by Anna Wilson
Lupus looked sad. “I don’t want to go,” he said. “But I think your mum’ll say you don’t need me any more, Vlad.”
“What do you mean?” Vlad asked.
Lupus counted off on his fingers. “Your flying’s improved, your mind control is getting better – and you’re out in the dark, having fun!” he said.
Vlad gasped as he realized what this meant. “Yes – I’m not afraid any more!” he said.
Minxie and Lupus cheered.
Lupus and Vlad were exhausted by the time they got back to Misery Manor at Saturday lunchtime. They raced straight to their coffins to catch up on some rest.
It seemed as though they had been asleep for only a matter of minutes when Mortemia came into the room and shook them awake.
“I would’ve thought you’d be up dark and early tonight,” she said crossly as the two vampires groaned, stretched and yawned.
“But it’s Saturday!” said Lupus.
Mortemia arched one perfectly plucked eyebrow. “What’s that got to do with anything?” she asked.
Lupus let out a disbelieving laugh. “Don’t you ever have a lie-in?” he asked.
Mortemia’s nostrils flared with disgust. It seemed she had suddenly had enough of trying to be polite to her husband’s nephew.
“I know you Transylvanian vampires have modern ideas, but a lie-in is taking things too far.” She sniffed. “That kind of lazy nonsense will get you nowhere, young vampire. It’s a good job you’re leaving tomorrow.”
Vlad sat up and blinked as his mother pulled back the covers on his coffin.
“I hope you’re ready for the Bat Licence Test, Vladimir,” she said. “If you pass you will not have to have flying lessons ever again.”
“And – if I fail?” Vlad asked, his voice small.
“You know what happens if you fail,” said Mortemia. “You will go to the Black Tower. If it had been up to me you would’ve been sent there a long time ago to have a think about your behaviour. But your father seems convinced that you will learn better by following Lupus’s example. We have yet to see who is right,” she sneered.
Vlad shot Lupus a look of desperation.
Lupus pulled a face and hopped out of his coffin. “Vlad will pass, don’t worry,” he said. “He’s had the best teacher – me!”
“Little show-off,” Mortemia grumbled. “Out you go – into the graveyard for the test!”
At least I’ve conquered my fear of the dark, Vlad thought as he followed his mother. He knew now that the shadowy shapes he had been so frightened of were trees and bushes and tombstones. And he knew from the camping trip that the ghostly noises were little creatures like owls.
As for my manoeuvres, Vlad thought, I must just “chill”, like Lupus told me, and pretend I’m onstage. If I act like Lupus I might be OK.
Drax and Grandpa Gory were waiting in the graveyard. Drax had his pocket watch at the ready to time Vlad’s circuit. Grandpa had some parchment and a quill to take notes on Vlad’s performance.
“Don’t forget the checklist, Gory,” said Mortemia as she swept past to take her place next to him. “Every one of those manoeuvres must be completed to perfection for Vlad to get his licence.”
“There’s no need to tell me,” said Gory. “It’s like teaching an old vampire how to suck blood,” he added irritably.
Vlad glanced over at his grandfather. Gory rolled his eyes and nodded to Mortemia as if to say, “What a pain!”
Vlad smiled gratefully. At least there’s a chance that Grandpa will be fair, he thought.
Lupus was already a bat, looping and twirling and showing off as he zipped in between the tombstones. “Just remember what I taught you, Vlad!” he squeaked.
“Stop it!” Mortemia snapped. “This is Vlad’s test, not yours.”
“Calm down, my little blood cell,” said Drax smoothly. He took Mortemia’s bony hand. “Why don’t you read out the list of skills that Vlad has to complete? Then we’ll get this over and done with, and go inside for a celebratory breakfast.”
Mortemia snorted. “Very well.” She drew out a piece of parchment from inside her cape. “First the safety checks,” she said, reading from the list.
Vlad pictured his cousin changing into a bat. He did it so fast! Vlad closed his eyes and imagined he was as skilled as Lupus. And POOF! He was a bat – as easy as that!
Vlad immediately felt happier. He flew in front of his mother. “Wings – check,” he said, flapping them up and down. “Night vision – check,” he said, looking around. “Hearing – check,” he finished, flicking his ears. He was still amazed at how much better his hearing was when he was a bat.
“Very good!” said Gory, making ticks on his parchment.
“Hmm,” said Mortemia. “Let’s test that night vision. Read that tombstone over there.”
Vlad peered at the stone, which was on the other side of the graveyard. “OK – ‘in loving memory of Bertie Hill’,” he said. “‘1902–1967. May he rest in peace.’”
“Wicked!” shouted Drax. “Your night vision has improved no end, son.”
Lupus smiled encouragingly at Vlad.
Mortemia pursed her lips. “All right,” she said. “And now for the flying skills.”
Vlad took another deep breath. Just remember to act like Lupus, and everything will be OK, he said to himself.
And it was! In the next half an hour, Vlad zipped in and out of the tombstones with speed and elegance, not bumping into a single one. Then he reached the yew tree and did a perfect reverse manoeuvre. Next, he flew back to his mother upside down.
Drax and Gory and Lupus were clapping and cheering in delight.
“You’ve done it!” cried Drax. “At last I think we can say you are a proper vampire.”
