Chapter 27: Back Again

AN: Yes, I've updated, and yes, I'm sorry about how long it took me to update. But there's a very good reason for that, apart from school causing me to nearly have a literal nervous breakdown. You'll have to read to find out what, but I hope a lot of you will be temporarily appeased (I'm typing this at 12:00 at night. You'd better be). Also, I've been really depressed lately and when that happens, I don't feel much like writing. Actually, I don't feel much like doing anything. But now it's Spring Break (yay), so I hope things'll pick up. Reviews would really help bring up my mood. Again, sorry about the lack of update.

I left Nerilka in the compartment and went to seek out Damon. When I got back to my seat, I wondered if he'd moved at all in the time that I'd been gone. He sure didn't look like he had.

"What are you doing?" I queried. Damon started, surprised, then turned and glared at me.

"For God's sake don't do that!"

"Don't you mean for your sake? Don't blaspheme." I smacked him on the hand, just to irritate him. Now that our problems seemed to be solved, I was in a playful mood.

"What are you up to?" he asked suspiciously. I just backed up.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Knowing that he would follow, I turned my back on him and walked to a vacant compartment, a better place to break the news.

Damon closed the door after him. "Destiny, what is this about?" he said in a low, tightly controlled voice. I sensed that he was getting frustrated with me.

I propped my chin up on my fists. "You know, that isn't threatening in the least to someone who's lived with vampires," I pointed out calmly. If I read him right, I had about two seconds before he exploded, judging by the rate at which his face was turning red.

Damon clenched his fists, obviously trying to resist the urge to strangle me. "You have about two seconds…" he warned. I sighed.

"All right, all right. Go ahead, ruin my fun. I found us a way out of this mess." I was going to elaborate when Damon yanked me to my feet, ignoring my startled protests.

"Why didn't you say so?" he demanded.

"Because I didn't feel like it dimwit. Now follow me." I led him back to the sleeping car.

I opened the door. Nerilka was still there, sitting on one of the bunks. She rose at our entrance. I could practically feel her distaste when it came to Damon. But that wasn't my problem right now.

"Damon," I said. "This is Nerilka. She's going to –" Before I could get any farther, Daon whipped out a stake and plunged it into Nerilka's breast. She crumbled into dust in a matter of seconds. With a horrified cry, I dropped to my knees.

"You bastard!" I yelled at Damon. "She was going to help us!" I was furious with him.

"Help! Destiny, vampires don't 'help'. They hunt, they kill, they're nothing more than shells where people used to be!" Damon was just as angry in his own right. I shot up, spun, and slapped him as hard as I could, causing his head to snap to the side.

"You have no idea what you're talking about," I hissed, and turned back to the matter of Nerilka's ashes. A tear dripped from my eye. Funny, I hadn't even noticed I was crying. The tear landed on the pile of ashes. Something flared briefly, but was gone as soon as it had come. I gasped softly and scooped her ashes together in my hands.

Ignoring the raging Damon and his demands, I closed my eyes and concentrated. Light flared inside my eyelids and I could feel something growing, pulsing, in my hands. Within a minute I knew I was no longer holding ashes. I opened my eyes. Spots danced before them. When my vision cleared, I stood, swaying slightly. Someone steadied me.

"That was impressive," they said in a low murmur. It was Nerilka, whole again.

"Wow," was all I could say. Reconstructing an entire person really took a lot of work. My momentarily good humor left when I caught sight of Damon glowering darkly at me.

"What, exactly, did you do that for?" he asked. I glared right back at him.

"As I was saying before you staked her, Nerilka is going to help us get out of here." He looked skeptical.

"Well, I don't know if I want to help him anymore," shot Nerilka.

"Who said I wanted you to help me?" was his rejoinder. "Would you guys stop fighting?" I cried, inserting myself between them. "This isn't getting us anywhere!"

Nerilka shrugged, as if it made no difference to her. Damon fell silent, but continued to glare at the vampiress. I addressed the air over is shoulder.

"If you're not going to help Damon, you take your stubborn butt back to the Vatican. I really don't need you anymore." He turned red.

