by Minda Webber
Several minutes later, we were pulled up in the Taco Bueno parking lot and began munching down. Dagan looked envious. Hart offered him a bite of taco and I saw him turn pale.
“No thanks. I can’t eat food.” He sighed. “I’m really
going to miss pizza.”
Who wouldn’t? I thought, and swallowed my nachos. Pizza was my favorite all-year, all-season, all-time food group.
Debbs studied him a moment. I know she was thinking he was about the best looking vampire she had ever seen because she shot me that look. You know, the one your best friend gives you when you both want to shout with joy that the best thing that ever happened to you was meeting Mr. Fine.
“How come you’re not trying to bite us? I mean, you’re about as fresh as a vampire as I’ve ever seen.”
I shot her a warning look to keep her mouth shut about who she was and the family she was born into. If she spooked Dagan, we might not find out anything.
“I’m a Dracula,” he stated proudly. I couldn’t blame him. He had a better last name then I did. We rob graves, but he rises out of them with old-world grace. He’s the master of the night, while we’re the masters of shovels.
“I can control my blood lust upon first rising.”
I wondered what else he could do. I bet he was a good kisser. Then I wondered why I wondered that. I had enough on my plate without thinking of kissing. Here I was, little ole me sitting right next to vampire royalty, vampire history and vampire legend. I also happen to love history and legends. I’d want to kiss him or at least listen to him all night, even if he didn’t have the prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen.
“That’s pretty impressive for a beginner,” Debbs remarked reluctantly.
She absolutely hated giving vampires compliments. I couldn’t blame her. I had a thing about giving compliments to werewolves. But that’s a long story and I’m busy right now.
“Look Dagan, I know you don’t know us as anything but your grave robbers, but you can trust us. I told you my name was V.J. It’s also Victoria Jewel Frankenstein.”
I didn’t mention Debbs’ last name again for the same reason I didn’t mention it the first time. Dracula’s grandson didn’t need to know he was sitting in a CRV with his grandfather’s arch-enemy. But I thought mentioning my last name might help. The Frankensteins had been casual acquaintances of the Dracula family for over a century.
“Somebody’s out to get you and now, it looks like they are out to get us as well. So it would help a lot if you could just trust me and tell me what you think is happening.” After all, he was in the vampire know-zone. “Why were you by yourself? Were you alone in New York?”
He took a deep breath, which is always a weird thing to watch in a vampire. Staring into my eyes I could feel him pushing with his power, trying to see if I was telling the truth. Either he was too new, or my own genetic special abilities kept him at bay.
“Oh, come off it. If we wanted to stake you, we would have. You can’t be that stupid.” Jason remarked hotly as he threw his trash in the bag and glared at Dagan.
I glared back at Jason. “You’re not helping here,” I said tersely. I nodded my head at Dagan and opened my eyes wide with that look of innocence I could do so well. Like when my dad wanted to know who had broken his beakers in the lab when I had been playing around down there.
“Dagan, we’re not out to get you or your relatives. Frankensteins don’t hunt vampires. Heck, the only one I’ve ever killed tried to eat my face and he wasn’t a date.” He had caught me in a cemetery two years ago. He wasn’t the fresh undead, he was just hungry, evil and didn’t care who he took a bite out of.
He nodded again, seeming to think about what I said, and finally spoke. “I had been in New York City with friends. Then I’d gone upstate to be by myself for a while to go hiking. I was tired of all the fawning and favors and everybody wanting something.”
Hmm, I thought. Imagine vampire royalty having the same problems as movie stars and rock musicians. “So what happened?”
“I died unexpectedly. But I was coming to visit my great uncle the day after I died, so I imagine they decided to ship me here until grandfather could get to me. He’s not in this country right now.”
“You don’t know who would want you dead for real or who would want to capture you?” Jason asked suspiciously. “I find that hard to believe.”
