Blood Summer Pt. 01

My mother had obviously grabbed the phone. She was giggling.

"We aren't back together dear we just had sex that was all. I don't know what got into me well he did and you don't need to know any more than that. Those digs have him all turned on but he was always kind of good in the sack. Well we made you and your sister out of those events.

We aren't fighting as we thought it would be a good idea to get along on this project dear. Count Arnyek is letting me do an anthropological and genetic study of the locals on his estate. He is also letting me have access to the Sange skeletons dear.

His ancestors also managed to keep them out of the hands of tomb raiders, grave robbers and the collectors of such artifacts. They also kept then out of the hands of grave desecrator's who are religious nut jobs. They somehow even kept those skeletons out of the hands of the Nazis and Communists."

I would sigh.

"I am none the wiser mother."

She giggled.

"Yes you do. Don't you remember the stories I told you about the human skulls with the fangs that they say are fakes. Well I and my team get to take a close up look at them and other skulls that have surfaced in that are of the world over the years."

I sighed.

"Don't you go all Peter on me mother. It was bad enough getting it from him without getting it from you as well."

She laughed.

"Oh you mean vampire skulls dear and vampires exist. The Count does remind me of Eric Northman a bit only darker. He can bite me any time he wants kitten."

I flared instantly jealous.

"Keep your mitts off of him mother or I will cut your ovaries out and I mean it. You better tell Timisha to keep her mitts off of him as well. "

She giggled.

"Oh my you like him that much. I am very flattered that you think me young enough and even wicked enough to be capable of seducing the Count. I don't ever recall you getting territorial about any boy or man ever. I think he could quite easily seduce me though and that is without even sponsoring my research.

Well whatever you have said or done with him it has no doubt got me access to skulls and to study them when every other academic that has an interest in them has failed dear. He is also letting me conduct a genetic survey in the village on the castle estate and three villages surrounding the estate. It is some 5,000 people at most. Your father also seems interested in my results. It isn't often he shows an interest in my work but we have a deal.

I did chase off your sister when she started drooling at him. You can't blame her as he is quiet handsome and he is obviously loaded. It was a good experience for your sister since he ignored her pretty much. I think that was a first for her getting ignored by a man that is. I found it terribly amusing."

Ate the end of July that summer I found myself on the way to Romania and the Carpathian Mountain resort of Sange Castle along with another 23 female models and 16 male models plus several photographs and film camera crews. We would actually be a whole day getting to the place from London. We would actually fly to Budapest where the Counts private jet would be waiting for some of us to take us from there to a private airfield near his resort in northern Romania.

I wouldn't see Arnyek the first two days we were there. I suppose in addition to actually having to work as in pose and prance for the promotional work for the Resort. There was a boutique, a beautician, a cinema and a swimming pool there plus tennis courts and a gymnasium plus a heath center and even shops. We had plenty to do. It was also obvious that the easiest way in and out of the place was by the private airfield we arrived at.

My sister wasn't pleased as the male members of staff had been warned off of her and she wanted to play with men she described as hunks. I knew Arnyek had probably threatened them. My mother would get an earful from Timisha the third day there when she showed up from wherever she showed up from. I had no sympathy with my mother at that point. I thought Timisha had a point. My mother didn't seem to bother as she blithely insisted on telling us about her exciting findings.

"I had the skulls that Count handed over to us scanned and x-rayed and the bone analyzed. I couldn't believe what we found girls. The fanged skulls are very real and there is nothing fake about them. It also seems to be the case that the fangs were retractable to an extent.

Those fangs are incredibly sharp even after a millennium. They could easily penetrate or rip flesh or even puncture veins and arteries. You know what this means. It means that the skulls might be the birth point of the vampire legends and myths girls. Your father has dug up more of those fanged skulls at the three digs he is undertaking.

What we are doing is going to turn archaeology and anthropology on its head. It is going to cause a scandal and a real stir and there is nothing the stick in the mud academics can do about it. How I have wanted to metaphorically slap their smug faces and kick them in the balls for decades and well now I have the chance. They will be insanely jealous."

