The Dragon Coin (11 page)

“It’s too early to celebrate, and I believe I spent several of those lives just now,” he said, pointing to his right ankle, and his foot that dangled at an impossible angle. I reached for it, but he stopped me, restarting his bike that had stalled with his left foot. Meanwhile, the Jaguar was spinning sand on the beach as it made its way back to the ramp. “Three vamps are in the back seat, including our new friend, Markita.”

I recalled her incredible strength from last night, when she brought Roderick and me to where Dracul waited.

“We can outrun them—the Suzukis can stay ahead of the Jag,” I said, preparing to turn back toward the castle looming in the distance. Unlike our previous visit, it looked much bigger and definitely closer. “Let’s go!”

Together we sped toward the castle no longer sheltered by the mist. The mighty fortress’s spires glistened in the moonlight. But unlike last night, the edifice was dark inside. No fiery lights were visible from within, as if the windows were either cloaked or empty.

Meanwhile, we managed to put more distance between our pursuers and us. I started to feel better about eluding them and set my attention on the massive gate ahead. It appeared to be opening.

“Looks like we’ve got a straight shot—”

“They’re coming up fast—all three have left the car and are headed for us!” Roderick warned, pulling my attention behind us. Three black silhouettes sped toward us through the air. Vampires. Highly aggressive, and seemingly
very
angry vampires. The bikes were approaching two hundred kilometers per hour, but the vamps were moving much faster. “We can’t outrun them!”

“The hell you say!”

I was determined to beat the trio to the castle, and then deal with them there, if necessary. Yet, to my surprise and horror, the gate began to close rapidly. Did I mention the sharp spikes along the bottom of the gate?  I assumed Vlad had them custom made for occasions such as this.

“We’re going to crash! We won’t…”

“Yes,
we
will
make it, Rod—hang on!” I prayed he stayed with me, and I gunned the engine. Meanwhile, the gate had nearly closed, lacking roughly a dozen feet until it locked us out of the castle. The unsettling screeches and venomous threats from the inhuman trio were close enough for me to understand the Serbian inflections.

I worried about Roderick’s leg, and what would happen to the rest of his physical body if we crashed into the gate or any other unforgiving object. Yet, I had no choice but to leave his fate and person in the hands of The Almighty. We would reach the gate in a matter of seconds, as it finished closing. I pushed the throttle fully open, and less than a second before I crashed into the gate’s unforgiving iron teeth, I laid the bike down and tumbled in through the slightest of openings.

But at least I was inside the not-so-humble abode of one Vlad Tepes. Dracul.

Chapter Eleven

It took me a moment to awaken, lying on a cold marble floor. I had no immediate idea where I was, and only knew I had broken several ribs, both legs, and my right arm that had shielded my head. The room—an immense chamber judging by the echoed sound of water dripping in a far corner—was dimly lit, with a pair of torches more than one hundred feet apart. As my eyes adjusted to the murkiness, I remembered the crash and how I had slipped inside the main gate to Vlad Tepes’ latest castle in his long, bloody reign.

Roderick…where is he? Did he survive?!

I wanted to call out into the dimness, but waited for my eyes and ears to fully adjust to my newfound environment. Since Dracul’s vampire breed doesn’t breathe air, as we commonly understand that process, my ears would have to pick up on some other sign to let me know if I was being observed or not, and if I was in immediate danger. Dracul’s presence permeated the fortress’s interior, which I already expected. And, in truth, I could feel him. Obviously, even without this notion, he surely knew I had made it inside the gate. After all, someone inside the castle worked furiously to try and keep us out by lowering the damned thing.

“Yes, Dracul is aware of our presence,” said a pained voice from roughly thirty feet away. I could make out the severed wheel from Roderick’s motorcycle by the metallic paint glistening from the faint torchlight that reached it on the floor. However, the voice wheezed painfully, and it took me a moment to determine it was Roderick who addressed me. “The others are not inside yet…they’ll be here soon. I believe I’ve got a punctured lung from a rib that pierced the lower left side. And, the femur on my wounded leg snapped.”

