B00724AICC EBOK (25 page)

“
I like it.”

Joshua was the equivalent to a plain Jane. He had reddish hair and freckles. He had been teased for resembling Richie from Happy Days, though there really wasn’t that much resemblance. There was a little similarity but not much. “Why don’t we just kill the bastard and get it over with?”

Stephen gave Joshua and untoward look. “And are you going to find the dagger for me? Are you!”

A blue jay flew into a nearby tree and started to admonish them for being in its forest, but then flew off deeper into the forest. “I know exactly where I am now. The museum is just down here to the right. But getting to the dagger, real or fake, is not a simple thing.”

Stephen nodded. “Let’s just get in the place so I can see that it’s real.”

They all headed down the path where they came to a peculiar hole in the ground, just large enough to permit a single person to slide down into its darkness. Philo led the way as the others followed, but upon entering he was suddenly and mysteriously missing. The place was a huge hollowed out cave system lit with subdued lighting.

Joshua scratched his red head. “What the hell? Where did he go?” His voice echoed into the large cavern.

It was an impressive place. The solid rock walls appeared to be chiselled flat. A small group of bats clung to the ceiling. A nineteen foot granite statue of Dracula stood to the right upon entering, leaning upon an impressive Viking sword. Smaller statues less than twelve feet tall encircled the large open area. It was effigies of important vampires from the past, all heroes in their own way. Thirteen in total, with three actually having their bones laid out and partially cemented into the ground in front of them. Some had their weapons of choice encased in glass beside them.

“
Wow, this place is amazing.” They were all impressed with what that small hole in the ground had led them into.

Next to Dracula was the statue of Braxton of Yorkshire. He had fought beside the Master several times and continued to be missed. He had had such a wonderful personality and upbeat way at looking at life. Those that knew him said he resembled a knight in stature and comportment, and in the end he had perished protecting good vampires from bad. His impressive sword was held in the attack position by his statue.

Stephen blurred and grabbed Joshua by the shirt and shook him. “Where did he go? Find him now!”

A chandelier was lit in the thirty-foot high ceiling; its source of power remained unknown. They blurred and searched the monstrous circular space, behind every statue and against every section of wall but could discover no hidden doors where Philo could conceal himself. The place didn’t appear to contain many places where a biter could hide, and yet they couldn’t locate him.

Stephen’s shoulder seemed to pain even more at the thought of his escape. He was immediately angry. “Where is he? Luke, guard that damn exit.”

Luke stood in the center of the museum and listened. “Did you hear that?

“
What?” the other three said simultaneously.

“
There’s movement underground.” Luke had become excited as he stared at the floor. He paced back and forth as he hunted for a way down. “Don’t just stand there, search for the entrance. He’s down there somewhere.”

The all searched and poked and prodded different sections of the rock floor but couldn’t find a way down. It was becoming more frustrating by the second. Stephen held out his hand for them to stop and be quiet, and they all listened for movement. And then a faint noise that could not have been heard by any human, it sounded as if someone had accidentally dropped their weapon. The problem was that the chamber provided too much echo for them to zero in on the sound. Luke got prone and placed his ear to the floor and listened; he could hear muffled voices but couldn’t make out anything.

“
This is starting to really piss me off!” Stephen stomped hard and the echo went through the place and bounced around. He stood motionless as he considered their next move.

Joshua went over to the huge statue of Dracula and was impressed. Whoever had done all the carving was truly a master at his art. Dracula’s features were absolutely perfect. It was inspiring. “I hope that someday there’s a statue of me in here.”

“
There’s as much chance of a statue of a spider as a statue of you.” Stephen thought that he was being smart.

Joshua circled the statue and stopped to examine the back of it. Then he looked down and observed a crack into the floor. A square section of floor caught his eye. He wasn’t sure how it didn’t fall through. “Here! I think I found it.”

They all approached the rear of the statue and looked down at the floor. Stephen pushed them out of the way and stomped on it but nothing happened. He used his considerable might to push on it but it wouldn’t budge. Was it an actual entrance or a diversion? They examined all the other statues more closely and then made their way back to the statue of Dracula.

Luke commenced to examine the statue and feel around it. “Must be a lever or button or something to open it.” He felt the Viking sword and then pushed down on it and the floor opened silently, so silent in fact that none of them noticed it at first.

Noah turned his head and noticed the opening. “Look at this!”

Down into the hole they could see lit torches lighting a narrow corridor. The torches were for ambience as all vampires could see perfectly in the dark. Stephen stuck his head in first to make sure he wasn’t jumping into some sort of trap. Satisfied, he jumped down into the tunnel and fell some fifteen feet and commenced to proceed forward as the others dropped down behind him.

“
It stinks down here. Smells like century old blood.”

They found themselves in an uncomfortably narrow corridor with the occasional torch burning. Joshua thought that he detected a slight odor of sulfur that meshed with the scent of the torches. It was so narrow that it would only be possible to use their swords in an up and down motion. They moved forward as they bumped against both sides of the wall. The four didn’t know what to expect and it was unsettling. It was straight and narrow with no end in sight.

“
I have a bad feeling about this.” Noah did not like confined spaces.

“
You’re going to have a bad feeling with my foot in your ass.” Stephen smiled and continued to move forward.

Suddenly, there was an armed guard that had blurred and stood to block their path. He was a big bald fellow with a triple edged axe. Stephen had never seen one before and it looked extremely sharp. The top of the axe had an extra blade sticking out of it for poking. The guy was at least a full head taller. Neval was dressed in what looked to be some sort of black leather uniform. Stephen stopped and the others bumped into him from behind, he pulled his sword with difficulty as Neval watched with interest. How was he to take his head off when he couldn’t swing a blade?

