B00724AICC EBOK (20 page)

“
You want to hear the story about your father yet again?”

“
Yes please.”

“
Why don’t I just video it and you can play it over and over until your heart is content.”

“
No way. I like the personal touch and the look in your eyes.”

“
Well, we met in Acapulco Guerrero. I was on the beach getting some sun when he walked up to me. Gave me a dozen red roses. We had smiled at one another a few times, but I hadn’t realized that he was taken with me until he gave me the flowers. We hadn’t even talked at that point. I thought he was quite bold at the time and I really didn’t want to accept the gift, but the look on his face as I tried to refuse them made me change my mind.”

“
What was the look?”

“
I don’t know. Like you when you’re being punished for not doing your chores? Such a sad face.”

“
You said he was handsome.”

“
Oh my yes. I still think that he was the most handsome man that I have ever seen. He was a cliché, tall, dark and handsome, but what a cliché! He was a walking work of art, chiselled to perfection.”

“
Then how come I’m so white?”

“
You must have taken those genes from me.”

“
He was a vampire.”

“
Yes, but I didn’t know that when he gave me the roses. That night I had dinner with him and he told me. I didn’t want to have dinner with him but those brown eyes convinced me. Come to think of it, perhaps those brown eyes were just as some guys use a pickup line, he used his sad eyes. I was shocked but somehow I knew that he was a good person. He had many good qualities except for the running out on us part. We fell in love, got married and then we had you.”

“
Why did he leave us?” Jenny adjusted her position on the sofa.

“
I’ve told you many times that I don’t know. He went out to get some strawberry yogurt at the store and never returned. I receive a postcard several months later, it was from Sweden, and had a single word on it.”

“
Sorry,” said Jenny.

“
That’s right.”

“
Do you still have the card?”

“
I believe that I ripped it into a billion pieces.”

“
That would be impossible. A postcard ripped into a billion pieces.” Jenny thought hard on the subject and she wasn’t exactly sure how she felt as she rubbed her tired eyes. “Why do you say that he was a man with many great qualities? He ran away from his family. He slunk off like a dog in the night with his tail between his legs. Didn’t even give you a phone call.”

“
Jenny, you do have a way with words. I don’t know. Life is a complicated thing. I used to hate him but I don’t anymore. Time has a way of adjusting things. I really don’t know what he was going through. It is easy to judge people, and we all seem to do it, although the smart ones realize that it’s not the proper thing to do. There are simply no perfect people.”

Jenny adjusted her position. “Don’t be mad but I think that I might have seen him from a distance.”

Allison slowly turned her head toward her daughter. “What? I doubt that. What makes you say that?”

“
Every couple of months or so I see a man standing about a hundred feet from the house, just outside of the spell zone that I have around the house. It’s almost as if he knows that if he takes a single step closer he’ll be overtaken by the enchantment. But as soon as I see him he blurs off into the night.”

“
I see. Is he tall?”

“
Yes, mother, he’s quite tall. How does it make you feel?”

Allison suddenly had a faraway look in her eyes. “I don’t know. It makes me wonder who is lurking out there.”

“
I’m sorry mother. I didn’t mean to make you sad.”

“
I’m not sad. Pensive perhaps.”

Jenny took a large handful of popcorn and munched it as she thought. She attempted to imagine his handsome face, but as she’d never even seen a photo of him because of the fire several months after she was born, it was annoyingly difficult to have his face change from one look to another. Whatever she would envisage would be a faulty representation and she knew it. It made her cute face want to scream. She had wished that her mother would have been an artist so that she could draw him, but in that department she had no talent whatsoever.

“
Mother, what would you do if he knocked on the door right now?”

“
I’d split him in two with a shovel.”

Jenny laughed. “We don’t have a shovel.”

“
I’d break my lamp over his head and then make him pay for it!”

“
Mother, stop! Doesn’t sound like you’ve forgiven him.” Jenny became quiet for a time. “You do realize that he may have been killed by now. Most vampire fights end with the death of one or the other I would think.” Allison didn’t like where the conversation was going. It was getting to be a bit too dark. “I know but I prefer to believe that he ran away.”

CHAPTER THIRTY

STEPHEN, JOSHUA, LUKE AND NOAH battled for their lives against a single opponent. Philo was an ancient vampire with a vast knowledge of all things related to vampires, but he disliked the four to such a degree that he preferred to kill them on sight. They were intruders of the nastiest variety. They had purchased a spell and when they threw it against the house he had granted them entry.

Philo was a tall lanky fellow, but because he was so lean almost every single muscle was prominent. He had a Pompadour hairstyle from the 1950’s, and liked it so much that he never changed it. He wore braces with no shirt and made-to-measure fancy Brioni black pants. His brown eyes were notoriously scary. One would not want to bump into him after nightfall. Philo was an okay guy. As a human all those many years ago, he was virtually as good as he was bad, in perfect balance. And as a vampire he remained the same. He wasn’t at all into hurting humans unless they deserved it.

Inside his beautiful mansion on the outskirts of Catharpin Virginia, the four had invaded Philo’s sanctum and the battle had ensued almost instantaneously. And although Philo resembled a fifty-year-old man, his strength and speed was near equal to the four of them combined. Swords clashed and their bodies were kicked around with style. The sound from his sixteenth century Swiss long sword cutting through the air and into Luke’s jugular was satisfying to Philo. Luke gurgled as he healed upon the failed decapitation attempt. The jugular was restored but such a burning sensation remained that it was puzzling and excruciatingly painful.

