Chapter Four
When this part of the plan had been set in motion, Bloxham had anticipated another legal manoeuvre from Frank Renfield and had been quite looking forward to calling his bluff rather than capitulating because this time there was a reason for Dracula to co-operate. In the isolation cell was one of Dracula's undead victims and, as their prisoner herself had discovered, the vampire was extremely possessive about those he claimed as his 'brides'. And she'd been certain that he would want to claim Agatha; so much so, that her plan had been to threaten Agatha's existence should the lawyer make the same approach that had previously concluded with Dracula's release. That the Count had arrived in person instead, only seemed to confirm that she'd been right about Sister Agatha.
If Dr. Helsing had still been here Bloxham would have taken the opportunity to gloat, just a little. However, if the doctor had still been here then they likely wouldn't have even started looking for the female vampire. Zoe had been very protective of her long dead ancestor; the very suggestion that Agatha Van Helsing, vampire hunter extraordinaire, had turned to the other side had been abhorrent to the scientist. When they'd located the Count, only to lose him twice over, Zoe had been outright appalled at the further suggestion that Dracula had an interest in Agatha that seemed to go beyond just food. Thankfully, for Bloxham at least, when Zoe, weakened by ill-health, had stepped down the board had put their faith in her.
Bloxham straightened her jacket and nodded at the burly guard standing by the large iron door. Count Dracula was a creature of the night so his arrival in the wee small hours of the morning was neither surprising nor an inconvenience. If anything, she'd expected him as soon as night had fallen, not several hours later but this worked to her advantage. This time of the year the nights were so much shorter. She'd even had her people stall the vampire for a while longer until he'd eventually threatened to start tearing out throats.
Now that she had to face him again her missing thumb ached in response. The guard swung open the door and she forced out a small smile as the vampire, slicked back hair and expensive suit, came into view. "Welcome back, Count Dracula. We've been expecting you."
"So I see," the Count replied, his eyes passing over the armed guards behind her, all of them toting rifles. "This does take me back," he said breezily, stepping across the threshold and into the tunnel. "But I'm afraid I still won't be able to sample your hospitality. I'm just here to collect my property and then I'll be on my way."
Bloxham bit back a scowl; despite living in the twenty-first century for nearly four months the bloody arrogant vampire hadn't changed at all. She kept her tone light as she nodded to the guard to seal the door that connected isolation to the main building, "You really believe you're just going to walk out of here with her, don't you?"
"That is one option," Dracula grinned, unfazed by the sound of the door clanging shut behind him. He stepped closer towards Bloxham, causing the guards to raise their weapons, but he remained unperturbed, "Now, let me see my bride."
Height-wise, he had all of the advantage; most people did, that's why she'd taken a keen interest in self-defence but not one class had ever taught her how to subdue a vampire. The Foundation still relied upon bullets and they likely wouldn't stop Dracula, merely slow him down. But they did have a secret weapon in Agatha. She just needed to get him inside the isolation cell with the nun. "What makes you think she would even want to leave with you?"
"You don't know Agatha," Dracula said fondly. "She'll want to be by my side even if it's only so she can bring about my demise."
"When you're both contained here we'll make sure to protect you from her."
"But that would spoil all the fun," Dracula grinned, untroubled by the thinly veiled threat of capture.
In that moment, Bloxham couldn't have agreed more with the vampire. She wanted to smack the grin from Dracula's face herself; she could imagine Agatha would have a similar response. But the Count was the Foundation's 'Holy Grail'; he was the prince of vampires, the best of them, and they wanted all of that power and knowledge for themselves. His easy going manner was niggling her too but she turned on her heel, leading the vampire through the tunnel that ended in the isolation room. The guards that had acted as her entourage filtered around the glass walled cell but she moved to the left, turning to watch as the Count emerged from the tunnel.
"And there she is. The honey for the trap," Dracula smiled, coming to a stop in front of the raised dais upon which the cell sat.
