Dracula: Hearts of Fire (Dracula Heart's) (41 page)

    “After you open it.”

    Lauren took
her fingernail
an
d sunk it into the plastic wrap, taking her time to open it.
The wrap was throw
n into the garbage. “There, it’
s open.
Is Michael happy now?
”

     “Keep going.
”

    Lauren again shook the box and watched his face. “Every time I shake the box you act as if I can brea
k it.
What on earth could be inside a box of chocolates
that
I could break?
”

     Michael let himself fall onto the sofa. “I can be broken I can tell you that.”

    “Ok, ok
.” Lauren opened the box of chocolates and thousands of Monarch butterflies flew out, so many that they filled the room. The expression on her face was priceless.
She realized that her mouth was open and she closed it
, lest a butterfly get in there
.
After a few seconds they started to gather onto the white wall, one after the other as they apparently waited their turn to t
ake their places.
It was a fascinating process to watch.
They formed the letter
L and then an A.

    “Wow
.” Although Michael knew what they were going to do he was impressed nonetheless.

     The sheriff was mesmerized as she watched the words form
; she could
smell the scent of flowers in the air.
It was a
beautiful
spell, the butterflies weren’t genuine but they sure looked real.
Michael had purchased it
at a small booth called
Special
Spell
s.
In
just over a minute they had formed the words
Lauren, will you marry me?
She turned to Michael and gasped. “Oh Mi
chael, yes
.”

    The vampire show
ed her the engagement ring that
was under one of the chocolates. It was admired as she put it on.
Not long ago the answer would have been no, but with the recent event she now
felt
didn’t know how long she had, especially as a red sheriff.

    He picked her up and twirled her around.

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

   K
EITH HAD SET UP A 55 INCH ROUND POKER TABLE
in the forest
with four chairs
. He h
ad the dead
black
bear jammed into one
chair as best he could.
The decomposing bear was starting to stink but the vampire didn’t notice.
T
he bear had an experienced poker face with no tells
, definitely calm and collected
. It had told Keith that he had only played a few hands of poker
in his
life
but he didn’t believe it. It wasn’t that he thought the bear was a professional poker
player, but he
knew he wasn’t a novice either, but that was okay because poker could be serious business.
A crow landed on the bear’s head and Keith chased it away.

   
Keith
dealt the bear five cards and did the same for hi
mself.
The bear looked at his cards but Keith couldn’t tell if he h
ad a good hand or not. The bear winked and that threw off his concentration. The vampire winked but then found that he couldn’t stop as it was the birth of a tic.
H
e winked and blinked and winked
.

    “
Damn it!
Now you got me winking like crazy. Stupid bear.
Don’t you be cheating this time.
We’re only playing for fun. If I win it doesn’t mean that I
’m a better man than you are so
relax.
”

    The black bear nodded and then Keith returned the nod. The bear nodded again and Keith did as well.
On the seventh nod he was becoming annoyed but couldn’t seem to stop.
It went on for almost five minutes when they both decided to give up on the recip
rocal nod
.

    “I never cheated.” The bear stared intently at his cards.

    “Bear, don’t tell me you never
cheated. The very first hand
you had five aces? I know you don’t have sl
eeves so where did you have that extra ace
?”

   
The black bear nodded slightly, almost imperceptible.
“
I don’
t like your tone.
It was i
n my left nostril.
Are you happy now?
”

    Keith blinked several times and nodded. “Now that is smart
,
for a bear.
People think that bears are not smart, but you guys are definitely smart.
”

   
“Especially for a dead bear.”
The bear clapped his p
aws together. Either the animal
had another good hand or he was pretending.
Playing poker was
all about pretending. The
best poker players should have been able to earn Academy awards.
Play-acting was the prerequisite to being a great poker man.

    “Let me see inside those nostrils.”

    The bear tilted its head at just the right angle so Keith could stare in his nose. No cards up there just a couple of bear-sized boogers.
Keith checked his cards and all h
e had was a pair of seven’s, so he decided
he was going to fake it.
He threw out three cards but in the end only had two seven’s.
His face showed a big fake smile but it looked disingenuous. He wasn’t fooling the dead bear.

    The black bear sniffed and sniffed his cards, and then he sniffed towards Keith
’s hand
. “What do you have over there? A pair of seven’s?
Smells like a pair of seven’s.”

    “No
t a pair of seven’s
you asshole
!
”

     “All right, I’ll raise you a barrel of honey.”

    “I thought you said honey makes you fart?”

    “I’m
not gonna eat it I’m gonna sell it back to the bees
.”

    “Oh.”

    “And anyway, bears have to fart too.”

    “I suppose.
I’ll see you three bottles of whiskey. I’m good for it.
”

    The bear nodded. “All right, what do you got?”

    “I got a pair of seven’s. What do you got?”

    “Five more aces.”

    “Damn it.
I’ve n
ever seen such a lucky bear!”

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

    A
BBEY HELD HANDS WITH THE SHERIF
as they watched the polar bear
at the Central Park Zoo.
Gus was
swimming and seemed to be having a great time in the
90,
000 gallons of fresh
water.
The bear pawed and moved a chunk of ice
around
.
Gus
, spotting his ball, grabbed it and swam on his back.
Alexander remembered a photo of polar bears
awhile back that had been
checking out the fast attack submarine USS Honolulu about three hundred
miles from the North Pole. The polar bears
had examined the boat for about two hours before finally wandering off.
He would have liked to have been there to see that.

    “Did you know that polar bear
s
have been seen swimming as far as two hundred miles from land?” Abbey waited for his response. She hoped that he w
asn’t a know-it-all that didn’t as she found that very unattractive in a man.

    “No, I didn’t know that. They are incredible animals.
Nature is fascinating.
”