Vampire Lodge by Edward Lee Page B

Becky and she’d laugh
her head off! he felt certain. But he had
to admit, it was kind of scary back there behind the dark building,
with the bats squeaking above their heads.
    Kevin took off his jacket and was
about to hang it up in the foyer closet when he took notice of the
painting hanging there, the first one he’d seen this
morning.
    The Count Arrives with his
Servants and Treasure, he reread the title
along the bottom. For some reason the painting looked even spookier
now. The coffin and box of gold in the rowboat, and the
glassy-eyed, blank-faced men working the oars and guiding the boat
through foamy waves. Then Kevin saw something he hadn’t noticed
when he’d first seen the painting. Way in the background was the
same sailing ship, on fire.
    The Scrimm, Kevin remembered from the other paintings. That’s the name of the ship that The Count came
in on. The Scrimm…
    “ In here, kids,” Aunt
Carolyn called out from the hearth room. “The popcorn’s almost
ready.”
    “ Popcorn!” Jimmy exclaimed.
“That sounds good to me.”
    It sounded good to Kevin
too, but he wondered what the occasion could be. Ah, I know, he realized
then. Aunt Carolyn’s going to tell us
about the local vampire legend!
    This was just what Kevin
had been waiting for. They went into the hearth room and sat down
on the big, plush couches surrounding the fireplace. “Be careful,”
Aunt Carolyn warned, placing several large bowls of popcorn in
front of them. “It’s very hot.”
    “ This is great,” Jimmy
said.
    Yeah, Kevin thought, but let’s get on with
the story.
    “ Where’s Wally?” Becky
complained from the opposite couch. Naturally she chose to sit as
far away from the boys as she could. “Isn’t he staying?”
    “ No, I’m afraid not, dear,”
Aunt Carolyn informed her. “Wally’s still got a lot of work to do
now.”
    Kevin raised a brow. A lot of work? This late? It sounded funny. He saw on the mantle clock that it was
almost ten p.m. now. What kind of work
would Wally have to do this late at night? he wondered suspiciously.
    Aunt Carolyn sat down in the big
leather armchair to the side of the fireplace. The light behind her
left her almost completely in shadow; Kevin could barely see her,
just vague features.
    The mantle-clock ticked steadily, and
the rain started again, pelting the windows. The fire crackled, its
moving lances of flame shifting like bright-yellow tails, turning
the entire hearth room into a dark, creepy chamber of jumping
shadows.
    Jimmy and Becky munched
popcorn as they waited, but Kevin completely forgot about it, and
about everything else that had happened today—he was too excited
about hearing the legend. I wonder if the
legend has anything to do with all those weird paintings I
found, he asked himself. The Count, The Scrimm, those blank-faced
men…
    “ All right,” Aunt Carolyn
announced from her shadowed chair. “I guess it’s time
now—”
    And at that very instant, the three
kids jumped in their seats, as a loud belt of lightning cracked in
the sky.
    “ It’s time,” Aunt Carolyn
went on, “for me to tell you about The Count…”
     

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
     
    “ You mean Count Dracula?”
Kevin immediately asked, his excitement causing him to lean forward
in his seat. “The most powerful of all the vampires?”
    Becky winced. “Shut up and let her
tell the story, Kevin. Aunt Carolyn hasn’t even started yet, and
you’re already interrupting her and asking dumb
questions.”
    “ Let’s try to get along
now, kids,” Aunt Carolyn said. “And to answer your question, Kevin,
no, the local vampire legend isn’t about Count Dracula. It’s about
another vampire, who came from the same part of the
world—”
    “ Transylvania?” Kevin
asked.
    “ That’s right,
Transylvania, in what is now Romania, in Europe. And this vampire’s
name was Count Volkov…”
    Count Volkov, Kevin thought, testing the sound of the name in
his mind. It sounded creepy enough, a perfect name