Disclaimer: the story is based on the Austrian musical "Tanz der Vampire" and its predecessor, the movie "Fearless Vampire Killers". All due credit goes to Mr.s Michael Kunze, Jim Steinmann and Roman Polanski.

- CHAPTER 7 - ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS -

"Magda, I have a problem," Herbert whispered sneaking into the kitchen where his friend was cleaning up after dinner. "Remember that little villager from last night?"

"How could I forget him. He'd raised quite the havoc."

"I may be a little at fault here. He freaked out after I bit him."

Magda let go of her work and stared at Herbert in disbelief. "You did what now?!"

"I bit him," the vampire repeated. "We were making out and it just felt right."

"We must quickly bring him back to the castle," Magda said, her tone dead serious. "He will have completed the transformation by now or is going to soon, and when that happens he'll probably jump at the first person that crosses his way. This could easily lead to a new wave of vampire hysteria."

"Magda has a point there."

Turning around, Herbert saw Sarah enter the kitchen. Of all the people in the castle that could overhear them, it obviously had to be her!

"You really messed up this time, Herbert," she jeered as she passed him by, heading for the cabinets. "The Graf is so going to kill you!"

Herbert sent her a glare but deep inside he knew she was right. He had messed up and his father was going to kill him.

"It was all just a misunderstanding," he tried to defend himself. "I'll go get Anton back here, we'll clear up and everything's gonna be fine."

"No need to go anywhere, Exzellenz." Chagal appeared in the door, an arm wrapped around a small, shaking figure.

"Anton!" Herbert exclaimed, leaping forward.

"Stay away from me," the young villager hissed at him and backed behind Chagal.

"I found him as I was coming back from the woods," the Jew said, taking off his shoulder a couple of hares slamming them on the table. "He seems under shock."

"No wonder," Sarah snorted. "Not knowing what to expect, he must have had a hard time turning. I know I did."

"You only have yourself to blame for that," Herbert reminded her and turned back to Anton. "What had gotten over you last night? We were hav-"

"What had gotten over me?!" the boy cut him down. "You bit me! That's what!"

The vampire didn't understand what the issue was. "You wanted it."

"No, I didn't!"

"You like me. You had come to the castle to see me."

"I had come here to see Alfred!"

The kitchen fell silent for a moment. Then Sarah burst out into hysterical laughter.

The piercing sound pulled Herbert out of his stupor. "Alfred? You came here for Alfred?" he murmured. "Meike said..."

What did she really say? Only that Anton had fallen for a fair-haired vampire. She'd hinted it was him but it could've just as well been Alfred. His hair too, while considerably darker, still classified as fair.

Anton's brought on an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry. Meike must have misunderstood something."

"Too bad for you," Herbert replied coldly in a frantic attempt to save face. "You could've been my new boyfriend but since you don't want to, feel free to go rot away in the graveyard, or better yet, in that stinky little village. I don't care."

Tossing his head up, he strode out of the kitchen, almost crashing in the door with none other than Alfred. The younger vampire called him down for not looking where he was going but he paid it no importance.

Coming out into the courtyard, he sat on the steps leading to the keep and tried to understand why was he even so upset about the entire situation. He didn't really like that dirty peasant all that much and yet his words had cut him like a knife. It wasn't so much about him, he finally decided, as much as the fact of being rejected in favor of someone else. Again.

There was the clicking of heels and a moment later Magda joined him. She said nothing, just sat there and waited for him to open up on his own as she usually did in situations like this.

"What is wrong with me, Magda?" he finally sighed. "Why does no one ever like me?"

"I like you," Magda countered.

"You like me like a friend. That's different."

"It's not that very different."

"My father doesn't have this kind of issues. Women literally throw themselves at him."

"All they want is some vampire dick. None of them cares about him as a person. This last one too-"

"I'm not so sure about her, you know," Herbert cut in before his friend could give Meike a slating.

Magda rose a curious brow. "That is unusual coming from you. You're always the first to disapprove of your father's flings."

"I know but... I actually kind of like this one. And I think she likes us too. All of us. Well, most of us. We can't expect anyone to honestly like Eszter and Zol-" Herbert stopped mid-word and looked curiously at Magda who had raised her hand calling for silence. A second later he heard it: a low growl coming from somewhere beyond the castle walls.

"Wolves," Magda muttered, rising to her feet. "I wonder what they are doing here."

"I am more interested in what they have to growl at," Herbert countered and marched towards the barbican where the portcullis was still halfway up after the Graf's earlier departure. At the end of the passage, three gray wolves blocked the entry, baring their teeth at some invisible threat. "What is it, boy?" he asked, crouching by the largest of the animals and following its gaze towards the edge of the woods. "What do you see in there?"

