Chapter Nine
The wheels of the car crunched against the gravelled driveway, announcing Frank's arrival at the pretty cottage that was surrounded by an even more aesthetically pleasing countryside. Audible to human ears, the noise should have stirred even a sleeping vampire though recently Count Dracula had begun to keep daylight hours. The sun was something that no longer needed to be avoided, a change that he appreciated even if he didn't quite understand the reason; or rather, he was happy to not question the switch to more sociable hours too much because the obvious answer did not shine a flattering light on the Master. It was easier to believe that it had all been some elaborate plot, centuries in the making, to give the vampire the upper hand at a critical moment, allowing him to escape the enemy's clutches with his bride in tow. And the Jonathan Harker Foundation was certainly the enemy.
Killing the engine, he opened the car door and stood outside the vehicle for a moment, letting his eyes sweep over the exterior of the cottage though it wasn't to admire the way the sun caressed the building. There was still no sign of movement inside and he hesitated for a moment. It was possible the inhabitants were simply out; it would go against his advice to try and keep a low profile but there was a village nearby, close enough for a vampire anyway, and it was a beautiful day. It was also possible that the Harker Foundation had tracked down the vampires. Ownership of the cottage was, in order to circumvent several of those pesky inheritance tax laws, obfuscated by several shell companies but this would not be an insurmountable obstacle to those with money, ambition and influence.
A burst of panic fuelled Frank's rush towards the building but before he could even decide between barging his way inside in case something had gone wrong or knocking politely lest everything was going extremely well, the door was wrenched open and Dracula loomed in the entrance, one hand and shoulder against the edge of the door and a frown creasing his brow, "I hope this is important."
Relief that the Count was present and intact flooded through his veins though its flow eased as he took in the vampire's appearance. Dracula was unshaven and whilst he was dressed it was only in trousers and a shirt, the sleeves of which had been casually rolled up both arms. The last time he had seen the vampire this unkempt had been after Dr. Helsing's passing though he now knew that it had actually been the loss of Agatha that Dracula had been mourning. He might not completely understand how Agatha had managed to die and be resurrected in her descendant's body, only to then die again and be resurrected once more, but he had finally worked out what it was that the Master really wanted: Agatha. That knowledge certainly made it easier to serve his Master and if he could attend to one vampire then another would surely not be much more work. But he was concerned that Dracula had simply swapped one potential downfall, the sun, for another.
"It is, Sir," Frank replied cautiously, wondering if Agatha had taken up Dracula's offer and walked away. The female vampire had appeared to be more annoyed than enamoured with Count Dracula when Frank had first been introduced to her though that had not deterred the Master at all. He had watched with displeasure as the Count had slit open his wrist for a woman who'd expressed only mild contempt for him but the blood seemed to have had the desired effect. Agatha had been almost as horrified as himself at the sight of an unconscious Dracula and she had tended to the Count with what had seemed to be some affection. That had made him feel a little easier about leaving the two vampires alone but whilst he was satisfied that Agatha would not try to physically harm Dracula she did have the potential to destroy him in another way. And he did not wish to endure a repeat of those post-Dr. Helsing days.
"Just let the poor man inside!"
The way Dracula filled almost the entire entryway with his height, the not completely opened door obscuring the rest of Frank's view inside the cottage, meant he could not visually identify the owner of that voice but the accent was unmistakeable. So was the way that Dracula's face lit up with a grin despite being issued with an order. He assumed that meant he could apply the 'extremely well' label to the situation and that he'd been lucky not to encounter something risqué rather than risky. He really should have phoned and let them know that he was on his way but it had seemed prudent to maintain radio silence. He had even snuck out the back of the Gentlemen's Club he used to frequent before his life had become dedicated to serving Dracula, switching cars before then taking a convoluted route out of the city, checking his mirrors to make sure he hadn't been followed the entire time.
"I suppose I should invite you in," Dracula grinned at the lawyer before turning back inside the cottage. Over his shoulder, as he moved further inside, he added on, "Come in, Frank."
