Posted by The Black Knight on July 19, 2000 at 23:03:16:
Chapter 9
Two nights later Luke stood in his last class. One of the students, Kelly Nelson, raised her hand. Luke stopped his lecture and looked at her.
"Miss Nelson how long have you been in my class?" Luke asked.
"Two weeks Mister Drake." Kelly said.
"But you still raise your hand when you have a question and you still call me Mister Drake?" Luke asked.
"I'm sorry, sir, but I have an important question." Kelly said.
"Are you in the military now?" Luke asked.
Kelly smiled and looked down.
"What's your question Miss Nelson?" Luke asked.
"How long does our paper on the rise of the Roman Empire have to be?" Kelly asked.
"That couldn't wait?" Luke asked.
"Well we were all wondering." another one of the students, Mary Simmons said.
A red headed young woman named Janie Barker, Kim Faulkner, and Shawn Valencia echoed her sentiment. Luke shook his head as he walked to a chalk board on the wall.
"No less than three hundred words and you have to have at least five sources." Luke said as he wrote it on the board.
He smiled a little as he heard groans from some of the students.
"Now are there any more questions or can I get on with my lecture?" Luke asked.
There was a knock on the door and Catrina got up to answer it. She stopped and looked over her shoulder at Luke.
"Since you're already there Catrina, answer it." Luke said.
Catrina smiled and opened the door. Danielle Francis stood waiting outside the door.
"Pardon the interruption, but if I may see you for just a moment." Danielle said.
Luke walked toward the door smiling.
"This isn't a coffee break, I'm assigning you chapter six this week. I would suggest that you take this opportunity to start reading." Luke said.
He walked out into the hall and closed the door.
"I see you take to power very well Mister Drake." Danielle said.
"Bad family trait. I'm sure that you didn't drag me out of my class to discuss my diplomacy."
"Actually no, I did not." Danielle said.
"Are you going to tell me or make me pick it out of your mind?"
"We have another new transfer. She's transferring in from a college in California." Danielle said.
"And your problem would be?" Luke asked.
"The fact that she's only sixteen. I don't want you to show her any special treatment, but I would ask that you go a little easier on her than you do those kids in there." Danielle said.
"Are you saying I'm hard on them?"
"Of course you are. It may interest you to know that she was actually born in Romania and speaks the language. She's a citizen of this country because her parents are." Danielle said.
"Why are you allowing this?"
"Because I don't have a choice. She's on the brink of becoming a world class swimmer and the Dean wouldn't allow the admissions office to turn her down." Danielle said.
"I never thought that Dean Raymond would allow himself to be so swayed by sports."
"Nor did I, but I believe that there is some other reason." Danielle said.
"What's her name?"
"Donna Miller. She'll be here tomorrow. I've already got her in both Candice's and Doctor Tepesch's classes." Danielle said.
"You might as well stick her in European History while you're at it. I'm sure that she'll just love Economics and Sociology at this hour of the night." Luke said.
"I will send her by for an interview in your office tomorrow and I'll take your first class." Danielle said.
"What's the point of that?"
"To see if you want her in your class. This is one student that I'm leaving to your discretion." Danielle answered.
"I'll schedule her before my first class, that way I can let you know before it's time for my class with her."
"By the way Mister Drake, have you met our new professor Doctor Tepesch?" Danielle asked.
"Our paths have crossed once or twice."
"That was what Madeline Morrison said when I asked her about him." Danielle said.
Luke looked both ways down the hall and saw that they were alone.
"He's our father and the last man in the world you ever want to tangle with." Luke said.
Danielle's brown eyes widened and her jaw dropped.
"The truth sinks in now?" Luke asked.
"Dracula."
"That is my name and his." Luke said.
Luke opened the door to his room and looked in.
"I'm going to dismiss you early tonight. Don't forget that you have a chapter to read." Luke said.
Danielle and Luke stood beside the door as the students filed out one at a time. Only Kim Faulkner and Charli stayed behind.
"What's wrong Miss Francis? You look like you've just seen a ghost." Charli said.
"You told her didn't you?" Kim asked.
"Do they know?" Danielle asked.
"Charli kind of stumbled into the basement a couple of weeks ago. Kim's story is a little more interesting. She might tell it to you sometime if you ask her nicely." Luke said.
Leon ran up the hall toward Luke's room.
"What's wrong Leon?" Luke asked.
"Your sisters returned from their search early tonight."
"Did they find him?" Luke asked.
"No, they found a jogger, or at least what was left of a jogger. Throat slashed, torn limb from limb, the usual stuff according to Madeline." Leon said.
"The usual stuff?" Danielle asked.
"They're looking for our half-brother. As for right now I would advise you to be very careful. He's crazy and kills for sport." Luke said.
"I'm sure the police will be looking into a murder like that." Danielle said.
"They will be, but they won't find anything. I said he was crazy not stupid." Luke said.
"Is Catrina helping them?" Kim asked.
"No she refused." Luke said.
"Sounds like Catrina." Kim said.
Luke smiled as he walked toward his office.
Early the next morning Luke sat alone in the living room of his house. The door to one of the bedrooms opened and Charli walked into the living room.
"Alone this morning?" Charli asked.
"Catrina and Lorna were busy with the homework you should have been doing and their jobs. The Count comes and goes as he pleases like he owns the place." Luke said.
Charli leaned over the back of his chair and looked down at the book he was reading.
"Modern History and Evolution. I'm impressed." Charli said.
"I read this stuff for the entertainment value. You mortals have such a grand idea of what you are and where you came from. If you only knew." Luke said.
"What does that mean?"