“I’m truly sorry, Roderick,” I told him, keeping my voice to a pointed whisper as I carefully crawled over to him. Before I reached him, the healing of my injuries was almost complete. “I’ll carry you while we look for everyone.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to leave me here? I will be a liability for at least the next few hours,” he said, releasing a chuckle that turned into a wheezing, coughing fit. I felt the spray of blood…he was just a few feet away now.

“It’s frigging dark as hell in here,” I remarked, drawing close enough to see his most prominent features, the sleek nose that bled and of course his snow-white hairline, almost purple in the dimness. Yet, despite my gratefulness to have him with me still, his eyes’ ethereal glow had quieted to the point they were nearly invisible in the dimness. “You’re hurt worse than you’re letting on. The light in your eyes is dead.”

I moved to keep him from sitting up. By then my eyes had largely adjusted, and I noticed several other pieces of his motorcycle were scattered haphazardly. Apparently, the bike had exploded upon impact. Roderick was fortunate to avoid being torn to pieces.

“Trust me…it brings me little comfort to agree with you.” He chuckled, perhaps at both the words in my head and images that inspired them. “But, a very long vacation is in order once I bail us out of this mess.”

“You? You can’t even walk, and could be hemorrhaging at this very moment!”

“I’ll be fine!” he snapped, and pushed me away to stand up. “We can’t stay here. They’ll find us very soon, and the impression I’m getting is of our host having a bigger temper tantrum than we’ve ever seen before. If we’re captured right now, he’ll be content to let us be eaten alive by his vampire brood while his henchmen train their guns upon our heads.”

Suddenly aware of voices, Roderick confirmed a team of vampires with human counterparts were on the way from Dracul’s throne room. Moving as fast as the sprinting henchmen could travel, they would be upon us in the next few minutes.

“Come over to my right side and lift me up. Your leg will serve as mine until the injuries can be addressed,” he directed, his voice barely audible. Never a braver man have I known, and though it had been centuries since he suffered like this, his determination to not give into pain and misery far exceeded my own. Without imminent rescue, it brought him much closer to the human condition, one I hadn’t sympathized with for far too long on account of my body’s ability to begin restoring itself within seconds. “And, quit piddling! We haven’t got all damned night! We need to get the hell out of here, so chop chop!”

“Well, smart ass, where do you propose we start looking?”

I hoped he’d let me lead the way. My vision had vastly improved to where I could make out our environment clearly enough. And, my instincts pulled me toward what looked like a darkened hall to our right. If it wasn’t Beatrice, my boy, and his fiancée waiting to be rescued down that pathway, then perhaps the thing that had just started calling to me would pull me on its own.

“Well, I’ll be damned, you can finally hear the voice of the Dragon Coin,” mused Roderick. “Hallelujah and sweet Jesus…. It only took you half a week to figure it out!”

He was right. I could hear the soft ring that all of my coins emit, although the frequency for this one sent uncomfortable tremors through my left arm. One of my bloodiest coins out there, as Vlad Tepes stayed quite busy building his legacy of suffering, even after his move from the living to immortal.

“Better late than never,” I told him, pulling his right arm around my shoulders and drawing him close with my left arm around his waist, an intimate gesture most recently reserved for my wife. “But, we need to get going.”

“Ready when you are.” He grimaced, tightening his grip around my shoulders. “They’ll be here in under a minute.”

“All the more reason to make sure we’re not.”

Together, we limped to the hallway and moved into blackness too dense to make out anything. I assumed the floor beneath us was made of the same marble as the floor in the immense court we had just exited, and the draftiness above indicated a high ceiling. I pictured the hall accommodating a freight truck. Roderick stayed with me, stride for stride, as if locked into the impulse signals from my brain to my legs. Difficult to avoid making some noise as we ran with a limped pace, I worried the echoes would make it easy for our eventual pursuers to locate us.

All the while, the coin’s pull grew stronger. It was definitely the right direction to pursue. However, I worried perhaps we’d run right smack into Dracul’s throne room, negating my assumption the coin’s home was somewhere else, or that his small army of henchmen and vamps would suddenly ambush us. My latest vision was highlighted by bright sparks from gunfire, along with the vice-like embrace of Dracul’s brood as they prepared to drain Roderick and me of our crimson life force.

