Disclaimer: I do not own or make any profit from the use of characters from the movie Van Helsing, this is all for fun! Alchemy on the other hand is mine.

Chapter 1

Alchemy stepped silently into the darkened room. As she picked her way through what was left of the laboratory at Castle Dracula she tired to ignore the sharp pains that were hitting her body in waves. She had first felt the pains only hours before and she could think of only one thing they could mean. Her love was dead.

Before Alchemy had time to contemplate what could have possibly killed him, she had taken flight, her destination, Castle Dracula.

Alchemy continued to walk through the laboratory intent on finding the remains of her master. He stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the withered husk of remains that once was the mighty Dracula.

"Ah, my love what has happened to you?" Alchemy said aloud as she kneeled on the floor next to him.

Suddenly Alchemy was hit with an assault of images. Pictures began flashing in her mind. She saw the hunter Gabriel Van Helsing entering the town, she saw Dracula's three brides killed one by one, she saw Gabriel discover the door to her master's lair, and then she saw the most terrifying image of all; she saw Gabriel once a friend to Dracula and Alchemy turn into a werewolf and mercilessly kill her beloved.

When the images ceased Alchemy found tears in her eyes. When was the last time she had cried? It had been ages. Yes, when he had sent her away she had cried for what felt like days. She had not shed a single tear since.

Coming back to herself Alchemy knew what she had to do. She lifted her wrist to her mouth and bit through her skin, drawing blood. She held her wrist above the once glorious form of Dracula as blood began to seep from it.

"Arise my love."

As her blood fell, the pain inside of her began to slowly fade away. She closed her eyes as she felt powerful energy flowing about her, she did not open them until she heard someone say her name.

"Alchemy." She slowly opened her eyes and met the most intoxicating eyes she had ever seen. The eyes she had fallen in love with centuries ago, the eyes of her former lover, Dracula.

"Is this real?" Alchemy asked as she rose to her feet, Dracula doing the same his eyes never leaving hers.

"It is my love. You brought me back and for that I thank you."

"You speak as if I would have let you remain dead."

"And would you not have? You very well could be the reason I was killed by that damn Van Helsing in the first place." Dracula said as he began to advance upon her his dark blue eyes blazing with a fire like she had never seen before.

"You blame me for this?" Alchemy asked raising her arms to indicate the destruction around them.

"Yes, I do. You were not here when my brides needed you, when I needed you the most." Dracula proclaimed his voice getting louder with each word. He still slowly walked towards Alchemy as she took one step backward for each his toward her.

"To start I don't give a damn about those three twits you had the audacity to wed after me, in fact I am quite glad they are dead! And as for not being here when YOU needed me, I believe it was you who banished me for I don't think I would banish myself!" At this Alchemy stopped backing up and stood her ground as she yelled at her husband.

"How dare you speak ill of my brides!" Dracula roared as her flew through the air towards her. He grabbed her by her long fire red hair and flung her across the room. She remembered once that he had loved the color of her hair; he said it matched the fire in his soul. He loved it so much that after he had banished her from his castle he had made his bride Aleera dye her hair the same color.

Alchemy brought herself to her feet as rage began to build up inside her.

"Your brides? Verona, Aleera, and Marishka? They were never fit to be in your presence! Hell, they weren't good enough to be in my presence. Oh, master, why do you not pay more attention to us? Why do not tell us you love us? Why do you not feed with us? Whine, whine, whine, all they did was whine and complain. They never did anything useful around here! Their death is a blessing to me! Knowing that I will never hear their incessant grating voices again pleases me greatly!" Alchemy yelled. She could see the anger welling up in Dracula, his gaze daring her to continue.

Seeing that she was done Dracula made his move. He flew at her again only this time instead of throwing her across the room he stopped directly in front of her. He was so close she could feel his breath on her cheek. She looked up into the dark eyes that started into her gray ones.

"They were my brides and you would not fare well insulting them. Doing this could bring great pain upon you." He said with forced calmness through clenched teeth.

Alchemy didn't back down, "I was your bride once, and I saw how easily you dispensed of me. Tossing me out like an old ratty cape. I gave myself to you freely; you did not have to take me like you did the others. I loved you, I protected you and still you sent me away. So do not warn me about the repercussions of insulting those three imbeciles. You said I should have been here to protect you, but where were they when you needed them the most? If my visions were correct in you dire time of need, two of them were already dead and the last, Aleera, still treated everything as if it were a game and in turn got herself killed also. And don't think that you are scaring me with your glare and hateful words, your other brides may have scattered and cried when you were angry but I refused to ever let you intimidate me. So save your energy." With that said Alchemy moved to sit on a blood-red chair that had seemingly withstood the incredible battle that had happened only hours before.

