-/-

The blonde stewardess tasted a little of everywhere she had been, and although he was more widely travelled now than ever before, there were still parts of the world he hadn't visited. Dracula had plucked her memories like a virtuoso did a violin's strings, savouring one then the other. Before settling on a magnificent plateau filled with ruins, steep green mountainous slopes stretching out as far as his eye could see. So high up they were even above the clouds. Dracula slowed down the rate at which he drained her, just so he had longer to enjoy the view.

"Where are we?" An unwelcome familiar voice suddenly interrupted his quiet reflection, and Dracula whirled around to confront this shade.

"What are you doing here? He demanded, squinting against the setting sun as a familiar figure emerged from his blind spot.

"Shouldn't you be asking yourself that, you're the one who conjured me?" Agatha answered, all the while knowing that was a half-truth at best.

This had happened to them once before, and it seemed just like before, Agatha was the only one to realise, that although this was a dream, it was also real. Dracula was probably in his penthouse, feeding from the poor blonde he had left laying over there. Agatha knew she was home, asleep, her thoughts before bed had been full of the knowledge that Dracula was back in London. Whether intentional all not, Dracula had thought of her and that had been enough to build the bridge between them.

Perhaps this knowledge was something Agatha should tell him about, only together would they be able to work out how to stop it happening. Only seeing him here after all this time, as much as she was still furious with him, it was still nice to see him. He looked well, fit, and even a little tanned. Travelling clearly agreed with him. Seeing the world, whilst she was stuck here doing the hard work…no Agatha suddenly had no desire to share her knowledge, for once it was nice to be the one calling the shots.

"If you are a demon of my own summoning, then I banish you back from where you came." Dracula commanded imperiously, his irritation at the interruption only growing, as this ghost of Agatha laughed at him.

"You don't think its going to be that easy to get rid of me, surely?" Agatha teased as she stepped closer. "Besides you don't really want me to go."

"You sound very sure of yourself for a mere shade."

"It's your mind, you tell me." Agatha shrugged. "I wouldn't be here unless you wanted me to be."

"I…I don't know what I want." Dracula admitted, before deciding that if he couldn't banish Agatha's ghost, he could at least ignore her…of course in that he had forgotten just how persistent she could be all on her own.

"Is this one of the places you visited?"

"Why are you making conversation?"

"People do."

"You don't, and we have had this exchange before Agatha, I recall what happened last time."

Snorting in amusement, Agatha turned to him, unable to suppress the smile that bubbled up. "Do I look like I could have smuggled explosives up here?"

Taking a moment to actually look at her, Dracula frowned at the simple black camisole top and pyjama bottom combination. That was an odd choice of attire, it wasn't the nun's habit the shade had worn last time, and it certainly wouldn't have been something he would have picked to dress her in. Yet other than the ugly clothes, Agatha looked well, her arms and shoulders were more toned than he remembered, and she still held herself with that annoying confidence.

"I have learnt to never put anything past you Agatha." Dracula sighed, it was almost sad conversing with this facsimile of Agatha. "Why are you haunting me? You left me alone these past two years, why are you back now?"

"Oh well you know what they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder."

"Now I know you're not real, my Agatha would never accuse me of having a heart." Dracula scoffed, even while the very organ seemed to ache in his chest.

"I think you would be surprised, you should try talking to her. I think after she finished yelling at you, for all the blondes and redheads you sent her way, oh and taking her job away…thank you so much for that petty move…"

Frowning at the sudden rant from his pale ghost, Dracula tilted his head to study her, fascinated with the way her eyes seemed to flash molten in her anger.

"What makes you think I want your/her forgiveness for those things? I am her Elder it is my right…"

"Your rights should stop before being an arsehole." Agatha snapped back, stepping up to face up to him. "It was petty and should have been beneath you, and you wonder why I turned you down…"

"Stop…enough!" Dracula commanded, yet like before, and like the real thing, he could never get her to obey him. Yet there was no way he was having this conversation, not even in his own head.

