Crime Bites (Urban Fantasy Novel)

Crime Bites Part 6

"Dracula was a girl," I said, taking a sip of soda, my preferred form of caffeine. Jim and I were on the plane headed for Cleveland and I was in the middle of summarizing my research from the night before.

Jim did a double take, almost sloshing hot coffee into his lap."What?"

I spat an ice cube back into my cup wondering what I would have to do to get an entire can of soda from the flight attendant. The airlines were so stingy with beverages these days. Didn't they care about the 'caffeination' of FBI agents? Staring into my empty cup, I could only conclude that no, they didn't care. Resigned to the lack of caffeine, I continued to fill Jim in. "Dracula, as we know him, doesn't exist. It's not even really based on myth." I slurped the last few drops from the bottom of my cup. I needed all the caffeine I could get this morning.

Putting my cup down I continued, "First of all, Bram Stoker, the guy who wrote Dracula, used Vlad the Impaler as a model for his story. But, Vlad was just a king and a member of a religious order, called the Dracul." I looked at the attendant call button wondering if I dared push it and ask for more bubbly caffeine.

"And" Jim prompted.

"Sorry." I decided against pressing the button and picked up where I left off. "Dracula means Son of the Order of the Dragon. They were committed to protecting Catholic interests and wore capes with red clothing which is where Bram got Dracula's fashion sense."

"Did he drink blood?"

"Nope, Vlad never drank blood, but he did like to impale people, among other things, but nothing did it for him like a stick through someone's gut."

"So what is our killer trying to do, be Dracula or Vlad? Vlad the Impaler is not common knowledge, our perp must know some history." Jim twisted in his seat to pull the shade down on his window. It was a beautiful summer day complete with bright sun bursting through big puffy clouds. A strange contrast to our topic of conversation.

"I don't know. If he knows that Vlad was the model for Dracula and liked to impale people, he should know Vlad didn't drink blood. The research it would take to learn about Vlad would also reveal that the only recorded instance of vampirism in European history was the Countess Bathory. Now, she? Was the real thing."

Jim gave me a look of disbelief, "You mean there really was someone drinking blood? It's not all just a bunch of myths?"

"Yep, the Countess liked to drink and bathe in the blood of virgins. The historical records say she killed hundreds of girls before they finally bricked her inside the tower of her castle."

Jim rubbed his chin, thinking. "Wow. Did you find any information that will predict his next move?"

"No, I haven't picked up on anything. Nothing on how and why he's choosing his victims." As an afterthought I added, "I did find some historical data that said Dracula was used as an emblem for Nazi Germany and some neo-Nazi groups. Maybe the Muslim and female angle have something to do with a misguided attempt to purge the human race."

"That's an interesting angle," Jim said. "What about the online communities, anything there?"

"Yes, but more in the sense of ruling out a connection with our killer." I had been surprised to find such a strong online presence of people who called themselves vampires and even a self-proclaimed elf or two. It certainly takes all kinds to make the world go round.

"How so?"

"The self-labeled vampires on the internet cultivate donors and get their blood from willing partners. They are very concerned about keeping their donors alive and well. There's even a sexual overtone to the whole thing that is absent from the murders in Cleveland."