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"One brief moment of pain, and we can be together forever." That had been Count Vladislaus Dracula's promise to me when he begged me to become his new bride. The other brides had been killed, and he was desperate to start over with another.

"I am a very jealous woman," I told him. "If I were your bride, I would not tolerate any others. I refuse to share! I would want you all to myself. If there were others, I would kill them on the spot. So, would you choose a bride who demands that you be faithful only to her? If you cannot be faithful to me, then my answer is no."

I could see the gears turning in the Count's mind as he mulled this thought over. No other woman had ever dared to set limitations on him, but he found the i idea intriguing. He wanted me because I was young and strong; I would be able to bear him many offspring. I was also pretty, with a well-curved figure, and silky golden-brown hair that fell to my waist.

His ice-blue eyes met my hazel ones.

"I will do this for you, my darling. I will be faithful," he agreed.

"So be it." I nodded my assent.

"I will try not to hurt you. You will feel a sting when I bite, but it won't last for long. You will sleep, and when you waken, you will be mine forever! My bride, my love, my darling..." Dracula smiled, showing just a hint of his fangs. "Then, we shall consummate our marriage."

I could only wonder what that would be like, but now that I had accepted the Count's proposal, I couldn't back out on it. If I did, he would just have me for a snack and be done with me!

Dracula leaned in close to me. He was kissing, not biting. I guessed he was an incurable romantic, priming me for the inevitable. His lips traveled all over my face. He nibbled gently on my chin, my nose, and my ears. He dropped the whisperiest little kisses on my closed eyelids. His arms were clasped tight around me, as if I were the only life he had left to cling to. His lips tasted strangely sweet when they melted onto my own.

"Ah, my beautiful one," he crooned into my ear. I didn't see him open his mouth any wider, nor did I see the fangs distend. I was aware only of his embrace, his kisses, his hands caressing me. Then there was that brief moment he had described- a stinging sensation so intense that it made me shiver- as his razor-sharp canines sank deep into my jugular vein. My consciousness began to ebb away, swirling ever deeper into a vortex of darkness, with every swallow of blood Dracula took from me.

The last thing I remembered was his voice, saying "Sweet... oh, so very sweet..."

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"Arise. Come to me, my love." Dracula was standing beside me, extending a hand to help me up. "Enough with your beauty sleep! You are already quite beautiful."

I glanced around, noting that the bed I was lying on had solid walls all the way around it. It wasn't a bed at all, but a coffin! I sprang up from it as quickly as if a mousetrap had snapped on my backside. The Count laughed at this, a thunderous, rich laughter that echoed off the walls of the castle.

"You will get used to your new sleeping arrangements, I assure you." He led me over to a table. A large antique wine bottle stood in the center of it, along with two elegant crystal glasses. Count Dracula poured a deep red liquid from the bottle into each of them. "Come, join me in a drink. A toast to our eternal happiness together! Then, my dear.... we will make love..."

I looked down at my clothes. The heavy ball gown I'd been wearing was gone. In its place was a filmy, thin dress that clung to my curves and draped gracefully to the floor. A vampire's bridal gown? It was no heavier than spider's silk, and it made the softest rustling sound as I moved.

Dracula offered me a glass, then took up the other himself. "To our marriage- may it be blessed with eternal bliss... and thousands of children!"

I had seen the ghastly pods, and the bat-like offspring that the other brides had borne by the Count. Somehow, I knew that MY children would not be such horrid little beasts, nor would they come into the world in that manner. My babies would be gestated and birthed in the normal human way. They would be little people, not bats, and they would feed on milk from me, not the blood of others. I didn't tell my new husband that, of course, for he wouldn't have believed me. He would find out soon enough when I conceived the first of our young.

We clinked our glasses and drank. Even though I knew it was blood I was drinking, the thought of it no longer grossed me out. I was now a vampire, yet a goodly portion of my humanity still remained intact. If the Count thought I was going to be just another silly, fawning, fainting, all-vampire bride, he was sadly mistaken! But, was I a good enough actress to keep that little secret, so he need never know the difference? I would play the role to the hilt for him, and he would be none the wiser.

