Chapter 3: Anniversary Gone Wrong

Present Day

Everything that had all happened in the past - secret romantic rendezvous with Mina Parker, the need for disguises to avoid humans, being chased by Van Helsing, avoiding Leon Van Helsing seemed like ancient history now that Dracula had built Hotel Transylvania. It was a hotel where, in the past, monsters could be safe from the outside world, from people like Van Helsing. It was the sanctuary for his precious daughter Mavis to grow up in to protect her from the outside world. But all of that changed when two humans, Jonathan 'Johnny' Loughran and Ericka 'Ericka ' Van Helsing although Dracula had long forgotten nor did he seem to remember Leon), accidently stumbled upon the hotel thanks to Dracula's scheme to deceive his daughter that humans are still awful. Mavis and Johnny had zinged, which meant love at first sight, much to Dracula's chagrin. However, even the vampire had zinged with Ericka , whom he had rescued as a child, causing Dracula to realize that his daughter's happiness and desire to explore the outside world was more important than keeping her in the hotel. The most incredible thing to have discovered was that humans love monsters now, and they were treated like celebrities. And then, Dennis, Martha and Luna were born, bridging the gap between humans and monsters during their family drama over what's important for these two kids when visiting relatives came along, including Ericka's ex-boyfriend James Quinston, who appeared to be the only monster-hater in the world had been cast out, and his promise for revenge had been long forgotten.

A year had passed since the 5th birthday of Dennis and Martha Loughran and Luna Dracula. That night at Hotel Transylvania, it was the anniversary of Count Dracula and Countess Ericka, a big simple gathering of their closest friends and family and regular hotel guests in the Great Hall, all decorated for the occasion to make it sparkle while spiderwebs above read Happy Anniversary!

Outside by the pool, plenty of Tiki torches and glowing lanterns were set up or hung up around the area to give it a Hawaiian feel. Dracula wore a chef's hat and a red apron saying 'Bite the Cook' while flipping over pieces of spam on the grill. The Drac Pack friends either drank eyeball margaritas or ate spam mixed with side dishes. Mavis's friends Hank, Alex,Pedro,Billy,Cindy and Wendy played chicken fight in the pool. Luna was dancing to a hip rhythm with her crush Evan, her nephew and niece Dennis and Martha , and her friends Winnie and Willie. Vlad was relaxing in a lounge chair. Wayne sat in his chair, less than amused by his newborn pups crawling on him and chewing on his ears. Wanda and Eunice who had her baby girl named Gina in her arms and was engaged in girl talk with Mummette and Crystal the invisible woman.

In the arms of Ericka wriggled a tiny bundle in a velvet green blanket where Johnny made silly faces at the bundle to entertain him. The bundle turned his head to reveal the face of a vampire-human baby boy. The infant boy had his father's facial features, raven black hair, and emerald green eyes like his mother. His name is Diavolo, the newborn son of Dracula and Ericka , baby brother of Luna and Mavis.

After the last tune was done, Ericka placed Diavolo in his kiddie seat and suddenly raced up to the stage to make an announcement, "May I have everyone's attention, please." Everyone looked up and she nodded to Johnny, wearing DJ clothes, and he started up a nice tune as Ericka announced, "This has been a wonderful night, but I want to give my anniversary gift to my wonderful husband." A gentle theme starts and Ericka began to sing:

I saw a twinkle in his eye

It lit a fire deep inside

But it burned so wild and strong

I knew it wouldn't last for long

'Cause love takes time

And it's hard to find

You gotta take some time

To let love grow

I saw a shooting star go by

It blazed a path across the sky

But the magic did not last, no

Some things just happen all too fast

But love takes time

And it's hard to find

You gotta take some time

To let love grow, whoa

Well some think love's a game

You play for a night or two

But I think that's a shame

'Cause I know that in the end

They're bound to lose

Love takes time

Yes it's hard to find

You gotta take some time

To let love grow

Oh love takes time

I said that it's hard to find

Oh, just take your time

And love will grow

If we really want our love to grow

We gotta take it slow, whoa

Love takes time

Yes it's hard to find

Baby love takes time

Yours and mine, whoa

As everyone clapped for Ericka's song, Dracula's eyes teared up as he placed his hands to his heart. Hearing her sing made his eyes light up. He knew it was time to give her his anniversary present.

"Honey, I have something for you," he announced to her once she came down the stage's stairs.

"What is it?" she asked, wondering what kind of present he had for her.

"I loved your song, and my anniversary present for you is... well..." he smiled lovingly at her, shyly fidgeting his feet. "Before we get to it, there's just something I have to say. Ever since we met and zinged, my life has changed so much and for the better. I love you and I thank you for it, Ericka ."