The bald fellow gripped his axe tightly. “My name is Neval and you fellas don’t have permission to be in here. You know how I know? No one has permission to be down here.”

Stephen was annoyed and trying to think of ways to fight the guy in such a confined space. “Why would you build a place where no one was allowed to go? Philo just passed through here.”

“
Well, he had permission.”

“
You just said that no one has permission.”

“
I lied.”

“
There’s a lot of that going around,” said Luke.

Neval smiled and showed all his bad teeth and gums as well. It looked like a bite from him would give one a terrible infection, to say the least. His putrid breath was an affront to their senses. “Last chance to turn around fellas.”

Stephen started chopping at the big guy but all his strikes were easily deflected. Neval kicked Stephen in the chest and knocked the four of them down like dominoes. He then attempted to cut Stephen in two but ended up splitting the vampire’s foot almost in half at the big toe. The screams of pain echoed down the hall.

Neval smiled once again. “Foot problems?”

Stephen let go with a series of curses that endured for almost a minute. “You bald bastard!”

Luke flew over the big guy so that they had him trapped in the middle; he slid his sword against the wall to let Neval know that he was in trouble. It was difficult for the axe wielder to defend from two different directions as he felt Luke sword thrust through his neck. Stephen knocked the axe to the ground and also shoved his sword into the big guy’s neck. It took almost a minute but they did manage to remove his head and he collapsed into bones.

“
Neck problems?”

They continued on as Stephen stomped Neval’s bones as he passed him. A large spider descended on its web and Luke noticed the arachnid and let go with a bit of a scream. They all stopped and were prepared for another battle when the spotted they spider. Joshua knocked it to the floor and then stomped it.

Stephen shook his head. “A vampire afraid of spiders.”

Luke shrugged. “I can’t help it. I had an awful experience with spiders when I was human. They held me down and put spiders all over me.”

An entrance on the right and one on the left led to small rooms that were searched with no sign of Philo. An old headless skeleton was propped up against the wall in the left chamber. They did consider that it was possible they were missing some sort of secret door, but decided to move forward into the narrow corridor. Finally, after more than a mile, at the end was a right turn that led to an elaborate white granite room with old paintings and three rather ancient looking swords. In the center was a large rectangular stone that could have perhaps been an altar. The remains of two more dead vampires were against the back wall covered with spider web.

Philo stood next to the bones with his arms crossed. “What took you so long?”

Stephen showed his fangs. “I ought to kill you right now! Where’s the dagger?”

Philo gestured to an old painting on the wall, it was of an old gentleman with a long white beard down to his navel; he was wearing a red robe and held the dagger straight out, as if one could reach into the painting and take it. The dagger was impressive with diamonds and a single red ruby, but they could accomplish nothing with a painting. They all looked at it and then back at Philo with derision.

Stephen placed his sword to Philo’s neck. “Are you trying to be funny?”

“
I am not. That painting indicates that the dagger is in here, either the real one or a fake. It’s hidden obviously. However, this is a kill room.”

Noah took his blue eyes off the painting. “What’s a kill room?”

“
It’s a room that will kill you; it is booby trapped. I helped to set up one in a different location long ago. Nasty things.”

The four of them moved out of the room and stared back in at Philo. Stephen gestured with his right hand for him to proceed. “You find it we’ll wait here.”

Philo also exited the small room and approached Stephen. “I don’t think so. Three traps have to be unleashed before the dagger will reveal itself. It would be easy for me to see some sort of mechanism and pretend not to see it. In any case I’m not doing it and you can’t make me. Kill me; you will still have to do it yourselves.”

Stephen growled low in his throat as he considered the situation. He knew he couldn’t send Luke to do it because he was the only one that was able to track Dracula. But to him the others were expendable, although he’d rather not have them killed at this time. This quest was turning out to be more than he bargained, and a pain in the ass.

“
I’m not doing it,” said Joshua. But as soon as he said it he realized that he had made an error in judgement, perhaps a grave error.

Stephen snapped his fingers and pointed into the room. “Joshua, get in there. I can damn well kill YOU if I have to. You’ll perish anyway so you may as well give yourself a chance.”

Joshua thought hard on it, and for all he knew there might be no booby traps at all. He couldn’t guess for sure what Philo was up to; in any case it appeared that he had no choice. He stepped into the room and half-heartedly looked around. “Nope, nothing in here let’s move along.”

“
Not funny.”

Joshua attempted to move the three paintings, two of which appeared to be duplicates of one another, a scene on some beach with palm trees. There was a bat hanging from one of the trees. The paintings were at face height and he nervously attempted to move them but they wouldn’t budge. Joshua turned and regretted not having attempted to flee; he felt around the alter searching for some sort of mechanism but found nothing. He patted the entire floor and discovered nothing but dust. It was time to turn to the swords and he feared that moving one of them would cost him his life. He kicked one sword awkwardly and jumped back. However, nothing happened. He shrugged at Stephen and was told to keep looking.

Joshua turned towards Philo. “What will happen if I touch the wrong thing?”

Philo shrugged. “Something will probably cut your head off.”

Joshua pushed against the alter and discovering that it was wobbly, he shoved it up from the corner and a mechanism came to life clacking as it slowly stood on end. It rumbled and shook the room and then a sharpened circular blade shot out; he hit the floor and just barely managed to dodge it.

Joshua stood up relieved. “Shit, that was close!” But it had been a diversion as another blade shot out and decapitated him. He turned to bones as his skull bounced awkwardly on the floor.”