Dracula: Hearts of Fire (Dracula Heart's)

by Albert Gallant

  “Oooooohhsaa!” Achak’s breath turned to black mist in the cold atmosphere as he stood with his palms toward the sky. The wizard’s concentration was emotional. He had two small brown leather pouches near his waist, one below each shoulder. Out of one he took dried vampire blood, and out of the other he took sulphur and salt that had been enchanted. When the ingredients were rubbed together as if he was warming his hands, combined with an incantation, black lightening flashed out of the sky and electrified the air. The hair stood up on his arms and legs and on the back of his neck. He pushed out large amounts of air from his lungs, sounding like the wind in a storm; he sucked in air and again pushed it out slow and noisily. This time Achak was up to nothing good. He sought more energy, more fire, and more destructive power. One day Achak wanted to be able to challenge Dracula and destroy him. He was never happier than when he was up to no good.

  The crow fell dead from high up in the tree in mid caw; it tumbled down hitting several branches and balanced on a branch of the fir tree for several seconds before an invisible hand knocked it off, enabling the dead bird to continue its fall. When the warm-blooded vertebrate hit the forest floor it turned to dust. The air picked up in that one small area and blew the bird’s remains away, as if adding insult to injury. Afterward it was almost as if the American crow had never existed.

  Achak’s red-beaded headband had become wet with perspiration. He was a large native man that worked with both good and evil magic, but lately his nasty side was pushing away all remnants of the good that he once had in him. His destroyer side was enjoying the increase in his power, overshadowing all the virtuous deeds that he had done in the past. People evolved and unfortunately his changing was not for the good of mankind. His inner demon had forced the good in him to give way like an innocent child pushed around by the bully in the schoolyard. The more he learned of the dark ways, the more sinister ideas formed. Now only evil deeds satisfied him.

  Several feet from the wigwam was a vigorous fire, and over it a large black pot with the blood of several animals boiling in it, rabbit, deer, bobcat and crow. The bottom of the old clay pot was just starting to burn, adding to its nasty odour and it was all part of the enchantment. Until that burning had commenced, it had been possible for the victim to escape. But the scorched blood had special binding properties that took to the air and followed the path of the spell. It now followed the invisible road in the sky. The scent had already found its victim, who was unable to fight its alluring qualities, having no choice but to seek out its source. An offer of ten million dollars would not have dissuaded him from pursuing it.

  A large black raven up in a coniferous tree looked puzzled as it was being covered by the black snow; it shook off the black stuff with attitude. The bird looked down at Achak in his buffalo hide as he walked peculiarly around the wigwam, with three steps forward and two steps back. The native made disturbing faces into the air and toward the trees. Evil looking faces that would scare almost anyone; faces that morphed into ugliness that could not be measured. Achak was entranced in his spell and could sense that it was working. His victim was now less than a mile away and had no choice at all but to continue his approach to the area.

  Booker was a red sheriff from Newport Vermont and found himself captured by the spell. He was a tall blond Canadian that had been called down to New Hampshire to help battle a small group of vampires that had been defiant until the end. His brown trench coat was getting torn from his repeated bumping into trees as he blurred for short distances through the woods. Booker had been the sheriff closest to the enchantment and now he was pushing through the forest heading for that captivating scent. His mind was fuzzy, with only brief moments of lucidity. Booker passed a black bear that was scratching its back against a tree; the animal was puzzled by the visible black aura that surrounded the sheriff but otherwise ignored him. An attack from the bear could have possibly taken him out of the spell but unfortunately it didn’t happen. The bear wanted no part of the black stench. In fact it burned the bear’s nose and made him sneeze repeatedly.

  Achak watched as Booker entered the area of the powerful spell; he walked to the wigwam and stood motionless unable to move. He was as a puppet with no control over his own body. Booker appeared hypnotized willingly awaiting his fate. The blood wizard walked around him and smiled as the black snowflakes continued to fall. Achak exposed his fangs biting into the sheriff’s neck; he drained all his blood in less than a minute, also sucking up the extra power that Dracula had placed into him, thus taking his life. The sheriff’s bones collapsed to the forest floor into the black snow.

  Achak enjoyed the extra energy that now flowed through him, whether it was factual or not he certainly felt like a more powerful sorcerer.

  CHAPTER SIX

  SHERIFF ALEXANDER AND HIS GERMAN SHEPHERD VAMPIRE DOG Tessy had been called to an apartment building in the Bronx. There had been a report that someone had been moving very fast outside the building, and the people inside were scared. Super-fast movements always meant vampires. People were told not to leave their apartments until the danger had passed.

