I dedicate this fanfiction to my girlfriend and all my readers, reviewers and the beta reader wallaceb.
October, 31-20133
‾‾…..╠╣αppy ╠╣αlloween…
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Happy Halloween to everyone! How could I not post a story about the monsters on this day?
Today I will be at Lucca Comics and Games with my girlfriend, Hotel Transylvania cosplay, Dracula and Mavis of course... why not Jonathan since I'm 23 years old? You already know my reduced affinity for that booby... Oh, by the way, he still exists in the story and finally returns to make his active appearance, his last appearance dates back to Chapter 9 - Man in black , I don't know if you remember 7 months ago (03/28/2013)...
I said that I didn't want to split this chapter too many times, so I've undertaken to write and translate everything. I had planned to write around 1600-2000 words in this third part, but as usual, this chapter has grown to over 4300 words ...
'Nuff said, Enjoy reading!
CAPITOLO 33 – What define a monster – part 3
"Victoria, I need you as a tribute!" The Count ordered still kneeling in front of the chalice.
"If you do not mind I'm a bit busy!" The girl gasped with a whisper while Jonathan was behind her with an arm clutching her chest while the other clung around her neck blocking her breath and she prevented the boy from biting her by holding his hair to immobilize his head.
"Did you not brag claiming to be the greatest monster hunter in the world? By now I started the ritual, and I have to keep my concentration, so I can neither move myself nor use magic. All I need is you!"
Victoria leaned forward by lifting Jonathan's feet off the floor and with a last effort she took a few steps to approach Dracula and then throw herself on the floor near him.
Dracula began chanting in an incomprehensible language and the potion contained in the chalice began to bubble generating a dense purple smoke that began to slide on the ground like a snake which generated a ring around the three.
Jonathan left the human and rose to his feet swaying like a zombie.
"But then you really want to summon me..." Jonathan began to speak keeping his head down and his eyes closed, his voice was guttural, and more like the echo in a cave than a human voice. "I do not know what you have in mind, but how can I reject a call if you offered me a tribute like her?" He continued raising his face to Victoria, his eyes were half closed, and it did not even seem that he was watching her, but she felt observed anyway. "You may be able to stop this body, but will you also be able to stop me?" The boy concluded and immediately collapsed on the floor like a puppet to which someone cut its wires.
Victoria was still sitting on the floor while from under Jonathon's unconscious body dozens of shadows writhing like tentacles began to grow all around him until they obscured the whole room.
Darkness, nothing but darkness, a black so deep that they couldn't even see themselves, a black so deep that not even the magic of Dracula could enable him to see through it.
Victoria stood motionless, holding her breath to make no noise, but immersed in that unnatural silent darkness, even the increasing beat of her heart was deafening.
Then a noise, the noise of metal that scrapes on the stone floor, it became gradually closer until it faded into silence again.
Another noise, the screech of blades between them, so close to her face that Victoria shivered, whatever it was it was not good. The wickedness of that thing was so strong that even if she could not see it she felt it penetrate to the bone.
Cold, a chilling cold, but it was not the air that was cold, she herself had become it, so much so that she felt her tears freeze on her eyes, her arms and her legs go numb to the point that she could barely keep her balance; she did not tremble, that cold and that the fear paralyzed her completely.
Victoria knew that that spirit was next to her, who was preparing to strike her, but she also knew that there was no way out, and that she could not ask for help, when you are immersed in the Dark you are alone.
Only a ritual of exorcism could have saved her, but there would not be enough time, in fact a free Demonic Spirit can quickly kill anyone. The only way to save both the Possessed and the Tribute would be to start the exorcism and before its conclusion evoke the Spirit so as to prevent it from doing too much harm to the Possessed. Victoria had not informed Dracula about that, she had not considered it important, and even though the other times had gone well, she did not want to risk the boy's life, even at the cost of her own.
The silence was shattered by the sound of a blade penetrating into flesh, which turns on itself breaking bones.
