Disclaimer: I do not make any profit or claim any copyrights to Dracula Untold and any of its characters only Mackenzie Callaghan and any other future original characters are mine.

AN: Mackenzie Callaghan when I imagine him I see him played by Logan Lerman but obviously with an Irish accent.


Dracula Untold: A Story of a Love and Soul Reborn

When Vlad Met Mackenzie


Vlad walked along the busy market having just finished meeting with a potential client for his company, Delca Industries. Vlad was the CEO of a major Architecture company, and had branches in London England, another in Paris and the main and larger branch in Romania.

Vlad found over the centuries that without the distraction of fighting in wars and protecting his people as their prince, that he had a love for art and architecture. He discovered a talent for drawing, occasionally people yet mostly buildings around him or the idea or two that would sometimes pop into his head when certain inspiration struck him.

He found some form of peace just sitting gazing at paintings being able to see the fine strokes of the brush the artist had used, details the human eye could never have a hope of seeing. He had also observed the changes that the structure of buildings had undergone, how though the ages buildings had gone from stone castles to two story stone, wood and brick buildings to shiny ultramodern chrome, steel, and glass high-rise buildings.

Vlad had discovered his love of art and that he had a talent for drawing back in the sixteenth century when he had found himself not only lonely and ill at ease with grief but deeply bored, not an excellent combination Vlad had discovered at the time. He had established the company twelve years ago after taking online classes along with night classes for architecture,

He had established the company twelve years ago after taking online classes along with night classes for architecture, art and design and in business back in the nineteen nineties. He had needed something to occupy his time and had earned him a degree in his chosen field of study.

Vlad took pride in the fact he had accomplished it legally and something he had earned and had not had to forge, even if it had taken him almost a decade due to doing it online and only attending night classes and not those in the daylight hours. He took pride in the fact not only did he run the company but also there was more than a few buildings out there in the world which he himself had designed.

Vlad was able to work around his issue with the sun to an extent. Many of his meetings were via video conference or phone call, and on the occasion that it was necessary for him to attend face-to-face contact with investors or potential clients he would keep track of the weather, mostly arranging appointments or meetings during cloudy rainy days. If that method of getting around his deadly reaction to the sun failed then he always sent his much-trusted CFO, Renfield in his place.

Renfield knew of his employers' condition of being undead and being the infamous Dracula. He insisted on calling Vlad Master in private no matter how Vlad had tried to dissuade him of the habit, though they did come to a reluctant agreement on Renfields part that if he insisted giving Vlad such a formal address then he was to call him Sir in company of others. Vlad was nobodies master, and felt being or acting as such took away from someone's freedom, and freedom for someone who was taken at a young age whipped and tortured into becoming a soldier, the much feared Vlad the Impaler, then yes freedom of choice was a big deal for Vlad.

Vlad was exhausted, not physically, no, emotionally, having spent five centuries mourning for his beloved wife and their precious son. Vlad could not help but think bitterly even after all of those centuries of loneliness and grief that hindsight really was 20/20 vision. If he could have known what would be, he surely would have revaluated his past choices more clearly and carefully. For one he would have taken Ingeras horse riding regardless of it being the Easter holidays, would have insisted Mirena and he take Ingeras away for Easter just the three of them as a family, to hell with everyone and everything else.

However, unfortunately even knowing what he now did, Vlad had loved his people and had taken his duty as prince seriously regardless that those same people had tried to burn him and forsaking his sacrifice for their safety. Even with that knowledge of his former people, still he believed and taken to heart the words 'That actions committed without thought have far reaching and unforeseen consequences'.

Over the centuries spent thinking if only he had been quicker and had not stopped to dispose of that bastard Turk when he had landed on top of the monastery, but instead taken immediate action and grabbed hold of Mirena's hands and pulled her up before the tile had completely given out and sending her plunging to her certain death.

He had wondered countless times over the centuries whether there had been another option where he could have turned back human, Mehmed defeated, and the war ended. Yet deep down knew the possibility of returning human and Mehmed killing not only himself but also Mirena before riding off with their son after his soldiers slaughtered his people.