  The atmosphere was dark, humid and dangerous. A vagabond with a bottle of wine in a bag and a gun under his belt stepped out of the shadows and wandered off muttering to himself, but not before he staggered and fell into the wire fence. When the handsome sheriff arrived five minutes later in his black trench coat he realized that there was no immediate threat. The dog’s happy demeanor told him that she sensed nothing untoward in the area. Therefore, if there was a vampire it wasn’t one of the bad ones. The dog sensed the new vampire but knew immediately that she wasn’t of the notorious variety.

  “She’s back here.” The female voice that originated from the back of the building was obviously stressed.

  The red sheriff blurred behind the building where he discovered a 13-year-old girl. The girl had been crying softly as her mother stood beside her. The mother had beautiful brown hair caught in the bright security lights of the building and she was pretty but looked distraught. The dog ran up to the girl and licked her face. The dog then rushed to the side of the building and jumped a short man with a shotgun; he was there to kill the vampire. He was questioned and released as he was part of the building’s security. The dog’s fangs made him drop the gun and soil himself.

  The sheriff turned his attention to the woman and her daughter. “I’m Sheriff Alexander. Is there a problem here?” In fact he knew what the problem was but he wanted to hear it from them. The girl’s aura was almost as unstable and unpredictable as she was; it was one of the telltale signs of a newly made vampire. The girl was frightened of herself and her new capabilities. She could smell the blood in her mother’s veins.

  Abbey was thirty-two and quite attractive. Her hands were shaking. “She’s been turned and the building has a no vampire policy. She doesn’t know what to do with herself. And people from the building have seen her, and they’re scared of her.”

  “When was she turned?”

  “Last night.” Arym’s mood seemed slightly elevated because of the dog. “He gave me the choice of being killed or turned.” Tessy gave her paw to the girl forcing her to smile as she then attempted to lick her tears away.

  Abbey sighed deeply. “What are we going to do? They won’t let her into the building. Her father was killed by a vampire. What is this world coming to? I just don’t know what to do.”

  “That is so sad. What’s the girl’s name?”

  “Arym.” Tessy gave her yet another kiss as she smelled the dog’s face. Arym thought that there was something very different about the dog, but she wasn’t sure what. It was the strangest thing. The dog appeared to be telling her in her mind that she was going to be okay.

  “Well, Arym, your life has changed and you’re going to need a little help. I’d like to take you to get some counselling, you’ll be there for three or four days as they evaluate you. We’ll get permission for you to stay in the building then you’ll be able to go home and get on wi
th your life.”

  Her mother was encouraged. “You can do that? You can get permission for her to come home?”

  “I’ll vouch for her. The dog could sense her good heart as we approached. One day they might be happy to have a vampire in the building. That’s usually the way it works out.”

  The girl half cried and half laughed. “Can my mother come with me?”

  “She can come for a visit.”

  “Will there be other vampires there?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I don’t want to go. I’m scared. I don’t want to be around vampires.”

  There was silence for a moment as Alexander thought about it, and he saw her mother’s pleading eyes. “Tell you what. What if I send the dog with you? She’s a vampire, an official sheriff and she’ll protect you. She’ll stay right by your side while you’re there.”

  “She’ll really come with me?”

  “I guarantee it.”

  She stared at Tessy and liked the idea. “Okay. I knew there was something different about the dog. Her heartbeat is so loud, and I can hear some of her thoughts. Everything is way too loud. There’s a rat way over there by that bin, scratching. I can hear the blood pumping through it, and it’s a male. Isn’t that totally weird?”

  Arym words made her mother want to sob but she managed to hold it in, but just barely. Her only child was forever changed and she could do nothing about it. Life had just kicked them both in the face, again. They were permanently changed through no fault of their own. Life had been a quagmire before all of this. She knew what her neighbors would say and how they would now be shunned, at least in the short term. Abbey wished that she could go to sleep and awake to discover that it was all a dream.

  “You’ll need a period of adjustment. I’ll be around to help if you need me. Now let’s go inside and get things going. If you have a computer I can do the paperwork from here and then take you over.”

  “I’m not allowed inside.”

  “You are with a red sheriff for an escort.”

  The girl’s response was meek but positive. “Okay.”

  “Thank you so much sheriff. My name is Abbey Hale.”

  “Well, I wish we were meeting under different circumstances Abbey.”

  “Will I have to drink blood?”

  “Yes, Arym, but you don’t have to hurt anyone to do it. There are places that deliver the stuff now. I’ll get you an account set up at one of the reputable locations and because of what happened to you it’ll be free. I’ll call as soon as we get in there.”

  “Okay.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  MICHAEL ARRIVED IN NEW YORK and commenced his search for Lauren. He got a comfortable room at the Fairfield Inn and Suites hotel, but the problem was that he didn’t know where to begin his search. He was an architect and had to finish a project and bow out of bids for two others as his mind had been higgledy-piggledy since Lauren’s departure. His attempts to snap out of it were overridden by his emotions. Michael dreamt about her a lot and always awoke with such a forlorn feeling. He was lost with no GPS to guide him.

