D-77

Chapter 9

Danny was woken up by the soft rustling of the grass. She could hear the wind’s whisper, she felt her cheek and chest being pressed against something hard, and her hands seemed to be tied. After thinking for a while, she decided that she was still sleeping, because she clearly remembered how Vlad hypnotized her in an abandoned house after she tried ... Oooh, damn! Sanders' eyes flew open of their own accord as the memory of her trying to kiss Dracula himself appeared in her sleepy mind. She was a little ashamed, especially since her attempt to kiss him on the lips not only failed, he used his hypnosis trick on her and, so to speak, neutralized her.

When Danny tried to move her arms, the world around her suddenly froze, and only then did it dawn on her that someone had been carrying her unconscious body all this time. Frightened, throwing her head up, she saw the back of Vlad's head in front of her and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Are you awake?” the vampire quietly asked her.

“Hello to you, too,” she replied, furrowing her eyebrows.

He helped Danny get off him, and when she saw that her hands were really tied - Vlad dressed her in his own sweatshirt and tied the long sleeves together. Apparently, to make it more convenient to drag the sleeping Sanders on his back. Looking closely at the face of her companion, Danny saw that even the small amount of blood that the vampire had consumed the day before had significantly improved his condition. He looked much less like a stone statue, although he didn’t really look like an absolutely healthy person yet. He was still pale, there were dark circles under his eyes, and, for some reason, at the first glance at Danny's face, his blue eyes flashed red. A couple of days ago, Sanders would have been frightened by this small change in his gaze, but after last night... Now she understood that Vlad's hunger was not fraught with the danger and pain that she expected. Closing his eyes tightly, the vampire shook his head as if to drive away extraneous thoughts. He gave Danny her backpack and confidently began to move further across the field. She hurried after him.

“I want to ask you something!” she said loudly, catching up with him and taking his hand in hers.

“Of course you do.”

“Get used to it. You still have a lot to tell me, and, apparently, I will have more and more questions every single day”. Feeling Vlad's sluggish attempt to release the captive hand from her grip, Danny squeezed his fingers tightly, which caused a displeased grunt. “When you drank my blood…why didn’t I feel pain?”

"Because victims of the vampire never do. Unless we want to hurt them, of course. Vampires are interested in their victims being willing to give them blood voluntarily. Therefore, the process is always pleasant for both parties. Many of us used to have familiars.”

“You mean something like a witch's black cat?”

“Not really. Many people were fascinated by the literary images of vampires, sought to get closer to the immortals, offered their blood. Naturally, vampires accepted such a generous gift. There was a time when it was very popular among the inhabitants of the night to have a human with them as a constant source of blood. It was rather embarrassing to come to a social event without a familiar. They were perceived by others as an expensive accessory that speaks of the viability of a vampire.

“And you? Did you have a familiar?” unfortunately for Danny, her voice instantly betrayed that she wasn’t asking him out of simple curiosity.

“No. I never had a familiar.”

"Mmm," Sanders turned her face away from him and smiled. “So, I'll be your first. What an honor," she remarked with a touch of sarcasm.

She didn't even have time to take a step, because the vampire jerked her arm sharply, causing her to turn around and crash into his hard chest.

"Don't even joke like that, Danny," he hissed into her face, firmly holding her arms just above the elbows.

"I'm not joking," she shrugged. “We might be forced to fight someone in the nearest future. You won’t last long with those pitiful three mouthfuls of blood you had in the house, right? So you will have to come to terms with the fact that from now until the end of our journey, I am your familiar.”

She wanted to turn around, but Vlad didn’t let her go.

“It's not the same thing, Danny. A blood contract was concluded between a vampire and a familiar. In fact, the second became a slave of the first. The familiars were never treated with respect. They were abused and died at the hands of their own masters or a vampire close to them. I will never let myself or anyone treat you like that! So please don't compare yourself to them. You are not my slave, and you never will be.”

She nodded slowly and only then did the man let go of her shoulders. He took her by the hand and led her through the tall grass. Sanders trailed behind, barely keeping up with Vlad, who was clearly moving much faster than the day before. Looking at his broad back, Danny popped the second thing she was dying to find out, without hope of an answer though.

“Why didn't you let me kiss you?”