"Awww," sighed the audience.

"Oh, Drac, I love you, too," she replied, pulling him into a loving embrace after his touching speech and starts crying tears of joy.

Returning the embrace affectionately, Dracula took this opportunity to slip something around her neck. Feeling the gesture, Ericka pulled away to look down at her neck. Gasping in surprise, she saw a thin black velvet ribbon choker, or a necklace, around her neck, with a silver hook on her back neck to hook it together, and a small ruby shaped heart dangling on the top of her chest. "Oh! It's so beautiful!"

"Happy Anniversary, my beloved," Dracula cooed, tenderly brushing some of her long brown locks aside so he could gaze into her alluring green eyes.

"Thank you, Drac!" cried Ericka, throwing her arms around him and locked him in an embrace, to which he took this opportunity to slowly lean in to kiss.

The second their lips met, he pulled her closer in his arms so he continued holding and kissing her passionately. In the midst of the couple's making out, the crowd went "Ooooh!" and the kids groaned "Ewwww!"

"Get a coffin!" Griffin teased.

Rolling his eyes at the invisible man, Dracula closed his eyes to continue kissing when he grew concerned at why Ericka pulled back from their kiss. "Darling, what's wrong?" he asked.

"Have you seen Diavolo?" Ericka told him, worriedly looking around for her newborn baby.

"I'm sure he's fine," Dracula chuckled, waving off her concerns. But when he glanced in the direction of the table where the baby was supposed to be seated in his kiddie chair, his face turned paler than ever.

Outside the hotel in the distance, the origin of the noise was on his way here. It was a man riding a scarlet Yamaha motorcycle, a red helmet covered his face and his body coated in a red leather jacket, red gloves, red jeans and boots. Turning his motorbike on hyper speed, he crossed over the bridge to reach his destination and he pulled over in front of the staircase, screeching to a halt. He removed his helmet to reveal - Danny Parker. His handsome face was long oval shaped, far skin color with a pointy chin, his eyes a light green color, his nose was sharp and pointy, and short crimson red hair and he had a small scruffy goatee on his chin. Removing his leather jacket, he wore a crimson red dress suit with a white undershirt and a yellow tie and red pants and red shoes. He's well built though not as broad shouldered as Dracula, but exactly the same as the Count's height.

Danny gazed up at this dark ancient castle with distasted interest. This was the place he knew as the vampire's lair. But he knew he couldn't kill him yet, he had to win over his trust, but he had to create a dilemma so he could use to worm his way into the vampire's trust. Shoving his motorcycle key to the zombie bellhop, Danny picked up his suitcase and trudged up the staircase, squeezed through the revolving door, and entered the enemy's territory.

To his surprise, Danny noticed a giggling vampire baby, wearing an emerald green suit with a pattern of black bats, crawling his way through the lobby, gazing at this newcomer curiously. "A baby?" he muttered in mild surprise. However, this gave Daniel the opportunity to win over his enemy's confidence.

"Diavolo , where are you?" Dracula's affectionate baby voice called out for his child upon entering the lobby.

As he did so, the vampire felt his heart leap into his throat when his eyes caught sight of the chandelier coming loose and it fell - right where the oblivious infant crawled beneath it.

"DIAVOLO!" Dracula screamed.

Suddenly, a flash of red lunged forward to scoop up the baby and tumbled across the carpet, just as the chandelier came down and crashed to the floor. Broken glass and light bulbs shattered everywhere as Daniel shielded the infant.

When Ericka heard the crash, she had come rushing out to see what the matter was. Dracula used his cape to shield her from the shards of glass. As soon as it was over, Dracula snatched his child out of this stranger's arms, glaring at him suspiciously.

"Who are you, and what have you done?!" he demanded.

"Is that how you thank a man for rescuing a baby?" Danny grunted.

Meanwhile back at the party, Mavis was looking around for her parents, wondering where they could've gone.

"Johnny, have you seen my dad or mom?" she asked her husband.

"No," he answered her. "I think they're looking for your baby brother."

"But, where could they have gone?" Mavis wondered, starting to worry about them.

"I'm sure they're fine," Johnny assured her.

All of a sudden, Mavis heard a loud crash and used her clairvoyance sight, spotting a man carrying her baby brother when shards of chandelier glass spread everywhere, where her mother and her father were extremely scared. Puzzled, Mavis rushed out of the pool area and headed for the lobby, catching the attention of several Drac Pack members.

"Hey! Where's the fire?" Murray asked.

"Fire! Where, where?" Frank panicked, ready to jump up and run away.

"Not that kind of fire!" Eunice corrected him, making her husband calm down at last.