The girl opened her eyes slowly and saw a light that was not expected. The Dark had vanished and finally the torches on the walls lit up the room with a yellow light.
The redhead looked up; in front of her was a monster that she had already seen, the spirit of the Lower Demon that originates the powers of vampires. It was a bat with humanoid features, the immaterial body formed by black flames, the legs and the wings were at one with the shadows that covered the floor and the only thing that distinguished its face were the two big yellow eyes, the only light thing of that Dark Spirit.
It stood motionless with a raised arm, but the long and sharp claws ready to kill did not attack, they lowered slowly, while something, maybe a mouth, opened on the face of that Spirit, who let out an unnatural and suffering screeching sound.
Victoria was weirded out by this, but then she realized what had happened; Dracula's rapier had pierced that evil spirit and seemed to hurt it.
The vampire drew his sword with force and from the wound came a blue light that began to expand until to swallow up the spectrum and destroyed it.
The human was speechless.
The count scabbarded the rapier and then let it, but instead of falling down it disappeared in a blue light.
"W-what is that? A magic weapon can't destroy a seal and not even silver is so powerful against the specters!"
"You think you have the monopoly of the best weapons, little human?" The vampire replied with an air of superiority.
"Huff... hurg..."
They turned, Jonathan was recovering.
"Jonny?" Drac said, worried and immediately reached him and held his head.
The boy was breathing, but he was pale and cold.
Dracula stroked his hair, and then positioned an ear to his chest.
"So what? How is he?" Victoria asked who had approached with more caution.
"Not well, his pulse is so weak that I can hardly hear it myself... After all the blood he has lost the synthetic one may not be enough..." The vampire replied thoughtfully, and then turned his eyes at the human:
"By the smell, it seemed to me that your blood group is O negative, right?"
Victoria nodded her head.
"At least we are sure that it is compatible with the one of the boy. Do you have everything you need for a blood transfusion?"
"Yes, of course." Drac answered while laying Jonathan down on the bed.
After doing that, Dracula picked up the IV drip from the floor that the boy had taken off after being freed, and he dismounted the thin rubber tube. Then from above the cabinet next to the stretcher he took a syringe needle and connected it to the free end of the tube.
"Direct transfusion?" Victoria asked. "But soon my blood pressure will lower, at that point what will you do?"
I'll squeeze you like a finished toothpaste tube with my magic, of course..."
"Oh... yeha... the same magic with which you tried to kill me at the cemetery?" The girl asked, sarcastically.
Dracula put a hand to his forehead thoughtfully.
Meanwhile, the redhead walked to her dagger and picked it up, then came close to Jonathan and put her weapon on the cabinet, the sound of metal that beats on metal intrigued Drac who turned at her, but he never expected to see her from behind as she was taking off her Kevlar shirt.
The vampire was dumbfounded at her, perhaps because a woman was undressing in front of him, perhaps because her back and her arms had a little too much grown muscle for a girl, or because her skin did not even seem naked due to the multitude of tattoos that covered it, in addition her pale complexion and the black ink created an almost artistic light and dark contrast.
The human finished taking off her shirt and shook her head to move the hair off her face, they slid down her back to just below her shoulders giving some color to that black and white painting.
Victoria took up the knife and she turned slowly, so Dracula turned himself embarrassed, pretending not to have seen anything.
"See something you like, Dracula?" The girl asked, mischievously, making the blinking vampire try to keep calm and serious and said, even though he was betrayed by increasing redness on his face and by trembling voice:
"No..."
"No? I'm so ugly?" Victoria said with a sad expression, she pretended, but acting well.
"Yes, so, no, I mean..." Dracula replied, confused, then tried to change the subject, "But someone taught you the decency or no?"
"The decency of what?" He heard an electrical sizzle, and then continued with a resigned sigh, "I'm just a walking corpse..." This time she wasn't acting.
