A.N. Dear friends, Thank you for reading and reviewing. You've made my day. I usually save your reviews to re-read. So keep them coming! And some of you have a very good question, "What happened at the Amber Way Inn?" I've never thought about it. I think Darcy will be very gentlemanlike. Perhaps I will write a sequel to "Duelling Pistol" one day. I'm reposting two ghostly NBs (one modern and one Regency) for you today. Happy reading!

Return from the Dead

What if Mr. Darcy's dead parents intervened? - modern

Three days before Halloween, Darcy was working late at the office when a sudden storm broke out. Lightning pierced the dark sky, and loud thunder disturbed the quiet rooms. Not much later, all the lights were gone, and his computer shut down. When the lights came back on in a few minutes, he saw that his computer screen was still black. Then, out of the blue, white text scrolled across the black screen.

g,d,o,h,t,l,o,p,t,h,t,e,x,h,b,a,f,l,l,j,o,n,w,r,e,v,z,e,d,n,p,h,a,l,r,t,y,y,p,o,t,x,u,b,w,f,i,j,l,l,f,n,i,r,n,d,y,v,o,z,d,u,h,r,d,l,e,p,s,t,t,i,x,n,y,t,h,b,e,f,r,j,e,n

As the printer switched on and began printing out the text, he heard a familiar female voice coming from the speakers of the computer. "Fitzwilliam, these are instructions from your late mother. Carry them out or risk punishment from the other world. This recording will destroy itself in ten seconds." Then a male voice was heard. "And from your father, as well. Don't be afraid, my boy. Just do as your mother said. I'm sure you are smart enough to decipher the message."

Darcy's eyes widened, and he jumped away from the computer. Bloody hell! Did Richard plant this prank? I'm going to kill him! Where did he get Mother's and Father's voices, and how did he doctor them into this recording?

The huge, empty office gave him an eerie feeling. Snatching up his jacket and brief case – and then, after a moment's reflection, the printout – he left the office.

He rang Richard, his cousin, repeatedly during his drive back to Pemberley, but Richard's mobile phone was switched off. Reaching home, Darcy paced around his study, glowering at the printout for hours, pondering how to decipher the message.

The phone finally rang, but it wasn't Richard. Instead, Bingley was on the line, inviting him to a masked Halloween party. Normally, he would not have agreed to go to such a function, since he hated dressing up in costume and socializing. Tonight, however, anything that could take his mind away from the recording and the bewildering printout was welcome. And so, after making Bingley swear that he would not disclose Darcy's choice of costume to Caroline, he agreed.

~~what-ifs~~what-ifs~~what-ifs~~

Darcy continued to call Richard over the next two days but failed to reach him.

Bingley sent the costume to him by courier, the day before the party. Darcy liked the mask. It covered his whole head, including his hair. Only his eyes and mouth were visible – a mouth that was now adorned by caps on his incisors, lending his teeth the look of a vampire.

As he drove his tinted silver blue Bentley Continental GTC to Bingley's house in costume, he felt truly like the Count, free to roam the earth in darkness.

The first person he encountered when he arrived was Caroline Bingley. He felt a thread of panic, and nearly turned back, but she didn't give him a second look in her busy quest to find him. She was dressed in a Hawaiian dance costume that showed off her self-proclaimed 'perfect' body. Her mask was tiny, leaving Darcy in no doubt as to whom she was.

Bingley didn't speak to him, just nodded to acknowledge his arrival. The party was in full swing. Darcy felt truly happy because he could move freely without anyone recognising him. No women fawned upon him, as there were six or seven different Draculas of similar height, in different colours. He was the black one. It had to be Bingley's doing, to provide some decoys for him, to help prevent Caroline from guessing his identity.

He had the luxury of savouring the food and wine and observing people, whether on the dance floor, in the dining room or out in the garden. A few hours into the party, he dropped his empty wine glass by accident, so he carried the broken glass into the kitchen, not wanting to bother the catering people.

When he entered the kitchen, he saw no one except a woman mixing drinks. His footsteps must have alerted her to his presence. She turned, took one look at him, and dropped her wine glass onto the floor, as well. She was wearing a one-piece leather dress with a plunging neckline that came with a kinky collar, buckle details, medical pockets and patches with wristlets. The skirt was extremely short. She wore a black hat and a matching mask that covered her face down to her cheeks. Her eyes glittered, and her cherry lips were thick and lush. Darcy felt an instant attraction to her.

"Count Dracula!" the woman said breathlessly as she stared at him.

The Count heard her voice and recognised it immediately, but he played along. "And you are?"

"Mina," she whispered and dropped her gaze.*

He stared at her, willing her to look up at him again, but she didn't. Instead, hastily, she knelt to pick up the broken glass, and cut herself in the process.

"Ouch!"

He stepped forward, bent down and took her hand to inspect the injury. Two of her fingers were cut, but the wounds were minor. Still, there was blood. Reaching out, he raised her chin, willing her to protest or look at him. But she seemed determined to look away. So he put her fingers into his mouth and sucked them.

Mina gasped, finally returning his gaze.