The wolf turned around, and putting his paws on Herbert's shoulders, he tried to lick his year. The vampire laughed and pet the animal, his eyes scanning the dark wall of trees growing out of the mist that swirled over the ground announcing the close coming of dawn. An incomprehensible sense of danger grew in the pit of his stomach. Giving the wolf's furry back one last stroke, he got on his feet.

"Let's go back inside," he said.

Magda gave him a nod.

Lowering the portcullis all the way to the ground, they retreated to the safety of the keep. The wolves remained in their spot keeping guard from something or someone only they knew.

§§§

As Alfred walked into the kitchen, Anton felt his cheeks turn hot. Too embarrassed to even look the vampire in the eye, he quickly averted his gaze to the floor, finding a sudden interest in the pattern of the stone below his feet.

"What is going on?" Alfred asked. "Why is Anton here?"

"Herbert bit him last night," Sarah informed him promptly. "He thought-"

"Sarah," her father barked at her. "Quit blabbing and get me a meat ax. I gotta butcher these rabbits."

The redhead sent the man a glare but complied with his request.

"Have a seat, boy," Chagal pushed Anton towards an empty chair. He then circled the table and pulling the two dead animals over, he proceeded to cut their legs and heads.

Anton had seen animals be butchered before but he still had a hard time watching. In order to distract himself from the carnage, he looked around the kitchen. The space was very large, with crude stone walls that transitioned into a high vaulted ceiling. To one side, there was a massive medieval stove where some embers were still smoldering, to the other a modern induction kitchen, a microwave, and a coffee machine.

"Drink this."

Anton looked back to Chagal. The vampire was handing him a glass containing less than a finger of a sticky red liquid. Rabbit blood.

"Thanks, I'm good," he refused.

Chagal, however, wouldn't withdraw the glass. "You just turned. You must be ravenous."

"Seriously, I'm good," Anton repeated. "I already had some blood from my sister."

Chagal, Alfred and Sarah exchanged worried looks.

It then dawned on Anton that by drinking from Zhenia he could have doomed her to his own fate.

"Is she also going to turn into a vampire now?" he asked, not quite ready to hear the answer.

Alfred offered him a sympathetic smile. "I'm afraid so. When you bit her, the pressure on the jaw caused a release of a small amount of a certain substance your body began to produce after you turned. The said substance - we call it venom for lack of a better word - was then injected into your sister's bloodstream through hollow canals in your fangs. While she may not experience any visible symptoms yet, it has already triggered a series of chemical reactions in her body that will eventually lead to some physical changes. In other words, she's turning as we speak."

Anton's head spun in panic. Then he realized something. "Wait," he said, knitting his brows. "Zhenia would only turn if I bit her, right? Well, I didn't!"

"You said you had her blood."

"She'd cut her hand on a mug shard. I only licked some off her palm."

The three older vampires all let out a relieved breath.

"In that case, she'll be fine," Alfred said, grabbing at the glass of rabbit blood. "Guess, you really don't need this."

Anton shook his head. "You can have it all."

Alfred, however, only took a small sip and passed the glass on to Sarah who emptied it in one big gulp.

"Is this what you normally have? Animal blood?" Anton asked, as it suddenly occurred to him that up until now there had never been any suspicious deaths or disappearances in the neighborhood.

"Animal blood is a valid alternative in case of emergency but it can never fully substitute for human blood."

"Why not? Isn't it essentially the same thing?"

Alfred laughed. "Not really, no. Different species have different blood composition and structure. Only human blood has all the characteristics necessary to quench our thirst, if only for a while."

"So, you're saying you normally drink human blood?"

Sarah let out a snort. "Duh!"

"We are constantly provided with some by a family friend who runs a donation center; his girlfriend, who is a nurse, also sneaks some out of the hospital," Alfred said before Anton could voice his next question. "Your dad also sends us someone to drain from time to time. Usually a truck driver or a hiker."

The dots connected in Anton's head. Now it was clear what his father had to talk about with the vampires. Perhaps by sending strangers to the castle, he earned immunity for himself and the rest of the family.

"Oh no," he suddenly whispered as something occurred to him. "Meike. You guys want to drain her as well."

"We did," Alfred admitted, "but that's probably out of the question now that the Graf had taken a liking to her."

"Yeah," Sarah added with a sour face. "It would seem he now wants to turn her."

"You don't seem to like the idea?" Anton observed with perverse satisfaction. "Jealous much?"

Sarah glanced nervously at Alfred. "No," she drawled. "I just don't think she's worth all the fuss."

"You are jealous!"

