Dracula Hearts of Fire Book two of Dracula Hearts

THE TWO GENTLEMEN IN EGYPTIAN GARB continued to cycle through their spiel. “I told you she would make it this far!” Worset pushed Hebeny hard, almost knocking him over.

Jenny had lost track of time; perhaps it was part of the strange atmosphere that had commenced as soon as she had managed to get inside the cottage. Or maybe it was because those two were driving her crazy. She wasn’t sure if she had been gone for two days or two hours. It seemed to her that every inch of the place had a spell on it. It could be that her magic was fighting its magic spontaneously; she felt some pull and push down there. Jenny was starting to feel trapped no matter what room she was in; it seemed to her that it was a little like being in prison. It would be a relief if she ever got to smell the fresh air again.

Jenny knew that crazy spell was distracting her from concentrating on the problem. It was a simple spell in a sense but quite helpful. It was so difficult to think. There was more intelligence than brawn that had gone into the enchantment. The girl was learning that it didn’t take powerful magic to be effective. Every time she attempted to concentrate, their voices would get louder. Jenny thought they could probably drive a person insane if they kept at it long enough, and she was convinced they would never stop.

Were spells only limited to the imaginations of the wizards? She supposed there were rules of magic that had to be followed. Inexperience was never an advantage; it was the knowledge that wore the crown. Jenny started to make her way through the chamber, checking the walls but found nothing of interest. She used her vampire speed to check high up on the walls no human could reach. There was nothing unusual on the ceiling either. She walked over every inch of the floor, jumping up and down on any area that appeared to be interesting. The room was vexing, and they wouldn’t shut up! How many times had they said the same thing, and acted out the same scene, over and over?

Then she noticed they got louder every time she approached the two gentlemen. Now to the exciting girl wizard. Why hadn’t she seen it before? Why would they do that? Was that a clue? It was not only a practical part of the spell but maybe an important part as well.

“Oh, you sneaky devils.” Jenny went right inside the holographic spell and looked down at the floor. Sure enough, there was a small lever. As soon as she pushed it, the Egyptian gentlemen vanished. The silence was as welcome as a visitor bearing gifts. Then the sound of rock grinding on rock and displaced dust revealed stairs leading down to another level. She had nowhere else to go, so she headed down the stairs into another chamber. There was a small mountain of keys like the first key she had taken. Six feet tall and thousands and thousands of keys, but at least this time, an open door led to another room. Jenny took two handfuls of the keys and examined them; they all seemed identical. She threw them back into the pile, headed for the open door, and looked into the next room. Her eyes had commenced blinking oddly.

“You have got to be kidding! What is the point of all this?” Inside the next room were lions, all different sizes, just lying around, waiting for someone to eat? Lion around, she thought. She knew instinctively that they were not ordinary lions. Any human stepping in there would be dead; any wizard best have a proper defense. On the back wall was an ornamental carving, a lion’s face with what looked to be two holes for eyes? She would need two keys, and she only had one. A large male lion was tenderly licking a female. Nothing stopped them from entering the room where she was, but none seemed interested in her.

Jenny looked back into the room with the keys. She blinked, and the lenses in her eyes changed. The keys had now changed colors; they looked chocolate brown instead of gold. The thought popped into her head that she had to find a single key in that pile. One must look different than all the others. She ran into the keys and scattered them. The floor was covered with them, and her lenses automatically changed and continued to do so, but they all appeared to be the same. She kicked and spread the keys around more.

Her changing eyesight was disorienting, and she almost fell over. She sat, picked up a handful, and threw them against the wall. Now they all looked pink. She thought that she probably needed the patience of a century-old wizard, but it would take her a hundred years to get there.

The girl was frustrated and tired of it all. Jenny wondered what her mother was doing. It wasn’t bad enough that she couldn’t find the key, but even if she did, how was she going to deal with a pride of lions? She threw a key into the room with the cats, and two of them stood up. One ran to the door and looked in at her but seemed incapable of entering the room; it stared at her as if she was a tasty gazelle. Showing its fangs was intimidating, a scary look, especially since she had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. An ordinary lion she could probably kill, but a vampire? Lions looked funny with fangs, but she thought the bite wouldn’t be so amusing. The lion continued to stare and let go with a low roar.

She moved her right foot, and one of the keys seemed different. It was resting under another and looked more purple than pink. Jenny picked it up; sure enough, it was indeed purple in comparison, and when she took the other one out of her pocket to compare, it was a match. They both looked purple, the prettiest purple she had ever seen. The young wizard looked away from the keys at the lion and smiled.

“Why couldn’t they be kittens?” Jenny went to the open door and looked in; at least four lions looked at her. She stuck her leg into the chamber past the barrier of the entry, and the one nearest the door clawed her calf. Blood ran down her leg as she screamed. It healed, but it had been an awful pain. It took several minutes for her to approach the door, and this time she attempted to mind them, but it didn’t work. A cub advanced and tried to get at Jenny, which was the cutest thing. It made her heart melt. Jenny wanted to snuggle it as she would a teddy bear, to kiss that furry little face. Knowing she would probably be attacked, she reached in and petted the cub. It licked her hand and then chewed on her arm. She almost wished she could take it home with her, imagining the look on the mailman’s face.

A lion roared from the left corner but not at her. Two young males were playing. Again the female cub licked her arm. Jenny stepped into the room, picking up the cub in her arms, expecting to be attacked. When she was ignored, she was unsure of her next move. A step forward would bring her deeper into the cats; a step back would take her out? Could she take the cat out with her? She had to make more and more decisions, hoping one wouldn’t be fatal. That was one of the main differences growing from a child into an adult, all those daily decisions with no one else to blame.

