D-77

Chapter 8

The first thing Danny saw when she opened her eyes was the tall, yellowed autumn grass that was blocking her entire view from behind the windshield. She didn’t realize right away that the car had turned over, and she herself was sitting, literally, with her ass up. Feeling a stir nearby, Sanders turned her head toward the passenger seat. To her surprise, Vlad sat as if he were not affected by the laws of gravity, even his hair continued to frame his face, instead of obediently stretching up to the ground, as Danny's hair did. His cold hand was still pressed against the girl's stomach, probably in an attempt to protect her from possible injury.

“Vlad?” she called out softly.

The vampire slowly turned his head to face her but turned away almost immediately.

“Put your palms on the roof”

She followed the instructions, and when Vlad removed his hand from her stomach, she suddenly felt the full weight of her own body. She squealed in fright, pressing her palms harder into the only support that was available. Quickly getting out of the car, the vampire turned the vehicle over and jumped over it. When he got to the driver's side, he ripped the door off and threw it aside. Danny froze with a dumbfounded face, trying to digest the last five seconds of her life. Without waiting for the Inquisitor's daughter to recover, he unbuckled her seat belt and carefully helped her out of the car.

“Are you okay?” continuing to hold her, Vlad put her on her feet and peered anxiously into her face. "Danny, are you okay?"

“Y-yes,” she blinked a couple of times and seemed to come to her senses. “Yes thank you. And you?”

Smiling broadly, the vampire shrugged.

“What can happen to me?”

Sanders just slapped him on the shoulder.

“Looks like we are left without a car,” she stated, nodding in the direction of the damaged vehicle.

“I'm afraid so.”

“And what do we do now?”

“It's dangerous to stay on the road,” Vlad released the girl from his arms and confidently stepped to the surviving door to pick up their things from the back seat. “We will go across the field and act according to the situation”

While he tried to get the door open, Danny walked around the car and sighed sadly.

“Dad will kill me for a wrecked jeep.”

“If we survive, I promise to buy him a new one,” grunting irritably, the vampire resigned himself to the fact that the door would not obey, and acted with it in the same way as with the previous one - pulled it out.

“Yeah, the keyword ‘if’” she said sarcastically.

As if apologizing, Sanders patted her father's car on the roof. She stuck her hand through the window Vlad had broken earlier to pick up some things from the glove compartment. She was surprised when something weird fell out onto the passenger seat. At first glance, it looked like a toy ghost made by a child. Looking closely, she saw a white cloth bag filled with something, tightly tied with leather lace. She knew that the item didn’t belong to her and she had a feeling that Vlad hadn't put it there either.

“Vlad,” she stepped away from the car cautiously, “take a look.”

The vampire pulled her backpack over her shoulders and threw his bag on his back. He frowned incomprehensibly but did as she asked. When he saw the bag, he jumped away from the car.

“Danny, please tell me that you didn't touch it,” he spoke to her as if she were a child who probably misbehaved, but had not yet confessed to her misdeed.

“I didn’t touch it,” frightened by Vlad’s reaction, she moved even further away. “What is that?”

“A witch's bag”

“A WHAT?”

“Witchcraft attribute, very popular with black magicians. With its help, one can easily curse a person or...”

“A car”

“Exactly. Its power will not spread to a person unless it is directly touched.”

She nodded in understanding. Continuing to incinerate the cursed bag with his eyes, Vlad took something out of the side pocket of his sports bag and threw a small object inside the car. Despite her curiosity, Sanders didn't dare move closer to see what it was.

“ Um?”

“An amulet,” he explained, walking around the car, “ will knock Emilian off our trail.”

“Where did you get it?”

“An old friend gave it to me many years ago.”

The man extended his hand to her and Danny put her hand in his without hesitation. With a last look at Eric's jeep, they began to make their way through the tall grass.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!” Emilian threw Emilia’s hands off his face and began irritably pacing back and forth under the close supervision of a bear pack.

“Yeah, ‘cause that’s what I do!” she sat down on the bench next to the pouting Oliver. Despite him being offended, Shadow put his arm around the woman's waist and rested his head on her shoulder. “I told you what I see! And I see that you are in love with the Inquisitor’s daughter!”

