THE IMPALER'S WIFE

12

"Sounds heretical." Prince Vlad comes alongside me.

"Not to those clinging to pagan ways. You see,Táltos can travel through the three realms, the Underworld, Middle world, and Upper world."

"Like Jesus Christ?"

"Now you are the one who is heretical." I bump him with my shoulder. "Drinking the blood of a sacrificial animal gives Táltos the ability to climb all the way up to the top of the Tree of Life, where its boughs penetrate the Upper World. His blood drinking also gives him the power to cure illnesses and perform miracles."

"Every religion needs its miracle workers." Dracula stops to run his hand along the curves of a relief cut into the wall. "Remarkable. The deer appears to vanish into the rock." He sets my palm on the rock, covers it with his own, and guides my hand over the deer's hindquarters.

The cold rough wall. Vlad's warm strong hand. The cave's dank chill. His body heat. My own skin ignites, a thousand sensations setting my body afire. It is as though it is my buttocks he caresses and not the carved relief.

Courtiers have tried seducing me. But never this way. Not with grisly stories. Not in eerie places. Not by having me caress a stone carving.

"Primitive." There is a strange tug between my thighs.

"The most primal of urges. The act of creation." Vlad releases my hand and gives the entombed deer an affectionate pat. "Little has changed since those times. Even Christianity keeps its pagan blood-drinking rites."

"You're wrong." I drag my tingling palm against my skirt. "Catholicism abolished all pagan practices."

"Caro enim mea mea vere cibus et sanguis meus est potu."

"The Holy Communion? He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood dwells in me, and I in him." I shake my head. "Jesus offers His spiritual and mystical essence. Your attempts at playing the blasphemer are futile."

"Ancient warriors consumed the flesh and blood of their enemies as a way of absorbing their power. Surely, you cannot deny the ritual's similarities."

"Are you testing my Catholic faith?" I do not know if he is teasing or serious.

"Does it need testing?" Prince Vlad's face is without emotion. "Are you content with a religion begot of blood and brutality?"

I stare at him, his face unreadable. "Don't all religions begin that way?"

"Most, but not all." The thinnest smile appears. "The origins of the Şolomonari are peaceful."

"So peaceful I have never heard of them."

Prince Vlad's laughter reverberates off the rock walls like thunder. "I enjoy your saucy wit."

I look away, my face flushing with the compliment. "Aunt Orsulya says men don't like to be bested by women."

"Only lesser men. You, Lady Ilona, will be unhappy with a man who requires only the marital pleasures of royal breeding."

I gasp, stop walking, and turn to him. "You cross a line."

"Did I?" He leans close, his cheek a mere breath from mine. "I hope to cross much more."

My legs tremble and yet my body bends toward him like a sapling in the wind. Father in Heaven protect me from falling into his arms! Luckily, the angel of virtue stiffens my spine and saves me from ruin.

I step away and wag my finger in front of his surprised face. "I shall be cross if you persist."

Prince Vlad snatches my hand. "Do you believe that the lines and creases reveal one's life?" He turns it palm side up.