Chapter 10: Enter Carmilla

Belmont Slayer Estate

Yvette had the parchment open and read as she walked through the woods.

Rather than going in her front door, though, she circled around. Trevor's letter, and his request, had been clear. Looked like he wasn't alone, though. He would arrive at their old childhood home – or what was left of it – with a Speaker Magician and a blood damphir. The reasons were clear.

Both of them had been working to stop the Night Hoarde. There were, however, only two of them. The only way to do this was to cut the problem off at its source. That meant going after Dracula again. Last time, she'd been but a girl, fighting alongside her father and her brother. Of the three of them, she'd been the only one with anything inherently special about her to speak of.

Perhaps...

Yes. She believed Trevor was right.

It was time to return to the Belmont Hold.

Dracula's Castle

The army and the generals waited on Dracula's arrival.

'No, no, no!' Isaac responded to a suggestion to one of the vampire Generals. He never cared to remember the man's name. 'Dracula will decide, not you. Threaten me all you like. I will die for him if I don't kill you first.'

Hector was having the same problem with another of the generals. 'You do not question my loyalty! All I'm saying is that our goals can be met without gleefully paddling in the blood of children!'

At that moment, though, Dracula entered the war room. 'Enough!' he commanded. 'I told you all that Hector and Isaac would guide our next steps. You will cease this infantile squabbling!'

But the arguments did not stop. Only Hector and Issac backed off.

'I said cease!' Dracula barked.

Then squabbling did stop, but not on account of Dracula's orders. Rather, because the door to the war room swung open. Everyone spun around and watched as a tall, thin, and blonde vampiress strode into the room. She stopped at the appropriate distance and smirked at all the eyes that were on her. The doors closed behind her.

'I am Carmilla.' She bowed. 'I am come from far Styria to join the war council.'

Dracula sat down on his throne. 'Your presence was requested some time ago, Carmilla of Styria.'

'Indeed.' She straightened up and took a few steps forward. 'But your mighty castle keep moves around. And with such mighty vampire generals advising you and prosecuting your war, what use could you have possibly had for a mere regional ruler? And yet, my Lord, your forces were repelled from a single city state. Your generals are in disarry.'

The generals in question ground their teeth.

'So I feel that, perhaps, it is time to offer my insights to your great cause.'

Dracula was unmoved. He knew how manipulative she could be. He knew her story. 'And what insights have you, Carmilla?'

Carmilla's facial expression didn't change as she then made a bold, and foolish, move. 'Why was this new wife of yours never turned?'

The silence over the war hall changed. It went from shocked and tense to charged with agitation. The generals and the soldiers alike shifted. All attention was now focused solely on the king of the vampires and the Styrian vampiress who had just made her dramatic entrance before addressing him.

Dracula's temper flared. His eyes became entirely red. His eyes narrowed. 'What did you say?'

'You married.' Carmilla looked around the war hall. 'You had a child. And yet you did not make her a vampire.' She looked back at him. 'Why was that?' She was playing with fire and she knew it. 'Were you simply keeping a human pet?'

The very thought that anyone could consider Lisa a "human pet" sent blind rage through his blood. His body began to shake as he pushed it down. He dug his claws into the arm of his throne and dragged deep grooves into the arm rests. He wanted to go down there and rip her throat out; rip her apart and splatter her across the walls.

But he knew Carmilla. She had always been manipulative and conivving. He knew what she was doing. He vaguely noticed Hector and Isaac turn to glare at the vampiress. And, yet, she continued.

'And, if so, why is vampire society going to war with the world over it?'

Dracula rose. 'I will speak with you alone,' he snarled. 'Attend me!' He turned and stormed out of the war room.

Carmilla followed after, but there was nothing in her footfalls that suggested she knew what he'd do to her if she failed to answer for herself appropriately. The walk back to his study was good. It allowed him to rein in his temper. It allowed him to calm himself sufficiently by the time he sat in his chair before the fire. He stared at the flames as he heard her enter and waited for her to speak. Instead, she walked over and stood in front of him.

'Yes?' she asked.

Dracula cocked an eyebrow. Either she'd gotten careless over the years, or she had something up her sleeve that'd made her confident enough to do this. The look he'd given her must've been sufficient though. She folded her arms behind her back and retreated from him a few steps before bowing her head.

'You wished to speak to me, my Lord.'

'That was a dramatic entrance, Carmilla,' he said.

'It was not meant to disrespect you,' she told him. 'It was intended to unsettle a room full of men. I prefer in such situations to arrive with as many advantages as possible.'

'And how is it that you were here?' Dracula steepled his fingers.

'Godbrand has been keeping me appraised of your castle's position,' she said simply. 'Your current location was also advantageous.'

Dracula raised his eyebrow once more. 'And why has Godbrand been in regular communication with you?'

'I suspect he still wants to sleep with me,' Carmilla remarked.

'And will you?'

Carmilla laughed at that. 'My Lord!' She turned to the flames but still addressed him. 'From another man that would be impossible impertinence.'

'And yet,' Dracula said, 'I prefer to know my generals' ties and compromises.'

Carmilla looked over her shoulder at him. 'I may.' She turned around fully. 'If all the other vampire males in the world drop dead...and half the females...some of the animals.'

Dracula smirked and chuckled to himself. 'Very good, Carmilla. Speaking about impertinence, you just denounced the choice not to turn my dead wife in front of all my generals.' He glared at her. 'What advantage does my anger buy you?' She knew as well of the others that those who enraged him tended to die in a painful way.

One only needed to gaze out to humanity to see that.

She was remarkably calm, drawing his own suspicions to the forefront of his mind. 'None. It's a question they have all been asking themselves. I gave you an opportunity to address it, my Lord.'

'Oh, so, you were helping?' He seriously doubted that.

'Of course, my Lord!'

'Then why have you only just arrived? You were summoned some time ago. Surely I needed "help" much earlier.'

'Distractions at home.' She glanced down at the fire and then studied her fingernails in a rather convincing attempt to look nonchalant. 'Securing my region. Villagers, pitchforks, torches, the usual.' It was only now she looked back at him.

She was lying to him. He knew her. However, pushing for answers now would get him nowhere. His best bet would be to sit back and wait. He needed to let her play her hand, and only then would he act. She was ambitious, but also had grown up in the halls of power before she was turned, as he did.

And she had been raised a woman in the halls of power. She had been married off to a count at a young age, in a time of war. Her husband, so often away, had left her holding the power over his territory. She had very quickly learned how to twist men of all persuasions around her little finger. Dracula had seen her at it.

There was, of course, that brief time at the beginning of her vampire life wherein she lost all power, but she had seized it back. She had never been the kind of woman who would sit idly by, and she liked her power. That was one of the reasons she'd had designs for him in their early associations.

'Rejoin the others. Hector and Isaac, my forgemasters, will be directing our next moves. I'm sure they would enjoy your...help.'

Carmilla bowed again. 'As you wish, my Lord.'

She then left the study, but paused at the door.

Dracula began turning over in his head what she could be planning, but there was only one thing.

The same thing that always had motivated her.

Power.

Belmont Slayer Estate

Yvette strode out into the stable and nodded to the stable boy who had the horse ready.

'Will you be long gone, ma'am?' he asked.

'A couple of weeks, at most,' Yvette said. 'I'm only going to see some relatives.'

The stable boy nodded and Yvette mounted her horse.

It was time to go.