Hello there.

I hate this chapter. I don't mind telling you right here and now that I really hate this. Truth is I've had hell of a time trying to make it work, because there is much in it. I thought for a moment of splitting it in more chapters and giving it more detail, but then I thought "frankly I would sooner eat my arm". So here you have it, in all of his glorious mess.

Thanks for reviewing: hellsingfan101, Tsuki no Rekuen, Irena and Fleatcher. Seems I have lost great deal of my readers…

Disclaimers: like you don't know.

CHAPTER 21: NEXT CENTURY

Elizabeth, former Countess Bathory, stared the little vampire girl her Master had brought to their castle, fumingly. Why is it that everytime that man leaves this castle he brings back some bloodsucking hussy with him? Am I not good enough?

Count Dracula didn't need to read Elizabeth's thoughts to know what she was thinking, the displeasure was written all over her face. Asa Vajda was neither thrilled nor unhappy. To her this was just yet another thing to adapt with.

Mircalla Karnstein greeted the two other vampires she was introduced to. She didn't expect a warm welcome and therefore had nothing to complain to. As far as she was concerned, she was now protégé of her Master, and would serve him, regardless of what others had to say.

"Well, now that you all have got to know each others, it's time to start to live together, so to speak" Dracula said, clapping his hands together. "And girls, play nice" he said, knowing it was futile. But that was part of the fun.

--

Whatever distain and dislike Elizabeth had felt for Asa when they first met paled in comparison of the absolute hate she came to feel for Mircalla. Weather this was because of the girl's youth or the fact that Dracula honestly was fonder of her than Elizabeth, is anyone's guess. She loathed the girl with every inch of her being and did not fear of letting others know it too.

As if to add salt to the wound, Mircalla fully encouraged Elizabeth's hate. Unlike Asa who had simply tried her best to ignore the other woman, Mircalla bit back. She had a way of getting under Elizabeth's skin, all but in literal way that upset first bride greatly. Especially when Mircalla discovered Elizabeth's biggest weakness, her vanity, she was on a roll.

"No matter how much blood you drink or bath in, it just doesn't hide your age anymore".

"You're dead!"

Dracula watched these encounters with great amusement. Three centuries later, while seeing reruns of the Benny Hill show from TV, he would remember Elizabeth and Mircalla and say they were funnier.

Another, a far more interesting, thing about Mircalla that annoyed hell out of Elizabeth came as a surprise to everyone. She survived in sunlight.

They really discovered it by accident. Dracula had gotten up from his coffin earlier than usual, to test how well he was capable of acting during daylight hours. The time between sunrise and noon was absolutely impossible and torturing, but during afternoon hours he started feel considerably better, even able to walk and move rather freely, though his supernatural powers were extremely limited.

He was only able to take the form of a single bat, not a whole horde of them, and he could still climb walls and turn to mist, but only for a small amount of time. Still, he was improving. In a century or so, he was sure, he could move rather freely amongst crowds without waking suspicious.

It was little before dusk settled when he noticed Mircalla on the balcony of his castle. To say he was surprised was an understatement.

"I come here to watch sunset" she explained herself. "It's the best view from the castle".

"Have you come here often?"

"At first I couldn't find strength to get up until after sunset, but little by little I've been able to get up earlier".

"And the light...it doesn't hurt you? You haven't burned yourself at all?"

She simply shook her head. "No, sunlight has never harmed me, it just makes me weak".

Dracula found himself fascinated of this. Elizabeth and Asa were both unable to touch light for it would burn them in an instant, just like Orlok, Teegra and Matoba had been powerless to it.

Could it be...

An idea, a possible theory entered to Dracula's mind. While he had been trying to find a way of having a child of his own by using occult and magic, he had done some spells on himself. His goal had been to pass more of his vampire abilities to the child. Since all the experiments had failed, he had not considered what this meant to any new vampires he would create.