Debbs finished the last of her burrito and shook her head at Jason. “I imagine just about anyone. Think, Jason. He’s Dracula’s grandson. Other vampire clans would want him to bargain with Dracula. The illegal vampire hunters would want to kill him or trade favors, not to mention psycho fans and stuff like that. Illegal vampire slayers might want to kill Dagan, even though he hasn’t done anything wrong-just think about the bragging rights for killing one of Dracula’s very own.”
“Why do the ghouls want him?” Hart asked as he stuffed his mouth with the last of his taco.
“I don’t know,” Debbs said. “It’s not the ghouls themselves, but someone else after him, like a voodoo priest or a necromancer, someone like that. Or it could be someone is after us.”
“They could have killed us,” I said angrily.
“Yeah, I know. And speaking of ghouls, since we didn’t get them all, the remaining ones will be after us,” she added thoughtfully.
Hart frowned in distaste as Jason put the CRV in reverse and backed up, then headed out to the main street.
“How many do you think are left?” Jason asked as he made a left on Perrin Beitel road, rubbing his shoulder.
“Seven or eight ghouls, I think,” Debbs replied. “I think I personally killed nine. I was in fine fighting form tonight, did you notice?”
“Yep,” I replied, thinking that we had all fought well, but Debbs could be a bit conceited at times when she got on her high-horse of Van Helsing heritage.
“Four ghouls are left, maybe five,” Hart added, his brow furrowed deep in thought.
“Six.” Dagan stated empathically, like he knew exactly what he was talking about.
He probably did. Vampires had almost as good a sense of smell as ghouls. He also had a slight accent, old world. Of course he was old world if anybody was.
“Great,” Hart said disgustedly. “I hate ghouls.”
I nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly. We had six ghouls who would be on our scent trails. At least ghouls couldn’t come out when the sun was up. Still, we now had six ghouls to kill when they showed up to eat us.
I was frowning when I looked over at Dagan. He didn’t look too happy either. Dagan Dracula was stuck with us, just like we were with him. His great grandpa, when he found out, would want him undead and well. The Van Helsings probably wanted nothing to do with their arch-enemy or else trade him in for a favor in the future. Then there was the other vampire clans who could want him dead and deader. And the ghouls just wanted to dance on his grave and do a little chewing. Talk about getting up on the wrong side of the coffin.
CHAPTER FIVE
We made the drive to the Rest and Rise in Peace Funeral Home in about twenty minutes. The place was located on the outskirts of town outside Loop 1604. It was the second largest funeral home in San Antonio and catered mostly to the paranormal crowd.
On the way over, we had discussed our ghoul dilemma. There were a lot of questions to be answered. Like, who had paid my grave yard informant to lie to me. Who had raised the ghouls? Why was Dagan there at the graveyard, instead of San Angelo? And another good one. A pressing one. What did we do about Dagan for tomorrow? Vampires needed a safe, dark place to sleep. After a big argument, it was finally decided he would stay tonight at my house. Our house had a huge, dark attic. It would be a good daytime resting place and would be undisturbed since my mom was visiting her sister in Dallas. Luckily, the rest of my family would be at school tomorrow, even my Dad.
My Dad taught Physics and Chemistry at one of the local colleges. He worked part time at the college on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so it was my hope that we could kee
p it on the DL and he’d never know just who had slept in his old camping bed in the attic. I was happy that Dagan would be spending the night at my house, because it gave me a chance to talk with him without the gang around. Love them thought I did, I wanted a little privacy with the Prince of Prime.
Dagan didn’t tell us where Dracula was while we had discussed his situation, but you couldn’t blame him since it was his grandfather’s life-well, his undead life we were talking about. He needed to get to him or other relatives as soon as possible, I thought. But Dagan didn’t want to call anyone until he figured out who was out to get him, which made sense in a sneaky vampire sort of way. Then, he would get in touch and call in the Vampire Cavalry by way of his grandfather. At least I hoped he would. I mean, I know I’m supposed to be used to monsters and all, and I am, but I just don’t have Debb’s savoir faire about being almost eaten alive or drained dry when you were in the vampire big leagues.