“Must you always be this dramatic?” whispered Roderick, harshly, though the tone was mostly amused. “You always see the cup as half empty.”

“I beg your pardon? Wasn’t it your suggestion to try and plea bargain by meeting our enemy face to face?” I countered. The hallway’s draftiness worsened, surprising me given the balminess of this area of the world and its summer season.

“Obviously, it was my suggestion,” he said, and I could feel him in the darkness turning his head to look behind us. “And, your instinct to continue to elude him can be just as easily seen as panic driven, which in truth, is giving in to one’s fears. Hence, half empty cup.”

I followed his gaze, which unfortunately slowed our progress. Behind us, a few hundred feet away, I could discern the faint glow of the entry court. Echoes from whispers traveled down the hall from there. So, Dracul’s warriors did come after us from the projected origins that Roderick and I had picked up on. The throne room would logically be closer to the area we left, which told me the coin must be in Dracul’s bedchamber, or someplace similar.

I returned my attention toward the darkness ahead, confident Dracul’s welcoming party wasn’t waiting there. But, knowing they could pursue us down the hall at any time brought little comfort. Of deeper concern was the fact I still had no idea where my beloved family were being held. Terrible dread upon realizing we might already be too late seized my heart again. A half glass moment of the most inconvenient kind!

“I sense their spirits. They remain with us in the flesh,” said Roderick, his whisper barely audible. “They remain unharmed, relatively speaking. But, be aware of others in the search. I sense Dracul. His mind is seeking our location, like an octopus’s tentacles, and I don’t see how we can elude him for much longer.”

Roderick has always had the knack for impeccable timing. No sooner than he said this, a door screeched open ahead of us, and pitch-blackness gave way to intense light.

“Watch out, Rod! Quick, duck and follow me!” I shouted, when a volley of bullets ripped through the air around us.

One of the bullets grazed the top of my head, just inches from the intended kill shot. He let out a cry and let go of me to grab his right shoulder. Silhouettes of an armed trio ran toward us, and excitement coming up from behind announced we would soon be surrounded. Enough light was present to reveal several alcoves along the corridor. Trusting my gut, I picked one to the left, largely since it would be an easier leap to make while dragging my buddy with me. We slid down an unexpected incline, and rolled into a room with exits on every side. Relying once more on my instinct to tell me which one to try first, I picked the one to my right and helped Roderick scurry inside.

Screeching voices moved closer and would soon follow our escape route. But as I turned to take us further away from the melee in the hallway, there was nothing to step onto. The floor was gone.

* * * * *

“Now what?!” I hissed, when Roderick resisted my efforts to get him to move back into the room we had just exited. “There’s no other frigging place to go!”

“What would you like for me to tell your loved ones and our departed friends beyond the veil? Because if we step back into the room, I won’t have the strength to fight the vampires off,” he said. “You won’t be able to do it either, and we know what that means for you and Beatrice and Alistair….”

A sudden chill had entered the room ahead of us. No heartbeats, and no breaths.

Vampires.

Hungry and on the hunt, and surely freed by Dracul to feast on us.

We wouldn’t hear them, and would only see their physical presence when their bumbling human companions descended on the room à la Rambo.

“Trust me, Judas. Trust me like you never have before!”

Before I could respond, Roderick lunged into my chest, carrying me with him as we fell backward into the abyss. Some might picture my surprise, my dismay, and ultimately my alarm. Perhaps they would also picture my screams as we plunged to the bottom, none of this personally flattering, of course.

Yes, I screamed, as any man would, or woman, since my voice turned shrill. I felt the vampires hover above briefly and then they left us to our demise. But, what they surely didn’t understand was what Roderick
meant
when he charged me to trust him.

Save me, Judas…save me like I’ve saved you many times before!

I had no idea how far we would fall in such an environment, a veritable sea of black. Nor did I have a clue as to what we’d encounter at the end of our drop. Would there be another marble floor? Or, a room with furnishings that could become instruments of death upon impact? Perhaps, this was a natural cavern, and at the bottom were piles of rocks, or more delectably, sharp stalagmites. Regardless, I knew what needed to be done, since Roderick was already greatly injured. Any chance he had of healing depended on nothing worse befalling his physical person.