Dracula Hearts of Fire Book two of Dracula Hearts

PIERS ANTHONY AND MOON DIAMOND waited patiently on a bench outside the Magnetic Hill Zoo. The author petted the cat, which stuck its butt in the air, which always annoyed Zacharia. Night had covered the area. The facility was now closed to the public, and the two spoke mind to mind. The half-moon showed through a light cloud as Piers stared up at it. Being a vampire was, at times, troublesome, but so had being a human. He was studying it, but there was so much false information. Perhaps he should write a book if he ever got it all figured out or at least enough to help others that had been newly transformed.

They were on a bit of a case to catch the vampire killer that had murdered people near the zoo. Piers thought they would make a good movie title: The Author and the Siamese Cat. He wished that Zacharia was still in the form of a vampire and not a feline. Bonding with someone trapped inside a cat was difficult.

The air was cool, the summer being chillier than usual. Piers preferred Florida’s warmth to Canada’s chill. The author was sorry for Zacharia, but there was nothing he could do, which was the vampire’s problem. With no body to return to, he was stuck. Those awful thoughts repeatedly slapped him. He was trapped in a mindless loop that didn’t help his mental health. It was a permanent condition, so he best get used to it. He thought that Nobody knew the troubles he’s seen.

The silence was appreciated by both for a time, with the sound of crickets giving atmosphere to the season. The occasional animal moving around in the zoo was heard. Silence could be as appreciated as a trunk full of memories. Moon Diamond liked the taste of crickets, while Zacharia thought they had a nutty flavor. The author was working out a plot in his head in the land of ghosts, and Zacharia remembered a sword fight in 1465. The world had come a long way since then, yet still had a long way to go. Zacharia could see similarities to faces that he had killed long ago. He remembered being part of the troops of King Louis XI of France battling an army of great nobles. He even recalled the stench from that long-ago era.

The night was refreshing to vampires, like humans experiencing a beautiful spring day after a long, hard winter. The cat also liked being out after dark; at least they had that in common.

The RCMP was shunning the area like animals avoiding a forest fire; they knew they wouldn’t be a match for a vampire, so why bother getting killed over it. Calls were sent to get a red sheriff into the area, but their sectors were overrun. Attendance at the zoo was down, even though the attacks were mostly at night. Even rumors of vampires in a particular area were enough to keep people away. It had become easy enough to destroy a business with false stories.

Piers wondered why most vampires appeared to be evil these days. There had always been evil vampires, but not like this. Achak’s caustic and harmful emanations were making their way around the planet and affecting more than half of the biters in one way or another, and by the time it was figured out, it may well be too late. Those emanations were occasionally positive to some biters but harmful to the majority; at least humans were safe from his bad magic.

The Siamese cat jumped off the bench, and Zacharia told it to cease, but Moon Diamond had become fixated on a nearby rat. Inside that felis catus, they fought for control of that vehicle of cat fur, and although Zacharia won most battles, this one he lost. The Siamese was simply too intent on killing the rat. The rodent went flying into the air as Moon Diamond pounced on it. Bite, bite, bite, and shake. In a matter of seconds, it was destroyed and tossed aside. The cat returned to the bench beside the author and cleaned its fur.

“See the things that I have to put up with. Why did I have to animate that cat with a piece of my soul? And one of the worst things is that I can’t stop thinking about it. I play the kill scene over and over like a bad movie.”

“It is what it is.”

“Why don’t you try and forget that you are a vampire, Piers Anthony!”

“Yes, I see your point. Your reality is a bitch.”

The Siamese stared up at Piers and wondered if that wasn’t some dig. It was easy to spew wisdom after something nasty had occurred, but before was something else. Zacharia felt something pulling at his aura but couldn’t tell where it emanated. His cat eyes scanned the area but saw nothing. “Piers, do you feel that?”

Piers concentrated, but he couldn’t feel anything. What trouble was he in now? He relied on protection from a cat, which didn’t sit well. He would have felt much more secure if he had sat beside Dracula. “I don’t sense anything. What is it?”

“I’m not sure.”

After a minute of quiet, the sensation went away.

“So what was that like killing the rat?” Piers was curious, although he did feel it risky to bring it up.

“It was strange; that’s what it was like. From my point of view, that thing was a monster rat and as ugly as any hellspawn. It was like fighting a rat the size of a bear.”

“I never thought of that.”

“Yes, well, you can just imagine some of my nightmares. And having no control over your body is not a pleasant sensation, never mind that I’m a freaking cat. A Coke machine looks like a skyscraper. How would you like to change places?”