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Count Dracula led me toward a normal bed. "Would this be more comfortable for you for our first time than my own bed?" He indicated the coffin, which I would apparently be sharing with him now.

I nodded. The Count's eyes sparkled in eager anticipation of our first coupling. I had to admit I was as curious about vampire mating as I had been about normal human relations, for I was still a maiden and had no experience with either. My groom must have sensed my nervousness, for he hastened to wrap his arms around me and offer reassurance.

"Do not fear me," he said. "I will be the very gentlest of lovers."

He was just that. He took me by the hand and began to dance me around the room, very slowly. He kissed me with an indescribable tenderness. We waltzed to music that played only in our minds, dancing more and more rapidly until we were both laughing and gasping for breath. We collapsed on the bed. Then Count Dracula rolled over on top of me, pinning my body beneath his.

"Now I've got you," he said, a playful smirk on his face.

I could see nothing of him but his handsome face now, for he had completely enveloped us both in his cape. I could feel his hands on me beneath the cape, stroking up and down my body, as he continued with his kisses. I felt as if I were melting in his embrace. Then there was a sudden, piercing jolt of intense cold. I yelped at the shock of it.

Count Dracula was shaking his head. His eyes flashed, and his crooked little smile returned to his lips. "Ah, why did you not tell me, naughty girl? I would gladly have taken more time, to be sure you were really ready before I... but what's done is done now. Do not think of it as the loss of your innocence, my dear. Think of it as the gaining of knowledge, of how you can please me, and I can please you..."

The terrible coldness was rapidly thawing, giving way to a spine-tingling warmth that radiated throughout my entire being. I found myself really desiring Dracula now, drawing him to me by wrapping first my arms and then my legs around him.

"You are so beautiful and sweet, my dear," he said. "I want this first time for you to be wonderful, memorable! Let me make it good for you..."

As I gazed up at the Count, it seemed that he was barely moving at all, and yet there were things going on beneath that cape that belied that impression. His motions were subtle; the effects were anything but. The sensations made me want to laugh, to cry, to sing, to SCREAM! He smiled down at me, knowing all too well what he was doing to me. By now, I was trembling so violently that I was clinging to him in an effort to control it.

"Don't try to hold it back," he said. ""Relish it. Savor it. Lose yourself in it!" The black cape billowed over us like a banner as I, forever an alto in any earthly choir I'd ever sung in, hit the purest A above high C in my cry of joy at climax. The window above the bed, a small replica of the Rose Window of Notre Dame, shattered into a zillion shards. Then Dracula's own voice blended with mine; he sounded like a wild stallion trumpeting his triumph to the heavens. Every candle in the castle sparked into life and burned brightly at the Master's jubilant yell.

"YESSSSSS!!!" he thundered, for lovemaking was the only instance in which Count Dracula was allowed to feel any real emotion. I looked up into his eyes and caught just a fleeting glimpse of the man he'd been- a sad, tortured soul now, forever locked away in the body of a predator with an unquenchable thirst for blood. I wished I could free him from his torment, but at least I could offer respite from it whenever he wished to lie with me.

"My darling," I whispered, caressing his cheek.

"If I had my heart again," he replied, "I would love you so very much."

"I've given you mine," I reminded him, "so you do have that."

"So you have." Dracula got a rather silly grin on his face. "And now here I am, trying to drive my stake through it already... but through the scenic route!"

I laughed. "I didn't know vampires made jokes."

"Ah, my dear, there are lots of things we have yet to learn about each other, and we have an eternity in which to do that..."

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Count Dracula was, in a word, insatiable. He would come to me every day, half a dozen times a day, wanting to make love. I was astonished at his stamina, but I willingly indulged him, for his attentions were most pleasurable. We bred constantly, shrieking our ecstasy both night and day.

The one thing that puzzled Dracula, though, was why there were no egg pods. His other brides had produced a hundred of them with every mating, and yet there were none from me. This angered the Count.

