– Do you really think so? Well, it's time to show you the second part of my favourite amusement! – he said grimly, and his eyes became so scary that I trembled. – As you asked, I let them go, but now I have every right to kill them! You didn't ask me not to kill them, only to let them go!

– No!" I let out a scream of horror.

– Did you think I was going to let them go alive? – The vampire smiled gloatingly, walked down the stairs and disappeared into the rain.

– No, Brandon! Don't do this! Leave them alone! I'm begging you! – I shouted after him, but he was already out of my sight.

"He'll kill them!" – "He'll kill them!" went through my mind, and I rushed down the stairs and ran after him. I ran through mud and puddles, the rain hitting me in the face, covering my eyes and so soaking my dress that it became a heavy wet sack that stuck to my body and legs and made it hard to run.

– Brandon! Don't you dare! Leave them alone! Let them go! – I screamed exhaustedly, hoping to stop his horrible plans. Soon I was in the woods, my feet drowning in muddy streams and slimy mud. Water streamed down my back, my hair wet and sticky, covering my eyes as if on purpose. I didn't know where to run: the forest seemed huge and unfriendly. The downpour was hitting the green leaves on the trees, and they made a muffled, quiet drumming sound. My right side stabbed, and I stopped involuntarily to give myself a few seconds of rest. I looked around for the girls and the vampire, but they seemed to have disappeared. I had no choice but to keep running, but not as fast as before – my side was aching as I had never run so much and so fast before. I ran into the bowl of the forest and suddenly tripped over something on the ground and fell with my face down into the mud, but I didn't have the luxury of hesitating, and quickly getting to my feet, I ran on, covered from head to toe in mud. But I was suddenly seized with a strange feeling of unbearable anxiety.

What could I have tripped over? The "something" was quite soft, long, and it couldn't have been a fallen branch.

I stopped abruptly and looked back: there was a human body on the ground, half buried in the dirt. I lost my breath. Quickly returning to the body, I hesitantly stopped a few steps away from it.

– No!" I shrieked: there, in the mud, lay Lourdes. – Lourdes! Wake up, Lourdes! – I rushed to her and shook her violently.

But she didn't move. She was dead. There was horror in her beautiful, wide-open eyes, and two large red dots gaping at her neck. The girl's face was almost white: she was completely drained of blood.

Grayson had killed her. He drank her blood.

My eyes filled with tears, and everything around me began to blur. My head was a blur. My body refused to obey me, and I sat on my knees in front of the dead girl, as if hypnotised by her death, crying silently and staring at her pale, dead face. My mind was unwilling to accept this reality. I couldn't believe that Lourdes was dead and would never get up and speak to me again.

Suddenly, some heavy object fell beside me, showering me with a fountain of spray. I glanced sideways and saw Susan. She wasn't moving. She was dead, too. I cried out quietly in horror and looked up to see Grayson standing very close to me, smiling. His lips and teeth were scarlet from the blood he'd drunk, but there wasn't a single speck of it on his soaked suit.

"It's my turn now. He's going to kill me," my mind raced, and I fell into darkness.

Fragmentary scenes flashed before my eyes, changing like the frames of a horror film: Lourdes running across the field, her black hair wet and sticking to her back. Her blue dress tangles in her legs. Suddenly, out of a dense wall of rain, like a black shadow, Grayson appears in front of the girl and nuzzles into her neck. Not a sound comes out of her open mouth – she doesn't even have time to cry out. Lourdes collapses, but the vampire holds her tightly against him and continues to drink her blood, then, satiated, roughly throws her already dead body into the dirt. A moment later, the shot changes to a fleeing Susan looking around, afraid of being chased, and running straight into the vampire's deadly embrace. Grayson drinks her blood, then lifts her white corpse in his arms and carries it into the shroud of rain. Susan's white, skinny arm swings with his steps like a pendulum. And, at the end of this film, the dead eyes of Lourdes stood before me in a huge frame Those beautiful, huge black eyes. They reflected the rain, Grayson's silhouette, and a frozen wonder, like a question that would remain unanswered forever: "Why?"

I opened my eyes sharply and saw myself lying on a fur pelt in front of a large, burning fireplace.

It was warm. The wood in the fireplace was crackling cosily.

My dress and hair were dry, and I realised that I had been unconscious for hours, maybe more. My body, face, dress, hair, everything was covered in dried mud.

"Where am I? How did I get here?" – I thought involuntarily, and looked round to see Grayson sitting in a black chair, staring at the fire. We were only a metre or less apart-I was almost at his feet. The vampire was dressed in a new clean, dry suit. When he saw that I had regained consciousness, he smiled at me with an enchanting white-toothed smile.

His smile made me turn back to the fireplace and fall helplessly onto the fur.

– Kill me, please," I asked the vampire quietly. I no longer had the strength to endure the death he was sowing around me.

– You can't wait to die? – he asked mockingly.

– I don't want to live. What do you want me for?

– I think I've gotten used to you by now. You know how you people get used to a dog? Besides, I'd be bored without you. You'll be my entertainment.

– I hate you! – I whispered hatefully, and hot tears of despair burned my eyes.

– Well hate me because I definitely don't need your love! – The vampire laughed at that.

Markus and Mariszka's wedding day was approaching. More and more guests were arriving at the castle, and the huge garage was packed to capacity. Many vampires had to park their cars right on the square in front of the castle, and now it was enclosed in a ring of colourful cars. The vampires of the five continents centred their stay for August in Prague as everyone wanted to attend the wedding. Since weddings do not happen very often in our society, every vampire wedding attracts maximum attention and excitement.

The bride had already flown in from Poland, but she hadn't seen Markus: as my brother had explained to me, it was so that the meeting at the wedding altar would be not only "divine" but also "long-awaited".

I could not understand the meaning of this abstinence, as I missed Viper madly and called her almost every day, and she answered me, happily and lovingly. How only Markus could restrain himself from a sudden visit to his fiancée, who, at the same time, was in such close distance to him?

The big day had arrived. We were in Markus's room, and he was standing in front of a large mirror, tying his tie around his neck. My brother was dressed in a light grey suit, combed and excited, and I stood beside him, leaning against a column, also fancy dressed, and laughed at him: he was always a bit funny and fidgety when he was excited.

– How long are you going to keep tying that poor tie? – I asked him mockingly, hoping to calm his excitement with a little humour.

– Damn it, I can't get it tied! – Markus replied nervously, ripping the tie off his neck and throwing it on the chair.

– Go without it. It's much better: you look like a showman with a tie," I grinned.

– I'm worried as hell! – Markus exclaimed and paced around the room.