Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust by Jessica Dalton (book series for 10 year olds txt) 📕

was also very much insane. His time as a prisoner of the Ottoman had broken him and then made him into something completely different. I asked Vlad for the details of Mircea‘s death and was only granted my request after I had told him that myself and Mircea had been searching for him and Radu since they were taken.

“Vlad told me how Hunyadi had launched yet another attack on Wallachia and this time had defeated all the forces protecting it including the forces of the Ottoman. Mircea‘s father fled but Mircea stayed and fought along with his people, they lost and Mircea was captured by boyars from Tirgoviste, they blinded him by piercing each eye with a burning hot poker and then they buried him alive. Not long after, they found his father and killed him as well.

“I couldn‘t tell Vlad III that his brother was probably walking around and no longer in his shallow grave because he was now a vampire so I gave the Cold King my condolences and left him to find Mircea. Thankfully Mircea had been in hiding and had heard I had returned to Wallachia so he found me. His eyes had mended themselves as soon as he had finished his transformation. We continued our search for Radu and when we finally found him a year later we found that his title had saved his life for Radu the Handsome really had been handsome and so his captors had realised that after six months of torturing him that he would be of much more worth to them as a servant.” Dimitri said as he gave me a meaningful look.

I nodded my head my head to show that I had understood.

“we managed to free Radu and escape with him but like his brother Vlad he had gone insane, not as badly as Vlad and not nearly as dangerous as him either but he wasn‘t the brother that Mircea had once known, although he still loved him and in an attempt to get the chance to make Radu sane again, Mircea changed him into a vampire.”

“Did it work? Is Radu now sane?”

Dimitri let out a genuine laugh. “As sane as any eccentric gay vampire can be.” he told me happily. “however it did take a few hundred years for him to get over the torture and the slavery, but Mircea made sure he had everything he needed and that he was always safe.”

“and what about the other brother - Vlad?” I asked with interest.

“ah Vlad.” Dimitri said with amusement dancing in his eyes. “Vlad Tepes became famous world wide. Even today people tell stories of him, movies have been made about him, even you know of him Ashes.”

“you mean he was Vlad Dracul as in Dracula?” I asked incredulously.

“The one and the same. It’s ironic though isn’t it, Bram Stroker was a great historian as well as a writer. The word Dracul is derived from the Latin word Draco meaning dragon, and in modern Romanian Dracul means Devil. Vlad Tepes is the Romanian name given to King Vlad while he was the reigning monarch in Wallachia - in English we translate Vlad Tepes as Vlad the Impaler because of the way he killed every single one of his victims. Bram Stroker wrote that Vlad was a vampire because he also drank the blood of his victims - which is actually true - what is also the truth is that Vlad died a human death in 1476 and he never rose again.

“so the real Dracula‘s are Mircea and Radu and they are perfect gentlemen even to this day.” he looked back up at the painting of the sun rise. “the two vampires standing beside me in the painting are Mircea and Radu, that was us leaving Romania to travel over here. The ocean is such a magical place, the fact that we were able to watch the sun rise from the safety of the night is a very rare opportunity but we were there at the right time in the right place. As a thank you to me for helping him and turning him into a vampire, Mircea had one of his vampires - Raph paint this for me a hundred years later once I had settled in and decided that I wanted to stay in this house.”

“this is not a house.” I told him gently as though he was very confused. “it’s a mansion on steroids.”

Dimitri laughed again. “I suppose it is, I think I may just be used to it by now. ”

“where are they? Do they live with you here? I haven‘t met them have I?” I asked excitedly I mean when do you get to meet a real Dracula even if he isn’t the one you read about.

Dimitri laughed. “No they don‘t live here. Mircea is my second in command, his experience and loyalty to me are hard to come by, I may have my guards loyalty but they don‘t know how to rule or how to handle the vampires. Mircea has always been very good at being a leader and as my best friend he was made my Second in Command very easily. He keeps an eye on things in North and South America for me and I live here in Canada and frequently travel to Europe with Mircea to check on things there.”

“so I will get to meet him then?” I asked

“Of course you will my dear. Anyway I had the desk carved for me around the same time the ceiling was done. What you see on the legs is Mircea‘s family coat of arms as well as my own, the Dragon being Mircea‘s is at the bottom of the leg and is guarding my family coat of arms which is the Phoenix.”

