Dracul's Revenge 01: Dracul's Blood Read Online Free PDF Page A

a dismissal when he heard one. He exited, pausing long enough at his desk to grab the files on the case before heading out of the building. He was looking forward to a hot shower and warm food. Maybe by the time he finished cleaning up, the professor would have called him.

    * * * *

    Nik gathered his papers and fled towards the safety of his office. One of his students had given him the ‘I’m yours for the asking’ look all through class. The last thing Nik felt like doing was turning down another date from a student. He hated the dejected expressions of the men after he informed them he didn’t date students.

    DRACUL’S BLOOD
    Carol Lynne and T.A. Chase

    24

    Entering the department’s inner sanctum, Nik sighed in relief.
    “Tough class?” Sheila asked.
    Nik shook his head. “Student.” He reached up and removed the curls that had managed to flop their way into his eyes. I really need a haircut.
    Sheila held out several pink slips of paper. “Here are your messages. I’d look at the top one first. It’s from a detective.”
    Confused, Nik took the papers. “Did he say what he wanted?”
    “Nope.”
    Nik shuffled into his office and kicked the door shut without taking his gaze from the phone message. He dropped his class papers onto the corner of his desk and sat down. What on earth would a detective want to speak with him about?
    Perhaps one of the many students he’d turned down had filed some kind of bogus claim against him? No, that couldn’t be it. If that were the case, the Dean of Students would’ve contacted him first.
    Nik knew he could either continue to worry about it, or he could just make the damn call and find out.
    He started to lift the handset on his desk, but quickly replaced it. Maybe it would be better to call from his cell? At least he could be assured there would be no one listening in.
    Shaking his head, Nik snorted his amusement at himself. One message from a detective and he was acting paranoid. He hadn’t done anything wrong. Hell, he’d never done anything wrong. It was the main reason he was alone every night.
    He picked the desk phone back up and punched in the number the detective had left.
    “Marks,” a deep, gravelly voice answered.
    Nik readjusted his glasses as the effects of the voice travelled up and down his spine.
    “Yes, this is Professor Nikolay Radin. I had a message to call you?”
    “Professor Radin, thanks for calling me back. I was wondering if you’d have time this afternoon to take a look at a few pictures? I’ve got a wine bottle I’m trying to find out some more information on.”
    “Ummm, I’d love to help you, Detective Marks, but I know very little about wine.”
    “It’s not the wine I need help with, it’s the bottle I have questions about. There’s a dark red blob of wax on the bottle. From the little I’ve managed to dig up online, I’d guess the bottle comes from the Romanian region. It’s old, real old. There’s one word on the label, DRACUL’S BLOOD
    Carol Lynne and T.A. Chase

    25

    Havasalföld.”
    Nik’s heart skipped a beat. “You say it’s a bottle?” he asked, trying to pin down a timeframe.
    “I guess, although it’s not made of glass.”
    “Clay,” Nik added for the detective.
    “Yes.”
    “Can you bring it to me?”
    “Not right now. It’s at the lab being analyzed. I’ve got pretty detailed photographs, though. I can bring them by your office if you’d like?”
    Nik almost jumped for joy. “Yes. I’d like that very much. I’m free the rest of the afternoon.”
    “I’m only about thirty minutes away, so I’ll see ya in a few.”
    Nik hung up and swivelled his chair to stare at the bookshelf behind his desk. His first instincts were the bottle wasn’t a bottle at all, but rather a cask. That didn’t make sense though. Clay casks were large. There would be no way the detective would mistakenly call a cask a bottle. What the hell were they dealing with?
    He rubbed his hands together, scanning the