Posted by The Black Knight on June 27, 2000 at 08:43:02:
Chapter 1
Walton State University began to fill with students as the sun began to set behind the rolling hills of Tennessee. A new professor was just beginning his job on this particular evening. He was a tall slender man with short black hair. He walked into his new office and set a name plate on the desk. He pulled out a stack of papers and lay them on the desk in front of him and sat down. He shook his head and threw his pen down.
"All these years, and I'm reduced to this?" he said.
He straightened his tie, got up, and left the office. He walked down the hall to the college's cafeteria. It was one of the largest rooms on campus with the capability to seat at least three hundred people.
It was nearly empty except for a few students off to one corner studying and a young woman sitting behind a table near a door to the kitchen. The professor walked over to the door of the kitchen. The
young woman stood up and smiled slightly. She was a very slender woman with long jet black hair and very pale skin.
"A bar maid now are you?" he asked as he leaned on her table.
"Dietician, thank you. What are you?" the young woman asked.
"Professor Lucas Drake, and you?" he asked.
"Madeline Morrison. I've been on staff here for nearly a year." she said.
"Call me Luke if you don't mind, little sister." he said.
He lay his hand on her left cheek, bent over a little and kissed her right cheek.
"Please, someone might be looking. If anyone knew about us, we would both be in for it." Madeline said.
"What are you worried about Matty, all they could do is fire you." Luke said.
"Fire, yes that is what I'm afraid of." Madeline said.
"Always such timid little creature aren't you?" Luke asked.
"Call it respect, big brother, I have a strong desire to keep on living." Madeline answered.
Luke smiled a little as he stepped toward the door.
"Tell me, Matty, do you have anything around here to eat?" Luke asked.
"It depends. How much have you recovered from that intestinal problem of yours." Madeline said.
Madeline opened the door and motioned him down a long hall.
"I have two hours until my first class, why not." Luke said.
They walked down the hall past the kitchen and a couple of workers. Madeline reached into the inside pocket of her black jacket and pulled
out an old large metal key. After a few seconds walking in the dark they came to a metal door that looked as if it weighed a couple of tons.
"It seems that you did inherit some of the family eccentricities." Luke said.
Madeline rolled her eyes as she turned the key in the pad lock. She pulled the door back with ease and they went in. She shut the door behind them and locked it. Madeline pulled her jacket off and put on
a long black coat. She walked down the hall and pulled a lantern off the wall.
"Come on, it's not much farther." Madeline said.
"This had better be worth the walk Matty." Luke said.
They walked on to another door. Madeline opened it and they walked in. It was a large room lit with florescent lights over head. There were several ornately decorated posts along the interior of the room
with several doors along the sides of the room.
"What is this place?" Luke asked.
"Some of the younger ones cannot venture out into the sun, so I offer them shelter down here. It gives us a place of refuge where we won't be noticed when we have to eat." Madeline said.
"You are as discreet as always?" Luke asked.
"Of course, I'm in no hurry to get myself skewered like a piece of beef." Madeline answered.
As they came to the end of the room they noticed that two people stood by the last posts chained to rings on the posts over their heads. One was a sandy haired young man in his early twenties and the other was a
blonde young woman who couldn't have been older than seventeen.
"What is the meaning of this?" Madeline asked.
A young man with black hair came out of one chambers at the end of the room. He was dressed all in a pristinely cleaned black suit.
"These two followed us from the slaughter house. We caught them
trying to sneak in here." he said.
"Did you try to remove it from their memory?" Madeline asked.
"They're too strong willed, we cannot." he answered.
"I know this boy, he's a student here, always asking why he never sees me in the day time." Madeline said.
"Yeah, and now I know. I'll tell the Dean about your little nest down here." the young man in chains said.
"You've done all you can Leon, we will take care of them." Madeline said.
The other man backed into the shadows and seemed to vanish.
"Nice trick. He's a little young to know that one isn't he?" Luke asked.
