Disclaimer: I do not own Seras Victoria, Alucard or the Hellsing Institute nor any story derived from the original manga by Kouta-sensei. I do however own everyone else. Mostly.

Note: Sorry AGAIN for the delay. Apparently I have to be in an irritated mood to write scenes of mass violence. And I've been too tired to be violent. That and work kinda sucked. Again.

Dedication: To the effing witch who cut off a foot of my hair when I asked for five inches (yeah I have long hair...cause its still to midback), I dedicate this to you for making me so angry Alucard killed things.

... Also to my lovely reviewers, who make life worth while.

~x~

'dirt room'

~x~

It had always been his duty to go alone into the night.

Since the eve he had placed a golden cup on a secluded well until his capture at the hands of his enemies, from the moment his tongue had tasted blood until he was sealed in an abandoned cellar, he had been alone. It was his duty and his calling. Never questioning his solitude, he had accepted it as the lot he had drawn.

He watched the fiery group of humans escape up the stairwell from his position just inside the shadows. They were a decent enough group, honorable. In many of the years before, he had found a sense of companionship with mortal men. It had always ended brutally, in death or betrayal, until each association left him with a greater respect with the thing known as man.

It was the men who were left to kill the monsters.

Maybe it would be one of those four that would give him his end. Perhaps….

He raised his Jackal and leveled it at the ghouls left in the compact area that sheltered the stairwell and entrance. He pulled the trigger once, twice, three times. The rounds ripped through the decaying matter of the ghouls' skulls, felling three, eight, twelve. Another round fired and a few more fell. A small smile curved his lips as he looked at the ones left before him.

Let the little Irishman sort out the rest.

He turned to the still ghouls behind him. There were perhaps another thirty or forty packed into the more open area of the lower courtyard. They stared at him, their eyeless gaze immovable, but did not move. They were not for him.

Still….

Drawing the Cassul, he fired it into the mostly dead battalion of sad, desperate souls who had been tricked into their now lot of existence. He fired from both of Walter's magnificent creations, widening the spray of bullets from the center to the shadowed corners until both clips were empty. He pressed the release and they fell to the ground, clattering softly on the stones bellow his feet.

He moved unhurriedly to secure new clips in place as he surveyed the damage. The pseudo-army had been close to annihilated. Packed in as tight as they were, each piercing round had gone farther and each incendiary had done more damage.

Ghouls were not particularly satisfying foes, in his mind.

"It was always said that you were nothing if not efficient."

He turned to look at the source of the voice that had drawn him this way. A figure stood near the well on the opposite side of the wall that divided the lower courtyard from the upper. He remained mostly hidden, obscured by ghouls and the stone structures but the moonlight shown down and glinted off of fair hair atop a tall pale figure.

"And what is said of you?"

Alucard kept his eyes trained on the figure as he turn to walk up the short set of stairs next to the dividing wall. His movements were measured and purposeful nearest to how a king might approach a man he unexpectedly found in his castle.

"Not much is said of me, Count. I have made the shadows my home, content to watch others fight and die for causes that were doomed to failure."

Passing through the small, enclosed space, he stepped into the inner courtyard and got a good look at the man who opposed him. He was taller than most and thin. There was something about him that seemed bleached and whitewashed and the only touch of color to his entire figure lay in a golden tie over his black suit.

"So you are not the one to bring us here. You are but the shadow of your master," Alucard sighed.

"You might say that," the figure agreed, casually drawing a cigarette from a pocket and bringing it to his mouth. "I follow his orders and his orders are what brought you here. I choose to follow them as you chose to come." He touched a silver lighter to the cigarette, breathing in deeply before taking it from his mouth and depositing the device back in his pocket.

"Are you the evil genius then? The power behind the throne?"

The blonde shook his head. "Nah. I'm just along for the ride. I have been for the past several hundred years."

"And you chose to stay here?"

Alucard's voice tinged on curiosity as he took a few steps closer to the well that separated stood in the middle of the inner courtyard, separating them as the ghouls moved to the side.

"Never underestimate the allure of amnesty." He took a drag off the cigarette. "Or the power of twenty high power rifles trained on you."

He tipped his head back and blew smoke into the air as the ghouls came to life and fired a barrage of bullets at Alucard. Within a matter of seconds, the vampire lay in pieces on the ground, the slight build up of snow tainted with red. The blonde raised his hand and the firing stopped, an eerie silence filling the air where only the sounds of gunfire had been before.

