Chapter Five
Hands balled into fists at her sides, Agatha scowled at Dracula. It had not been her intention to remain here whilst he was out there, wandering the Earth uninhibited by daylight, but she had not wanted to leave this place as his 'bride', either. She was not his property, to be claimed at his will. Despite her current predicament, she did not belong to the Harker Foundation, either. But Dracula's threat was forcing her hand. It was not her own safety that concerned her; he enjoyed toying with her far too much to not take the opportunity that her transformation into a vampire gave him for further torment. But she was concerned about her captor.
Bloxham's life meant nothing to Dracula but he knew that Agatha would sacrifice herself to save another, even someone who had been happy to watch her burn just moments ago. That she had not burst into flames when the sun had consumed the entirety of the cell did not absolve the other woman: she had been prepared to sacrifice Agatha. But her invulnerability to the sun had given her another piece of the puzzle. Just a short while ago, when her captors had been preoccupied by Dracula's arrival, she had cautiously made the sign of the cross with her fingers; when she hadn't recoiled in horror at the sight, she had then tried whispering a few prayers only to meet with the same result.
It was all very intriguing and that made Dracula more intriguing, too. She had seen the sign of the cross, ripped pages from the Bible and the sun itself hold back Count Dracula but she was unaffected. She had been too quick, she realised now, to dismiss Mr. Harker's claim that one of the Count's 'brides' had also shown no reaction to the cross. The rules, as nonsensical as they were, had been very clear but perhaps they had been Dracula's alone.
Loosening the tension in her hands, and flattening out her scowl, Dracula was a puzzle she was going to solve, even if it meant making another deal with the devil. "Heed my words, Count Dracula: I will never be your bride but I will do everything in my power to stop you," Agatha growled out, a reluctant surrender.
"Oh, Agatha," Dracula grinned and with the same easiness that had radiated from him before he'd laid waste to all of the guards. He crooked a finger of the hand that wasn't holding Bloxham's throat and beckoned Agatha to step outside the cell. "I have missed you."
Agatha's gaze flickered briefly to Bloxham. The blonde woman looked even smaller surrounded by the presence that was Count Dracula but relief flooded her features as Agatha began to move. Her own unease grew as she neared the trickle of blood that marked Bloxham's neck; there was still a hunger inside of her that showed no signs of abating and the outside world promised only more temptation. She was beginning to realise why Dracula was such a glutton; the pit in her stomach felt bottomless.
As she crossed the threshold of the cell, and into the shade that dwelled outside, she instantly missed the warmth of the sun on her skin. She wondered why Dracula had deprived himself of such a simple pleasure for centuries. The night was the perfect cover for murder so it made sense for him to hunt during that time but that theory did not explain why he'd still avoided the daylight. If she hadn't witnessed him burst naked from the belly of a wolf, brazenly parading his unclothed form in front of several nuns whilst claiming another man as his 'bride' she would have concluded that he was hiding himself away in shame.
Dracula pushed Bloxham into the now empty prison, the woman hitting the ground with some force, and then slammed the door shut. Making sure that the locking mechanism was engaged, he retrieved a handkerchief from his jacket pocket, casually wiping away the blood that was smeared across his mouth as he turned to face his bride.
Whatever had been about to fall from his lips, and Agatha assumed it would've been something darkly humorous, was abandoned when sounds of movement from elsewhere in the Harker Foundation, suggesting that more people were heading their way, caught the attention of them both. "One must assume that there are more men with weapons outside," she frowned at him. "Is your plan to slaughter them all?"
"We're not leaving that way," Dracula smirked, quickly wrapping an arm around her and leaping into the air, taking Agatha with him.
Agatha managed to contain the squeak of surprise when his arm encircled her body. They landed on top of the cell, an equally stunned Bloxham watching them from inside, and Agatha realised exactly where they were heading. She just had time to wrap her arms around his shoulders, turning her body towards his to better her grip, before Dracula was moving upwards again. It very quickly occurred to her that any fall would not actually kill her but by then he was using both of his hands; one to hang onto the roof and the other to tear apart the metal cover like it was paper and she was reluctant to let go of him. It was all rather exciting; he was rather exciting.
The smell of sea air, so much stronger than the faint odour that had clung to her habit, hit her senses as they emerged from the building. She hadn't realised just how close she'd been to the coast. In the distance she could see the sun rising above the water and, just to the left, stood the ruins of the abbey that she had first spied from the deck of the Demeter; the remains stood proudly in the morning sunlight, a silent unmoving sentinel on the cliff's edge. She was so taken with the sight that she didn't realise they were now both standing on the roof and Dracula had replaced his arm around her waist.
