Dracula: Hearts of Fire (Dracula Heart's) (15 page)

    Sharpton nodded. “Well done. Can I interest you in joining the cause?

    “Not a chance in hell.”

    “Really? Are you sure?”

    “Sharpton, what I meant to say was that I am occupied elsewhere with my own project. I’m in the process of enhancing my abilities.”

    “Off with you then.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

        L
AUREN RETURNED TO CONSCIOUSNESS
in
side a glass-
covered coffin.
She slowly opened her eyes and stared through the dirty glass; she could see multiple finger prints smudged on it.
She had no idea how she got in there. A beam of light
shone through it onto her left breast, but then vanished as the clouds blocked the sun.
I
t was no ordinary coffin
, it was shallower than normal
and because of that she could barely move.
She was pressed by both sides of the narrow box.
Besides that
the casket had been spelled
.  It was
an entrapment spell, put on the box by a high-level wizard
and that
meant big trouble
.
Lauren had a spell put on her
several years earlier that would allow her to
break free of any binding
, but whatever wizard had her now was obviously much more powerful than the one that had created her anti-entrapment incantati
on, either that or it had simply worn off.

    “How the hell did I get in here?”

  
Lauren
not
iced that her badge was missing
therefore
no one could
track her.
She could see her swords near her on an old Mexican copper inlaid grand coffee table on a stylish iron stand
but she couldn’t get to them. The coffee table
had two cubby holes and four long drawers.
Inside one of the cubby holes was an hourglass
with pale blue sand the color of the ocean
.
Sand was slowly draining from the top to the bottom.

    It was then that she
realized that she
could
only
move her head
. Couldn’t wiggle her toes or fingers, couldn’t
move her arms, her head was it, a
nd what a terrible feeling it was.
It was as if the sheriff was paralyzed from the neck down.
She was resting
on some sort of flat surface about tw
o feet off the floor.
It was obvious that she was in some sort of log cabin with a high wooden ceiling
, and from what she could see it was an expensive looking place
.
Apparently she was alone as she couldn’t hear anyone. I
t would have been the perfect opportunity to escape. 

   “Someone’s gonna get a shit kicking.”

   
Lauren put all of her concentration into one kick that would bust it open.
She thought that if she put her mind to it she could accomplish something; she hoped that the power Dracula had infused in her had some counter magic to it.
She visua
lized it, over and over, kicking
that thing open so she could get the hell out of there.
Lauren put several minutes into it but soon became discouraged.
No matter how hard she tried she couldn’t move an inch.
  Being trapped in such a fashion was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. Although she didn’t know it the spell that had been placed on her was not only supposed to completely paralyze her, but was meant to have kep
t her unconscious as well. T
he extra energy that Dracula had infused in her had interfered at least somewhat with the enchantment.

    “Damn it!”

    A loud crash of thunder got her attention. Lightening lit up the place as it started to pour.
It surprised her as the sun had just been shining through the window.
The sound of the rain hitting the roof and windows would have been pleasant enough if it wasn’t for her situation.
Lauren
had always
liked the sights and sounds of a rainstorm, and
used to dance in it as a child; she loved the way it brought life to the world with its invigorating touch.
Lauren had always though how the flowers and plants must love the rain.
I
t was great atmosphere for what was perhaps the last day of her life.
If she couldn’t get out
of that damn coffin she was
at
the mercy of whoever put her
there, and obviously he didn’t just want to bid her a good afternoon.

   
“Whoever did this
is going to lose his damn head!”

     Her concentration wasn’t
exactly working properly
; she had seconds of fuzziness ebbing and flowing through her mind. Her options were
so limited that
she really couldn’t think of any. That’
s what really frightened her.

    Lauren
could hear a clock
ticking somewhere in back
, perhaps ticking away the seconds of her life. She could also hear a pair of zebra finches singing back there
, with bird seed being scratched around
. She tried
hard
to remember what happened but her mind was disjointed. Michael’s face popped into her head which saddened
her;
if this was how she was to suffer her demise he would neve
r know her fate
.
Her mind suddenly became a little clearer.
She n
ow
had an
idea of why she was there, perhaps
asshole wizard was looking to kill and drain the excess energy that Dracula had placed into her in order to augment his own energy. The
Master had warned them about that
possibility but as time went by she had put it
out of her mind, more or less.
It was really annoying that she couldn’t remember what happened
. The last thing that she
could recall was
some
one in Harlem requesting backup, and then heading out to the scene, but obviously she never made it.
Perhaps someone had been waiting for her outside the building?
There was no recollection of arriving in Harlem.

    A cellphone rang and she recognised the tone. She turned her head and saw that it was her phone on the end of the coffee table, but without being able to move it may as well have been on the moon.
The sound of it was frustrating
as if
it was teasing her
, when it stopped it
was as if her only opportunity
had abandoned her
.
They should invent a p
hone that was voice activated because that
would have saved her. No tracking device in that one either.
The heavy
rain eased off and then
stopped
. It had been a small system so
a brief shower. She could see part of a rainbow in the distance through the crack in the curtains
; she could
also
see a part of an old fashion fence
out there
. Apparently, she was in some sort of ranch house, and in fact on a ranch by the look of it.
There was lots of space out there from what she could see.
Probably not a working ranch as wizards tended to be solitary beings
, especially the bad ones.
Although she supposed that whoever had her could have killed the owners.
Unfortunately, it appeared that no outside help was forthcoming. She tried to call for help with her mind, sent a shout out to Dracula but she sensed that the
Master was too far away to hear
it.

   “Why  the  hell  can’t  I  move! Ahhhhhhhhh!”
If she survived this she was going to seek out a spell to make sure that it never happened again. She cursed and screamed her loudest but no one came.
It did shut the birds up though.
She
even tried to mind the birds to come to her aid
, which only served to
confuse
them.

    Lauren thought that had she b
een a wizard it might be
easy to get out of that thing, but she didn’t
know a hell of a lot about spells or wizards
.
She tried to bang the ba
ck of her head through
the coffin
but it only served to make her dizzy. Even though she couldn’t feel much at all
, somehow
she still felt weak. What a predicament.

    “I’m sorry Michael.”

    The hourglass continued to flow and it bothered h
er. Why was it measuring time like
in a countdown? Something familiar and disturbing nagged her about it.
That yellow sand was just about at the halfway point. Now she could see tiny bugs inside it not much big
ger than the grains of sand,
when they collided they caused a blue spark
s
.
What was going to happen when the sand ran out?