Thanks to my beta reader floodmaster16
CHAPTER 27: The Crow
Mavis said nothing despite the fact that Jonathan was waiting for some answers. She had a dull and absent look, lost in the void, as if the boy, Dracula, or any of the other monsters were not around her. She felt her heartbeat in her ears grow louder and faster, too fast for the faint beat of a vampire, so much so that she doubted that it was really hers. As if fallen back to reality, Mavis winced and pushed Jonathan away. Suddenly that great hall, more than five yards tall, became claustrophobic for her. She looked around, agitated, and ran off toward the exit from the council hall, but a few steps later a wall of monster-journalists, who had come down from the stands of what looked more like an indoor Greek amphitheater than a courtroom, stood before her. They were all anxious to ask questions, but she did not care for it, and the first to pay for his curiosity was a skeleton-photographer who was overwhelmed and literally torn to pieces by the unstoppable run of the vampiress. His skull rolled across the red carpet, complaining about the dizziness.
It was readily obvious that it would not be easy to stop Mavis, so the journalists of the Daily Inquisition let her pass to avoid the demise of their colleague, but immediately after her passage they ran after her, shouting incomprehensible questions through the thunderous din. Mavis ran up the stairs without looking back, her eyes wet and her teeth practically screeching because of how hard she was grinding them. It would have been more convenient for her to fly as a bat than to run, but she needed a way to let go of the agitation she was feeling. She quickly arrived in her room, slamming the door behind her, but nevertheless the hubbub of her pursuers was still too audible. A hairy foot had interposed itself between the frame and the door, preventing it from closing; there was a werewolf behind the door with a notebook and pen in hand.
Bad moment, because Mavis still clearly remembered the past experience with a nosy witch-journalist and she was not in the mood to humor them this time too. Mavis walked away from the door, letting the wolf man open it, but he did not enter the room. He was stuck with half open mouth, full of questions, but it seemed like he had forgotten how to speak. Meanwhile, the girl looked into his eyes, a dark and angry look that she had never addressed to anyone before. The journalist remained motionless even when his colleagues reached him on the threshold of room 174, then began to breathe more and more heavily, as the second passed. It would be true to say that in that tense situation the air had become so heavy that it could be cut with a knife, but not enough to literally choke a monster. He staggered and looked around worried, looking first at his colleagues, then at the vampiress, and finally pushed the other monsters away and fled away crawling. The other journalists understood that it was not the right time to disturb the girl, and they left quickly, leaving Mavis alone, while the anger in her face faded into fear and repentance.
Although she was angry at them, it was certainly not her intention to hurt them, but she did and they would probably write about her mental instability and magical violence. But she didn't care, in any case, her main concern was something entirely different. She bit her dried lips and sighed deeply; she did not want to be judged by the person she loved, no one had the right to do it and the fear of losing Jonathan was wearing her down.
Far too much weighed on such a young girl not prepared for the harshness of real life. How could you not to understand the insecurities of a girl whose greatest concern just a month before was how to ask her father for permission to visit a human village?
Mavis sank back down on her bed, her wet eyes staring at the dark ceiling with patches of mold. She was so paralyzed by her anguish that she did not even have the strength to lift her legs and bring them closer, as she usually did when she was sad. She wanted to cry and vent her sadness, she wanted to scream and let off her fear, she wanted to get up and punch the door to express her anger, but she couldn't, remaining slumped on her coffin-shaped bed like an old puppet with cut strings. The world around her disappeared, leaving her on her own, and it was at that moment that she realized that her childhood was really over, cut off too abruptly, catapulted into an unknown and harsh world in spite of herself . The responsibilities that now weighed on her were too much, she could hardly manage her life and now she not only held her own future in her hands, but also that of her beloved boy and her father.
"I know what you're thinking..." a feeble voice cut through the silence of that room. It was distant and barely perceptible, but it made Mavis wince out of her almost catatonic state and looked around to see no one. For a moment, the voice reminded her of what she would rather never remember, the voice of Lilith, who had tortured her less than a month ago. She had hated that presence in her head like she had never hated anything in her life, but the voice she had just heard was totally different, and at that moment she would be almost happy to hear it again. At least she would have something to blame for all her problems. A beating of feathered wings interrupted the silence again and drew the young vampiress' attention to the bedside table, where a large black raven had just landed on it. The black bird returned Mavis's curious gaze and squawked loudly.
