Posted by The Black Knight on October 30, 2000 at 22:44:11:
Chapter 22
Four hours after sunset Luke, Dracula, and Kim Faulkner stood outside the First Bank of Dayton. They walked around the building to an alley on the side of the Bank.
"Now how do we get Kimber up there?" Dracula asked.
"You really don't need to worry about that." Luke said pointing at a fire escape on the side of the building.
"So they have a fire escape. The bottom rung is well over three floors up." Dracula said.
Kim flashed her cute impish grin. She walked under the fire escape and crouched a little. She jumped up well past the bottom rung of the
ladder to a platform at the fourth floor.
"Elves, while incapable of flight are good jumpers." Luke said.
"One more flight and she would have cleared the building." Dracula said.
Kim began to climb up the ladder to the roof as Dracula and Luke flew up to the roof ahead of her. The roof was covered with gravel and several heating vents. The only thing that stood out was a small rise
and a door down into the building. Kim wasn't even out of breath as she came up onto the roof.
"Where to from here?" Kim asked.
"Down into the bank." Luke said.
Kim walked over to the door. She smiled slightly and her eyes began to glow bright green. She put one foot on the panel beside the door and wrapped her tiny hand around the doorknob. She grunted as she ripped the door off its hinges.
"A bit dramatic isn't it?" Dracula asked.
"She gets carried away at times." Luke answered.
"Oh shut up." Kim said as she threw the door onto the roof of another nearby building.
They went into open doorway and down the stairs into the bank. After going down five flights of stairs they came to the main portion of the bank where the lobby and offices were located. They walked past the
lobby and behind the booths to a large vault.
"Do you think that we can open that vault?" Kim asked.
"Even we have our limits Kimber." Luke said.
"Just try it." Dracula said.
"There is an easier way." Luke said.
"What would that be?" Dracula asked.
Luke smiled a little as he lay his hand on the steel vault door beside the dial. His eyes turned red and he bared his fangs as the dial began to turn on its own. It turned to four numbers then the door
began to swing open.
"Where did you learn how to do that?" Dracula asked.
"It's simply a matter of turning the tumblers. You just have to know how to move things with your mind instead of your hands." Luke said.
"That wasn't an answer." Kim said.
"A good magician never reveals his secrets." Luke said.
Kim laughed as they pulled the vault door opened.
"Now can you find Candice Dalton's safe deposit box?" Dracula asked.
"I haven't been around Jonathan Harker in a long time, but I think I could sense something that was his." Luke said as he walked into the vault.
He stopped in front of one of the rows of drawers. He moved his hand to one of them at about eye level. He grabbed the handle and yanked the locks free. He pulled out a small leather bound book and a yellow
spiral bound notebook.
"This is Jonathan's journal. I've seen it many times and the other must be Candy's." Luke said.
"Good, now start removing any of these drawers at your discretion. We can't allow any of the police's attention to be pointed at Candice." Dracula said.
All three of them pulled out boxes at random then left the vault. They closed the door back and locked it.
"Let them try to figure that one out." Luke said.
Kim smiled as they walked back to the stairs. She stopped and looked up at the ceiling.
"Wait a minute, what about the security cameras." Kim asked.
"We're going to stop at the security station on our way out." Dracula said.
"Do you know where it is?" Luke asked.
"No, but all you have to do is follow the wires." Dracula said pointing at the security camera in the corner.
A wire from the camera ran up into the ceiling. They walked up the next floor and into a office with a series of monitors. They removed the tapes from the machines and went back out the roof of the bank.
"I haven't robbed a bank in years. I hope we didn't forget anything." Luke said.
"You were wearing an old western forty-five and riding a horse the last time we robbed a bank together." Kim said trying not to laugh.
"I still remember the look on that guard's face when you stuck that gun in his face. He couldn't believe that he was being robbed by a woman." Luke laughed.
"You can congratulate yourselves tomorrow. Right now we have to get out of here." Dracula said.
Luke put his arm around Kim's waist and they flew up into the darkness of the night sky. Dracula quickly followed them up and out of sight.
An hour later a security guard at the Kensit Factory was making his nightly rounds the first night on his job. He opened the office of the old deserted warehouse to find two large wooden boxes sitting
in the center of the room.
"It looks like they left something behind. I wonder if it's worth anything?" he said to himself as he walked toward the first box.
He picked a crowbar up off the floor and pried the lid off. The vampiress known as Lorna lay in the box surrounded by dirt. Her eyes were closed, there was still blood around her mouth, and the stake
still stuck through her heart. His hand shook as he lay it on her forehead. He jerked his arm back with a cry of terror.
"She's still warm. There are spider webs on this box and she's still warm." he said as he inched closer to the box.
He lay his hand on her jugular vein.
"No pulse, it must just be the heat in this room. That still doesn't explain that fresh blood on her mouth." he commented.
He put his hand on the stake and more blood ran from the corner of her mouth and down her cheeks.
"She hasn't been dead that long there's still blood in her lungs."
He pushed her long light brown hair out of her face.
"Dead or not she is beautiful. This is obviously a coffin and no one deserves to be buried with a piece of wood stuck through their chest." he said.