Dracula turned slowly checking with the corner of his eye that the girl was not embarrassed, but she was not even looking at him. She sat on the bed near the Jonathan's head and she used her dagger to cut the skin of a tattooed arm to break the seals regardless of the pain.
"But... doesn't it hurt you?" He asked.
Victoria paused, sighed and then with a sharp cut another magical symbol which generated some bluish sparks emitting an electrical noise.
"Of course it hurts..." She replied looking down at her bleeding arm, "But I'm used to far worse injuries."
Dracula looked at her, even her chest and abdomen were completely covered with tattoos such as her back; there was only one exception, eight large scars just above her breast, two sets of four opposing deep cuts hastily healed.
"Are those the 'score to settle' you have with my daughter?"
Victoria touched those scars with her fingers.
"I'm not the victim..." It was her only comment.
"Maybe you're right." Dracula concluded, thoughtfully, then he drew the nail of his index finger which became long and sharp and he helped the huntress break the anti-magic tattoos on her back.
The vampire put his free hand on the girl's shoulder, trying to comfort her; she raised her head a little and gave him a look with the corner of her eye, but then returned her eyes elsewhere.
The count could see that skin dressed in ink very close, and only at that moment he understood what all those tribal tattoos without magical powers meant. They were the backdrop to the various seals more or less known by him, they hid what was underneath, dozens of scars, cuts, burns, bites and maybe some bullet holes. They were indistinguishable from afar, but up close they made the wounds inflicted by Mavis seem just like scratches.
Victoria dropped her knife on the floor hinting that she had finished.
Dracula was slower, too shallow cut, inaccurate and trembling as if something in him prevented him from hurting her, perhaps pity? Or maybe the smell of her blood was waving him...
"You prefer me to finish it?" Victoria broke the silence.
"No, no... It's just... you're young and all these wounds..." The vampire replied with a lump in his throat.
"It was my choice." Cut short the redhead, so Drac went back to work without another word.
Then he took the tube of the IV drip, "You okay?"
The human raised an eyebrow in amazement.
"You're asking me if I'm ok?"
The vampire replied with an even more surprised expression than the girl for what he had just realized he had said.
"Maybe we should hurry, in these two hours Mavis may have come a long way. –
After hearing the words of Victoria the surprise of Drac became terror.
"W-What did you say?!" The vampire screamed, trembling, "Two hours?!"
And he raised his hands to his head in despair," I cannot believe I wasted so much time! I was hoping to do without it, but..." He paused a moment, undecided what to do and began to walk around the room, including the walls and ceiling, to vent nervously, whispering to himself, "But I don't have phones in the hotel that can call outside. Well, I could do it alone... no, but who am I kidding, not this time, not when there's the life of my bloody corpse at stake. I will not allow my pride to lead me to the wrong choices!" Dracula stopped suddenly, "Victoria, give me a phone, I know you have one!" He shouted turning to her and pointing at her with his index finger to emphasis himself, but he was paralyzed for a moment by what he saw.
"Were not you in a hurry?" Victoria said, holding her neck in tension and covering it with a hand, the girl had already stuck a needle into her jugular, and then opened the valve of the other needle to let the air out from the channel. The blood came out from it with three spurts before the human resealed the valve and injected it into Johnny's arm.
Dracula was still motionless in that position.
"Oh, my phone, I have satellite one, take it."
The huntress pulled a phone from her pants pocket and threw it to the vampire who caught it.
The vampire looked at it and turned it in his hands, he was not a technology expert, indeed, he had never seen any wireless phone before the coming of Jonathan and did not know what to do.
"It is normal that this glass is broken, and these numbers fall off?"
Victoria looked at him puzzled, so he came to her handing her the damaged device, Victoria took it with two fingers, giggling disconsolate.
"Your fault. If you hadn't beaten me so strong now it would be intact." She grumbled at him, "But I think that a young guy like Jonathan has one."
"Yes, I saw it; it must be in his backpack. I'll go and come back, you don't move!"