However, none the less no matter how he re-examined his actions how he would have done something different, anything at all different, he still came to the same and unfortunate conclusion, without Mirena's sacrifice he would have returned human and Mehmed would have surely won and taken their son. Taken and trained him to be a violent and blood lusting solider taught how to kill without mercy, to hunger and crave for the kill. He would never regret not turning Ingeras over to Mehmed, never could he ever want or lived with himself if he had allowed his son to be taken and raised to be a killer, a monster just like his father.

Vlad sighed as he continued to walk along the large London market on the way back from a business meeting. The weather was overcast that day, naturally he had somewhat influenced it for the continued good of his health. Renfield was unavailable had been sent on a business trip to Athens scouting out a potential client.

Vlad could not attend he was needed in London to make certain a deal with a more high profile client went through without a hitch, nothing would be accomplished otherwise. Besides travelling by aeroplane was ill advised when the journey took as long as it did and part of the travelling conducted during day light hours, equals scorched or worse yet a terribly burnt and permanently dead Vlad, neither option greatly appealed to the vampire.

As he continued to walk along passing though the crowded market, passing countless people, all who were oblivious to the being that currently walked among them, he made a mental note to head out to feed the very moment the sun set that day. Being surrounded by all those people and picking up the scent of their blood combined was somewhat taxing even on his centuries of hard earned control.

Just as he was passing a stall that sold truly stunning and fragrant blooms of all kinds, was when a scent caught his attention and very familiar scent, which he had not smelt in over five hundred years. However, he could not help but quickly take note as stopped to a standstill, of the fact at the same time there was a definite masculine undertone to the familiar and much missed smell, which was enough to both confuse and intrigue Vlad.

After the scent caught his attention, next it was the warm Irish tones brimming with amusement saying, "What that much for two small bunches of flowers, honestly?" Something strong compelled him to turn in the direction that the scent and the voice had come from. He turns to see a young handsome looking dark brown haired man of average height stood at the stall pointing to the flower baby's-breath.

Vlad discreetly eyed the other man and it is, as he looks up from the large array of blooms that Vlad instantly and noticeably taken back. His breath would have surely caught in his throat had he still need of it, as he sees the other man's eyes and realises with a breathless and startling clarity that he has not seen eyes so blue and of such a shade and shape since his beloved Mirena. If the scent was not enough to remind him of his long dead beloved wife then the eyes surely were.

On top of that, some of the younger man's features resembled a more masculine undertone of Mirena. Vlad wondered how such a turn of events was possible was it some kind of coincidence or was it something else, something decidedly unexpected.

Vlad continues to gaze in both longing and puzzlement at the young man, when what he heard said by the man next shocked Vlad to his very core. "Could you please write these words on the card and put it with the bunch of Lilacs and Baby's-breath?", 'Why think separately of this life and the next.'

Vlad unfroze and before he can stop himself and think twice about what exactly he thought he was doing and was hoping to gain from such actions, even what possibly compelled him so strongly, Vlad finished the last of the words before the other man could, "When one is born from the last."

Vlad inwardly cursed himself as the younger man let out a quite gasp, yet Vlad with his extra sensitive hearing heard him perfectly as he turned in his direction. Vlad for some strange and unexplained reason felt blessed once again to hear the same warm Irish tones he had first heard as the man said to him. "That is mine and my mother's favourite part of the poem Life and Death, I grew up hearing it, it had been the poem my parents had fallen in love to and my father my mother tells me used to recite it to her when he had been alive."

Vlad could not understand or able to give a reason if asked to, but he found himself walking up to the man and saying to him in an almost breathless tone, "It speaks to you of yearning of one soul pleading for another." The other man seemed to eye him very intently as if he could see through to his very soul, as blackened as Vlad believed it to be.