"Leave me alone." He hissed, grasping his ghost by the shoulders, and dragging them both to the cliff edge.

"Go now…I banish you." He added, and with a heave of his strength he threw her off the edge, expecting her to merely vanish. Only she didn't and Dracula had to watch in horror and regret, as Agatha screamed and flailed, and looked up at him in fear, before disappearing into the clouds.

Across town Agatha Van Helsing landed with a bump, her throat raw from screaming out in terror, her nails had shredded her bed linen. If her heart could beat it would have been buzzing from the adrenaline. Instead she trembled with the after effects of the dream, laying back in her pillows as she tried to recover.

He had really thrown her off a cliff, even a dream version of her, and yes, she had been baiting him, but murder seemed a trifle extreme a reaction. If Agatha had had felt remotely moved to forgive him during their conversation, and tell him she really was there, that impulse had surely died now.

"Just you wait Count…just you damn well wait there is a reckoning coming for you."

And luckily enough Agatha knew at least twenty-two people who would have her back in this, it was time they took a stand. Agatha was through letting Count Dracula push her around.

-/-

Sitting in his office, Mycroft amused himself by sampling a rather excellent vintage Dracula had brought him back from Italy. It was nice to finally have a boss that appreciated him, and who gave such excellent rewards. Not that Mycroft hadn't earned them. He had been hard at work on Count Dracula's behalf after all. Well not just on Dracula's behalf, after all what helped Clan Dracula, helped Mycroft Holmes's star to rise as well.

Mycroft had it all planned out. It might take a hundred or so years to accomplish but under his guidance Clan Dracula would ascend to great influence, something that the Count was making far easier though his rather rapid re-population programme. Adding twenty-two newly turned vampires to any clan in two years was unprecedented, add to the fact that twenty-one of those were healthy females...

The right people were watching them with quiet interest now that the Count had proven to be somewhat more effective than others, it was probably something worthy of further study. Perhaps it was how selective he was at choosing his victims, perhaps it was his more advanced age, perhaps it was something unique to how he treated them.

Clan Pazzi would certainly never had invited him to visit them in Florence, if it hadn't been for Mycroft whispering in certain ears. It would be an interesting clan to align with, their Elder only slightly older than Dracula himself and mostly reclusive. They had longevity and wealth, but like Clan Dracula they were an outsider in the current political jockeying. The addition of a natural born bride to Clan Dracula would only raise their prestige, and Elder Pazzi was unlikely to resist too much when the balance of power between their clans shifted in Dracula's favour.

Still Mycroft would have preferred having to avoid making such an alliance so soon. He would have preferred to wait and build up their power base and make the first external alliance with one of Dracula's own natural offspring. Of course, he had reckoned without how stupid and stubborn certain people could be. Mycroft still was unsure just what had happened to ruin his carefully laid plans.

Agatha was perfect for Dracula, a convert of his own bloodline, and more importantly for Mycroft she hated politics and wouldn't encourage Dracula to get involved either. He could have happily waved the love-struck pair, off into the sunset to go and make babies, babies that Mycroft could plan dynastic alliances for that would revolutionise the power balance in the council.

Now he was stuck with plan B…Isabella Pazzi.

Sipping at his glass, Mycroft tried to push away a headache that threatened. His irritation growing as his desk phone began to ring, which could only mean one of the less technology savvy vampires in the building wanting to complain again.

"Mycroft."

"Mr Holmes sir we have a slight problem down in the novices, your clan members are refusing to attend their mandated lessons."

Sighing in irritation Mycroft could only imagine what hoopla Lucy had caused this time. "Call Agatha to deal with them, I am busy."

"Ummm Mr Holmes, that's the problem…Captain Van Helsing is protesting as well."

-/-

"Sir we have a slight problem."

Of all the phone calls Count Dracula had expected to be getting today, having to deal with a panicking Mycroft, a man who never seemed flappable, and being all but summoned to headquarters to deal with it. Well that had not been something Dracula had prepared for, after an awkward night dumping his latest victim's body and then avoiding sleep lest he dream of Agatha again.