With an invitation from both vampires he felt reasonably sure he would not stumble across anything he would never be able to un-see. The ground floor of the cottage had been opened up during renovation, allowing him to quickly ascertain that the two vampires were in the lounge area and possibly had been for some time. To his surprise, there was a chess board set up on the coffee table, a game in play, with Agatha seated in an armchair on one side. He presumed that Dracula had been sitting on the couch on the other side of the board but was now resting against the arm instead, waiting for Frank. Closing the door behind him, he moved a few steps towards Dracula and hoped that he wasn't about to disappoint his Master too deeply, "It's the Jonathan Harker Foundation. I'm afraid that they're still taking a very keen interest in you. And in…"
Frank faltered, groping for an appropriate term for Agatha. 'Sister' did not seem appropriate now that she was a blood drinking vampire; she had also ditched the uniform of God in favour of clothing that must have been acquired via the internet. But her given name did not seem deferential enough for his Master's bride. "The Mistress," he tried, regretting that choice when the woman in question stared at him with some displeasure; he swallowed nervously though still found himself wondering if it was being referred to as Dracula's woman or as his 'other woman' that had irked her so.
"The Countess, Frank," Dracula suggested, turning his upper body to smirk at Agatha. Her displeasure deepened further though it was now aimed solely at the Count who, unfazed by her reaction, or perhaps even emboldened by it, added on, "We are to be married."
"We are not to be married."
The quick response did little to dampen Dracula's grin or his spirits, perhaps because it lacked any real venom despite the scowl that had accompanied the words, "An eternity of living in sin it is then."
Agatha chose to ignore Dracula completely in favour of Frank, turning her gaze towards the lawyer and softening her features in the process. "My name is Agatha; you may use it," she smiled at him, neatly drawing a line under the 'Mistress' debacle. "Now, you were telling us what has been happening with the Jonathan Harker Foundation?"
Nodding a vague agreement, Frank tried to decipher the vampires' interaction but found that he was no closer to understanding what exactly was going on between them. He had never before seen Dracula so, for lack of a better term, full of life; even in the beginning, when the Count had barely been able to contain his enthusiasm for the wonders of the twenty-first century and had been bursting at the seams with plans for world domination. How quickly that had all drained away; how much faster it had been replenished by the merest suggestion that Agatha was alive. It appeared that the Count had convinced Agatha to do nothing more than stay but maybe that was enough; good company was hard to find and she seemed more than capable of keeping up with Dracula.
"Ms. Bloxham came to see me at 'Hawkins and Wentworth'," he began, attempting to provide a quick summary of the last four days. Both vampires focussed their respective attention on him, though Dracula's grin remained. "She wanted to make it understood that the Harker Foundation would not cease their efforts to recapture you both. Naturally, I reminded her of the many legal avenues available to me should either of you end up in their custody again. Ms. Bloxham conceded that point but then proceeded to threaten you both with extermination instead. I do not believe she, or the people funding the Harker Foundation, would be prepared to go that far. It was simply a precursor to the offer of a compromise that she then made: if you agree to return to the Harker Foundation, Master, they will no longer pursue Agatha."
"My freedom for yours?" Agatha questioned though her eyes drifted towards Dracula. The Count angled his body towards her, remaining on the arm of the couch, and she continued, a wicked smile on her lips, "That does sound reasonable."
"You would miss me greatly, Agatha. Admit it."
The lack of any malice in Agatha's words, and the Count's response, stopped Frank from leaping to his Master's defence which was fortunate as he suspected that any hint of hostility towards the female vampire would not be well received by Dracula. He knew how important she was to Dracula but, unfortunately, so did the Harker Foundation. They would not hesitate to use her against Dracula once again. "There would be grave consequences for humanity if the Harker Foundation had access to either one of you," he said diplomatically, saving Agatha from having to respond to Dracula in the process.
"Frank does have a point," Dracula agreed, moving from the arm of the chair to sit on the middle cushion, directly opposite Agatha. There was a seriousness to his tone that had been previously lacking, "The abilities of a vampire are highly desirable to these people. Immortality, increased strength and speed, being able to read stories in blood. Being able to walk in sunlight has probably increased their motivation to acquire us both. I did have some rather ambitious plans for England, for the whole world once I realised how far humanity had advanced, but I think the Harker Foundation would put my plans for domination to shame."
"Based on what little I was able to gather during my time there that does sound accurate," Agatha conceded, matching his tone. "Though it is difficult to believe that somebody has a bigger ego than you," she added on with a wry smile.
"I quite agree," Dracula replied before leaning forward to grin at Agatha. "My ego is huge."
The quick return to frivolity had Frank sighing quietly though it was not low enough to evade the hearing of a vampire, both of whom were now staring at him rather than each other. Whilst it was true that the very skills the Harker Foundation were interested in were the same ones that would make re-capturing both vampires unlikely it seemed wise not to be too complacent. The Foundation had already proven how resourceful they could be; having found and lost Count Dracula, they had then located and secured Agatha, using her as bait in an attempt to re-capture Dracula. With a seemingly bottomless pit of funding from unscrupulous sources they would never give up. "Sir, please take this seriously."