I groaned at the mere mention of vampires. I think I had my fill of that topic the in the weeks prior to my mothers announcement. I was grinding my teeth at that point.

"So the real reason that Timisha and I are here is all the fault of you and father."

She just patted the back of my hand.

"I hope you won't be too hard on Arnyek. I do think he likes you and that has nothing at all to do with anything I or your father said dear. His liking you is down to you and you alone. He wanted nothing about your fathers dig getting out of my genetic and anthropology research getting out or a salivating horde from the worlds Press and Media whores arriving here. I think you can see why now dear. Imagine the lurid headlines about vampire skulls. I didn't want the publicity yet either dear and nor did your father.

Oh the Count is an improvement on that deadbeat Peter who obviously can't keep it in his pants. It is something I can agree on with your father. I caught that shallow retard Peter letching your sister as well and that didn't impress me. The Count at least was gentleman that way. It was your sister that couldn't keep her tongue in her mouth when it came to the Count."

I contained a bitch.

"You could have told me and he could have told me. There are some things that should be shared and I think that the Count was one of them."

I had been there 5 days when I found myself meeting his sisters that evening and Timisha was with me and the one calling her self Viviana of all the names spoke with a cheeky giggle.

"Yeah I know it is small world. We even look alike don't we? We thought we would say hello because our brother it seems adores you and yes he might have a funny way of showing it. We know the lunk had you checked out but then we would have checked you out anyway. We did check you out. Well he is our only family Viviana. We are protective of him.

It is kind of spooky that we sort of look alike though. We even share the same interests and passions as well. Well we both have black belts in Judo and Karate and we can hold a blade as well. Oh and your ex boyfriend got us mixed up with you. I thought he must have been telepathic as he got my name right. He is a bit of a cocky shit because he thinks he is well stacked.

Peter might be well stacked in that he is above average as far as males go but he is nothing compared to Arnyek. Well we have seen Arnyek bathing naked first thing in the morning and at the twilight hour. We have known a lot of men. They fail to measure up to Arnyek in so many ways. I wish he wasn't my brother, well so does my sister Una. We think the world isn't a fair place on that score.

He told us that he wanted you but he declined the offer to stay the night. I don't think he has ever done that before. Arnyek is obviously a very handsome man to girls generally and he has known hundreds of them carnally. He hasn't been with any other girl since he met you. We know these things about him. He even turned down your sister Timisha and she is a very beautiful and very sexy girl and she threw herself at him. She is so sexy we would like to go girl on girl with her."

I gawped at that admission from her. She giggled.

"Give Arnyek a chance. He watches you pose you know. He is quite distracted by you. We might be protective of him but we would like to see him happy. He can be an idiot sometimes though. Don't hold that against him. Oh and he didn't put us up to this. We wouldn't let him do that not even to us. Let him have his say Viviana."

Timisha was giggling and keeping her distance.

"Please don't hit me. Please don't hate me. Well he is a good looking bugger and I couldn't help myself. I never had a bloke knock me back before. He must really like you. That Peter has been hitting on me as well since you dumped him so I think that also tells you something sis."

I just hugged her.

"I don't hate you and I would never hit you. It is mother I want to smack. She has seen more of him than I have the slut."

Timisha giggled.

"Yup you definitely like him."

I had been there a week before an invite arrived to have dinner in the Castle. It had arrived with a bouquet of blood red camellias; it was flower I had always strangely liked. How could he know that? I had unconsciously dressed pretty slutty in a short black mini dress with the halter top this time and matching 6 inch heels. I was going to tease him and deny him even though he entered my erotic dreams every night and had been doing so since that date I had with him.

His sisters were also dressed exactly like me. Viviana would laugh.

"I wonder if he will be able to tell us apart. We are even the same statistically I think. I will die laughing if he can't tell us apart."

