Almost two years, time flies when you want to do a thousand things and you do not have time to be able to devote to them.
There was not a moment when I was not angry with myself for not having carried on this work that I really care about.
Here we are, me and my patient readers who in spite of my many fugitives continue to read the chapters and to send me messages to reproach me (rightly) of my delays. It will seem stupid, but it gives me great pleasure to read your messages, even if then I get angry with myself for how I abandon you.
I hope you like the chapter and remember to support me with a positive or negative review!
Thank you all, especially my beta reader floodmaster16
CORRECTION NOTE: two chapter ago (CHAPTER 24: The Council shall meet), during the first accusation, Dracula, unable to lie, tries to look guilty by saying just "Both vampires died in a duel against me." AND NOT "Not guilty. Both vampires died in a duel against me."
CHAPTER 26: Third accusation
"Let's move on to the third case, the one of utmost importance," Shin Ryu said, "The awakening of a demon and the death of an ancient dragon", the judge stopped for a moment that seemed like an eternity. No one moved, and everyone held their breath.
The silence in the room was so deep that time seemed to stop, despite the number of people in attendance. It was an extremely delicate subject, and neither the three defendants nor anyone else who was called to testify could afford to make mistakes. The lives of Dracula and his daughter Mavis were hanging by a thread.
"What we want to understand is the role that you, Vlad III Dracula, played in the invocation of Camazotz and in the death of Agrand." The queen of dragons continued.
But before she could say anything else, she was interrupted by the noise of the great door opening wide, letting in a blinding light that was cut by the shadow of a human figure standing with open arms. A moment later, the incredible light vanished and Jay Cy, spokesman for the sacred creatures, entered the great hall.
A strange monster compared to the other members of the Order of the Dragon, his perfectly human appearance was not created by magic to camouflage himself in the world outside, or, as the Council dragons were doing, to enter the hotel considering their real great dimensions. He was just like that, born human, but with extraordinary powers. From human parents and in contact with humans for millennia, with whom he had great friendships and had shared feelings, habits and -above all- vices.
With his long dreads and unkempt beard, tam hat with red, yellow and green horizontal stripes, too big yellow shirt, dark green Bermuda shorts and black flip-flops, he was definitely the sloppiest councilor and the only one not to wear elegant nineteenth-century suits or epic armors.
"I must remind you that smoking is not allowed in the hotel." Dracula gently said to him as Jay Cy walked beside them, smiling.
The man sighed, displeased, but respectful of the rules. He took out a pocket ashtray from his trousers, opened it and put his joint out.
Jonathan inhaled deeply and smiled slightly, "Hey, we should go out sometimes. Just me, you, Mavis and your wee-" but he was abruptly interrupted by a stomp on his foot by Drac, who was indifferent.
The Rastafarian monster smiled at the human, "My pleasure, bro," he said in a calm voice, raising a hand slightly in greeting.
Jonathan answered the greeting, trying to show impassive to the pain, but with poor results.
"Jay Cy, how can you be late right at this Extraordinary Council, probably the most important one of the last millennia?" Shin Ryu scolded him.
The hippie monster sighed, "I was inspired..." He replied, "So I wrote a song."
The dragons' queen laid her hands on the counter and leaned toward him from her high seat, raising her eyebrows, "You have all the time in this universe, and you had to write a song right now?"
He shrugged, disinterested, "Who knows... maybe this song could save the world!" Jay Cy exclaimed and then set off for his chair next to Snow Queen.
As soon as he was seated, he turned to the white ice-cold faced, "By the way, my song was presented to the producers of that movie about you, and they liked it so much that your character will no longer be the villain, but the protagonist."
The woman smiled slightly, and her white skin became pink and the frost on it melted quickly, "Thank you." She only responded, but despite the few words, it was clear how much this news had uplifted her.
"If you don't mind, I would like to continue with the next case to be discussed," Shin Ryu interrupted. "In this regard, I would like to call Vlad III Dracula to testify."
The old vampire stood up, gave a quick glance at Mavis and then at Jonathan who held up his thumbs with a smile; finally, he walked and took a seat under the judge. Being able to see his daughter and his human friend in front of him infused him with courage and optimism. Maintaining high morale was a prerogative to face such a difficult situation.
"Vlad III Dracula," resumed the queen of dragons, "Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"
"I swear." the Count answered, solemnly.
"Vlad," Neptune took the floor, "Right now I don't want to represent the accusation, and I don't ask this as a member of the Order, but as a friend, both yours and Agrand's..." The old merman with a long white beard paused for a moment, sighing and intertwining his fingers, "What happened with that demon and above all, who made it rise?"
"It all happened suddenly." Dracula immediately began to speak without delay. He was sure what they would ask him, and he was ready to answer, "A Camazotz arose in the haunted forest. I called Hal to stop it-" but he was interrupted by Snow Queen.