Facing her boldly, he started licking her fingers. She breathed loudly in response.

All the while, he continued to enjoy her fingers as the atmosphere became more tense and electric. Then, decision made, he pulled her to stand, set aside the broken glasses, and took her out through the back door to where his car was parked, a few meters down the road.

She followed without a word.

He drove for several minutes until they reached a deserted country road. Stopping the car, he switched on the dome light and turned to gaze at her.

She turned, as well, and looked back at him with solemn intensity.

"You have allowed the Count to suck your blood. You are mine now?" he asked, voicing it as a question rather than a fact.

She nodded and whispered, "I would love to be yours."

Her words filled him with joy and relief. Smiling, he showed off his piercing teeth, then lowered his head and kissed her, using the elongated incisors to nibble lightly at her lips, her earlobe and her neck.

When he tried to undress her, she said, "Shouldn't we continue in a more comfortable place?"

But the Count replied impatiently, "Wait? No. I have longed to devour you for months."

Soon, in the closed car, their moans were loud, and their reunion continued.
They had no idea how long they had spent parked on the quiet country lane. When he returned to his senses, he asked softly, "Elizabeth, did you believe what I said in the email?"

"Yes. I'm sorry to have accused you so wrongly about separating Bingley with Jane, and to have mistaken such unfounded statements as facts. And Charles has confessed that he was the one to blame. Now that he has made it up so sweetly to Jane, how can I blame you?"

"But what about your opinion of me?"

"Well, if my opinion had still been the same as before, I wouldn't have come to the party dressed as a night nurse," She smiled archly and added, "I came with blood for Count Dracula, too. It's in a bag in the medical pocket of my costume – wherever that's gotten to."

Darcy eyes lit up, truly delighted he had finally won the approval of this woman, and that she was ready to tease him.

"So, Bingley told you what costume I'd be wearing? And you lied. You are not Mina." Shifting, he reached down and searched her discarded costume. Finding the pocket, he took out the bag and looked at it closely. "That's not blood!"

"Poor Count! No blood to sustain you! But I think you will like this better." Her smile turned to a grin, and she winked at him.

He eyed the bag sceptically, glanced at her again, then tore open the bag. "Red condoms!" He smiled, flashed his piercing teeth.

Elizabeth nodded. "Yes. We forgot to use one just now, but what the hell! I am ready to resuscitate you when dawn comes, Count Dracula." She pushed him down onto the leather seat and gave him a rousing demonstration of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

~~what-ifs~~what-ifs~~what-ifs~~

Flash back to three days before Halloween:

"Anne, what are you doing?" George Darcy said to his wife.

"I'm looking at the crystal ball."

"You are checking up on Fitzwilliam again. You know that's not allowed except at the full moon."

"But he's grown up into such a lonely, serious man – nothing like the cheerful, happy young boy he used to be."

"I know. We both died too soon. Georgiana and the company are such a burden on him."

"And all the women! They are only after his money. None of them are interested in his heart. Luckily, Fitzwilliam is smart and has refused to be tempted by them. It's a good thing that he has Richard and Charles as his friends. I don't want him to be lonely. He is not young anymore, and he should be starting a family."

"Wow, that 'matchmaking mama' mentality doesn't die for women, even when they are living in heaven. Let him be. He has to choose his own destiny."

"But he loves this Elizabeth. We should cross over to help him."

"Cross over? You mean in a dream?"

"No, I hate dreams. I remember reading a story where an author wrote about the hero and heroine's long journey to happiness. It took the author many chapters, and the characters reached the age of 60 before they found each other again. Then, just before they were to be married, the hero died. I cried buckets and then, when I turned to the next page, you know what? All those previous chapters were just a dream! At that very instant, I developed a fervent dislike of dreams."

"Then how do you want to cross over?"

"I loved Mission Impossible – not Tom Cruise though. I mean the old TV series. Let's do a recording like this: 'These are instructions from your late mother and father. Carry them out or risk punishment from the other world. This recording will be destroyed in ten seconds'."

"You want to scare the hell out of our boy? What if you cause him a heart attack?"

"Posh! He is not some sissy to be frightened by hearing the voices of his parents. I will make it fun. Maybe I'll send him a code to decipher. He and Richard used to mess about with secret codes."

"You want to send him straight to this Elizabeth?"

"That would be too easy. Let's just send him out to socialise a bit. Lately, his life revolves solely around Pemberley and Georgiana."

"Then send him to Richard. He knows how to party."

"Richard is fine, but he likes to gossip. I think I will send him to Bingley. He is a cheerful chap and won't tease our boy too much."

"So your grand plan is to get Fitzwilliam out of Pemberley, and to let Bingley and him party together? How do you think he will end up with this Elizabeth?"

"As you said, he needs to choose his own destiny. What happens after that is up to him."

~~what-ifs~~what-ifs~~what-ifs~~

Darcy carried out his parents' instructions very well. He married Elizabeth half a year after the Halloween party, and they had three children together. As for the code, he forgot it in the car and never, in fact, thought about it. But can you decipher the code?

*Wilhelmina "Mina" Harker is a character in Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula. She was pursued by the Count in the novel.