Chapter 10

Since using all of her creative juices on transforming the grim tower into a homey nook, it was now a magical variation on her old room back home, with a great big bed, a beautiful vanity and shelves of books. Chloe had even imagined some copies of her old toys, making the room look just the place to be when she felt blue.

The bed rose sweetly around her as she sunk into the mattress. The pillows and the tulle canopy enveloped her in such comfort, Chloe sincerely believed that she was back home, with her mother stewing spaghetti- Chloe's favorite- in the kitchen, and her father alphabetizing, for the hundredth time that month, the books in their house. She grinned, imagining things being in such a content state, that she couldn't bring herself to think of the tower still around her. It was as though heaven itself came down just to see her for a moment; that was how comfortable she felt lying in her cloudy bed.

Chloe unexpectedly shivered though, when the curtains of the window fluttered open and a cold breeze zipped through the tulle and across the bed. She attempted to close the curtains with her mind, but the breeze was too strong for that tactic. From the sound of it however, it seemed like something just as powerful was brewing outside.

Rising from the marshmallow softness, Chloe crossed to the window and poked her head out at the surrounding air circling the tower. There was certainly no storm coming, but the air somehow felt thinner, less dank. Wispy clouds crossed the face of the full moon overhead, a stream of autumn leaves accompanying them noisily.

In sticking herself out in the weather, Chloe's skin rose in goose bumps. Her limbs shook with the unusual cold, and she ducked back in the window, tying the curtains together with some ribbon. She'd hoped maybe that would make it better, but the dank room was now just as freezing as the outside world had been.

She knew just what to do.

Opening up her mind, Chloe imagined a fire brewing in the fireplace across the room from her bed. It glowed gently against the stone mantle, sweetly inviting and instantly filling the entire room with warmth.

And still, more ideas popped through Chloe's mind, as she moved her focus to the empty space before the fireplace. With a flex of her brain, a soft, round rug materialized, weighted to the floor by an enormous and ornate bathtub already filled with steamy water.

Stepping in front of the fireplace, she slipped out of her dress- the one she had worn every day since the journey began- and stuck her toes, then her feet, into the tub. She relaxed her muscles under the soothing spell of the warm water, all while a pretty changing screen enveloped her, the tub and the fireplace in a corner. It was covered in beautiful designs of flowers and trees, much like what the battlefield in the rotunda had looked like. While slightly translucent, it still cut off most of the full moon's powerful light going through the thin curtains, creating an even softer glow from the flames. To top it off, Chloe even tried to make some flowers bloom around her for a relaxing smell, but it was still impossible for her to create life out of thin air. That was the only disappointment to this new, beautiful atmosphere while she sunk her whole body into the water, which seemed to almost pungently caress her while she did so.

Her head was barely touching the rippling surface when she heard a soft sound moving against the glass screen. A low whistle that seemed to radiate a small draft, even through the glass, wavered through the air. Chloe felt the draft against her cheeks, and quickly dipped her head below the water when she heard another sound come from the mysteriousness just inches away from her.

"You are still awake, like the nightly bat."

Chloe couldn't hear the voice, but the hot water cut her off from the world altogether. She felt safe from the strange draft inside the thick heat, the bubbles coming from her mouth tickling her nose. It was hard not to explode to the surface with the feeling, but something kept her weighted to the bottom of the tub.

Finally, Chloe opened her eyes to little slits, watching briefly while the bubbles floated upward, distorting a shadow-like figure against the glow of the fire. It was momentarily breathtaking to her, but her air couldn't hold. She broke her head through the surface, gasping for another breath while she wiped her eyes.

"Evening, lady."

Chloe's eyes snapped open and she lurched from the water, screaming as she fell from the tub and scrambled through an opening in the changing screen to escape the stranger. She moved around quite aimlessly, her mind imagining half a million things at once to try and cover herself up. She managed to conjure some strips of cloth that slowly came together on her body to make do as clothing, but they barely held onto her as something caught her by surprise once more.

