Free Moon Dragon by J. R. Rain

got something living in you...and that something desperately wants out. Months ago, I had learned that I didn’t like communicating with her directly. Despite what the Librarian had told me last year, love didn’t seem to be working. She only seemed to be getting angrier or more desperate. Then again, maybe she was getting angrier and more desperate because of love. Either way, she had made my life a living nightmare.
    “Why are you here?” I asked.
    “Isn’t it obvious?”
    “You want to take boxing lessons?”
    He laughed again, the sound coming from him surprisingly easily. I would never have guessed that Dracula had such a good sense of humor, other than, say, laughing maniacally as he watched those being impaled before him: men, women and children. Indeed, Dracula had been a monster before he became a monster.
    “Not quite, Samantha, although I see your friend Jacky is quite gifted.”
    I was disturbed by his knowledge of my name and Jacky’s. He undoubtedly knew my son’s name, too. He’d been following me, for how long, I didn’t know.
    “So, why are you here?”
    “I thought it was time to make my presence known.”
    “And I care, why?”
    He didn’t laugh at my abruptness this time. Instead, his eyes narrowed and I caught a brief glimpse of the monster he was. Something flashed behind his eyes, something that did not approve of being talked to in such a way. I could give a fuck about what he approved and didn’t approve, Dracula or not.
    “Because we are connected, Samantha Moon.”
    “I beg to differ.”
    “You can feel her reaching out to me, can’t you?”
    “Not you,” I said. “The thing within you.”
    “Myself and the thing within me...are very much the same, Samantha, as we have been for many centuries. Call it an equal partnership.”
    “I call it creepy as hell.”
    “Perhapsss...”
    I shivered at that. Indeed, I was sensing that Dracula and the demon within were interchangeable, coming and going at will, one rising to the surface, while the other stepped back, almost instantly. Perhaps they existed side-by-side, if that was possible.
    “What do you want from me?” I asked.
    “You know what we want, Sssamantha.”
    “Yeah, well, you ain’t getting her. So, you can both go to hell.”
    The man, known as Vlad Tepes, who had killed tens of thousands of the innocent back in the day, whose name was synonymous with evil, smiled at me slowly. “Do not be so quick to dismiss us, Sssamantha. We can offer you much.”
    “You have nothing I want—”
    His movement was instant, certainly faster than I could react. One moment his hands were folded in his lap, and the next, he was holding my own hand, gripping it tightly. I tried to rise, but he held me in place.
    “Do you feel that, Sam?”
    “Let go, asshole, or this is going to get ugly.”
    “Do you feel my warmth, Sam? Do you? This could be yours again. This, and so much more.”
    “Let me fucking go.”
    “No one can see me, Sam. They think you are talking to yourself.”
    I stopped struggling and looked around. Indeed, others in the gym were staring at me, including my son and Jacky, who had stopped their recent round of workouts.
    “I don’t understand,” I said under my breath.
    “I will explain everything to you, Samantha. This and so much more. Every secret. Everything.”
    “Let go,” I said, “or I will tear your fucking throat out.”
    Vlad Tepes held my gaze, and released my hand. “Consider my words.”
    “Go to hell.”
    “I’ll be back,” he said.
    He smiled, stood, and walked away, exiting the gym and heading out into the night.

 
    Chapter Seventeen
     
    “It looks closed, Ma,” said Anthony.
    He was right, of course. In fact, the whole damn campus looked closed. No surprise there, since it was Friday night, the only night the school’s epic library closed early.
    I might have growled under my breath. The Librarian and his damn inconvenient hours. Where he went when the library was closed, I