Chapter 13
It was dark by the time Elrod and I headed for O Positive. Mostly because I had to shower, change, and grab a bite to eat. When you consume seven thousand calories a day, it can take awhile to finish a meal. And to be perfectly honest, I wasn't in a hurry to confront Gladrielle and the Count. Not after hearing those blood curdling screams Gladrielle let loose when she changed into a dark elf.
“What's the difference between a dark elf and a regular elf?” I asked Elrod as I parked the Del Sol in the lot directly across the street from O Positive. The lot was practically empty, which was a bit unusual, especially for this hour of the evening.
“Normal elves preserve life, or at least try to. Dark elves destroy life.”
I turned the car off and looked at Elrod. “Then I guess Gladrielle won't hesitate to kill us.”
“She killed your friend didn't she?”
I nodded. “And that was before she became a dark elf.”
“Elves are highly moral. From what I've seen, dark elves have no morals.”
“Kind of like the Count.”
“I've never met the Count,” Elrod said. “So I can't really respond to that.”
“When I left her, Galdrielle was screaming. Why was that?”
“I don't know, but then I've never been a dark elf.”
“Any guesses?”
“Maybe they were screams of anguish from her good half.”
“Let's hope so,” I said.
“Why do you say that?” Elrod asked me.
“Because that still means she has a good half.” I climbed out of the car and headed for the thirty story tower that housed O Positive. I was wearing jeans, sneakers, and a black tee shirt. Elrod was wearing penny loafers, khakis, and a green polo shirt with his nursery’s name printed above the left breast pocket.
Elrod fell in alongside of me, scanning the street as we walked. “Not many people around.”
“The Count has that affect on people.”
“Probably a good thing that nobody's around.”
“Fewer people for the Count to compel.” I looked at Elrod. “Are dark elves capable of love?”
“No.”
“You're sure?”
“Pretty sure.”
We crossed the street and approached the building. There was no line of people waiting to ride the elevator to the top of the building, no bouncer deciding who got to go up and who didn't. The elevator looked like it hadn't even been used since I last left the place. Elrod and I stepped on it and headed up.
“Gladrielle saved the Count's life because she loved him,” I said. “But if dark elves aren't capable of love then those feelings probably won't be there.”
“Your point being?”
“Maybe Gladrielle won't try to protect the Count, maybe she won't even care what we do with him.”
“We're about to find out,” Elrod said.
The elevator reached the club and the doors whooshed open. It seemed strange to be there when nobody was around. The dance floor was empty. The balcony that circled the dance floor was empty. There were no customers, no employees, nor was there any music playing. The lights weren't even on. The only light came from the surrounding buildings and the floor to ceiling windows that made up the club's exterior walls. A place that was usually full of life was now as dead as Titus, its owner.
“We have guests,” the Count said, looking down on us from Titus's balcony at the very top of the club.
“I take it that's the Count?” Elrod said.
“It is.”
“He seems to be in a good mood.”
“He finally has the girl of his dreams. A girl he's wanted for five thousand years. Why wouldn't he be in a good mood?”
“Does he love her?”
I shook my head. “Supernaturals aren't capable of love. He desires her, but desire isn't love.”
“Love endures,” Elrod said. “Desire fades.”
“If Gladrielle throws a fireball at you, can you defend yourself?”
“I can.” Elrod reached into the pocket of his khaki's and pulled out a handful of seeds. “With these.”
“What? You going to throw them at her?”
“They're vine seeds. I can make them grow. I can also make them wrap themselves around someone, or form a protective wall around me.”
“Faster than Gladrielle can create a fireball?”
“Faster than Claire can create a fireball.”
“I guess what they say is true. It's good to be the king.”
Elrod grinned but didn't say anything. We started up the chrome staircase to the second floor, then headed up to what had been Titus's private domain on the third floor. I felt a pang of guilt as I climbed that last set of stairs. Titus hired me to protect him from the Count, which I did, sort of. But in the process, I brought in the person that killed him. Either way, I failed to do my job. I failed to protect him.
Halfway up that final set of stairs, I stopped and grabbed Elrod's arm. “The Count isn't going to be able to compel you is he?”
“A vampire compelling an elf king would be similar to a six year old compelling an adult. What about you?”
“He already tried and failed.”
“So it's just Claire that we need to worry about.”
