A sob escaped my throat. Beside me, Jo cried. “Mina, what are we going to do? Back there I…I didn’t even want to stake him. It’s like he took over mymind—”
We’re not strong enough. I’m not strong enough. But Heathcliff is. He’s stronger than anyone on earth. He needs the stakes. We didn’t get the stakes.
“Oscar, storage room.” I urged him forward. We’d left the door open when we rescued Mum. I found the stakes at the end of Morrie’s bed, tied in a bundle with twine. I carried it out to the staircase.
“Heathcliff, catch.” I tossed the bundle of stakes over the railing. The knot undid midair and they toppled onto the rug below. Heathcliff cursed as he scrambled to pick them up. My heart surged with hope even as I felt Dracula’s power drape over me once more, pinning my limbs so I couldn’t move.
Heathcliff let out another bloodcurdling scream.
“Take that,” Robin cried, loosing a volley of arrows over the railing as he rushed down the stairs to help. Dracula flew at Robin with impossible speed. Robin sank one arrow into Dracula’s shoulder before the Count tore the bow from his hands. When Dracula broke off the shaft, smoke curled from the wound, and his face twisted with pain as the holy water ate away at his insides. But it barely slowed him down. Dracula jerked Robin against his body and sank his teeth into his neck.
“Robin, no!”
A wet, slurping noise boomed through the room, once again momentarily breaking Dracula’s spell.
Robin, I’m so sorry.
I sank to my knees, wracked with hopelessness. Heathcliff was trapped downstairs. If Robin’s holy-water-tipped arrows didn’t slow Dracula down, then our wooden stakes wouldn’t do it, either. How would Heathcliff even get close enough to stake the Count? Dracula was too strong, too satiated with fresh blood. We’d never catch him.
“Mina, run,” Heathcliff bellowed. I couldn’t see him or Dracula anymore, but I heard the desperation in his voice. He’d figured out the same thing I had – that we were doomed, that Dracula would soon overpower us.
“I can’t leave you—”
“Get out of here. Now.”
But where? We’d have to get around Dracula if we wanted to try for the front or back doors. Swimming through the basement tunnel into Dracula’s lair sounded like an easy path to losing my O negative, and Morrie hadn’t informed me of his seventeen escape routes from the shop.
But I did know one way.
“Mina.” Dracula’s face filled my head, his will bent toward finding me. I had a split second to act.He wants me and only me.
I needed to lead him away from my friends to give them a chance to escape.
“Run for the door,” I barked at Jo. I thrust Oscar’s lead into her quivering hand. Before she had a chance to say a word, I spun away from her and raced up the stairs toward the flat.
Ifelthim behind me – his breath hot in my ear, the crinkle of his Victorian clothing as he moved with unhurried ease, the flicker of his tongue against his lips as he licked off the last of Robin’s blood.
My lungs screamed for air. I couldn’t see a thing. I was guided by muscle memory. All I knew was that I had to stay one foot ahead of him. My feet skidded on the wooden floor as I cleared the top step. I scrambled into our flat and slammed the door behind me. I slid a chair under the lock, grabbed a silver crucifix, and hung that over the doorknob. I knew it wouldn’t hold him for long but maybe it would buy me enough time to…
CRACK.
Wood splinters rained down on my face. The door would give way at any moment. I flew into the hallway, barely considering where I was going as I scrambled through the first door into my bedroom.I have to see him one last time—
“Quoth, goodbye. I love you.”
When Quoth saw me, he gave a terrified CROAK and twisted his body around, somehow managing to free himself from his restraints.
“Crooooooak.” He flapped around the room, distraught and in pain and furious. Feathers flew in my face as I reached up to him. My fingers grazed his wing, but he spun away, leaving a smudge of pasta sauce along my arm.
The wall shook as the door slammed against the wall. Dracula’s footsteps creaked over the floorboards. “Mina,” he rasped, his voice thick and raspy with grave dirt. “Come to me right now. Be my bride. Or I’ll kill this woman.”
“Mina? Mina?” Cynthia Lachlan called out. “Your goth friend here seems to be deadly serious.”
Oh, fuck, he’s got Cynthia.
I ducked behind my bedroom door, a hopeless hiding space because he knew exactly where I was. The floorboards creaked closer. He was at the end of the hallway. Quoth hopped across the floor toward him, making his happynyah-nyah-nyahnoise at the thought of being reunited with his master.
What do I do? Even if I give myself up, there’s no guarantee he’ll let Cynthia go. I have to—
