IDrakula - Bekka Black [15]
Suddenly you did run across the sunlight to me. You looked at me and your eyes were gone. You didn’t know me. But you’ve known me all your life. Then you looked at Mr. Bubbles and you really SAW him and for a second I thought everything would be all right again.
You grabbed Mr. Bubbles and I grabbed you. Abe lit the liquid and it blazed up and we were caught in the center of a ring of fire. You couldn’t get out. The Count couldn’t get in. And your eyes were gone again.
You were desperate. You always were, though. I thought you would kill me then, but I held you still enough for Abe to get out his stake. He tried to drive it in, but he wasn’t strong enough.
By then you were suffering and screaming and I knew I had to end it. I didn’t want to. You might have been strong, but you were broken and hurting. I could feel how angry the Count was. He and I thought the same thing: you couldn’t be mended.
So, I helped Abe.
The stake went in and you looked so surprised. But the screaming stopped. You just stared at me as if you’d never seen me before. Never believed that I could do something like that. Even to save my own life.
I never thought I could either.
Then the charred ring spread out around the stake. That black nothingness radiated around it until you were gone. I was staring at the spot where you were. Abe was crying, and I was crying.
I’m crying again while I type this. I’ll be back as soon as I can and tell you all the things you didn’t see.
Love,
Mina
From: Mina Murray
To: Lucy Westenra
Subject: I’m sorry: Part III
Sent: June 27 10:13 PM
* * *
I’ll finish it all in this email. I promise.
I heard the Count snap his fingers. He said, “Enough, Mina. Come!”
I turned and stepped right through the flames to go to him. I couldn’t stop myself; I had no power to do anything else. His blood in my body did what it was told. I didn’t even think of struggling.
Abe ran after me and yelled my name. I could barely hear him. It was like I was underwater. The Count said that I was his.
Foolhardy Abe jumped between us. He pulled a stake out of his back pocket and he held it up to me. For a second I thought he was going to try to stake me like we did with you. But you know what? I wasn’t even worried. I knew that he couldn’t really hurt me, not by himself with the Count’s blood in me and him right there.
Turns out Abe couldn’t try. He lowered the stake. Tears ran down his face, and he just said, “I cannot hurt you.”
The Count laughed, “How I adore a human in love. Wonderfully predictable.”
I felt bad for Abe because he didn’t understand anything.
When I reached down to take his hand I found the stake instead, so I put it in my pocket. The Count grabbed him and threw him inside the container. Abe landed hard. A gross thud of bones and flesh…I didn’t know if he was dead or alive.
That snapped me out of it. I was scared then. The Count might do anything to me, too. My neck started bleeding again. He led me into the terrible container, and I was shaking. I’ve never been so afraid in my life.
The Count knew how scared I was. He took me in his arms and he kissed me, and I was gone, gone, gone. I’d never felt anything like it. Everything vanished and it was just the Count and me and his lips and this feeling of warmth and contentment and waves and waves of pleasure washing over me and I wanted it to last forever…
Until I heard Abe’s heartbeat. It was fading. I pulled away from the Count and I looked at Abe on the floor.
“He’s dying, isn’t he?” I asked.
“Humans are dying from the moment of their birth,” he said.
Abe groaned. I couldn’t take my eyes off him until the Count took my chin and jerked my head back to him. He said, “But not you. Not anymore.”
I never have to die, I thought.
He leaned down and licked the blood off my neck, and I forgot Abe and everything else. It was just the Count and me again, alone in the world.
When he put my mouth against