I had been looking at the ceiling once again as he talked but I whipped my head back to him when he told me this little revelation.

“huh, a phoenix you say?” I asked trying to keep my voice deadpan and face clear of emotion.

Dimitri rolled his eyes again - it was really fascinating to watch his beautiful eyes roll like…

“I can hear your thoughts remember Ashes.”

My face immediately turned scarlet and I tried furiously to convince my face to go back to its normal pale colour.

“I have already told you that I never make mistakes, I have made you the Enforcer and that is the way it should be, your namesake has nothing to do with it.” he told me after reading the doubt that was once again torturing me.

“I suppose,” I said grudgingly remembering the fact that he had to ask me my name the first time we ever met.

“I was actually a bit shocked when you told me your name, I do believe in fate don‘t you Ashes?”

My eyes met his and it took me a while to realise that neither one of us had spoken in a while and we were still starring at one another. It took the time for me to look away from me to remember that I hadn’t been able to read his thoughts this morning and I still couldn’t now.

“Dimitri… ” I started to say.

“I know. I can only read your thoughts when I really try and I can only do that because I am powerful. We will have to exchange blood again this night before we retire for the day.”

“okay.” I nod my head.

“but right now you and I are going to have to go shopping for your new clothes.” he said as he stood and strode towards the door. He was walking at a humans pace for my benefit.

Quinn and Ari were waiting in the foyer for us, as soon as they saw us Ari disappeared and we made our way outside.

I raised an eyebrow at Ari’s quick departure which Quinn noticed.

“he‘s gone to get the car for us.”

Car.

“oh my god Tallulah!” I exclaimed looking around myself stupidly as though I might have managed to put her in my pocket and not have forgotten all about her. Shame flooded through me.

“who‘s Tallulah?” Quinn asked in confusion as he watched me freak out.

“Tallulah is my car” I explained to him as Dimitri was too busy to because he was laughing at me.

Quinn doesn’t seem to know what is more fascinating, me thinking I can fit my car in my pocket or his King laughing uncontrollably.

“Yes my car! She‘s a Classic VW Bug and I can‘t believe I forgot all about her.”

“oh the Bug, don‘t worry Dimitri had Ari bring it over last night while you were training.”

I was so happy I turned around and jumped on Dimitri and hugged him.

“thank you!” I happily laughed as I shocked him out of his own laughter and planted a wet one on his cheek.

“we really need to exchange blood again soon.” he mumbled.

I happily jumped into the black Escalade that Ari was driving and settled in for the long drive into the city. It wasn’t till we were entering the city that I realised the time - it was almost nine o’clock at night and all the shops would be closed. I said as much to Dimitri but he just looked at me as though he was trying really hard to not roll his eyes.

“I‘m the king Ashes. The shops are always open for me.”

“but this is the human world Dimitri not the vampire world.”

“which makes me even more important here wouldn‘t you say Ashes?”

I thought about it and he was right. He was even more powerful from the eyes of a human. Dimitri totally ruled I thought, followed by rolling my own eyes at myself for being so sad.

Instead of pulling up outside a shop we drove through the city until we got to the industrial area. I leaned forward and looked between the front seats so that I could see out the windshield, up ahead of us was a warehouse with all the lights still on.

“we‘re going in there?” I asked as we stopped outside.

“yep.” answered Quinn as we all got out.

Quinn, Dimitri and I walked towards the door, I looked behind us to see that Ari was leaning against the car with a cigarette propped between his lips. It looked like he got the job of look out.

The warehouse was open plan with clothes everywhere. There was a whirling sound coming from above us. I followed Dimitri and Quinn to the back of the warehouse and then up a flight of stairs.

We were met at the top of the starirs by a very flustered looking vampire. The reason why I know he is a vampire - well the amount of fawning and bowing the dude was doing over Dimitri kind of gave it away , he also wouldn’t quite calling him ‘your majesty’ every other second.

“I thought you said we were going shopping?” I asked Dimitri accusingly.

“we don‘t need to when Cassius is the best leather tailor I have ever met.”

I raised my eyebrow at Dimitri. “wow, he must be really really good, I mean you‘re really old so Cassius must be amazing.” I said totally dead pan