Dracula Hearts of Fire Book two of Dracula Hearts
CHAPTER TEN

KEITH STOOD AT THE EDGE of the forest and watched the postmodern colonial house at the end of the dead-end street; he stood as still as the maple trees beside him. He was watching, waiting, and thinking nasty thoughts, imagining scenes of blood and carnage. Its granite kitchen, hardwood floors, and finished basement were beautiful. It had cost just over a million. The Puerto Rican maid had let him into the house two days earlier, and he had pretended he was a city worker checking their water quality; he had explored the place as the maid looking on had a confused look on her face. Keith was now waiting for the right time to go in and kill them all. The home of a police officer who won the lottery yet continued to work, even in this age of vampire frenzy. His father had been a policeman, and his grandfather; it was in his blood. The vampire got satisfaction from the thought that the officer’s luck was about to change.

“Too doodle do,” said the blue jay in a nearby tree. It flew into the backyard and returned with a peanut; it flew off into the gray sky to bring the gift to its mate. The vampire would have liked to have smashed the bird but didn’t.

Keith was a nasty biter with a short forehead and a face weathered by the sun. He was overweight and liked nothing better than prey on weak humans; it was fun and tasty. He felt like a hero destroying the enemy. After all, anyone that wasn’t a vampire was the enemy. And food, of course, they were food as well. Could there be a better combination? As some sheriffs called him, the Beast was fast, enabling him to elude them. Keith also enjoyed seeing his crime scene on the news. His beady brown eyes stared and stared, transfixed with emotions imagining the horror scenes of things to come. His victim’s screams were immensely satisfying. The family had twin 17-year-old boys who would make a nice light snack, but the parents were what he was looking forward to sinking his teeth into, especially that police officer.

A strange smoke was in the air. Keith took the odor deep into his lungs but didn’t recognize it. It made him tingle inside, and not in a good way. It made his sinuses burn and his eyes water, but then as fast as it had commenced, the symptoms departed.

“What a cute house and such tasty humans. I’ll bet, I’ll bet.”

The vampire had ideas of forming and commanding a battalion of biters. That many biters would be impossible to stop, but the problem was that he couldn’t get any biters to follow him. Vampires were a fickle bunch; many were out for themselves, without thoughts of the greater picture. Still, the idea remained an egg in the henhouse that he hoped would hatch one day. The simultaneous scream of hundreds was a dream that he often had, and he was always disappointed when he opened his eyes to discover that it was only a dream. Hundreds dying at one exact moment was a pleasant thought.

A gray Cadillac CTS-V Sports Wagon pulled into the driveway, and Staci Claymore got out with her big red purse and headed into the house. She was an attractive blond that walked with confidence. Keith knew they were now all in there and ready for the taking. He could hear her husband Paul ask her if she had bought the earrings she had gone out for, and she said no. Someone else had purchased the last pair. Keith remained as still as an immovable object. Finally, he moved a little. He tipped his head up and smelled the blood coursing through their veins, listening to the different rhythms of their hearts. It was time to drink them dry. The excitement ran through every inch of his body. It was to be a day to remember.

A black cat appeared from out of the forest carrying a dead mouse. It crossed Keith’s path and then ran across the road. The cat accidentally dropped the mouse, and as it picked it up, it looked directly at Keith and then continued on its way. Bad luck for the biter. What was the vampire to do? Keith had been superstitious as a human and remained the same as a vampire. His father had taught him that a person was safe if the black cat didn’t make eye contact. But that black feline had indeed made eye contact with Keith. There was no question about that.

What was the proper course of action? He could almost taste them. He struggled with the idea of the black cat. He blurred several feet toward the house but then turned around and returned to the wooded area. Keith took several minutes to think it over, but the bad omen had revealed its ugly head, forcing him to blur back into the forest.

About a mile into the woods, he considered going back. If he managed to kill the humans, that would be good luck, wouldn’t it? Another black cat appeared with a small white spot on its head, yet it was a black cat. Then five more appeared and stared up at him. It was a clowder of cats!

“Get away from me!”

Keith blurred off deeper into the forest.