A/N: Here is my latest installment to the story, and I think the greatest yet!!!! The wording is so very well done I think, for me at least! You will finally get the explanation you have been looking for in the other chapters…Why would Dracula pick a random girl to harass, haunt, and perhaps, try to kill? Read on to find out!!!! For all you Dracula fans, I've made him as seductive and charming as I could make him without making him a good guy! He will surely draw you in!!! Forgive me for any mistakes I may have made in explaining the heritage of Van Helsing and Dracula, it's been a long while since I last saw the movie, no flames please!!! Hahahahahahah! Please R/R and let me know what you think!

Now, onto the story!

Chapter 7

I felt myself floating somewhere between being awake and being asleep. Fighting my hardest, I forced my eyes wide open to be as vigilant and alert as I could be. I know not how he did this to me, or for how long. It was perhaps through some sort of black magic or witchery that he kept me as I was. He was a being of many strengths and powers, and I knew better than to provoke his wrath. I remained as huddled as I could near to the door of the carriage, my skin crawling every time I felt the brush of his gloved hand against my own. He had not attempted to continue the conversation, perhaps because he thought me to be asleep.

"You will let me go, Count." I said simply, suddenly. He turned his surprised gaze to me, a sardonic smile playing on his noble mouth. "I have done nothing to you. Why?" I asked. He turned away once again, looking out the window.

"You very well know why." He hissed, not looking back at me. I never once caught a glimpse of his reflection in the window. "I'm sure the Prince and Princess have already informed you as to that regard." I turned away, not wanting him to realize that I did know.

"I shall take your silence as an answer." He replied. "But, I will humor you none the less." He continued. Silence ensued for what seemed like ages, and I began to grow half a mind to make my escape, but he interrupted my plans with his story.

"I was not always as you see here." He said, turning to me. I recoiled instinctively, making him laugh. "No need to be afraid, Baroness, I suppose that is what I should call you, shouldn't I?" I furrowed my eyes in confusion.

"They failed to tell you?" he asked, laughing quietly. "And I thought them to be so very thorough. Hmmm…how shall I begin?"

"You will start at the beginning, Count." I said, my voice deathly cold. "You will start at the beginning and explain to me why you so desperately feel you have to forever torment my kin." He smirked and took off his leather gloves, exposing his pale hands.

I felt as if hours passed as he looked forward, blankly into the night. My heart had not stopped its rapid beating as I kept my eyes fixed on him. How I wished that I had remained with Anna, listened to her wise words. More than ever I hoped that somehow, someway, I would escape with my life. But, every passing moment in his company seemed to crush that hope more and more. He began to speak again, so abruptly, that it immediately caught my notice.

"I was a man once, as you are now a woman. I knew love. I knew friendship. How could I not? Flesh and blood God made me, and as flesh and blood I would experience all you would experience now." He smirked and reached his hand out to touch the exposed skin of my arm. I jumped in surprise as I felt the skin of his hand touch mine. "I am cold as death. You feel it now, don't you?" he asked, running his hand gently against my arm. "I feel your warmth as well, though I will never partake of it." He grew silent again, and once again for an instant I began to feel as if he would not continue, then he did.

"Van Helsing is the man that made me who I am. You know this name, do you not?" he asked.

"Yes." I answered. "He is the man that is wanted for the murders of hundreds of men in Europe. How can it be possible that Van Helsing played a part in your ruin?" I asked. I slowly began to grow fascinated as he smiled. His eyes played games with my heart, quickening its beats, and then slowing it to a mere drum. His voice, so melodic, had begun to lull me into almost a hypnotized state. He intrigued me more than ever as he began to speak.

"Van Helsing is not a man. Van Helsing has existed on this earth for centuries, though he himself does not know of it. He does not even realize what he has done to me." The Count continued. As that sentence was uttered, I felt my eyes cloud with unshed tears. I reached out before I could stop myself, my heart bursting at its seams. Sooner than I could think, I had enclosed my arms around him, caressing his cheek. It seemed almost as if I had become possessed. The Count did not make move, he was not even surprised at all with my sudden outburst. He merely wrapped his cold arms around me, holding me close to him. It took moments before I became myself once again, pulling away from him suddenly, frightened.

"You do this to me, don't you?" I asked him, wiping away the tears I shed for him. "I don't feel a bit of pity for the likes of you and yet I weep! Van Helsing was right to do what he did to you. My ancestor was right for aiding him!" I screamed angrily. He turned to me suddenly, angrily.

"Do not TALK to me of what is right and wrong! Do not even presume to judge me!" he bellowed suddenly, throwing me into silence. "I hold your life in my hands, girl. I would beg you to be mindful of that." He continued. I could not even utter a venomous reply. He merely smirked.

"I suppose it was I that drew you to the heights of pity and longing for me, yes." He said simply. My heartbeat quickened as he said this. If I could not be master of my own limbs, how could I escape? "It was something that I realized came with the curse of being what I am."

"And what are you?" I asked, innocently. He turned to me and shook his head.