Sticking the nearly finished cigarette in the corner of his mouth, the figure reached behind his back and unlatched a set of leather grips from a hidden sling across his back. In an effortless movement, he swung forth an elegantly crafted bastard sword, accidentally decapitating a ghoul in the process. He looked down at the disfigured entirely dead creature and shrugged.

"Oops."

"Killing your own minions. That seems to defeat the purpose."

Alucard's voice rang out in the night before fading into echoing laughter as the remains of his torso began to piece itself back together, bit by bit, until he stood fully formed once more. The grin on his face seemed more amused than manic for once and he stood, weapons hang loosely at his side, as he looked at the odd creature before him.

"They aren't of much use against you." He shrugged. "As you just showed."

"Then why bother?"

"Testing the theory. I heard you might have lost some of your regenerative ability."

"Not at all."

As he finished, he drew the Jackal and let out several rounds against his curious opponent. A true vampire, the blonde quickly drew his blade and, in movements almost faster than Alucard could follow, deflected each of the bullets fired at him. Impressed despite of himself, Alucard pulled out the Cassul as well and began firing both weapons, forcing the blonde slowly backwards.

As the last bullet fired from the clip, the stranger stumbled, tripping on the stone steps behind him. He was quick to recover and regained his footing in seconds. Backed up against a closed door, he elbowed it sharply and it flew open behind him, opening into a small room dressed as a chapel.

"That is a remarkable blade you carry."

"Good thing, too. New sort of metal. They call it adamantium. Thankfully, it can deflect even those monster bullets of yours."

"So I see."

Alucard stood still, evaluating his opponent with an objective eye.

"Who are you then?"

The figure shrugged. "Like you, I've had many names. Here, they call me Nikolai."

"I didn't ask your name, vampire, I asked who you were."

Nikolai grinned. "Will it matter?"

Alucard returned the expression, appreciation alight in his eye.

"No, I don't think it will."

Time did not pass any slower nor did he move any faster but from one second to the next Alucard had crossed the distance of the courtyard and stood before the opposing vampire. One hand knocked the blade from Nikolai's grasp and the other clutched the collar of his shirt, raising him above the ground. For a moment, he just looked up at the captive figure in his hands. Despite his perilous position, the other vampire seemed unfazed. Rather, he looked amused and even gave Alucard a quick wink, as if understanding the indecision in the master vampire's mind.

The moment was over quickly though. With a casual throw, Alucard threw Nikolai from his hand. The blonde arched sharply in the small room before falling once more. The sick sound of metal piercing flesh sounded briefly as the tall golden cross standing on the alter ran straight through his heart sending blood through the chamber, red streaking down the brilliant blue walls.

"It's a pity. In different circumstances…."

Looking closely at the figure on the altar, he noticed the hand was stilled in a gesture. He blinked at it, nonplussed for a moment before tipping his head back in a laugh filled with joy and triumph. He turned from the still figure and left the small chapel, turning to the stairs adjacent.

"In different circumstances indeed."

~x~

It might have been nostalgia or a simmering curiosity to how the world of his knowledge had changed in the years since he had left the earth that he'd once called home. The night was beautiful in its youth; the moon hung full in a cloudless sky. The air was crisp and full of the quiet noises of nocturnal creatures. It could have been perhaps that stagnant beauty that drew him to the edifice that stared down at him where he stood next to the shimmering waters of a night blackened lake.

Castelul Bran had kept him captive once, a few months of his mortal life gone. Before that it had been part of his domain but hardly a place he'd have referred to as home. It was a building of beauty but little tactical purpose. Not the home of a king or general.

Still, something pulled him in and he found himself climbing the stone steps that led to the interior one by one. It was an unnecessarily slow method of travel but something of the night told him that it was befitting. And so he trod on, up the stair and through the entrance, into the lower courtyard. He took a few steps in, but stopped, still in the shadows, to watch the scene accentuated by the light of the moon.

She was beautiful. The soft glow shone her hair silver as it tumbled unbound over her shoulders and away from her back where the weak wind that wound through the courtyard played with its soft tendrils. Her figure was all that a woman's should be with generous curves and lean expanses. Even her face seemed to be chiseled, as an artist would have created it, pale as alabaster marred only by the soft stain of pink at her lips and the twinkle of cerulean blue at her eyes.