"He had an old master, probably older than you." Madeline said.
Luke walked over to the frightened girl.
"Don't hurt me please!" she whimpered as Luke lay his hand on her cheek.
"I'm a teacher here, what purpose would I have in harming you?" Luke asked.
"I know what I saw, they were taking the blood from the slaughter house. Then one of them drank it." the girl said.
"Are you sure that's what you saw?" Luke asked in a low voice.
The girl's eyes widened as she looked into his blue eyes.
"Pretty sure." the girl stammered.
He smiled a little.
"What you saw, were the workers from the college. They were bringing meat for the cafeteria." Luke said.
The girl shook her head slowly.
"No, I know what I saw, he drank some of that blood." she said.
"Stubborn girl." Luke said as he walked over to the young man.
Madeline smiled slightly as she opened the collar of his shirt.
"There has to be another way Matty." Luke said.
"They will not forget. There is no other way." Madeline said.
"What are you talking about?" the young man asked.
"Young man, someone should have taught you to be careful whose affairs you meddle in." Madeline said.
Her thin lips parted in a grimace, which made her look more like a wild animal than a human. The young man's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head as Madeline's upper lip pulled up slightly showing that her incisors were much longer than they were supposed to be. She moved up within inches of his face and he moved back. Her eyes turned bright red as she moved her mouth toward his throat.
"Richard!" the girl screamed.
He let out a cry as her fangs dug into his throat. He struggled for a few moments then hung limp against his chains as she drained his body of its blood. Luke stepped back from her as she moved toward the girl.
"Was that really necessary?" Luke asked.
"No, we could have let him told the Dean about us. Then we would all be as bad off as him." Madeline said.
Luke moved over to the girl and unfastened her collar.
"No! Don't!" the girl screamed.
"It will not hurt so bad if you don't struggle." Luke said.
She squealed as his fangs pierced her jugular vein. Seconds later her eyes rolled upward and her body grew limp.
"Is it really all that bad, big brother? She was young and strong. Surely you enjoyed the kill." Madeline said.
Luke grabbed Madeline by the throat and slammed her into the post beside the girl's body.
"The taking of a life is not something to be relished. She was a human being just as capable of thinking and feeling as we are." Luke said.
"Others may have to take that from you, brother, but I do not." Madeline said.
She put her foot on his chest and pushed him back through the air at least thirty feet.
"Never forget that I am just as much a Dracula as you are. I expect the same respect from you as I do the rest of these miscreants." Madeline said.
Luke got up and flew across the room, caught her shoulders, and threw her down the room into the iron door.
"You seem to forget that the older we get the more powerful we become. I walked this earth eighteen hundred years before you were born, little sister. Do not think for a moment that our common blood
would keep me from destroying you if you get in my way." Luke said.
Madeline slowly got to her feet and shook her head a little. Leon came back into the room.
"Do you need any help Countess?" Leon asked.
"How long have you been here Leon?" Luke asked.
"Seventy five years, sir." Leon answered.
"Haven't you learned in that time not to interfere in a family quarrel, or on sibling rivalry?" Luke asked.
"Then you are,..." Leon began.
"Luke. Just Luke to you, my friend." Luke said laying his hand on Leon's shoulder.
"We will finish this later." Madeline said with a slight hiss punctuating each word.
"We have been doing this for over a hundred years Matty. What exactly do you want to finish?" Luke asked.
Madeline walked back down the room where the two men stood.
"Take the bodies to the river, strip them of all identification, slash their throats, and dump them." Madeline said.
"Yes Countess." Leon said as he stepped toward the young man's body.
"Leon." Luke said.
"Yes sir." Leon said as he looked over his shoulder.
"That's Viscountess. Our father is still alive, so she's only a viscountess." Luke said.
"If I knew it would do any good I would strangle you." Madeline said as she walked toward the door.
Luke helped Leon lower the bodies to the floor as Madeline left the room.
