Author's Note: I thought that it might be a good idea to refresh the memory of some and inform the others who have not read my story 'The Ties That Bind'. The monster community is governed by a worldwide parliament which, during that story, authorized limited integration of monsters and humans. After that they began to set rules and assign venues for this to happen. The two primary monsters involved with this are the new prime minister, Sesshomaru, and the leader of the opposition, Methusa.

Sesshomaru is from the manga and anime series Inuyasha, the full demon (monster) brother of the titular character. After that story, he zinged with Rin and they had two half-demon daughters. For the last century and a half he has been a member of the parliament, rising through the Separatist ranks, reaching the post of prime minister after the last election even though he had warmed to the cause of integration.

Methusa is the only daughter of Medusa. Cursed like her mother, she has snake filled hair but unlike her mom she is able to control her power and even reverse it. She is the leader of the Inegrationist movement, and covertly began long ago a link to artists in the human world to change the perception of monsterkind. Many works of fiction from movies and television to books were the product of this program, even if some took a large amount of dramatic license. (see Dracula's feelings on Twilight as one example). Dracula's favorite character under this program is Count van Count from Sesame Street.

Chapter 36

The Return of the Queen

Sesshomaru had entered the grand lobby of the hotel even more casually than normal. He still enjoyed wearing flowing robes from his youth, but since the last 'No Confidence' vote his gait had become more relaxed, much like he had in the last few months. He no longer cared to be a leader; now only wishing to serve a cause that he had become a champion for.

Sesshomaru stepped to the ancient looking desk, in awe of the recent changes to the hotel. Electronics were displayed prominently throughout the lobby, and televisions were broadcasting monster and human programs. The clerk he stepped up to was Clifton.

"Ugh," the technological expert greeted to the leader of his kind.

Sesshomaru smiled warmly in reply. "Hello Clifton. Where is Dracula?" His voice was as regal as always with him speaking using flawless enunciation.

Across the lobby after just finishing her lunch with Mavis and Wanda, Jenna had returned to her duties in the hotel. She had heard someone ask for her employer at the desk and figured that the zombie staff had upset a new guest again. She raced across the lobby at her full vampiric speed and stopped a few feet from the face of Sesshomaru before she angrily stared at Clifton. "What'd you do now?" She asked him sounding more irritated than angry.

"Un-un!" Clifton could only grunt in reply as he shook his head.

"Nothing is wrong, my good lady," Sesshomaru interjected on the zombie's behalf. He reached for her hand and kissed it like the nobleman he was, noticing the name tag she wore. "My name is Lord Sesshomaru, and I would like your presidential suite. I just always ask for Dracula when I arrive since he likes to take care of me personally."

Jenna smiled, exposing her fangs which elicited a smile from Sesshomaru in reply. "My name's Jenna, and uh… I guess I'm in charge now, since Drac left on important business for a few hours."

Sesshomaru subtlety sniffed at the hand of Jenna as he kissed it. "Newborn vampire," he whispered, commenting at the scent. He wondered how Dracula would have found this fledgling on his own, unless of course he was the hunter who lost control. But this was not likely, since Dracula had not hunted humans in more than a century. In addition, Dracula had not shown any urges to harm Jonathan, even taking great care when Jonathan was willing to sacrifice himself to save Dracula's life. Sesshomaru reached into his pocket and produced a business card identifying him as a delegate of the parliament.

Jenna inspected the card for a moment before Mavis returned to the lobby. She flushed at the sight of Sesshomaru talking to Jenna, and quickly rushed to them as a mist. "My lord," Mavis greeted him as she curtsied. "Allow me to introduce you to my sister-in-law, Jenna."

"Oh," Sesshomaru gasped as he realized exactly who this girl was, "So Jonathan's sister then?"

"Yep," Jenna answered with a smile and a nod.

Mavis noticed the look on Sesshomaru's face, and was slightly nervous. "So what brings you to our humble inn?"

A chuckle came from the Prime Minister. "Just a random inspection on the interaction of humans and monsters. And there is something that I need to talk to you father about."

"Well, maybe we can help you with some of it," Jenna suggested still smiling as she proceeded to prepare the suite for their guest.

"If you wish," Sesshomaru responded casually. "It seems that there has been reports of a brood of new vampires, and it needs to be investigated."

"What's that mean? I mean what's a 'brood'?" Jenna asked sounding worried.

"Families of vampires have different names around the world," Mavis answered to her sister-in-law. "Brood, coven, pack; I've heard them all."

"Oh!" Jenna blushed.

"I assume that a hunter has lost control, and it will be up to Dracula to track him, since he's now the king of vampires with your grandfather's passing," he said to the girls with the final part directed at Mavis.

"How long have they been around?" Mavis asked wondering if she knew who they were.

"The first reports I saw of them was in mid June."

"Mavis, could they be talking about my family?" Jenna asked. Dennis's birthday was when most of her family found their power, so that would fit his timeline.

