Gallery of Lust

Epilogue

Portrait of Tomorrow


Charlotte stared at the little campfire, trying hard not to think about anything.

One of the things she didn't want to think about was Dracula's castle, lying in ruins somewhere far behind her. Yes, true, the evil that lay within was now destroyed and the threat was gone, but in about fifty years from now the castle would be back, as would Dracula and all his servants. And there was nothing she could do about it. It would happen and that was it. The only thing she could do was hope the Belmont destined to stand up against Dracula would emerge victoriously. They had always done so in the past, but Charlotte knew there were no guarantees.

Then there was the war. It had seemed so distant and far away while she was inside the castle. Tanks and airplanes seemed so unreal and far away when you were battling zombies and succubi. On some rational level she knew that Soviet forces were pushing the Germans further and further back and that the war would be here soon. But somehow, in the castle, none of them existed. Yet now that she was outside again she could almost hear the roar of T-34's or the wailing of Stukas.

The last thing Charlotte didn't want to think about was rather insignificant compared to the other two. But they were sitting right on the other side of the campfire and so hard to ignore. The Sanctuary spell had worked flawlessly, but hovering stark naked in mid-air with another functionally naked girl, not to mention your equally naked twin sister was not the best time to be cured of vampirism.

Things had been... awkward... to say the least.

Charlotte didn't want them to be awkward. She wanted to find out if the human twins felt more or less the same away about her as the vampire twins had. She wanted to explore the feelings their vampiric selves had awakened within her and see if they could stand up against the light of dawn. She wanted Loretta and Stella to use their magic to lift her up into the sky and make love to them bathed in the light of the moon.

She wanted all of that and more and that only made things even more awkward.

She rose.

"I think I'll go to sleep now," she announced to nobody in particular.

"Right," said Jonathan. "Sleep well."

"Thanks," said Charlotte. "You too."

Charlotte glanced briefly at Stella and Loretta, but they said nothing. The witch turned and went inside her tent.

Charlotte had just put on her nightgown and was struggling into her sleeping bag when her heard the rustling of the tent flap and saw the twins quietly come inside.

"We..." Loretta began.

"We need to talk," Stella said.

Charlotte nodded. "I guessed as much."

"What you did..." Loretta said. "Did you... did you merely do all that simply to buy enough time to cast your spell?"

Charlotte stared at them. This was it then. The moment she'd been dreading. It was stupid, really. She'd faced the greatest undead evil the Earth had ever seen and now she was frightened of two nice, likeable young women. It was more than stupid, it was absurdly ridiculous. Charlotte felt the anger well up in response to the fear and told herself that, really, what did she have to lose?

"No," she said. "I could have taken Jonathan along and have him fight you while I prepared the spell. But I did want to be with you. Not so far that I was willing to become a vampire, but... but pretty far, anyway."

Loretta smiled. So did Stella. The twins crawled into the tent until they were both hovering above Charlotte.

Then both Loretta and Stella leaned down and kissed her. A bit strangely and clumsily, but as sincerely and lovingly as Charlotte kissed them.

"We were hoping you'd say that."

And, high above, the moon bathed them in its light.