“Nonsense! I've only seen her twice! How could I fall in love with her?!”

Emilia pursed her lips and took some time to think. After a short moment of silence, she spoke to no one in particular, as if voicing her own thoughts.

“I’m not sure, but it looks like someone’s magical influence…”

"Wasn’t Emilian saying that from the very beginning? That she cast a spell on him?”

The woman shook her head.

“It's different. The thing he was talking about, the Morok, clouds the mind but does not affect feelings. Roses bloom in Emilian's soul when he thinks of the girl.”

“I’m sorry. What the hell is blooming in my what?”

Oliver, prudently hiding his face behind his girlfriend's back, could hardly restrain himself from laughing out loud.

“I'm trying to say that this is much stronger than the usual Morok. Emilian has strong feelings for the Inquisitor's daughter.”

“And if we ... and this is not a proposal, just a question! What if we, well... kill her? Will the roses still bloom?”

Before Oliver could even blink, the sorcerer was already at his side, grabbing Shadow by the shirt and shaking him hard.

"I don't want to hear that kind of crap again! Do I make myself clear!?” he shouted in the face of his friend, without stopping shaking him.

"Woah, chill out man," Oly said, trying to hold on to Emilian's wrists. “I just asked”

The sorcerer pushed his friend so hard that he stumbled over a bench and flew through the wall, which frightened the administrator to death. The poor lady was sitting at the reception desk. Turning his gaze to Emilia, he found that she was sitting with a satisfied grin on her face. As if she was saying "I knew that I was right, and now you know that I am right."

Furrowing his brows, Emilian closed his eyes and pictured Danny in front of him. He fished one of the sweets stolen from Dracula's drawer from his coat pocket and squeezed it into his palm. Unfortunately for him, Danielle was awake at the time, so he could only watch her for a few seconds without being able to penetrate her mind. He had time to see how she confidently followed Vlad in complete darkness, without a shadow of fear or doubt written on her face. And how she smiled at him when the vampire turned to look at her and sped a little to catch up with him, wrapping her thin arm around his.

The vision ended a little earlier than usual because Emilian burned the candy squeezed into his hand, without even noticing, and it made the fragile connection with the Inquisitor’s daughter break. He was seized with such strong jealousy, which, as he himself thought, he had not been capable of for a long time. And he was also angry because, in causing the vision, he should have been trying to see something that could help him locate his target, and instead he was admiring how this stupid girl was hanging on the vampire. And the way she looked at Vlad, how she smiled at him...

The sorcerer took a couple of deep breaths, opened his eyes, and nodded to Emilia.

“Okay, I admit it. Your f*****g roses are blooming somewhere inside of me... Cast a spell on another candy for me,” saying this, he poured the ashes left from the previous candy into a nearby pot.

Danny had obediently followed her companion for several hours now. She was looking at the ground under her feet so that she wouldn’t notice anything that would later play in favor of the sorcerer and his assistants. She tightly clung to Vlad's arm, justifying herself by the fact that, unlike her, he was allowed to look around and, most likely, knew where they were going. Fortunately, she had to justify it to herself and to herself only, because the man was silent all the way. Danny really didn't want to admit that she was insanely scared, and that's why she clung to the vampire's hand like a lifeline.

When the lightning flashed in the night sky, the fear accumulated over the past 24 hours escaped Sanders' throat in a thin squeak. Thunder rumbled in the distance and the first drops of rain began to fall on the grass. Vlad swore rudely but continued to go forward stubbornly, but suddenly Danny resisted. With a strong tug on the vampire's arm, she forced him to stop and turn his face to her.

“We can't go any further!” the rain gradually intensified, so she had to raise her voice to be heard. Or she thought so.

“Do you want to sit down to rest in the middle of the field?!”

“No! If we keep walking, I'll get soaked and most likely get sick! You are an immortal ghoul that can’t get sick or injured! I am a mere mortal human!” Vlad opened his mouth to protest, but Danny continued "Even if I'm a descendant of some legendary wizard, I don't know how to use it!"

“And what do you suggest?”

“Can you do the teleportation trick? The one you did at the clinic?”

The man pursed his lips and shook his head.

“Why?”

