I dedicate this fanfiction to my girlfriend and all my readers, reviewers and the beta reader wallaceb.
Sorry forthe excessive delay, I know, it's been over two weeks since my last posting. Unfortunately, unlike the other times, this chapter I had not already been written previously(normally before publishing a chapter I wait to have written at least the next two).
Well, I hope it was worth the wait!
CHAPTER 32 - What defines a monster - part 1
"The best thing to do is to let him turn into a vampire, if I lose him I'd never forgive myself, and then Mavis..." But the words froze in his mouth as he could not finish the sentence. Just the thought of losing his daughter paralyzed him.
After a moment of silence, a third voice, hoarse and sadistic, attracted the attention of the two, it was Jonathan:
"You know what I want and I know you want it too ..."
The boy's eyes were bloodshot and so full of homicidal madness that they seemed to be able to kill with just a glance.
"I would be curious to see how the girl is; I want to be at the forefront when Lilith rises." He continued, chuckling.
Dracula turned to the girl:
"Let him turn back human." The vampire cut short noticing the boy's psychological instability, then said, looking for personal motivation to not give reason to the huntress. "If he becomes a monster to live with my daughter I want it to be his conscious decision rather than forced by events."
Then he laid his eyes on the test tube in his hand...
That blood was of his daughter, it had been pulled off her body with a stab...
A stab unleashed to kill...
A blood sample taken to create a deadly trap...
One culprit for the attempted murder of two people who Dracula loved more...
A single cause for all the pain that all the monsters (and not) of the hotel felt...
A murderess...
And she was there in front of him...
"Kill her..."A faint voice echoed inside his head, a voice that he had learned to close within himself, in a corner of his heart, and to hold off for a long time, but now it was back to be heard.
"Devour her..." It insisted.
Drac put a hand on his forehead, lowered his head and gritted his teeth as if he had a severe headache.
"Dracula, are you ok?" Victoria asked trying to look into his eyes.
The vampire raised his head and pushed the girl away angrily.
"Leave me alone!" He growled.
She took a few steps back, she understood why he was so angry, but she knew there was no time to lose, so she asked:
"Do you have everything you need?"
Dracula remained silent for a moment while he regained his calm, and by the time he succeeded.
"Yes, I'll take it. You check that Jonathan is firmly tied to the bed, because once the seal is dissolved he will not be able to cast spells, but his spirit will confer him with superhuman strength."
Then the vampire turned and walked to the door, but he stopped for a moment before opening it.
"One more thing." He said, and then turned his gaze to her, "Do not do anything stupid." He concluded with a threatening tone.
Then the door opened without being touched and he went out slamming it behind him.
Victoria approached the boy, more like a rabid dog than to a human or vampire, and placed a hand on his chest.
A tear ran down the girl's cheek, it slid slowly along the scar witness of a life as a warrior finally broken by feelings until then sealed inside her heart.
"I know you do not remember anything of this and I know you will continue to hate me forever for what I have done and perhaps rightly so, but I do not think that I will have other opportunities to tell you how sorry I am..." The girl's voice went out, maybe she wanted to say a thousand words, but she knew that as those tears would not have deleted the scar from her face, no words would be enough to erase all the evil she had done.
"Bastard bitch! No, I don't forgive you..." Jonathan said with contempt.
"I wasn't talking to you..."
"No? So who, to the soul of the boy? When I came here I was weak, but his soul was ripped to shreds! Do you think you can save him? Really? You're just a deluded bitch..."
"Do you listen to yourself when you speak? Saying 'bitch' to a virgin girl doesn't seem to be a great insult!" Victoria mocked, giggling, "But tell me... what's your name?"
"Mavis... Mavis Dracula..." Jonathan said, "But even if this body has not yet been corrupted by human blood and therefore I am only a weak fragment of the spirit of another vampire, I will not let you exorcise me so easily... If I have to be destroyed I'll carry with me the soul of the boy!"
"What's going on?" Dracula's voice came from behind Victoria, so that taken by surprise she withdrew her hand, and then turned slowly wiping the tear without being noticed.
"Nothing important... I was just telling to this walking-burger what I will do to your friend's soul if you try to exorcise me..." Said the half-vampire, but the two did not seem to matter.
"Do you have everything? Otherwise we can heal Jonathan without any ritual by killing the vampire who bit him!" Asked the girl making a joke to regain her calm.
The vampire nodded his head, his face was gloomy, so much so that he pretended not to have heard the second option proposed by Victoria, and he did not seem convinced of what he was doing.
