The Interdimensional Dilemmas of IAN and Betty

by D R Brooks

CHAPTER 7

  Betty sat at the table, the decanter beside her nearly drained, swaying slightly, and looked confusedly at everyone eating in silence. She knocked back the last of her glass and groaned.

  "So, let me get this straight. IAN, you're Van Helsing and somehow father to wolf guy and definitely disturbed dhampir girl. Drac wanted to marry Gabriella and had some sort of secrets about the Bleed. Gabriella, you..."

  Gabriella chuckled in amusement, as Betty suddenly seemed at a loss for words.

  "You....you...like money. And for some reason are playing nanny to IAN's children." Betty gestured at Schreck, who was standing near his mistress, with her empty glass. "You're weird."

  She groaned again and put her head down on the table, pointing diagonally with one hand at the blonde guest. "But, who in heaven's name, are you?" She mumbled into the table.  The blonde just smiled, a smile she never broke even Betty began to absentmindedly feed on her.  

  “My name isn't Van Helsing anymore. It's IAN now. That was the name I was using when I had to dispatch him from your dimension all those years ago.  My daughter is certainly not a dhampir.”

  He looked at Gabriella.  “No offense, I trust?”

  “None taken, darling.  Oh, would you look at her?”  She motioned to Betty.  “She does look adorable in that dress. I think mommy going to dress her like this more often.”

  “Yes, the drool coming from her mouth is a lovely accessory. BETTY!  Are you even listening?”

  "Huh, what?" Betty wiped the thin stream of commingled blood and saliva from her chin.

  "A little self-control now I think." She said even as she was halfway to the blonde's throat again. Though trembling, she made it back to her seat.  "So Van IAN, what have you done with our old buddy Dracula?"  Outside the presence of her progenitor, Betty was almost back to her old self.

  “My daughter has taken him to the basement to soften him up a bit.”

  “I will…” IAN paused as he looked up to see Betty once again biting the blonde woman.  “I will go there tomorrow and get the answers I need. Alone, of course.  I don't want to lead you two into any more temptation.”

  Suddenly, Betty raised her head in alarm. "Shhh! Shhhhh, everyone. HUSH!" She looked around. "Do you hear that?"

  She held her head in her hands.  "That loud pounding?  Something's coming. I can hear it! Something's coming!"

  There was a knock at the front door.

  Gabriella turned nonchalantly, “Schreck, get that, will you?”  The manservant looked down at his missing arm pointedly.

  “Now don't pout.  We’ll have Dr. Frank-, oh, whatever his name is, take a look at it. Now go get the door.”

  Schreck walked over and opened the door.  The wind rushed in, but only the foggy street could be seen beyond the doorway. Betty slid up beside him, only stumbling once. "No, this doesn't make sense. It's here."  She leaned out, looking back and forth.  "It must be."

  Gabriella pulled her back inside, looked amused.  “It must be what?”

  "Here."

  Seemingly from nowhere, a young girl dressed in peasant threads crossed the threshold.  The waifish child shuddered in her slightly too-big clothes, even though the night was reasonably warm.  She turned her doe eyes to the group now assembled at the door.

  "Begging your pardon, my lords and ladies, but I was sent here by the council on a welfare check."

  IAN assessed her.  “What do you mean, child?”

  The little thing slipped past the group and stood in the middle of the marbled foyer. "More simply put..." She fixed IAN with a red gaze. "Where is Count Dracula?"

  “Currently detained somewhere...else.”

  She scoffed.  "As I am sure you know, he has friends in awfully high places. Of which I am one. And unless you want a diplomatic incident, I suggest you show me to him immediately."

  Betty chimed in. "How can to talk to him like that? Don't you know who and what he is?"

  "I know perfectly well who he is. That is why I am here." She looked more closely at Betty. "Ah. I see someone has been making unauthorized fledglings. How unfortunate." She motioned to IAN. "After I ascertain the whereabouts and general health of the count, I am afraid she must be destroyed of course."

  Gabriella moved in front of Betty.

  "Oh, I see. Yours, I take it? Nothing personal, you understand. Certainly, you will not be held in censure, seeing as you of particular interest to the Count."

  The little girl snapped her fingers. "Come fledgling, to me." Betty had no choice but to follow, her face slack.

  Gabriella tried to grab ahold of Betty, but IAN held up a warning hand.

  “I see the council is continuing its long-standing tradition of overreaching it authority.”

  "What can I say? It's politics."  The girl offered up a giggle. "Now. Dracula?"

  “I repeat, he is not here.”

  "You insult both of us with your obvious lie. As if I cannot sense him close by. I don't know what strings you pulled to have him released from prison, but there is a very good reason he was in there. And now I have to clean up the mess you have made."

  She shrugged the rags from her shoulders, revealing a child's satin dress below. The girl then waved her hand, turning off all the lights, save for those leading deeper into the house. As she followed them, Betty trailing behind, another light flared on ahead. And another. And another. Even through her bloodhaze, Betty knew they were taking her to the creatures below.

  Betty tried to buy them all time. Surely, IAN or Gabriella must have a plan beyond this. "Who, who are you?" Even in the alternating lights, she saw the corner of the girl's mouth tick upward. "I am known simply as the Council Executor."

  Betty suppressed a shiver of fear. "In what sense?" She was lagging behind and the Executor jerked her ahead with surprising strength.

  "Oh, all of them. Don't dawdle fledgling. It IS annoying."

  Betty let herself glide, though that meant one stalling tactic was no longer available. "How did I know you were coming? What was that pounding?"

  "Yes, well, that was the sound of your dead heart quickening. Fledglings are what we call "brink creatures". But before you are able to cross the line completely, I'm afraid I'm going to have to introduce you to the second death. Quite a shame, really. But the law is the law and ESPECIALLY now that we know you're connected to Van Helsing. Can't have you interacting with the other worlds, now can we?"

  Still in the foyer, Gabriella said desperately to IAN, “Are you going to stop her?”

  “Oh, my kids can handle her, but she has rushed things.”

  “Then it is time for a fight,” said Gabriella

  “For me, yes.   You, however, need to go back to your witches’ brews and conjure something strong enough to protect you from Dracula’s enchantment.  Otherwise will be of no use to me.”

  “No use! Why you son of a-,” she screamed, turning to IAN.  But he had already gone.