The Countess - Part Five (Final Instalment)

My sleep that night, if I can call such delirious thrashing by that inoffensive name, offered no repose but only repeated visions of my wanderings through a strange netherworld. Each time it began where it had left off the previous night, with my opening of a door. But now I passed through it and entered a maze of corridors. Above a cacophony of barely human cries and shrieks, a voice was calling to me and I followed it to find myself in a cavernous room where all seemed serene. In the room was a fountain, spraying showers of fine rain into a still pool of water that was completely undisturbed by the drops falling upon it. As I stared, suddenly the pool would swirl and I would wake to find myself again in a tangle of twisted bedclothes.

How many times I witnessed, or experienced, this scene I have no way of telling. However, it was not until the sun was bright enough to breach the curtain’s defences that I rose. I discovered, to my dishonour, that it was noon and that the maid had left a breakfast for me, now long congealed and inedible.

The remainder of the day elapsed as though I were enfolded in a fog which made indistinct, both sounds and sights. All seemed fuzzy and blurred and when I spoke to the maid to refuse her offer to help me dress, my words too were garbled and unclear. And so, I spent my time wandering through this haze in my nightgown, pacing purposelessly between the bed and the window. At one time I drew the curtains open but the light of the afternoon sun seemed to affright and assault my eyes and though there was no comfort in the gloaming either, it was at least inoffensive to my vision.

It had been fully dark outside for some hours when I eventually roused myself enough to call the maid to prepare a bath for me. When she had done so, I dismissed her curtly though she seemed ready to demur. I could not bear the thought of those insolent eyes on my body though later, while I was soaping myself, I conceived of several cruel indignities I thought I would take pleasure in inflicting on her voluptuous figure. Indeed, I alarmed myself with the fervency of my visualised vindictiveness for, although I have been known to tantalize my conquests, I had never before thought of myself as cruel or pitiless.

The bath soothed my mental anguish somewhat but did nothing to alleviate the aching need I still felt. It was as though I was burning up with a passion I could not assuage and my flesh felt tender and inflamed though there was no visible sign of it. The bite marks on my breasts were no longer livid but they stood out clearly from my soft, pale skin which appeared much more colourless than usual, and I fancied, perhaps even a little translucent.

I stepped out of the tub, let down my hair, and studied myself in the mirror. Was my body fuller and more shapely or was I fantasizing about it? I don’t know but when I came to rub myself down I found that I was already dry. How curious I thought. The inner heat I had perceived in myself therefore was not mere illusion.

I went to the window and drew open the curtains to the darkness, hoping for a gentle breeze to cool my heated mind and body, but the night air offered no respite and seemed to oppress me further. Several times during the day I had wandered my rooms, hunting for the painting which had disappeared. Its pull on me, at first one of horrified fascination, had become an altogether erotic vision in my mind and one into which I yearned to plunge myself. With a growing sense of desperation I went in search of it once more.

Again its whereabouts eluded me and I threw myself onto the bed with a wail of frustration. And then it revealed itself to me. By some supernatural agency, I no longer cared what or how, it had woven itself into the canopy above where I slept.

The setting was as before but the drama had evolved further and was now unambiguously sexual and utterly profane. The dark-haired one was kneeling between the enveloping legs of the fair-haired girl who was sodden with blood. But the emotion showing on her face was one of savage ecstasy. For a fleeting moment a cold hand seemed to grasp my heart and I choked but then I heard an animal cry split the nocturnal quiet and all at once I was overwhelmed by a feeling of sheer lust. I rushed from the room naked and ran towards the fate that I knew instinctively had somehow called to me.

When I burst into the room, the blood was still pounding in my veins and I felt as hot as a gleed. But though my ardour was undiminished, it was no longer purely feral but an intense and directed need. The door swung shut behind me and I beheld the focus of that need. La Comtesse was reclining on a chaise-longue, her dark eyes levelled at me tauntingly.

A breath escaped my lips, a mix of wonder, admiration and reward; my lady was naked and freely displaying to me that which I so desired. I was being honoured thus and knew that she would permit me to indulge her.

The soft candle-light wavered and then brightened, glisteningly revealed on her adored flesh as though the flames were dancing on her body. I uttered a sigh of abandonment and fell to my knees before her as she parted her legs and granted me access to her femininity.

Oh … the joy! I plundered her with lips and tongue and felt myself weep with the now realised harmony that flooded my soul. I tasted my salt tears mixed with the sweet savour of her and I felt her hips begin to move against the devotions of my tongue. She trembled delightfully and uttered a moan of pleasure that was wholly wonderful to hear. I felt her fingers entwining themselves in my hair, snaring me and demanding more. Her moans and gasps became more frequent which thrilled me to the core – to think that I was able to give her such fulfilment!

When she finally pulled me up so that I lay above her, I felt exultant to see the blush upon her skin and to know that I had wrought that on her. Her kiss was a consummation and I shared with her the tastes that were her own.

The kiss lasted just long enough for her to reassert her power over me and when she gently disengaged, I again became the initiate and she the mistress.

“You pass the test,” She said approvingly and my heart leapt at the words. “Now I shall make you mine forever.”

I stood then, as I knew I must, and made my way to her bed. I looked down at myself, perhaps saying goodbye to my previous existence and saw, without the least surprise, that blood was flowing freely from the four small puncture wounds on my breasts. Shockingly, sinfully, I revelled at the sight and encouraged the warm trickles to inflame something sinful deep inside me, thereby finally unleashing it. When I threw myself onto the bed and held my arms out towards her, I was already climbing inexorably towards a crowning climax.

It exploded inside me when her teeth dug deeply into the entrance to my womanhood and I think I screamed with the rapture of pain and pleasure mixed.

As my mortal blood was tapped, the last vestiges of innocence drained away with it. In its place, a fiery, ravenous thirst surge through my veins and … a truly wondrous thing, I felt potent and vital as if I had never lived before. Every nerve in my body rang with a new energy and I could feel even the tiniest breath of air upon my skin. The sensations that were being awoken and cultivated between my legs I cannot describe for they were indeed ineffable.

As I writhed in ecstasy upon the bed, my hands now blood-smeared and spreading the scarlet wherever they delighted to touch, La Comtesse, now satisfied, raised herself and looked down upon me. I stared into the limpid pools of her eyes and my recurrent dream took new shape in my consciousness. I began at last to understand it.

She and I were luxuriating together in the pool beneath the fountain in that underground place but the water and the fine spray were now of a crimson hue. I ran my tongue over my teeth and smiled wickedly when I felt the long, strong sharpness of my canines. I knew what I was now capable of and believed that we would bathe together in blood till this world ended.