B00724AICC EBOK (13 page)

Sheila looked terrible, as if she had aged twenty years in a week. She was frightened to even look Dracula in the eye, and she kept her head down. “Can you get my baby back? We only have one child, only one. We agreed to give them the two million but now they want five. We don’t have five. You can have the two million if you get her back to us alive.”

“
I don’t need any money,” said Dracula in his deep baritone voice. “All I need is for you to understand what I am going to do to the perpetrator, and that ultimately your conscience will share in the responsibly.”

Ted adjusted his brown cashmere sweater as the air conditioning was quite high. He turned his attention to Piers. “Ah, what exactly is he saying?” Looking down at his hands he noticed they were shaking.

Piers cleared his throat. “He’s going to track them down and kill them. No jail time will factor into the equation. They will be dead and never be able to accomplish such dirty work ever again. You need to imagine that you are deliberately unleashing a vicious dog on someone, ultimately you may feel the bite of responsibility.”

The Master turned his head toward Piers. “Was I just compared to a dog?”

Piers simply shook his head to indicate the negative.

Sheila met her husband’s eyes and he pretty much knew what she was going to say. She had never been the delicate type. She pushed her dyed dirty blond hair out of her pretty blue eyes stared directly into the master’s. “If there are ten of them, kill them all I don’t care. As long as I get my little girl back. Pull their arms off and beat them with it!”

Dracula smiled and nodded slightly. He appreciated the fact that she didn’t mince her words. He looked at Ted and he simply nodded in agreement. “All right then, if you can get me some of her soiled clothing so that I can capture her scent.”

Sheila stood up, actually happy that she would be able to accomplish something. “Will a pair of her dirty socks be proper?”

“
Excellent.”

When Sheila exited the dining room Ted asked Dracula a question that made the master smile. “Now that we’ve granted you entry into our house, you won’t return and eat us will you?”

“
Certainly not. That’s the first time that a human has been so direct. Your family has done nothing to warrant such a visit from me. I may have been the bogeyman in the past but I’ve evolved. And Piers here is a vegetarian.”

Ted stood as Sheila returned with a pair of white socks. “How long will it take?”

“
Should only take a few minutes, she’ll be brought back in the limo is she’s alive. Also depends on traffic and distance.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

THE NIGHT SPEWED FORTH an onerous rain that came in waves with the wind, alternating with heavier and lighter moments of precipitation, but it did nothing to nullify the uncomfortable humidity. If anything it made the situation worse. Some of the people that dared to cool off in the showers were savaged by vampires that swooped down upon them out of trees and other places of concealment, with puddles infused dark with blood. Cries of desperation were somewhat concealed by the rain.

Keith Conley had deceived the elderly couple into granting him permission to enter their small cottage in what had been a serene South Beach area of Staten Island, with a beautiful sandy beach across the street and three miles of ocean side promenade to explore. The couple had been content with the discovery of new faces and pleasant scenes of nature along the beach. Keith had told them he was there to check the quality of their water and that there had been an underground gas leak. He now had John and Margaret Brown subdued and cowering in the seaside cabin corner of the small but luxurious cabin. They cringed under the round Savannah-influenced dining room table with its splendid molasses finish that sat in their small kitchen with its concaved base and metal screen. On their knees on the checkered oilcloth floor that they had so lovingly selected held no comfort for them now, it only served to injure their poor old knees.

The old woman had a cute face as she was once beautiful and sought after by many suitors. She had had such lovely red hair in her youthful days and had resembled a young Bridget Bardot. It had been a difficult thing for her to endure over the years, the loss of her young face replaced by the old one. She consoled herself in the fact that time withered everyone as the years rolled on.

Keith was as fat as he was ugly. His face looked to be weathered by the sun, as if someone had taken a rough piece of sandpaper to his face. Saved from an early death from atherosclerosis and a weakened heart, he paid a vampire a considerable sum of money to circumvent the system. Now Keith had the might of a monster and the disposition to go with it. He had been a cruel diamond salesman as a human, and a dishonest one at that, replacing genuine diamond with fakes. He had always picked on the elderly as they were much easier to fool, and less likely to have his dishonest work checked. Even so, he had been forced to kill an elderly man and dispose of his body in the ocean.

Keith’s weight shook the kitchen as he paced back and forth, slapping at them under the table. It was most enjoyable to prolong the mental torture. “How does it feel to know that I’m soon going to eat the both of you? Describe it to me.”

“
How does it feel to be a fat piece of shit?” John countered.

Margaret swiped at her husband of fifty years. “For god sake don’t make him mad!”

“
Don’t make him mad! That fat tub of lard is going to eat us!” Since death appeared imminent, he saw no reason to mollify the obese bastard. John was summoning his courage to get up and face the inescapable conclusion of death by vampire.

And with that Keith giggled like a little boy that had put a grasshopper down a little girl’s dress, their reaction and interaction was priceless to him. He then stomped on the old woman’s hand under the table, breaking two of her fingers. She cried out in pain and it was the most awful feeling for John to not be able to defend his beloved. He had once been a military hero, and his courage returned as he stood and punched the biter right in the throat, but it was like punching steel, and all he accomplished was hurting his hand. Keith’s continued snickering was simply adding offense to their pain.

Keith smiled and showed his fangs. “That was like being hit by a fly old man.” He grabbed John by the neck and lifted him off his feet as a torrent of rain hit the square kitchen window. The rain caused John to glance toward the window, even as the life was being strangled out of him. Keith shook him like a rag doll, broke his neck with a loud unsettling crack, and then fed on him. Blood dripped down to the floor as the old woman took a fatal heart attack and slumped under the table.