Philo moved with smooth deliberate movements with his sword at the ready; he’d sidle several feet and then halt, showing his enigmatic grin. He was obviously experienced in battling battle tested vampires. Philo was almost always on the attack, and when he wasn’t his attitude made them believe that it was imminent. His rapid eye movements from side-to-side were disturbing. The fact that he was faster than they were was usually insurmountable in battle; they had all commenced to consider that they were the mice and he was the cat. Was he in fact playing with his food? It was best to maintain confidence in battle, lest the positivity be sucked out of them like so much blood. It was necessary for them to believe that they were holding their own, factual or not.

Stephen was booted so violently that he was driven into the original painting of knights in front of Hylton castle over the fireplace, painted by Philo himself from memory of that long ago day. The sound was that of canvas popping and bones shattering. The three century old painting was destroyed and fell to the floor but there was nothing to be done about it. The art showed two of the knights laughing as a third feigned being pierced and vanquished by a five-year-old blond boy with a wooden sword. The boy’s name now escaped Philo. He hadn’t considered the trajectory when he kicked Stephen and now regretted the destruction of his art.

Luke and Joshua swung with such force that Joshua nearly decapitated Luke in error, and with it Philo showed them all his grisly old grimace. His fangs appeared to be a little longer than usual, though the four had no idea of what that meant, if anything. He deflected blows from three of them which seemed happenstance, as Luke watched briefly and was impressed. The conflict was sufficiently levelled that even at four against one the outcome was unknown. Philo was aware, as were they all, that if he could dispatch one of them then the balance would be tipped in his favour.

“
I give you this single opportunity to flee,” said Philo. “Do with it what you will.”

Everyone paused at the offer. Stephen stared at the others but wasn’t sure what to make of it. He suspected that if they did attempt to escape that with his speed he would cut them down or at least get one of them on the way out. Was it a sign of weakness on Philo’s part? The four felt that they were just barely holding their own, or that he was playing with them.

Philo cut into Steven’s shoulder and the furious scream that was produced from him would be horrifying to any human. It was a scream as if from a tortured soul in the pits of hell. It was surprising to most of them what had come out of Stephen, although Philo did guffaw at it. The screech that had burst forth even startled him. The pain burned like fire from the salt that the blade had been dusted with, and as it healed the salt remained inside him and continued to corrode. It was an old trick that the four weren’t aware of but now could become a distraction and lead to the destruction of all of them, especially if Stephen was unable to ignore the pain.

No mercy would exist should Philo gain the upper hand, and really none was deserved.

They all halted and stared at one another. The pain was obvious to all of them as Stephen was unable to conceal it. It was like a hot poker burning on the inside. He did a little dance and was livid as he screamed once more. The eyes of the other three widened as they feared that the end was near. It was not only salt in his shoulder but acid as well. There was a constant healing and hurting effect going on in there, and he simply couldn’t ignore it. It was nearly impossible to ignore agony, no matter how tough a biter was. Philo did a backflip and cut open the top of Luke’s head as it was his turn to scream out in agony. His head felt as though it would burst open from the fire.

“
Arrrrrgghhh! His sword is poisoned!” Stephen screamed.

“
It has been covered in a few ingredients. It’ll take months for the pain to subside, but fortunately for you miscreants you don’t have months. So I wouldn’t worry too much.”

“
Last chance to take him boys.” Noah raised his eyebrows and the three knew exactly what it meant. There would only be one more opportunity to avoid death as the hands of the ancient biter. A distraction was needed for it to work, and they would attempt it as the situation was going downhill fast. Confidence had departed all four of them but they would give it a try nonetheless. They had their lives to lose but had only themselves to blame for the situation. They had invaded Philo’s home and perhaps would have to face the consequences.

Stephen, Luke and Joshua jumped nearly five feet into the air, and as Philo prepared to take all three of their heads with a single swing, he suddenly found himself stuck with a large syringe of horse tranquilizer. Noah had managed to stick and inject him with the murky substance, and he almost instantly found himself in slowed state. He staggered backwards and fell over his recliner chair. Philo managed to sit himself up with difficulty but discovered that he couldn’t stand. Everything had become blurry with delayed streaks of movement.

“
Well, well, well,” said Seven. His pain made him want to destroy the old biter but with great effort managed to restrain himself. “The dog has lost its bite.”

“
Make it quick.” Philo’s vision was distorted and unstable. Waves of blurred vision washed over him, and then a sensation of excessive warmth.

“
We seek the dagger Hithroma.” Joshua tapped him on the top of the head with his sword. “Tell us where it lies and we might let you live. Maybe. Anything is possible with a little cooperation.”

“
Take his sword and cut him with it. Let him feel the burn!” Stephen thought on it and then changed his mind. “No wait. The pain combined with the tranquilizer just might render him unconscious.”

Philo wiped his nose which had inexplicably commenced to run, and again he tried to get up but couldn’t manage it. “What the hell was in that? I do not know where Hithroma is located. I have an idea of one possible location, but you should understand that it might not be there.”

Stephen looked down at him dubiously. “What are you talking about? Spit it out. Lies won’t help you now.”

“
You fools do realize that if you destroy Dracula you destroy us all?”

“
Everyone sings the same song.” Stephen did a complete circle around Philo.

“
That is a falsehood started by the Master himself I suspect.” Joshua sheathed his sword.

“
I know the location of one of the vamp museums, and it is one possible location of Hithroma. Take it or leave it.”

Luke shrugged. “What the shit is he talking about?”

Philo continued his attempts to stand but couldn’t as he finally gave up. “There are five museums that exist to showcase objects and famous vampires throughout history. Only a select few are aware of these museums. They were supposed to be for all vampires but the higher ups refused to share. Replicas of Hithroma exist in all of them.”