Chapitre 89: 8. Levoton Tuhkimo. ( The Restless Cinderella.)
The car was a black sedan. I didn't know the make and when I walked closer, the car door opened and I went in. I fastened my seat belt, and the car started moving silently. The driver was quiet and there was a partition so I couldn't see into the front seat.
The windows were blacked out, but I could clearly see the Key West scenery as the car drove through Key West and Florida. I didn't know exactly where we were going and the drive took 55 minutes. We drove to a private airport, and the driver got out of the car.
He was plain looking but a vampire and I suspected he didn't speak English to begin with. He politely opened the door and directed me to the plane. They must have taken Damon to another airport and left, as it was a private plane and the only one here.
I realized that I already missed him a little. Without him, I felt lonely knowing that Adam and Samuel had abandoned me, but we would see each other in a few days when we would be joined together in a ritual that was actually older than Damon. It would not be a wedding from a storybook but a vampire ritual, but it showed Damon's commitment to me.
The plane was luxurious. It could carry a dozen or twenty people comfortably, but apparently, I was the only passenger. The seats were pale grey leather and everywhere was the comfort of a private jet.
I took my seat, fastened my seat belt, and waited as the powerful engines of the plane started up and the plane moved along the runway, and soon it took off. This was actually the first time I flew in an airplane while conscious. And I had to experience this alone. But it was nice and sublime. Not bad for the first time.
There was food, drink, and magazines. They were on plates with little notes on them. It was clear that Damon portioned the food and wrote these notes. This was his handwriting on it, so he delivered the food to me on the plane. Wow! What on earth had he done that for? The drink was Coke, coffee, and a few other sodas that I drank pretty damn greedily, as I wanted a change from always drinking Coke.
I read the papers. Now I didn't have Mr Salvatore to distract me as I read and enjoyed it. I learned new things and felt my analytical side, my pretender side, come to the fore and start analyzing the article or the interviews.
I drank and ate now and then. I kept my stomach full as I didn't know how long the cleansing rituals would take and what kind of food was there, so I filled my stomach up. I had been taught to eat every time when I had a chance.
The flight lasted about 12 hours and I even managed to sleep for a while. I felt safe on it and had put myself into a food coma, so I dozed off now and then. I was awake drinking coffee when the plane started to land and the tension in the pit of my stomach grew. This was exciting, thrilling same time, and a little scary too.
The plane landed, and the car was waiting on the airfield. I stepped off the plane and walked down the stairs. And it was much cooler in Romania than it had been in the Key West and my simple dress felt a little chilly. I couldn't help but feel the goose bumps on my arms when the icy wind blew after I had gotten down the stairs and walked towards the car, a black sedan just like it.
The driver was just as plain looking and opened the door for me as I approached the car. I thanked him politely and I don't know if he understood English to begin with. The car glided down the road as silently and smoothly as the last one, and I tried to take in the scenery.
What I didn't know at the time was that Romania would be a place where I would experience everything over the years. I would experience one of the most horrible years of my life there and then again, sometimes my soul sang and loudly.
We drove through a rural or remote area because I didn't see many buildings and the road was mostly gravel. Eventually, I saw a huge old castle. The castle was gothic in design, gloomy and the evening was dusk when we arrived. Large torches lit the courtyard and had actual fires in them.
I didn't see much planting or anything as the car pulled into the courtyard of the castle, stopped and the driver got out, and opened the door for me. I got out of the car and heard voices.
Four girls came out of the castle. I knew instinctively that these were not people, but these were the dryads. Forest spirits almost. They were slim and tall, and I could hear their ringing laughter all the way to the car.
One had blond hair, one had black hair, one had scarlet hair, and one was a brunette. Somehow I knew they had their own trees, the blond one had a birch, the black one a linden, the brunette an oak, and the redhead a chestnut. They had hair ornaments braided from those trees and leaves when I looked at them more closely.
They spoke in broken English a little and introduced their names, but I couldn't quite catch them.
I said, "Hello, I am Mimi Salvatore."
They laughed and repeated my name. They came up to me eagerly, touched me like I was some rare creature, and took me with them to the castle.
The castle was as dark inside as it was outside and it was full of dark panels or stone walls. We walked down a short corridor, and I smelled blood somewhere nearby, but it was human blood, and I wasn't interested. We went downstairs, and there were stairs to the cellar where they took me.
We walked down a dim, cool corridor and saw large double doors with glass panels and a large swimming pool. We went a couple of doors forward and a red-haired girl opened the heavy door with seemingly no effort. Meaning these creatures had a lot more power than you'd think. I went through the door and then we went through another door.
There was some sort of enormous spa section and a couple of other rooms. We went into one of these dressing rooms, and an older woman was waiting for us. The woman was tall, shapely, and had strong facial features, but she spoke flawless English with no accent. She was also a dryad and apparently extremely old.
I had studied little about other supernatural beings, but I had heard Bran talk about them once on the phone. Dryads, when they refused to work with Bran either, and I don't know why. The dryads seemed somehow pure, though.