"I am a vampire, you silly girl, or haven't you realized that yet?" he asked. He leaned in closer and felt the tender skin of my neck. I had become much too fearful to move. "Would you like a demonstration?" he asked. I felt him lean in close, felt his teeth at my neck. I quickly pulled away.

"No demonstration is necessary." I answered hurriedly. He smirked and returned to his story. "I suppose we can save that for later. This is hardly the right time or place." He continued, laughing. "Now, where was I? Ah! Van Helsing…" he said, his voice dripping with hatred as he uttered the name.

"Van Helsing at that time had been just been recruited by the Church. How they came to know of me, I had not a clue at that occasion." He said, turning and locking his gaze on me. "Vatican City had come to create, many hundreds of years before my time, what you might call a society. This society had been fashioned to eradicate all forms of demons and oddities of nature that did not fit with 'God's plan'." He continued. He smiled at me. "It was here that your sweet faced ancestor came into play." He said.

"How do you mean?" I asked. He stared at me for some moments, his eyes once again claiming that faraway gaze. It took a moment for him to continue.

"She was a beautiful creature, hauntingly beautiful." He said. "My heart ripped to pieces every day that I couldn't have her, coquette that she was." He continued laughing. "She had eyes dark as night, hair as wavy and as dark as your own." I smiled, forgetting myself for a moment. He caught this. "And your smile as well." He added in, towards the end. "She wore only the best of fashions, for she had recently become a Baroness, marrying into the Aveire lineage." He said, looking at me. I felt almost as if my body traveled back to that time, seeing and experiencing every bit of what he told me.

"Her name was Charlotte. I remember that." He said. "Charlotte, your ancestor, knew much about my…interests…as I liked to call them. I was a fool and a dolt to trust her so utterly and completely with my life…" he said, looking to me and slowly becoming angry. "Loyal little Christian that she was…" he said trailing off. It took a moment for him to continue. "She beguiled me, tempted me to heights you could never imagine. She talked to me a little more every day. These days turned to months. These months turned to years. By this time she had thoroughly won me over. By then I had confessed to her all that I did."

"And what did you do?" I asked, enthralled. He smiled again at me, and leaned in close, whispering in my ear.

"I toyed with the forces of darkness. I funded human experiments, wanting to learn the secrets of life itself. I entertained in my home every dark being you could imagine, wanting sincerely to know how I could become one as well." He said quietly. I said nothing. He leaned back, away from me, and into his seat. Laughing, he continued. "I never was a fan of the church, after all." It took a moment for him to continue.

"Charlotte found this piece of information through my stupidity and ignorance. I tried as hard as I could to keep her silent, offering her lavish gifts, promises of hidden glory, but nothing seemed to satisfy her need to confess all that she had learned. She felt that in not telling the church of my flirtations with the darkness, that she would somehow be to blame as well." He said. He took another breath, before finally finishing his story. "She ran straight into the arms of the church, and into the bed of her husband, without giving me a second glance or thought."

"Van Helsing was sent to finish you." I ended, when I had realized that he would tell me no more. He looked at me and smiled sardonically. "He was sent when they realized that you posed far to much a threat to the divinity of the church…" he leaned back in his seat and nodded.

"And that is why, you are here. Ended very well, wouldn't you say?" he asked. I looked away, finally breaking from him.

"How did you become what you are?" I asked after a moment. He shifted in his seat and turned to me once again.

"It was Gabriel that finished me, and it was Gabriel that made me what I am." He continued. I did not even understand at all what he meant. How did he know Van Helsing's true name? Instead of pushing him further, provoking his anger with another question, I remained silent. After a few moments, he looked at me and chuckled.

"Well, it seems that we've arrived. Would you care to join me for dinner?" he asked. "My brides are anticipating your return." He said, the carriage came to a sudden stop, and I jumped in surprise.

"Don't be frightened, dear Christine." He said simply. Taking my arm firmly, he opened the door, pulling me from the carriage. "We have plans for you yet, my dear." The spell of the carriage ride had finally been broken, and I felt my heart sink in dread as I saw the looming castle that was his home lie ahead of me in fog and shadow.

"I beseech you, please!" I implored, feeling him pull me nearly running to the house. "Let me go!" I yelled, tears streaming down my face. He stopped unexpectedly, facing me.

"I have my arrangements to make." He said simply, wiping away my tears. He turned and once again began to pull me towards his home. "I've forgotten to tell you one other important aspect of my story," he said as he reached the entrance to his home. He turned and smirked at me once again. "You've heard of the vow made by the Valerious family to kill me, haven't you?" he asked. I shook my head yes, not able to verbally reply.

"Good, then it will save me the trouble of explaining further. Well, before I continue with that half of my tedious life, we will eat." He said. Opening the door, he pulled me inside roughly, into pure darkness.

"Now let us see whether you are like your ancestor or not." He said, hidden in shadow. I looked around myself, having no idea where he hid. In a moment, he was in front of me.

"What do you mean?" I asked. He smirked again before replying.

"Charlotte had the foresight to run whenever she sensed danger. Perhaps a certain Valerious member will be there to save you, maybe not. Let us see what happens next." He said simply.