"Fine. If you think that you can do better under the guidance of a nightcrawler, then fine! I'd like to see you get to Rome on your own! If you can," he added sort of snidely, then turned on his heels and stormed out of the compartment. Because my back was to her, I didn't see Nerilka smirking at his retreat.

"So what now?" I asked her.

"You come with me," she said simply. I followed her out of the door. "The train is making one final stop tonight before it continues straight to Rome. If you wait 'til then, it will be too late, for the other vampires will have you and you'll be on your way back to Dracula before you can say 'Help'." The thought was sobering.

We waited in Nerilka's private compartment for the train to stop and at midnight, it did. As we exited the train, I noticed a growing sensation of heat in the middle of my chest, right where Nonia's pendant hung. When Nerilka wasn't looking, I took it out and held it in my hands. I was surprised to feel that with every step away from the train that I took, it grew hotter still. It got to the point where I almost couldn't stand the heat of it, but nothing on earth, Heaven, or Hell could make me take it off. I would unravel what it meant later.

Nerilka led me to a respectable looking townhouse in the middle of the city. She whispered a password, or something, to the person at the door and we were let in without a hitch. The inside of the house was well furnished and tastefully decorated, but there was no sign of the owners. The place was unnaturally quiet, but then again, I was overly suspicious of anything that seemed out of place.

I followed Nerilka into a dining room, where a long table was set for two people. Nerilka took one seat, I took the one around the corner from her on her right side. A manservant silently brought out a plate of food and set it before me. He then proceeded to fill Nerilka's glass with blood.

"Eat," she said. "You'll need to keep up your strength." If only I'd know then how right she was. But I didn't, so I ate. It was very good, especially after the makeshift meals I'd had on the road with Nonia and Boris. Let's face it: there's not too much you can make that doesn't take up much pack room and can be eaten cold or cooked over a campfire. At least, nothing that tastes relatively good anyway.

Nerilka was saying something to me, but I couldn't quite make out what it was. Turning towards her, I saw that she wore the smug smirk of an evil cat on her face. A bell went off in my head that something was wrong and the pendant nearly scorched my skin. So that's what it had been trying to tell me.

"Nerilka," my words came out slurred and drowsy, "what –"

Nerilka's smirk grew wider. "Destiny, for one who has lived among vampires, you are much too ready to trust one. And I thank you for that. It made my job a lot easier."

The last conscious thought I had was that she'd drugged me and I'd been a fool to trust her.

My back ached abominably, probably from lying in one position for too long and my skull was pounding. I shifted to my side, trying to get comfortable, but I couldn't. I opened my eyes slowly and was relieved to see that the room I was in was not brightly lit, though one could still see fine in it.

With a groan, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and sat up, rubbing my eyes. It was then that I remembered what had happened.

"Bitch," I muttered. And I was just as much a naïve little fool for trusting her. I should have listened to Damon. If I had, Nerilka would be dust by now.

Standing, I surveyed the room I was in. It had no windows, a fact that I cursed, but was otherwise a nice room. But the simple elegance of it was wasted upon me. I needed to find out where I was, who was holding me here, how to escape, and how to find Damon, if that were even possible.

I caught sight of myself in the vanity's mirror. The dye that had been in my hair was almost completely faded away and someone had removed the disguise I'd been wearing. Now I wore just a simple white dress. I did not like the thought of some unknown person changing my outfit while I was unconscious.

Sitting down on the vanity's seat, I put my head in my hands, sighing. This was a right sticky mess I'd gotten myself into. So absorbed in thought was I that I did not hear the click of a lock and the sound of the bedroom door opening.

Someone brushed the hair off the back of my neck and stroked it lightly.

"A little upset, are we?" Their voice carried amusement and a hint of triumph. I gave a startled squeak as my head shot up, causing them to laugh.

"They" meant Dracula.

See? See? I was a good little author and gave you guys what you've been asking me to do, though it near killed my storyline (until my muse though of a solution). So, since she's back with Dracula, as ordered, could you review please? It would really cheer me up.