Having said this, he ran as fast as to seem like a whirlwind up to Mavis' room, where he had brought Jonathan's belongings to make his daughter feel less lonely, hoping that they were still there.
The vampire came to the door and noticed that its wood was polished and at the knob the shrunken head was missing.
"This is not a good sign..." He thought while he opened it.
The first thing that struck him was the lack of the antechamber, in fact the bathroom wall was pulverized and also the window was blown, but it had not yet been changed.
The stones, pieces of wood of destroyed furniture, puppets, books and fabrics had been pushed to the perimeter of the room, it was all burned. Dracula looked around with a load of bitterness, the past of his beloved daughter had been destroyed in an instant, and her future was still uncertain.
The central zone, where the blast was generated, was completely black by the heat; on the floor was still only a shadow of white stone. It had a human shape with two large bat-like wings wide open.
He sighed, and then shifted the debris with his telepathic powers until he found the backpack. It had remained miraculously intact in that devastation.
The vampire floated it bringing it closer to him and he rummaged in every pocket to find the phone. He got it and drove off toward the dungeons, but before leaving the room he sighed deeply thinking back to all happy years spent with his daughter in that room now incinerated.
Drac went back to the infirmary at the same speed as when was left, so fast that no hotel guest could make out who it was rushing past.
"Done so fast!" Victoria complimented, who was sitting on the stretcher. She tried to get up, but her legs would carry her and she almost fall if the vampire had not used his speed to pick her up.
"It's embarrassing..." She sighed, feeling ashamed of not being able even to keep her balance.
"I think you have no idea how embarrassing it's for me!" Dracula replied with a fatherly smile on his face.
Victoria grimaced in pain; Dracula was using his powers to drain her blood more quickly.
"I'm tired..." The girl said in a sleepy voice, "I just want to rest for a while..." She closed her eyes and clung to Drac rubbing her head on his chest making him blush on his face.
"Maybe if we had met under different circumstances we could be friends..." The woman sighed.
"No, I do not think so!"
"Asshole..." Victoria muttered jokingly, it was the last thing she managed to say before losing consciousness. For the first time in many years she could finally rest in peace with a smile on her face.
"V-Viky?" Asked the vampire, but no answer.
Using his powers he pulled the needle out of her throat, and then he made the girl float in the air and with telekinesis redressed her and set her down on the floor with her back against the wall.
Dracula looked at the phone.
"I forgot to ask her how to use this damned devilish... and now how do?" He said to himself sadly as he watched the black tablet, "I command you to turn you on!" Said in an imposing voice, but nothing happened.
As he continued to study the strange object it suddenly lit up and gave a short beep attracting the attention of the vampire.
The monitor reported the message 'Low Battery, connect the device to the battery charger.'
"Well, this just gets better and better!" He grumbled sarcastically, but at least the phone was switched on, he just had to understand how to make it work.
When the pop up window disappeared the photo with Drac, Mavy and Jonny set as background became visible making him smile in the hope of those happy moments would be back soon.
'Swipe to unlock' was written on the screen.
"Swipe what and where? Why is it not more specific?! I'll try to touch the glass..."
Drac approached a finger cautiously to the monitor and touched it, generating an effect similar to the wave rings formed on the water.
"Eh eh, cute, it uses a spell similar to that of the fountain of memories?"
He slid his finger having fun seeing that liquid effect on a solid, but while doing so inadvertently he unlocked the device.
On the screen appeared various written and strange symbols, making it seem like everything was even more complicated.
"And now?" Dracula said with a demoralized sigh as he read the names of the various symbols until he found a white headset in a green square called 'Phone.'
The vampire tried to touch it, it displaying a new black screen with a keypad.
Ha ha! Nothing can stop me, not even this incomprehensible human technology!" He said, filled with pride as he dialed and put the phone to his ear.
He did not hear anything, so he watched it again, confused.
"How the hell do you start the call?"
The clumsy vampire continued to observe the touch screen keyboard, in particular the green handset down button.
