It came out of nowhere and made the cat’s ears twitch. A scream from somewhere in the area forced Zacharia to stand and take notice, someone was in distress but where? It startled him to attention. Then another shriek found its way to his ears, it sounded female. The living room window was open to the outside and Moon Diamond jumped onto the window sill and listened. The Master was away for a few days; the cat had taught itself how to use the electric can opener and because of it was self-sufficient. And the bags of blood in the fridge were also easy enough to get at.
“Meow.”
Another distressful shriek and the feline jumped out of the window and down on the lawn. It waited for another scream so that it could orient on it, suddenly it took off on the run, crossing the Mill Road and turning left it wasn’t long before he discovered Jerome with his face against the living room window, licking it. It was obvious that the vampire was in the process of terrorizing humans. Moon Diamond climbed up the creep’s leg, all the way to his left shoulder and took a bite out of it. Climbing that vampire was fun for the cat but extremely painful for the biter.
“Aaaahhhhh!” Jerome fell off the window and tore the cat from his shoulder along with some of his skin when he tried to smash the cat on the ground, but he blurred so fast that he was abruptly standing in front of Jerome and to his left. He attempted to stomp the life out of the cat four times, creating a loud thud with every stomp, but Zacharia easily avoided him. They stared at one another with contempt. “What the shit are you!”
“Meow, meow MEOW meow meow?” the cat mocked. The Siamese strutted with confidence, lifting its right paw, indicating for Jerome to bring it on. The animal did a little dance to add to the insult. Finally, there was something for Zacharia to enjoy. Nothing made a person feel more alive than the risk of death in battle.
The vampire rushed and tried to viciously kick the feline to death, only his foot arrived into the empty space where the cat had been, with the momentum of the blow taking him off his feet onto his behind. The Siamese laughed at his indignity. It stuck its tongue out at the bloodsucker. Jerome was now beyond angry, he was furious. Moon Diamond scratched down into the lawn digging in the dirt, so that when his claws dug into his opponent it would be that much more painful. He could smell the chemicals that had been sprayed on the lawn.
Margery gestured for the others to approach the window and watch. “The vampire’s fighting the most beautiful cat, and believe it or not the cat’s winning! Come and see. Hurry up!” They thought that she had gone over the edge until they saw it.
Moon Diamond launched itself into his beard and his claws sunk deep into his neck, dirt and pesticide from the lawn was dislodged into Jerome’s skin. The cat’s fangs sunk into his chin and dug in causing him excruciating pain. The vampire screamed and rolled onto the lawn faster than any human could. It burned like iodine on a wound, and when they healed they continued to cause caustic pain. The feline reached the top of his head and dug out several chucks of skin and hair and commenced to lap at the blood. He tried hard to tear the cat from his head but couldn’t. He ran his head and the cat into the side of the house, knocking the cat off, screaming and dancing and jumping he blurred off into the night. Claps of approval originated from inside the house. The Siamese bowed to indicate that he had heard their applause and then also ran off into the night, quite satisfied that he had accomplished a good deed, continuing to hear Jerome’s screams and curses far off into the forest.
CHAPTER FOUR
BERNARD AND ANTHONY HAD SET UP THE GUN and tripod in a perfect place, two parallel streets over from Jenny’s house in a small wooded area on a dead end street. It supplied sufficient cover for the task at hand and as soon as the deed was done they would flee with the girl’s head in the bag. Their hearts weren’t into the job but it was either her head in the bag or theirs, so the decision was simple.
Two beautiful cardinals flew around the space where they were situated as if flying around a solid building. The air smelled of strong Cuban cigar smoke as Anthony puffed away on his Bolivar. Bernard had knocked down a birch tree and now had a perfect line of sight past a brown garage on one street and in between a house and a swing set on the other. They sat on the ground and told each other stories of past conquests and battles that had almost ended up with them being bones. It was a way to pass the time as they awaited the perfect shot.
“So I was just getting ready to kill this guy and drink him, right at the point where I was ready to jump on him I got a tap on the shoulder. It was a red sheriff wanting a light for his Treasurer cigarette. I didn’t sense him at all, but sheriffs use magic like everyone else. I would have been bones for sure. I had a nightmare about it once. Right after I gave him a light he pulled his sword and cut my head off.”
Bernard nodded. “Aw yeah. Probably wouldn’t be here with me right now. Probably be some other loser.”
“Hey, that’s not funny.”
“Aw yeah. Wasn’t meant to be.”
The sky was multiple shades of gray and threatened to rain, but so far it had been an idle threat, not a single drop had fallen. There was a small engine plane buzzing up there somewhere but the clouds concealed it. Bernard was a short fellow, just over five feet tall; he wanted to be anywhere else but his current location. He would prefer just about any other job than this one. Anthony was average height with shoulder length black hair and a gruff face. His conscience was not a robust thing, but rather a sickly entity barely able to lift its head, and whenever it did so was usually knocked back down. However in this situation his conscience was attempting to rise, like a down and out boxer trying hard to get up.
