Disclaimer: I own nothing except what I made up. Fair enough.

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Lucia opened her eyes, feeling a shooting pain in her head. She blinked again, and the first thing she realised was that she'd been captured. She was lying on a unfamiliar bed, in an unfamilar bedroom. She sat up and placed a hand to her head. It was a large yet plain bedroom. A double bed made up in white sheets. Heavy dark drapes covering the window. A wardrobe against one wall. A group portrait on the wall. Nothing really interesting.

She noticed to her disgust that someone had changed her. Her weapons were gone, her cross was gone, Gabriel Van Helsing's shirt was gone. She had nothing to protect herself with, and even worse she was dressed in a ballgown that would make fighting virtually impossible. It was emerald green, low-cut and strapless, extremely heavy. Her bare feet recoiled from the cold floor as she swung her legs over the side of the bed to stand up.

She stood carefully up, testing her weight. This was bad. She pushed her hair, which was loose now, back from her face and walked slowly forward, trying to ignore the rising panic in her chest. She walked to the door and pulled it. Locked, of course. She was getting very frustrated. Wondering who could have kidnapped her, she crossed to the window and pulled the drapes open.

The light that poured into the room now was pale and weak. The window was dirty, smeared with grease and dirt, but through it Lucia could see down into a garden, large and beautiful. She was apparently on the fourth or fifth floor of a large castle, situated high on a hill overlooking a tiny village in the distance. Snow drifted down from the grey sky. Lucia knew she had never seen this place in her life, yet it seemed somehow familiar.

A key scraped in the lock of the door, and Lucia turned sharply, watching the doorknob turn slowly. The door creaked as it was opened, and Lucia stiffened defensively. And then he stepped in.

He looked older than her, but not by much. His hair was long, poker straight and shiny, and jet black. It was held back from his face by a small silver clip, but a single strand had escaped and hung down by his face. His eyes were black, those empty black pits Lucia had seen before collapsing in the train. He was effortlessly handsome in a dark sort of way. He was dressed in black, black tunic, black trousers, shiny black boots.

"I see you are awake," he said, and his voice was soft and quiet, laced with a Transylvanian accent.

She glared at him, trying to stay calm. "Well observed," she managed to say coldly.

A smile appeared on his face as he walked towards her. She backed off. "So aggressive," he muttered, reaching her. She was against the window now, but he didn't stop approaching her, and finally stopped about half an inch from her. A sort of deathly cold drifted from his body.

"I want to leave," she snarled, as he smirked down at her. She noticed that he was taller than she too.

He reached out slowly to touch her cheek, and the coldness of his fingers made her flinch. "Why, my love, why? We haven't even reintroduced ourselves yet."

Then she snapped. Her anger, her fear, burst to the surface, and she brought her fist up to smack him in the side of the face, catching his mouth. He stepped back, shocked. His lip was burst, and Lucia stared as a trickle of black blood fell down his chin. He pressed his fingers to it, and raised them to his eyes to examine it. Then he frowned, looking back at her.

"That..." he began slowly and shakily, "... was rather-"

But he never finished his sentence, for she flew at him angrily, grabbing him around the neck and pushing him back, attempting to choke him. To her surprise he did nothing, merely stood looking thoughtfully at her. Finally, she became weak with exhaustion, and her grip relaxed slightly as she wondered in confusion why he was not dying, or fighting her off.

"You amuse me," he said slowly. "Have you not worked it out yet? The black blood, the fact I do not breathe... I am a vampire, Lucia."

Then he pulled her hands from his neck suddenly, and spun her around, pushing her hard with anger that matched her own. She stumbled back, his hands still around her wrists, expecting to fall to the floor, but instead landing on her back on the bed. He knelt down beside her on it, pinning her wrists above her head. He placed his head just over her own.

"Who are you?" she whispered, unable to hide her fear.

"My name is Count Vladislaus Dragulia. The locals call me Count Dracula. Born 1432. Murdered 1462. Murdered again a year ago. And do you know who the murderer is, Lucia?"

Of course she did. She had heard the stories. "It was... Gabriel Van Helsing," she replied weakly, and the eyes above her narrowed slightly.

"It was indeed. And you are here so that I can exact my revenge on Gabriel. So you had better co-operate."

"How am I involved with him? I do not know Van Helsing," she whispered. Dracula smirked. He stood up, and pulled her to her feet, tugging her roughly over to the painting on the wall.

"Look at it," he whispered in her ear, making her spine prickle.

And she looked. How had she not noticed it before? The painting showed three people. On the left, a tall, muscular-looking man with long soft brown hair, the most beautiful hazel eyes and a handsome face. He had his arm around the middle figure, a beautiful woman with long dark brown hair down her back and bright sapphire eyes, dressed in a gorgeous black dress. Next to her was another man, tall and dark with black hair and eyes and an attractive smirk. She noticed something else. The right-hand man had his hand on the woman's waist, and her pale fingers were wrapped around his. Lucia gaped.

"That's... that's me," she whispered, recognising her own face. "And that's... you."

She took a step back, and stumbled. The Count caught her in his arms and held her. "Yes..." he whispered. "And that is Gabriel Van Helsing. Or at least, that's how we were in 1462."

She pulled out of Dracula's arms and staggered over to the bed, sinking onto it gratefully. "But... it can't be... that was four hundred years ago!"

"You and Gabriel are soulmates- destined to be together for all time, in all incarnations of yourselves. And that is why I have taken you, to get revenge on Gabriel and to complete a promise made four hundred years ago."

TBC.