“Wait a minute,” said Mortemia, tapping one blood-red nail against her list. “What about pulling out into oncoming traffic?”
Drax put his head on one side. “Oh, my little devil,” he said. “I don’t think that’s strictly necessary, is it? There isn’t much traffic around here, after all.”
Gory agreed. “No vampire traffic other than us, and we rarely leave the manor these days.”
“That’s not the point!” Mortemia insisted. “We had to do it to get our licences, so Vlad must, too.”
“B-but I haven’t practised that!” Vlad squeaked.
“Too bad,” said his mother, turning into a bat. “Come on, Gory – and Drax. You too, Lupus. You fly around in the middle of the graveyard with me. Vlad – you must decide when it’s safe to cross the graveyard, making sure you don’t bump into any of us.”
Vlad swallowed. He didn’t know the rules! Should he nip out as fast as possible and dodge his relatives? Or should he wait until there was a big enough gap and cross slowly? He wanted to shout, “IT’S NOT FAIR!” but he knew he just had to do as he was told.
Lupus flew up to him and whispered quickly. “Relax, remember?”
It was all very well him giving advice like that, Vlad thought, but his nerves were beginning to get the better of him. It was hard to stay relaxed!
Mortemia, Drax, Gory and Lupus began flying around the middle of the graveyard. At first they were tightly packed together. Then they started separating and flying in different directions. Suddenly, Vlad saw a gap big enough to fly through. He gathered all his courage and took aim at the gap, flying in a neat straight line.
Just as he was about to go through, his mother turned sharply and flew towards him.
“Argh!” he cried. His wings wouldn’t do what he wanted them to. “Help!” he shouted, as the bat shape of his mother approached, faster and faster.
They were going to crash!
Vlad closed his eyes and waited for the collision. He felt a rush of air and heard a screech from his mother.
Then, without thinking, he flipped up and back and performed a backwards somersault, narrowly missing his mother by millimetres.
Mortemia had not been expecting this and kept flying straight – head
ing directly for the yew tree!
“I can’t STOP!” she yelled. She crashed into the branches and plummeted to the ground, landing in a crumpled heap.
Drax, Gory and Lupus pinged back into vampire form and walked over to her. Vlad hovered above them, not daring to transform himself. What would his mother do now? She was bound to punish him for causing her to crash.
“Mortemia?” said Drax, his forehead crinkled into a frown. “Are you all right?”
Mortemia pinged back into vampire form and stood up, rubbing her head crossly. “No, I am not!” she snapped. “Did you see what our useless son just did?”
“Erm, yes. I did,” said Drax slowly. “Although I wouldn’t call him ‘useless’.”
“Why in hells’ bells not?” Mortemia cried. “He made me CRASH!”
Drax picked up the parchment that had dropped from Mortemia’s cape. “Actually,” he said, “I think you’ll find that Vlad performed a wonderfully elegant manoeuvre to avoid crashing into you – and you were the one that crashed.”
Grandpa nodded. “That is true,” he said. “Vlad used some very quick-thinking there. You were flying rather recklessly, if you ask me.”
“I didn’t ask you!” Mortemia screeched. “Vlad, you know what this means—” she began, shaking her finger at Vlad.
“It means that Vlad has passed his Bat Licence!” said Lupus, coming to Vlad’s rescue. “Come on, Vlad. Change back and join us down here.”
Vlad hesitated.
Then, all at once, his mother gave in.
“All right,” said Mortemia irritably. “I can see I have been outvoted.”
Grandpa Gory, Drax and Lupus all cheered.
Vlad was delighted! He changed back into a vampire almost without thinking. POOF! And he landed softly next to his mother, holding his head high.
“I’m sorry you hurt your head,” he said politely. “But you were going really fast.”
“Yes, yes,” said Mortemia. “You’d better take this quickly, before I change my mind,” she said, reaching into her cape. Then she shoved a piece of parchment at Vlad and stormed back into Misery Manor, muttering angrily to herself.
“Wow,” said Vlad, his eyes wide as he read the document. “Fully Fledged Bat Licence – valid for one hundred years.”
“Congratulations, Vlad!” said Drax, slapping his son on the back.
“Good work!” said Grandpa Gory.
“Yeah, well done,” said Lupus. “You’ll be able to come and visit me now.”
“I think I’d actually like that,” said Vlad.
“And I’ll make sure MY mum doesn’t cause a traffic accident when you do!” Lupus added.
Drax and Grandpa exchanged an amused glance.
Then the vampires threw back their heads and gave a long, hearty laugh. “Mwhahahaha!”
“Thank you, Lupus,” said Vlad. “For everything,” he added quietly.
“No problem, mate,” said Lupus. “Now – race you back inside!” he cried, pinging back into bat form.
“You bet!” Vlad shouted, transforming in an instant.
“Fang-tastic,” said Drax softly, as he watched his son speed off into the night. “A proper vampire at last.”
Copyright
STRIPES PUBLISHING LTD
An imprint of the Little Tiger Group
1 Coda Studios, 189 Munster Road,
London SW6 6AW
Text copyright © Anna Wilson, 2018
Illustrations copyright © Kathryn Durst, 2018
First published as an ebook by Stripes Publishing [Ltd] in 2018
eISBN: 978–1–84715–001–5
The rights of Anna Wilson and Kathryn Durst to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work respectively has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved.
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