Dracula: Hearts of Fire (Dracula Heart's) (45 page)

    “Jenny, aren’t you going to tell us about your adventure?”

    “Later.”

    “Don’t you think the cat might tear into that expensive car?”

   
“Father can
buy me a new one.”

    The doorbell rang and it was a Fed
E
x courier
. He commenced to bang on the door and the lion cub transforme
d into a full grown lioness; she
ran to the door to protect what she considered her lion cub, Jenny.
Allison screamed as Dracula blurred to intercept the cat.

    Dracula looked into the eyes of the lioness. “Sarah, there is no danger here.” The lion returned to her cub form.

    Allison’s heart was pounding. “Oh good grief.”

    “Allison, there’s
nothing to fear from Sarah, however
I wouldn’t want to be a burglar trying to break in here.
She won’t harm anyone without just cause
.
”

    Jenny headed out to her car with the cub right behind her.

    Allison snuggled up beside Dracula
on the sofa
trying to relax
. “
Why can’t we have a normal home instead of a circus?
What next?
She’s growing up way too fast.
I want her to be a baby again.
”

    Dracula kissed her not once but three times. “
Good luck with that. D
on’t forge
t that she has my genes in her.
I continue to be amazed at her energy every time she gets near me.”

    “That wizard that’s she’s talking about. Is he a real danger to Jenny?”

    Dracula attempted to choose his words
carefully. “He could be
.”

CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

   S
OUNDS IN THE FOREST
were either
eerie
or pleasant
at night
, depending upon one’s mood
,
location
and circumstance.
Inside a log cabin one could be warm and comfortable, but outside lost in the woods
it
would be a completely different story. The darkness of the forest coul
d take on a life of its own. An
overactive imagination might
place
monsters were there were none.

    Vincent found himself in the dark forest waiting and wondering. Loneliness was an island with a single
occupant and
only trees to stare at; only thoughts to play with
. It was peculiar how even the quiet could be disturbing.
The sky was overcast
making the night darker than it should have been
. A raccoon made its way through the area ignoring him as it seemed to be pursuing something.

    An owl hooted and then flew off into the darkness.

    The sheriff
could
hear a horde of mice nearby, probably what the owl was looking to get at, but his presence had frighten
ed
it off.
He
sat about fifty
feet away from the large cage
on a fallen tree and was bored
.
The waiting game was a tedious
business but sometimes
a necessary
part of
the job. S
everal raw sirloin steaks
were
inside the cage as
bait
fo
r the werewolf. He had
a spell
on him
that would make his scent undetec
t
able to such a creature.
Vincent was yet uncert
ain what to do with the werewolf
if he caught it; he would make that decision when and if it happened. He would have to talk to it when it reverted to human form
in the daylight
before making
his decision
.
It might be necessary to contact other werewolves for advice, not an easy task.

    The sheriff
could smell a moose just over a mile away and hoped that it didn’
t attract the werewolf.
A large branch cracked somewhere but he couldn’t orient on it. After several minutes of no further sound he again relaxed.
Vincent
had talked to his mother for the first time in a while earlier in the day; she was also a vampire otherwise she would have been long dead. She had been a little upset in the fact that she had to kill a female that had been feeding on an old man; she resided in Oakland California, a long ways away from New York. It had been nice to hear her voice again.
In time he hoped to head out there for a visit.

    It started to rain, not hard but it did make it more difficult to list
en to the sounds of the forest. The vampire could hear a long way off but that also placed a lot of rain distortion in between
, each drop producing some sound to a vampire’s sensitive ears
.
There was a
rumble of thunder off in the distance as the wind picked
up;
bringing forest scents that had been out of range closer
. Lightening lit up the area and then he saw it. Th
e werewolf was circling
as it had detec
ted the scent of the bait
. It
s thoughts were as wild as it was as the circle got tighter.
It was a male, a big guy, wild reflective eyes.
Newly turned werewolves were generally quite wild until they got accustomed to their condition.
Even those willingly being turned often had a tough time dealing with the aftermath.
The sheriff
watched as it ever so
slowly approached the cage
, its instinct told
it to beware but it was unable to resist
, the scent within maddening
. The animal entered the cage
and tore i
nto the meat. It
turned to discover that it was trapped.

    Vincent blurred and approached the werewolf. It took time for such a creature to come to its senses and t
o avoid humans
. He guessed
that this werewolf was less than a month old.
It did have some humanity in at in its current stage of development but he wasn’t sure how much. He was no expert on werewolves.
“Well, well, what do we have here?”

    The wolf chewed on the bars to no avail; its large teeth attempted to bite Vincent
, closing hard with loud audible bites
but
it
couldn’t reach.
Although he had dealt with
werewolves in the past, he remained impressed by its size and beauty.
They were magnificent
creatures
.
The werewolf
threw its head up and howled
at the sky, and it was a satisfying sound to the sheriff.
They were creatures of the night and not often seen.
He had always loved the sound of a howling wolf. It wanted to pace but there wasn’t enough room in there to accomplish it.
It picked up a piece of meat and threw it at Vincent but he avoided it. It displayed its teeth and showed him images of what the wolf would do to him had he the opportunity.
Again the wolf howled
.

    “You can howl all you want but you’re in
there until at least daylight.”

    Although the sheriff didn’t know it the werewolf was a 17-year-old named Brad
Mason. He had been an average kid until he had been bitten by another newly turned werewolf
. The transformation had affected his personality even in human form, becoming irrit
able and confused
. Brad would become normalized in time, if he lived long enough.
He was off to the worst start po
ssible if he had killed a human
.

    “I didn’t kill that human.” Brad looked menacingly at the sheriff with his wolf eyes. “I was following a low level wizard that had drained the blood of other humans. I was trying to protect her but unfortunately I was too late.”

    “Am I supposed to believe that?”

    “Believe what you want but it’s the truth.
”

    Vincent
was astonished to
hear a wolf pack approaching; they were miles away but would be on him in seconds.
He never expected a pack to show up but life was like that, unpleasant and unpredictable at the most inopportune time. Not sufficient time
to decide what to do as he couldn’t just leave the werewolf trapped in that cage. Suddenly they were surrounding him.
The alpha wen
t over to the cage and stared in at
the werewolf,
with the wolf in the cage instinctively lowering
its head as its tail went between its legs. It then sauntered over to Vincent and stared him directly in the eye.

    “Release him!”  The alpha werewolf made it clear that it was a demand and not a request. It tried hard to go into Vincent’s mind to control him but was disappointed to discover that it couldn’t.
Only alpha wolves could mind
at such a high level
.

    “This wolf has to be eliminated. It’s been killing humans.”

    The others circled but it was only the alpha male that spoke to him mind to mind. “We’ve come a long way to add him to our pack. Fifteen hundred miles
to secure him
. Vampire, you won’t sur
vive a fight with all of us.
That head will come off.
”