"You know I'm beginning to think that I made her mad." Luke said.
"I've seen her angry before, sir. She has a really bad temper." Leon said.
"Yes, I know. What were you before you were brought over?" Luke asked.
"A butler, sir." Leon said.
"For some reason I thought so." Luke said with a smile.
They carried the bodies into one of the other chambers where there was a door to the outside.
"If you don't mind me asking, sir. Why did you call her Matty?" Leon asked.
"She was given the name Mathilda Lee Dracula at birth. She hates it, but the rest of us call her Matty all except the Count." Luke said.
"Born with the name Dracula?" Leon asked.
"Yes. All seven of us are unique to the realm of vampires. We were all born to human mothers, or to those that the Count had just converted." Luke said.
"Then you're not really vampires?" Leon asked.
"Just as much as you are. The only difference is we're a whole lot harder to get rid of." Luke said.
"I can get the rest of it from here, sir." Leon said.
"No thank you. I will help you clean up our mess. Besides I want to see where this door to the outside is. Maybe I can think of a way to guard it better." Luke said.
They threw the bodies onto a tarpaulin and rolled it over them. They carried the roll of cloth out a door and down a long dark tunnel.
"It's times like these when being able to see in the dark helps a lot." Luke commented.
"We do have a light if you want it." Leon said.
"Not really." Luke said.
They came to another door and Leon opened it. They walked out into a dark musty room.
"Nice place. It kind of reminds me of home." Luke said.
"Where would a vampire call home?" Leon asked.
"Castle Dracula." Luke answered.
"This is pretty close, sir, it is a crypt. There is a graveyard about a half a mile from the college campus and this crypt is in the middle of it. These two were just unlucky enough to follow Ronald and
Gabby here." Leon said.
"Who are they?" Luke asked.
"Two more of us. They work at the slaughter house at nights and bring us the blood before sunset." Leon said.
"I'll say one thing for Matty, she doesn't miss a trick." Luke said.
"She is a wise young woman." Leon confirmed.
"Not very young, she's over two hundred years old." Luke said.
Luke looked down at his watch.
"I'll let you take it the rest of the way. I have a class in twenty minutes that I have to get ready for." Luke said.
He walked out of the crypt into the open air.
"There is no one here Leon." Luke said.
He looked up into the black night sky, then he flew up into it. He flew back to the college and into the window of his office. He straightened his tie and his hair, picked up his briefcase, and walked out of the office. Madeline leaned against the wall outside the door.
"Back to the old grind, huh?" Madeline said as he came out.
"Has anyone ever told you that you are an unusual woman?" John asked.
"But I am. Not many women can fly, or get their kicks by sucking some poor sap dry." Madeline said.
"Would you keep your voice down." Luke said as a janitor walked by.
"What are you worried about, he's one of us." Madeline said.
"How many of us are there here?" Luke asked.
"Twenty so far, why?" Madeline asked.
"Because I just got a look at my itinerary. One week from today Walton State entertains a German professor with a month long group of seminars." Luke said.
"Why should that worry me?" Madeline asked.
"Because his name is Van Helsing." Luke said.
"Oh and you think I should be worried?" Madeline asked.
"He doesn't like you remember. Besides he knows the both of us. He won't bother me, but I don't want to come downstairs one night and find you with a stake through you heart, or your body without that
pretty little head." Luke said.
"He does have a bad habit of doing that doesn't he?" Madeline said sarcastically.
"You're impossible." Luke said as he walked ahead of her.
"No I'm Matty. I will stay out of sight and try to keep the others from doing anything stupid. You just keep Van Helsing entertained, or there are some here who would not hesitate to ram that
stake of his somewhere that isn't too polite." Madeline said.
"Point well taken." Luke said then winced.
"That's what I like about you, brother. Your sharp wit." Madeline said.
"That was bad Matty." Luke said.
"But it was funny." Madeline said as she walked toward the cafeteria.
Luke walked on to his class room alone.