The Winchester Model 70 extreme weather rifle with scope had a clear view of Jenny sitting on a lawn chair in the front yard facing her mother, but killing a little girl didn’t exactly sit well with either of them. She was sideways to them and he was waiting for a better angle. Bernard took a discolored cloth out of his pocket and polished its stock, and Anthony shook his head at the act. But to Bernard it was simply a slight distraction. It was as if he was polishing time itself, to make it glide pass a little easier.
“Bernard, what are you going to do with all that money?”
“Gonna give some to charity.”
“Yeah right.”
“Aw yeah. My father was blind so I’m gonna give some to the institute.”
Bernard had to chuckle. “You belong in an institute. If it wasn’t for the fact that Sharpton would track us down I think I would just get the hell out of here. That’s one vampire that I do not like. Notice how vampires go missing around him? Like when Arvel went to Italy. Italy my ass. Not everyone is as stupid as he thinks.”
“Aw yeah. If I told him you said that you wouldn’t live very long. Don’t worry I’m no rat.” Bernard was anxious to get it over with and get out of the area. He could sense some of Jenny’s energy but wasn’t sure what he was detecting, or where it was originating from. It did make him a little edgy but decided not to bring it up. They didn’t need to be unnerved. Some things were best left unsaid. No choice but to complete the task and so they were going to and that was it.
They were surrounded by a circle dug into the ground around them, about three inches deep, which was filled with broken glass crystal. It created a temporary spell that allowed them to go undetected from Jenny. That small area had become invisible to her magical mind, like radar bouncing off a stealth fighter. Sharpton’s instructions had been precise on how to accomplish it, and it had taken them two days to complete the circle as they had run out of crystal. They were told that the crystals had to form a solid circle or it simply wouldn’t work. A spell that wouldn’t function was a waste of time and energy. Any space where crystal wasn’t touching crystal and the spell would be nullified. The fragments had to originate from enchanted crystal balls that had been smashed and sprinkle with flakes of dried vampire blood that contained a high level of magical properties, but at least Sharpton had taken care of that end of it having supplied the glass. The blo
od had been purchased from a wizard that dealt in such things, and in fact had been his own blood. Wizard’s blood had a reputation of being unpredictable when consumed, with tales of vampires melting from the inside out. But some tales were just that, perhaps put out there by a wizard.
Bernard stroked the blade of his 17th century katana sword and looked nervous, starting to cut his hand open in slices and watch it heal. Even his own blood was appealing as he stared at it. He loved killing and terrifying humans, but killing a child? This day would not be one to remember. In fact he thought that he might use a spell to make sure that he would forget, but those things were expensive so he wasn’t sure that he wanted to dish out that kind of money. A conscience that was wiped was often a happy one. “That was so cool the way Nash took that red sheriffs head off, I wish it had been me. Take a sheriff’s head and the way other vampires look at you changes.”
Anthony ran his hand through his hair. He watched as Bernard sighted the rifle at Jenny. “Bernard, when the girl stands up you shoot her in the heart. We’ll run over and I’ll cut her head off and put it in the bag, then we can put this business behind us. Do not hesitate. In this business nothing good comes from hesitation. Do you understand?”
“You’re obviously hesitating when it comes to shutting up!”
Bernard’s dull green eyes looked as though they had seen too much nasty business; he shook his head. “Aw yeah? Making the right decision just might come from hesitating. What the hell is next? Are we going to kill a baby in its cradle? I don’t know if Sharpton knows what the hell he’s talking about or not? She just looks like an ordinary girl to me.” But maybe the energy he was feeling was the girl’s.
“What the hell do you expect to see? Magical dust flying out of her ass? Hey, moron, if you want to cut yourself like that do it when I’m not around. Supposed to be something special about her but I don’t know. She looks like an innocent to me.”
“Aw yeah. Well, she won’t be so special with her head in the bag.”
Anthony stared at Jenny and knew that her head would soon be in the black gym bag at his feet. “Life is a lot more interesting now than it used to be I can tell you that. I can’t wait until we run everything, and it’s coming. Humans are just too weak.”
“Aw yeah? Shit is coming, that’s what’s coming. A big heaping pile of it, all stinky and nasty. Everyone’s going to be covered in it. Vampires and humans. We’ll be able to draw some nice and big stink lines on it.”
“Who spit in your blood? A vampire’s gotta do what a vampire’s gotta do.”
Jenny sat on the lawn chair on her front lawn facing her mother; she had a Steven King paperback in her hand but she wasn’t reading. The girl was wearing a red blouse and a skort made with patches of black velvet with a single two inch long blood red diamond for color above her right thigh, she had had a lot of fun making the ensemble with her mother. It was just one of the things that they shared that made them happy. “So where did Dracula go?”