It was as if an oil painting had come to life there in the echoing silence of the night. The fair maiden held captive by the brutish monster, ravishing her of her innocence. And the creature who had latched onto her neck, drinking her life's blood, was truly the picture of a monster. A fool, too, for so brutally turning a fair creature like she into a monster like him in such a rough way.

The manner of turning often led to the loyalty of a fledgling and even from where he stood he could smell the purity of her blood.

~x~

His pace was measured as he walked the open passage way of the second floor. Light glowed dimly in the night, illuminating the snow that had begun to fall since his encounter with the vampire below. Humans so often made such a big deal of snow. Most, after the first encounter of a harsh white winter, began to hate the soft substance while others reveled in it their entire lives.

Seras had been one of those.

In the brief years after his return and between their confinements, she had often dragged him out into the powdery substance for playtime. Usually, in the end, it turned into a competition of who could harass the rank and file soldiers of the Hellsing Institute more or an all out war between the two parties with an excuse of a impromptu training exercise. Laughter filled the halls of the cold mansion on those days and echoed through the trees.

It was odd to think of it there, as his foot crossed each medieval stone, that that, too, was another thing he now missed since his waking. Her mood had always affected that of those around her, himself included. She was the light of their ever increasingly dark world. A light that was flickering and dying before being stolen completely. A light none of them could afford to lose.

It was in that moment, as he stepped through the stone doorway into the castle's interior, that he swore her return. Not only to the physical Hellsing Institute, but to their lives. Regardless of what it would take. In the meantime, however, he needed to rid the world of the man who dared to take her from him.

~x~

"What do I do now?"

He looked down at her, innocent for all that blood smeared the purity of her pale skin. No longer a fledgling but a masterless creature of death, fresh in the roel given to her. For the first time in many long years, he felt a sense of pity.

"It is your choice, really. You can go home to the family you once knew and create a new domain over them. You can travel the world as most of our kind has done. Or you can find yourself somewhere new."

She frowned slightly, looking down at her hands for a moment where they still acted to nervously wipe away the traces of blood from the recent death. The nervousness passed in a moment and he knew she was not a creature prone to indecision and fear.

"Where will you go?"

He smiled at her, a soft curve of his lip, before looking around the darkened walls of the castle that had once held him captive long before.

"I was thinking it was time that I reclaim a little of my land for myself."

She nodded, hesitant for a second.

"May I stay with you, Lord Draculea?"

A grin grew over his features. Many long nights had he spent free of the company a warm willing woman could offer. Many long years had he been only for himself. She was an admirable girl for all her youth. Perhaps she could be worthy.

"Yes."

~x~

There were signs of conflict everywhere in the rooms that surrounded the stairwell ascending from the lower floors. Scattered remains of ghouls littered the ground and bits of the floor and wall had been marred with weapon marks. Still, little of the blood smelled human and so he ignored the chaos for the most part, content in the evidence that the Hellsing elite squad was doing its job. Instead, he continued forward into the castle, crossing through one room until he came to the next.

The room that had always housed the king.

And there he stood.

The new King of Romania was a handsome man, Alucard could admit. His features spoke of the nobility of the nation's past and his clothes complimented his fine looks. He looked young, younger than any who would rule a country really should. None of his considerable age showed in his eyes as he turned to stare at the man who had come to kill him.

And, for a minute, as the seconds ticked slowly by, the two merely stared at each other.

~x~

"Who was that whelp then?"

She jumped, still started at the way he suddenly would appear behind her. For a moment, she glanced at him over her shoulder before looking back at the figure retreating slowly from the castle.

"You were watching then?"

"Only a fool would not know the goings on of everything in his domain, little Catalina."

She nodded, a sign of both acknowledgement and learning.

"He is…was…a childhood playmate of mine. We…we always thought we'd spend our lives together."

"Do you love him then, little Catalina?"

"I think so. But now…he deserves a normal life."

He nodded.

"You are sweet and caring, a trait not common among our kind."

He turned to leave before pausing and turning back to her.

"Should you ever decide to go to him, Catalina, no one here will stop you."

~x~

"Finally, he arrives. Former lord of the castle. All to save a damsel who really is in no distress."

"She was never in distress. Merely misplaced."

"Do you care so little for her then, Lord Draculea? Is she some lost possesion that you have come to reclaim? I notice you don't even bother to look for her but instead have sent your little minions to die."

Alucard shrugged. "I don't have any intention of explaining myself to an arrogant dog who is playing king of the anthill."