"Why do you not lay eggs? We should have thousands of them by now, with as many times as I have seeded you!" he demanded. "Have I chosen a barren bride?"

"No, I'm not barren," I answered him. "In fact, I am pregnant with your child now, but I am different from the others. I'm a live-bearer. You will not have to shock this child into life with all that electricity and lightning business. It is true that I will bear only one offspring at a time, but that one will be born alive."

"Alive?" Dracula's eyes gleamed with excitement at such an idea. "A son or daughter of mine, born ALIVE?"

"Yes, very much so. When it arrives, you will see it move and hear it cry. And, my dear, it will be beautiful. It will look like US."

"That is impossible. Every bride I have ever had has laid eggs and borne me dead children who needed to be awakened. Children who hatched out, flew, fed, and died again within hours of their birth. Now you are telling me that you will bear me a living child?? How do I know that what you are telling me is true??"

"Darling," I purred, snuggling close to him and licking his face." I have no reason to lie to you. Just you wait and see..."

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As time passed, Count Dracula realized I had been telling him the truth. I was indeed carrying his child, and that whole concept fascinated him. He watched in wonder as my once-flat abdomen swelled and rounded out as the baby within it grew. He loved putting his hands on it to feel for kicks.

"That is my child," he marveled,"and it IS alive!"

"OW! Very much so," I agreed, rubbing a sore spot on my side where the little one had just landed another blow. "I'm glad it is soon to be born."

"You would have a much easier time if you had just laid eggs, like the other brides."

"True, but then you would have had to do the whole Frankenstein monster thing again to bring the offspring to life, and they would have died like all the others. This baby is alive, and worth the discomfort to me."

As it turned out, the birth happened the very next day-- nine months to the day after the consummation of our marriage! I was in pain, but I didn't panic, for I knew it was all a natural process and not to be feared.

I just paced the floor, breathing to endure the contractions. It upset the Count to see me in labor. He paced upside down on the ceiling! I kept walking until I knew I was ready, then settled myself in bed and drank a sip or two of a painkilling potion I had learned to make back in school. Madame Pomfrey, the school nurse, had made sure all her girls knew how to make the Labor Liquor! It tasted vile, but it made the pains bearable so I could concentrate on birthing the baby. Dracula couldn't bear to watch. He stayed on the ceiling, pacing fretfully, until he heard my groans cease and the shrill cry of the newborn ring out. Then he hastened to my bedside to see me and our little one.

I was sitting up in the bed, swaddling the baby in a clean towel so it wouldn't catch a chill. "You have a son," I announced to my husband. I was tired but oh, so proud!

Count Dracula eyed the baby in total awe. "A son!"

The child's eyes were ice-blue, and he had a surprisingly full head of dark, wispy hair. When he opened his mouth in a yawn (being born had tired him out, too), we could see toothless pink gums, except for two of the tiniest pearly canines in his upper jaw. They would one day grow into proper fangs. He was the image of his father!

I smiled at my husband. "Would you like to hold him?"

I never would have thought that the idea of holding a baby would have shaken my Lord's confidence, but he looked hesitant. "He's so tiny. I'm afraid I will break him!"

"Don't be silly," i said. "He may be little, but he's plenty strong enough. Come on, hold out your arms and I'll show you how to hold him."

The Count reached out tentatively, and I placed the now-sleeping baby in his arms, pointing out how to support the little one's head and back. Dracula was nervous, but he relaxed after a few moments, and a smile spread across his face as he gazed down at our baby boy. "He is so beautiful, so perfect," he whispered.

"Didn't I tell you he would be?" I asked.

"Yes, you did, but how did you know? "

"It's a family thing," I replied. "All my family had that gift."

"Your family were not ordinary humans, and neither are you," the Count said, fixing his eyes on me in a way that made me shiver a bit. "You are certainly out of the ordinary, being able to bear me a live child when no other bride ever could. You are not wholly a vampire, my dear. Don't think I don't know you sustain yourself with more than just blood, or that you creep out of our coffin to do heaven only knows what while I must rest. Level with me, my darling. I think it is time for you to tell me who you really are."