"It's all or nothing!" He muttered and then tried to touch it, finally starting the call.
Satisfied for the glorious enterprise he brought the phone to his ear, strutting and professional like a modern business man, but his happiness was cracked by an annoying sound and the usual words 'Low battery...'.
"Please, answer me!"
...
A whisper from the other end of the line that only Drac could hear.
Dracula blinked and opened a broad smile on his face.
"Yes, can you hear me? I'm Dracula."
...
"Yes, it's me."
...
"Sure, so I no longer have to go to a telephone booth of a human village for emergency calls, and being wireless, humans cannot follow them to find the hotel."
...
"WHAT? They can intercept the signal? No matter, I have more important things; I need to ask you a favor."
...
"My daughter... it's a long story... and... she's turning into a demon..."
...
"I know, I know, but I know how to cure her, I'm sure. I just need someone to stop her before she reaches the human city."
...
"I know it's dangerous, but I can trust only you!"
...
The vampire became confused, and then started to answer:
"She has red eyes, a pair of ears like those of a cat and two large bat wings... and turns into a thick black smoke."
...
"She still recognizes herself, of course..." Dracula's voice was shaky, he was lying, but he had to stay calm.
...
"Please, I'll give you anything you want, I have money and valuables."
...
Drac was puzzled.
"So what do you want?"
...
He was paralyzed, as if the words of the man with whom he was talking had stabbed him in his back.
"No... no..." His voice was choked.
...
"What? You cannot say to the Dragons, they would kill her! You cannot betray me like that!" Dracula was as terrified as to become angry.
...
"Bastard you were and bastard you remain one... but I didn't think so much." His words had never been so much acid in his life.
...
"Please ask me anything, but not this, and she is already engaged." He whimpered.
...
"Well, yes, she has found an eligible man..."
...
"Um... no, to tell the truth he's a human..."
...
"There is nothing to laugh!" He yelled.
...
"I told you to stop!" He yelled again.
...
"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" He yelled even louder, "I'd rather kill you with my bare hands!"
...
Dracula sighed, as if it had made him remember an inconvenient truth.
...
"I love her with all my might... all right, you win." He said in a desolate voice putting a hand to his forehead and clenching his teeth in frustration and shame for what he had just done.
...
Dracula opened his eyes, which became bloodshot in rage.
"YOU'RE AN IDIOT BASTARD! IS THIS THE TIME TO WASTING TIME WITH THESE STUPID JOKES?!"
This outburst of anger could be heard over the whole castle as it was deafening.
...
"Thank you, we'll talk later for the compensation." Drac concluded with a calmer tone.
The call was ended by the other man without even saying goodbye.
"Hugh... What's all this noise?" It was the sleepy voice of Jonathan.
"Johnny?" The count asked approaching him.
"Ouch... my head..." The boy complained, bringing his hands to his face, "That hurt..."
Then he slowly opened his eyes and looked at Dracula with his usual idiotic and curious expression.
"Woh! Dude, don't suck my blood!" The young man said, laughing, "Of course, here in Transylvania hospitals and doctors are somewhat 'monstrous'!" He concluded looking around.
The vampire stared at him, and then asked in a worried voice:
"You... you know who I am?"
"Sure! You are Dracula the Great and Powerful!" Jonny replied, smiling and emphasizing the phrase making the air quotes.
The vampire let out a sigh of relief, then the human continued:
"No, seriously, my name is Jonathan," And he shook hands with Dracula, "Who are you?"
A special thanks to Revenge of the Red Pen, who gave me the idea of Jonathan's amnesia.
Who was the man on the other end of the line whose voice was not heard? And how will Drac save his daughter's life if Jonathan doesn't remember anything about them?
Continue to follow me and you'll find out soon ... For the first question we will need much, much more time...
If you liked the chapter remember to review it! In fact, it's thanks to your closeness if I can maintain a high morale and continue to write with so much passion and for that I thank you :-)
See you soon!