I didn’t like the fact that anyone and everyone who knew anything, or maybe even nothing, could be after us. Because, instead of stealing a plain old corpse for a zombie, we hit the jackpot, a royal prince of vamps. About the only thing I could say that I was happy about was that Dracula’s grandson seemed to like me a little. He kept smiling at me. A minute ago he reached over and patted my hand when I sympathized with him about being left out in the dark literally.
Strange as it seems in spite of all that had happened tonight, things were looking good in the romantic department for me. I was attracted to Dagan and Dagan, instead of falling head for Debbs, because of her good looks and outstanding fighting skills, seemed to prefer me. That wasn’t always the case. Although Debbs and I rarely fought over boyfriends, I was used to Debbs getting more attention from the opposite sex than I did. I was cute, she was beautiful. I thought it wonderful that Dagan had the good taste to pick me. Of course, this couldn’t help but put me in a good mood despite almost being eaten alive.
Even the conversation in the car was better than I could have expected, given that Debbs, who was riding shotgun in the front seat, couldn’t keep from turning around and frowning. She really didn’t like vampires and she didn’t like the attention that Dagan was paying me. And Jason couldn’t quit complaining about his arm or how it was entirely my fault that we had gotten into this ghoulish mess.
Thankfully, we squealed into the parking lot of the funeral home before I punched him in the nose. Jason pulled around behind a cement wall, which was located next to the mortuary. It hid the CRV. Only two other cars were parked in the parking lot since closing time for the funeral home was at seven.
“Nobody’s much here,” Hart said as we all opened the doors almost at the same time and popped out of the car looking like a bunch of Energizer bunnies. We wanted answers and we wanted them quickly.
“Hey Dracula,” Jason called out as he shut the door to his CRV. Dagan was standing beside me as I turned to close the door. “Just how did you die?”
I shut the door quickly because I didn’t want to miss the answer. I was surprised I hadn’t thought of it first. Turning around I caught an embarrassed Dagan take off walking without answering. My curiosity went into the red zone.
“Hey, didn’t you hear me?” Jason asked belligerently. I could tell he didn’t like Dagan. Anyone in the CRV knew he didn’t like Dracula’s grandson, and the way Dagan turned back and glared at him, I think the feeling was mutual.
“Yeah, what happened?” Debbs asked curiously as she hurried to catch up with our vamp.
“I got stung.”
“Stung?” She asked, her eyebrows furrowing with his answer. “Like by a stingray or something?”
“Not exactly,” he hedged as Jason caught up to his other side.
“Then what, a bee?” Jason asked laughter thick in his voice.
“No,” Dagan snapped.
I caught up with them and gave him a friendly smile around Debb’s shoulder. Luckily, I was taller than her. I punched her to remind her that she was going with Seth and just in case she forgot, I wanted her to remember that she hated most vampires.
“I was stung by a wasp.”
Jason cracked up laughing. Debbs giggled, and I could hear Hart make a coughing sound behind me. I, being the smart and sensitive person that I am, didn’t laugh. But it was a close call.
I just nodded sympathetically at him. Did I mention he had the sweetest blue eyes I’d ever seen on anyone alive or undead? Did I also mention I can be as devious as anyone when a good looking datable boy is around, even if he is a monster? Later, I might smile or giggle about vampire royalty being taken down by a wasp, but not with Dagan watching me.
“This is better than the Vampire Diaries,” Hart remarked thoughtfully.
“Hush,” I said as we approached the side of the building which lay thick in shadows. Earlier, I had told them about the window that was usually cracked openin the mortician’s embalming lab. It was an odd thing to be in-the-know about, but Frankensteins know our way around mortuaries. “We don’t want to alert anyone that we’re here.”
“Down those steps,” I added, as we approached cement steps going down into utter blackness. I flipped on a tiny flashlight I kept on my keychain for emergencies or breaking in morgues. We’d left the miner’s helmets back at the car. Besides, my light was cracked from when I hit the ground. The shadows seemed to melt back from the tiny brightness of the light. On the third step from the bottom I stopped and pointed the light upwards. The large window was opened a tiny bit.