The fake dracula's eyes narrowed and he stepped towards, malice clear in his every movement.

"You can call me arrogant after all that you have done? Do you have any idea who I am compared to the monster that you are?"

A smirk curved Alucard's lips. "And there is your arrogance. You expect me to remember you when you were nothing to remember at all."

"Do you remember her then? Do you remember how you stole her from me? How you stole her life and then stole her from the home she had made with me?"

"What home?"

~x~

"I expected you to be gone longer, little Catalina."

"I almost expected you to be gone completely from this place, my lord."

He shrugged negligently. "It has barely been more than a decade since I came to this place. What is the point of claiming a domain if you grow bored with it so quickly?"

She sighed as she stared down the well of the upper courtyard.

"I thought I loved him so much. Yet now…."

"You spent ten years with him. That is no inconsiderably amount of time, Catalina. It is not a betrayal to say that you have grown apart."

"He…he just never grew into a man. He is the same now as he was as a boy. How can I keep him with me for all enternity when he will always act a child?"

She closed her eyes and they stood in silence before she turned and looked up at him.

"May I stay here once more, my lord?"

He smirked.

"Welcome home."

~x~

"You took her from me! You seduced her! She was everything I wanted in life!" He stopped, eyes narrowed in hatred. "So I am returning the favor. You may try and win Seras back to you, but she sees you for who you are now. She may still have loyalty to that silly institution of yours but she will never go back to you."

Alucard shrugged. "Perhaps but you won't be around to find out."

Without giving the fake dracula time to react, he raised the Jackal and fired the massive weapon at the thin figure of the new Romanian king. The roar of exploding gunpowder echoed loudly in the room as the bullet lodged in Vladimir's chest leaving a gaping hole in its wake. He stumbled back cursing loudly in a mixture of languages before hitting the wall behind him and sinking through it.

Alucard looked at the wall for a moment before letting out an impatient sigh. Stepping forward, he followed, turning once past the solid wall to climb the well-hidden stairwell once used to thwart invaders. Even with his measured pace, by the time he crested the incline, his adversary was only just ducking into the next room. Blood splattered the floor and there were obvious signs of a fight barely finished in one of the nearby rooms but he ignored it all as he pursued his prey.

"You'll never have her back, Vlad Tepes! I stole her from you and turned her against you!"

Scoffing, Alucard entered the room where the fraud stood, brandishing a fierce looking handgun of his own. Eyeing it, he drew up short, stopping in the doorway.

"Ha! You did your research didn't you? You know what sort of power I posess in a single bullet. Are you afraid then, Lord Draculea? Are you afraid of one measly bullet?"

A grin grew on Alucard's face, slow at first until it turned into an expression of outright insanity.

"Tell me, foolish puppy, did you pay attention to your history lessons?"

Vladimir's eyes narrowed at the unexpected question.

"What do you mean?"

In a motion that seemed to take forever, Alucard swung his weapon to the side, slipping it so it hung delicately on one finger. As the fake watched, the heavy crafted metal inched its way off the bent finger before suddenly dropping to the floor. In direct contrast to the impossibly slow movements of its owner, the gun fell to the ground quickly. Yet, when it struck the polished wooden boards, instead of crashing loudly, the room exploded into pitch black as if ink had been poured over the walls, ceiling and floor.

~x~

"He's weak."

"Yes, my lord, he is."

"If I had been in his place, I would have killed us both, bathed in our blood and taken this place for my own."

"If you were in his place, my lord, you wouldn't have needed to."

"Because I'm so irresistible?"

"Because, my lord, of you there are legends."

~x~

Suddenly alone in the pitch black, Vladimir gripped his gun tightly, the metal cutting into his hand. Barely, he was able to keep himself from pointing his weapon wildly in the dark as he struggled, in vain, to locate where the other vampire had gone.

"Little dog, did they tell you, when you were young, of Vlad III?"

Wincing, Vladimir, swung his arm wildly, pointing his gun at the echoing voice.

"Of course they did. We were taught from an early age that you were a vicious bastard."

"I kept the peace."

The words echoed around the inky dark, sourceless.

"At a high cost," he muttered darkly.

Suddenly, a red eye opened in the dark, large and disturbing. Then another opened and another until he was surrounded by a room full of crazed eyes staring at him where he stood.

"Tell me then, what was one of the commandments of my rule, little Romanian child?"