"Do not move away from me," the voice said, gently commanding but soothingly arousing. "Come here."

Chloe stood stiffly again, her eyes becoming hazy before her as she turned on her heel, moving mechanically towards the alluring voice. Her dripping hair left a wet trail on the floor, plopping softly with the patter of her bare feet.

She turned the corner, into the interior of the glass screen, where sure enough, there stood the Count in all his wicked, devilish glory. That perpetual fixed glare was still there, cracking into a tiny grin as his prey turned in his direction. He had never, in all the centuries he so rarely preyed upon lovely women, felt his dead heart come so much alive. A woman like that had blood that churned quickly enough through her veins that it was an angelic voice to him. And she was so young. A creature who looked that young would secure so many victims for him that it seemed a crime to not take her for his helper. Her powers would slowly drain, and the second Proverb would be gone. One last Proverb alone could never defeat him, especially the helpless blonde one who could bring books to life.

Imagination would be no more with her as his.

"You're so exceptionally beautiful, dear child," Dracula purred. "Your companionship with me would be so gratefully accepted."

Chloe still didn't speak. Her eyes looked almost dead under the vampire's influence, though they still had a bit of a live sparkle to them.

Dracula reached out to Chloe, and took her hand, still clammy from the spell. It sent a rush through the Count to have such a warm presence against his dead skin; he could almost feel the blood coursing beneath her pale skin, pumping gently as one feels water droplets on their cheek. The fangs picked at his lips, as though trembling in anticipation of just one drink.

Chloe involuntarily licked her lips. Her eyes were still glazed over, but she could see the Count a lot more clearly now. He was still an old man, with the long mustache and graying hair, but he had suddenly become god-like to her. She couldn't place why exactly; vampires had that kind of power to them that she always imagined, but never dreamed existed.

The Count slowly grinned at her, and Chloe's green eyes flicked to the two sharp, gleaming fangs just protruding over the lower lip, seeming to draw blood from them.

Blood?

Chloe blinked twice at seeing the two canines, seeming to flex in his gums like muscles. They were beautiful and gleaming white, but they held a terrifying presence that seemed to snap inside her.

Finally, with a jolt in her stomach, the horrifying image in her imagination pulled her back to reality. She shuddered, backing away from the Count in sheer horror at what almost happened. But she backed so far away that she stumbled over the rim of the bathtub and plummeted back into the hot water with a splash!

The Count advanced upon Chloe, while the spilled water ran in a puddle towards the fireplace, making a loud sizzling noise in the ashes that was only a whisper compared to Chloe's scream.

"You must not fear me," Dracula said, reaching into towards Chloe's wet arm sticking out over the rim of the tub.

Chloe yanked herself from the water, swiftly causing a long bathrobe to appear over her soaked body. "If you would just get out of here," she said, a growl sneaking up through her words, "then that would be even more wonderful than one of your little bloodbaths."

"I come, only out of desire to ask you one question," he said, his dark eyes boring into Chloe. "Whose side of this battle shall you go towards? One of them shall cost you your very life, and the other shall save you."

Chloe's body was rigid with her anger. She didn't like how the Count was trying to toy with her, much less that he had the nerve to ask her that question when he might as well know the answer. He couldn't ask her that question right after he had trapped her, and didn't attempt to convince her in the slightest that joining the villains was the right thing. Which it most certainly wasn't!

"What makes you think I'll go to your side?" she asked, clenching her fingers into fists. "When, clearly, you haven't tried to prove to me what will make joining you the right thing to do."

"It is easy business," Dracula said. "You shall see one day that our tactics of conquering our enemies are of much greater aptitude than your friends. They bumble aimlessly without thought wherever they sneak. With us, your power could grow to the very horizon, and further. We shall do wonderful things for you, when you are in my hand." He made a move closer to her. "With you as my companion, nothing will be impossible to your gift."

