Dracula nodded. “If you survive that long, you will join me for dinner at the end of the three days. At which point, I’m sure you will try to kill me since you will have all your magic back, and I will be forced to swat you down like a child. Afterwards, you will serve me for eternity, whether you want to or not.” He leaned forward, smiling darkly. “Or you can reconsider your earlier answer about working with me. We can skip all of the games and you can begin serving me right now.”
I narrowed my eyes, not liking the sound of that one bit. Especially after hearing how much he valued his current residents. “I’d prefer the chance to fight you on even ground, since you so bravely took away my weapons before flexing,” I said, taunting him.
He smiled good-naturedly. “So be it. I will arrange for a guide to show you around, otherwise you will never even find your six targets in the three days Samael has given you. Do with the guide what you will. I have no further use for him. I also won’t tell any of my people about your little visit or you wouldn’t last an hour. But if they sense you…” he trailed off, shrugging with an anticipatory grin.
“How considerate,” I muttered.
He smiled politely. “You’re welcome. Don’t be too picky on your targets. Your time is limited and there is a lot of ground to explore.” He rubbed his hands together excitedly. “Samael and I will be rather busy over the next three days, but I truly look forward to our dinner. You can tell me all about your adventures before we begin working together!”
Then he gave me a mocking bow, and motioned for Samael to follow him towards the door in the back of the room—the same one Samael had initially entered from. Samael hesitated after a few steps, and then cleared his throat pointedly.
Dracula slowed, turning to him. “Yes?”
“You forgot to mention that each shattered necklace will bring Sanguina up from her slumber. That she will fully wake when all six are broken. What if Miss Penrose is ambitious and finishes early? I warned you that she is rather competent.”
My stomach lurched, even though I kept my face blank.
Dracula considered the question, scratching at his chin. “Well, I’m not going to change our dinner reservation. You and I have much work to do over the next three days, Samael. Business before pleasure, I always say.”
Samael nodded his agreement. Neither of them bothered looking at me. “So what happens if Sanguina wakes early and we are too busy working?”
Dracula thought about it and finally nodded. “I see what you mean.” He turned to me, dipping his chin again. “It seems your choice is to either dine with me in three days, or be dined upon if you are too…ambitious. I’ll leave the decision up to you. But we could do great things together, Miss Penrose.”
To summarize, it would be suicide to get all my powers back as fast as possible and go exploring. Like I needed to do to find Dracula’s Bane—the only weapon that could permanently kill him, apparently.
At least, if Samael hadn’t been lying about that as well.
Unless I wanted to meet the puppy who thought I was her favorite new chew toy. Despite telling me that he would call off Sanguina if I killed six of his residents, the caveat was that I had to time my breaking of the amulets to happen right before our dinner—or else Sanguina would kill me since he would be too busy to stop her.
I folded my arms across my chest. “It would be really convenient if you told me where the heart of your castle is. I need to pick something up really quick before dinner. It’s a stake knife, you see…”
Dracula chuckled. “Hilarious.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Hell-arious. But you won’t get the joke until I drive the point home. You’ll see. It’s all about the timing. But first, I’m going to make you tell me all about you secret club, the Masters.”
He stared at me for a long moment, and then let out a deep laugh, shaking his head as he glanced at Samael as if to ask if this was really happening. Samael just sighed and gave him a nod. Dracula turned back to me. “Even with all your powers, you wouldn’t stand a chance against me and my Beast. Her very thoughts have killed even the strongest of men. It was a game we played many times in our youth. I’ll even take you to see her in person after our dinner. You can physically meet her, you know. She is not just an unseen entity in the walls. She is alive…”
I suppressed a shudder, masking my fear with snark. “Only one way to find out, Johnny B. Suckit. Now, where is our dinner date?”
“Right here,” he said, holding out his arms. “I’ll have the Clock Tower toll…six times,” he said, chuckling at how clever he thought he was to match numbers together, “to give you a one-hour warning before it is time for our dinner. Tardiness is incredibly rude, after all.”
“Incredibly,” I said dryly, but all I could visualize was that purple vampire guy—the Count—from Sesame Street. Six, I give you six chimes! Ah, ah, ah!
Count Dracula dipped his head one last time and turned to leave, already talking to Samael over his shoulder. “Let us go celebrate your good service with some wine, shall we…”
Their conversation was cut off as the door closed behind them.
Chapter 8
The rest of the skeletons and blood slaves in the room simply left through side doors, leaving me entirely alone—which was about the strangest thing imaginable. How calmly everyone was acting.
I reached out to the table and dislodged my katana, staring at it in silence for a long time.
A human—even well-trained—stood very, very, long odds to find and kill six powerful monsters in only seventy-two hours. Especially when Dracula had hordes of monsters walking around as guards. I wasn’t simply dueling six monsters in a fair fight.
I was sneaking through their camp to assassinate six of their commanders before the rest of the army woke up and caught me. Even though Dracula wasn’t going to warn them about me, I was pretty sure they would come after me if they saw me sneaking around.
And I had to do it all without magic.
Considering the size of Castle Dracula, it wasn’t like they were all lined up for me. They could be anywhere. And could be anyone.
I still had the Mask of Despair in my pocket, but Samael hadn’t said anything about that. It was unlikely he would have forgotten such an obvious thing…so why had he not mentioned it? Maybe the Mark of the Beast was strong enough to block even that? He had burned me on the forehead—the same place where Despair was magically branded into my flesh. Had he broken my Horseman power somehow? I desperately wanted to check my pocket to make sure the Horseman Mask wasn’t destroyed, but I didn’t want to give away my only potential magic until I found a safe place to do so.
In a strange way, this was all a very anti-climactic turn of events from the all-out-brawl I had anticipated.
Yet it was also so much worse than I could have imagined.
I heard a sudden rattling sound beside me and instinctively swung my katana without looking. My blade easily decapitated the skeleton standing beside me. His head fell towards me and I caught it in my other hand by pure reflex.
It was the dude I had put in the red dress. The only reason I knew that was because he still wore his kinky pirate boots and the large red bandana, and all the other skeletons I’d seen were naked with weapons for limbs. His skull stared up at me from my hand. “Would you please stop knocking my head off?” he asked in probably the politest tone I’d ever heard.