She had to lean back a little so that she could meet his eyes, only to find that they were fixed entirely on her. There was a small smile on his lips, too and she felt the same pull, low in her belly, that had stirred when he'd emerged from the tunnel. Despite the glass barrier between them she'd felt compelled to cross her arms over her body in an attempt to ward off her reaction. He looked even more handsome in the sunlight. She could admit, to herself at least, that she had been attracted to him from the moment they'd met. He was the personification of everything she'd dedicated her life to studying and he was a very fine specimen whether he was wearing the remains of a wolf or the finest suit that money could buy.
However, she was also acutely aware that he was a killer who was even more deadly now that he could walk about in the sunlight. Her attraction to him was a vulnerability that she needed to defend or he would use it to his advantage. Swallowing hard, she realised that she was still clinging on to his shoulders and let her arms drop to her sides. He made no move to release her but she did not struggle, either. "As escapes go this is certainly more dramatic," she began, when he only continued to stare at her. "But it does seem to be lacking a conclusion."
"I'm just taking a moment to enjoy the view," Dracula smiled. It widened to a grin when his usually quick prey struggled to come up with a response. Slowly letting go of her waist, he took a small step back and then held out his hand towards her instead, "Shall we proceed to the climax?"
"I wasn't aware that I had a choice," she managed to bite out, annoyed that he'd flustered her with a simple compliment that she knew could not be sincere. Vanity had never been a character flaw; she was aware of, though entirely uninterested in, where she fell on the attractiveness scale but her current state could have only pushed her further down. Dishevelled was the nicest word she could use to describe her appearance; her habit was stained with blood and sea-water, her hair was practically feral and she was in desperate need of a hot bath. Dracula was simply toying with her.
Dracula's hand dropped to his side, empty and as incredulous as his words, "You can't possibly want to stay here? They had you in a glass cage like some kind of animal and were quite prepared to let you burn."
"And as your 'bride', what kind of cage will you put me in?" She crossed her arms over her middle, her tone just as defensive as her stance, "A box, perhaps?"
"Agatha, I…" he began, his tone firmer than it had been at any point since they'd been re-united, but he let the sentence trail off unfinished. When he spoke again, only a moment or two later, his voice held only sincerity, "Leave with me now and I will answer all of the questions I know you desperately want to ask. And then, if you do not wish to remain with me you may leave."
Below them, she could hear the opening of the steel door that lay at the other end of the tunnel and then the voices of more guards. She wasn't entirely sure that she could trust him to keep his word; she was entirely sure that she probably shouldn't trust him but she was also incurably curious, especially where Dracula was concerned. There were many, many questions rolling around her mind that she wished to have answered. But he could start with just one. "How can you stand in the sun?"
Dracula sighed softly, his brow furrowing. Beneath their feet, Bloxham could be heard, shouting out orders to find both vampires. "That's another long and complex story, and whilst I do not believe the Harker Foundation will take many risks out here in the open, we should leave here before we begin discussing it."
"You said you would answer my questions," she pushed, wanting to test out his offer before accepting it and in the process ascertain just how honourable it actually was. "Answer this one question and I'll happily leave with you."
"Very well," Dracula agreed, somewhat reluctantly. "Someone very clever explained that the sun was ninety-three million miles away and really couldn't hurt me," he said, holding out his hand to her again. "She was right."
It wasn't the answer she'd been expecting but perhaps she hadn't asked the right question. Jonathan Harker had told her that, atop his castle, Dracula had screamed in pain when the sun had bounced off the cross that had hung from the young man's neck; she'd wanted to know what had changed to make that no longer true. If it was as simple as stating the obvious then she would have gladly told him how ridiculous all of his rules actually were; she was quite sure she had done just that but he had not listened to her. Instead of following that line of thought methodically, she found herself wondering whose words Dracula had heeded.
Whilst she had been trapped inside her cell, mostly ignored by both Dracula and Bloxham, she had carefully filed away every word they had exchanged and her previously unheard of descendent seemed a good candidate. As a doctor, and in charge of the Harker Foundation, Zoe must have been clever and she'd presumably left the Harker Foundation after Dracula had escaped. She felt a little pang of jealousy that it had been Dr. Helsing and not herself who had brought Dracula into the light but then quickly dismissed it.
"Showing a vampire that he's impervious to the sun doesn't seem a very clever thing to do," she replied, uncrossing one arm and placing her hand in his. They now shared the same body temperature so his skin did not feel cold against her own but the contact did send warm sparks all the way up her arm and into her chest.
"I quite agree," Dracula chuckled softly, showing no signs of a similar reaction. His hand did grip hers tighter though as he revealed something she had not anticipated, "But it was you who told me, Agatha. You gave me back the sun."