Dracula: Hearts of Fire (Dracula Heart's) (38 page)

  
Jenny looked at the cub and then back at Caius.
“
Really, I can have the cub?
I can’t go home with a lion cub. What will my mother say?”

    “I imagine that she’ll say
bad kitty
quite a
bit. Of course you realize
that is no ordinary lion cub.”

   
“I know
.
”

    “Jenny, the adventure of a lifetime begins with a single breath.
What an adventure are you in for?
”

  
“
What am I supposed to feed it?
”

    Caius nodded and looked pensive. “
A nice juicy stake? Girl, w
hat have you learned on your little adventure to get here?”

   
Jenny sat down and played with the cat. “I learned that even simple spells can be quite effective.
”

    “Bravo.
You will need to trust your instincts more. It sounds simple but it isn’t.
What else have you learned?”

    The journey of Jenny’s tutelage into the land of wizards had begun.

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

     A
NNIE BLURRED AWAY FROM THE BURNETT FOUNTAIN
toward the sounds of the screams, and to her surprise it was over a mile away
, but of course she now had vampire hearing
. She came upon an
old looking vampire that appeared
to be about a dozen
years younger than her, but it wasn’t a genuine attack.
A family of four was being amused by the old vampire that had been
turned when he was seventy-seven
. A
young
boy
with tight curly blond hair
and his sister
were pretending to be scared of the vampire, and it had become a competition of sorts, to see who could scream the loudest, and the 6-year-old girl was definitely the winner. Alastair was showing them his fangs but they were in no danger as he was an old family friend.
Annie was relieved as she found the situation so cute that it made her smile.
Screams that weren’t tied to
genuine terror was a relief.

    Annie sat
herself down
on a near
by bench and watched the goings-
on as Alastair took notice of her
and did a double take.
After the parents insisted the children were making too much noise
they finally calmed down.
The 5-year-old boy stompe
d his foot when told
that he was no longer allowed to scream.
Annie thought that out of a hundred 5-year-old boys he would
have been
the
cutest.
The old vampire went over and
sat next to A
nnie
stared at her and smiled
.
They stared at one another, neither wanting to look away.
It was a peculiar thing for two strangers to do, turning out to be awkward for the both of them.
She thought that the way he was lo
oking at her was familiar
.
T
hey finally had to laugh.

    “My my my, you are quite the beauty aren’t you,” he said to Annie. “Where have you been all my life?”

   
“That line is older than you.”
Annie gave him a look that could scare the bark off a tree. She knew how times had ravaged her looks
, at least in her opinion
.
What was the old buzzard up to?
“Would you like me to grab that bottom lip of yours and pull it over your forehead?
One more comment about my looks and you’ve had it.
”

    Ala
stair
realized that he had made an error.
How was he to explain his situation?
“I beg your
pardon
madam, my name is A
lastair. One of my talents is that I
can see
everyone
as they were
when they were young
. I can see you as you are today as well, but it alw
ays reverts back to the young woman that you were at your peak so to speak
.
So I see you as quite the beauty.
”

   
Annie thought about what he had said but had never heard of such a thing
, but what she knew about vampires could be put in a ring box
with room to spare
.
“Lucky you. How I wish I could see myself as I was when I was young.
Now I look like the wicked witch
that’s been run over by a truck
.
I don’t need a mask for Halloween I can tell you that.
”
She observed Alastair’s yellowish green aura, but had no idea what it meant; she watched the colors swirl around him.

    “Yes, it’s a peculiar thing that’s
been with me from the start
.
In the beginning it had me wo
ndering why ther
e were no old people around,
t
o see people as they really are I
had
to concentrate.
”

    “
Don’t concentrate too hard on me or you’ll burn your eyes out.
This vampire business is complicated. I hope that I don’t become an evil thing sucking the blood out of the innocent.”

    Alastair looked into Annie’s eyes. “
I can tell a couple of things about you
even though I don’t know you from Adam
. You are a kind soul and you are new to the club.
Your scale is tipped way
over
to good side
. Your
good tendencies far outweigh the bad.
I
’ve learned to read vampires fairly well
.
”

    “What do you mean I’m new to the club?”

    “The vampire club.”

    Seeing that Alastair was engaged in conversation, the family moved off to th
e protests of the children;
they were p
acified when they were told
they were off to get ice-cream. They waved to the old man and h
e happily returned the farewell, blowing
all
a kiss.
He had an old cane with a sword inside it that he leaned on. He was a distinguished lookin
g gentleman and not bad looking.

    Annie smiled
at the thought of how he perceived her.
“Oh yes of course, I should have caught on to that.
Everything is so different for me now
. A fe
w days ago I had months to live;
now I may have centuries.
My black and white life has
turned to color.
”

    “Yes indeed, it can take a long time to get used to being a vampire.
You thought those screams were serious screams, didn’t you? I didn’t catch your name.”

    “I
t’s Annie. I thought I was going to have to kick your ass all the way to Maine. So how doe
s that thing work with children?
Do you see them as they
’ll be when they’re older
?”

    “No, I see children as they are
.
Can I ask you a question Annie?
”

    “Who’s stopping you?”

    “I was just wondering who turned you. I could sense your energy from quite a ways away.
Was it an ancient one?
We
re you attacked?
”

    “
No.
Take a guess
at
who turned me.”

   
Alastair
thought about it and didn’t want to offend her. He was usually quite honest with his words, but one had to be careful with a stranger.
Her personalit
y was yet to be fully developed as a vampire
.
“There are too many vampires in the world for m
e to guess that
.”

   “
Would you believe that I was turned by Dracula
?
”
Annie smiled at him and her beauty was distracting.

    Alastair looked into her eyes and attempted to mind her but discovered that he couldn’t.
It was too soon to make judg
ements on Annie but there was definitely something that he liked about her
.
“Dracula turns very few from what I gather, but I’m certainly no expert on him.
Never met him.
”

   
“Well he is some handsome I can tell you that.”
Annie adjusted her hair and to the vampire sitting beside her she appeared to be gorgeous.
So beautiful in fact that he had to look away from her ample bosom.
“B
elieve it or not but it’s a fact. Dracula is the one that turned me.
I asked him and I was surprised when he did it.
”

    “
Annie, I’m n
ot sure if I believe that or not. Maybe you’re trying to take me for a ride?
Perhaps that’s your sense of humor?
What’s important is that we go somewhere and have a cup of coffee
.”