The fiend ripped John’s head off, squeezed out a large amount of blood and let his body fall with a thud. He got on his knees and lapped the blood as a dog would from its water bowl. He had hoped to terrify Margaret to a new level of fear, but as he looked at the old woman he realized that she had already passed on, it angered him. He started to smash everything in the house, commencing with their microwave.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

ALLISON WALLER WALKED DOWN the sidewalk and into the night with her 12-year-old daughter Jenny; she was quite sure that her daughter would turn twenty in six months instead of thirteen. Allison had gorgeous green eyes and the look of classic beauty; she was tall and slender with blonde shoulder length hair. Allison had an air of goodness about her; she was classy in mind and spirit and always gave the advantage of doubt to everyone until proven otherwise. She had hoped that she taught her daughter properly in the ways of the world, and in the judgement of right and wrong.

Jenny was no ordinary child.

She was the product of her mother and a vampire the natural way, and that was a rare occurrence indeed. Jenny was obviously going to be a carbon copy of her mother in many ways, and was as cute as a baby seal. Her hair was almost white blond and her eyes also green, though lighter than her mother’s. She carried her red Nine West handbag that they had purchased at Macy’s for eighty dollars and she believed that it made her appear ladylike, and carried herself accordingly. They enjoyed their walks together. Jenny carried a Japanese katana sword and seven throwing knives in a belt on her right side.

Jenny looked up at her mother as they walked. “Mother, you do know that we’re being followed?”

“
Oh, I know.”

Jenny switched her purse to her opposite shoulder. “And you know that he wants to drain our blood.”

They stopped on the sidewalk in Manhattan and faced one another. “So what else is new? They say that about half of the vampires are good and half are bad. What do you think?”

Jenny considered what her mother had said. “I think there are more good ones than bad ones but we hear more about the bad ones and not enough about the good. Just like on the news, it’s the awful stories that bring up the ratings. That’s sad don’t you think?”

“
I guess bad news sells a lot more. Have you influenced him yet?”

They started walking again. “I have mother but just a little. I’ve made him wonder if it is necessary to kill us or not. But if he gets too close he’ll be sorry that he messed with us.”

“
You should see the awful images he’s thinking, images of ripping us to shreds. Tearing our throats out with blood flying everywhere. Very graphic and bloody. If I can’t alter his mind I’m going to make him stake himself.”

“
A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.”

The bat flew out of the sky and turned into Oscar the vampire, but as he approached within a dozen feet he immediately stopped and looked puzzled. The look on his face was quite humorous. The killer brought his hands to his cheeks and stared at them.

Jenny sighed. “You were going to break off that tree branch and stake yourself. See, that one right there.”

“
Oh, that’s right, that’s right, that’s right.” He jumped up into the popular tree, broke off a branch and staked himself through the heart. His meat turned to dust as his skeleton fell to the ground.”

“
That was necessary?”

“
Yes mother. I could have rearranged his mind but it would only have lasted for a couple of weeks, maybe a month. It wasn’t going to be a permanent thing. He would have killed many more.”

“
Jenny, you’d make a great red sheriff.”

“
That is very true. Sheriff Jenny Waller, vampire killer extraordinaire.” She thought on it. “You know there are some vampires that I simply can’t influence, and I’ve no idea why that is.”

They walked over the bones and kept going. Cars passed them by, and they were as many vehicles on the road as had been in the past even though there was more risk at night than during the day to be killed by a biter. New Yorker’s were not easily inconvenienced. Jenny suddenly stopped and had become so excited. Her mother looked down at her knowingly.”

“
You have got to be kidding.”

“
I am not. There’s a red sheriff going to blur around that corner, and he’s has a vamp dog. I’ve never seen a vamp dog. Her aura is so beautiful, almost like a rainbow. Oh, how I wish you could see it Mother.”

Allison was most impressed. “I’m never seen a vamp dog either. They’re quite rare.”

Alexander blurred around the corner and stopped and looked down at the bones. He looked at Jenny and her mother, and then focused entirely on the girl. Jenny ran up to Tessy as she was so enthusiastic that she could barely contain herself. She jumped up and down with the excitement.

“
Can I pet your dog? Please!”

Tessy had already started to lick the girl and in fact had some desire to go home with her, but she knew that her place was with Alexander. The dog then padded up to Allison and she stroked her pretty face. Tessy’s tail was curled but didn’t reach all the way to her back. She was a shepherd and husky mix.

Alexander looked puzzled as he examined the branch and sniffed at the air, realizing that it was indeed Oscar that was lying in front of him on the sidewalk; he could see his gold amulet with its red ruby around his neck. He bent his knees for a closer look. “You ladies happen to notice what happened to this vampire? This just happened. Did you see who staked him?”

Jenny nodded as Tessy went back to her and sniffed, and the German shepherd sneezed as it seemed puzzled. “It was strange. He jumped up there, broke the tree branch and stuck it in himself. I guess he committed suicide.”

The red sheriff stared up at the tree. “Oscar would never have killed himself. Someone must have influenced him, but with such an ancient vampire that wouldn’t have been easy. Did you see anyone else around near him?” He suspected Jenny because of the energy emanating from her.

“
Nope.” Jenny continued to play with the dog.

The dog sneezed again as if it was her way of pointing at Jenny. In fact had Alexander read the dog’s mind just then he would have seen what the dog was trying to infer. But he was just too puzzled to notice the dog’s behaviour. Jenny opened her purse on took out a little black book and ran over to the sheriff.

The dog barked.

“
Could I PLEASE have your autograph? I have two from other red sheriffs. I collect the cards but I only have about half of them and I don’t have yours.”