The Dragon Coin (8 page)

“Your place.”

It seemed absurd we’d allow a supposition to sway us like fact. After all, we had just seen the vile vampire less than an hour ago, and it would take him hours to reach the states if he had decided to procure the crystals without our help. Impossible, until I thought of the vast network of kidnappers under his employ. Miscreants like that could already be in the States. After four rings I started to get nervous, until a familiar voice answered my call.

“Margolise?”

“Yes. William, it’s good to hear from you,” she said, her island accent warm, carrying the smile Roderick’s assistant is famous for. “What can I do for you?”

“By any chance is Alistair and Beatrice there?” My heart was a relentless drum as I awaited her response.

“Yes,” she said, bringing immediate relief. “I mean, no. All three are gone.  They left soon after the officers dropped them off here.”

“What?!
Where’d they go?”

She coughed nervously. “I’m sorry, William, I thought you knew,” she said. “They said you and Roderick would be waiting for them. They took a taxi to Blountville to catch a plane to Dulles. That was four hours ago. By now, they should be well on their way overseas to Rome.”

Chapter Eight

The decision to travel across half the world to join us was a terrible idea. Since discovering the unique age-reducing qualities from the Tree of Life’s crystals, nearly three years earlier, my son had gone from being a careful academic known for his keen common sense and seasoned wisdom to a foolhardy young man. More like an impulsive, hormonal teenager.

“What do you intend to say to Ali when we catch up to him and the others?”

Roderick posed this question shortly after our flight across the Adriatic Sea had reached the optimum altitude and we had adjusted as much as possible to our cramped quarters. It was the first time I had flown coach or ‘business class’ since JFK was president. I daresay Roderick had never flown anywhere in this manner, as the irritated look on his face told me the sensory bombardment of travelers packed like sardines into non-conforming chairs threatened to unsettle his stomach. Unfortunately, this was the best we could do on such short notice. The next flight from Budva to Rome with first class accommodations wouldn’t leave until shortly after 10:00 a.m. Leaving Dracul’s favored city at the crack of dawn became the deciding factor on what flight to take.

“Well, it certainly won’t be the warm greeting he’s expecting,” I said, noticing Roderick’s long fingers had fished out the vomit bag from the folders inside the seat pouch in front of him. “But, then again, he might be traveling ten hours to deliver a face-to-face condemnation.”

“Perhaps. That would be my expectation,” he said, smiling weakly, once the little bag rested upon his lap, ready and waiting. He arched his back while glancing warily around us. I had deferred to his request for the window seat, and an older woman sat to my left, next to the aisle, seemingly lost in an Italian version of the latest David Baldacci novel. “You really should lighten up on him, William. Remember how it was in the old days when you would take offense easily, and were often suspicious of others’ intentions.”

“Meaning what?” I knew what he meant, but wanted him to spell it out clearly just the same.

“He gets his impertinence from you. It’s in your DNA, as you know,” he said, soft enough to where only I could decipher his clipped words. “Quite frankly, I have higher hopes for him shedding this irritating trait quicker than you have. And, the same quirk isn’t fully eradicated from you yet, as you are also well aware. You should cut him some slack based on what he can become.”

“Well, as you’ve also pointed out, he should work harder to keep it in check, like me. Christ, he had it mastered before, so using the excuse of age regression doesn’t really cut it in his defense!”

The woman next to us gave me a surprised look when the anger caused my tone to briefly escalate. Even though in all likelihood she had just been pulled from her world of espionage and hot sex, and hadn’t been privy to anything else we discussed, I silently vowed to maintain our usual discreetness for the flight’s duration. Meanwhile, Roderick held his cell phone to where the camera was directed at my indignant expression. Before I could deter him, he snapped my photograph.

“I rest my case,” he said smugly, and to where our new unwanted friend couldn’t hear the words.

“Very clever.” For a moment, I wanted to pull off his glasses to even things up with a moment of embarrassment. But instead, I glanced over at the woman. She gave me a cursory look before plunging her attention back into her novel. Pretty eyes, more gray than blue, and lots of pain. Prematurely aged, she had her own novel to tell. “You win,” I said to Roderick, returning my attention to him.