He would know me though as he walked up to me and smiled.

"I would know you anywhere Viviana. You look quiet ravishing again. Black as much as red suits you it seems."

His sisters swore.

"I doubt any other man would spot any differences."

He laughed.

"Viviana disdains cosmetics sweet sister. Her lips are red enough without them and so are yours yet you insist on wearing cosmetics when you don't need them."

She smiled.

"Arnyek is ever the charmer."

I would hold fire until the dinner was out of the way and then asked him.

"Did you have to drag my parents here? You could have told me that you knew them."

He just sighed and then smiled.

"I told you I would reveal all my secrets and let you decide certain things for yourself. I think I was long time in vetting them for what I was doing here with the digs and the genetic research. I wouldn't have known about you or your sister if I hadn't met your parents first.

It is going to cause trouble sooner or later and I am going to make enemies but your father and mother have never shied away from making academic enemies. Academic enemies can destroy careers and lives and are as vicious as other sociopaths and psychopaths.

I didn't know that you mother was going to advertise you and your sister to me. I didn't know she was going to tell me about her stars as she called you and your sister. I didn't know I would get intrigued. I didn't know that I would want to meet you at all but when she showed me your photograph Viviana and that your resemblance to my sisters would spook me. It would be one of many things that would spook me. I knew then that I had to meet you and see you up close."

He sighed and then smiled again.

"I will give you a part tour of the Castle. That is the parts that might be opened to the public once it is repaired and modernized."

I replied.

"Don't let Peter see any of it. He will say that the decor is like something out of a Hammer House of Horror movie."

He laughed.

"He would probably be right but many people seem to like that medieval ambience but they won't be living here."

He smiled again.

"In times past the dining room would have been used for feasts and the dining hall would have been used for grand balls but those days are long gone and even used for musical recitals because the acoustics are set up for such. I won't be having such recitals I don't think. I believe we share a taste in heavy rock and heavy metal music. Viviana and Una heard you playing some in your chalet. I wasn't stalking you."

I flashed my eyes at him.

"Yes you were. You have been spotted watching me pose for the cameras. It was reported. You could have said hello you know. I am trying very hard not to be annoyed at you."

He shrugged.

"I know but you do have work to do and when we are working we must be professional. I know that sounds lame."

I toyed with him.

"Yes it is lame and what was that nonsense with my sister. She is big girl you know."

He replied.

"Yes she is but she a little naive yet when it comes to men. The men I employ are all young and fit for the most part and thus predatory. I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to her on my watch. You might never forgive me that. They will know she is a virgin as well and think she is easy picking because of her innocence."

I bit my tongue before I said something that would give me a red face. He would district me by showing me several portraits on the walls of the grand hall.

"You now see why I was spooked. They are portraits of my mother, grandmother, great grandmother and her mother before that when they were young and daring women. I don't believe in reincarnation and I am also guessing that your family and both sides of it have been resident in England even before the arrivals of the rapacious Normans and Saxons. It only fed my curiosity about you Viviana."

He didn't have much of a tour of the inside of the castle as he explained.

"Parts of it are presently closed for safety reasons and are also covered in huge cobwebs and bats have taken up residence. No doubt Peter would have some trite comment about that. The other parts are my living space and my sister's living spaces and permanently off limits. Yet another part is my Offices and my company HQ and they are also off limits at present."

He led me to the gardens next.

"The house does grow herbs and fruits and many vegetables. I do like big trees as well. My sisters grow a flower they call the Bloodmoon Orchid. I find it an ugly flower but they say the essence of it makes a perfume that makes men slaves to them. I do not believe that and I certainly don't think they need any perfumes to enslave men."

I teased him.

"Are you turning into my slave Arnyek since I bear a resemblance to your sisters?"

He smiled and then grinned.

"I hope not since I do not think you would like that in any man. I know my sisters don't deep down."

I sighed.

