Dracula: Hearts of Fire (Dracula Heart's) (58 page)

    Lemuel
was a hole in his fabric of time and space.

    Doria
n had been at the small red aband
oned house for seven weeks
; he wore
a
path around it
thinking about his brother
. He had had
several items that his brother wore and
a lock of his brother’s hair bu
t now all that remained was two
strands
, with the rest being used with magic in attempts to locate him
.
Each enchantment necessitated an item that had touched his brother, which could only be used once.
He
knew that once the last strand
of
hair was used
then that would probably be it
; he would remain buried practically for
ever, pe
rhaps until the end of time
.
It weighed on him.
He had attempted many spells over the years, gathering ingredients from all over the world, and with the passage of time he became more and more depressed. He was his brother’
s only hope.

   
A m
onarch butterfly flew
near him, up and
down
. Dorian
brought his hands together
killing the butterfly
. He rubbed the remains off onto his blue jeans.
He took no satisfaction in the murder of the butter
fly.

    Doria
n
didn’t understand why the spells in his Blood Book didn’t work.
That made him worry that there wasn’t a proper one to be found.
The last one had been two eagle
feathers attached to one a strand
of hair, which the magical wind took high into the air, but he lost sight of it near the cabin. The idea was that it would drop onto his brother’s grave
and then he could dig him up
, but
even with his speed and enhance
d
sight he lost
it
in the wind
. Dorian
believe
d that it was possible
Lemuel
was buried in the area, but
was he a mile away or
fifty?
Maybe he was close, maybe not.

    A large st
orm cloud went over the area blocking
the sun, sprinkling the area
with rain
.
He blurred around t
he small red house with the twisted
roof to ge
t rid of the glue that permeated his mind.
Who else would have stuck to the sam
e task for hundreds of years? Doria
n did go
periods of time
without trying to find Lemuel but he always went
back to it, and usually it was the
nightmare that prodded him into action.
Was it his brother’s attempt to reach him from inside that box?
At times he was convinced that it was and other times simply his imagination.

    A cow moose was detected and chased down for its blood.
Do
ri
a
n jumped on its back and drank from it. The animal panicked but could not escape as
the vampire drank
. When he jumped off it he watched as it ran off never to return to that area.
At lea
st that
h
ad been satisfying
.
He actually preferred animal b
lood to that of a person’s as he liked the wild taste had a wild taste
.

    It was
sparse inside the dwelling, only
a couple of chairs and a kitchen table, an old wood stove and a comfortable new cot that he had purchased at Sears. The Blood Book remained on the tab
le opened to the eagle spell. Doria
n was considering doing the same spell over again, with the idea that he was now closer to his brother and so it would perhaps be easier for him to follow the feathers.
It made sense but with only two strands remaining it
made him uneasy. If he used another and it didn’t work he woul
d be on the very last one. There was nothing else that remained.
Until now he always had hope that something would work, but with the hair being used up there would be no hope. Without hope life was in free-fall
, one cliff after another.

     Doria
n sat at the table, took two of the eagle feathers and placed them about four inches apart. He took the small plastic bag containing the last two strands of hair out of his right pocket; only he was panicked to see only a single strand remaining. He took off his jeans so that he could carefully search not only inside his pockets but every inch of the material but he was unable to locate it.

    “No!
”
He meticulously scanned every inch of the kitchen and then the small dirty bedroom. He was becoming more and more disheartened by the second. What were his chances of finding a single strand of hair? What if it was outside? He thought that he may as well be searching for a particular drop of water in the ocean.
His level of anxiety made him want to cry. Dorian ran his head into the table while scanning the floor, stood up rubbing his forehead, and then he had a thought that sunk his ship. If he somehow managed to find a stand of hair, it was actually more likely to be his than his brother’s.

    Dorian made his way outside
and sat deje
cted on the porch, considering
that it might be a relief
when the last hair was used,
that he would finally be able to get on with his life. But knowing that Lemuel was down there somewhere, buried alive, he knew that he would probably never find peace. With his right hand he set the field on fire, but then thinking better of it he extinguished it with his left.

    Time wasn’t his friend and seemed it never would be.
He pulled several strands of hair out of his head and tossed them into the wind.
Funny how a single strand of hair had caused him such distress.

CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

ALEXANDER AND HIS DOG TESSY battled an ancient vampire by the name of Caleb. He had been stalking two teenage girls when Alexander tried to talk to him and he attacked.
He was over a thousand years old and had mastered his swords; he was as comfortable with them as he was with his hands. He wielded the
two old swords with eagle pommels and his skill was ext
raordinary.
Caleb was tall and skinny, a distinguishing looking gentlemen with his g
oatee, but he was far from
a nobleman. He cut off Tessy’s left ear but it grew back, and for his effrontery she bit a chunk out of his right calf and tossed it. The red sheriff didn’t have sufficient reason to kill him, but now had to try to end him just to survive the encounter.

   Blade met blade in a furious battle. The fight was art in motion, two experienced swordsman battling for their lives; thrust, parry, attack.
Power and great skill was unleashed by both of them.
Within seconds they were impressed with one another’s talent, even surprised.
Neither liked the fact that they were evenly matched.
Every single blow that Alexander swung at him was deflected and countered. The sound of Caleb’s sword cut through the air as he held his perfect position. No words were uttered as they spoke with their blades. But Caleb’s
had a problem,
a
big one. The dog made it two against one; she jumped and sunk her fangs into the back of his neck as Alexander attacked from the front. The sheriff took his head off and watched as his skin turned to dust and his bones fell to the ground. Tessy grabbed the skeleton and shook it.

    She
had her fangs stuck into the back of his head and had t
o release them to get them out; she pried them out using both of her front paws for leverage. The dog
ran to Alexander with a wagging tail for affection. “Good girl Tessy. That’ll teach him to cut your ear off.”

    Tessy barked several times at something in the distance; he turned
and
saw it but was having trouble believing what he was seeing. A skeleton that was on fire was walking th
rough the park
. I
ts flames was
emitting a black smoke that
was
going straight up into the air, even though there was a moderate wind that should have been pushing at it. It was obviously a magical thing that was probably not selling Girl Sc
out cookies. Danger came in different forms with many considering magic
the worst.

   “
Tessy, it would be nice to get a break wouldn’t it? Come on
, let’s go see.”

    The sheriff and his dog blurred over to the ungodly thi
ng as it stopped.
It took note of the vampire and his dog but decided to ignore them. It
was trying hard to orient on the wizard
it had been chasing but was having a difficult time of it.  Sitting on the grass with several other people, the wizard Adoros had eaten a small spelled packet that temporarily changed his energy signature to that of a mortal. Even though the skeleton had pursued him for several miles, it no longer recognised his wizard’s magical properties. The sorcerer was only four feet away from his pursuer but now he went unnoticed. The skeleton was unable to recognise his face even though he had seen it.

    Alexander and Tessy both looked confused.  Unless it attacked someone t
hey wouldn’t battle it.
The so
und of the flames burning
was fairly loud, and as people noticed it they ran in the opposite direction. The sheriff attempted to read its mind but couldn’t, perhaps there was none to be read. He considered that it just might be what turned both him and his dog to bones, magic was a difficult thing to deal with, and if the thing was as nasty as it appeared they could be in big trouble. He pulled his cell phone and called the only wizard that he knew but of course there was no answer.

    The dog sniffed at it and the only thing she could smell was a combination scent of burning fuel and vomit. She cocked her head at it tryin
g to understand what it was. The shepherd
considered biting it but decided to wait for the command. Tessy could sense the evil in it and was confused by the small skulls that occasionally appeared inside its flames.