Chapter Three
Outside the window, the sun was slowly falling for the moon, its descent less observable than its rising from the vantage point that Dracula's apartment offered but it was no less stunning for that fact. He could still enjoy the fading light as it slowly yielded to the dark even if the appearance of his countenance, reflected in the glass, detracted from the beauty of the dying day. The sound of buzzer, however, diminished the experience entirely. He'd ignored it the first time but his visitor was persistent and that could only mean one person was outside the door. Crossing the floor slowly, irritation growing with each step, he wrenched open the door to find Frank standing before him, briefcase in one hand and a bag, with what smelt like fresh blood inside, over his shoulder.
Stepping to the side and allowing the other man entrance, he tried to contain his exasperation. The lawyer had proven to be quite useful from the second he'd contacted 'Hawkins and Wentworth' but Frank had recently seen him at his lowest point and Dracula did not like that at all. Good help was easy enough to find but the process also required more effort than he was currently willing to expend. "Must you keep bothering me, Frank?"
"I am only concerned for your well-being, Master," Frank replied, placing the bag onto the short end of the table that was closest to the door and turning to face the vampire.
Dracula closed the door and then moved quickly into the lawyer's personal space, leaning forward slightly, "My well-being?"
Frank took a small step backwards, jabbing his leg on the corner of the table, a little intimidated but not enough to shut his mouth completely. "You're spending all your time here and that can't be good for you. Perhaps it might be an idea to leave for a while, get away from the apartment? Maybe even out of the country?"
"Are you angling for an all expenses paid trip around the world?" Dracula brushed by the lawyer and made his way towards the window, not waiting for an answer. Outside, the city was greeting the darkness with an array of artificial lights, normally his cue to go hunting, but he took a seat at the head of the table instead, silently musing on Frank's suggestion. Perhaps there was some merit to it, though he would not admit as much to the lawyer. He couldn't seem to shake off Agatha, if anything her presence felt stronger with each passing day, and whilst she had spent only minutes in his apartment they had amounted to a very significant moment in his 'un-death'. A change of scenery could be just what he needed.
The world was now his proverbial 'oyster'; air travel had opened up the entire globe to anyone with money and a sense of adventure, and Agatha had torn apart the 'Rule Book for Beasts' that had previously restricted his movements. He could get a tan on the beach whilst watching the sun slowly sink into the horizon. Or he could see what remained of his castle and watch the sun rise over the mountains. Or he could head to Rome, enter St Peter's Basilica and slaughter everyone inside in a massive 'fuck you' to the God that had taken Agatha away from him. She would hate that; he could almost feel her frowning at him for simply entertaining the idea.
"I would prefer to re-visit those plans for world domination, Master," Frank suggested, though from the safe distance of the other end of the table. He put his briefcase on its surface, next to the bag, and added, "They really were something."
"Not this again," Dracula growled before turning to face the lawyer. "If there's nothing else, you may leave."
"Actually, there is something else, Dark Lord," Frank apologised even as his hand reached for the briefcase. He paused for a moment until he was certain that Dracula would not eviscerate him if he continued and then flipped it open. "There has been a development with the Harker Foundation. The local agents proved to be about as useful as the bats," he smiled but then dropped the attempt at camaraderie when the vampire only glared at him. "But we have had some success with the hacker. There are some files here that I think may be of interest…?"
Dracula chuffed lightly in response. The Harker Foundation was supposed to be a viable threat but he had never taken Frank's concerns all that seriously. Even disadvantaged by a one hundred and twenty-three year nap, and a face from his past quite confusingly in his present, it had been far too easy to evade them on the beach. Using cancerous blood to subdue and contain him had been a sneaky trick, albeit one that he admired, but he had still managed to walk out of their facility within twenty-four hours. To this day he wasn't sure what had been the most amusing thing about his brief stay at the Harker Foundation: their stupidly easy WiFi password or their belief that everyone had 'rights', even killers like himself, when they were quite clearly not averse to operating outside of the law.
His gaze drifted to the file that Frank had retrieved from his briefcase and he sighed softly. What little interest he'd had in the Harker Foundation had been discarded when Zoe had left, taking the possibility that she would turn out to be as worthy an adversary as Agatha along with her. But even Frank wasn't foolhardy enough to turn up at the apartment, completely unannounced, with something that wasn't actually important. At least, he hoped that was true. "Just give me the highlights," he instructed his lawyer.
"The Foundation has been sending out a team to search the area where they located the Demeter and your good self," Frank explained, file in hand and daring to move a little closer to his master as he sprinkled in a little brown-nosing. "When Dr. Helsing quit and Ms. Bloxham took over the running of the facility their focus seems to have been split between this search and surveilling your activities."