  Law enforcement was refusing to give out her address, and wouldn’t even give her a message from Michael because in the past similar schemes had been used to lure at least two red sheriffs to their deaths. So-called friends had used the ploy to entice red sheriffs into traps. Any vampire that could boast they had eliminated a red sheriff; had their status instantaneously elevated. In the world of vampires, status was an important achievement, impressing the other evil vampires and gaining much wanted respect. Some biters wouldn’t kill another vampire that had killed a red sheriff. It was a crazy world.

  Michael ended up having lunch at Delmonico’s steakhouse on Beaver Street, a place that Lauren told him about that had great food, and he hoped there was a chance that he would bump into her in there. He thought the place had great atmosphere with their tiny lamps on the tables being a nice touch, but he couldn’t enjoy it much without Lauren. Only time or Lauren could take care of cupid and his sharp arrows. One’s emotional state needed to be in balance or life’s ride wasn’t at all pleasant.

  Michael had even called a private eye, but with only her first name he had said it was doubtful that he could track her down, never mind the fact that tracking a sheriff was dangerous business. But 42-year-old John Shaw took the case because the money was good though he promised nothing. After less than a day of searching for Lauren he was getting discouraged, New York City was a huge place to search for someone with no clues to follow; he may as well have been searching for a particular grain of rice in a fifty pound bag. He kept his charming hazel eyes on news stories in the chance that he would see her fighting someone in a particular area, that way he could at least zero in on that location. Sheriffs almost always had specific areas to watch over. But what if weeks went by with no sign of her? Months? Michael felt like banging his head against the wall for letting her get away.

  Lauren arrived in Boston and soon discovered that Michael had moved. She went to several places that they had been together, including the Boston Athenaeum, but luck was not on her side. She did entertain the thought that Michael had headed to New York to search for her, but quickly dismissed it. It was a thought that tickled her emotions but she knew he had commitments in Boston and that made it unlikely. She was starting to rue the day that vampires had decided to drop their last names; it made it almost impossible to track them, and of course for some that was probably the point.

  Lauren hadn’t been with Michael long enough to have been introduced to his friends, at least she could have gotten some information that way. She didn’t want to abandon the humans in the part of New York that she had been protecting, and rumors had it that something big was going to go down in the city; she could feel it in her bones. She headed for Logan International Airport to wait for her flight back to the Big Apple. She hoped that Michael hadn’t gotten himself into some sort of trouble that he couldn’t get out of.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ALLISON SCREAMED HER LOUDEST as the blood flew from her only child. Jenny’s heart stopped beating as she collapsed to the ground. The bullet from the high-powered rifle went right through the child’s heart and out the other side; it was as if someone had dropped a car on her chest. Although her heart ceased to pump her mind remained active. She went into a different state of consciousness, like taking the elevator to the top floor in a skyscraper, passing many levels of awareness. Her soul left her body.

  She got out of the elevator which led to the roof of a huge building, so large in fact that the end couldn’t be observed. There were thousands of people on the roof, all white and translucent. A lot of them stared at her but said nothing. They whispered to one another but not to Jenny. One old woman wiggled her fingers at her and she returned the greeting, and then it all started to fade. It was in fact her great grandmother although she didn’t know it, translucent beings were difficult to recognise.

  Jenny was transported deep into the forest near a wigwam. She could smell a combination of black coffee and blood. A crow in a maple tree to the left of her was shaking its head as it danced from branch to branch. Was she being warned away from the area? A low chanting had started from inside the round domed shelter. Black smoke exited the dwelling as if it was on fire. Suddenly, Achak blurred out of the wigwam and attacked her; he threw some sort of silver dust into her face and it burned as if it was acid, partially blinding her. She reached into her purse and threw a tiny bag at him and it burst into flames, setting him on fire. Although she thought he was in distress he laughed even as the sound of the flames crackled on his bubbling skin.

  A short old man with white hair appeared and gestured for her to follow him. “Jenny, all this is a distraction. Achak is trying to distract long enough so that you will die here. You are a hybrid and you need to heal yourself. Ignore him and follow me. Concentrate on layers of healing light; do you feel its warmth? Do you feel its caress?”

  Her heart only missed two beats whe
n it kicked back to life. The pressure and pain on her chest was incredible. Her heart had palpitations and then fluttered but within seconds it had regulated itself. The wound healed as she sat up with a gasp, sucking in air deeper than she ever had, and then she saw them. In a small patch of forest two streets over Bernard and Anthony were arguing. They had inadvertently stepped out of their protective circle. The enchantment of concealment no longer offered its protection. She saw and heard their nasty thoughts, the nasty things that they had done in the past. She realized that they had shot her and that they wanted her head in the bag.

  “Jenny! Jenny!”

  “Mom? It’s okay. I’m okay. It seems that I’m more vampire than human.”