Posted by The Black Knight on September 14, 2000 at 11:57:01:
Chapter 18
Two months later well into the next quarter at Walton State University, Donna Miller spent most of her time in or around the pool at the University. Her spare time she spent mostly with Doctor John
Tepesch discussing the great mysteries of life and the small joys that fascinated her. One evening Donna and Dracula were alone in the Physical Education Building of the University. Donna had just come from the pool and into the office overlooking it.
"I still don't understand why you won't go out there. The water's nice, and they actually keep it heated right." Donna said.
"I am extremely allergic to Chlorine Donna." Dracula said.
Donna pulled a jacket out of her bag and smiled a little.
"So you get a little flaky skin, break out a little, so what. That's nothing compared to the thrill of gliding across that water."
Donna said.
"I don't break out a little, I combust."
Donna laughed.
"You have one of the weirdest senses of humor I've ever encountered." Donna said.
"Has anyone ever told you how beautiful you are?" Dracula asked.
"You have, several times in fact."
Donna pulled her long brown hair back into a pony tail and walked toward the door.
"Leaving already?" Dracula asked.
"I have a test tomorrow and I would like to get a little rest." Donna said.
"I wouldn't worry about it too much. You're a smart girl, you can handle it."
"I've got a few sit-ups to do before I go to bed tonight." Donna said laying her hand on her stomach.
"In your condition? What does your coach expect from you?"
"Perfection. It has something to do with hydrodymanics, but I don't understand it too much." Donna said.
"Perhaps I could do something to help." Dracula said as they walked out into the hall.
"What could you do?"
"Close your eyes and relax." Dracula said.
Donna smiled as she closed her eyes and leaned her head back.
"Do you have any idea how stupid I feel right now?" Donna asked.
"That won't matter in a few moments."
Dracula's eyes turned bright red and he opened his mouth revealing his fangs. Dracula moved his face close to her throat. Suddenly Luke sprang from the shadows and slammed Dracula back into the wall.
"No matter what you want to believe she is not Francesca and she never will be Francesca." Luke said as he held his father against the wall.
"What's happening?" Donna asked as she opened her eyes.
Luke turned around and looked at her. Donna gasped audibly as she saw his eyes glowing bright red.
"Get out of here girl, while you still can." Luke said in a very commanding tone.
Donna nodded and ran toward the door. Dracula hissed as he threw Luke back across the hall. Luke flipped and landed on his feet nearly against the opposite wall.
"How dare you interfere?" Dracula asked angrily.
"She is a sweet, innocent, trusting young woman just like Francesca was. I will not allow you to destroy that just to satisfy an old debt that you've created in your mind. Francesca is dead, she
has been for five hundred years." Luke answered.
"If you ever meddle in my affairs again I will make sure that it is the last time."
"You stick your nose in my business all the time. It doesn't feel too good does it?" Luke asked.
Suddenly there was a scream from outside the building. Dracula looked toward the door. Both father and son ran to the door and out it so
fast that they couldn't be seen. Donna Miller stood by a large black van. John Seward stood facing her with his back to the door. Seward glanced over his shoulder at Dracula and smiled a little. Donna's big
blue eyes widened as Seward drove a knife up under her sternum. Dracula started to walk toward them, but Luke stopped him.
"You can't do her any good now." Luke said.
Donna's eyes looked skyward and blood ran over the center of her lower lip as she slid down the side of the van.
"Let me go." Dracula said angrily.
"That's what he wants. He has been watching us for months now and he knows what Donna meant to you. If you try anything you'll never leave this parking lot." Luke said.
"Donna needs help." Dracula said.
"Donna's already dead, she's beyond any help mortal or otherwise." Luke said.
Dracula nodded and stepped back a little.
"You suppose yourself to be the protector of the weak and the innocent. A girl just died here tonight that would still be alive if you hadn't interfered." Dracula said angrily.
"You call what we are alive?"
"More alive than these foolish mortals could ever dream of. We know what we are, where we came from, our limitations and they know nothing. I offered that girl the chance to experience that and she
did not turn me down. She would be standing her alive if you hadn't stopped me." Dracula said.
"Are you through with your little dispute or should I let you kill each other first?" Seward asked.
"Did you learn nothing from you experience in Cairo? I could have killed you, but I let you live." Luke said.
"You didn't kill me because you lack the power to kill. The strength of the heart that drives all vampires, but you do not have that." Seward said.
"Power? Interesting choice of a word. You have absolutely no idea what you are dealing with." Dracula said.
"I do not care so long as I know that right is on my side." Seward said.
"Was the killing of an innocent sixteen year old righteous? What about all those that you've killed simply because they got in your way. They protested too loudly, they agreed with our right to exist, or something so offensive as to simply be in your line of sight. Is that righteous Mister Seward?" Luke asked.
Seward walked to the back of his van and pulled the door open. He pointed a cross bow with a wooden stake in it at Dracula.
"We will settle this Seward, and when we do you won't like the outcome." Dracula hissed.
He leapt up into the night sky and vanished.
"You've crossed the line John. I can't help you this time." Luke said.
He stepped back and followed his father into the air. Seward threw his weapon into the van and walked back to the driver's seat. He left Donna Miller lying where she had fallen.
Two weeks later Heather Taylor returned to the University with a camera man in tow. She walked to the Physical Education building and met Donna Miller's coach just outside the pool.