"Have you checked that Jonathan is firmly tied to the bed?" He just asks as he placed a small trunk on the floor.
"Yes, everything is ready."
The vampire stepped inside the magic circle, drew his sword and put the tip on a line of the pentacle. In a moment the seal start to shine, made a flash like a light bulb that burns out and it vanished.
Victoria looked at the floor confused and surprised.
"But, but... it's impossible..." She looked up at Drac, "A magical creature cannot break a magic seal..." She remained silent waiting for answers from the vampire, answers that did not arrive.
"Dracula..." It's Jonathan's voice.
"Jonath- Mavis," The vampire corrected himself, "Stop immediately." He ordered.
"I know you hear it too and I know that before you almost let yourself go..." Continued the half-vampire, smirking.
"I told you to stop!" Dracula growled angrily, but the reaction of the count made Jonathan smile even more.
"She has hurt me, hurt your daughter and hurt you..."
This time Dracula did not answer, frowned and clenched his teeth, he was losing his cool.
"She had no mercy for you, why do you have it for her?" Even that voice from the bottom of his heart came alive.
Jonathan was blowing in the fire of revenge giving Dracula even more power to his evil spirit, so as to make it as strong as it was before he met Martha, while his soul was slashed by guilt for failing to protect his daughter.
"That leg wound... has an intoxicating smell... I want just a little; I'll leave the rest all for you... How long has it been since you drank human blood? What happened to Vlad the Impaler of the past?" The boy continued to rage.
"Kill her!" Continued the voice in his head.
"Kill her!" It grew louder and louder ...
"Kill her!" And more and more continuously, until these voices became one deafening hiss that no one else could hear.
Dracula fell to his knees on the floor, leaned forward and clutched his head with his hands as if it would burst.
"Damn, Dracula! Don't listen to him!" Victoria said approaching the vampire, she tried to lay a hand on his shoulder, but just before she touch him he turned, took the girl by the neck and slammed her against the wall leaving her with her feet off the floor.
"It's all your fault!" Roared the red-eyed vampire.
"Hey! Remember to leave some to me! "Jonathan complained from behind them, but his words were unheeded by the two.
The count continued to squeeze the girl's neck ever stronger, he was ready to kill her, but she did the only thing he would never have expected, she took the knife from her pocket and dropped it on the floor, then looked into his eyes, no fear, no anger, no feeling, her glance was that of someone already dead.
Dracula released his hold and Victoria fell down on the floor.
She sat motionless for a moment, but she was not at all surprised by what had happened, she knew that the willpower of her sworn enemy was impressive, but she had noticed that it was increasingly difficult for him to retain his thirst for blood and revenge, and the boy's words have been the straw that broke the camel's back.
"No... Drac, what are you doing? How much did you wimp in all these years? You were there almo..." But the boy was interrupted by purple lightning that struck him bandaging his mouth with a large number of bandages, limiting him to fidget without making too much noise.
"Finally some peace." Commented Drac as if he had not done anything before, "Start immediately." He concluded turning his gaze to Victoria, who was still sitting on the ground with her back against the wall, exhausted, under her a pool of blood; probably the previous scuffle had reopened her wound.
"Hey, human, try not to die now, I need you alive at least for the next five minutes!" Said the count almost annoyed, even if the bleeding was his own fault.
"Less blabbering and prepare that damned potion for the summoning ritual!" Answered the young woman with an equally grumpy tone.
Dracula wasted no time, he opened the trunk and pulled out a chalice cup which was a means of amethyst geode supported by a female hand that after the pulse faded into a trunk and as base a slice of blue agate, a common metal oil cruet, a wooden spice grinder mill, an empty glass jar and a large black and wrinkled leather-bound tome.
I'm sorry that after two weeks I was able to publish only a part of the chapter, given how important it is, I wanted to publish it all at once, but when I started writing I wrote and wrote and wrote...and I realized that at over 4000 words Jonathan had not yet been exorcised and I having no time to finish it and translate everything, I did what I could. However, this first part is better than nothing...
By the way, since the vote ended in a draw the final decisionon the future of Jonathan was by my girlfriend.
PS: The title of this chapter is the name of a hatchlingpendragon's fanfiction, I'm reading it and I must say it's fantastic, in addition his story is the grand-story of mine (as he called it, because he was inspired by the fanfiction which was inspired by mine).
If you cannot find it is because it's M rating, even if don't contains sex scenes.