I gulped, but I faced Count Dracula and told him the truth. After all, what could he do to me now? He needed me to raise his baby!

"I am a witch," I replied calmly, "and our son may be a vampire, but he is also going to be a warlock."

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"A WITCH?" The Count threw back his head and laughed. "Oh, come now, surely you jest! I believe in witches about as much as I do in Van Helsing's pitiful attempts to kill me!"

"No, it's quite true. I AM a witch, a bona fide graduate of Hogwarts' School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I majored in the Healing Arts, which may well come in handy if Gabriel should try to do you in yet again."

My husband's laughter boomed so loudly against the castle walls that it woke the baby, who still lay cradled in his father's arms. He started to cry, a high, piercing sound that rattled the windows and doors.

"Here, let me have him..." I reached for the screaming infant. Dracula couldn't hand him over fast enough; he had no idea what to do with him. It rather amused me to see the Count so flustered, as it was so unlike him to be anything other than in complete control of things.

I spoke to the baby now, rocking him in my arms. "Aw, did Daddy scare you? He's very good at scaring people. You'll get used to him. Hush, now, it's all right..." The little one quieted in my embrace, and I settled down in a chair to nurse him.

Count Dracula watched this, puzzled. "What are you doing?"

"Feeding him," I answered.

"How is he going to get any blood from there?"

"He's not drinking blood; he's drinking milk."

"He's a vampire! He needs blood!" Dracula insisted.

"He's also a warlock, and baby warlocks need milk. Trust me, he will do just fine this way. I bet if you were to offer him a bottle of blood right now, he would refuse it."

The Count's eyes gleamed at my challenge. "You're on!" He dashed from the room for the briefest moment, and returned with a baby bottle full of blood. He then swept the child from my arms and tried to give him the bottle. The baby took one swallow, grimaced his distaste, and wailed in protest.

"Darling, he isn't ready for that yet," I tried to explain to my husband, who thrust the baby back into my arms and leaped upward to pace the ceiling again.

"He cannot truly be my child if he refuses to drink blood!"

"Well, I'd sure like to know whose he is if he isn't yours," I replied huffily.

"He looks just like you, and you have been my first and only lover! Don't be ridiculous, my love. Of course he's yours. He just isn't ready to handle blood yet. He will be, in good time, but for goodness' sake, he's less than two hours old!" I lowered my voice, and the Count, realizing that I was right, came back down from the ceiling.

"I suppose I have much to learn about being a parent," he admitted.

"We both do," I agreed. "Now.... what name shall we give our son?"

Count Dracula thought for a few minutes, and then a really evil grin spread across his face. "This child may be the key to finally defeat that pest, Van Helsing! Half vampire, half warlock! I would like to see my old friend try to get past a combination like THAT. So, let us give the boy a name worthy of that eventual irony. We shall call him.... GABRIEL!"

Somehow I had known Dracula would choose that name. I nodded, smiling down at the baby in my arms. 'Gabriel he is, then."

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Little Gabriel was, for the first few weeks of his life, a typically sweet little newborn. He slept some of the time, but during his waking hours he nursed voraciously, growing by leaps and bounds. The Count was delighted the day that our child began to supplement his milk diet with blood, by piercing my breast with his needle-like fangs. The blood thus mixed with the milk, and Gabriel loved it.

"Ah, my son, learning to drink blood like a proper gentleman!" Dracula praised him.

I rubbed a healing ointment on myself to close up the baby's fang wounds. "Maybe you wouldn't be quite so pleased about that if it were YOU that he was biting," I commented to my husband. I really didn't look forward to being bled every time I fed the baby now, but I didn't have any choice; he was far too young to wean for a long time yet. I was also pregnant with a second child; the Count had taken care of that as soon as we'd resumed our marital activities following Gabriel's birth. It seemed that I was going to be little more than Dracula's broodmare now, and it angered me. He didn't love me. He just wanted my body for his pleasure, and for me to bear and raise his children. I, an innocent young lady, had wanted to believe there was more to it than that. I'd wanted the handsome Dracula to be in love with me. True, he made love to me on a regular basis, and with a passion that defied description, but he was incapable of really feeling anything for me. I had hoped my love for the Count would melt his frigid heart, but I knew it wasn't so.