Chloe swiftly took her arm out of the Count's reach. "My gift has already reached the horizon," she said defiantly. "It did just that weeks before you and your stupid friends showed up and took me here. Besides, if you want to ask me, I'll tell you that my power is trained for good magic. I'm a Proverb. It's what all three of them are supposed to be, because they are linked to all the Pages, and the Pagemaster!"

Dracula grinned that grin again. "You delude yourself to the ways of the good side of our world. It has always been known that the wicked have the better minds and creative endeavor that your kind lacks so."

This was getting annoying. Chloe stepped closer to the Count daringly, intentionally boring her eyes into his in a mockery of his own stare. "Get out of here right now," she growled. "I do good magic, but I might just do perhaps the one evil thing I'll ever do to you."

"I shall like to see you do so, my sweet lady."

Her limbs quivered with the power threatening to surge from her, but she was able to keep it at bay while she closed in further on the Count. Keeping a straight face, she pushed him out from behind the changing screen, and finally across the floor to the curtained window. It felt like perhaps she was having some control on the vicious vampire, because despite that the power was threatening to explode from her hands, some of it leaked through her mind and out through her eyes. It was a great surge of powerful energy, and although Chloe was exercising good control on what leaked from her, she couldn't hold it for too much longer.

It was moderately easy to control this, but just looking at the Count made Chloe's heart burn with intense hatred for him. He was the reason she was separated from Richard, Sir Hugo and Jip, instead of continuing the way things were supposed to. He'd trapped her up here, and only succeeded in aggravating her further, rather than convincing her to become a sick vampire companion to an even more revolting monster.

Yes. Dracula was a monster, and she knew it as well as she knew her own name. Better than she knew her own name!

"Lady…"

That did it.

Chloe's fists came loose, and so did her control over the magic building inside her arms. She lunged forth at her enemy, her arms swinging before her, the both of them seeming to illuminate in all different colors. The colors flashed like lightning, sparking like bolts and streaking across all areas of her vision. It was startlingly astounding, and at the same time it was surreally beautiful. She hardly took it all in though, because the power ripping through her skin was enough to knock even her off her feet. This was something she had never done before.

Perhaps she hadn't even seen the horizon after all.

Chloe was indeed knocked off balance by her blast of magic, but the most powerful blow was handed to the Count. The magnitude of this magic was a great surprise, and definitely something beyond which he could easily control, like rats and wolves. No, this was beyond even the power of those in deities living above and below.

And even when the Count caught himself on the wall just below the windowsill, his sight was still dazed by what he had taken to his body. First, he had been amazed by the little lady's beauty, and now she was practically an angel by the power she had displayed. It was impressive, and would be even more useful to him now; that was, after he recovered fully from the blow.

The vampire crept down the stone wall, illuminated by the full moon's light. There was a soft crinkling in the dead grass when he touched back down again.

"You okay?" a tiny, meek voice asked the Count from not too far away.

Dracula glanced up to see a slightly chunky figure come into view. It was a teenage girl, like the lady in the tower, only she was a little less attractive. Particularly when a thick, sticky layer of blood covered her face, body, and the soiled dress she wore.

"I've witnessed a miracle," was all Dracula said. "The girl up in the tower- she possesses a power farther beyond even that of your meek object-affecting ability. Overtaking our enemies may be easier than we ever expected."

"I'm not meek," the girl said softly. "I…I've killed hundreds before. If I concentrate well enough, I think I can move all the heroes off the battlefield."

"Silence, girl," Dracula harshly commanded. "A warrior maiden must be powerful and beautiful. You appear as though you have been spewed from the depths of the Hellfire."

The girl shed a little tear, but she kept a straight posture. "I was supposed to be beautiful. But Momma told me someone would laugh at me."

"Worse shall yet be done, child. Particularly if you meddle with our plans to help the lady cross over to our side forever."

"What about the other boy?" the girl wanted to know. "Won't he come and find her soon?"

"Not if we dispose of him properly. And I shall see that she does not escape from us."

"What if she does?"

"Then you stay away from her. She must stay alive for all of good to fall!"