"No, I'm not!"

"Stop it, children," Chagal put himself in between Sarah and Anton before they could jump to each other's throats.

"Come, Liebling," Alfred took Sarah by the arms. "It's almost dawn. We'd better head to the crypt."

The two of them left, leaving Anton alone with Chagal. The Jew put the butchered rabbit parts away in the freezer and cleaning himself up, he headed for the door.

"Come on, boy," he called to Anton. "We must find you a place to sleep during the day."

Together they climbed upstairs, stopping only when they had reached the attic.

"So this is where I'm gonna be sleeping," the boy said with obvious disappointment, looking around the large dusty space, filled with all kinds of junk, from boxes full of old-fashioned clothes to half-ruined furniture.

"No, stupid," the older vampire huffed at him. "We just came here to get you a blanket and a pillow." He pointed to some bed pieces hanging from thick ropes extending between the wooden beams supporting the roof. "Come on, help me out."

Once they pulled down all the items needed, they headed back downstairs but instead of stopping by one of the guest rooms, they came out into the courtyard and proceeded towards a narrow passageway encased between the keep and a smaller, partially collapsed building Anton guessed might have once been the chapel. On the other side, a steep stone path led to a wrought-iron gate that opened to a small portion of green land enclosed within high stone walls. There, rising from the morning mist, was a number of simple stone tombs.

Chagal walked up to one and pushing the lid to the side with surprising ease, he showed Anton inside. "Our most comfortable grave!" he boasted. "You won't find anything better in any graveyard!"

Anton peeked inside the tomb and shook his head. "I'm not getting in there."

"When the Graf comes back, you can ask him for a place in the crypt but for now, you get to sleep in the graveyard with everybody else," Chagal said, laying the blanket on top of a wooden board at the bottom of the tomb and throwing a pillow on top.

"No, you don't get it," Anton protested further. "I can't sleep in a grave. I'm not dead."

"No, just a vampire," spoke an amused male voice and turning around Anton saw one of the resident vampires enter the graveyard.

"Good morning, Doctor Hasek," Chagal greeted him. "I see you decided to retire early today."

"I needed rest and you, young man," Hasek addressed Anton, "look like you need some as well. To your misfortune, you can now only find it in the darkness and quiet of a grave."

Anton finally gave up and taking his shoes off and placing them at the bottom of the den, he lay inside.

"Wait," he cried when Chagal began to close him in. "Won't I suffocate in here?"

"Suffocate? You barely breathe at all! You could lie in there for a week and still be fine..."

The sound of the older vampire's voice faded into silence as the lid finally slid into its place, sealing Anton away from the waking world outside.

§§§

When Krolock had asked Meike to go with him, she hadn't imagined they would be going quite so far. Leaving the village, they had been relentlessly speeding on for at least a couple of hours before the vampire finally pulled down by a gas station. Around, there was nothing but green fields stretching all the way to the horizon where they met the jagged line of the mountains.

"Krolock," Meike murmured, her eyes fixed on the eastern sky, "it's almost sunrise."

"You worry about me," the vampire teased and kept fueling up, not at all concerned by the impending coming of dawn. "That's so sweet."

"I don't worry about you ," Meike spat back. "I worry about myself. If you burst into flames while we ride, I'll die too and a horrible death at that."

"Meike," Krolock gave her a patronizing look, "you saw me walk in the sun before. If I hadn't spontaneously combusted then, you can assume I won't now either."

The German was about to counter but then she realized the vampire was right. When they had first met, it hadn't been completely dark yet. She supposed she hadn't paid attention to it because back then she still thought she was dealing with a weirdo in a costume.

"This whole burning in the sun thing is just a movie industry invention," Krolock continued conversationally. "The concept was first introduced in 1922 Nosferatu, if I'm not mistaken, although he didn't exactly burn just… poofed into smoke. Anyway, in Stoker and other early gothic fiction that based on the lore, vampires could walk in the sun, and were only weakened by the light which, to be honest, is quite correct."

"Your eyes," Meike said, thinking of the vampire's huge pupils she had first taken for a temporary effect of a drug but now suspected were a defining feature for his kind. "You can't see in the light."

The vampire nodded. "When you turn, your pupils dilate to the maximum and paralyze, losing the ability to dose the amount of light that enters the eye. It's still dark enough but as the sun gets higher, I'll be literally blind."

"That's really worrying considering you're the one driving."

"I have a custom-made helmet with a photochromatic visor. And in any case, we'll get there before it gets too bright for my comfort."

"Where are we even going?" Meike asked. She'd initially assumed it was Bistritz but they had long passed it, heading further West.