I'd had enough. I was sore from being chewed by a bloodthirsty infant, tired from lack of sleep in tending the child, and now here came Count Dracula in an amorous mood. He nibbled at my neck in a way that would ordinarily have aroused me, and was surprised when I didn't respond in my usual willing manner.

"Go away," I told him curtly.

"Come on, my darling. You know you want to..." Dracula tried again with the neck-nuzzling and kissing. I shoved him aside. This annoyed him; he wasn't used to having his bride refuse his advances. I had just managed to rock a fussy Gabriel to sleep, and I wanted to rest myself.

The Count wasn't going to take no for an answer. He glared at me with his icy-blue eyes and flashed his fangs. I just shook my head. He then snarled low in his chest like a wild animal, threatening.

"Don't pull that Hell-Beast stuff on me," I said. "You may scare everyone else with that, but I'm not afraid of you. Leave me alone. I'm tired!"

Dracula leaned in close, kissing me ever so softly in one last attempt to coax me into lovemaking, but I had already decided I was not going to give in to him this time.

"No, sweetheart! Please, I'm exhausted," I begged him. "Let me get some rest while the baby's sleeping."

"But. I want to love you!" the Count insisted. "You are my bride, and I want you!" He kept trying to caress me, to thrill me with the touches he knew I couldn't resist. I felt myself yielding to his advances in spite of myself, and I had to stop it. I couldn't allow him to push me like that when I wasn't in the mood. The anger within me swelled, and as it did, my form began to change. My head and neck elongated. My arms and legs became long limbs that ended in single-toed hooves. My hair trailed down my neck as a thick golden mane, and a fine tail plumed down over my rear quarters. I'd changed into my Animagus form, a palomino mare!

Dracula's jaw dropped almost to his feet in his astonishment at this metamorphosis. Then a lascivious grin crossed his face. "Ah! So I get to ride the golden mare? How exciting!!" He then jumped astride my back, sliding rearward to try to thrust himself beneath my tightly clamped down tail. I plunged high into the air, unseating him and giving him just a warning tap with my hind feet. I bounced him on my hocks, then shrilled an angry neigh as I landed both hind feet squarely into his chest. WHAM!

The force of my kick sent Count Dracula flying headlong across the room, and he impacted against the wall with a most satisfying THUD! He then slid to the floor, stunned. Of course the noise awakened the baby and started him yowling again, but it was worth waking him up to prove a point to the Count. When Dracula finally regained his consciousness, he saw me sitting with tiny Gabriel in my arms, trying to soothe him back to sleep. "Hush, hush, my little one... all is well..."

"What just happened?" asked my bewildered husband groggily.

I waved my hand in a memory-erasing spell. "Nothing," I replied with a serene smile. "Perhaps you just had a little NIGHTMARE."

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The Count never remembered anything of the Animagus incident with the golden mare, thanks to my memory-obliteration spell. He didn't even notice or question the hoof-marks my kick had left on his chest. I just smiled to myself whenever I saw them, though, for I had succeeeded in preventing him from forcing himself on me. He never attempted to do it again; now he always approached me with the utmost gentleness and respect, so something must have sunk into him even if he didn't recall any of it. When Count Dracula came to me in that oh-so-seductive manner, I was more than willing to accept him.

One day, however, the Count found me weeping in our bedchamber. If there was any one thing that truly upset him, it was seeing me cry. There was still enough humanity left in him to be moved by a woman's tears. "What is the matter, my dear?" he inquired.

"I've lost the baby," I sobbed. Even though I hadn't really been ready for the second child, I mourned the loss of its life.