The vampire froze on the spot. She walked around him and glared at his bewildered face. Perhaps if Vlad had the luxury of blushing, his face would look like a tomato. He hoped that Danny would not remember how she tried to kiss him while being under the influence of his bite. And he was absolutely sure that she tried to do it because of the bite. He put her to sleep precisely because he was certain that, being a sober mind and sound memory, Danny would never try to kiss him, and he never wanted her to be embarrassed for her own actions, as it might cause them to feel awkward being around each other. And he did not expect a direct question about this, so he had no idea what to answer.

“Vlad?”

"That's not something you should focus on, Danny," he said, looking away.

He tried to take a step to the side, but Sanders blocked his path. He swallowed, expecting her to repeat the question, but she acted condescendingly and did not torture the vampire by continuing on a sensitive topic.

“Emilian came to me in a dream again.”

Vlad arched an eyebrow in a silent question.

“I'm not entirely sure, but I think I managed to fight him off.”

“I'm sorry, what?” he suddenly looked at Danny as if she were a fairy-tale creature that exists only in legends and myths. It made her smile, since between the two of them he was one.

"You said yourself that it can't be just a dream if I see Emilian, right? He tried to ask me where we were, and I... well... in short, I told him to f**k off! You should have seen his face! Kinda looks like the one you have right now!”

The vampire cupped her cheeks, and the contact of his skin with hers made the smile that had appeared on her face a second earlier disappear. Sanders felt a slight flutter in her chest and exhaled sharply before daring to look the man in front of her in the eyes. Vlad looked at her with delight.

The news that Danny’s Gift had grown so strong in such a short time left him speechless. He had already told her that both of her parents were outstanding Inquisitors and the Gift was strong in them, which meant that it was as strong in her. But he could not have imagined that, without proper training, she would be able to start using it so soon. Vlad was right about one thing. Danielle was definitely destined to become one of the most powerful Inquisitors he had ever met. However, he could not imagine that he had underestimated her abilities so much. Continuing to look at Danny with a gaze full of adoration, the vampire held her face in his hands.

“Vlad, if you keep touching me like that, we will have to talk about the kiss.”

He recoiled, catching the sparkle in her eyes at the last second. Pleased with her reaction, she winked at the dumbfounded vampire, turned her back to him, and walked away confidently. Vlad blinked a couple of times and, realizing that she was moving in the wrong direction, caught up with Danny, took her by the hand, and, giving a condescending look, led them in the direction they needed.

It took a long time for them to get to the road. Danny was surprised at how far from the crash site the vampire managed to hide them. As they walked, she considered the changes that had taken place in her life and discovered that the deeper she dived into the supernatural life of the hereditary Inquisitor, the less scared she was. Although, as it seemed to her, it should have been the other way around. She still wanted to call her father so that he would figure out how to help her, but she didn’t want to wake up and find herself falling asleep playing another computer game. Oh, how her opinion about what was happening had changed... And she also drew attention to the fact that it had already become customary to hold Vlad by the hand, and that it didn’t make her feel embarrassed when he squeezed her palm with his eternally cold fingers, but she was looking for his touch, feeling protected in his presence. Oh, Wilma was right when she said that Sanders had a crush on Dr. Eric's patient. Even if it wasn't entirely true, Danny knew that trying to kiss the vampire wasn't the result of his influence over her through the bite, but what her heart demanded. And she managed to come to terms with it.

Cars drove past them on the highway, alas, not in the direction they needed. Those few trucks that were driving towards Tallinn ignored Vlad's raised hand and disappeared into the darkness of the night under the ancient curses of an equally ancient man.

“Let me try”

Sanders confidently grabbed the hem of Vlad’s sweatshirt but froze under the man's paternally stern gaze. Vlad didn't seem to like the idea of ​​using Danny’s body to attract someone. She wrinkled her nose funny and stuck out her tongue at him. He smiled at her. When the headlights of a car began to be seen in the distance, the vampire waited for the car to approach and jumped out onto the roadway in front of the bumper, forcing the driver to brake sharply.

“Are you out of your mind, man?” a young man yelled at Vlad while getting out of the car.

His friend followed him out. It was clear that they did not pose a real danger. They approached the vampire a little closer than they should, and he immediately used hypnosis. Danny was thankful that Vlad didn’t try to harm the young men. After both of them got back into the car, the vampire opened the back door in front of Danny and flashed her a smile.

“Milady, your carriage awaits.”

