Disclaimer: This is based upon an RP and co-written by my RP partner. We have no ownership, save over our own characters. Please R&R – Comments truly appreciated. No Flames!!! First fanfic. Takes place many years after Dracula 2000. Enjoy!

It was a horror that Russel couldn't – no, not couldn't – flat out refused to comprehend. He felt as though he were in some horrible nightmare, lost and alone in a world, which he was a stranger to. Lost and alone, just as he had been for the first five years of his life, wandering the streets, begging for food or settling for a meal from the garbage.

Only the street he wandered was dimly lit, in his hand a cane with a silver top. Blue eyes looked down to his apparel – black gloves, pinstriped black pants, a vest of a burgundy color with a chain hanging out one vest pocket – the chain of a pocket watch he guessed – and a black tailcoat. These aren't mine, he thought, They resemble something someone in the late 1800's or early 1900's would wear.

"Are you lost, sir?" a voice asked him from the shadows.

Turning on a heel to his sudden visitor, Russel studied the man before him. Tall, with curly dark brown hair, eyes that seemed to penetrate to the depths of one's very soul, the dim light made his facial features hard to make out, but the air about him…it gave him a bad feeling.

"No, just taking the long way home," he replied, but his voice was tainted with an English accent. What's going on here? Is this a dream or reality? For the life of him Russel couldn't decide at that moment.

The man chuckled. "I have heard that doing such a thing is dangerous nowadays, what with those mysterious deaths…"

"I assure you, sir, I am capable of making my way home safely." His hand gripped the cane a bit tighter. "If you'll excuse me…" He turned back in the direction he'd been headed before. The man had somehow managed to soundlessly move so that he stood in front of him. "What is it that you want?"

A cruel smile crossed his lips. "Why, Mr…."

"Harker! Harker, wake up man!" Peter said, shaking his partner who'd fallen asleep on the table in the backroom. "Harker!"

Waking with a bit of a start, Russel looked around the room, ran his hands over his face, and then let out a long sigh. "Another dream." That one keeps coming more and more, yet I'm never able to finish it.

"Must've been one helluva dream because I've been trying to get your ass up for the past five minutes." Peter moved to sit across from his friend. "Mr. Shepherd finds out that you've been sleeping on the job, it won't be pretty."

Russel chuckled. "I don't doubt that, but he wouldn't fire me. I'd be reprimanded like a bad puppy then sent back out to do my job. Like always."

Peter rolled his eyes. "Figures. Just because he treats you like the son he's never had you get to slack off on the job while the rest of us don't get that luxury. And I thought he was an equal opportunity employer."

"He is," Russel said and stood. "C'mon, our shift is about to begin and I'm sure Adam and Luke can't wait to get out of here and go to a pub."

"Can't blame 'em. This place kind of gives me the creeps. I mean, Mary and Simon have to be dealing in more than antiques to…"

"They aren't doing anything illegal, Peter," Russel interjected defensively. Besides, they trusted him and they'd tell him if they were...wouldn't they?

His colleague snorted. "Yeah, and I'm really dating Jessica Alba."

The crypt that had once been decimated all those years ago had been returned to the way it had been when Abraham Van Helsing had run Carfax Abbey. Although, Mary and Simon had gone to great lengths to put up reinforced steel, more booby traps, and a much higher and harder to crack security system.

The coffin that held what was left of Judas's remains after he burned in the sunlight the day after Mardi Gras was placed where it had been. This time no leaches were attached. There was no need for Mary or Simon to live centuries – not when they had a daughter who they told everything too. She was far from Carfax now attending school, far away meant safe…if only for a little while.

Little did they know that in those years that he had been locked away in a duplicate of the first coffin, his personal prison, organs began to reform thanks to the blood of the architects who would clumsily drop tools or cause injury to themselves. Memories returned, those of the past when he walked beside Christ himself and those of that fateful night Mary Van Helsing along with that Simon had seen to, what they believed, was his final demise. Betrayal and Mary went hand in hand now. Nevermind the fact that she had his blood in her veins. That was a fact he hardly cared about now.

If he could've made the noise, a cruel chuckle would've escaped him. How naïve they were in thinking they could get rid of him so easily. They would pay. He would not leave one drop of blood left in their bodies once he was fully reanimated. They couldn't keep their dark secret locked away forever. Oh no, he would have his revenge.

When the right time presents itself I will rise, he thought. Timing is everything.

The shift seemed to fly by and soon Russel found himself out of his "rent-a-cop" uniform and into his regular clothes. A note had been left on his locker that Simon – the man that had come to be like a father to him after his years of working for him – wished to speak with him. He'd quickly made his way up the stairs to where Mary and Simon shared her father's office then knocked on the door lightly.

"Come in," came Simon's voice.

Russel opened the door, just poking his head in. "Got your note. What do you want to talk with me about?"

"Come into the room all the way and I'll tell you, Russ." The two men smiled and Russel soon sat across from Simon. Mary sat near the fire reading something and only acknowledged Russel's presence with a quick glance up and a small smile before returning to her work.

"What can I do for you Simon?" he asked, a leg crossing as he watched his mentor.

"Russel, you know of our daughter, Mira." At Russel's nod he continued. "I want you to promise me something."

I don't have a great feeling about this. He cleared his throat. "What's that?"

"That you'll protect her when the time comes. You've been an excellent guard to us my boy, but our daughter will need you more."

Brows furrowed in confusion. "You make it sound as though something terrible is going to happen, Simon."

Their gazes met, Simon's the more serious. "It just helps to be prepared. Do you promise?"

Russel nodded. "It's the least I can do after all you've done for me."

"Good" He smiled. "Now go on, you've worked well for us today despite that catnap in the backroom."

"How'd you know about that?"

Simon smirked. "I know all."

As Russel's hand came to rest on the door handle, he looked back to Simon. "Simon, everything is all right...I mean, if you knew something was up, you wouldn't hesitate to tell me, would you?" It was a question he needed answered.

Simon was silent for a moment, studying Russel. "Do you trust me, Russel?"

Russel nodded. "Of course."

"Then that's all you need to know."

Without asking any more questions, Russel did as he was told and exited the room. Once he had left, Mary looked over to her husband, watching him closely. "Don't you think we should tell him a bit more?"

Simon sighed. "He wouldn't believe us even if we did, Mary. Russel, he's one who needs to see things in order to believe them. Anyway, I've given him his job. It's up to Mira to confide in him."