Read Online Vampire Breath by R. L. Stine - Free Book Online

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!”

 
 
24
     
     
    Cara and I stared at the old vampire in silence. He turned to the shelves of
blue bottles.
    “This is where I hid my full bottle of Vampire Breath ,” he told us. “I
hid it here in the empties room. I knew the others would never look here.”
    As he smiled, I could see his gums, soft and smooth inside the dry-lipped
mouth. His smile faded. And his silvery eyes narrowed.
    “I’m so thirsty,” he whispered, eyeing Cara and me. “I must find the full
bottle—refresh my memory—and get back my fangs.”
    He dove for the nearest shelf and began pawing through the blue bottles.