"Why did you ask for Hal's help? He's just a Lancer, a low-ranking dragoon!"
"I know, but Agrand, the dragon he rides, is very wise. I wanted to avoid a massacre of humans and monsters like what happened to Atlantis the last time you fought a demon," the old Count sighed, strangely none of the Council members retorted. Then, he turned his gaze on his daughter and Jonathan, and then on the monsters behind them, "The hotel would have been in the center of the battlefield, even though at that time there were only my employees and a few guests. An evacuation without victims would have been impossible. I couldn't endanger the lives of my guests." Dracula stopped for a moment, his voice beginning to break. After observing the reactions of the spectators, he hit the table hard with his fists, making the audience wince, "Therefore I consider myself guilty and responsible for giving more importance to the protection of my guests and the humans of nearby cities than to your war prerogatives. But remember that I, Hal, Agrand and Jonathan managed to defeat a demon without collateral damage, and even without any human being aware of anything. I'm sorry for Agrand, he was the only dragon who didn't judge others based on their race, and he was my friend. He also agreed to try to face Camazotz by ourselves. He knew what would happen if we had called all the dragons."
The testimony ignited the spirit of the spectators who applauded Drac for his courage. These beautiful words brought all the guests to his side, even those who did not sympathize with him.
After all, the dragons were famous for not giving much importance to the life of any creature that was not a dragon, and even if hundreds of years had passed since the last clashes against demons or Lamias, everybody knew well that in battles with this type of creatures dragons didn't really cared about any civilians who could be involved, and every battle became a carnage of innocents. And so, it was not difficult for Drac to twist the knife into the wound and turn himself into a hero.
Allister Sassafeas, the leprechaun, clapped his hands slowly, merely sarcastically, "Good story, congratulations. But you didn't tell us the interesting part, the one where YOU summoned that demon. Indeed, many of us believe that you yourself were that demon," the little guy in green dress ended with his hateful shrill voice.
"I know you'll not like what I'm about to tell you," The vampire replied in a very relaxed way so as to emphasize that the leprechaun's words did not upset him at all, "I wasn't the demon, but I know who summoned it... "
Every attendant in the room leaned out of their seats, waiting for the reply, and Dracula made them wait for it for a few seconds before replying, "Lamias," he simply concluded, without adding anything else, and for a few moments the conference room fell silent.
The indistinct buzz of viewers' comments grew louder and louder but were overridden by the mocking laughs of the three dragons.
"idiocy!" Nessie exclaimed, "Lamias became extinct hundreds of years ago!"
But only the dragons thought the vampire's response stupid, all of the other members of the Council did not seem as amused as they were.
Dracula expected this behavior. After the last crusade against Lamias, dragons have always taken the end of the snake-women for granted, along with their plans to resurrect Lilith. But what certainty did they have? If he could undermine the esteem that the monsters had for dragons, even their authority would falter.
The vampire stood up, "You dragons are too presumptuous, but I would like to remind you that Lamias are born from the earth impregnated with the blood of innocent victims, poured by a single human, whose evil corrupts his own soul."
"Humans are, and always will be, violent," Donna Sebastiana intervened, "And I know this well because the most tormented souls are those who have a bad death, but despite all of this, the world is yet to be full of Lamias. Modern human weapons are so effective that they make killing an almost casual thing. They can also commit massacres without dirtying their hands with blood. By now, the only killers potentially able to shed enough blood to generate a Lamia are stopped by other humans themselves."
"How many genocides have there been in the last century?" The old Count said, trying to make the members of the Order of the Dragon see reason, "I thought like you too, but I was wrong." Then he paused for a moment, leaned an elbow on the desk, and brought his hand to his forehead, "Lamias never really died out, they just waited for their numbers to be enough to be able to organize, undisturbed in the shadows, while we all believed they were gone forever. I think they stopped turning their creators into vampires in order to not attract our attention, since there are no new alpha vampires after Lord Ruthven that I'm aware of."
The Snow Queen leaned slightly towards him, "Do you have any evidence of what you claim, or have you at least seen one of these Lamia you speak of?" she asked. Unlike the dragons, she did not seem to take the extinction of the snake-women for granted, but she obviously wanted something concrete.
Drac thought for a few seconds before answering, "I have not really seen any of them, but I feel like they are behind all of this."
"And we should rely on your assumptions?" Shin Ryu mockingly exclaimed.
"Lamias born from the blood of thousands of innocent victims cruelly spilled by a single individual." Jay Cy broke in. "Two horrible World Wars and hundreds of genocides in Africa, the Middle East and Siberia have happened since the Lamias purges in 1886. All these deaths and no Lamias? We can't give their extinction for certain."
"Until proven otherwise, Lamias are extinct, so we can't blame what doesn't exist!" Allister countered
"And until proven otherwise, I have not summoned any demons." Drac urged.