“Danny, I only needed to jump a couple of meters back there, and you saw how this meager distance affected me. I don't even know where the nearest shelter is now.”

Sanders bit the inside of her cheek. Deciding that the conversation was over, Vlad turned around to move on.

“If you need blood, it's not a problem.”

The vampire stopped and looked at his companion over his shoulder.

“What do you mean?”

She lowered her gaze to the ground as if she was offering him something shameful.

“I will give you my blood as soon as we are in a safe place.”

“This isn’t necessary, we can move on.”

"Stop arguing, you barely look like a human! Once you use your superpowers a little, you start looking like a stone statue! I may not have completed the Inquisitor's special training course, but even I can see that you are weak from hunger!”

“Danny...”

“You said it yourself! There is a chance that other supernatural creatures that we might meet will try to harm us! How are you going to protect me from all of them if you can't shelter me from the rain?”

The vampire took a deep breath and nodded in agreement. Although he didn't want to admit it, Danny was absolutely right. He was weak and could barely defend himself or her if they were attacked. Years of starvation had taken its toll on him, and even knowing he couldn't really hurt her, he was afraid to drink her blood, not sure if he could stop before he drank a little too much. At one step, he was next to Sanders and pressed her to his body.

"Close your eyes and don't open them until I tell you to."

Closing her eyelids tightly, Danny buried her face in the crook of the man's neck and clenched his T-shirt in her fists. She felt the sticky cold rising up from her feet and slowly enveloping her entire body again. She snuggled closer to the vampire, hugging him tightly. This time, the transfer lasted longer, and at some point, Sanders was afraid that they would remain in this strange state, surrounded by cold and someone's moans and groans of pain. But suddenly she was deafened by the silence. No moans, no rain, no wind could be heard... She felt the vampire begin to sag and opened her eyes without waiting for permission.

“Vlad?”

Seeing that he was unable to stand on his feet, Danny helped him to the wall and gently sat him down on the floor. She tried to take the bags from him, but Vlad grabbed her by the wrist. Sanders tossed her head in surprise and looked into the vampire's face. His eyes were closed, his cheeks were sunken, his skin was gray again, covered in a black vein pattern. He put four stones into her hand and exhaled almost audibly.

“Lay them out ...” he made a convulsive sigh, “in the corners ... with the pattern up...”

Danny quickly did as she was told, looking around at the same time. It turned out that Vlad moved them to some abandoned house. For a moment she wanted to go to the window to see where they were, but she stopped herself when she remembered that it was better for her not to know that. She tried to take a closer look at the room, hoping to find something that might be useful to them now, but found nothing but spider webs and dust. The stove, located on the wall farthest from the door, was dismantled, the only chair was broken, and several broken plates lay in one of the corners.

Approaching Vlad, Danny rolled up one of the sleeves of her hoodie to her elbow and brought her hand to the vampire's face. He felt the warmth emanating from her, licked his parched lips, and, grabbing her by the wrist, sat the girl on his lap. Sanders didn't resist. And even when he pulled her close to him and ran the tip of his nose from her earlobe to the base of her neck, she only tilted her head to the side, giving him complete freedom of action. First, he pressed his lips to the pulsating artery on her neck and then began to suck on the thin skin to make it softer. It made waves of heat spread through Danny's body. With one hand, Vlad held her by the waist, the fingers of the other hand entwined into her hair on the back of her head, pulling them back and forcing her to throw back her head. Sanders began to whine softly with pleasure, completely forgetting what they were doing. She grabbed the vampire's shoulders, wrapping her legs around his torso in an attempt to pull him closer, even though closer was no longer possible. She cried out a little as the sharp fangs pierced her skin, but the pain was fleeting. In a moment, when Vlad began to drink her blood with a dull roar, she began to breathe heavily, while drowning in pleasure. The sensation turned out to be incredibly pleasant, her mind seemed to turn off, and her body was drawn to the greedy lips of the vampire.