A sinking feeling began to fill the pit of Vladimir's stomach as the soft words echoed through the room and his mind. Yet, before he could respond in anyway, a figure coalesced from the darkness, visible only by a pale face and hands extending from the shadows.

"Thou shalt not steal."

In an instant, the blackness was gone and Vladimir found himself flying backwards through one of the room's wide windows. Shattering glass broke the silence of the evening outside and as he fell, a scream was ripped from his throat, the sound morphing from fear into insane disbelief as he stared at the figure looking down at him. His body impacted the ground with a series of cracks and still yet he screamed for interminable seconds longer.

While he had stood in that realm of darkness, his Elizabeth had been killed and he had done nothing to stop it.

~x~

Master!

Alucard grinned madly before jumping down to the courtyard below where his prey lay broken on the snow dusted stones.

Come, Seras. Enjoy the show.

"Stand up, little dog," he ordered, sneering at the figure at his feet. When the creature didn't move, he reached a long arm down and picked him up by the throat, holding high above the ground. "Weren't you going to destroy me, dog?"

With a flick of his wrist, he sent the figure flying across the enclosed space landing in a crumpled heap on the far side of the lower courtyard. Smirking, he took a short step forward before a sound on the open walkway above caught his attention. He turned his head slightly, finding the group of misfits clattering out of the castle to look down at him. In the front of the group stood his prize. Their eyes locked and for the first time in many long years, ruby eyes stared into blue and a faint blush of red colored her cheeks.

Gleeful laughter erupted from him as he turned away to once more focus on his prey. Behind him, he could hear the chaotic steps of his former fledgling and her human companions following his path on the raised pathway. Whether they were eager to reach him or merely witness the fight, he did not know. Part of him rather thought it was the later.

The thought had just formed complete in his mind when a shot rang out in the stillness, then another. A brief flash of light became the only clue of the source as bullets ripped into his flesh through the leather cloth that bound him. Fire erupted in his veins, flowing through them like blood until his entire body felt consumed, burning from the inside. For a moment, he was overcome and he staggered in his movements before another bullet imbedded into his skin sending him to his knees.

"You call me a dog," the fake Dracula rasped, still not completely healed from his earlier assault. "You are still an arrogant fool, Lord Draculea. You think the world is still as you left it before disappearing into the bowels of the Hellsing Institute more than two centuries ago. But it's not."

He shot again then once more. He continued firing until he lad emptied his entire clip into the now prone figure of the vampire lord. When Alucard stopped moving, eyes staring sightless into the night sky, Vladimir gave him a vicious kick to the side.

"You think you are so mighty and powerful. You believe you have a power over women and people. A king among men and vampires alike. But you…you are just a dog. A dog chained to an institute who destroys the very people who would worship you."

Click.

"I guess that would make me a bitch then."

The sound of gunfire was muffled as the bullet escaped immediately into the hard matter of his skull. He stiffened, body falling forward before being roughly shoved to the side by the petite figure who stood behind. Scoffing slightly, she stepped closer to Alucard's still form and kneels beside his head. With aching tenderness, she reached a hand forward and touched a soft finger to his cheek, stroking the pale skin slightly.

Master, wake up.

Is this what you endured, my draculina, when he took you?

She smiled softly. Probably.

Intelligence came back to his eyes and they moved in his head to focus on her.

For that alone, he will not meet his end simply. He shall be destroyed.

She laughed quietly as he melted into the stone beneath him before rising to her feet once more. The sound of a footstep drew her attention and she looked over to the gored face of Vladimir. She eyed him carefully before smirking.

"Your healing abilities suck."

"How dare you? You laugh at me and mock me when I have only tried to save you from that monster!"

She shrugged, the picture of nonchalance in the fine dress he provided for her.

"I don't want to be saved."

"Good answer."

A white hand formed from the night and ripped through the flesh of his back until the blooded mass dug through his chest. With a swift movement, the drenched red claw tore viciously, separating his arm from the whole of his body. Screaming, Vladimir turned to face his assailant.

"In the good days gone by, they used to use horses to draw and quarter criminals."

With a casual gesture, Alucard threw the severed arm over his head. It sailed silently through the air until falling into the open abyss of the famed well in the upper courtyard.

"I'll remind you once more, pitiful dog, that in this land, my land, you do not steal." He grinned wickedly as the new king clutched at the open wound that was the remains of his left arm. "Especially not from me."