“Oh, I think not. I have had enough of dealing with this vampire thing. Life has become a juxtaposition of realities. Sometimes when I awake, I forget for a moment or two.”

Zacharia now sounded angry. “See, now the stupid cat wants me to take a nap. Right here, right now. Well, I won’t do it, so shut up, you stupid cat! I will bang its head against the wall if it doesn’t stop.”

“What would happen if I gave you some catnip?”

“Are you trying to be funny?”

Again a period of silence consumed them. Piers turned and looked down at the Siamese; it had curled itself in a ball and gone to sleep; he smiled at the sight of it. He smelled burnt popcorn from over two miles away, making him hungry. The cat jumped up with a distressful meow and a low growl.

“What is it?”

“Someone’s at the zoo. I can feel him, and he’s up to no good. Come on.”

They both jumped over the fence and blurred into the black bear enclosure. A man stood with both hands out as he pulled green energy from one of the bears. The streaks of moss-green light left the animal and entered him. He turned and showed them his fangs as a warning.

“I’m in his mind,” said Zacharia. “He’s the one that killed the humans.” The cat jumped into his face and dug in; the wizard screamed and let loose with multiple black balls the size of marbles that went all over the place, ricocheting off trees and fences, with one striking Piers in the temple and knocking him out. Each time a ball hit something, it sounded like it was full of sand, bursting with the contents trickling out.

Wang was a Chinese wizard passing through Moncton on his way to Halifax, meeting another wizard there to exchange spells. He was wearing what Zacharia thought to be some kung fu suit. Piers slowly returned to consciousness and discovered that he could not move his arms or legs. He was being carried through the zoo’s paths over Wang’s shoulder like an old rug, wishing he had refused the Master’s request, but rejecting Dracula wasn’t easy. Moon Diamond was nowhere to be seen. Then the author lost consciousness once again.

A half-hour passed of unconscious oblivion when Piers awoke; he was hanging upside down from a tree with Moon Diamond lying motionless on the ground in front of him. Now he could move, but the rope stopped him from escaping. He swung at the wizard but missed, causing his upside-down self to swing. Wang was searching through spells in his little red book. The cat awoke and shook its head, climbing the back of the wizard’s legs, each of its nails causing excruciating pain. Zacharia forced the cat to wrap itself around the wizard’s neck so that he could take his head off. In a panic, Wang dropped his book and fought for his life, sending arcs of blue light through the animal. The wizard pulled the cat’s tail so hard that it came off, but another grew. He did it again and again until there were a half dozen tails that littered the path. He pounded on the cat with both fists. Wang smashed into a tree and then fell to the ground; he quickly got up but felt he couldn’t endure much more.

“Get him, Zacharia!” Piers punched the wizard in the head when he staggered near enough and was surprised that the blow crushed his skull, but unfortunately, it regenerated.

Wang finally managed to get the cat off and flung it towards a tree, but Moon Diamond landed gracefully, definitely not what the wizard expected. The sorcerer blurred as he simultaneously pulled a machete and held it to the author’s neck, wanting the cat to surrender or else. The Siamese blurred off the tree and grabbed the small book in his mouth, threatening to shred it with his very sharp claws. The look on Wang’s face told them that the book was vital to him. The book contained a lifetime of spells; not everyone was fortunate enough to get their hands on a genuine Blood Book. The little red book was his equivalent. He had tried several times to put a protective spell on it, but for whatever reason, the book wouldn’t take it, so he could only assume that an incantation within wouldn’t allow it.

“Put the book down. Look, cat, I’m pulling away from your friend. You give me the book, and I’ll let your friend live. Throw me the book. I won’t ask again.”

Moon Diamond looked through several pages and halted at one with several check marks. The cat flicked its tail with interest. It was in Chinese, so he wasn’t able to read it. The cat ripped the page out of the book and ate it. The wizard screamed as it had taken him over a century to track down that spell, and now it was gone. Zacharia found another incantation, this time with four checks on it. He threatened to shred it with his claws. The wizard blurred for the cat, but each time he did so, Moon Diamond ended up in a different location; the cat was too fast for him. He swung the machete repeatedly at the Siamese as if attempting to chop wood.

Wang stood with his right hand in the air and a look on his face that could kill; he was drawing embers into his hand seemingly out of nowhere, out of the night sky. He definitely would not be the same wizard without that book. Both Moon Diamond and Piers looked worried when his hand started to smoke. Again the cat threatened to destroy the page and then suddenly was struck with a boomerang-like piece of light. Moon Diamond toppled to the ground as if it had no bones.

Zacharia’s soul exited from the cat, and as he looked down at the lifeless Moon Diamond, he was saddened by the turn of events.