She rolled her eyes, but obediently settled into the back seat of the car. They drove off in complete silence. Vlad watched the guys closely, ready to “update” the effect of hypnosis, if necessary. Sanders took the opportunity to relax a bit as she leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest, idly watching the monotonous nightscape. Glancing briefly at the focused vampire, she suddenly thought of how he had turned his self-image upside down in a matter of days. At the beginning of the week, she saw in him an extremely suspicious, completely unemotional, and silent patient of her father. But for the two days spent together, he managed to open up to her from completely different sides. It seemed to her that the image of Vlad, silently crying over the unfortunate fate of the man who came to their hotel room, the very one whom he had to kill with his own hands, would forever be imprinted in her mind. Remembering this, she felt her eyes sting. Vlad was truly broken at that moment, and she felt sorry for him. As if sensing the change in her mood, the vampire turned his gaze from the young men to her and met her eyes, shining from unshed tears. Sanders hastened to turn away, but he had already sat closer to her and put his arm around her shoulders. Without asking what made her sad, he pulled her to himself, pressed her head to his chest, and, lowering his chin on the top of her head, began to stroke her hair. She squeezed him in her arms and hid her tear-stained face in the neckline of his T-shirt. Even after Danny's sobs stopped, Vlad did not let her out of his hands, continuing to lull her and whisper something in an unknown language.

Suddenly, a striped baton of a traffic police officer loomed ahead, calling for the car to pull over to the side of the road. The driver obediently followed the order, which caused the vampire to growl in displeasure. To everyone's surprise, the policeman walked over to the window where Danny was sitting, while their young driver prepared documents for verification, trembling. The officer tapped the glass window with his knuckles. Gloomy Vlad carefully changed places with her and exactly at the second when he turned away from her, someone's hand broke the glass with one blow and grabbed him by the throat. The youths screamed and jumped out of the car, and Sanders, frightened, pressed her back against the opposite car door. The hand on the vampire's neck turned from a human into a small, ugly hand, with yellow claws and protruding joints before her eyes. After a short struggle, Vlad dragged something that looked like a gnome into the car. It was small, sturdy, and very aggressive.

“Loyr” Vlad croaked, shaking the small creature in his hands.

“I found you, vampire spawn, I found you!” it spoke as if it had a blocked nose. It was huge, curved, with a pointed tip.

“How the f**k did you get here, parasite?”

It narrowed its black eyes and snapped its shark teeth in an attempt to bite off a piece of Vlad. It made Danny twitch in fright.

“WHAT. ARE. YOU. DOING. HERE???” each word was accompanied by an attempt to shake the soul out of the creature if it was any. Its head tossed limply from side to side, making it look like a broken doll.

“The master ordered to find you!” it squealed. “The master ordered to bring the head of Basarab! The master promised a title!”

“And how did you find me, Loyr?” Vlad shook the shorty one more time. “Emilian helped, I suppose?”

The creature snorted, spraying the vampire's face with saliva.

“The sorcerer is looking for a vampire himself. The sorcerer does not want to share the reward with anyone. Loyr did it himself!”

“You couldn't do it by yourself! Tell me how you found me!”

It giggled vilely, shifting its gaze from the frightened Danny to the enraged Vlad. The vampire gave the creature a moment to speak before squeezing its small body in his strong hands until the bones crunched. Then it squealed in fright and began to twitch, but he did not let go.

“SPEAK!”

“Loyr followed the sorcerer! The master did not allow the sorcerer to take strong assistants. Sorcerer’s assistants are stupid! They leave a trail. Loyr didn't follow the sorcerer alone, no! But only Loyr asked the locals. Yes, yes, yes. The locals do not know of the vampire, but they know of the girl,” the creature examined Danny with disgust and spoke to Vlad again. “The girl is weak, the wild ones do not like her. Therefore, they told Loyr. They wanted Loyr to bring her.”

The creature’s words made Danny's skin covered with goosebumps. Who are these "wild ones"? And what were they going to do with her if Loyr brought her to them?

Vlad tightened his grip on something in his hands and it thrashed, trying to free itself from the grip.

“Danny, don't look.”

The dumbfounded Sanders couldn't bring herself to look away from the ugly little creature that her companion apparently planned to kill.

“Danny!”