“Your father went back up to his place in Canada.”
“Sure, now he’s my father. Before that he was a blood sucking monster that liked to eat kids and kittens.”
“I can assure you that he was never that. Anyway, he’s got some business up there that apparently involves you.” Allison knew that it was difficult for Jenny to come to terms with the fact that Dracula was her father; she could see the troubled look on her face. Perhaps it was more annoyed than troubled.
“What the heck is that supposed to mean? He better not start bossing me around. What kind of father shows up when you’re twelve? Are you really my mother, Mother? Or did you find me in some garbage can?”
“Oh, you’re mine. I remember the day you were born. You hurt.”
“And why are you getting back with him now? Why did you break up in the first place? If you would have never broken up I would have always known.”
“It’s complicated.”
Jenny slowly shook her head. “People always say it’s complicated when they don’t want to tell you something. Everything is complicated if you look at it from the right angle. Just tell me why you broke up in the first place. It’s a simple question Mother, so let’s hear a simple answer.”
“He wanted to turn me.”
“He wanted to turn you into a vampire?”
“No, into a piano.”
“Funny. So Dracula wanted to turn you into a vampire but you didn’t want to be turned?”
“That’s right. He didn’t want me to grow old and die on him. No way was I letting him do that to me, but you know what, someday I might actually reconsider. Time has a way of changing a person.”
“You’d really let him turn you into a vampire? You want to be turned before you’re all old and ugly? Not sure how I feel about that. I guess it beats the alternative, dead in a box.”
“It’s complicated. And don’t tell him what I just told you. Oh, he said it’s dangerous for you to use your magic without proper training.”
“Oh Mother, it is not.”
“No? Have you forgotten the window incident?”
Jenny tapped herself on the forehead with the book. Conceivably she could have accidentally tossed her mother out the window and killed her. The realization of it commenced to sink in. Her life would have been over; it would have been impossible to get over something like that. Maybe her father was right. “So I’m not supposed to enchant anything?”
“In a few days we’re going to his place in Moncton. He wants you to meet someone up there, someone that knows a blood wizard that can train you properly. Your father said that a lot of them claim to know what’s what, but only a few actually do. He wants you to be trained by someone that knows what’s what.”
“And what about school?”
“We’ll figure something out.”
“And where is Moncton?”
“Up in New Brunswick, Canada. He says that he has a cat that he wants you to meet?”
Jenny looked into her mother’s green eyes with a little contempt. Her face tightened with curiosity. “He wants me to meet a cat? Does he have mental problems or what?”
“He said it’s a special cat.”
“Un huh. A cat is a cat Mother, unless it has two heads or something. Hey, do you think anyone can beat up Dracula?”
“I don’t know the answer to that question but I sure wouldn’t want to try it. Jenny, I didn’t finish that book, you’re supposed to wait your turn.”
“Oh yeah, well I didn’t know that Dracula was my father. See how that works?” She wasn’t as angry as she was pretending to be. “Hey, I could go to school and say that my father can beat up your father. I could say it to anyone and it would be true.”
“You can’t tell anyone it could be dangerous.”
“Mother, you already said that.” When Jenny stood up to give her the book a bullet went right through her.
“Jenny!”
CHAPTER FIVE
THE SCENT OF BOILING BLOOD was on the air.
Deep in the boreal forest of Quebec it snowed black snowflakes. The large flakes were surreal as they descended being both beautiful and foreboding, like tiny gentle kites that had lost their strings. The small clumps of black snow took their places on the trees, ground and on a nearby crow. It was too cold to snow but it did nonetheless. Even the wind blew peculiarly from different directions, making the flakes dance oddly at times, being pushed and pulled. The crow zeroed in on a particular flake above the trees and followed it as it fell, finally taking a bite out of it as it neared. The bird screeched and sounded confused, or was it in some sort of distress? Was it struggling for its breath as its head bobbed up and down?
The clouds over that small section of forest were also different shades of black, as if its colors could only show different hues of darkness. A stranger sight had never been observed by the animals in the area. It looked like the world was coming to an end with the black shiny snowflakes falling. In the sky two gloomy clouds had come together and slowly
started to swirl. In less than a minute the clouds had stopped their rotation, as if frozen in the sky.
The Ojibwe style wigwam made the forest look as though it had gone back in time. Even though it was summer it snowed, and about two inches of the cold black stuff covered the round domed shelter and the surrounding area. The abnormal flakes clung to trees and branches, but beyond the spelled area it was a warm summer day; however inside that circle of paranormal energy it was as cold as the arctic. Insects froze and perished as if the season had abruptly come to an end, tiny legs wiggled their last movements of life as their last bits of energy was pulled into the air. The trees felt betrayed with the unexpected departure of summer.
Dracula: Hearts of Fire (Dracula Heart's) Page 3