"Lost the baby? Do not be ridiculous; he is asleep in his crib!" Dracula answered. "Gabriel is not lost. I just came past the nursery. I know exactly where he is."

"No, my love, the OTHER baby. The one I was carrying. It is dead, and I have passed it."

"Why would such a thing happen? What went wrong? Had you no magic that could have saved it?"

"If I knew, I would tell you," I replied. "I think it was probably just too soon after Gabriel for me to be having another baby. He is still so very young. I'm not meant to have a second baby so soon after the first."

Dracula kissed the tears away from my eyes and enfolded me in his arms. "There, there, my darling! We will make another baby," he promised. "Do not cry, my lovely one. I am always ready to breed." He pressed himself against me to prove the validity of that statement, which I already knew was all too true.

"Wait," I begged him. "Yes, we will continue to mate whenever the mood strikes us, but we should not be in such a hurry to conceive another child so soon. Let us enjoy little Gabriel now. He should be our focus."

"You are certain you do not wish to become pregnant again right away?" Dracula nuzzled and smooched me in his special way, tyring to arouse me. "You know I would be all to happy to do my part in that endeavor..."

"Yes, I know you would, and I love you for it. We will try again soon enough, but after a miscarriage, I need time to heal... both physically and emotionally." I kissed the Count's lips softly.

"I could try to bring the dead child to life," he offered. "Where is it?"

"It wasn't far enough along for you to be able to do anything like that with it," I said, glad that Dracula would not be able to revive it. "It has been properly buried. It wasn't even developed enough to be recognizably male or female."

Again Dracula kissed a few tears from my cheeks, a gesture that showed me there might still be hope to give him back his feelings. "I am so very sorry, my love. When you are ready, we will create another baby." He hugged me close, comforting me in my grief.

Our embrace was interrupted then by the shrill, demanding cries of baby Gabriel, who was telling me he wanted his dinner at once. The Count shrugged, smiling, as I hastened to the baby's room. He followed me. I lifted Gabriel into my arms, murmuring soothingly to him. "Yes, I know you're hungry! I am going to take care of that little matter right now..."

I sat down in my rocker, and Dracula watched with fatherly pride as our son eagerly attacked my breast. I winced only a little bit as the baby's sharp little fangs chomped into me; I was becoming accustomed to having both milk and blood taken when he fed now.

"This is the most beautiful sight in all the world to me," Count Dracula declared. "My beautiful bride! My handsome son! Is there any man anywhere who is as blessed as I am?"

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The baby, Gabriel, was quite precocious in all aspects of his development. By the age of three months, he was busily crawling around the castle; it was all I could do to keep up with him! My constant chasing him down to keep him out of trouble greatly amused his father. Gabriel was also attempting to speak at this tender age. He said "Mama" and "Dada" clearly, and knew which of us was which. He was a spunky tot, and Count Dracula was very proud of his rascal son! I loved him dearly, too, but he exhausted me, and I was borderline anemic from the blood he drained from me daily along with his milk. The Count made me drink as much blood as possible to keep my iron levels up. I didn't like it much, but I did it for the sake of the baby.

The Count wondered why my desire for him was flagging. Yes, I loved and wanted him, but my enthusiasm for lovemaking waned because I was just plain tired all the time. My husband didn't understand this. It was time to teach him another lesson. I would leave him to cope with Gabriel for a time, and see how he felt by the end of it!

I had left Dracula alone with the baby before, but always at times when Gabriel was sound asleep, unlikely to waken and want anything until I returned. This time, though, I was going to let him deal with his son wide-awake...

"I have to step out for awhile," I told the Count. "Can you look after the baby while I'm gone?"

"Of course I can take care of him," my husband assured me. "Go, do whatever it is you need to do. Gabriel and I will be fine."

"All right. I've left a bottle in case he gets hungry before I come back, but I just fed him, so he should be content for awhile yet." I hugged the baby and gave him a big kiss. "You be a good boy for Daddy, Gabriel. I'll be back soon. Bye-bye!" Then I kissed the Count and placed our son in his arms. "Have a good time, my loves."

