"How much time do we have?" Arene asked, though she seemed to be wiping her mouth on her sleeve quite a bit. Almost everyone could guess why.

Dracula gave her a quick smile, at which point she turned her back to him.

"We have till tomorrow night."

Gabriel looked at him strangely. Even though that was a short amount of time he still loathed the idea of the Count's presence. The sooner he was gone, the better. But that would be more than enough time to develop a good plan... or for the Count to do something to Nicola... or Arene. No, this was just his mind, he thought. The Count would not try to harm either of them. He loved Nicola too much and...whatever connection he had with Arene, it was obvious she did not love him. He walked over to his daughter and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, giving her a hug.

"If that's how much time we have, we might as well get some rest," he said.

Carl nodded in agreement.

"I think I'll stay up late tonight though," he returned. "I'll get a head start."

Arene nodded too and went over to hug her godfather.

"Sleep tight, Carl." She said pleasantly. She hugged her father and bid him a good night as well before heading down to her room. Nicola followed her, smiling happily. The Count began to follow as well but Van Helsing stopped him dead in his tracks, a strong look on his face.

"You keep your distance from Arene," he warned and stepped out of the way.

They had started down the corridor when Nicola doubled over and let out a cry of pain.

All rush to her and were shocked at the look of complete terror written across her face.

Just then the lights in the hallway blew and the room was plunged into near darkness. The only light came from the moon, which shone brightly through a nearby window.

A terrible laughter could be heard and then Marishka and Verona appeared in bat form before them. They blocked the others so that they were pushed away from Nicola who lay in agony on the floor.

"You killed Aleera," Verona screamed, pointing at her former lord. "You care nothing for us despite our loyalty to you for all those years. You told us you were hollow and could not love yet you said you loved this slut."

Gabriel and Carl held Arene back and tried to shelter her as Dracula attacked his brides.

They leapt at him and Verona bit savagely into his neck.

"What is happening?" asked Arene. "Why doesn't he transform and deal with them?"

Gabriel was wondering the same thing. The Count seemed unable to fight them off. They were killing him. As much has he disliked Dracula he knew he should help him. They needed him after all as little as Gabriel wanted to admit it. He still had one of the crucifixes with him and with this thought he surged forward, his arm outstretched and the cross grasped in his hand.

Arene saw her father move towards the battle and ran to join him. She had been left carrying what remained of the holy water and she uncorked the bottle now and threw the liquid at the women.

Between them they forced the brides back a short way and Carl ran forward and dragged Dracula back, out of harms way.

The brides changed their plan and launch another assault on Nicola who lay on the ground, nearly unconscious.

"Quick, we have to help her," cried Arene but Van Helsing pulled her back.

"I hate to say this but we have no chance without Dracula. We must see what is wrong with him."