Trade Ch 5
Ignoring their restraining hands, Abraham pushed forward, moving towards the vampire and child. Dracula's gleaming, laughing eyes narrowed, and with another step, the playful nature vanished and the child was pulled across the beast's body, neck far too close to those sharp teeth. Dracula hissed, and Abraham took that warning for what it was, stopping where he was.
Silence reigned for a minute, broken only by the quiet weeping of the child, then Dracula spoke.
"I do intend to have a meal, and as you can see, I have a small but very tasty one right here." Abraham's silence and unwillingness to approach closer seemed to have appeased the monster, for the grin crept back across its face. "Is there any reason, other than the size of the meal, that I shouldn't be enjoying it?"
"Vampire, I-"
"I DO have a name, you know. Use it, human." Eyes dancing, the vampire watched as Abraham collected his mind, and spoke again. Voice half-broken, but determined, the man wasn't quite begging.
Yet.
"Dracula, that...he's my son. Please, don't hurt him. Let him go." The tilted head and gleaming eyes radiated the monster's amusement at his near-panic, and behind him, Abraham heard the slightest click of metal on metal.
"I wouldn't. You might hit the boy." Whoever had drawn the gun must have reholstered it, for the grin slowly spread across the monster's face again. A moment's silence while the child lay sprawled across his lap, then Dracula spoke, an aristocratic sneer present and his tones cultured, though the moment was anything but. "And such a poor father you are. First, you bring an undead monster into your home. Then you leave the boy alone, not even warning him. Shameful, really. And now he's down in this cold, chilly basement, nearly blue from the neglect, and you stand there and let him suffer."
The child was cold, not dressed warmly enough for a few hours of cold stone and cold vampire against his flesh, and his damp pants only exacerbated the problem. But Dracula didn't really care that the child was uncomfortable. They had guns, and they'd shoot him. Well, with the child in his lap, they'd be far less likely to do so. And he had no intention of getting his own pants damp. He chortled inside, seeing Abraham already stripping off his coat for his son.
"Will you let him go?" Ah, now the man was begging.
"And why would I do that? It's been lonely down here, and he's such marvelous company. So warm...so soft...and he smells so enticingly delicious." Dropping his head again to sniff the child, Dracula was pleased to hear Samuel cry out to his father.
"Father, I'm so sorry, I didn't know..." The child was crying now. "Daddy!" Dracula let the other pale arm stretch out pleadingly to the frantic father holding his coat tightly, but kept the child's torso pulled across his own, the other arm locked tight in his grip.
Abraham was in the grip of what had to be a most exquisite torture, and Dracula intended to make it even worse.
"Frightened, cold, and on my menu. What a poor father you've been to this child. Perhaps I should just bite him now, and be done with it." The slightest shifting of the child's position, and Abraham groaned in helpless fear. It was delicious, amazing...so much better than he'd hoped, so much more FUN. It had been so boring, and he had so many slights and so much misery to repay the men for. Dipping his head, he heard them gasp as his tongue ran along the boy's neck again. Samuel struggled briefly, but Dracula's relentless grip held him nearly immobile.
"PLEASE, NO!" Abraham's hoarse scream and abortive lunge towards him thrilled Dracula. Pulling his head from the boy's neck with every evidence of reluctance, he gazed at Abraham, a pondering, pensive expression now on his face, though the devil himself danced in the vampire's eyes. "Take me in his place, vampire." Abraham ground out the request, every muscle tense, clearly willing to die for the boy.
But that would ruin the game. Instead, Dracula narrowed his eyes, watching the despair nearly overwhelm Abraham and his two silent companions. "And leave the boy without a father? A ghoul would make a terrible "Daddy" you understand. And while you've been a miserably poor father to have your child land here, cold and hungry and in a vampire's grip, in his own home no less, you're still better than nothing." He could eat the man, though...and right before he died, tell Abraham that he'd be having the boy for dessert. A marvelous thought to take with one as one died. But no...that would end the game far too soon. The man hadn't suffered enough, had his mind tormented and confused anywhere near enough.
Time to move the game to the next level. "Show me you're a worthwhile father. You know your child is cold. You've already taken off your coat. Give him the coat." Abraham began to edge hesitantly towards them, gaze flicking from his son to the vampire, then immediately pulled back to his son. Dracula let him take a few steps, then spoke again.
"What a dreadful father, indeed. Walking up to a vampire that has your son, a vampire that, I may point out, is seated on the floor. I do believe I feel threatened." Well aware that the bared teeth were as much a grin as a mock threat, he flashed them at the man. "Perhaps you should crawl." Amusement and joy and a vicious glee bubbled inside him as the man edged across the floor, carefully extending the coat to his son.
Faster than he could see, Dracula's hand flashed out and snatched it away. "You'd better move away now. After all, you have a cornered prisoner here." At this point, Dracula could contain it no longer, and the laughter came out as a demented howling cackle of glee. "I MIGHT BITE!"
If he hadn't been so dry, he was quite certain tears of laughter would be streaking his cheeks. As Abraham jerked back in shock, he swiftly pulled the boy onto his lap, wrapping the coat about the child with a quick swirl of his arms. The boy was effectively cocooned, arms trapped inside, and Dracula settled him comfortably on his lap. They'd have to settle for a head-shot now, for the child blocked his body from them. Dropping his head, he nuzzled briefly at the neck, his head hiding behind the child. Hearing them gasp in fear, he looked back up, grinning widely.
Oh, this was far too much fun.
"This is quite draining and tiring, and I think I'll have my dinner now." Abraham's shriek echoed in his ears, and the man lunged forward to save his son. A well-placed kick on his ankle from what had been Dracula's motionless legs sent the man tumbling into the wall. "I've already said I won't be eating you, Abraham. And you certainly can't take your son from me." Only a few feet away, but he might as well have been miles, Abraham pulled himself back up, pleading, frantic eyes fixed on Dracula's.
"If you don't want me to eat your child, then you'd better find me a replacement." Really, he'd have settled for either of the men behind Abraham, but he had forgotten the man was a doctor. The next words from Van Helsing's mouth drove his eyebrows to his hairline, but it was worth considering if only for the novelty.
"Vampi...Dracula. If...if I bring you blood, would you release the boy?"
"You'd bring me blood? Human blood?" Intriguing. What did he have planned?
"Yes, yes! Some from everyone in the house, a great bowlful. Would you release my son, please, please, if you were fed?"
What a silly man. He could have killed them all when they first came downstairs, not knowing he was free. But...he'd never had any blood but fresh blood from the vein. This was a novelty. And in his long existence, novelty was something to be sought, indeed! No, he had no intention of releasing the boy and ending this game, not yet. It wasn't the food he was after, for he'd had the opportunity to take his fill of their blood and passed it up already. It was the entertainment. And he was curious. What would the blood taste like?
"Agreed. If you provide fresh human blood, enough to satisfy me, I won't eat your child. I'll have no reason to." Relief flooded their faces, but he couldn't give them time to think and realize what he had NOT said. "But you'll need to hurry. I am quite hungry, and if you aren't moving fast enough, why, I might think you are trying to delay me until morning. And then I won't just be hungry, I'll be angry. And poor Sam really would not like that." He grinned past Abraham at Arthur. "Now, Arthur, I think we can all agree that Abraham is a truly terrible father at this point, but do see if you can encourage him NOT to have his son eaten? I'd like that meal I was promised, and immediately if not sooner."