"You are right. I wouldn't like that. I need a man who will make me feel not just loved and wanted but safe and secure and one who will not keep things from me."

He laughed.

"Ouch I asked for that I guess. You must allow me to do my thing and release my dark secrets one day at a time."

I flashed my eyes at him.

"So far it has been one month at a time and not one day at a time mister. I think I will be an old maid by then."

He showed me the beds with the Bloodmoon Orchids in them and he was right as it wasn't an attractive flower. It was an ugly combination of black, red and grey. He pointed out another flower bed with what he called the Wolfmoon Orchids and they were just grey and black with streaks of white in color.

He also told me that his sisters maintained that the essence of that would make any girl his slave but he said he didn't believe that either. I didn't think he needed to spray any of that on himself to make me his slave. I had a bad case of stampeding butterflies already and he hadn't touched me or kissed me that evening or day.

I didn't have long to wait before he kissed me though and I didn't offer any resistance to him. The galaxies began to swirl again and I heard wolves howling in the distance. He would break the carnal lock with me.

"We have a night song to serenade us. There are wolves here. Not many but enough yet to sing to the moon. They are notional protected but they aren't allowed close to any village or any working farm. As long as they stick to wild land or forests then they are safe. I think some of them understand that."

I sighed.

"I find it sad and haunting at the same time."

He stroked my cheek.

"I think they are the last of their kind and I think they even know that as well. It is a terrible thing to live in a world where you are hated, feared and hunted."

He would kiss me again and yet again the galaxies swirled psychedelically. The butterflies danced as they stampeded round me and the wolves it seemed sang or howled louder and in greater number. He would get me back to my chalet but left me standing and wanting more.

I would have another one of those restless feverish nights where he invaded my dreams and wouldn't leave them. It was another night when I had to use my fingers to get relief. I eventually had to get up and took a walk on the veranda of the chalet. It didn't offer much relief from what afflicted me. I wasn't fit to work the next day and sent back to my chalet. They didn't really need me anyway or so I thought.

We were told to take a couple of days break the next day. I would go with Timisha, Tanya, Dawn and Tessa to the nearest village and that turned out to be less than pleasant. The one bar in the place wouldn't serve us and they would mutter something in the local lingo that we didn't understand. I got the impression that most of it was directed at me for some reason and I didn't know any of them and I certainly hadn't done anything evil to any of them but it was evil looks I got from them.

That hostility would extend to the one shop in the place as well where the woman behind the counter refused to deal with us and I knew that she didn't want us there and me in particular there. We would hear stories that the others would get the same treatment but most of the venom had been directed at me. I thought fuck I hadn't met any of them before. I really didn't know any of them. I sniffed hate and fear from all of them.

I don't know how Viviana and Una had heard about what happened when we got back to the chalet. Viviana was quite explicit.

"When they insult you they insult my brother and they insult us. This will not be taken lying down. They live here by my brother's sufferance and it is sufferance as they collaborated with the Communists and Nazis in the past as well as the Romanian Orthodox Church. They collaborated with people responsible for the slaughter and murder of hundreds of the Sange Halhatatlan family.

It is time an example was made Una and one will be made. If one village thinks they can get away with it then they will all think they can get away with it. That isn't going to happen. The ignorant peasants of today will not be allowed to hold to the ways of their murderous ancestors. Arnyek puts money in their pockets and food on their tables. It is time they understood that. Our gentle brother has been more than tolerant and generous with them Una. You will not be insulted in that village again Viviana. We will see to that"

It was the way she said it that sent a chill down my spine.

Whatever the effect was of my visit to that backward village well it had spilled over onto my mother's project. I told her what happened and she told me that her project came to a crashing halt.

I would get a visit from Arnyek that evening and he told me that he wouldn't put up with me or my mother being insulted in such a way. He was going to put things right. Those peasants and he used the word peasant only had a roof over their heads and food in their bellies because of him. The rest I couldn't understand and he was clearly angry. I got the impression that the villagers should be more worried about his sisters.