Bloxham had only seen video footage from the encounter with Dracula on the beach because she'd been in the medical bay, doped up on painkillers after having had what remained of her thumb sewn up. The video clip had been short, and the camera had been thrown to the sand at some point, but it had caught the moment that Dracula had approached Zoe, thinking the doctor was Agatha. Zoe had later maintained that his reaction had simply been surprise because Agatha was supposed to be dead but that's not what Bloxham had seen. He'd looked at Zoe the same way he was now looking at Agatha: as a man rather than a monster.
There was something about Agatha that fascinated the Count, enough for him to sequester her onboard the Demeter and keep her alive for weeks; enough for him to step back inside the Foundation long after making his escape. Perhaps it was that as a nun, Sister Agatha was the ultimate in forbidden fruit; maybe it was because Agatha had been quite clever in a time when women generally weren't supposed to be; maybe it was because Agatha was, according to the Demeter's survivors and to use modern parlance, ballsy as hell. Whatever it was that drew him to Agatha, the nun clearly didn't reciprocate.
Agatha tutted loudly, folding her arms across her middle even though she was protected by the glass walls. "And here you are walking straight into it. Again."
The rebuke only made Dracula chuckle, which softened down to a warm smile when the female vampire glared at him. Abruptly, he turned his head towards Bloxham, his smile fading as he spoke, "I see you removed the toilet but could you not find a change of clothing for my bride? We're going to get some odd looks when we leave here."
"She refused them. She's refused everything we've offered her. Even the blood," Bloxham explained with a small shrug. They'd offered the vampire a set of the medical scrubs that their student volunteers wore but Agatha had refused. It was a decision she could understand; the walls of the cell offered no privacy at all and it wasn't as though they could let their prisoner pop along to the changing rooms to shower and re-dress. As harmless as Agatha appeared to be she was still a vampire - and no more co-operative than the Count.
Attempts to retrieve a blood sample before starting revivification had been fruitless; none of their instruments had made a scratch on the vampire's skin and Dracula's trick of using his nail to slice it open could not be replicated as Agatha's fingertips had been fleshy stumps. They had only regrown once she'd been given blood but Agatha had refused to give them a sample without the equipment to study the blood herself. Agatha had made it clear that she had no faith in the Harker Foundation.
"And Agatha's not going anywhere," Bloxham added on, causing the small frown that had appeared on Dracula's brow, when the lack of blood had been mentioned, to fade.
From behind the glass wall, Agatha growled, her hands clenching into impotent fists at her sides, "I am here!"
Dracula turned his gaze back towards the cell, watching with amusement as Agatha silently seethed behind the glass. When his eyes focussed on Bloxham once more, they were as cold as his skin. "Is this your plan? To hold Agatha ransom so I'll stay?"
The urge to strike out physically surged through her again but she tamped it down. His arrogance was going to be his downfall. He thought he was smarter than them but it wasn't the Count who had realised that Jonathan Harker had spent time at the convent without needing to sleep in a box of dirt and that the same might apply to the long deceased Agatha. She doubted that he'd even given the possibility a passing thought until they'd let Dracula's minions gain access to the server. "She's your bride. Your property. You've come all this way, risked stepping foot inside here again, for her. She is important to you. I saw the way you looked at Zoe on the beach when you thought she was Agatha."
"Ah…" Dracula smiled. "And now you see why. The resemblance is uncanny, is it not? Or should I say, was uncanny? Dr. Helsing is now resting in peace."
Agatha moved closer towards the glass wall, her question directed at Dracula: "Dr. Helsing?"
"Didn't she tell you?" Dracula made a show of tutting and then shaking his head at Bloxham as if she was a naughty child before explaining to Agatha, "Your family helped set all this up and until recently it was your Great-Great-Niece who was in charge. Carrying on the family business. I think you would have liked her, Agatha."
The news of Zoe's passing wasn't unexpected; the doctor had been at death's door with a terminal illness that, evidently, couldn't be cured by drinking vampire blood. But she had been surprised by the likeness between the Helsing women; given Dracula's reaction at the beach she'd anticipated that there would be a strong resemblance and that had been confirmed when they'd recovered Agatha from the sea. When Agatha had woken, Bloxham, as breathless as the vampire at the sight before her, had decided that the Helsing women could have been twins.