He wrapped his hands around the stake and pulled it up. Lorna twisted and groaned as the point left her heart.
"That can't be good." he said as he backed away still holding the stake in his hands.
"Lucky guess." Lorna said as she sat up.
Her eyes turned bright red as she literally flew out of the coffin. She smiled as she batted the stake out of his hands.
"I realize that I should thank you for taking that thing out of heart, but I've never been good with gratitude." Lorna said.
His eyes widened as she punched him in the chest. Her hand didn't stop when it hit him, but kept on going into his body. She smiled wickedly as she yanked his heart out of his chest.
"Besides right now I don't think you have the heart for it." Lorna quipped as he fell.
Lorna walked over to the other box and threw the lid off.
"Good morning cousin Catrina, this is your wake-up call." Lorna laughed as she grabbed the stake in Catrina's heart.
The next night Charli Watson came into Luke's office to find it empty. All of his books and personal items had been removed and the offices had been cleaned. Charli walked out of the office and down
the hall toward the other faculty offices. She talked to herself angrily as she neared Candice's office. She stalked into the office with her face mirroring her obvious fury. Candice's chair was turned
with her looking away from the door. Charli could see Candice's blonde hair over the top of the leather chair so she began talking.
"Miss Dalton, why is Lucas Drake's office cleaned out? I am his secretary I should have at least had a week's notice." Charli said angrily.
Candice didn't move or answer.
"Miss Dalton answer me!" Charli shouted at the top of her lungs.
Charli lay her hand on one side of Candice's chair and turned it around. Candice stared blankly at Charli. The pretty young professor's throat had been slit from ear to ear. In her right hand there was a straight razor clutched in a death grip. Charli trembled
as she pried Candice's dead fingers open and removed the razor. On the handle there was a monogrammed JH. Charli backed out the door and ran down the hall to the outside. She went to her car and got in. She drove almost instinctively to Luke's house. She burst in the door and gasped. All of the furniture was covered and all of the pictures had been taken down from the walls.
"What's going on?" Charli asked.
"We are leaving Miss Watson." Dracula said as he came in the living room from the kitchen.
Charli slammed the door behind her and walked toward him.
"Where is he?" Charli shouted.
"He's upstairs, but I don't think he wants to see you."
"He'll get over it." Charli shouted.
Luke came down the stairs and stopped when he saw Charli. She ran toward him, but he stopped her before she could come too close to him.
"How dare you? You just pack up and move on? I thought we had something. I thought you might stay for a few decades." Charli said.
"I thought it would have been easier if I didn't say goodbye." Luke said.
"Easier on you or me?" Charli asked.
Charli gasped as Luke grabbed her right hand and held it up. She still clutched the razor in her hand.
"Where did you get that?" Luke asked.
"I found it." Charli stammered.
"Where?" Luke asked in a more commanding tone.
"Where someone left it. In Candice Dalton's hand after they used it to slit her throat." Charli said.
Luke looked toward Dracula with a look of contempt on his face.
"You killed her? After all we went through to keep her alive, you killed her?" Luke asked angrily.
"She was a danger. Who knows when your suggestions would have worn off. Besides she was no longer a feasible ally and I do not care for betrayal." Dracula said.
"She beat you at your own game and you cut her throat for it?" Luke asked.
"She was a witness. Now there is only one witness left to be dealt with." Dracula said looking at Charli.
"No!" Luke said forcefully.
"She will either join us or die." Dracula said.
"There is always another way." Luke said.
"There is no other alternative. It is time to draw the line between mortal and immortal. She will either die here tonight or live for eternity." Dracula said.
"Or one of us will die here tonight." Luke said.
"You wouldn't dare."
"I have allowed you to take so many that I have cared for, but I have never loved a woman like this one and I will not allow you to slaughter her like so much cattle." Luke said.
"You have no choice Lucas."
"There is one." Luke said.
"No." Charli said meekly.
"Did you have something to say Miss Watson?" Dracula asked.
"As much as you two dislike each other, you still need each other. There is no darkness without light and you two are that darkness and light. You each need the other to keep the balance of power. Someday it may become necessary for two giants to collide, but not tonight." Charli said.
"What are you saying?" Luke asked.
Charli unbuttoned the top button of her blouse and grabbed the pendant that Luke had given her. Dracula smiled as Charli tore it off her neck and threw it away. She pushed her hair back off her neck and
tilted her head to the side.
"Now do with me as you will, but I will not be held responsible for the fall of the House of Dracula." Charli said.
"You are a courageous young woman, but this is one time when courage is not a profitable attribute." Dracula said.
Dracula stepped back and faded into the darkness. Charli looked over her shoulder at where Luke had been standing.
"Luke?" Charli asked in a very low almost whimpering voice.
She gasped as he stepped in front of her.
"My name is Lucas Dracula."
She felt his hands clamp down on her arms like vices and she tried to pull away.
"Stop! You're hurting me." Charli cried.
He smiled a little as he moved closer to her. Charlotte Watson could do nothing more than scream as his fangs dug into her jugular vein.