"Bloxham's in charge?" A scowl settled on his lips at the mention of the woman. He'd had a taste of her and it'd been ambition and tenacity with a hint of ruthlessness; they weren't bad qualities just ones that he'd had in abundance. But she was suddenly more interesting to him now that she was running the Jonathan Harker Foundation and moving it in another direction.
"Yes," Frank answered, a small frown creasing his brow. "I did inform you of this at the time."
"Hmm," Dracula agreed offhandedly. He didn't remember Frank mentioning it at all but he had been rather enthralled with Lucy Westenra at that time. Nothing else had held his attention for too long when she'd been around. Except for Agatha, of course; when she'd started filtering through her descendent's body that had certainly grabbed his attention. So much so that he hadn't been too annoyed when Lucy, like Jonathan before her, had wanted out of spending an eternity with him.
The lawyer cleared his throat, loudly enough to regain his Master's attention, before continuing. "A few days ago they finally retrieved something from the sea. They do not say what was found but it was some distance from the Demeter and must be quite large considering the size of the box used to transport it back to the Harker Foundation. Was there something of value on the Demeter? Other than yourself, of course."
"No," Dracula replied, ignoring Frank's flattery. He'd chosen the Demeter precisely because it transported low value goods; the ship attracted less attention and scrutiny because of that. Its hold had been full, mostly with boxes of soil that he'd thought he would need once he was in England. There'd also been the ingredients to cause an explosion, which Agatha had so cleverly used against him, but there'd been nothing else of real value when he had explored the ship. In hindsight, the most precious thing on the Demeter had been Agatha herself but she had…
A thought so obvious that it really should have occurred to him sooner exploded in his mind: Agatha could still be alive. Or, more accurately, could now be undead. She had been almost done in when he'd thrown her to the deck of the Demeter, intent on securing his own survival inside the one last box of soil in the hold that she had left as a trap for him. But if she'd turned, if she'd been re-born at the bottom of the sea, then she could have survived just as he had, with or without native soil. A little flicker of hope burst into life at the possibility of getting her back. He leant across the table, his arms resting on the surface, "What else did you find out, Frank?"
"Those are the main highlights, Sir," the lawyer replied, placing the file onto the table and laying his hand, palm down, on top of it. "There has been an increase in security throughout the Harker Foundation and there is restricted access to whatever it is they found. It is all rather peculiar."
"It's her," Dracula disagreed. It had to be. There'd been nothing else on board the ship except the Captain but it wasn't Sokolov's presence that he could feel: it was Agatha's. If she hadn't turned up in Zoe's body, throwing confusion and grief into the mix, he probably would have already followed her scent all the way back to Whitby. "That's why I can still smell her, why it feels like she's still with me," he elucidated when Frank only stared blankly at him.
The lawyer frowned, deeper than at any other time since meeting Count Dracula. "Dr. Helsing is buried. I made the arrangements myself."
"Not her! Agatha," he growled and perhaps a little unkindly. Whilst Frank had been smart enough not to ask any questions about Dr Helsing he had obviously assumed that Dracula was moping around over the loss of his 'lady friend'. He didn't have the time or the patience to explain further: he had to get to Agatha. But Bloxham was apparently smarter than she'd tasted; she now had another vampire to study and, quite possibly, bait for a trap. "How did you discover all of this, Frank?"
"Yes, that's the peculiar thing, Master," Frank replied nervously. "Up until yesterday the hacker had been unable to gain access to any of the Harker Foundation's systems. They said that it's more secure than some governments'. But it's almost as if the defences were deliberately dropped -"
"They wanted me to know," Dracula interrupted. "Because they know I'll come for Agatha."
Frank nodded as if he understood absolutely everything he was being told though it was more likely that he was just incredibly competent. "If Agatha," he began, the unfamiliar name rolling off his tongue as easily as he adapted to the new lay of the land, "is being held against her will then I could easily secure her release, as I did yours. The Harker Foundation do seem very keen not to involve any outside authorities."
Sending Frank in his stead would be the simplest option but he wasn't sure it would work this time. This was the Agatha whose eyes had held only contempt as she'd tried to condemn him, condemn them both, to an eternal watery grave. She would want to continue their 'game', not realising that she had already won. In fact, she'd probably be more determined than ever now that he had turned her into the monster she had once hunted.
But he wasn't the same Count Dracula, either. Agatha, and the Jonathan Harker Foundation, wouldn't know what had hit them when he was done. He grinned at the lawyer, feeling more alive than he had for centuries. "Don't bother, Frank. I'll go claim my bride myself."