Bloxham cleared her throat, unease at his amusement rattling her more than she would like. The sun had begun to rise whilst they'd been stalling the Count and she decided that it was time to use that to her advantage. "Zoe's not important right now. What matters is that we can turn your bride into a pile of ashes if you refuse to co-operate."
"That's not much of a deal for me but she is my finest bride," the Count mused out loud, his gaze lingering on Agatha for a long moment. The woman in the cell scowled back at the Count in response and he turned his gaze back to Bloxham. "However, Agatha clearly hates me, just like all the others. Go ahead and burn her."
Bloxham flinched, which was not a good move when one was dealing with a predator. For the first time since she had concocted this scheme she wondered if she was actually wrong about Dracula and his intention towards Agatha. Her gaze flickered to Agatha, expecting to see an expression that clearly screamed, 'I told you so', but the nun appeared to be taken aback, too. "This is not a bluff, Count Dracula. I will do it," she warned, glaring at the male vampire.
Dracula simply shrugged his shoulders, his hands slipping inside his trouser pockets as he gazed at Agatha once more.
She gave a nod to the guard who was stood closest to the control box and the armed man lowered his rifle, letting the strap over his shoulder take its weight, as he obediently complied. As the mechanism whirled in to life, Bloxham kept her gaze on the Count, expecting him to concede at any moment but he remained completely nonchalant. It was disconcerting.
Inside the prison, Agatha was slowly stepping backwards, the female vampire's gaze stretching upwards to track the movement of the skylight in fascination. Bloxham wasn't sure if Agatha moved out of instinct, that natural urge of self-preservation, or if it was out of anger at Dracula for discarding her with such callousness. She was annoyed with the Count, too; he wasn't supposed to be so blase about seeing his bride destroyed.
When Agatha's back hit the far wall, the sun still heading for the vampire, Bloxham couldn't tear her eyes away from the scene or find the will to stop it from happening. The armed guards around the cell could not tear away their eyes, either. Any notion of making Dracula capitulate by threatening to turn Agatha into a pile of ashes was lost to the morbid fascination of watching a vampire burn.
But that wasn't what happened.
Bloxham's mouth fell open as the sunlight harmlessly washed over Agatha; the nun looked equally stunned. The only person who wasn't surprised by the outcome was Count Dracula, who took the opportunity to kill the closest guard whilst everyone else was distracted. Random gunfire from the guards had Bloxham throwing herself to the floor as, in a blur of movement that she could barely discern given both the speed and her viewpoint, Dracula dispatched the other mercenaries just as swiftly. She was unceremoniously yanked to her feet by the Count mere seconds later.
Dracula effortlessly hoisted Bloxham onto the dais, moving them towards the prison door. "Unlock it," Dracula ordered. When his captive hesitated, he pressed his thumbnail against her neck, though not enough to pierce the skin. "Release Agatha to me and I will not harm you. You have my word on this."
For the briefest of moments she had actually considered refusing him but it was the nail that could slice open her jugular rather than the vampire's word that made her self-preservation kick in. She'd already given the Harker Foundation fifteen years and one thumb: they were not getting her life, too. Besides, there were no sounds of assistance coming from anywhere else in the facility.
"Okay," she agreed, reaching for the keys with a shaky hand. She unlocked the door, her heart thumping loudly in her chest and completely aware that it was audible to both vampires. As the door finally swung open, Dracula's hold on her loosened and she breathed a little easier. Unfortunately, her reprieve was cut short. The other vampire was not co-operating with Dracula.
"I am not your property, Count Dracula," Agatha spat, her eyes blazing with contempt. "I will not leave with you."
"If you don't, I'll kill her and then you, Agatha," Dracula growled. "Do not refuse me."
The nail at Bloxham's throat pierced her skin and as her blood began to trickle down her neck she felt her chances of survival slipping away with it.