Dracula: Hearts of Fire (Dracula Heart's) (19 page)

    Abbey had mixed feelings about her daughter
. She loved her but now she
also
was a little frightened of her.
What if she lost control of herself?
Life w
ould never be quite the same and
all they could do was to deal with it. She hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep since her daughter had been turned. Now the child would be back in her own bed and she had so many unanswered questions.

    Back at the apartment
they passed a family that wa
s moving in across the hall,
obviously one of the movers was a vampire
. H
e carried a large sofa by himself
making
it look easy.
Arym looked depressed as she sat at the kitchen table and stared off.
She felt awkward in her own home.
Alexander explained that it would take time for her to get accustomed to her new state of being but reassured her that she would be okay.
S
he patted the dog
knowing
that she would miss her
because
Tessy had been a great companion and guardian.
Everyone could use a loyal friend like her.

    Alexander and Abbey were attracted to one another but neither was prepared to make the first move. Both were single and a little lonely. Alexander could have read Abbey’s mind but he refused to do it; he considered it a personal trespass although situations had forced him to do it in the pass
. He knew that once he left the apartment he would probably never see her again. Tessy ran up to the sheriff and nudged him with her nose; she wanted him to ask her out but he simply told the dog to be good.

     “All right Abbey. My card is on the table, please memorise the number and destroy the card. Otherwise some bad vampires might
be able to
track me down and do me in. We have to be going but I’ll check in if I have the time. We’re pretty busy lately.
Some days it seems like the world is being flushed right down the toilet.
”

    Abbey squeezed Alexander’s hand. “Thank you so much fo
r your time and understanding.
I don’t know what we would have done without your help.
”

    The sheriff nodded and blurred off down the hall and out of the building.
Tessy gave Arym one last look before following Alexander.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

    J
ENNY FOUND HERSELF ALONE
in the forest in front of the cottage.
A Hermit Thrush was singing its haunting melancholy song from a nearby tree.
Floyd and Edwin had escorted her to the location but then had blurred off.
The place was surrounded by multicolor daisies, and she
had never observed such a flower
because they only existed here. She knew immediately that they were a product of some sort of incantation. But what did they do?
Did they have a purpose? An early warning system of sorts, one could never tell with magic. Or perhaps it was a spell gone wrong?
The flowers were throwing some sort of pollen or something in the air, and she didn’t think it wise to breathe tha
t stuff in but what to do about it
?
She backed up several yards.
Her hands tingled and when she looked at them they were bright white
; Jenny instinctively turned them toward the daisies and the light
engulfed the flowers killing every single one of them,
also
cleaning
the air. It was a little like antibodies killing bacteria. This being a wizard thing was certainly complicated, and not understanding oneself was more than a little annoying.

  
Jenny
was dressed
in black
T-shirt
with a short skort
.
She had a katana sword, her throwing knives and a backpack with some food. Edwin and Floyd had brought her to within a half mile of
the cabin and told her that they would wait for her there, whether it was days or weeks.
She hadn’t liked the sound of that. Was it going to take her weeks to locate Caius?

    The Hermit Thrush landed on her shoulder and sang to her. “Well hello. What can I do for you?” She watched as the bird circled the cottage and then flew off.

   
It was a little cool but not bad at all.
She had the ability to endure the cold or heat just like a regular vampire.
The dwelling
was surrounded by trees and she immediately guessed that it had been made by magic
; she could observe waves of light
energy
emerging from the roof and heading south
, its colors a bit like a rainbow
.
The cottage looked as though it could have been hundreds of years old, how old she couldn’t know, magic could be a tricky thing.
It was made with red brick, had a slightly crooked chimney with a small shed beside it.
The place
was so small that it
wasn’t big enough for a family to reside w
ithin.

    A long brick path led up t
o the front door, the
bricks looked newer than
the rest of the place
, but something about that white
front
door was off. On further
inspection the door wasn’t actually a door. There was dimension to it but no cracks or seams to indicate that it could be opened, although the doorknob was real enough.
It was a rendering of a door but not genuine.
She attempted to turn the knob but it was like a prop, no function to it.
Jenny checked the windows and sure enough they weren’t real either, simply painted on
by magic
but they sure looked genuine from several feet away.
She walked completely around the house and wasn’t surprised to find that there was no way in.

    “What on earth?”
She knew that there had to
be some
way in but how? The place had two chimneys, one on the top of the roof, with the other being a short thing on the side, perhaps for a fireplace? She examined the one on the side for a hidden lever or such but found nothing.
Jenny
climbed up a nearby tree and jumped from it to the roof. She thum
ped around making
her way to the chimney, but it wa
s solid brick, no way to get in
.
No smoke had ever gone through it.
How peculiar was this place in the middle of the forest?
Jenny jumped up and
down on the roof, discovering
it was as solid as rock.
A further search of the cotta
ge roof revealed no entrance
so she jumped down.

    An elderly gentleman appeared from behind the
cottage; he was stooped
and using
a
n Ebony and Sycamore knob on an African Iroko shaft walking stick. J
enny was guarded against him;
she didn’t believe he was as feeble as he pretended to be.
It was best to be wary of strangers no matter how feeble they pretended to be. A monster that resembled a monster was at a disadvantage as it wasn’t smart to give away one’s position before the proper time.

    “Hello.”

    No response as he continued to move forward.
Where had
t
he
old fellow
come from?
Had he appeared from inside the brick cottage? Was she looking at the powerful wizard playing some sort of game?

    “Are you trying to get in there?”
said Jeptha. “I’ve been trying for years and I can tell you right now litt
le girl, there’s no way in
. You may as well give up. Do you give up?”

    Jenny had to laugh. “No, I don’t give up. What’s your name and where did you come from?”

   “Funniest thing, I was never ever given a name and I guess it stuck.”

    “Un huh.”
She noticed that he
was no longer stooped but
standing nice and straight.
Jenny really didn’t see any point to his antics.
She was getting a kind of jokester vibe from him but
wasn’t at all impressed. Jenny minded him and as she poked around in there she discovered his name.  “Well, Jeptha, just what are you up to?”

    His eyebrows narrowed. “Hey little girl, no poking around in my head, I won’t allow it.
That is not polite.
”

    “
Sorry, force of habit
,” said Jenny as she continued to po
ke around in there nonetheless, now in stealth mode.
Something was very weird in there, and she was beginning to wonder if he wasn’t
Caius
. Some sort of test?
She pulled out of his mind and stared into his hazel eyes.
Now he seemed to be at least ten years younger than he had been.

    Jeptha went over to the cottage and banged on it hard with his cane. “What do you hear?”

    “What do you mean?”

    “It’s hallow inside. There is something in there. Something good I’ll bet.”

  
Jenny thought that she would like to use him for a battering ram and it made her smile.
“Listen Jeptha, I get the feeling that you know how to get in there. Are you going to tell me or not?”