Chapter 1: Planning

Yes!

Ericka said yes to his proposal!

Now, after a short celebration and congratulations from friends and family that had not-so-subtly eavesdropped on their private time on the roof, it was time for one of Drac's favorite parts about having a big party: The planning.

Ericka agreed to have their wedding on the anniversary of the cruise on which they'd first met and zinged. There were suggestions from Wayne, Griffin and Vlad to have the wedding on another cruise with Ericka's ship, but the couple declined for various reasons.

One thing they couldn't decline however was to let Johnathan take care of the music, especially since he literally threw himself at Drac to eagerly ask for the job.

The planning was relatively slow-going for the two hotel managers. While Dracula had already managed countless weddings for monsters in his Hotel, Ericka had so far only planned cruise events and murder attempts, she had never even attended a wedding before. Of course the vampire could have simply taken all the parts Ericka failed to consider into his own hands, but he wanted to make sure that she got at least as much of a say in what their wedding should be like as he did, so he took his time to talk about every little detail with his bride-to-be before making any decisions.

While the two managers kept busy with their planning, Mavis took care of keeping the hotel in order, which was simple with only the regulars and a handful of tourists –both monster and human- visiting at the moment. She was mostly just standing at the reception for a couple hours, waiting for guests to ask for something or new ones to arrive, so it was no problem for her husband to come join her while the lobby was as good as empty.

"Hey Mavis, how's it going?"
"Hey Johnny. Slow.. Even the zombies are starting to fall asleep with such little to do", she emphasized this by gesturing over to a zombie that had just fallen over.

"Heh, don't get to see the place this empty often. Bet that'll change in a flash once your dad sends out the wedding invites though."

"Obviously." Mavis knew her dad was a big deal to almost every monster for more than just building the hotel, so the news of him getting married again would cause the guest numbers to skyrocket. Good thing Hotel Transylvania was built specifically to house as many monsters as possible.

"Anyways", continued Johnny, "it wouldn't exactly be date night, but I suppose if you got nothing to do but stand here right now we could spend some time together. I can go get us some snacks if you like."

"Sounds better than doing nothing", she agreed with a little laugh, "but what about Dennis?"
"Don't worry, he, Winnie and Tinkles are playing with Frank and the guys. They'll be fine. Do you know how far Count and Captain are with their planning? I still need their approval on the playlist I put together for the big day."

"Not a clue, I haven't seen them since early evening. I think they're still trying to.. balance the traditional bat-theme with a sea-theme for the decorations or something, unless they've managed to move onto the catering part by now…"

"Yeesh, I'm kinda glad now your dad did so much for our wedding, I think my head would've exploded if I had to come up with all of that stuff"

"It's not that hard, as long as you're organized."
"Which you know I am not."
"Well, your playlist better be or else my dad's gonna flip."
"I'm not worried about that, I only picked the best of the best from my Wedding DJ folder!", Johnny proclaimed proudly.

Mavis snickered, "I bet. How about you go get us those snacks and we'll watch a movie on the computer? We can even check your playlist if you want to make sure one more time before showing my dad."

"Sounds great" And with that Johnny left her alone again.

Meanwhile, in a smaller room way up in the higher hotel floors, Abraham Van Helsing was pacing, or rather rolling around in circles on his little robotic wheels.

Sure, he had 'made peace' with the monsters, he had paid them back and was now even living with them in this hotel. A hotel which Dracula had built over a century ago to protect the monsters from people like him, a hotel for Dracula himself to hide away so he'd never find him!

Yes, he had 'made peace', had agreed to 'see monsters as equals', but several lifetimes of hate aren't forgotten that easily, not simply because Dracula had saved him from falling to his demise. Dracula had simply proven once more just how superior he feels, he chose to torment Abraham by taking his one and only great granddaughter and making him live to watch as Dracula pulls her deeper and deeper under his spell and monsters roam free to mingle with and destroy the humans!

He had tried to kill them both, when he heard his once monster-hating Ericka say that she 'zinged', he knew it must have been a spell! He knew his little girl, he knew that she, just like him, would have preferred to die over becoming the evil vampire's puppet, especially if it meant ridding the world of that monster alongside her.

He knows it's a spell. He knows Dracula's powers. He learned that this so called 'zing' is supposedly 'love at first sight'. He knows what Dracula can do if you look him in the eyes. What these monsters call 'zing' he knows is actually hypnosis.

That would also explain why that Johnathan is staying around these monsters. Heck, they even managed to make it so that poor young man would father a new vampire spawn! A spawn that would probably someday feast on its own father, no matter how innocent it may appear at the moment.

Abraham was sure of it, these monsters needed to be stopped, before the entire globe was run over by little monster-human-hybrids!
Before his own great granddaughter would have to bear Dracula's spawn. No! Even before they wed! Dracula needed to be stopped.

But how? He couldn't just sneak up on the Count and stake him in his sleep… He tried, actually, but Dracula, the sly dog, had woken in time to catch him and Abraham had to awkwardly play it of as a joke for old times' sake.

Even if he managed to get the jump on the vampire and kill him, everyone would immediately know it was him. Someone else had to do it and they would have to know that it was someone else.

How best to kill a vampire without doing it yourself and while having witnesses?

…

Of course.

That's it.

The perfect plan.