Vlad felt Danny's blood flowing through his body, and this long-forgotten feeling just made him dizzy. And the way she reacted to him... He wanted to drink all of her, but this desire had nothing to do with his thirst for blood. He wanted her. When this thought became clear in his mind, the man recoiled from the neck of his victim, which caused a displeased groan from her side. Biting his tongue until it bled, he began to lick the wounds on Danny's neck so that they would heal faster. After that, he began to collect drops of blood that managed to flow out of her wound and rolled down to the collar of her clothes with his tongue. And then he felt Sanders's hand on the back of his head, pulling his head closer. When Vlad pulled away despite the protesting growl of the girl, she watched her own blood, which was smeared on the lips and chin of the vampire, absorbed into his skin. She swallowed and took his face in her hands.

“Vlad...”

She reached for his lips, but the smell of cinnamon hit her nose, and her head limply fell on the man's chest. He carefully laid her down, pressing her back against his chest and, resting his chin on her shoulder, tightly hugged her waist.

When Danny opened her eyes, she found herself in a sickly pink doll room, reclining on a pseudo-antique sofa with carved legs and satin upholstery. To her surprise, Emilian (and she was one hundred percent sure that this was his work) did not dress her up in a stupid dress that he saw on some stupid doll. She sat down with her hands folded in her lap and waited for the sorcerer to appear. To her relief, he didn't make her wait for too long and soon appeared in front of her, emerging from a small black cloud. Sanders crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head in silent question. The sorcerer squatted down in front of her.

“Tell me where you took him”, he looked around as if he was trying to understand what this place was.

“And why would I do that?”

Judging by his face, Emilian was absolutely sure that Danny would immediately describe their route for him in the smallest detail, and draw a map and circle the place where they hid with a red felt-tip pen.

“What?”

“I asked, why would I want to tell you where we are?” she leaned towards the sorcerer’s face and angrily flashed her brown eyes. “And why the hell did you put a f*****g enchanted bag in my father’s car?”

“Ah… um… it wasn't me.”

“Pfft, if you say so. What is this place, anyway? Couldn’t you create a room that wouldn’t be so… pink?”

“And again, it wasn’t me.”

Danny shot a glance at him and said “Are you trying to say that I made… this?” She looked around. “Yuck”

She leaned back against the back of the sofa again and began to look somewhere to the side.

“How are you…?” Emilian exhaled and frowned. “Who taught you this?”

“Taught me what? How to talk to assholes like yourself? I work in a bar, dude, you can learn far more interesting things in a place like that.”

"How do you resist my magical influence? You didn't know how to do it just yesterday.”

Her eyes widened and she looked back at the sorcerer.

“You’re right! I can do that! For f**k’s sake, why didn’t I notice it myself?”

Irritated by her joy, Emilian leaned forward sharply and grabbed her arm just above the elbow. Danny laughed in his face.

“How do you do it?” he hissed through clenched teeth.

"I don't know," she shrugged. “What if my desire to protect Vlad from you and your lousy flock is so strong that my ... what was it called again? Gift?.. yes, I believe so ... my Gift began to obey my little female whim?”

He leaned down, leaving mere centimeters between their faces.

“You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into, you dumb girl. Tell me where you are and I will consider helping you to get out of this alive and unharmed.”

Sanders abruptly raised her hand and grabbed Emilian by the collar.

“I don’t need your help,” she pushed the man away from her so hard that he lost his balance and fell on his back. “If I ever see you again, I’ll roll it out in a thin layer on the asphalt, with or without magic. Now piss off”

Emilian slowly returned to reality. Oliver sat next to his friend on his knees. Their noses almost touched. The sorcerer recoiled in fright and fell on his back. Again.

“I can feel it in my butt, the conversation with the chick didn’t go according to plan, did it?” Shadow scratched his head. “Please don’t say that you started confessing your love to her.”

Emilian shook his head.

“Oh, come on! Did you try to f**k her right away? Brother, I feel your pain, you are under the influence of some super powerful spell and you want this girl...”

“She drove me out of her subconscious.”

“Eh?”

“Somehow she learned to control the Gift so much that I couldn’t suppress her. She created some kind of place so that I couldn’t see where they were. And she kicked me out…”

“She learned how to do that in one day? Oh, dude, we’re f****d. We need a change of plans. ”

Emilian got up from the ground and trudged to the coffee machine, which was standing not far from the reception desk. Right now he needed something to drink.