"I'm sorry for dragging you into this mess." the crow said regretfully, the shrill voice the same as before, and this made Mavis breathe a sigh of relief.
"Hal?" The girl asked, sitting up. The crow answered with a gesture of assent with his head.
"I'm here to see how you are. I know I'm asking a lot, but I... we need you to be good."
Mavis sighed, "And we need you to stay alive and for the Order to not connect us to you. Do you realize how much you risk by coming here in person? Especially now that they believe you're dead." The young girl scolded him, resting her face on her hands.
The bird rolled his eyes, moaning, "I will try to do my best to help you, you and the boy I mean. You'll see that everything will be all right."
"You think?" The vampire whimpered, still holding her face on her hands.
The crow took a moment to reply, "No, until now all the mixed couples have been separated and the memory of the humans involved has been erased from existence", he said sincerely, perhaps too much, as Mavis sank her head down further, running her hands through her hair, "Maybe I'm not the best person to cheer people up", the raven ended up thinking about what he had just said.
Mavis did not answer, so the scratchy voice resumed, "Your nervousness is not only due to your legal problems, right?" The girl raised her head, her eyes full of tears.
"How long since you've last eaten?" The bird asked.
"Since the banquet, before the Council."
"That's not what I meant," The crow interrupted her, "The last time you drank human blood was after the fight against Ruthven and Erzebeth, right?" Mavis sighed darkly. She did not like talking about that subject.
"As a matter of fact, yes, but I'm not thirsty for blood, it hasn't been that long!" Mavis exclaimed, her voice full of unfounded rage.
The raven looked away from her embittered, "I'm trying to help you." He replied, offended. The vampiress jumped up from the bed, turning away from Hal.
"I. Don't. Need. BLOOD!" Mavis stressed, punctuating every word angrily and clenching her fists.
"Suit yourself, it's not my problem." The crow resumed, "You should have sated yourself when you had the chance, but you stood idle too long. You can't drink blood now, there're too many monsters that could smell it."
"I said-" Mavis replied, turning back to the bedside table, but was unable to continue.
"You can deny it as much as you want!" The raven cackled abruptly interrupting the girl, "We'll see who's right when you go after the human."
Mavis did not reply.
She seemed to have calmed down and regretted losing her temper. She sat back on the bed, resting her elbows on her knees and dropping her head on her hands.
"How can I hope to live with Jonathan if I can only go on for one day without blood?"
"It's not easy." Said the crow, landing next to Mavis with a swift beating of its wings.
"What do you know about it?" Mavis grumbled. There was no answer, because someone knocked timidly from behind the door.
"M-Mavis?" It was Dracula's feeble voice.
"Yes, Daddy, come in." She answered.
The old vampire slowly entered the room, closing the door behind him, walked through the short hallway and stopped when he saw his daughter. Their eyes were full of sadness and worry, almost powerless, but as soon as Dracula noticed the raven his expression changed radically. All of the sudden, he frowned and half closed his eyes, sadness and worry became nervousness and anger.
"YOU?" The count growled, his voice hoarse with rage, "What are you doing with my daughter?"
"It's a pleasure to see you too." Hal mockingly answered.
"He just came to see how I was." Mavis said to protect the work of the monster who had helped her a lot in those days.
"I told you, you can't be with my daughter alone!" Drac exclaimed, even more altered.
"It's not even the first time I'm in bed with your sexy daughter." The crow retorted with a wink, sure to further aggravate the old vampire. And, indeed, his reaction was quick to come.
"Don't you dare talk like that about her!" Dracula roared, pointing a threatening index towards the crow. The talking bird looked at him with defiant eyes. The vampire looked at his daughter.
"I explicitly forbid you to meet him except in my presence." He told her darkly.
She looked at him annoyed, "I'm an adult now, you cannot tell me who I can be or talk with!"