"Cluj-Napoca," Krolock replied, checking his pockets for some cash to pay for the gas. "We're now in Sub Coastă, not far from the airport."

As if to confirm the vampire's words, an engine roared somewhere in the distance and a moment later an airplane emerged from beyond a hill. Meike followed its flight with her eyes, a sense of frustration building in her chest. This could've been her chance to escape but in all the bustle she'd forgotten to take with her as much as an ID. Then Anton's pale face appeared in her mind and she realized that even if she hadn't made that mistake, she still couldn't' just leave, not until she found a way to get him back to normal.

"Get on." Krolock motioned his head at the bike. "We gotta get going."

Meike put her helmet back on and climbed behind the vampire, who then rolled the bike back onto the road and they sped towards the city that lay asleep in the distance.

Soon the green fields gave way to suburban residential areas. Houses painted in shades of pink, yellow, peach and green appeared by the road, their number growing the closer they got to the city center. It was in front of one such unassuming two-story pastel house that Krolock eventually pulled up and leaving the bike parked in the driveway, he rang the doorbell. A moment later a man opened up. He appeared to be about fifty with his short salt and pepper hair and a pair of square glasses propped on his nose.

"At last, my friend," he greeted Krolock, pulling him into a man hug. "I was growing worried something bad happened to you as well."

"No, I just… I'd run into a little setback," Krolock replied casually before turning to Meike. "This is Doctor Otto Siegert," he introduced the man. "Otto, this is Meike. She is a friend of mine."

"A pleasure to meet you, Liebe Frau." Otto took Meike's hand and brought it to his lips.

"The pleasure is mine," Meike uttered, staring at Otto's long and sharp nails. She'd assumed for some reason that the Doctor would be human. Instead, he too was a vampire.

They went inside the house. A younger woman with fair skin and short dark hair that left in plain sight the two band-aids plastered on the side of her neck was waiting for them in the hallway. She introduced herself as Vanda.

Otto sent her upstairs to prepare a guest room before taking Meike and Krolock into the kitchen and having them both take a seat at the large table by the window while he put water for tea.

"Sorry for not letting you know I was coming in with a friend," Krolock said. "It was kind of a spontaneous idea."

"Oh, don't worry about it. Vanda will have the room ready for her in no time."

"She is interested in your research work, you know."

Otto turned to Meike with a curious expression. "That's nice. People usually prefer to stick with their legends and superstitions."

"Not me. I want to know the truth about vampires, what they are, where they come from..."

"Oh, I absolutely understand that. I had the same questions when I'd first ran into them. It was in the forties. I was working in a medical research facility back in Germany. One time, a man and a woman had been brought in after being caught gnawing into a man's throat. We were to determine what they were and if it was possible to involve them in the war..."

Otto looked blankly into space as he lost himself in the memories. A shadow passed across his features.

"They were just a couple of kids," he said heavily. "I took pity on them and helped them escape but was caught in the process. As punishment, I was turned into a vampire to act as the new test subject. The research continued for a few months before I managed to break away. Soon after I heard the news the lab went in smoke and with it all the research material. The only copy left was the one in my own head. Good thing that I have such a good memory."

The whistle of the kettle broke Otto out of his tirade. He turned the gas off and aptly prepared four cups of tea. In the meantime, Vanda walked into the kitchen bearing a tiny glass bowl on the bottom of which rolled a shiny red ball. When she placed the bowl in front of Krolock, Meike saw it was something akin to a liquid pill only several times larger.

"Yes, it's blood," Vanda confirmed before Meike could voice her question. "About 10 ml. The optimal daily dose for a healthy adult vampire."

"We obtain it from willing donors under the pretense of a regular blood collection," Otto added. "We then convert it into this form which allows longer storage and easier transport."

Meike grinned happily at the discovery but then she thought of Anton and Vanda and her face darkened. "You guys can feed without harming anyone," she hissed, "and yet you still go and bite on people."

"The consumption of prepackaged blood may satisfy our physical need but it cannot make up for the pleasure of a bite." Saying that the Doctor turned to Vanda who exchanged his gaze with the same burning need. "You see, biting isn't just about feeding for us."

Meike felt heat rise to her cheeks as memories of the ball and then the situation in the bathroom flashed through her mind. She glanced at Krolock. The vampire was staring at the offered blood as if trying to decide whether to take it or not.

"Thanks for the thought," he finally said, pushing the bowl away, "but I'm hoping to have… a proper meal soon and wouldn't want to spoil myself the pleasure."

Meike swallowed hard, more than aware the meal the vampire was talking about was her. Her insides churned but she couldn't be sure if it was in fear or a sick sense of anticipation.