That must be it. Mircalla is not a re-born vampire as I am, so she should not be able to stand sunlight. Some of those spells I tried must have worked, and a part of my unique abilities was passed to her. She represents a whole new vampire: a bitten one with powers of a re-born one!

As Mircalla watched sunset with an almost childlike wonder, Dracula found himself coming next to her and put his hand to her shoulder. He felt more connected to her now than to anyone else.

--

In the 18'Th century Dracula decided that it was time to start achieving his goals: world domination over humans and destruction of God and the Christian believes.

Dracula knew that the only way this could ever be achieved was by being patient and moving slowly. Section XIII of Vatican, Iscariot, was still fully working and hunting any vampires that terrorised on their areas. But during his little travelling in Europe, Dracula had learned that world was beginning to be more and more scientific and not anymore believing in superstitious old wife's tales.

His plan was to slowly increase the ranks of vampires and infiltrate every rank of power in the world: nobility, statesmen, politicians, clergy, military and so on. Little by little they would take control of all the power in the world, in a one huge surprise attack. Of course, he knew, this could not be achieved over night, or even over a century.

But no matter, even if it takes thousand years I will achieve it! My revenge has span through the centuries and I'm only starting!

Dracula spent most of the 1700's choosing very carefully suitable candidates to be his second generation of vampires. They were all people of power in the area of Transylvania, but they also had to be trustworthy to control themselves when creating new vampires. Dracula made it clear that they were to be carefully of whom they made into vampires, never more than two three people per century. Also they should avoid creating ghouls, for they usually lead Iscariot to them. And if Iscariot found them, Dracula promised, he would not help them at all.

The new aristocrats of vampires Dracula created, although through his Brides for he did not want to be in a direct link to them, between 1732 and 1816, the ones that came to be called nobility of the undead, included Baron and Baroness Meinster, Count Von Krolock, Dr. Ravna, Lord Ruthven, Francis Varney, Count Magnus Lee, Baron Meier Link and Marguerite Chopin. They were all scattered across Transylvania and Romania and through them Dracula was able to spread his influence better. He truly became the Master of Carpathians.

In 1848 Dracula made his second move. He secretly moved Elizabeth to Hungary, Asa to Moldavia and Mircalla to Styria, to continue spreading his work. However, he made certain to them that they should not create too many in a span of too little time. Unlike Transylvania, other countries were harder to handle and they had to keep their secrecy.

"Our power lies in the fact that humans do not believe in our existence" he told them.

Mostly he worried over Elizabeth, whom he knew to be bloodthirsty and vain. Mircalla, he hoped, had grown to be more deciding in her actions. In this sense he relied most on Asa, whom he knew to be perfectly calculating. Through them a web of vampirism was created to scatter across Eastern-Europe and Dracula sat in the middle of it, as the grand spider of them all.

Slowly Dracula started to plan his next move; to conquer new countries. This was a delicate task, which he did not feel comfortable giving to anyone. He would do it himself. The plan was to expand his web to countries not ruled by the Catholic Church, and therefore outside of Iscariot's jurisdiction.

And what better place would there be than England? The British Empire was in its glory, it had a Protestant Church and a very scientifically thinking society. The mere idea of conquering England gave pleasant shivers to Dracula. He would once more be a conqueror, even when he had to do it by himself and without an army this time.

For the next decades Dracula arranged huge amounts of English literature to his castles. He self-educated himself to read, write and speak English language. He studied their history, their economics, their social classes and manners. He knew that this self-studying would only teach him so much, but it was better than arriving without any knowledge at all.

During this time Dracula led a very quiet life. All of his brides had left, leading a life of their own, and he didn't hunt anymore than he needed. He spent most of his time either learning or resting, for he knew he would need all the powers he had for this mission. He also stopped caring of his own appearance and let his black hair turn white, his skin to gray and his moustache to grow. He felt no different, for him outside appearance meant nothing, while to anyone else he looked like an old man now.

