B00724AICC EBOK (14 page)

Alexander wrote his name in her book as he smiled at her. “What’s your name?”

“
Jenny.”

“
I can’t observe your aura Jenny. You’ve some sort of spell about you.”

“
My mother had her friend block mine. It’s the in thing. Did you kill any vampires tonight and can you have your dog show me her fangs?”

Alexander stood up and his sword had become visible from under his ink black trench coat. “Why do you think that she’s a vampire?”

“
Well, you’re a red sheriff so I guess that I just assumed. I don’t think that an ordinary dog could do that job.”

“
Tessy, show her your fangs.”

The dog showed her fangs but quickly pulled them back in as she had no desire to appear threatening. A crow cawed several times from the top of the tree and it briefly took their attention. The shepherd let go with a single bark and it flew off. Allison gestured to her daughter that they should be going.

Jenny and Alexander spoke simultaneously. “It’s just a crow.” But was it an ordinary crow?

Alexander stared at the girl as he tightened his eyebrows. His cell phone sounded in song and he knew it was most likely another emergency. “I have to go but I have something for you.” He pulled out a card of himself and handed it to her, its red border was luminescent. There you go. I had a request from another but I can get him another one.”

Jenny took the card and was most impressed. “Thank you so much. I’m going to tell all my friends that I got a card from a red sheriff. They are going to be so envious.”

Alexander blurred off into the night. The dog gave Jenny one last appreciative glance, as if to say that she was happy that Jenny was on their side, and then then the stunning animal instantly disappeared into the night.”

The night had suddenly become a little lonely.

“
Jenny, you shouldn’t do that.” She admonished her daughter with a shake of her head. It was difficult to keep her talents a secret but they attempted it nonetheless.

“
Shouldn’t do what?”

“
Don’t you play innocent. When you read someone’s mind so fast and you synchronise with their words it could be enough for them to want to take a closer look at you. And your abilities must always remain a secret, for your safety and mine.”

“
I didn’t think you’d notice.”

“
Sure.”

“
In any case he didn’t notice. Mother, I think the sheriff was following the vampire that killed himself.”

“
I believe that you’re correct.”

“
If I would have waited a little longer we could have watched the sheriff cut his head off. Wouldn’t that have been exciting?” Jenny started to skip as she walked.

“
You really shouldn’t be excited at the death of anyone.”

“
You should have seen what he wanted to do to us. It was horrifying.”

“
That’s enough.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

DRACULA FOLLOWED THE SCENT of the young girl and she was almost exactly eighteen miles away from her home. He blurred to a warehouse area near the docks, where an old abandoned house seemed out of place beside the huge blue warehouse, also abandoned. The dirty white house looked as though it would fall over and collapse if it was kicked. The Master sniffed the air and was certain that the girl was inside. Several seconds later Piers Anthony had zipped beside the Master as Dracula studied the almost two hundred year old dwelling. He listened intently to the voices inside.

“
I take it she’s in there?” said Piers. He played with the stubble on his face.

“
Indeed, and she’s alive. I can smell her fear.”

“
How are we to acquire the necessary permission for entry?”

Dracula studied the white peeling paint on the old crooked house. A broken tricycle with no wheels was in the front yard, perhaps a remnant from the long ago family that occupied the place. Two plastic soldiers also lay in the dirt. “I don’t think that’s going to be necessary. There was a structural defect when this abode was constructed many years ago, and now the front of the house is ready to cave in. The back section, where the girl is located, has weathered the years a little better. I’m going to smash the face off the house, and then it won’t technically be a house anymore and we can enter.”

“
You’ve accomplished this in the past?”

“
I’ve accomplished most things.”

The author was impressed and had never considered such a thing. “Dracula, would you please tell me about the Mona Lisa, I’m dying of curiosity. I have to know and I promise that I will not tell another soul.”

Dracula claimed to know the reason for the famous smile, and that he had in fact been present for a time when it was being created, but also said that he would never reveal that information as some mysterious were best left to the curiosity of mankind. Dracula didn’t believe that all puzzles should be solved. He enjoyed all the theories of her smile and it always tickled him for some reason. But that little tidbit of information weighed on the author’s mind like a math equation unsolved.

The master went to the side of the building and studied the frame a little more as Tanner’s voice reached them, something about what they were going to purchase first, and how they were going to celebrate the first of many evil accomplishments. Dracula prepared to give the building a mighty blow but then hesitated. “Piers, you are prepared to rush in and save the girl from falling debris and such.”

Piers nodded and Dracula immediately pulled three quarters of the face of the house off, and the author had to dodge the partial collapse that fell outwards. The master gestured for him to wait as he gave a kick and sent the remainder of its face flying some fifty feet across the road. The master gave a slight smile and nodded to indicate that entry was now permissible.

“
What the fuck!” screamed Harris?

They blurred into the house with such speed that the dust flew into Tanner’s face as he exited a small brown room with peeling wall paper equipped with a sawed-off break-open shotgun. He aimed the gun at Piers but Dracula hit him so hard that he actually drove him partially through the dingy blue wall. He fell face down and lay prone on the floor, seriously hurt and unable to move much.

“
Tanner!” Harris screamed as he rushed out of the washroom only to be slapped so hard by Piers that a bone in his face was crushed.

Shenna peeked around the corner from the dilapidated bedroom wearing nothing but a bed sheet, as the commotion had her frightened and trembling. “Are you the police?”

“
No, but we are here to return you to your parents. Did they hurt you?”

