Dracula: Hearts of Fire (Dracula Heart's) (47 page)

    “That’s if I can find the
door. This place is so
big
you could land a small plane in here
.” She made her way to the front door where four Mexicans in sombreros played guitars and sang to
her. “Annie, won’t you please stay with me, get your suitcases see
; w
e’ll build a life together. If you don’t like it hey, you can always run away. Togethe
r!
”

    Annie laughed. “
Run away together?
All right
, all right
that’s enough.” One of the
so-called
boys
who all looked to be in their sixties
handed her chocolates and
a
large bouquet of flowers.

    Alastair blurred behind her. “I’m not much of a song writer Annie but you get the idea. Move in with me for a month, if you don’t like it you can run away.”

     She looked at Alastair and at the four Mexicans; they had been told that if she agreed that they would get a sizable tip. Therefore the anticipation on the faces of the Mexicans
were as animated as Alastair’s, perhaps even more so.
Their pleading eyes were quite expressive.
They felt like grabbing her and shaking her head YES. Annie
was e
njoying the attention. She
waited for a time
before she gave an answer, watching as all the Mexicans continued to nod
a little like bobbleheads
. “
We can give it a try for a week and see what happens.
I suppose I’ve nothing else to do.”

    Cheers went up from everyone.

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

    P
IERS ANTHONY AND MOON DIAMOND
waited patiently on a bench just outside the
Magnetic Hill Zoo.
The author petted the cat which stuck its butt in the air and
of course
that
always
annoyed Zacharia.
Night had covered the area so
the facility was
now
closed to the public, and the two spoke mind to mind.
The half-moon shown through a light cloud as Piers stared up at it.
Being a vampire was at times troublesome, but so had being a human.
He was studying up on it but there was so much false information out there.
Perhaps he should w
rite a book
if he ever got it all figured
out
or at least enough to help other
s that had been
newly
transformed
.

    They were on a bit of a case to catch the
vampire killer that had murdered people
near the zoo. Piers thought that they would make a good movie title: The Author and the Siamese Cat.
He wished that Zacharia was still in the
form of a vampire and not a feline
.
It was difficult to bond with
someone trapped inside a cat
.

  
The air was coo
l,
the summer being chillier
than normal.
Piers preferred Florida’s warmth to Canada’s chill.
The author was sorry
for Zacharia
but of course there was nothing he co
uld do, and that was the vampire’s
problem, with no body to return to he was stuck.
Those awful thoughts repeatedly slapped at him.
He was stuck on a mindless loo
p
that didn’t help his mental health any. It was a permanent condition so he best get used to
it
.
He thought that
No body knows the troubles he’s seen.

    Silence was
appreciated by both for a time, with the sound of
crickets
giving atmosphere to the season
, and the occasion
al animal moving around in the zoo
.
Silence could be as appreciated as a trunk full of memories.
Moon Diamond
liked the taste of crickets while
Zacharia thought that they
had a bit of a nutty taste
.
The author was working out a plot in his head in the land of ghosts and Zacharia was remembering a sword fight that had occurred back in 1465, the world had come a long way since then
, yet still had such a long way to go
.
Zacharia could see similarities to faces that he had killed long ago.
He remembered being part of the troops of King Louis XI of France battling an army of great nobles.
He even recalled the stench from that long ago era.

  
The night had a way of being refreshing to vampires, like humans experiencing a beautiful spring day after a long hard winter.
The cat also liked being out after dark, at least they had that in common.

    The RCMP was avoiding the area like animals avoiding a forest fire; they knew they wouldn’t be a match for a vampire so why bother getting killed over it. Calls had been sent out to get a red sheriff into the area but they were swamped with their own areas being overrun. Attendance at the zoo was down even though the attacks were
mostly
at night.
Even a rumor of vampires in a
certain area was enough to keep people away.
It had become easy enough to destroy a business with false rumors.

   
Piers wondered w
hy it was
that most vampires appeared to be evil these
days.
There had always been bad vampires but not like this. Achak’s caustic and evil
emanations was making its way around the planet
and affecting more than
half of t
he biters in one way or another, and by the time it was figured out it may well be too late.
Those emanations were occasionally
positive
to certain biters but
negative
to the majority
; at least humans were safe from his bad magic.

    The Siamese cat jumped off the bench and Zacharia told it to cease and desist, but Moon Diamond had become fixated on a nearby rat
. Inside that felis catus
they fought for control of that vehicle of cat fur, and although Zacharia won most battles this one he lost.
The Siamese was simply too intent on killing the rat. The rodent
went flying into the air as Moon Diamond pounced on it.
Bite, bite, bite,
and shake
.
In a matter of seconds it was killed and tossed aside. The cat returned to the bench beside the author and cleaned its fur.

    “See the things
that I have to put up with. Why did I have to animate th
at cat with a piece of my soul? And one of the worst things is that I can’t stop thinking about it. I play the kill scene over and over like a bad movie.”

 
  “
It is what it is.
”

    “
Why don’t you try and forget that you are a vampire Piers Anthony!”

     “
Yes, I see your point. Your reality is a bitch
.”

    The Siamese stared up at Piers and wondered if that wasn’t some sort of dig
.
It was easy to spew wisdom after something nasty had occurred, but before was something else.
Zacharia felt
something pulling at his aura but couldn’t tell where it was coming from.
His cat eyes
scanned the area but saw nothing.
“Piers, do you feel that?”

    Piers concentrated but he couldn’t feel anything.
He wondered what he had gotten himself into. He wa
s relying on protection from a
cat and that didn’t
sit well. He would have felt
a lot
more secure if he was sitting beside Dracula.
“I don’t sense anything. What is it?”

  
“I’m not sure
.”

    After a minute of quiet the sensation went away.

    “So what was that like k
illing the
rat?”
Piers was curious although he did feel it risky to bring it up.

    “It was strange, that’s what it was like.
And from my point of view that t
hing was
a huge monster of a rat
and
as ugly as any hell spawn.
It was like fighting a rat the size of a bear.
”

    “I never thought of that.”

   “
Yes, well you can just imagine some of my nightmares. And h
aving no control over your body is not an enjoyab
le sensation
, never mind th
e fact I’m
a freaking cat.
A Coke machine looks like a skyscraper.
How would you like to change places?”

    “Oh, I think not. I have enough with dealing with this vampire thing.
Life has become a juxtaposition of realities. Sometimes when I awake I forget for a m
oment or two
.
”