There was a moment of silence, the situation between the prosecution and the defense was stalled, neither side had evidence to prove their claims, and then Mavis took the opportunity to come forward, "If the prosecution has done, I want to ask some questions to the accused."
Shin Ryu turned her gaze to Nessie and then to Gojira, but neither spoke a word.
"The Councilors have no other questions, so you can proceed." The Queen of Dragons said.
"Dracula," The vampiress said, almost amused, "It's weird to call you in this way..."
The Count smiled at her. He was relieved to see that his daughter was calm after all.
"Are you sure there are some Lamias alive?"
"Yes." he replied without hesitation.
"If you had the chance to get proof of the Lamias' existence, would you be willing to fight for it?"
"Yes"
"Then it's decided." Mavis exclaimed, turning to the judges, "You want proof of Lamias' existence? You'll have them." She concluded defiantly.
"What do you mean?" Shin Ryu asked, as confused as Dracula was.
"Give him a week and he'll find the evidence you want. At that point you won't be able to question his statement."
"And, if he fails, the thesis of the prosecution will be confirmed." The judges added, accepting the challenge without waiting for Dracula's opinion, who ,meanwhile, remained impassive despite the complicated proposal that he had been made to accept in spite of himself. The old Count knew that if Hal threw a challenge, it meant that he was sure to win, so he was quite confident, even if he hated being unaware of plans that concerned him.
"At this point, the accused for the crimes of evocation of a demon and dragon murder is deferred for judgment for November 7, 2012." The dragoness declared, "I want to clarify that, despite the very serious accusations, the trial has been postponed only because, although we believe in an involvement of this vampire in the matter, we doubt that an incident of this kind can occur again. Honestly, the intention of the prosecution was to arrive at the truth by accepting a compromise for a fair but relatively light sentence, but if you prefer to do so, it's better for me. You have spared me a long and tedious process."
"I hope you know what you're making me do..." The young vampiress muttered worried.
"Seven days will be a little bit..." Jonathan told her in a low voice.
She shrugged, "It wasn't my idea." Mavis replied anxiously like her boyfriend.
"Trust him." Dracula said to reassure the two young lovers, "He's a person I'd rather have nothing to do with, but he's a good strategist."
Shin Ryu briefly consulted with the other two dragons next to her. The council had been faster than expected, "An hour's break and we will resume with a new case. This time the defendants will be Mavis Dracula and Jonathan the human about their relationship."
The members of the Council got up from their seats and left the room, which soon filled with the chatter of the spectators.
The young vampiress remained calm and played her part well until then, but when she heard that the next debate would be right about her and her lover, she had a momentary breakdown. Interracial relationships were seen badly by the monster community, and there were very few accepting of this millennia-old taboo.
The thought of losing Jonathan felt like a noose being tied around her neck, and if that was not enough, this responsibility weighed only on her. She had to be good enough to show everyone, judges, spectators, and the whole monster world that Jonny was a loyal and trustworthy guy.
Dracula had many supporters even among his colleagues in the Order of the Dragon, he also had the support of many monsters in the world, but who was Jonathan? Many called him "the human", as if he was not even worthy of having a name. He was seen as a threat, and the arrival of a large group of humans a few days earlier, despite being the work of the Council itself, had been attributed to the boy.
"I cannot say how it will go." Dracula murmured to her, his voice full of anguish despite his best attempt to hide it, "Officially there are no laws written on this subject, so it's all in the hands of the judges. But nothing is impossible. We'll find a loophole, and in case anything goes wrong..." He abruptly paused, sighing darkly, as if the words he wanted to speak were stones, too hard and heavy to get them out of his throat. Mavis slowly turned her gaze to him, and the serene sight of his daughter's eyes gave him the courage and the strength to lift those boulders, "I know someone who can give you a new life and a new identity... I am willing to lose you forever if I know you will be happy..."
"And I'm ready to run away with you to the end of the world if it's necessary." Jonathan interjected with a slight smile, "At any costs... Together, forever."
The girl answered with a half-smile, but her mind was elsewhere.
Upon reflection, this was just a lost battle. Would Hal's help really be of use? After all, he was a guy that Mavis had never really met. Should she trust him with such a delicate matter? His father himself considered him one of the worst individuals he had ever known, and he knew monsters like Ruthven and Erzsebet...
"Mavis?" It was Jonathan who called to her, but she was so lost in her thoughts that his voice felt so distant and muffled that it did not attract her attention at all. Her gaze was lost in the emptiness, icy cold, "Mavis ?!" He called her again, but more decisively and she winced, the boy was standing in front of her, but she had not noticed until then.
She was on the verge of a panic attack and the human had noticed it. He was inching his hand towards her, but he stopped, fearing that a direct contact could break her frail psychological balance.