"Your whole family? Children too?" Sesshomaru asked worried how the entire family would have become vampires at roughly the same time.

"Pretty much. I mean, Johnny and I were turned about three months before, but I think we're all vampires now."

"Who bit them!?" Sesshomaru demanded to Mavis. His eyes were no longer friendly, but glowed red with a burning rage.

"No one," answered Mavis terrified of what Sesshomaru might do, since legends surrounding his temper and wrath were almost infamous as her father's.

"Yeah," Jenna confirmed, her voice trembling slightly. "We've all got some vampire in us anyway."

"Oh," Sesshomaru retracted embarrassed from his overreaction. He had assumed they were turned vampires, not awoken ones. "My apologies, it's just been a long journey from Japan."

"Wait, so why would it matter if children were turned?" Jenna asked. She remembered back to one of the Twilight books and how when the vampire royalty thought that Bella's child was a turned vampire, they desired to destroy her before she could become uncontrollable. "Is it like Twilight?"

"That is one of the few truths about vampires that those books got correct, even if only slightly. A bitten child requires much more supervision and guidance. If they fail to receive it, the consequences could be disastrous."

Jenna blanched at his remarks. "Disastrous how?"

Sesshomaru considered lying to them, but felt that they should know the truth. "There have been times when a child vampire has been unable to control their hunger or anger and slain entire villages."

"Oh my god!" Jenna gasped as she almost felt sick. She never thought that the reason for her nephews remain behind was more for the safety of their friends back home than their own. She made peace with that and the PM left them.

Sesshomaru left the ladies and retired to his room, relieved that indeed the new vampires were awoken ones. This meant that they didn't need to find the few hunters still left, possibly having to discipline them. He knew that this was the biggest danger to integration; monsters and humans falling in love, and the parliament had placed regulations on humans being turned into monsters for the sole reason of a zing, but other than Jonathan there had not been a request for such action in more than a year.

Jenna still wondered the rest of the night about many of the vampire and werewolf traits in the Twilight books. How much of it was actually true, and how much was only half truths? The first thing she thought of was the myth that female vampires couldn't get pregnant. This was so obviously false since Mavis had been pregnant, and both of her parents were vampires before she was born. Jenna filed those questions away; there'd be plenty of time to ask those later.

Freddy had helped Margaret take as many of her belongings as the two of them could shove into the hearse. Neither of them knew if they would ever be able to return to get the rest of Margaret's things. Freddy had grabbed only two pictures of him and his mother he still had. He didn't care about anything other than those.

"So how far away is this place?" Margaret asked shortly after we left the castle.

"About four hours," Freddy answered smiling with a chuckle. He couldn't believe what she would see; not only more vampires, but also werewolves, Frank, and more. But there was one thing that kept entering Freddy's head, and about twenty minutes into the journey he asked it. "Why'd you stay after mom left?"

Margaret was holding back tears. She knew the truth, and their mother did not leave.

"What's wrong, Maggie?" Freddy asked as he put his right arm around his sister and tried to comfort her.

"Mom… she's … she didn't leave."

Freddy pulled into a roadside park. He knew where this was going and he didn't like it. Secretly he always feared that this was the case. "Let me guess," Freddy sighed, his eyes gleaming despite the fact that a rage was burning inside of him, "Grandpa?"

Margaret could only nod her head. "About a month after mom took me in, Gustav found out the truth." Freddy knew that his sister never called his grandfather anything other than his name. "He saw me carrying mom as I floated around. I tried as hard as I could to hide my true self from everyone here, but mom was different. When she found me, I was about to..." but Margaret broke down in tears before she was able to say another word. "Oh god!" She cried.

Freddy pulled her in even closer, letting her forehead touch his chin as he softly stroked her dark brown hair. "It's okay," Freddy said softly.

Margaret pulled away from his embrace. "No, it's not!" She screamed ashamed of herself. "I almost bit her. I had been by myself for more than a year and was almost feral. I couldn't control myself, and almost…" She couldn't continue. Margaret begin crying uncontrollably. She had nearly killed the person who had been the nicest to her since her family was slaughtered.

For the first time, Freddy didn't know what to say. He wished that Dracula was there as he always knew just the right words to help him. "You didn't. Remember that," Freddy told his sister as he pulled her back in.

After a few deep breaths, aided by the love of her brother, Margaret was finally able to resume. "There was something in mom that stopped me, and I'm so glad it did. But the night mom died, Gustav made me watch. He slit her throat so casually, so naturally that I couldn't believe it. He even invited me to feast on her blood, but I was so disgusted that all I could do was throw up. The next day he started trying to train me to hunt monsters but I knew the truth. There was nothing else out there that was half as much of a monster as he was. I did everything he ordered, but I had vowed to never raise my hand in anger at any creature again."

Freddy joined Margaret in tears as she told him of what she had witnessed. He always feared that his mother was dead, but had been able to hold onto a small glimmer of hope that she was alive somewhere out there and would come take the two of them away from all of the hate. Freddy gasped at why he had such a keen interest in monsters, "It wasn't because of Uncle Freddy, but because of mom! And you!"

