Christine stopped, taking a moment to drag a lungful of air into her lungs. She could still catch hints of Dick's scent. It had been easy to follow his scent once she had picked it up about 2 miles from where he had originally been taken. Christine had a good sense of smell, but when it came to Dick she was more adept at catching his scent than a Great White Shark. His scent had become stronger, which likely meant he had drawn blood.

She clenched her hands into fists at her side. If they'd hurt him, she would rip them limb from limb, leaving their heads till last so they felt every second of the agony.

'Christine?' Batman came to her side, underneath the cowl and the stern expression he looked like he wanted to be sick.

'I've still got him. But the trail is easy to follow. Too easy.'

'You think it's a trap?'

She nodded. She was almost certain it was a trap, but she was not going to leave her son in the hands of those parasites a second longer than she had too. Besides, the Dracula line had always been a lot stronger than your average vampire. Trap or no trap, she could take them.

'Should we wait for your father?'

'No, every second we wait is another second Dick is in their hands.' She took another breath. 'This way.'

They walked further, heading down back streets towards more industrial buildings and warehouses. The further they walked, the further from civilisation they became. To be honest, both Batman and Christine were glad. If this was going to go south, they were glad that there was not going to be a high risk of civilians walking into the middle of a battlefield.

'Where are they taking him?' Batman mused aloud.

Suddenly Christine froze.

'Hide.' She said.

'What?'

'Run, hide. Now!'

Bruce wasted no more time, turning on his heel he ran in the direction Christine had instructed. Moments later he had tucked himself in the shadows inside a nearby warehouse. From here he was hidden, but still had a viewpoint of his friend. He sat and he waited, he could hear his heart beating in his chest. He wasn't used to this, being the one to run and hide, being the one afraid in the shadows. But this was Christine's world and these were monsters so if the vampire Princess told him to run and hide he would ask no questions.

Christine just stood where he had left her, still as ice. Finally, another figure approached. A blonde, female, beautiful, dangerous. Even from where he hid, Batman could feel the sense of danger rolling off the newcomer. She was a vampire. Suddenly Batman realised why the undead had brought his son through here. With the long, tall buildings creating a maze in this industrial district, the sun was blocked from all angles, creating long stretches of shadow. This was the trap.

'Hello, Christiana.' The blonde's red lips stretched into a smile, revealing her fangs.

Christine glared into the woman's red eyes.

'Lucy.'

'Are you lost, little Princess?'

'Stop playing games.' Said Christine, her blue eyes changing to purple, her own fangs now bared. 'Where is he?'

Lucy seemed unaffected by the royal vampires show of dominance. Instead, she cocked her head to the side, her blond hair shifting and falling, creating a blonde waterfall.

'Who?'

Christine launched forward, her hair merging to white as she attacked. In the last second, Lucy dodged the attack, laughing as she put some distance between herself and the royal.

'Oh wait, now I remember. This tall, blue eyes, very cute, feisty temper?' She indicated Dick's height with her hand, then shrugged, grinning at her opponent. 'Haven't seen him.'

'Tell me where he is!' Christine shouted, but the blonde merely laughed.

'Your voice has no effect on us. Only Dracula himself can command us, but he's not here is he.' She sniffed the air, her grin widening. 'But somebody is and he smells delicious.'

The next few moments went in a blur. One minute Batman was watching the two fight, then suddenly the blonde was heading his way. By some luck, or maybe by the vampires design, he was able to dodge her. Coming out of his hiding place and out into the open. But she was upon him again, tripping him. He fell to the ground, wildly looking up once again for his attacker. She was coming again, those red eyes were going to be the last thing he ever saw!

Suddenly, Christine was between them, her body protecting him from certain death. Bruce expected her to push the vampire back, to strike. But no one moved. Then Christine made a sound, halfway between a sob and a choke as blood began to drip on the floor.

She fell to her knees, then into Batman's arms, a wooden stake protruding from her chest.

'Oh dear, Christiana. Whatever will you do now.' Lucy toyed, looking down on the pair. 'That's a nasty wound you've got there, your going to need some blood to heal that.' She grinned wickedly. 'But there's no one around. Well, except your little friend. Looks like you've got a choice to make. Follow your beloved morals and die, or become the monster you really are and live.' She winked and began to walk away. 'Choose wisely! Oh, I'll tell little Dickie mummy and daddy say hi!'

In a second she was gone, leaving Batman alone with his dying comrade.

'Christine, hold on.'

'It was a trap. I knew it and yet I walked straight into it.' Christine mumble, her speech already becoming slurred. She coughed, blood escaping her mouth and settling on her chin. Her white hair faded to black, her eyes back to blue.

They had planned this well. There were no humans around, no blood banks. A wound like this was too severe for her to heal by herself. She wasn't her father, she wasn't strong enough.

'Christine, what do you need. Tell me what to do!' Bruce's words were only just reaching through her fogging mind.

