Dracula Hearts of Fire Book two of Dracula Hearts
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

ANNIE WAS COMFORTABLE WITH ALISTAIR, and they got along well enough, but she was restless. The thought she might live for another hundred years or more was not sitting well. Her soul had been ready for release; she would have died in less than three weeks had she not been turned. In fact, she was worried about living so long. Was that why some vampires turned evil? Did their brains implode after living too long? What was she going to do with herself? Even now, she had days where she was bored. How would she feel in five hundred years if she lived that long? She wasn’t much for traveling, but perhaps she would have to start. There were many things to explore in the world and many new things to learn. Maybe she was thinking, but she couldn’t control how she felt.

If she could save time in a bottle, she’d break it over some bad guy’s head; she was convinced of it. At least that made her smile. Happiness was an elusive creature that one could stand beside but could never be captured, never knowing when it would flee to greener pastures.

The sky was filled with big puffy white clouds, and she could see a bald eagle circling up there. There was also a streak of white from a high-flying jet. It reminded her how she hadn’t yet figured out how to transform into a bat, and apparently, with every other vampire, it was second nature. Most sites on the Internet didn’t even mention the possibility that some vampires couldn’t be bats. She was enamored by the garden’s scent as she remembered swimming with her husband at the beach and how they had had so much fun all those years ago. Annie wouldn’t trade those memories for a fortune.

Alistair entered the garden where Annie was sitting. It made him sad to see her just staring off like that. He wasn’t sure if she was troubled or just a confused soul. Her moods were up and down, and he hoped it wasn’t an adverse effect of being turned into a vampire. Being a vampire was an incredibly complicated chemical soup combination stirred by a supernatural spoon. “What do you want to do today, Annie?”

“If you ask me that one more time, I’m going to … oh, forgive my moods, Alastair. It’s going to take me a while to get used to being like this.”

He sat down beside her on the ornate iron bench. “You’ll get used to it, Annie, you’ll see. But unfortunately, it does take time.”

“Alistair, how old are you?”

“So many years have gone by that I don’t remember. Let me put it this way. I met Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci in 1485. I believe he was in his thirties. You know, Dracula is looking for more red sheriffs. Perhaps you should apply.”

Annie turned and stared at Alistair for a long time, which worried him. It had only been said in jest, but he didn’t like the look on that beautiful face. He was sorry that he had said it, but he couldn’t take it back. The job of a red sheriff was fraught with danger. He desperately hoped that she wouldn’t say what he thought she might. The conversation turned to the beauty of his garden. How the small path led from one group of flowers to another. They got up and walked around. Annie stopped and stared at the yellow spotted Canna flowers, so delicate and full of life. Then there were thousands of Black Eyed Susans in the shape of a bat, and she imagined that it hadn’t been easy to accomplish that. Around the next corner was a beautifully carved wooden bench surrounded by lovely Begonia’s, with their yellows, reds, and pinks. A small path led to another bench, and they sat there for a time.

“Do you suppose that flowers have different personalities? I mean two daffodils in a garden. Do you think that one is different than the other?”

“That’s something I’ve never considered, but I suppose so. Here, I have a gift for you.” Alistair reached into his right shirt pocket and took out two-inch-high brown pouches. He emptied the contents of both into his right hand. In one bag, black crystals were sprinkled with red, and in the other bright yellow crystals. He rubbed his hands together so the contents would mesh in a magical fusion, and then the sparkles of red light turned into a beautiful red rose.

Annie took the rose and smelled it. “How on earth did you do that?”

“Ah, the complexities of magic; I do not pretend to understand any of it.” He watched as she stared admiringly at the rose. “That’s no ordinary rose, Annie. You don’t even need to put it in water, AND it will endure for exactly seven hundred years, then it will just vanish with sparkles of red light, or so I’ve been told.”

She gazed at the flower and loved it. “Alistair, I have no idea how long we’re going to be together here, but I can tell you one thing, you’re never getting this back.”

“I can assure you I shall never take it from you. It’s a gift.”

Annie turned his face with her hand and gave him a tender kiss. “There, that’s payment for the flower.”

“Oh, I think not. Such a unique flower must cost at least two, maybe even a dozen or more. It was an expensive spell, I kid you not.” They kissed again, this time even longer than the first. “I think that’s a bit too much. Here I’ll give you your change.” And this time, he initiated the kiss.

“What you said about me being a red sheriff. I know you were only joking, Alistair, but it has some appeal. Dracula probably wouldn’t consider me, but he might. Believe it or not, he was the one that turned me.”

“That’s risky business, Annie. You might not live much longer should you go that route. You lack the experience of a battle-tested fighter. That’s all a red sheriff does: fight and fight and fight.”

“I’ve already lived a long life.”

“Not thinking about me. I don’t want to have to mourn your passing.”

Annie smiled at him; she knew what he was doing. “I can’t live for you, Alistair; I must live for myself. Anyway, it’s just a thought.” A White Admiral butterfly briefly touched down on the rose and then flew off.

“Oh yes, that’s another thing about that rose, Annie. What makes it most unique is that a butterfly will touch down on it every day, winter or summer, as part of its magic. Even if it’s indoors, the butterfly will appear and seek it out. You could lock it in a safe, and the enchanted butterfly will replace it.”