"You presume yourselves to be descendants of some long lost prehistoric ape-like creature. Going by the way some of you act there are times if I didn't know better I would think that you were right."
Luke said.
"If you didn't know better. What is it that you know?"
"There are some things that the mortal mind cannot contemplate, Miss Watson." Count Dracula said as he came in.
Luke leaned over the arm of the chair and picked up a wine bottle. Luke threw it toward Dracula and he caught it in one hand.
"Is that what I think it is?" Charli asked.
Dracula removed the cork and poured a thick red liquid into a wine glass. Charli turned her head as he drank it.
"If you mean blood, yes. Bovine unless I'm mistaken." Dracula said.
"I believe that is what Matty said it was. Where have you been?" Luke asked.
"Concerned?" Dracula asked.
"For the safety of my friends."
"I was looking for John. Apparently he has gotten a little better hiding since England." Dracula said.
"I don't think I want to hear this conversation." Charli said.
"You probably don't. I'll see you home." Luke said.
"I would advise you to stay here until we find John. It is the safest place this side of the basement of the University." Dracula said.
"If I didn't know better I would say you were concerned." Luke said.
"As much as you dislike it, you are still my son. I can sense how you feel about her. Besides because you gave her that pendant, she is now under the protection of the House of Dracula not just you."
Dracula said.
"Then it doesn't bother you that I know what you are?" Charli asked.
"Should it?" Dracula asked.
"Considering that if I talk to the right people you could end up with a stake through your heart." Charli said.
"But then you know by now if you did you wouldn't live through the night." Dracula said.
Charli smiled a little.
"Then it could be worse." a woman's voice said from the top of the stairs.
Charli's eyes widened as Angie Sexton walked down the stairs.
"They said you were dead." Charli said.
"I thought I was. If anyone asks I'm an old family friend of the Drakes and my name is Alexis Sweeton." the beautiful blonde said.
"Then that part of the book was true. You take on and let go of identities so easily that it's scary." Charli said.
"Some of us do. Personally I've found it kind of monotonous and a little boring." Dracula said.
"This is a little too much to digest. If you don't mind, I'm going home, lock my doors, and hope you're all gone when I come out." Charli said.
"I take it you're going home to finish your homework?" Luke asked.
"What else would I be doing?" Charli asked.
Alexis Sweeton sat down in a chair beside Dracula as Charli left.
"Would either of you care to tell me why I'm not dead?" Alexis asked.
"I wasn't entirely truthful with you. When a stake is driven through the heart of a vampire, they're thrown into a state of suspended animation. When it's removed their regenerative powers take
over and they re-animate." Dracula said.
"Is there any way to really kill a vampire?" Alexis asked.
"Decapitation or fire." Dracula said.
Alexis shook her head sadly.
"Are you sure about that?" Luke asked.
"Absolutely. Now I believe that you two would like to be left alone." Dracula said.
"Are you sure of that?" Alexis asked.
"I can sense your feelings as well as you do mine. It is my blood that flows through Luke's veins, and yours." Dracula said.
He walked up the stairs and into a room on the second floor.
"He just moves in and makes himself at home doesn't he?" Alexis said.
"It's his right. I don't like it, but there's nothing I can do about it."
Luke stood up and walked over to her.
"What's wrong?" Alexis asked.
"I can't figure out why you're not mad at me. You usually are when you make a major discovery about yourself."
"I would be, it is after all your fault that I am a vampire, except I noticed you at Angie Sexton's funeral." Alexis said.
"Odd that I didn't feel you."
"But I felt you. I had to stay perfectly still and keep my eyes closed, but I could still sense you. You were sad at the loss of a friend, but you were actually glad that I found some peace." Alexis
said.
"You know that you were always more than a friend Alexis."
She looked down at the floor and her lips turned up in a slight nervous smile.
"That makes you uncomfortable?" Luke asked.
"I know your feelings too well. I will not compete for a place in your heart."
Luke smiled a little as he took Alexis' hand in his. She smiled sweetly as he pulled her to her feet. He looked over at a stereo in the corner and it came on. She smiled as he put his arms around her.
"We've been together for eight hundred years. We will still be together long after Charlotte Watson is just a memory." Luke whispered in her ear.
"I hoped that I was wrong about you."
"What do you mean?" Luke asked.
"You're just as cold hearted as your father."
"Just realistic. We're immortal, she is not. No vampire in their right mind would touch her now. Only my father, Jonathan, or myself could convert her without having to answer for it." Luke said.
"Who's Jonathan?"
"My older brother. He's my half-brother actually, but with us he's considered a brother." Luke said.
The door opened and Karen Alexander came in.
"Has everyone forgotten how to knock?" Luke asked.
"I'm sorry, but we've got a serious problem. He struck again, this time in the day time and he killed two people. I can't cover this up any longer. My captain found out about this and he turned it
over to Special Investigations." Karen said.
"That's happened before so what's the problem?" Luke asked.
"The captain of the Special Investigations Unit is a woman named Carla Helsing. I looked it up she's the niece of the Professor Van Helsing who is suppose to show up here tomorrow." Karen said.
"That is a serious problem. I'll call Danielle and tell her that the Count and I can't come in tonight. We'll start our search as soon as the sun goes down." Luke said.
"I have already called her. It seems that you have an appointment tonight and she won't let you out of that." Dracula said as he came down the stairs.
"I can feel all of you, it only stands to reason that I could find John. Nadine can too, I would say." Alexis said.
"I'm afraid that you wouldn't stand much of a chance against him though." Luke said.
"I could tell the rest of you where he is." Alexis said.
"Don't do anything stupid, okay." Luke said.
"Me? Stupid?" Alexis laughed.