"What are you talking about?"

"That's why I wanted to meet monsters! I knew they weren't that different from us."

Just then something started bombarding the roof of the car. Looking out the window, the two saw what it was. Someone or something was hurling large rocks towards them.

Margaret's eyes glowed dark green as she focused on seeing what was trying to assault them, that's when she saw their assailants. "There's a big bat and two large birds doing it," she yelled at him.

The hearse lurched forward as Freddy forced the large vehicle back into gear. Luckily they were still on the highway when the attack happened, and were able to outrun the two birds. The bat, however, was able to match their speed, almost 80 miles per hour (100 KM/H)

"We've gotta stay ahead of them!" Freddy yelled almost in a panic, as he had the accelerator to the floor, but the large vehicle refused to go any faster. This would be a problem, because they would soon be approaching Brasov and that would mean city traffic, even during the current 02:00 hour.

No sooner than the hearse entered the city limits of Brasov, had traffic slowed to a crawl. Both of them knew that they were sitting ducks in traffic. Freddy was about to suggest that they try to flee on foot, but that's when Freddy noticed a familiar brown blur fly past the vehicle and start to fight the man-sized bat.

A smile crossed Freddy's face as he saw Karen's bat form rush past the car and go after the man bat, although he wondered how she knew where to find him. That's when a black bat with glowing red eyes came into view, and he realized the answer. Dracula had told her where he was going.

The two vampires made quick work of the man-bat. Nikola wanted no part in fighting the legendary Count Dracula by himself, let alone with it being two on one against, but he wasn't able to retreat quick enough. Karen caught him first and hit him with a huge right hook that sent him flying away from the city with such force that he struck a mountain more than two miles away, fracturing some of the granite. The two birds fled as soon as they noticed the vampires, and were left to retreat in peace.

Dracula and Karen landed in the hearse but were unable to find enough room to return to their vampire forms, so they remained as bats. Karen stood perched on Freddy's right shoulder, which made him smile from ear to ear. Shortly after getting through Brasov, Freddy found an abandoned gas station and pulled over to allow them a minute to stretch out their legs and meet his sister. Before Karen was able to change back, Freddy already had her in his arms with a large smile on his face. "You always will be my guardian angel, won't you?" Freddy asked as Karen returned to herself still in his arms.

"Kind of my job, zing zing," she answered as she returned his embrace. After a minute, her glance turned to Margaret and she asked, "But I have to know who this lovely young lady is?"

"This is my sister, Maggie."

At the first sight of Margaret, Karen saw a resemblance to Martha, but wasn't sure if it meant anything or not. But now that she had returned to her vampire form, she could smell a familiar scent. It was vague but definite; this girl was certainly a vampire.

"Well this certainly is a pleasure," Karen said softly, maintaining her smile. "I'm Karen, and me and this silly little guy," adding as she squeezed Freddy's waist lovingly, "are in love."

Margaret smiled as she was told about her brother and zing. "You always did have a thing for older women," adding with a laugh.

Freddy also had a large grin on his face. "You have no idea. And I'm ready; there's no more reason to wait." His glance turned to Karen as he dropped to a knee.

Karen blanched as she thought about what he could be preparing to do, her eyes changing color to blood red as she read his thoughts. When she realized what he was going to do tears started to fill her eyes. "What are you doing?"

"Karen, I'm ready for the commitment. Will you marry me?"

Even though Karen knew this was coming from reading his thoughts, she still wasn't ready for this. It took a few seconds, but she nodded.

"I'm ready to be with you," Freddy said with tears in his eyes as rose to embrace her again before he added, "forever."

A black bat landed in the clearing with the rest of them, and Dracula returned to his regular form. He had heard everything, and was felt himself being drawn to Margaret. There was something eerily familiar about this young girl. No, Dracula thought, not a girl, but a young lady. What was drawing him to her was her eyes. They were so familiar, but he couldn't place them.

Karen and Freddy still held each other in the pure bliss from their recent engagement, but couldn't help but notice the expression on both Margaret's and Dracula's faces. There was a look of familiarity between them, as if two star crossed lovers found each other again after what seemed to the two of them as if it was an eternity. Karen was the first one to recognize what should have been so obvious to her when she heard Margaret's voice for the first time, which resulted in a loud gasp.

Freddy felt her shaking, but wasn't sure what it meant. He saw in how his sister looked at Dracula; the exact same thing that he saw in Karen's eyes when he looked at her. The first thing that entered his mind was that Margaret was just too young to find her zing. And even deeper than that was that Karen had told her was that one only zings once in their life. Dracula and Martha had definitely zinged.

"She's baaaack," Karen said stretching the word 'back' out in sing-song answering Freddy's queries.

"Who?" Freddy asked still holding onto his new fiancée.

"Martha!" Karen answered in a whispered gasp.