“What should we do?” she asked the lion cub. Although it was invisible to the eye, a small amount of magic was exchanged from her to the cub and then back again, giving Jenny a warm feeling.

Dracula’s daughter took a step back with the cub and found herself in the key room. She placed the animal on the floor and played with it. It chewed on her, licked her, jumped on her stomach, and snuggled. It was young and wild, perhaps a little like Jenny. The cat took her stress away and replaced it with happy thoughts. She smelled its face and kissed it, and it made the funniest noise in appreciation.

She spent almost an hour playing with the cat but knew she had to return it. She took a deep breath, stepped into the room with the cub in her arms, and was ignored. She reached the lion’s face carved into the wall and inserted a key into each eye, expecting to be mauled, but nothing happened. She put the cat down and then turned both keys simultaneously. The girl was disappointed when nothing happened. Then slowly, a slab of granite swung open to reveal Caius sitting in a regal-looking chair with six men, three on each side, watching as Jenny entered the chamber.

Caius was talking to the group. “Obtaining the unattainable is very satisfying.”

“Are YOU Caius?”

“I am.” Caius was a distinguished-looking fellow with high cheekbones and a trim white beard. He sat with a five-foot staff of vampire bones spelled and twisted together; it was surprisingly quite attractive for a thing made from bones. He looked to be about sixty but was, in fact, ancient. Jenny thought he seemed like a king as he sat on his shiny ebony throne. It looked even more impressive in the white room.

“Well, then, I am here to be taught in the ways of a wizard. I’m Jenny.”

The six stared at her as if she was a six-headed monster spitting kittens. It wasn’t fun to have so many scrutinizing her simultaneously. Had she done something exceptional? Or perhaps she had accomplished something that they considered bizarre? Whatever the reason, the many eyes upon her were uncomfortable.

There was a moment of silence until Caius spoke. “You are Dracula’s daughter, aren’t you?”

“How do you know that?”

“I can see him in your face. I heard the rumor several years ago but didn’t believe it until now.”

All six took a step back, finally settling in square chairs. They moved the chairs back a distance as they observed without saying a single word. Jenny almost felt as if she was on trial. The lion cub ambled up to Jenny and licked her leg. “Hey, you’re not supposed to be in here.” She picked up the cat and placed her back into the chamber with the other lions.

Caius gestured to Jareth to approach him, and they commenced to whisper. “She’s released it.”

Jareth bent down. “I thought that was impossible.”

“Indeed, but there it is. First things first.” Caius watched as Jenny returned, with the cub escaping from the chamber again and slowly heading back towards her. The lion trotting behind her was the cutest thing.

“Caius, are you going to help me?”

Caius slowly nodded as he played with his short beard. “You are already on your way to becoming the most famous wizard in the history of wizards if you don’t get yourself killed. Jenny, you should know that there are worse things than death.”

Jenny thought that the statement was out of context. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“Imagine yourself trapped in a cave for a century or two. Vampires will go dormant after being unable to eat for an extended period. You will not. You will not die of starvation as a human would. Silence will drive you mad.”

“ I think you might be a bit mad. Those snakes could have killed me.”

“But here you are. You will need a Blood Book.”

“What the heck is a Blood Book?” She looked down at the cub at her feet.

“Jenny, ignore the cat for the present. A Blood Book is a magical tome that reacts specifically to the wizard staring into it. There are only eight in existence that I know of, and wizards occupy all. You must defeat a dark wizard and take it by force.”

“Oh, that is just great. Must I go up against an experienced wizard? It doesn’t sound possible. Maybe my father could get it for me?”

“He can’t. The book will align with the most powerful being near it, and that alignment can endure for centuries. You will need to face the wizard on your own, by yourself. Besides, your father has his own book.”

“I’m not experienced enough. It would be suicide.”

Caius played with his beard as he nodded. “I would agree with any other young wizard, but you are something special. I won’t even say what you are.”

Jenny didn’t like the sound of that. It seemed that the whole world was trying hard to keep secrets from her. “If you are going to help me, then help me. Don’t talk in circles.”

Caius cleared his throat. “Once Achak was a good wizard; he healed the sick and did his best to light up the world. He’s changed over the years, a bad deed here and an evil deed there. One can talk oneself into almost anything on the right or wrong day. Now he deals almost exclusively in black magic and must be stopped. Aftereffects of his evil incantations now circle the globe with peculiar consequences for many vampires. You need to either kill him or bind him and take the book. Once you have it, it will teach you everything you need to know. You must also clean the air of his evil incantations. And Jenny, you must never stop learning.”

“You sound like a television commercial. Why don’t you take care of this Achak guy if he’s so dangerous? Why send a little girl to take care of your business?”

“You need the book.”

“You know you can’t handle him.”

“That is correct.”

“Oh great. How will I find this Achak?”

“You will return home for a week, and Jareth here will show up personally to escort you. Until said time, you will pay close attention to your dreams. Oh, and, ah, that cub is now your responsibility. You have inadvertently released it from the chamber; it will perish without you.”

Jenny looked at the cub and then back at Caius. “ I can have the cub? I can’t go home with a lion cub. What will my mother say?”

“I imagine that she’ll say bad kitty quite a bit. Of course, you realize that is no ordinary lion cub.”

“I know.”

“Jenny, the adventure of a lifetime begins with a single breath. What an adventure are you in for?”

“What am I supposed to feed it?”

Caius nodded and looked pensive. “A nice juicy steak? What have you learned on your little adventure to get here?”

Jenny sat down and played with the cat. “I learned that even simple spells can be quite useful.”

“Bravo. You will need to trust your instincts more. It sounds simple, but it isn’t. What else have you learned?”

The journey of Jenny’s tutelage into the land of wizards had begun.