“There. Hart, give me a boost.”
Before Hart could even move Dagan had reached my side and lifted me up. I pushed at the window which squeaked as it opened enough to let me get inside. He lifted me higher and I felt my upper body being positioned in the window frame. I took it from there and crawled through, hanging over the ledge a moment, and shone my light around.
The lab was dark and smelled of disinfectant and formaldehyde. Not a pleasant combination. Tools of the mortician trade were scattered about the room along with three long lab tables.
I pushed the rest of the way through and did a half flip landing on my feet. If people tell you that cheerleading won’t help you in life, they don’t rob graves or deal with paranormal situations like breaking into funeral homes. Geometry I could see as being useless in the big world, but cheerleading, no way.
I hurried to the door and pushed back the dead bolt letting my friends inside. The first thing Hart did was turn on a light. “That’s better,” he said, happy to see the shadows fade into nothingness. Hart really didn’t like the utter blackness of the dark.
“Okay, the main office is up the stairs, first door on the left. The stairs are also to the left in the second hallway down here,” I told Hart and Jason. “You get the records for Rhonda Macon, see where she’s working tomorrow, or if you can get her home address, that would be great.”
“I know,” Jason replied irritably. We’d discussed who went where in the CRV. “We’ll also find out about the shipping on Dracula here.” He didn’t look happy about it and he could be two-faced at times, but he’d do it because we needed to know and Jason always did his duty whether he was fond if it or not. He was his father’s son.
“Watch out for the security guard,” I warned.
“Yes Mom,” Jason said as he shot me a dirty look. “I’ll keep an eye out for the vampire guard too.” Vampire guards were counselors and guards both. They watched out for early rising vampires and helped fresh vampires through the first rising by feeding them with the packaged blood supply in the vampire morgue. They also kept them from tearing the throat out of hapless victims.
As they went one way, Dagan, Debbs and I made our way carefully down the hall to the right. We had to go through the coffin storage room to get to the vampire morgue. It was a large room and filled with all shapes and sizes of coffins. Afraid that the guard would see us if we turned on the overhead lights, Debbs and I were using our keychain flashlights. She had one too, a Christmas gift from her brothers
. But then great minds think alike and can be created to think alike, or at least my dad said that. And he’d know about brains having dealt with more than a few in his career as a flesh reanimator.
Still, our pinpricks of light couldn’t keep out the darkness or show us much more than what was directly in front of us in the cavernous room. Since the room was devoid of windows and totally underground, it was very dark, imagine black paint on black paint on a black canvas.
I heard Debbs mumble something under her breath. As a vampire slayer she didn’t like being surrounded by coffins she couldn’t see inside of anymore than I did.
Our footsteps were quiet on the carpeted floor. The only sound in the enormous room. So when the rustling of cloth nearby us occurred, both Debbs and I swung our lights to the right. I gasped, the sound harsh in the silence, as a vampire rose, mouth open with two razor-sharp fangs glistening with blood. This wasn’t good.
He grabbed for Debbs before his feet even hit the floor. Boy, had this vamp woke-up on the wrong side of the coffin or what? I saw him jerk Debbs to him just as she yanked out a cross. The blinding light of the cross was startling in the near darkness as the vampire threw up one arm to shield his eyes; with the other he had a death grip on Debbs. He had one of her arms trapped, but she’d pulled the cross out with the other hand.
Before she could do more, Dagan had launched himself at the vampire and shredded part of his neck. The vampire let go of Debbs and turned to attack the younger vampire. He bit down hard on Dagan’s lower arm as Dagan tried to throw the vampire over his shoulder.
Reaching into my jean jacket I pulled out a stake. But before I could cross to the coffin and attack the deranged vampire, Debbs was staking the vampire through the back. The back assault worked because the vampire screamed, filling the room with its howl of pained disbelief.
“Sweet,” Debbs shouted as she shoved the stake home hard from the back while Dagan kept the vampire stationary. She screamed in his face. “Looks like you bit off more than you can chew!”