Mycroft met him at the car, if only to facilitate getting him into the building quicker, and Dracula glared at the penitent vampire.

"I hope this is worth dragging me here Mycroft."

After his last trip to England, Dracula had all but vowed never to set foot in this building again. It reeked of Agatha and was forever associated with the brief period in his life, when he had actual had hope. To be confronted with it now, was like a slap in the face.

"I'm afraid this is only a matter an Elder can deal with." Mycroft insisted, and it wasn't like he was wrong. Mycroft's own efforts had been systematically ignored, with that bitch Lucy even going so far as to deny his authority in the clan entirely, since he wasn't exactly a blood relative.

Following Mycroft into the elevator and then up to a floor he had not visited before. Dracula could feel the agitation the moment they turned the corner. There was a group of older vampires, clustered before some closed doors deep in conference, their relief almost palpable when they caught sight of the pair of them.

"Oh, Elder Dracula, it is such a relief you are here…" One gushed.

"Those dratted girls simply won't listen to reason…" Another added.

"Yes, Yes, they will have to listen to you sir."

Waving them aside, Dracula plastered on his most charming smile, opening the double doors with dramatic flourish. It was quite something to see them all together like this. A sea of beauty and it was all because of him.

"Ladies and Thomas, I hear you have been wanting to see me?"

It was almost intimidating the wall of malevolent gazes that bore into him all at once.

"Well I'm here, cat got your tongue?" Dracula goaded when not one of them spoke, nor did they flinch or look away when he caught individual gazes.

Swallowing as they continued to stare at him silently, Dracula would almost admit to being intimidated. Whoever had coached them was good. Still he was a warrior, he wasn't put off by a bunch of women not yelling at him.

Still it was odd to see his last two years reflected back at him in such a tableau, more unusual still that they all seemed to be so unified.

"Ladies I am here because you insisted on talking to me, so insistent of that fact that you refused to attend any of your lessons. Well I am here, and I am waiting."

"So are we." A familiar voice finally spoke up, and Dracula turned to face a smiling Lucy Westenra.

"Ahh Lucy, looking as beautiful as ever. Come now tell me what you want, a shopping trip, some better entertainment for the evening? I am happy to indulge your requests, you just have to tell Daddy what you want an…"

"You really do think of us as being shallow little toys you can bleed dry and then throw away." Lucy remarked, not as though she was suddenly coming to that conclusion, more that this was the confirmation of it. "And our representative will tell you our complaints and our demands."

"Your representative…"

"Yes, our sister. The only one in this clan that really gives a damn about us." Lucy retorted, watching for the moment the penny dropped and Dracula groaned.

"Fine I came here in good faith, faith you are quickly depleting. You tell Agatha I am done playing her little game. If she has issues with me she can take them up with Mycroft, in the meantime you all will go back to class."

Yet they didn't move.

"Now ladies, do not make me lose my temper."

Still they didn't move, in fact the group had the nerve to turn and present him with their backs.

"As I said Count, our representative will be along to talk to you soon." Lucy added smugly, before deliberately turning her back on him. "Good day."

Retreating was his only option other than bloodshed, and Dracula wasn't about to resort to that, there would be no greater confirmation of his loss of authority. If rumour of this insubordination got back to Elder Pazzi, then all hopes for his suit would be lost, and Dracula was damned, if he was going to allow Agatha to ruin his next attempt at marriage as well.

"Find Captain Van Helsing and bring her to your office and do it quietly." Dracula hissed at Mycroft.

They would need relative privacy for what would come next, Agatha would not be leaving that office until she had submitted all authority back to him. Clearly in the past he had been far too lenient with her; allowed her liberties of independence that she had passed on to the younger ones, like a plague. Well that stopped today. He was the Elder of this clan, he had made them all, they belonged to him, they owed him their allegiance and he would get it, starting with Agatha Van Helsing.

-/-