'Blood.' She whispered. It was hopeless. She was going to die. Again. At least this time she was in the arms of someone she loved, not alone in a back alley of London.

'Christine!' His face was in front of her again. Richard? No, Richard was dead. He'd died that night, she couldn't save him, she had had to save Dick. Dick! He beautiful little boy. Where was he? She wanted to hold him, feel his presence, smell the sweet scent that belonged only to her son.

Something was pressed against her mouth, it was soft. Then something sweet was on her tongue. Sweet. So sweet.

oOoOoOoOo

Dick grasped his chest, doubling over and gasping for air. The pain was immense.

'Are you alright Little Prince?'

They were sat in what Dick couldn't only describe as a living room. There were sofas, books, a tv. He was sat in a chair in the corner, his knees brought up to his chest. He'd been there for some time, refusing to move, refusing to play along with Van Helsing's game.

The vampire was also sat in the room, a book held loosely in his hand. He had looked up from his reading after hearing Dick gasp. Christof, who was also peached in a chair, cleaning his gun, pause too to look over at him.

The pain in Dick's chest did not go away, instead, it grew.

'I feel like I'm dying.' He gasped, dropping from the chair onto the floor.

Abraham placed his book aside and came to kneel before the boy.

'Breath child, you are not dying.'

'This pain...' Dick said, almost with a whimper. Why did it hurt so much?

'Is not your own.'

Dick looked up at him, confused at his statement. If it was not his pain then whose was it? It was the sympathetic look on his captor's face that clued him to the answer. He had always thought they were somehow connected. She always knew how he was feeling, knew when he was hurt or upset, no matter how well he tried to hide it. He thought it was just because she was his mother, but maybe it was something more. Maybe there was a connection between them, a connection that didn't just go one way! But if that was true, then this pain...

'What have you done to her!' He cried. Van Helsing did not answer, but his look of sympathy grew.

'What needed to be done.'

Then something came that was worse than the pain. A lack of it. The pain stopped, his body was once again his own. But did that mean...?

'Better?' The man asked.

Dick shook his head. No, she couldn't be gone. He refused to believe she was dead.

Abraham seemed to sense the boy's turmoil, he stood and went back to his book, leaving Dick on the floor with his own thoughts.

Time passed and the door opened and the blonde bitch swanned in, the front of her clothes stained with blood.

'That didn't take you long.' Said Christof.

'What can I say. She didn't put up much of a fight.' Lucy seemed to notice Dick, still on the floor. She grinned. 'You felt it didn't you.' It wasn't a question, the look on his face told her everything.

'What did you do?' He whispered.

'I added another Grayson to my collection.'

Dick saw red, he launched himself from his place on the floor, eyes becoming purple, hair becoming white. He went for the woman before him, for the first time in his life he was intent on killing. But a force sent him reeling back to the floor, he quickly flipped and took a defensive stance.

Lucy cackled, her face lite up with excitement.

'The fledgeling protection works both ways kid. We can't touch you, but you can't attack us either.' She said. 'But look at those eyes, Abraham. He's already becoming one of us.'

'What do you mean?' Dick didn't move from his position, he was still ready to fight.

'You feel it deep inside you.' She came closer, stopping just before him. 'That feeling that drives us, it's that feeling that separate us from them. That animal instinct, that need to kill.'

Dick blanched, shaking his head.

'Deny it all you want child. But those eyes don't lie.' She shrugged, turning her back on him and heading for in the sleeping quarters of the hideout. 'I'm going to sleep, all this walking in the day is exhausting.'

The inhabitance of the room settled back down but Dick remained where he stood. Slowly, he turned, catching a glimpse of himself in the mirrored surface of the coffee table. This time it wasn't his white hair that shocked him, it was his eyes. His left eye glowed the same purple as his mother and grandfathers eyes, but his right was blood red.

oOoOoOoOoOo

Christine groaned as her mind became more clear. The pain was gone so either she was dead or someone had saved her. Her body was doing something on its own accord. Her instincts controlling her. She was holding something. She had it in her mouth. Was she drinking? It took a few more moments to regain clarity. She was feeding.

Opening her eyes she realised she was still on the street, but she was no longer lying prone and bleeding, she was on her knees, a weight in her lap and something between her teeth. Oh god, Bruce! His arm was between her teeth.

Her eyes dropped to her lap, he was lying there, cowl down, eyes closed.

Stop! You have to stop! You'll kill him!

But her body wouldn't cease its feeding.

Stop! Please stop!

You're killing him. Stop. Bruce hang on. Stop. Someone help! Stop. STOP!

A/N I'm alive! Chapter update. I'm not going make any more promises to finish this story. I'm just going to apologise and work on it when I can! I will get it finished, but please bare will me! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you thought of it in the reviews! Your reviews really do encourage me to write so please do take the time to say a little something if you enjoyed the story! Until next time. Karin x