"Do you no longer consider yourself my bride?" Dracula asked still standing where she had left him, but with a much calmer almost sorrowful demeanor.

"Should I? Usually a bride sees her husband every day, but I haven't seen you in over forty years. And in most circumstances a husband does not send his bride away with the threat of death should she ever return."

"You still do not see that at the time I had no choice, I could not bear to see you. You awoke a rage so terrible in me that if you had stayed I surely would have killed you." Dracula has calmed almost completely now and had walked to where Alchemy was sitting. He fell to his knees in front of her and looked up to her face.

"It wasn't my fault our children were born into life dead. We couldn't have known what would happen. I loved you so much and still you sent me away for something I had no power over. I was you first, you only love and you banished me from your life without a second thought. I thought I would die right there from heartbreak the day you ordered me away. So I left, knowing that someday you would send for me, that I needed only to give you time to cope with our loss and soon I could return to you. But I was wrong; instead you used Aleera to give you children, thinking that it was simply something wrong with me and your children from her womb would be born alive. And do you know why you chose Aleera, my love? Because she reminded you of me, right down to her red hair. But, alas you found that the children from Aleera where born the same as mine, and the same for the ones from Verona and Marishka. I thought that once you found out that it was not my fault, that it was what we are that caused our children to be born dead you would send for me and I would come home. But you never did, and it was then that I lost all hope of returning to you. I knew you didn't love me anymore, your feelings for me died when you discovered your children to hold no life. So, I don't believe that I would consider myself to still be your bride, do you blame me?"

"No, my love I do not blame you, I blame myself. It was my mistake that cost me the love of one such as you and I don't believe I will ever be able to recover from it. I told the other brides that I did not feel anything, but that was a lie, my love for you burned constantly."

"Then why did you not send for me?"

Dracula took Alchemy's hand into his own and placed a soft kiss upon each of her palms. "I don't know, my love, my dearest, I cannot answer that question. But I do want you to know that you were wrong about one thing, you never lost my love and you were never gone from my thoughts. I must insist that you forgive me."

The second she heard his last words Alchemy ripped her hands from his and all of her anger returned.

"You insist that I forgive you? Do you think that you can just snap your fingers and those forty years will just disappear? I am not some slave you can order around, I am your wife you heartless bastard!"

"Ah, so you do think of yourself as my wife still. I thought as much. Alchemy my dear all I have to do is look into your eyes and I know that you will forget the past and return to me. You always had one weakness and that weakness is your love for me. When Gabriel killed me you felt it within every part if your body, so you came to me. That is how closely we are connected, I know you and through my knowledge of you I can control you." Dracula said as he rose from the floor to stand over Alchemy leaning down and placing his hands on the back of the chair, trapping her.

"What of all you just said? Were those all lies to get me to comply with you?"

"No, no I do love you, I never stopped. There is something about you that consumes me. But you must remember you are strong willed but I am powerful, more powerful than anyone can imagine and you will love me again." Dracula said these last words slowly his menacing voice ringing throughout the large room, his tone told Alchemy that she should obey or the outcome would be ugly.

"Look at my husband who doubts me so, he can he not feel the emotion I carry for him? My love for you never wavered for a minute, even when I felt you wished me dead I still loved you with my very being." Alchemy took hold of Dracula's arms and stood letting them fall to encircle her waist. She then began to nudge him backward until he was leaning against a wall of the dark laboratory.

"It is good to see that you still know where your place is my dear." Dracula said as he ran his hands up and down her back, running his fingers through her hair.

"Indeed my love, but I do believe it is time you learned your place." In a split second Alchemy grabbed Dracula's arms and pinned them against the wall. In an extremely cold and calculated voice she said, "Now, it is your turn to listen to me, I will love you and you in turn will love me and together we will reign, but if you ever send me away again I will not hesitate to use the one power that I have against you."

"And what, pray tell, kind of power could you possibly have to use against me?" Dracula asked convinced she was bluffing.

Alchemy smiled slightly then placed a gentle kiss upon his cold lips, "That power my love, is the power to destroy my creator and I do believe that my creator is you."