Vlad had no idea why this man was intriguing him so, and it was not just his scent or the colour and shape of his eyes or the fact the poem Life and Death had been a favourite of Mirena. No but something else about this young handsome man called out to Vlad in a way no other had since he beloved Mirena. That alone was strange in itself, Mirena had obviously been a woman, yet for some unknown reason this man was reminding him very strongly of his wife.

Vlad observed the other man intently as he accepted the wrapped up both bunches of blooms with the card attached the Lilacs and Baby's-breath from the woman at the stall and handed over a twenty-pound note to her before taking the very little change from the woman in return. He listened intently as he replied to his question and said, "Yes it does, to my mother also in regards to my late father."

As he stepped back from the stall and Vlad did the same, the other man added without truly thinking or wondering why he felt the need to tell this dark handsome stranger his name, yet before he knew what he was doing, he was saying out aloud, "My name is Mackenzie Callaghan by the way."

Vlad held out his hand and accepted the younger mans in turn and clasped it with his own in a firm yet gentle embrace of hands, and even as he told the younger man, "Vlad, my name is Vlad Dalca" he felt a spark of attraction and pure rightness that he had not felt since his beloved Mirena.

This alone was enough to both confuse and somewhat alarm Vlad, he had never taken an interest in another man, he being from a time period in history where such a concept of a man loving another man or a woman loving another woman was deeply frowned upon and not largely known nor was such matters of that nature discussed.

Mackenzie raised a brow as he returned the handshake and asked, "Dalca, as in Dalca Industries, the architecture company?" Vlad reluctantly released the other man's hand and replied, "One in the same, I am in fact CEO and the founder of the company." He asked in interest, "You have heard of my company?" Mackenzie let out a brief laugh and replied, "Heard of you, try more like work for you, have for the last three years, I am an architect."

Vlad eyes widened slightly at this piece of information. The younger man was an employee of his, an architect at that. What he did for a living went a long way to intriguing Vlad even more so than he already had. This knowledge combined with all of the similarities between Mackenzie and Mirena ensured Vlad could not tare himself away from the younger man. Therefore, because of this he found himself asking the other man if he wanted to go somewhere and have coffee before he truly thought better of it.

Vlad for a moment or two inwardly cursed himself and was truly worried he had over stepped his welcome when the other man looked somewhat flustered and taken back, and yet to answer. He was especially worried that the other man was about to grab his briefcase from where he had left it at his feet, take his bunches of flowers and quickly make his escape in the opposite direction far away from him.

They hardly knew each other and had just that moment met. He was merely a stranger to the man except for the fact they now knew they were employer and employee. It was hardly commonplace to ask an employee you had just met to go for coffee, to ask an employee to go have coffee with the boss period.

Just as Vlad was about to apologise for being so forward and so soon after meeting each other, Mackenzie shrugged as if coming to a decision. He said, "Okay sure, though know this it is not my usual practice to meet a stranger in the market and tell him personal things about myself along with my name, before discovering said stranger is in fact my boss. Nevertheless, what the hell what harm can it do, taking chances and making split second decisions can sometimes be fun and spontaneous, so yes I accept your invitation to have coffee."

Vlad chuckled quietly amused and highly entertained by the other man's brief ramble and his choice of words. He raised a brow when the other man blushed when he heard Vlad chuckle, Vlad found the blush against the other man's pale skin appealing, a thought that inwardly had Vlad raising both brows in wonder of where such a thought had come from and for another man at that.

Vlad gestured with his right hand in the direction he knew to be a lovely and quaint coffee shop and bakery, which he in fact owned and opened five years previously as a side business on top of Dalca Industries. He said, "Shall we, I know of a coffee shop and bakery we can go to if you like?" Mackenzie nodded said as he reached down to pick up his briefcase, "Of course lead the way."

Unbeknownst the Vlad that he and Mackenzie were being watched, that their entire encounter had been observed. Vlad immersed in his conversation with Mackenzie to the point that he managed to walk by the table that sat the last being on the entire planet he ever wanted to see or deal with again. It was also because of how occupied with his newfound interest that he failed to hear the words quietly murmured with a certain menace by the being, "Let the games begin."