The vampire raised his voice, trying to get her attention, and turned to her. At that moment, Loyr wriggled out of the man's arms and tried to jump out of the broken window. Danny's body acted on its own, she abruptly rushed forward and, grabbing the creature by the legs, dragged it back into the car. She did not notice how it got back in Vlad’s hands again, and she did not care. She was glad that it didn’t run away. He didn’t stand on ceremony and with one movement tore off Loyr’s head. Sanders felt nausea rise up in her throat, so she jumped out of the car, fell on all fours, and vomited. Within a second, Vlad was there, holding her hair and stroking her lower back.

“Hey man, is she okay?” a young man who was driving them before the collision with Loyr approached them. Vlad's hypnosis dissipated and the young man didn’t remember anything about the last few hours of his life. “You need help?”

"Don't worry," the vampire replied. “My wife’s pregnancy is making her feel nauseous. She will get better soon”

The young man climbed into the car, found a bottle of sparkling water, and kindly offered it to Danny.

“Take your time, ok? My sister was throwing up every twenty minutes when she was pregnant. It's hard, but her kids are dope. We will go when you get better.”

She nodded and accepted the water. She wasn’t able to open the bottle on her own, so she had to ask Vlad for help. Stealthily peeking into the car, she found no signs of the struggle or… murder. Nausea rolled up at the last word, but this time Danny managed to hold it in.

“Where is?..”

The vampire pretended to kiss his “wife” on the temple, because their driver was watching them, concerned about the condition of the passenger, and whispered, “Goblins' bodies turn to dust when they die.”

“So it was a goblin.”

“Yeah,” he helped Danny get up and carefully put her in the car, “a small dirty creature. They make more noise than threats”

When Vlad tried to move away to get into the car from the other side, Sanders grabbed his arm. Looking at her, he met her frightened, pleading gaze, and gestured for her to move. Sitting next to Danny, he pulled her to his side.

The rest of the way to Tallinn was uneventful. The guys landed the ‘strange couple’, as they kindly dubbed them, at the passenger port of Tallinn and, having received another portion of hypnosis seasoned with the smell of cinnamon, drove off in an unknown direction. Danny was very curious if they had arrived at the port as a distraction or if they really had a sea voyage ahead. The question disappeared by itself when Vlad took her hand, intertwining their fingers, and confidently walked towards one of the huge ships that were slowly moving away from the shore.

As they were approaching the receding ship, the vampire accelerated, as if trying to catch up with it. The thought seemed absurd to Sanders, but when the man deftly picked her up in his arms and accelerated simply to unimaginable speed, she suddenly realized that she was not mistaken in her assumption, and it frightened her. How the hell was Vlad going to get on the ship that was moving away from them if not by using teleportation?

Running to the edge of the pier, the vampire kicked off with his feet and soared upwards. Danny clutched Vlad's neck with her hands, hiding her face in the crook of his neck in horror. She made a note to herself to kill him later. Well, or slap him at least.

Soon, she felt the man's embrace loosen, so she wrapped her arms around him tighter, causing a soft laugh.

“You can let go of me, my little spider monkey. We are on the ferry.”

Danny opened her eyes and looked around before taking Vlad at his word. They really stood in the middle of the empty upper deck of a huge ship. Continuing to hang on to the man, she hit him hard with her palm in the chest (to be honest, it was difficult to understand which of them was hurt more by that).

“Could you have warned me that you were going to jump on the ship?”

“I could. But he didn't want to.”

Danny roared and slapped the vampire again, causing him to burst out laughing. Despite her active resistance, Vlad managed to help her on her feet, although he received a couple more tangible slaps in the process.

“There, there,” he caught her hands, “calm down.”

“I don’t want to! Let me develop my Gift of the Inquisitor and beat you with its help!”

She swung at him again, but he deftly intercepted both her hands and brought them behind her back, as a result, she was pressed to the vampire's chest.

“I don't want to ruin your fantasies, dear Danny, but your attempts to beat me have absolutely nothing to do with the Gift. So stop wasting your energy, okay?”

Sanders was silent. All her arrogance evaporated exactly at the moment when she got trapped in Vlad’s arms. By the way, the ability to think sensibly and perceive information also left her, as soon as the hands of the vampire pressed her to his body. She swallowed hard and nodded, not even hearing his question.

“Good girl. Now let's go look for an empty cabin. It seems to me that my fighting girlfriend would like to rest on a decent bed since such an opportunity has presented itself”

Releasing her from his embrace, the vampire slyly winked at her and motioned her to go towards the stairs.