“
No, but they made me stay naked in the bedroom. They wouldn’t allow me to wear any clothes.” And with that she started to sob.

“
Please don’t hurt me!” Harris was actually starting to shake with fear as he realized he was facing two angry vampires. “If you turn me I’ll be forever in your debt.”

Piers shook his head. “This guy is obviously a comedian. Get your clothes on little one; I’m going to take you outside to wait for the limo.”

Shenna backed up and closed the door the squalor she was forced to live in, and then emerged still frightened to follow Piers as he was a stranger and she didn’t trust him. She thought that she would never trust anyone ever again. “What happened to the house?”

“
I guess it collapsed.” Dracula whispered into the Shenna’s left ear and he nodded.

Piers led the girl outside and away from the building, a sufficient distance that she wouldn’t be able to hear any of the conversation about to take place inside. The night was commencing to cover itself in an atmosphere of fog.

What remained of the building shook violently. Dracula flew out in the form of a bat and headed towards Canada.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

JENNY WALLER RESTED on her multi-colored purple bedspread with her jewellery fabricating kit listening to Avril Lavigne’s What the Hell and kicking her feet. On the ceiling was a large poster of Justin Bieber. Her music helped her to concentrate her mental powers onto the pendants etched with bat skulls that were designed to hang on a person’s neck with a protective spell attached to it. It was powerful magic that she didn’t yet fully understand. It was peculiar feeling the flow of magic within her and yet not knowing her own capabilities. She was aware that books existed that could aid her, but had no idea where to find such knowledge.

The room was comfortably small. Her modern design black clothes bureau with four white drawers held a nice large mirror for her to preen in as she checked on her wardrobe. The walls and ceiling were a bright white. And a Dell laptop computer was situated on her black glass computer desk with its attached CPU stand.

“
Not another stress headache.”

The 12-year-old, dressed in her Avril Lavigne white t-shirt and pink pajamas bottoms had discovered that the small carved oak skulls had to be done one at a time and it was terribly time consuming. The shiny wooden skulls had to be held in her right hand, held up to her forehead and focused upon for between ten and twelve hours. Once enchanted it was unknown how long the spell endured, and if it did indeed weaken over time, what was the timeframe? It was possible that it was an eternal spell but she really didn’t know. That really annoyed Jenny. Not knowing things wasn’t acceptable, but some things were either impossible to discover or at the very least extremely difficult. It would be extremely difficult for her to follow an enchanted vampire until the spell dissipated.

She held the small necklace of the bat skull tight to her forehead and envisioned evil vampires turning and fleeing from the object. She placed the scenes like small segments of a movie into the object. They went in one after the other, and they had to be crystal clear with absolutely no thoughts of anything else going in there. They stacked up like coins on a counter, increasing the spell in intensity and infusing them with a bright light that only she could observe. Once the object was sufficiently dazzling, she knew that the enchantment was ready to ward off biters.

She took a drink from her can of Pepsi, and then another, and in doing so she lost her concentration. All the infused magic poured out and the object went dark. The only good thing that she could take from it was that she had only been working on it for a couple of hours, and it could have been days. Jenny kicked her feet as she wanted desperately to scream but didn’t.

It was a lot of time for Jenny to expend but the results were exciting. A vampire could not attack anyone that wore one of the charms, and in fact they would become confused and wander off. The process had come to her in a repeating dream over a series of nights, with her holding a talisman to her forehead and vampires fleeing in utter confusion. It seemed that the dream simply wouldn’t leave her alone until she perfected the process, and that took almost a month. She had also discovered that attempting to magic up dozens of the skulls simultaneously simply didn’t work. She visualized it as shooting arrows and had to be accomplished one at a time. She had a total of four invoked with her powerful magic, but it was her desire to put together a heck of a lot more because they could save lives.

Jenny was also aware of the possible danger that it put both her and her mother in, but she thought that the lives that could be saved were worth the risk. Since Jenny could control their minds she didn’t need one, and because her mother had basked in her glow, one for her was also unnecessary. But her magic didn’t work on all the bad vampires, and she had absolutely no idea why. However, with Allison they could get awfully close before her glow kicked in to push them off.

Vampires were now killing people all over the globe and Jenny was determined to do something about it. She hated the fact that so many people were so scared.

“
I can’t believe I have to start over.”

It had been fun to test the magical items that she had put her talent to, and in the beginning the ones that had not been focused on long enough simply made the vampires confused, but it was obvious that they were having an effect. Some would stand and stare off, as if being called from a distance. But others would stare at Jenny as if she was doing something undetectable to them, and they didn’t like it one bit and so she was forced to erase their memories. And with others she made them destroy themselves.

Jenny had always been able to control most vampires; it was one of her talents. She was a genuine commander. Commanders were imbued with an above normal amount of magic that not only enabled them to enter a biters mind but to control them as well, and for that they were both feared and hated by most vampires. Even at the age of six she had controlled two of them and made them fight. Some vampires would even avoid an entire city had they knowledge of a commander lurking there.

She had given two skull necklaces to friends and told them to wear them at all times, saying that it would bring them good luck. Jenny was an above average kid in the IQ department and had lots of exciting ideas, including designated areas with huge oak statues that she would have enchanted to keep the biters away and ensure safety for numerous people. Eventually she believed that the word would get around and the vampires would simply avoid those areas out of habit, so even if the spell did weaken over time there was a good chance that the objects would continue to defend simply by their presence. It could be possible to have vamp free cities, especially if there were others out there that could help with the creation of the charmed objects. She imagined that the White House would love to have one on their lawn.