"Have you already forgotten what happened the last time you trusted other vampires?" Dracula's voice came out broken. He hated going for that wound, still fresh in his daughter's conscience, but he had to protect her at all costs.
"That's a low blow Vlad." The crow broke in. Mavis frowned at the words of her father, but curiosity took over.
"So you're a vampire too?" She asked, turning to the black bird.
"Your father didn't tell you?" He croaked, shifting his gaze from Mavis to Dracula. The girl looked at her father, too.
"I didn't want you think you had something in common with him." He replied gruffly, "Don't be fooled by his young and modern appearance, you don't know what he's capable of. You mustn't trust him."
"Luckily she has you as an example of trust worthy person, right? "Hal replied sharply," After all what the eyes don't see, the heart can't feel, right?"
"Enough!" Mavis cut it short, "I know about my father's dark past, but he's changed now. Maybe he's too apprehensive, but he's doing it to protect me and Jonathan."
"The human?" The raven said, giggling, "He's just an accessory to make you happy. If he's still here, it's only because your father hates to see you sad."
"That's not true!" Father and daughter exclaimed in unison.
The raven chuckled again, "A promise is a promise, and I haven't yet received my tribute."
Dracula took a half step backward, unable to disguise his worried expression, his eyes seeming to beg Hal to shut his beak, in the true sense of the word.
"Stop with the bickering!" Mavis snorted, in a tone that dripped with anger more than anything else. Everyone in the room could see that there was something wrong with her, and unfortunately, it was getting worse.
It was the second time that the vampire mentioned an unclaimed debt that Dracula owed him, but despite Mavis's curiosity, she was very afraid of finding out at what price her father had hired that dragoon warrior to save her from Camazotz, and upon seeing his reaction, she realized that he had promised something invaluable to him.
"We have to ask for more time." The crow said, breaking the moment of silence, "Mavis is not in a position to face the Council at this time."
Neither Dracula answered. The vampiress knew it would be the best thing to do, but she wanted to hear what her father thought first.
"It's out of the question. If Shin Ryu finds out we're in trouble she'll hit us even harder." The Count replied, crossing his arms, "We must go on without showing any weakness."
"How tall is the boy?" The bird asked, bending his head to the girl who looked at him strangely, "Just so I can get you a coffin to send the bled-dry corpse to his parents." He concluded, giggling.
"It's not funny!" Mavis exclaimed, angry at Hal's lack of tact.
"Of course not, it was not a joke at all."
"What are you talking about? I will severely punish anyone who tries to hurt Jonny!" The Count said with authority.
"I'm the problem." Mavis sighed in a whisper.
Dracula frowned, those were not the words he wanted to hear, "I'm going to get a carton of blood beaters."
"Don't make me laugh! Are you really trying to quench her thirst with synthetic blood? You know there isn't a normal magical essence in her." The crow stopped him, "Anyway Mavy, you're stronger than I imagined. Despite a deadly duel and all the stress of the last days, I expected a much worse reaction."
"Mavis will have to settle for the food we have. The dragons have searched the room, and I'm afraid there's nothing left of them except their clothes." Dracula said.
"What?!" Mavis exclaimed worried. These were some new developments, and she was not exactly happy about them.
"Did you take me for a jerk, like your father?" The crow blurted out, "I've brought it to safety. I wouldn't ever leave such quality blood in dragons' hands."
"Thanks, but we have another problem now. If I can't drink it before going in front of the Council, what do we do?" Mavis asked, unable to think of a solution herself. Dracula made an annoyed grimace when he realized that his daughter had asked the question not to him but to Hal.
"There's no time to act in any other way. You'll have to go and try not to eat Jonathan." The vampiress sighed in disappointment. She had hoped for concrete help, and instead she had to rely only on herself and her willpower.
"How do you do it?" She asked, raising her head slightly and looking at the bird, "You said you live among humans, how do you..."
"Resist the temptation to bite them?" He completed her sentence, "I never said I did."
The short break of the extraordinary Council of the Order of the Dragon is almost over, Mavis couldn't drink blood and her thirst begins to feel, the young vampiress will succeed in resisting the call of Jonathan's blood and convincing the judges to allow this interracial relationship? Follow me in the next chapter!
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