Dracula might have been ready to travel to England a lot sooner than he did, if he had not sensed something that shocked him to his very core in 1872.

Mircalla had died.

--

"Tell me their names".

It had taken months for Dracula to discover Mircalla's human servant, a woman who had pretended to be mother of Carmilla, alias Mircalla had used the last.

"Please, my lord, have mercy..." the woman begged.

"Tell me who it was that killed Mircalla. The Iscariot?" Dracula demanded.

The terrified woman shook her head. "No...no sir...there was three of them... they were lead by Baron Vordenburg. He had been living in a village Karnstein his whole life and he...he...he knew about your kind, my lord. He studied your kind..." she replied shakily.

A man who studies vampires yet is not part of the Iscariot? Dracula thought. People like that could be problematic.

"Then there was Herr Morton" woman continued. "He is the father of the girl Lady Mircalla was in the process of seducing when she was discovered. Third man was General von Spielsdorf, it was he who identified Carmilla as Lady Mircalla. Milady had been trying to seduce General's niece earlier, but failed and the girl died".

"I see..." was all Dracula said.

"Can I...can I go now, milord?"

The woman only heard a cold chuckle from the vampire lord. "Go? You think I'll let you go, just like that? Mircalla chose you as her human helper. She counted on you. Where were you when those men ambushed her while she slumbered? Where were you, when they drove a stake through her heart and cut her head off?"

Woman trembled on the ground. "I'm sorry, milord. Please forgive me!"

Dracula took the woman's head in her hands. "I can make this really sweet and quick if I so choose. I think...not today".

--

Dracula decided that family matters should be taken care of before moving to England, so he dedicated next couple of years for hunting down the men responsible of killing Mircalla. He found Herr Morton at his home in Styria and set it on fire along with him. General von Spielsdorf died soon after. Official reports say that he was killed while hunting by some big animal, probably a wolf.

However, Baron Vordenburg had left Karnstein village and was harder to track down. It wasn't until 1875 that Dracula caught up with him, when Baron was staying a night in a small village in Courtempierre, France.

Dracula made his way in the same inn and spotted the old Baron having a dinner at one of the tables. With him there was a young man in his mid twenties with blue eyes and reddish brown hair, a young woman of same age with dark hair and a small boy of possibly five.

Dracula approached the table cautiously before getting their attention. "Pardon me, but am I speaking with Baron Vordenburg, one of the most leading experts of legends and myths of Eastern-Europe?"

The old Baron seemed slightly startled but answered quickly. "Why yes".

"My name is Vladislav Tepes" Dracula answered, while holding back a smile. "I am, shall we say, expert of the similar field of study, and I have long wanted to meet you".

"Indeed? Well, won't you join us then, Herr Tepes?"

"If you and your family will pardon my intrusion" Dracula said.

The old Baron smiled wildly. "Sadly, Herr Tepes, I am without a family of my own. These young people here are the closest I have of a family, and they are very dear to me".

The young man stood up and offered his hand to Dracula. "I am sorry for not introducing myself earlier, Herr Tepes. My name is Abraham van Helsing. Won't you sit down?"

To be continued...

As said, not my best chapter, but good news: now we're over those needed transition chapters and starting next chapter we will finally get down to business!

The vampires mentioned are not pulled out of hat. Those are the names of vampire characters in many different works. Baron and Baroness Meinster appeared in Hammer horror film "Brides of Dracula" (1960), Count von Krolock is from Roman Polanski's film "Fearless Vampire Killers" (1967) and also appears in its musical version Tanz der Vampire. Dr. Ravna is from Hammer film "The Kiss of the Vampire" (1963), Lord Ruthven and Francis Varney are both from the 19'Th century pre-Dracula vampire literature, Count Magnus Lee and Baron Meier Link are from "Vampire Hunter D" stories and Marguerite Chopin is from 1932 film "Vampyr".

I chose the village in Courtempierre for settings now, because that is where the film "Vampyr" takes place.

Well, till next time! Remember to review.