Recap: Leila gets to Romania and meets Dracula. He talks to her a bit and she goes to bed after getting pretty freaked.

(Leila's POV)

I got my computer hooked up, changed into my pajamas, and started to type my description of Castle Dracula.

"The night was cold and biting as the vampire himself. The castle was large, even as castles go, and all in dark stone and forbidding. Strange characters were seen coming and going from time to time, but were never questioned for the citizens of the city that was in the fortress's shadow feared the potential danger of doing so."

The door opened, but I ignored it. I figured Vladmirious would announce his business momentarily. It never came. I turned to face a wall of black. I looked further up and saw Vladmirious reading what I had wrote.

"Do you not like it here?" He asked softly.

"That's not it at all. I'm writing a horror flick, it has to seem scary." I explained, turning back to my work.

I felt a hand on my jaw. It traced over to my chin and back, down the side of my neck, and over my shoulder. The hand felt like ice. I tensed, my back rigid, and my hands ceased typing. I took short breaths as if I was afraid that something would happen if I took too deep a breath. The hand traced my collarbone as the other hand was added and mirrored the other until they passed and ended up on the other shoulder. I felt a chest against my back and a chill ran under it, burning like electricity.

"Are you afraid of me, Leila?" Vladmirious asked, his whispery voice thick and deep as he addressed me by my first name for the first time.

I didn't answer. I was too busy trying to figure out how to get out of his grip. I couldn't understand it. I had often out characters in this kind of situation, but I had never expected to actually freeze as they did.

I closed my eyes, then looked in the mirror above my desk to try and find a way out. But I only saw me. I felt him embracing me, but he wasn't in the mirror. I shivered again as I tried to reason with myself.

Come on, Lei. You must be kidding yourself if you've got "vampire" down as a possibility. Ha! Maybe you should check into a mental institution and just write from there. Then I reconsidered. Oh, who am I kidding? There is no logical reason for not having a reflection...

"You're right, there's not." I heard Vladmirious say.

I realized that his head was now buried at the crook of my neck and he was running his teeth over the flesh there. It was a threat, I knew. If I made any sudden movements, I'd hurt myself and there was the possibility that he'd go into bloodlust and attack me.

"Get off of me..." I said quietly.

That came out less demanding than I had hoped, but I couldn't do much about it. My voice had abandoned me for the most part. I was surprised I was able to talk at all.

"And if I don't?"

I closed my eyes again as he trailed his lips up my neck and he pulled my hair to the side. I had to find a way out of this...

(Dracula's POV)

I could hardly believe she was so passive. She had been so strong before. Perhaps it was just that she had never been confronted with the reality of her potential death.

Suddenly she hit my forehead away and turned to face me, her shoulder covering where my head had been. Our eyes locked.

"Please get out." She said stronger than before.

She had broken the spell my aura causes so I bowed my head and left.

I went to find Jean who was seeing how the new werewolves were faring. I found them in a cage downstairs with Jean throwing them pieces of rotting meat.

"Jean!" I called. He looked at me. "I need you to make sure the food in the kitchen in humanly edible. I have a guest and if the food has gone bad, go get something fresh."

"Yes, master."

He left to do so, shuffling past me as I made my way to the dungeons. I found the shackles where I had Gabriel Van Helsing hanging.

"To what do I owe the visit?" He asked gruffly.

"Now, now, Gabriel. I merely came to inform you. The child you made from my blood reproduced."

"What? No..."

"Yes. Many generations down the line, another direct descendant has appeared and she's sleeping upstairs." I loved to mock the man.

"Let me see her!"

"And let you spoil my fun? Of course not. Perhaps after I've turned her. When the blood lust is strongest."

"No! I will not allow you to turn another innocent!"

"Innocent? She is of my blood, I'd hardly consider that innocent." I walked closer to him and grasped his jaw. "And you are in no position to allow me to turn her or not."

"I cannot stand by and watch." He said.

"And you will not. You will be shackled as always and watch. Though, you may not last that long. Our food supply may simply... disappear."

I released him and walked out listening to his yelling. I was glad I had managed to keep him alive this long. Mocking him had become a hobby of a sort for me.

(Van Helsing's POV)

I refuse to believe that Dracula managed to find a direct descendant of Berta, the child I created to study. I had thought she was sterile, so I let her go just before Dracula had imprisoned me. Yet, she supposedly reproduced and, generations later, another with Dracula's blood appeared. I knew I'd have to find a way to see her and warn her before it was too late.