I nodded. “I guess so.”
We finished climbing the stairs to discover that Gladrielle and the Count had done some redecorating. Titus's table and chairs were gone. In the middle of the mezzanine sat a bed, a king-sized four post bed. I had no idea where they found it. Most likely, the Count compelled somebody to deliver it. Or maybe he just did it the old fashioned way and paid someone to deliver it.
Gladrielle lay in the middle of the giant bed's blood red sheets, wearing a slinky black negligee. Her blue hair was coal black. Her eyes were black orbs with no pupils, no irises, no whites. Her fingernails were long and black.
Other than that, she looked pretty much the same. Same pointed ears, same flawless skin. Although she wasn't glowing like she was when I first brought her here. But that might have been out of deference to the Count, who like most vampires, wasn't a big fan of too much heat or light.
“You're welcome here,” Gladrielle said, looking at me. She pointed at Elrod. “But he's not.”
Her voice was different, deeper, sultrier, sexier. She seemed more like the Count, or myself, or any other supernatural for that matter, than her old self.
For some reason that made me sad, sad that I was partly responsible for turning her into someone, something, that was less than what she once was.
A ball of fire appeared above Gladrielle's palm, but she never got to use it. Elrod, reached into his pocket, pulled out some seeds, and tossed them at her.
The seeds turned into vines that were as thick as my forearms. They wrapped themselves around Gladrielle's wrists. Then they wrapped themselves around the posts at the head of the bed, binding Gladrielle to the bed. She was sitting up, but her arms were spread wide, bound tightly to the bed posts. She flicked the ball of fire at the vine, but it had no effect.
“Let me go,” Gladrielle screamed. She struggled to free herself, but failed. The vines were too strong. Maybe it was good to be the king.
The Count moved forward, stepping between us and the bed. He was still dressed like a beach bum, still wearing the wraparound Maui Jim sunglasses. He looked at Elrod, said, “I'm afraid we haven't been introduced.”
“I'm a friend of Claire's,” Elrod said.
“Clearly not a human friend.” The Count offered Elrod his hand. “Eradu Matuff.”
Elrod looked at the Count's hand, but didn't take it.
“The man's offering you his hand,” I said. “The least you can do is take it.”
I looked at Elrod, hoping he got the message that I was trying to convey. Mainly that this was his chance to touch the Count, use his power on him, hopefully turn him back into a human, if that was even possible.
He must've got the message because he gave the C
ount his best used car salesman smile and grabbed the Count's hand. “Jim Smith.”
“Don’t you touch him!” Gladrielle screamed.
Another fireball appeared above her palm. She tried to throw it at Elrod, but with her wrist bound to the headboard, she lacked the leverage. The fireball landed around her knees, setting the bed's blood red sheet on fire.
I reached out with my mind, to the sprinkler system in the ceiling. I ordered the water in the sprinkler head directly above the bed to come on. A second later, it did, drenching Gladrielle, the bed, and the vines tying her to the bed.
The water made Gladrielle's slinky negligee, even slinkier. It also made the vines bigger and thicker, but it did put the fire out.
With that taken care of, I turned my attention back to Elrod and the Count. Elrod still had a tight grip on the Count's hand.
“What are you doing?” the Count said, realizing that Elrod was up to something.
He tried to free his hand, but Elrod refused to let go. The fact that the Count couldn't free himself surprised me. I didn't think Elrod had that kind of strength, but then I didn't really know that much about elves. Apparently the elf king was stronger than he looked.
When Elrod refused to let go of the Count, the Count bared his fangs, intending to bite him. Before he could do that, I reached out with my mind, to the water inside inside his body. There was just as much water in his body as the last time I froze him, which told me that he was still eating regularly, which explained why his entourage was no longer around. He had turned them into dinner. Well, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Before the Count could bite Elrod, I wrapped my arms around him, pinning his arms at his sides.
One of the advantages of having such dense muscle tissue, is it makes me strong, extremely strong. Stronger than your average vampire. That being said, the Count wasn't your average vampire.
As soon as I grabbed him, I could tell that I wouldn't be able to hold him for long, but then I didn't need to. I just needed to hold him for a few seconds, just long enough for the water inside his body, inside the cells that made up his body, to freeze. Which it finally did. From my perspective, it seemed to take forever, in reality, it probably wasn't more than three or four seconds.