“It’s never about being right or wrong between us, you know this,” he said, chuckling. “But it’s good to get the anger directed at Ali out of the way now, since we might not have long to locate their whereabouts. I won’t know until we land if they are staying in Rome for the day before continuing to Montenegro, or if they will have a short layover in the airport.”

“Well, what in the hell are your gifts telling you?”

He shook his head. “Nothing. I’m getting nothing at all,” he said, pausing to look past me to ensure Lady Gray-Blue Eyes remained lost in her literary revelry. “It happens, as you know. I’m hoping my senses are back on track when we land. But….”

“God, I hate it when you do this,” I said, making sure my tone remained light and sweet. “Just spit it out, my good man.”

“I fear Dracul has done something,” he confessed, sounding defeated, as if he expected a serious rebuke in response. I said nothing, and motioned for him to continue, praying my blank look would hide the dread building inside me. “Everything in my head feels dulled, like someone is diluting my sensory perception on all levels. It doesn’t help matters that we’re cramped into this tiny plane, but the deterioration had already started when we reached Budva yesterday afternoon. Maybe, as you advised, we shouldn’t have come.”

Part of me wanted to tell my dear friend it wasn’t his fault and everything would work out for us. However, the bigger part of me already distressed, and on the verge of serious anger, begged to lash out at him. My gut had told me, at the very moment Margolise advised of my kid’s impulsive move to come find us, things were about to get bad…
really
bad. I hadn’t felt Dracul’s presence peering into my thoughts previously on our trip, but the very moment she advised that Alistair, Amy, and Beatrice were on their way to Rome, I felt a surge of elation. The feeling obviously didn’t belong to me.

“We both sense the same thing, don’t we? He knows.” I watched Roderick’s response, looking for clues as to what he kept hidden from me. I mentioned the terror earlier, but something else was now taking place within him. He seemed to be shutting down emotionally, his natural defense when unsure of what was coming next. “Dracul knows Alistair, Amy, and Beatrice are on their way to meet us…does he not?”

“Yes, I believe he does,” he whispered, turning his attention to the view of Italy’s coast, just beyond the wing’s edge outside his window. “I don’t know how he did it this time, but it appears his focus has been on stealing my ability to see the future, rather than pilfer your physical senses, as he has done in the past. If I’m right, then he sees what I would normally be able to foretell. And I see
nothing.”

What could I say in response to that? The implications were many, and all ominous. Dracul surely knew my beloved son and wife were on the way, and despite only possessing a handful of the crystals they owned, along with Amy’s, there would be enough shards for him to know if they could make a difference or not. The vampire would soon learn if he’d once again walk among mankind in broad daylight.

If his experiment were successful, his henchmen would likely recover the rest of the crystals from my American home before Roderick and I could ever make it back to the States. But, if the crystals failed to make life easier for Dracul, then his anger would be fueled beyond the reach of mercy. I would lose everything. My beloved wife, son, and his cherished fiancée would face an excruciating demise before I could save them.

Roderick wept for the duration of our flight to Rome. As for me, I sat in frozen silence. Too numb to comfort my immortal buddy, or even acknowledge the flight attendant’s offer of beverages to us. It wasn’t until the plane touched down that I managed to shake myself from my stupor as a myriad of appalling ‘what ifs’ floated through my terrified mind.

Despite the urgency to get moving, we were forced to wait on our aged seat companion, who seemed to have all day to collect her book, travel pillow, and carry-on luggage. By then, nearly half the plane had emptied.

As she gathered the last of her things, she smiled compassionately at us both and stepped into the aisle. But then she regarded us again while pulling out the handle to pull her bag behind her.

“Well, it has been enjoyable listening to you two blubber on about your personal problems,” she said, her Italian accent thick as she addressed us in English. “But, you can take heart in learning one thing.”

Her smile steadily widened.

“He knows.”