I stepped out the door, listening just outside. I heard Gabriel call out, "Mama!" and start to cry. I grinned to myself, for I had counted on his reacting that way to my departure. Count Dracula was in for a tough time of it. I then transformed myself into a fly with a miniaturizing spell, and found a place on the wall to hide and watch what happened.

Dracula's first response to Gabriel's tears was a proper one- he assured the baby that I would return before long- but Gabriel wasn't buying it. He wailed pitifully. It broke my heart to put him through this, but the Count needed to experience for himself what I dealt with every day as a mother. I restrained my urges to intervene.

Gabriel struggled in his father's embrace, so Dracula turned him loose on the floor. The baby scrambled to the door and smacked it with a tiny hand. "Mama!" he insisted.

"Mama will be back soon," the Count reiterated. "It's all right, my son. Daddy's here."

Little Gabriel had inherited more than just his good looks from his father. He had also gotten the full measure of Count Dracula's fierce temper. He sat in the middle of the floor for a moment, his eyes brimming with tears and his lower lip quivering. Then he threw himself down on his belly, kicking and screeching his frustration. MA-MAAAAA!!!"

I had never seen Gabriel so upset, for I had always gone to him as quckly as possible whenever he cried. Why let him get any more worked up than necessary? I ached to go to him, to cradle him in my arms and rock him till he calmed down, but I couldn't do that if I wanted to prove my points to his father. I forced myself to stay put and watch the Count handle things.

Dracula was trying to do the right things; I had to give him credit. He sat down on the floor and scooped the crying baby up in his arms, rubbing his back and telling him to "Hush, hush," as he'd seen me do so many times. It wasn't working for him the way it usually did for me. His voice and his touch were not what Gabriel was used to, and the baby continued his complaining. Then the Count rose and began to walk the floors, gently bouncing the baby- another tactic he had seen me use with him. When that failed, he tried doing it on the ceiling, but all being upside-down did for Gabriel was to frighten him. He screamed even louder. The Count quickly returned to the floor with him.

"Mama," Gabriel whined, burying his face in his father's chest.

"You cannot possibly want your mother back any more than I do, my son," Count Dracula replied to the baby. "I wonder what was so important that she had to leave us like this? Do not cry, little one. It's all right..."

The Count carried the child back to the nursery, and his eyes lit up when he spied my rocking chair there. Gabriel liked to be rocked; maybe that would quiet him. Dracula sat in my rocker, hoping that the soothing motion of the rocking chair would calm our son down. Gabriel just continued to cry, but now he was clinging to his father's neck. My husband hugged him and kept rocking. No other challenge Count Vladislaus Dracula had ever faced had defeated him so completely as this one of babysitting his own son was doing now.

The Count suddenly became aware of a warm wetness spreading across the front of his clothing, and it horrified him. He knew he was now facing the ultimate task... changing a diaper. This was a job he had seen me do, but he hadn't really paid a lot of attention to the procedure, because he never expected he would have to do it himself. However, little Gabriel was soaking wet now, and so was the Count. Heaving a sigh of resignation, Dracula stood up and laid the still- screaming baby on the dresser. He found the stack of clean diapers and grabbed one of them. Luckily for him, I had pre-folded the diaper to the right size, but the Count had no clue yet as to how to put it on the child. When he unfastened Gabriel's outer clothes, he found that the diaper he wore was secured with pins.

"Ah, so that is how it works!" he commented. He managed to unpin the wet diaper and slip it off, tossing it into the pail beside the dresser. To his utter amazement, as soon as he had removed the sodden undergarment, the baby's crying ceased.