"I am," Dracula replied, frowning at the lawyer. "You can tell the Harker Foundation that I will not be surrendering."
"It was presumptuous of me but I already told Ms. Bloxham that you would not be accepting her offer," Frank admitted, relieved that Dracula also thought it was the right response because there had been unforeseen consequences to that course of action. Two days after he'd politely turned down Ms. Bloxham's offer, he'd had more unexpected visitors turn up at the office. It really was fortunate that the other senior partners at the firm were so understanding with regards to the more 'eccentric' clients; or, at least, they were appreciative of the fees that could be collected from them. With his poor attendance record and complete neglect of all his other clients in favour of Dracula, other businesses might have asked him to reconsider his position when two uniformed police officers had then stopped by the office. "Forty-eight hours later I had a visit from the police who were trying to locate you in connection with the disappearance of Zoe Van Helsing."
A short burst of laughter erupted from Dracula's mouth, completely obliterating the frown that had previously resided there. "That's the best they can come up with?"
"It does appear to be innocuous," he agreed, though the comment earned him a pointed look from Agatha. If the Harker Foundation had wanted the police to investigate the Count there were plenty of other corpses scattered around London that they could have chosen but that would have drawn unwanted attention to the way those people had died; the only thing the Foundation wanted more than to secure Count Dracula was the reason why they wanted to study him to remain unknown, especially from the authorities. And Zoe Helsing was the perfect victim in that respect; there was no corpse to be discovered but enough evidence to use the authorities to lure Dracula out into the open. "However, as far as the authorities are concerned, Dr. Helsing is missing and they have a witness claiming that she was last seen at your apartment, Sir."
"That would be Dr. Seward," Dracula mused, a small smile settling on his lips. "He is not a fan of mine. I stole his phone."
"You stole the love of his life," Agatha corrected.
The police had refused to reveal the name of the witness and he had, incorrectly it now seemed, assumed that it was somebody from the Harker Foundation; they had been watching Dracula's activities since Frank had secured his release so it had not seemed a stretch to believe that Dr. Helsing had been seen entering the Count's apartment building, only to never leave it again. Not alive, anyway. He'd had her body smuggled out, in broad daylight because in a city that busy nobody has the time to pay too much attention to the world around them, and arranged for her remains to be dealt with. Believing that it had been Dr. Helsing who Dracula had been mourning he had endeavoured to be respectful to the late doctor's wishes.
Unfortunately, donating her body to medical research had no longer been an option thanks to the amount of time it had taken to persuade Dracula to relinquish his hold of her corpse and the jagged gash on her neck; both things would have attracted far too much attention. Fortunately, for him not Dr. Helsing, there had been no living relatives, no close friends and no colleagues to question either her disappearance and he'd covered up her death by paying off a funeral director. They were so much more malleable than coroners. Alas, that decision was now coming back to bite him and he hoped the Master would forgive such negligence.
"It's unfortunate that there is a witness," Frank began, though he felt less confident about that than he had just a few moments ago. It seemed unwise, given the timing, to dismiss the idea that the Harker Foundation were behind the missing person report but it appeared that Dr. Seward could well become a star witness. "And I'm afraid that my decision to have Dr. Helsing cremated and her ashes scattered without any paperwork makes this a little more difficult. The authorities may not be able to prove that you killed her, or that she is even dead, but they will remain suspicious unless we can prove otherwise. I am sorry, Master but I told the police that you would speak to them at your earliest convenience. Perhaps we can claim that she was at your apartment but subsequently left?"
"Would it not be simpler," Agatha began, the frown that had marked her face since she had admonished Dracula for his nonchalant attitude towards Dr. Seward slowly smoothing out. "If Dr. Helsing spoke to the police instead?"
"No," Dracula responded before Frank could even think about doing so. "I won't have you risking your own freedom by pretending to be her, Agatha. I will deal with the authorities."
Agatha snorted lightly in response. "And I won't have you causing more trouble for the both of us. You can't massacre your way out of every situation, not if you want this to continue," she argued, waving a hand between herself and Dracula in explanation. "Posing as Zoe is the best way to remove the authorities from this equation. Then we can decide how to deal with the Harker Foundation."
"It is a good plan, Sir," Frank chipped in, earning himself a particularly deep scowl from Dracula in response. He took an imperceptible step backward; serving one vampire was all-consuming but trying to serve two of them just might be the death of him.