* * * * *

The urge to strangle this woman was damned near overwhelming. Only Roderick’s determined grip kept me from going after her, and to our further amazement she carried a spring in her step to where she deboarded the plane before we could catch up to her. When I finally freed myself, I gave chase, nearly knocking over several people, including two flight attendants seeking to detain me, as I pursued her down the tunnel to the terminal.

But she was nowhere to be found in the sea of humanity traversing in either direction along the concourse.

“Stop, Judas!” called Roderick as he ran to me, while I continued to look wildly around for any trace of her. “She’s just a tool for him, and surely won’t know a damned thing about what just happened if you were to find her! He’s already moved on. The smartest thing to do now is regroup and figure out his next step and where to look for Ali, Amy, and Beatrice. Let me get in touch with my Washington contacts and see what we can find out about their travel plans. I’ll have them check the hotels in the area, too.”

I didn’t want to listen to him, as that angry part of me wanted to find the old woman and shake Dracul out through her giddy mouth. But I knew Roderick was right, and time was certainly of the essence here. We could ill afford to waste what little of it we had left.

“We need to get out of here, I guess,” I told him, as one of the flight attendants I bowled over conversed with an airport policeman. “Time to be invisible.”

“And yet another example of how you are
not
any more evolved than your son,” he chided me, though mostly playfully.

We moved into the mass of humanity before the attendant could point us out to the cop, and as we navigated through the terminal to the passenger pick up area, Roderick made his calls to the folks in D.C. All the while, I kept an eye out in the off chance my boy and my wife were still in the airport. I wanted to visit the baggage claim area, despite the fact we had brought along only our carry-on bags.

“We’re in luck,” said Roderick, as we hurried past the baggage claim escalator. “I’ve got a tag on a reservation at the Flumicino Hilton. We can get there in five to ten minutes by taxi.”

Fortunate to land a cab quickly, Roderick gave the driver the address since his Italian is slightly more fluent than my own, and would save us having to re-explain the directions. Honestly, I prepared myself for another body-takeover of the driver by Dracul. But we arrived at the Hilton without incident.

“We are here to meet with either Alistair or Beatrice Barrow,” I announced to the lone clerk working the front desk.

Just after eight o’clock, according to Roderick, they had arrived at the hotel two hours earlier. My only worry was waking them up as I waited impatiently for the clerk to ring the rooms. After two unanswered attempts apiece, she shook her head.

“I’m sorry, sir, but there is no answer,” said the girl, named Maria. “Would you like to leave a message?”

“No. I would like you to try again.”

“But, sir, I tried twice and there was no answer—“

“It’s vitally important that you try
again
—”

Roderick grabbed my shoulder and led me away, apologizing to Maria for yet another outburst from me. She nodded and smiled worriedly before moving on to the next customer in line behind us.

“Shhh!
Just trust me, Judas,” he advised, dragging me toward the exit, and then discreetly veering back to the elevators when Maria no longer watched us.

“What in the hell are you doing?” A needless question by me, since it was quite obvious we were going to try and find their rooms.

Roderick waited for the elevator car door to close. “My sentient abilities are steadily returning since we lost sight of Dracul’s mole. I picked up the numbers 315 and 317 from Maria’s head when she told you the rooms weren’t responding to her calls.”

“Well, I guess that’s a good thing—if Dracul hasn’t somehow managed to impale them all in their beds.”

“You really need to work on your perspective, my brother,” he cautioned. “Don’t borrow trouble until your ready to pay for it.”

“Oh, does that adage have a brother that goes something like, ‘and don’t turn chicken shit frightened until you’ve got a sharpened spike halfway up your ass?”

He sighed heavily, and shook his head. Fatherly lesson successfully aborted. Or maybe it was the fact the elevator reached the third floor.

“Let’s go,” I urged, taking the lead. Didn’t know if I was borrowing more of Roderick’s trouble, but the feeling of dread on the elevator had multiplied tenfold once we hit the floor. I ran to Room 317.
“Hurry!”

I didn’t wait for him to catch up, and pounded on the door.

“Beatrice? Alistair?!”