Author's Note: I own nothing.
16 Prey
Dani had grown antsy as the day passed into evening. She and Maddie had been fed and fussed over by Vlad for the past two hours and Dani was growing more and more concerned he'd gotten them out here so he could have a clean shot at her father. There was no doubt in her mind that Vlad was behind the Dalv group. He hadn't even been very subtle about it. She really hadn't expected Vlad to get on bended knee and practically beg Maddie to stay.
"I've loved you since the day we met Maddie. Please, leave Jack, stay with me! You and Dani could be happy here! I can give you anything you ever wanted, anything you could ever need!" Maddie blinked at him for a full minute.
"Vlad I already have everything I need." Maddie's voice was icy. "I love Jack, and I won't be leaving him." She stalked away from Vlad who was still on his knees over to Dani, who was sitting in one of the high backed chairs, pretending not to listen to what was happening. "Come on Dani, we're leaving."
Dani hopped out of her chair, fighting to keep the grin off her face. Vlad was steaming, almost literally. He pulled himself to his feet, rushing after them.
"You'll regret this, mark my words! No one rejects Vlad Masters!" He called out after them. Dani snorted. She turned on her heel, a wide grin on her face.
"You know Vlad as a lonely single man in his forties, you might want to try Internet dating. Or get a cat!" Dani called out to him. She turned laughing to herself as she followed her mother into the dense trees.
"You little brat! There is no way I will get a cat!" He shouted after them but Dani just laughed. She stopped laughing rather quickly.
Maddie tromped though the trees ahead of Dani until she found a suitable clearing. It was mostly sheltered by the branches of the surrounding trees so there was little snow on the ground. Maddie even managed to get a fire going. She hadn't been lying about having supplies with her. Turned out she had two sleeping bags, compressed into tiny containers, barely bigger than Dani's palm. Dani dragged hers to the other side of the fire, she didn't want to risk getting zapped in the middle of the night. The cold still wasn't bothering her but she pulled her sleeping bag reasonably close to the fire. Maddie frowned at her across the flames.
"Look Dani, I know this isn't the weekend we wanted but at least we're still together." Maddie pointed out.
"Yeah, sure. I'm gonna try and get some sleep." She slipped into her sleeping bag and turned away from her mother.
"Sweet dreams sweetie."
"Goodnight." Dani honestly was tired. Despite the hard ground and stressful circumstance she found herself drifting off rather quickly.
She woke with a shiver, her ghost sense going off. She caught a glimpse of a hairy green leg and before she could breathe much less transform a giant paw slammed into her face, covering her nose and mouth. Whatever this thing was its fur smelled like death and it was strong. So strong that its initial attack had her seeing stars. She was so dazed she barely noticed her sleeping bag being pulled up around her. By the time her vision cleared she was being dumped out of her sleeping bag into a heap on the floor of a room she recognized as the den of Vlad's chalet.
"Danielle, so good of you to join us." Vlad's voice rung out from somewhere in the room but Dani hadn't spotted him yet. Not that anyone would have blamed her. The other ghosts in the room were a bit distracting. It seemed that since Dani had seen him last, at his castle in Wisconsin, he hadn't just taken up hunting as a sport as the pelts on the walls, floor, tables, and chairs had made her believe. No, he'd somehow created ghosts from the animals he'd hunted. If Dani tried she would bet she could match each ghost with one of the pelts on the wall, honestly maybe more than one. They'd been frankenstiened together to the point where some of them were barely recognizable as once living beings. Dani pulled herself to her feet, transforming, her eyes flickering over the crowd of ghosts searching for Plasmius. For her troubles she got an electric shock to the back. It ripped through her, her scream echoing in the room as she fell to her knees; her transformation flickering out. Everything felt wrong, almost like what she'd felt going through the Fenton Ghost Catcher, but on a constant low level. She struggled to breathe as Vlad stepped forward out of the crowd of animals, already Plasmius.
"You've just gotten a taste of my Plasmius Maximus. A little invention of my own that's just shorted out your powers for the next three hours. That's midnight in case you're as bad at math as your father."
Dani managed to pull herself all the way to her feet, wheezing slightly. Vlad shook his head.
"It could have been so good Danielle. Just the three of us. A perfect little family, after all my little pets should have finished off your father by now without you and your mother there to protect him. So sad really. And it'll be a hard learned lesson for Maddie when her youngest is found, ripped to shreds by wild animals. All because she rejected me." Dani was shaking slightly adrenaline flooding her system as panic rose. She was about to die all over again and it didn't look like there was going to be a way out of this one. "But I'm nothing if not a sporting man Danielle. I'll give you a five minute head start."
Dani didn't question it, she took off at a full run, leaping over an ottoman and slamming into the door as Vlad laughed. It was a good thing she had too. For less than a minute later, just as she slammed into the front door fumbling for the handle since she couldn't phase through it she heard Vlad call from the den.
"Get her." She made it outside before the first animal reached the door, an unearthly voice ululating in something that wasn't quite a howl and wasn't quite a bray but was somehow both. Vaguely Dani heard Vlad laughing as she ran.
"Minutes, seconds, looks like I'm bad at math too." He cackled as the frightened teen vanished into the trees chased by a crowd of glowing figures.