“Okay, he's frozen,” I said, releasing the Count and stepping back.
He was leaning forward, his head was turned sideways, his mouth open, his fangs protruding, like he was about to bite somebody on the neck, which is exactly what he had been intending to do.
“How long will he remain like this?” Elrod asked as he circled the frozen Count.
“Long enough for you to do your thing. Or me to do mine.”
Elrod grabbed the Count's frozen head in both hands and began to use his restorative power on him, trying to turn him back into a human, the same way he turned those dry seeds into big thick vines.
While he worked his elfin magic on the Count, I sat on the edge of the bed and looked at Gladrielle. She was still sitting up, with her arms spread wide, the thick vines around her wrists prevented her from tossing fireballs at us.
“You made it sound like a dark elf was horrible and scary, which is why I ran when you told me to. I can see now that when you become a dark elf you become less of what you were. You become more like the Count, more like me, more like every other self-centered supernatural that's out there. Which is kind of sad.”
Gladrielle didn't seem too interested in what I had to say. She seemed more interested in what Elrod was doing to her frozen lover. “What's he doing to Eradu?”
“He's trying to fix him.”
She wrinkled her brow. “Fix him?”
“Make him human again.”
“He doesn't have that kind of power.”
“He thinks he does.”
She started yelling at Elrod in a language I didn't understand. I assumed that it was elfish. If there even was such a language. I assumed there was, assumed it was the language they spoke before God decided to create humans.
In the end it didn't matter. After a minute of trying, Elrod stepped back and shook his head. “I can't do it. My ability to heal at the cellular level doesn't seem to extend to people. I'm sorry.”
I rose off the bed and moved toward the Count. “Then I guess we'll do this my way.”
“What's she talking about?” Gladrielle asked Elrod. “What's her way?”
I picked the Count up, threw his frozen body over my right shoulder and headed for the stairs.
“Where's she going with him?” Gladrielle said. She yelled at me. “Where are you going with him?”
I stopped when I reached the top of the stairs and looked back at Elrod. “You coming with me?”
“Give me a minute to talk to Claire.”
Elrod sat on the edge of the bed and looked at Gladrielle. “Our plan was for me to use my power to restore the cells in his body to their original condition, to make him human again. Unfortunately, my powers only seem to work on plants. Which means we're going to have to do this her way. I’m sorry about that. I know how much you care for him.”
“Tell her we’re doing this for her,” I said.
“Do what her way? What is she going to do with him?”
“He's the reason you became . . . this. We're hoping that once he's out of the way, you'll have no reason to remain like this and revert back to your old self.”
Gladrielle ignored Elrod and glared at me. “If you harm him, I'll kill you. I swear it on everything I hold dear.”
“What does a dark elf hold dear?” Elrod asked Gladrielle.
Gladrielle continued to ignore Elrod and focus on me. “I demand that you tell me what you’re going to do with him?”
“I’m going to take him to the bottom of the ocean, to what submariners call crush depth, then I’m going to release him and watch the water pressure crush him like a stale peanut.”
I expected Gladrielle to explode with anger. she didn’t, she just smiled, really it was more of a sneer. “It won’t work, he’s too strong.”
“It’ll work,” I said.
“What makes you so sure?”
“Because he’s not the first vampire I’ve gotten rid of this way. Granted the others hadn’t been around as long as he has, but they were still vampires. Just like him.”
“When you’re back to your old self, you can come home,” Elrod said.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and tossed it to Elrod. There’s a picture of her flower garden on that. Show it to her.”
While Elrod looked for the picture of Gladrielle’s dead flowers, I reached out with my mind, to the water inside the Count’s body. I ordered the water inside his cells to remain frozen, inside the blood that flowed through his veins to remain frozen.
Elrod found the picture I took of Gladrielle’s dead garden and showed it to her. “Your garden misses you. Everyone misses you.”
He rose off the bed and joined me at the top of the stairs.
“You ready?” I said.
Elrod nodded. “I guess.”
As we headed down the stairs, a struggling Gladrielle yelled at me. “I’m going to gut you like a fish, mermaid! You hear me?”
“Mermaids aren’t fish,” I said as we headed out of her view. “We’re mammals. And somewhere down the road, you’re going to thank me for this.”