Once Danny was helped by a grateful Ericka to his feet, Dracula, holding Diavolo in his arms, studied this man suspiciously.

"Is he okay?" the man in red asked.

"He's fine." Dracula told him, cuddling his little Diavolo affectionately.

"That was amazing how you were able to take save my son in time. Thank you," Ericka added, deeply amazed at this man's assistance.

Dracula grunted jealously and stared at him, decided to interrogate him. "Yes, that was impressive and all, but who are you and did you cause the accident?"

"Of course not. I saw one of your zombies carelessly messing around with the chandelier. My name is Danny Parker..." He shook Ericka's hand and kissed it like a gentleman, making the brunette woman blush.

Dracula paused for a second and was stunned to hear what his last name was. "PARKER?!"

"Drac, have you met this guy before?" Ericka asked her husband.

"No, we haven't met, but he knew my great-grandmother... Mina Parker." Danny explained. "I read about you and my great-grandmother's exploits from her old diary, so I wanted to come down here and meet the vampire who wooed my granny."

"Holy rabies! You're Mina's great-grandson?!" Dracula gawked, shocked to see that this man before him, his son's savior, was the great-grandson of his old flame Mina.

"Hold on a second, who is this Mina woman?!" Ericka demanded, her eyes narrowed jealously as she wanted to know who was this woman Dracula claimed to know a long time ago.

Embarrassed, Dracula was thinking of what he was going to say to her, but then decided to save the explanations for a different time. "We'll talk about this later." He lead them outside of the hotel.

After introductions were done of introducing Danny to everyone else at the pool, and the awkwardness passed Dracula over how he knew Mina Parker, Daniel decided to look around at the hotel's lobby for the first time and, despite hating monsters, he was secretly impressed that a medieval-looking castle was used for a hotel. He was even more impressed by the architecture and the 19th century furniture and tapestries. Soon everyone went their separate ways and Dracula went to get him a room key, leaving Danny and Ericka alone together.

"You didn't have to do this," Danny told her. "Asking me to sleep here for the night, or day, as you call it."

"Of course I want to," Ericka insisted. "I don't want to feel ungrateful for what you've done for Diavolo. It's my way of saying thank you. Although, I'm not sure how my husband would feel about it." Then she said something else, which sounded awkward to her. "So... you don't find it weird?"

"What's weird?" Danny wondered what she meant.

"That I'm married to the vampire that your great-grandmother has a thing for."

Danny paused for a moment, not knowing what to think. He hated the vampire that tainted his bloodline and cursed his family to his very core. He was even warned that any human who betrays their kind is a traitor. So he decided to make something up before it got awkward. "It's fine, really. It was a few centuries ago anyway!"

Dracula was about to head back to them with Danny's room key, but he was stopped by his friends. "Guys, what is it?"

"So, Drac... how do you feel about all this?" Frank asked him.

"What do you mean?"

"You know, the whole situation with Danny and all," Murray told him.

Then Dracula realized what they meant. "Ugh... guys, it's not a big deal. I know he's the great-grandson of my first human love who abandoned her family to try and elope with me. But it's not like I'm responsible for it!"

"Uh, in a way I think you kind of are," Griffin told him, raising an eyebrow or a glasses lenses.

"Shut up!" Dracula shouted irately.

"Anyway, I think you should try getting to know him," Wayne spoke up trying to change the subject. "You at least owe that to Mina and his family, and he did save your son's life."

"Yeah, I mean he came all this way to meet you! I'd be ashamed that he came all this way for nothing," Frank added.

Dracula wanted to object, but he knew his friends were right. He wanted to spend a romantic evening with his wife on their anniversary, only to nearly lose his infant son to a would-be death experience, and then rescued by the descendant of his ex-girlfriend. He had a difficult time explaining it to Ericka , who seemed jealous of Mina at first, but she softened at wanting to repay Danny for rescuing their son. Then he left his friends to go talk to Danny and give him his room key.

Once Dracula gave the man his room key and Ericka had left to go check on Luna, he offered timidly, "Hey Danny , if you'd like you can stay here for awhile so you can ask me any questions you have, just not in front of my wife when it comes to old girlfriends, and I can show you around the hotel."

Danny was surprised by this offer but he accepted it, realizing he had succeeded in winning over the vampire's trust. "Absolutely! I would enjoy that very much."

"Excellent!" Dracula grinned proudly. "And I would also like your help in preparing Carl's wedding for tomorrow, we need all the extra hands we can get. That is if you want to help?"

"Of course I'll help you," Danny answered eagerly, though he lied at this last part. "Besides, I've always wanted to see what a monster wedding will be like!"