نفس خون آشام فصل 23

Vampire Breath - Chapter 23

Nothing happened.

All three of us stared at the open blue bottle in my hand.

“It takes a few seconds,” I told Cara. My voice came out high and shaky. “Remember? Back in my basement, it took a few seconds. Then it came whooshing out.” Gwendolyn’s eyes were wide, locked on the bottle.

We stared in tense silence.

A few seconds went by. Then a few more seconds.

Gwendolyn broke the silence with a gleeful laugh. “It’s empty!” she declared through her laughter. “The castle is filled with empties! There’s a whole room of them over there.” She pointed into the darkness.

I raised the bottle to my face and squinted inside. Too dark to see anything. But Gwendolyn was right. It was definitely empty.

I let it fall to the floor.

Gwendolyn’s grin was so evil in the shadowy light from the torch. I tried to back away. But I bumped into a stone column.

Trapped.

As she grinned so hungrily at me, Gwendolyn’s fangs shone in the pale light. “So thirsty…” she whispered. “Freddy—don’t run away. Help me. I’m so thirsty….” “I’m thirsty, too!” a voice boomed from behind me.

I spun around to see a flash of orange torchlight. The light bounced toward us. And inside it, I saw the angry face of Count Nightwing.

He floated to us, his eyes narrowed at Gwendolyn.

Her mouth dropped open. She raised both hands in front of her, as if to shield herself.

“Gwendolyn—what are you doing down here with my prisoners?” Count Nightwing demanded angrily.

He didn’t give her a chance to reply. He floated up off the floor, floated over her. His cape floated out like bat wings. His silvery eyes locked on hers. And he opened his mouth in a furious hiss.

Gwendolyn’s fangs glistened wetly in the torchlight. She tossed back her blond ringlets and, still shielding herself with both hands, hissed up at the old vampire.

Oh, wow! I thought, They’re going to fight!

I leaned forward, horrified—but eager to watch.

The two vampires floated off the floor. They hissed at each other again, like two snakes about to strike.

“Freddy—come on!” Cara whispered. She grabbed my arm and pulled. “This is our chance.” Cara was right. While the two vampires hissed at each other, we had to try to get away.

My heart pounding, I grabbed Gwendolyn’s torch off the floor and darted after Cara.

We ran blindly through the dark basement.

There’s got to be a way out! I repeated to myself. There’s got to be a way to escape!

Finally, I saw an open door.

Cara and I burst through the door. I glanced back. I saw Count Nightwing floating high off the floor. His cape swirled behind him. Gwendolyn hissed up at him weakly from the cellar floor.

No time to watch their fight. I followed Cara into the room. “Where are we?” I whispered.

I raised the torch in front of us.

“Wow,” Cara murmured as the shelves against the wall came into the light. “I don’t believe it!” We had found the room of empty Vampire Breath bottles that Gwendolyn had told us about. Shelves covered every wall from floor to ceiling. And each shelf was crammed with blue bottles. Stacks and stacks of blue glass bottles.

“There must be a million empty bottles in here!” I whispered.

We gazed around the room. The bottles sparkled like blue jewels, caught in the light from the torch.

Cara shook her head hard, as if trying to shake the amazing sight from her eyes. She turned to me, her expression solemn. “This isn’t helping us escape,” she whispered.

“Escape?” a hoarse voice rasped from the doorway.

Count Nightwing moved quickly into the room. “There is no need to talk of escape,” he said, narrowing his strange silver eyes at Cara, then at me. “For there is no escape from Count Nightwing’s castle.” He raised his cape and floated off the floor.

“What are you g-going to do?” I stammered.

He tossed back his bald head and uttered a frightening hiss.

I felt myself pushed back, back, deeper into the room. He was using some kind of force, some kind of ancient power.

He floated higher. The cape billowed around him. He looked like a frail insect inside a purple cocoon. But I could feel his power.

Pushing me back…. Holding me…. Pushing me….

And then, suddenly, I felt him let go.

He dropped heavily to the floor. His eyes flashed. He snapped his bony fingers.

A thin-lipped smile creased his face. “Yesssss!” he hissed.

Cara and I backed up to the shelves at the far wall. My legs were trembling now. He had gripped me in some kind of ancient force. And now I felt totally shaky. I struggled to catch my breath.

“Yessss!” he hissed again. “I remember now!”