Maybe Bran had some evil in him or something they couldn't stand, but then again, they were getting the vampire women ready for the wedding. I was sitting down in the chair when the woman beckoned and told me a few things that made me roll my eyes inwardly.
She said: "Welcome, Mimi. Damon has told me a lot about you and I can tell that a lot of people are looking forward to your wedding. But first, let me tell you a little bit about what we do here. He's told me quite a lot about you and also about his own preferences for women. I see he's already done your hair. Now you are here with us for three days to cleanse yourself and prepare for eternal life as your husband's wife. Your task and role is to be a wife, always and forever. Surrender to your husband completely and learn to live under his authority. It may be difficult because you are so inexperienced, but your husband will show you your place. Once we have cleansed you so that you are innocent, pure, and untouchable, we will help you into your dress. Then it's your wedding party, followed by your wedding night."
The woman beckoned me to undress slowly already, and she continued with her rant.
"After that, there will be a public party to celebrate you and your husband will get to enjoy his new wife. He will then prove his worth to you at the ceremony and you will also get to show him your strength so you can show him what you can do. Now first, we will prepare an herbal bath to cleanse you. Then there are steaming sessions and getting your body to make you the perfect wife for your husband. We'll get your body in perfect shape for your wedding night. So your husband will enjoy having your innocence. Then it's up to him to mold your mind and spirit just the way he wants it. "
I thought, well, in fact, Damon warned me so I knew I could handle this because if this rant had come as a surprise, I might have said no or commented quite harshly at least. It's great that Damon warned me so I didn't sigh or say, really? Or roll my eyes.
But now I can take it. I'm going to be such a fucking perfect wife that nothing better matters. This is going to be an experience I'll never forget. And Damon can be so proud of me. They say that you fake it till you make it. I could do just that.
I took off my dress and followed the girls to the spa. There was a big tub full of some herbs and it reminded me of some kind of soup bowl, almost. But I got into the steaming hot water and sank in up to my neck.
I actually went to several herb baths. When I got up in time for them to change the water and add new herbs, they criticized me. The women looked at my body appraisingly and said something amongst themselves, apparently in Romanian.
I knew I was not the ideal woman, at least not in body. My breasts were small, almost non-existent. Even A cup would have been flattering.
My hips were slightly wider than my very narrow waist, but I didn't have the ass that women would want. Plus, I was short. I was barely 156-158 cm, so I didn't have long legs like the models.
My legs were thin and shapeless, with a decent gap between my thighs when I walked. I was petite, lithe, thin, and pretty damn flat on all sides a bit, and when I walked, I didn't even know if I was walking with my hips swaying in a feminine way. And to this day, I don't care.
I knew Damon liked women's breasts and hourglass bodies. Damon liked tall, voluptuous women with big breasts and big asses. And I didn't have either, so in a way, I forgave him if he fucked others. I was good at it. Forgiving Damon.
Finally, I got up from my last herbal bath and walked to the sauna. The sauna was boiling. I smelled the herbs from all six herb baths and more herbs were just coming. The women were watching me and this oldest woman gave me my steam water and I had to use it several times and sweat.
Yes, I was sweating and hard and I felt like I was pushing some stuff through my skin again, but this was not as hard as what I was doing with human blood.
After I'd been sweating in the sauna for at least an hour, the woman called me. They took me to sit in a sort of shower chair first and they started washing me, all the women.
You'd think there'd be a crowd if five creatures were washing you, but they had pretty damn coarse sponges. One was washing my hair, long and hard, and the other four were washing some part of my body. There wasn't a single place that hadn't been washed and cleaned.
The washing liquid smelled faintly of passionfruit and I wondered if that was the gentleman's idea, too, that I smell like him. Once I'd been washed and cleaned for probably over an hour and my skin was almost red, they had rinsed me several times with water with something in it. I even smelled the women's trees and this oldest one smelled like hornbeam.
I could hear this woman whispering to herself as she washed my legs or breasts. They washed my pussy and ass very thoroughly. I don't think I've ever washed either orifice as thoroughly as I did. Then they dried my hair and me.
Then, they gave me a thin bathrobe, and the girls went off to escort me further down the basement floor. There was a large red faux leather covered door, so apparently it was a sound-absorbing door. They opened the door to a sort of bedroom.
The bedroom had a bed in it. It was not big by any means, but it was quite nice looking. The room was very ascetic, but warm and not at all cold or gloomy. Beige and grey hues adorned the walls. The bedspread was light brown, and the carpets were a muted green. All in all, the room had a decoration with very natural and woodland colors, and there were several large houseplants.
The ladies took me to sit on the bed and gave me a glass to hold. There was maybe a little over decilitre of liquid and I noticed I was thirsty after all that sweating, so I drank eagerly.
Then came the next drink, and the women were always busy talking and making the next drink. They were not alcoholic, different spices and herbs, some were sweeter than others, but somehow my head and mind got fuzzy and I noticed I was quite tired.
I don't know if it was all those drinks or if I was just exhausted from the complete madness so completely. I went to bed when the ladies retired from the room and didn't even think about changing clothes, but fell asleep in a bathrobe.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone