Dracula: Hearts of Fire (Dracula Heart's) (24 page)

    The red sheriff imagined
her demise as the hourglass approached a minutes worth of sand. Lauren had stressed her brain attempting to find a solution before it was too late. She opened and closed her gray blue eyes several times. It was strange only have about a minute to live and actually knowing it. The grains of sand mocked her as they continued to count down the remaining moments of her life. Whoever was responsible was obviously going to get away with it.  She wouldn’t even see the wizard’s face before the end
unless he showed up within the next minute or so
. There was no way to know who had killed her, and that really pissed her off. What kind of a
wizard, coward, son-of-a-bitch to d
estroy her life and then swoop in and become even more powerful by using the energy that Dracula had bestowed upon her.

    The desire to get up and smash that hourglass to pieces was palpable; she visualized it perfectly but all she could accomplish was to move her foot.
It was such an awful
feeling
.
Would
the end hurt? It migh
t not be instantaneous
. A thump from outside was the horse continuing to be frisky.
If only the animal would get close enough.

    “Come closer boy, girl or whatever you are! Damn it!
Come on, come on, come on.
”

    Lauren could hear the animal doing something out there, with its hooves thumping the ground. There was a huge crash that startled her; she thought the end had come. But no, the horse had thrown the tire through the window, which lay on the bottom of the left brown curtain, creating a much larger opening so that she could plainly observe the white Arabian. She commanded it to enter, and as it crashed through what remained of the window it made a hell of a racket. It reared and snorted. The horse turned and with its two rear hoofs
took the command that she had so desperately wanted to give, kicking the coffin and sending
Lauren hurdling against the wall over the sofa. She flew as a ragdoll might with no control whatsoever. Lauren ended up beh
ind the sofa and as
she stood up,
she realized
the binding spell had been broken. She had instructed the horse to kick her with all its might to give her the best chance possible to escape. She blurred and stomped the hour
glass to pieces just as the sand
was about to run out. A small tornado of sparkled energy remained for several seconds and then disappeared.

    She actually kissed the horse. “You big beautiful thing.”

    The red sheriff
guided the horse out through the door
as it
shook some of the glass out of its mane. She
examined the animal and it appeared to be okay, just a small cut on its right leg.
In the front yard she took a moment to gather herself
before leaving.
Lauren returned within hours with five other red sheriffs and a skinny wizard by the name of Oblivion, only to discover to her dismay that the place had been mirrored. Tiny particles of broken mirror were everywhere on the ranch, far too many to clear up, which allowed the wizard responsible to keep an eye on the place
from afar. It was likely that he would never return and be caught, or would return only when the place saw no activity for months. If the wizard was smart though he would never re
turn because she would definitely keep an eye on the place
.
The body of the owner and
the rest
his family were located in the back
near a small garden
.

    Lauren stared at the horse as it ran with the tire and realized that she wouldn’t be standing there without him. It was a day that she would never forget.
Finally i
t was time to find Michael.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX

    K
EITH MADE HIS WAY BACK
to the house on the dead end street where the cop resided and waited. He was
now desperate to drink some
blood
, some cop blood
as he believed that it tasted better than most. Additionally, he wanted to read about himsel
f in the papers, how it would make
him feel
so
important; to see the story and know that he was the perpetrator was most satisfying
.
A little like being a star.
It was too bad that they didn’t actually show the bodies like they used to years ago because he would have enjoyed it even more. One could never get too much blood and gore.

   
The Sport wagon remained in the drive
way; he knew they were all home. Keith
could hear
the rhythmic contractions of their hearts
, thump thump, thump thump
. Keith took the
air in and he could smell
body odour, sweat and something else; someone had let one go. Oh, it was a nasty one.
That was the risk of drawing such a large amount of odor into the olfactory system.
A neighbor’s car approached and so he backed up further into the woo
ds so as to not be observed. The vampire’s heart beat once and it actually startled
him as it was so infrequent. Blood was pushed through his system and gave him a warm feeling.

   What Keith wanted to know
was had the elements of bad luck passed?
His brown eyes darted from side to side
making him look as if his planet wasn’t in the proper orbit
. The area was scanned for any signs of bad omens
, over and over
. He saw nothing except
a black retriever
that
was running
loose
but
if a black cat was bad luck then why not a
black
dog?
Why not a black squirrel for that matter? He didn’t think there were any black squirrels but with his luck.
Things
would be okay as long as that dog didn’t approach him. Keith bent down by a tree so that the dog wouldn’t notice him but it had the opposite effect
as it ran right up to him and licked his face several times
.
Why didn’t it se
nse his bad intentions? Dogs were usually good at those things.
Perhaps the dog was stupid? Did it make any difference if it was a stupid
black
dog?

    “Get away!
”
It was likely that if he killed it that it would mean even more bad luck. Maybe it would endure for weeks. His mind was getting more erratic by the minute.

    The black retriever bolted down the street as his master summoned him. The vampire wiped his face and looked disgusted. Lately,
he
was
a lot more irrational
; having to pace so many times before leaving the safety of the forest, hearing voices that he was sure weren’t there. Keith
had heard that some vampires went insane for no apparent reason. As a human he had dealt with some depression and eccentricities; he knew it was bad luck to look out the window at the full moon, but that was just common knowledge. Wasn’t it?

   “What the hell is this now?” he said as the monarch butterfly
that
lit on his left shoulder.
It had a fair amount of black into it so that was definitely a bad omen. He didn’t dare move lest it do something. What could a butterfly do?
Didn’t know for sure but it wouldn’t be anything good.
Was he being irrational? No he wasn’t. The butterfly started it.
Why couldn’t it mind its own
damn business?
A branch cracked in the distance and he slowly turned his head toward it.
Then it cracked again. The earth shook and it had to be an earthquake.

    Keith blurred off into the fo
rest like a rabbit being chased.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN

    A
T FOUR IN THE MOURNING
Abbey was awakened by a pounding on her door. She got up and found Arym
in her Justin Bieber pajamas
staring at the door. It was
strange to be frightened of her
daughter
but there it was. The girl
gazed at the peep hole but didn’t dare look through it. She knew there was another vampire just beyond the door but what to do about it?
They had been told that
some
old vampires loved to take advantage of new vampires
, knowing how utterly confused they were.