"Excuse me sir, would you mind if we interviewed you?" Heather asked.
"About what?"
"Donna Miller." Heather answered.
"Go away. No interviews." the coach said as he slammed the door in her face.
Heather smiled a little.
"Well I guess we could shoot the tag here, then you can get some shots around the school for background." Heather said.
Her camera man nodded. She plugged a microphone cord into the back of his camera and walked to the door out to the pool. She held the microphone up to her face and began to speak:
"As you can see the tragic death of one of the brightest young athletic stars has rocked this campus. Reporting from Walton State University I'm Heather Taylor, WGFN news."
"That should do it." the camera man said.
"Good, now just go ahead and get all the shots that you need and head back to the station. I'll cut it myself when I get back." Heather said.
The camera man walked off down the corridor and Heather walked the other way. Candice Dalton came in the door just as she reached it. Candice gulped when she saw Heather.
"Relax Candy, you're perfectly safe with me. All I needed was a little self control." Heather said.
"What about that supposed insatiable hunger?" Candice asked.
"I had a couple of pints last night, so I'm not really hungry."
"I assume that you didn't have to kill anyone for that." Candice said.
"It was from a slaughter house they told me."
"Maybe we could talk some time, but right now I have a few errands to run and a class in five minutes." Candice said.
"Maybe Saturday night. I'm still not quite used to sunlight yet."
"Saturday's fine, just make sure that you have a full belly because I don't want to be your midnight snack." Candice said.
Heather laughed as Candice walked down the hall. Heather walked out of the building to where Donna Miller had been killed.
"It just doesn't make sense. Seward makes his way by killing vampires, and you weren't one of us." Heather said to herself as she knelt over the remains of a chalk outline.
She looked up as she heard foot prints behind her. She stood and turned to face John Seward.
"She had been influenced by a vampire, even more than she realized." Seward said.
"Did that justify murder?"
"I was simply relieving her suffering. For months now I have wondered why a shy retiring young reporter would suddenly become a very sultry and seductive woman." Seward said.
"Me? Seductive? You must be crazy." Heather said in a low voice.
"There is of course only one answer."
"What pray tell would that be?" Heather asked as Seward walked around her.
"You have undergone a remarkable transformation from an innocent, but nosy reporter, to an un-dead creature of the night." Seward said as he pulled out a crucifix.
Heather hissed as she turned away from the cross. He stepped toward her backing her toward the building. Heather ran back into the building and gasped as she saw two men waiting on her inside. Seward
stepped in behind her still holding the crucifix. Both of the men raised crosses toward her as she walked toward them. They left her only one escape into the pool. She walked in the door with an angry
look on her beautiful face. Seward followed her and she was forced back to the other door that led out onto the deck around the pool. She took a deep breath then opened the door. She backed away from the
cross until she had to take a breath of the humid air in the pool house. Heather folded her arms, screamed, and fell to her knees.
"What is happening to me?" Heather asked.
She tilted forward to her hands and knees. She lurched and blood poured from her mouth, the blood that she had consumed the previous night. Heather grunted as Seward kicked her in the ribs. She rolled
over on her back against the diving board.
"What's wrong with me?" Heather gasped.
"Chlorine is used as a purifying agent. It also does a number on your nervous and digestive systems." Seward answered.
Heather grabbed the ladder of the diving board and pulled herself to her feet. Her legs shook, but held her.
"You are much stronger than a I thought. Most vampires would have already given up if they were in as much pain as you are in now." Seward said.
"I don't give up so easily." Heather gasped as she leaned back on the ladder.
Seward walked around her so that she was between him and the pool. He pulled a gun out of his jacket pocket.
"A gun? A thought you were a vampire hunter." Heather said.
"There is another symbol of purity that can hurt you, silver. You wouldn't believe the looks I get when I get these bullets made."
"You don't really expect to kill me do you?" Heather asked.
"No, but the concussion should blow you into the water."
Heather jerked as he shot. She stumbled back but held onto the ladder to keep from falling. She grimaced as she looked down at a hole just below her sternum. She let go of her ladder and ran her hand over the
wound. She laughed as she looked down at her own blood on her hand. Seward shot again. Heather folded as the bullet hit her waist. She fell back into the water with a scream. She dipped completely into
the heavily chlorinated water then broke the surface with a cry that sounded more like a wounded animal than a human. Her eyes burned bright red and her fangs were very visible as she shrieked in agony
and the water boiled around her. In seconds the flesh melted from her bones, then her bones completely dissolved. The water smoothed over and left no trace that Heather Taylor had ever been there. Seward put
his gun back into his pocket and walked back into the hall.
"Where do we go now Boss?" one of the men asked.
"We go the slaughter house Bob." Seward said.
"What was the noise in there?" the second man asked.
"That Bill, was the sound that a vampire makes as she dissolves into water."
"That sounds like an awful way to die." Bob said.
"They are already dead. We are just putting them out of their misery." Seward said.
"Why are we going to the slaughter house?" Bob asked.
"Because the vampires have to be getting their blood somewhere and that girl said it was cow's blood that she fed on last night. Where else do you get cow's blood?" Seward said.
"If we cut off their supply of cow's blood won't they begin to feed on people?" Bill asked.
"They're much easier to find when they do that." Seward said.
"What about all the people that they will kill in the process?" Bill asked.
"Casualties of war Bill. When you fight a war, people die." Seward said.