Dracula: Hearts of Fire (Dracula Heart's) (11 page)

    Jenny hugged her mother. “Mother, no, it will never be your fault no matter what happens. Because of who my father is I was born into this.
A flower can’t decide to be something else, even if it desperately wants to be. It is what it is. And I am who I am.”

    “
I know but I don’t want you to be who you are
.”

    “Mother, I think it’s a little too late for that.”

    “I know.”

    Jenny slowly made her way toward the front door
. “Everyone that is alive is on a different journey; even those heading to the same place and driving in the same vehicle will have a different experience.” The girl felt as if someone else was putting words into
her mouth. “That was such a strange experience
.
Look at my hands, their still shaking.”

    Allison took in a deep breath and then let it out. “I think I need to
lie
down.
Don’t tell your father about this.
”

    Jenny simply nodded. “About what?”

CHAPTER NINE

    D
RACULA SAT ON HIS SOFA
with Moon Diamond comfortably in his lap. Zacharia didn’t want to be in that position but the cat did and so the vampire acquiesced. The Master was in a better mood as he w
aited for Carrington to show up, with thoughts of his daughter prancing around in his head.
Carrington had lots of knowledge on vampires and blood wizards in particular.
He would either help or direct him to some
one
that could.
And contrary to
what a lot of people thought, Dracula didn’t know everything, and in this c
ase Carrington’s help was essential
.
The cat awoke and stared intently toward the front door
as it stretched
, and then
looked
up at Dracula.

    “I know he’s coming.
He may in fact be related to the
bogyman
.
His brother I imagine.
”

    Piers Anthony never just showed up for conversation. There was always some sort of trouble brewing somewhere, some problem with nasty biters that he of course wanted the Master to solve. Dracula liked Piers though he
wasn’t likely to
admit it
; he enjoyed
his company but
pretended otherwise
. He appreciated
the fact the author was looking out for the mortals in his own way, and that way was of course to get Dracula to solve whatever emergency he could dig up.
Perhaps it was all research for some new book for all he knew.

    The cell phone rang and Dracula placed it to his right ear. “Yes? Carrington, please tell me that your arrival is eminent.” He listened intently and the look on his face told the story. “A delay of several days. Well, I don’t like it but if you gave your word. Alright, bye now.”

    The author Piers Anthony walked into the living room
with the two Chinese red sheriffs Wei and Bao.
They were an impressive duo dressed in
matching
black dragon silk brocade jack
ets with dancing dragons on their left shoulders, and both were equipped with swords.
Dracula remembered Wei’s grey-blue eyes and two feet long queue of hair down his back
from the night he had turned him into a red sheriff
.
He was happy to see them both still alive. Bao’s dark brown eyes scanned the Master’s residence and were impressed with its expensive décor; his Cute Boy hairstyle wasn’t exactly to Dracula’s liking, but he thought that it looked good on him.
Their rugged masculinity was an impressive sight
to most
.
Everyone exchanged nods out of respect. Piers
was wearing a white shirt with a blue tie and grey dress pants. He cocked his head ever so slightly at the Master and of course Dracula knew what was coming.

    “Piers, I’ll tell you all about Mona Lisa’s smile if you promise not to bother me anymore. What do you say?”

    Piers smiled. “I’d like to say yes but I can’t.

    “
Of course. W
hat is it now?”

    “We need your help to rescue some seniors out of an old
folk’s
home. There’s a bunch of vampires in there.
I’m sure you can imagine how frightened they must be.
”

    The Siame
se cat jumped up with excitement
.
It was a task, a fight, a chance to battle miscreant vampires that needed to be killed.
It was an adventure
. Last night Dracula had discovered Zacharia curled up beside one of his swords and assumed he had been reminiscing about old times.
Moon Diamond ran to the door and pounded on it with both paws and then quickly ran back.
It slapped f
ast and furious at Dracula’s leg
and
let go with several meows.
Inside the Master’s head he said
let’s do this thing!

    “Oh Zacharia,” said Piers. “Please forgive me for not acknowledging your presence.”

    The cat made its best attempt to say Piers Anthony
to acknowledge him
. “M
iers
meowmamee.”

    Wei and Bao looked at one another as they were trying to figure out what was going on.
They both wanted to laugh at the cat but didn’t dare.
“Is Zacharia here?”

    Bao stared down at the cat. “Master?”

   
Dracula took a deep breath. “Oh, that’s right. Ah, well, Zacharia animated his Siamese cat
Moon D
iamond with a small piece of his sole, see he could
n’t
stand the thought of his precious cat perishing of natural cause
s
. You boys will definitely find this part interesting; he was killed and instead of his soul moving on it was sucked into the cat. Now he’s trapped in there.”

    “I have to assume this is some sort of jest, but I don’t get it.” Bao had known Zacharia as an acquaintance and like
d
him.

    Dracula was beginning to get bored with the cat thing. “Go ahead, mind him.”

    Wei went into the cat’s mind and sure enough Zacharia was in there, sitting on an imaginary white chair looking bored
.

    “Hello,” said Zacharia. “It
’s true I’m stuck in here.
I don’t have a body to get back in
to.
I’ll never really get accustome
d to it
.
It’s a hell of a thing being a cat.
”

    “Shit, I’ve never heard of such a thing.” Wei was now seeing the Siamese as Zacharia
; it was one of the weirdest things that he’d ever experienced
. “That is both sad and fascinating. My condolences to you Zacharia.”

    Moon Diamond growled in protest, one of the fiercest growls to ever emanate from a cat.

    “Don’t antagonise him he’
ll rip your face off;
he’s remains a powerful vampire.”

     “My apologies Zacharia I meant no disrespect.” Wei bowed to the cat and the cat reciprocated.

    Bao finally closed his mouth from the shock of it all.
“Master, may I ask a question?”

    “I suppose
.”

    “Well, ah, a small girl named Jenny saved our asses with some sort of spell. Is there anything that you can tell us about her? Do you know her? She has blond hair, about so high.
She has to be a wizard.
”

    Dracula smiled. “Jenny is my daughter.”

    Wei looked at Bao. “Is he serious?”

    Bao shrugged.

    The cat looked up at the Master and gestured
toward the door
with its head, indicating that he wanted to go and do battle. Piers nodded appreciatively to the cat, as Zacharia was in Dracula’s mind wanting him to agree to the rescue of the seniors.

    “All right Piers,” said Dracula, “we’ll go and rescue the old folks under one condition. The condition being that you have to fight.”

    The grimace on Piers Anthony’s face said it all. “Is that absolutely necessary?”

    “It is.”

    “Oh all right. But I won’t be happy if I end up dead.”

    Dracula bent down and pulled out a samurai sword
in its scabbard
that had killed over a thousand vampires over the centuries; its shiny hilt was made
partially
of silver.
On its hand guard
was a tiny samurai warrior that
went through several motions of attack as it
g
lowed eerily green. “Piers, use
this enchanted sword, any evil vampire that it comes into contact with will be immediately destroyed.
Beware though as it won’t improve
your
fighting skills or
aid in your lack of experience. But just a scra
tch from it will do the trick so
it won’t be necessary for their heads to come off.”