and feeling victorious, the dark haired lady dropped the man's head to the floor and walked away.