"Is that it?" he marveled. "Was that all you wanted?" He slid the dry diaper beneath the baby's backside, pulled the front part of it up between the child's legs and up to his waist, then carefully pinned it on around his belly. He didn't even jab his fingers with the pins! Feeling very satisfied with the accomplishment of the diapering, the Count held the baby to a standing position to pull his pants back up. The diaper, pinned too loosely around Gabriel's middle, dropped around his ankles. The shocked look on Dracula's face at this made little Gabriel burst into delighted giggles. I stifled my own laughter at seeing this from my hiding place. What would the Count do? Then the baby, still in his fit of laughter, lost control and sprayed his father's shirt front. I held my breath, fearing that Dracula might well lose his temper and do harm to the child. I braced myself, ready to swoop in and protect Gabriel from his father's wrath if need be.

But Count Dracula surprised me. He suddenly began to laugh with the baby at all of this. His deep, rumbling bass voice blended with the high-pitched coos and squeals of baby Gabriel, echoing on the nursery walls. The two laughed together for several minutes, totally enjoying each other for the first time since Gabriel's birth. This scene thrilled me to the heart. If anyone could give Count Dracula back his feelings, it wasn't going to be me after all. It would be his child.

I could stay away no longer. I left my hiding spot, went outside to change back to my human form, and came in through the door as myself.

I entered the nursery to find Dracula and Gabriel laughing their heads off, with Gabriel's loose diaper still hanging at his feet.

"Well, I can see you two have been having fun," I commented.

"Do you want me to show you how to pin that diaper snugly enough, dear? The baby bloats his tummy out like a horse being girthed up. You have to get him to suck it in..." I reached for Gabriel, expecting him to come to me in relief, but to my great surprise, he turned away from me and clung to Dracula. He gave me a crooked little grin so like his father's.

"Dada!" he said.

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Iwas ecstatic because my long-time best friend from Hogwarts, Andrea Friar, had come to visit me. She thought baby Gabriel was darling, but couldn't understand why I had married a vampire. "Whatever possessed you to do such a crazy thing? Surely there were plenty of boys at school who would have been a better match for you."

"You'll have to meet the Count to understand why I married him, and meet him you shall, tonight at dinner," I replied.

Andrea rubbed her neck nervously. "I hope he isn't going to want ME for the main course!"

"No, no! Vladislaus doesn't go around biting and eating my friends," I assured her, but I neglected to tell her she would be the first of any of them that Dracula would meet. I was sure I could keep the Count from attacking her. If I had to, I would even resort to magic to protect Andrea. I sincerely hoped my husband wouldn't want to make a meal out of her!

Andrea and I chatted happily and played with the baby until sundown, when I heard the Count calling me from our bedchamber. I hastily went to see him while Andrea continued to entertain little Gabriel.

Dracula awakened in an amorous mood, as usual. I had to hold him off and tell him to save it for later, as we had a guest for dinner.

"Is your friend a lady of good taste? Proper breeding? Royal blood, perhaps?" the Count inquired, licking his lips.

"NO! Don't even think of her that way! She's a friend!"

"Of course!" Dracula smiled, flashing just a hint of his fangs. "Enemies tend to cause...indigestion."

"Count Vladislaus Dracula, I warn you! Don't you dare bite Andrea, or I will have to deal most severely with you!"

"Oh, my darling, are you threatening me?" The Count threw back his head and laughed heartily. "I love it! Threats are...sexy!"

"Trust me, my love. Andrea is a witch too, and two witches can easily handle one hungry vampire. But, please... don't make me do anything to you. Be on your best behavior. Andrea's a friend...not food!"

"Ah, I am only teasing you, my sweet one. Of course I will not dine upon your friend's blood. I just wanted to see what kind of a response I would get from you." Dracula tickled my chin and kissed me softly. "You are cute when you get mad. Your cheeks go all pink, and your eyes shoot out sparks! It is very alluring... very arousing... such a turn-on!"

"You keep those fangs, and everything else, to yourself now! You can have all you want of me later, but please, PLEASE mind your manners with our guest. Andrea and I go way back. We have been friends since our first year at Hogwarts, when we were both eleven years old."

"Never fear, I will be the perfect gentleman," Dracula promised, and we stepped into the main hall of the castle together....

To be continued ...

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