With a movement as quick as lightening, he shot off the other arm, grinning in sick satisfaction as it fell to the ground below.

"Damn you! This is my land! I have claimed it and made it my own!"

Vladimir's screams grew more frantic as Alucard stepped forward and reached down to take the arm from the ground and treat it in the same fashion as the other.

"You are weak, Vladimir, King of a false land. You are not worth the effort to destroy were it not for your arrogant display in taking from me what is mine."

"Fuck you!"

Alucard laughed, throwing his head back to make way for the deep throaty sound of his humor.

"Little one, if I might?"

"If you like," the amused voice returned from above where they stood and moments later a silver blade fell into Alucard's outstretched hand.

In a move smooth as liquid, the blade flashed through the night and blood sprayed in its wake. Raising the bloodied blade, the master vampire grinned at the frozen expression on his prey's face. The moment passed and the fraud toppled to the ground as his legs refused to hold his weight and separated completely from his torso.

Blood coated the stones that paved the courtyard and the softly falling snow turned crimson as it landed gently on the moaning yet living corpse. Twice more, Alucard disposed of the limbs he severed from his foe before leaning down and once more grasping Vladimir by the neck and holding him aloft. He turned on his heel and the world melted around him, reforming into the upper courtyard as he held the broken remains of his enemy over the opening to the ancient well.

"This will not kill me, Vlad Draculea," Vladimir gurgled in the moments before Alucard released his grip and sent him falling into the black depths.

"No," the master vampire agreed. "But this will."

Stepping aside, he let his former fledging step forward wielding her beloved weapon, the Harkkonen, stolen from the depths of the space between shadows. With glad purpose, she aimed its mass into the hole and fired, ducking aside in just enough time to avoid the fire that funneled upward.

For a full minute, the two vampires stared at the light that glowed in the shadow depths until it again faded into dark. Once it was completely gone, she turned to face her master and he faced her. A soft smile traced her lips as he drew a hand up to caress her cheek. Then, in a move unprecedented in all their actions together, she reached up on toe and wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing herself to him in a gentle hug. Chuckling, he wrapped his arms around her and finished the embrace.

"Welcome home."

~x~

Aidan looked down the well with a humored frown.

"I guess we should follow the age old travelling advice and not drink the water."

"Aidan?"

"Yes, Irish Deviltry?"

"Shut up?"

He shrugged and continued in the group's quick survey of the damage. If any other vampires had resided in the castle, they had long fled in the gruesome slaughter of its ruler. Still it didn't hurt to check. Poking his head into the ancient chapel he frowned.

"Hey, Dismembering Devil? Did you kill someone in here?"

Alucard looked over from where he stood in the lower courtyard with his fellow vampire and Sakura.

"Define kill."

"Permanently put to rest?"

"No."

"What happened to the idiot who you went to kill?" Winter asked as she stepped down into the courtyard once more from the upper levels.

"I'm sure he disappeared somewhere."

"You didn't kill him?" Seras asked, confused. It was definitely a first for her master.

Alucard shrugged. Then, without saying anything, he turned and walked away, leaving the group to hurry quickly after. Silence muffled the echoing sound of the door to the grand entrance slamming shut and where only an hour before chaos had ruled, only gently falling snow remained.

AN: Well, that's it. That's the last actual chapter. There is a epilogue-chapter thing to follow up which should be up shortly since I spent a good bit more brain energy creating it vs. this monstrosity.

My beta's been reading it throughout and was somewhat disappointed with Nikolai's fight scene. So I hope that Vladimir's makes up for it. She said it did.

I also hope the flashbacks were not cumbersome. It was originally going to be a scene where Alucard was like "ha ha ha you're an idiot" but then I realized he wouldn't explain himself to anyone excepting perhaps Seras and Integra so.... Yeah.

Credit for the castle in this chapter and the last goes to the actual castle. After much searching I found the webpage for the caslte itself (Which, btw, does NOT show up on google because it's listed as a Romanian site) It's a pretty neat website. There are a few others I looked at as well to give me a good idea what was where and how things worked. The first website is www. brancastlemuseum. ro It has an English equivolent. Also, if you look at the more links on the Wikipedia entry for Bran Castle, there are some nifty pictures. It's a pretty place.

Thanks again for all the lovely reviews. To all of you who have been here since the beginning and all of you wonderful new people who have sent me awesome reviews on the story as a whole. You make me happy ^_^

Til next time!