Chapter 9: Back in Action
"Hello?"
"Ericka, dear!", Abraham exclaimed once Ericka picked up, acting innocent just in case some monster was listening in, "What's going on, I saw you outside by that hearse, carrying Dracula. Did something happen? Where are you?"
"O-oh! Oh, great grandpa.. Dracula, he.. There was a protest and we tried to settle it peacefully, but there was an accident! Dracula's been staked!", Van Helsing almost chuckled in glee hearing this, "We're in the med bay with him right now and the doctor's doing his best to save him, b-but it might be too late!", he heard her choke up a little and sob.
"They what?!", He exclaimed in disbelief. They couldn't save Dracula! He's supposed to be dead!
"S-staked him…", she replied, missing the point, "A-apparently they missed his heart though, there was only a splinter stopping it.. He's getting blood transfusions right now and we're waiting for him to heal… i-if he still can..", she sniffed again, "My zing…"
"…", Abraham was at a loss for words. Not only did the stake miss, making it possible for Dracula to have survived, but his spell over Ericka was also still not broken!
"Grampa?"
"I'm still here… I'm sorry to hear that, Ericka. Have you been up the whole night AND day?"
"Y-yes.. we all have, pretty much…" All. That means there's more people down there. No, not people, monsters. He had to get them to leave.
"You should get some rest, all of you. The transfusions will take a while anyways, I'm sure. It might even be morning again by the time you get any results. I'd hate for you to stay up and torture yourself that long."
"O-ok.. that sounds good…", she sniffed again before ending the call.
Van Helsing put his phone back into its spot on his robotic body.
Crap.
If he didn't hurry to end it, Dracula might still live after all.
When Ericka came back into the room, Johnny and Frank were doing their best to calm Mavis down and comfort her. As soon as the vicious anger disappeared she was again reduced to a sobbing mess seeking comfort in her husband's arms.
Ericka still had tears in her eyes herself, but keeping her great grandfathers suggestion in mind she looked around.
She didn't even think it was possible until now, but yes, everyone had bags the size of dinner plates under their eyes, even the monsters.
"We should all go get some rest", the woman suggested.
"But-", Mavis started, but Doctor Ghoul interrupted her.
"That is an excellent idea. You've all been up all day and it's already evening soon. I will hook up a few more bags, they need about five hours to completely drain anyways, that gives you all at least some time to rest", he let out a yawn, "Same for me.."
"B-but what if he wakes up and needs help?", Mavis questioned.
The doctor just pointed at a call button by the table, "If he needs anything, that little button will let him call me."
"But.."
"It's ok, Mavis", Johnny gave her a little squeeze, still hugged around her, "Drac'll be fine, he just needs to soak up all that –hopefully-not-human- blood, 's all."
"Actually it is human", the doctor threw in, "100% legally obtained from blood donations. When treating vampires, nothing tops a couple gallons of real human blood."
".. Right"
"Anyways, getting some rest sounds good", Frank brought up and Murray yawned, "Agreed!"
"Yeah, I'm looking forward to a bed free of pups. I hope Wanda left me some space- !", Wayne yelped as he tripped over something he couldn't see.
Oh right, Griffin.
Frank carefully picked both Wayne and Griffin up with his pincers and headed for the door with Murray following behind, "Good day everyone. Please tell us as soon as Drac gets better, alright?"
"Yeah, we wanna come see him as soon as he wakes up", Murray grinned as he left, radiating the hope that Drac will in fact wake up, the only question being when, not if.
"Are you ready to go to bed, Mavy?", Johnny asked, stroking through her hair.
But Mavis just shook her head, "I'd like to stay a little longer.."
"Ok, we can stay a little longer", he finished on a huge yawn.
"It's ok, Johnny, you go upstairs to bed. Dennis will be wondering where we are if we're both gone when he wakes up", with that she gave him a goodnight peck on the lips and sent him off to bed.
"I'll stay a bit longer, too…", Ericka stated as she pulled up a chair beside the table so she could sit down and hold her zing's hand.
"Alright. I think I can trust the both of you to watch over him and call me if there's anything wrong. Good night, ladies", and thus the doctor left as well.
About an hour and a half later Abraham chanced it to take an elevator down to the med bay.
Carefully he sneaked his way along the hallway as quietly as he could, keeping his eyes and ears open for any sign that any of the monsters might still be around.
Checking the room windows one by one he soon found the one where Dracula rested.. with Ericka sitting right by him, holding his hand and sleeping.
Great.
He had to be extra quiet… but once he'd done the job, his dear great granddaughter would be free and thank him.
He slowly opened the door, thankful for the lack of a creak as he slipped into the room.
Squeak.
He froze. Not again, one of his wheels was squeaking!
He glanced over at Ericka. Still asleep.
Dracula? Still no sign of life. Good.
He didn't notice the bat hanging from a pipe on the ceiling, so he simply kept his eyes on Ericka and made his way over to the table extremely slow to quiet the squeaking as much as possible. On the way over to the table, he opened a little hatch on the side of his body and pulled out a little pocket stake.
This was it.
He was finally getting rid of that damn monster and he was going to have the pleasure of finishing it with his own two hands!
This time there was no way the count could simply wake up in time to catch him, oh no, he was out cold, possibly even dead already.
But possibly wasn't going to cut it, Abraham had to make sure.
No one would know, he'll just destroy the demon's heart, take the stake back to his room and burn it in his fireplace. They'll simply think that his wound was too great for Dracula to live after all.
It was perfect.
His wheels gave a last little squeak as he reached the table, causing the bat above head to stir and open its eyes.
Van Helsing lifted the stake and positioned it over Dracula's chest, raising his head up high so that he'd be able to see the heart inside the hole and not miss it.
He had to get this right.
The tip of the stake was hovering mere millimeters above the heart.
Abraham grinned from ear to ear.
Now!
…
He froze. No, he got frozen, by vampire magic.
But who…?
The bat flapped its wings and flew around his head before flying out of the door he'd left ajar. He tried to follow it with his gaze without being able to move his head before his eyes landed on Dracula himself.
His eyes widened as much as the magic allowed.
Dracula's eyes were open and staring at him in a tired frown.
No. Not again.
Before Abraham could think to look away from the vampire's eyes, they started to glow in a pulsating red, hypnotizing him.
"You will stop… trying to have me staked… not by your own hand… or anyone elses…", he rasped out in a whisper, "You will get rid… of the stake you're holding… so no one will see it… and you will not… let anyone know… that you tried to kill me… again", he wanted to roll his eyes at that, but he had to keep them focused on Abraham's, which was getting hard enough as it was with his vision blurring again, "You will… Eri..cka…"
Drac lost consciousness before he could get out his last demand, which should have been for Abraham to accept that Ericka could love whoever she wanted.
His free hand, which he'd used to freeze the old man, grew limp again as well, releasing the magic.
Immediately Van Helsing put the stake back away into its hiding spot. He turned to leave, but stopped to look back at Ericka. He rolled over to a supply closet, took out a blanket and draped it over her shoulders before leaving.
Shortly after the robotman was gone, Mavis came into the room drinking a glass of blood beaters and sitting down on a chair opposite from Ericka.
She blinked when she saw the blanket, wondering where it'd come from. Looking down at her dad though, she smiled as she noticed that while nothing else changed, his free hand was in a different position.
'Silly dad', she thought, 'one coherent moment after almost dying and the first thing he does is take care of his zing.'
Mavis leaned down to give him a small kiss on the cheek and decided to make her way to bed, assured now that her dad would be fine.
