The ride home gave me plenty of time to think: primarily of what a great fool I'd been. There I'd languished on my laurels, chuckling at the Count's amusing attempts at defiance and all the while not even realizing that he was doing just what I thought he could not: convincing me, even on the subconscious level, that he was no longer a threat. My very caution was my downfall; for I had been so secure in the infallibility of my careful plans that I had been seduced into somnolesence – and the moment I had given him an inch of free rein he had shown me overwhelmingly just how little control I truly had.

I could not blame him. He, at least, had never really pretended to be anything other than what he was: a monster. The fault was mine for forgetting that. The blame for the carnage at Eastwick rested squarely upon my shoulders.

I spent most of the return trip to Carfax in reflective prayer. I barely noticed that the cabbie overcharged me for dropping me at the doorstep; I merely paid him and sent him galloping away with all haste. It was with the automatic motions of a bone-weary man that I climbed the steps and let myself inside.

Gabriel was waiting for me. He fairly pounced on me in concern as I crossed the threshold, guiding me with firm hands to the parlour and into my favorite seat by the fire. He poured a shot of brandy and pressed it into my hands, admonishing that I drink it for I looked like death warmed over. Only after the alcohol had obediently burned a path down my throat did he sit down across from me and address me directly.

"I felt Alucard return but he wouldn't answer my summons. I think he's sulking in the dungeons somewhere. What happened?"

I gazed at the empty glass in my hand, idly wishing that some liquid still remained at the bottom. But alcohol was not the answer. I set the glass down on the coffee table and occupied my fingers otherwise, intertwining them on my lap. In a subdued voice, I told him.

He stared at me in horror. "All of those people…" he murmured, as I finished.

"They got in the way."

The Count's voice was not, to be sure, topmost on the list of things I wanted to hear at that moment; but a discussion would have to be had eventually, and waiting would not make it any easier. I turned my eyes upward to the rafters, from whence the comment had issued. "Alucard."

"Master," he returned the greeting, his tone twisting it into more of a pet name than a title of respect. He smiled down at me, floating prostrate with his back a few inches from the ceiling, his hands thrust into his pockets as though this were the most casual pose in the world. "You did say 'until you returned'; so I presume I'm allowed to… interact again?"

"Get down from there," Gabriel hissed, stabbing a finger at the floor before the hearth. With a laconic shrug, the vampire descended lazily until he stood on the rug, then idly removed one hand from his pocket to examine his fingernails. Which was quite the feat as he was still wearing gloves.

I watched at him dully. All of the angry epithets I had earlier sought to fling at him were gone, replaced by the simple, hollow realization of my own failure. I had nothing left to say to him. Gabriel deferred to me, looking back and forth between us but staying his opinion. The silence stretched so long that Alucard finally stopped his show of grooming and looked at me directly.

"Well?" he asked. "Let's have it. Surely you're going to tell me what a bad dog I've been." He waited a moment, smugly, for a retort, but when I did not give him one his expression twitched in puzzlement; then annoyance. "Fine, then, I'll find something more interesting to do." He took a long step backward, phasing himself through the wall adjacent to the fireplace. It was then that I spoke:

"Stay."

He paused, the upper half of his body protruding from the wall like a rather macabre hunting trophy; then stepped back into the room, head tilted as he eyed me curiously.

"What happened tonight was my fault." In saying it aloud, the statement seemed to crystallize itself in reality. I clenched my laced fingers together and continued in a calm voice. "You warned me yourself, in fact, last night: you said that a dog is safer when well-fed. And instead I held you for ten years and then set you loose in… well, to pardon the phrase, the butcher's shop." Alucard seemed to approve of that analogy, half a grin spreading across the left side of his face. Gabriel did not find it so amusing, as his vaguely sick expression made plain.

I cleared my throat and continued softly, "I cannot blame the monster for being true to what it is. What, then, do you suggest I do with it?"

There was a moment of silence. My son and the vampire exchanged glances, each unsure as to whom the question had been directed. It was Gabriel who spoke first, thoughtfully. "Not all dogs are kept on the same length rope." I lifted an eyebrow, inviting him to continue. "Well – if you want the dog to stay in his kennel, you put him on the short chain."

Alucard pantomimed a noose about his neck, flopping his head to one side and letting his tongue loll grotesquely. I ignored him. Gabriel was spared sight of the charade taking place over his shoulder and went on, sorting his thoughts as he spoke. "But if you want him to guard the front lot, you don't just unsnap his leash. You put him on a longer chain – so he can patrol his territory without running off to kill all of the neighborhood cats too."

A faint sound of amusement emerged from Alucard's throat. He stepped forward, through the back of the sofa, and then threw himself down upon it beside Gabriel, slouching low and kicking his feet up on the coffee table. As his boots were clean I elected not to make an issue of it. He steepled two fingers before pursed lips and gave the matter great thought for some two seconds before offering his opinion.

"I think that's a good idea."

My mouth was half-open to argue with him when his words registered fully. I blinked, surprised. "You do?"

He grinned at my double take, showing his fangs over his interlaced fingers. "I do. Obviously the dog doesn't want to be locked in his kennel all the time; and as only a great fool would let him off his leash entirely… again…"

He paused, deliberately baiting me. I refused to bite; merely letting out an annoyed exhalation through my nose to indicate that he get on with it.

The vampire chuckled softly. "Well then, it would be in the dog's best interest to have some longer chains to run on, wouldn't it? It shouldn't even be difficult. We've already established the short chain and the… ahem, local cat massacre: we just need to define some grades in between."

"We?" I queried, bemused.

"Of course, Professor. I intend to help. If the dog is being fitted for a leash, it's also in his best interest to see that it fits comfortably, isn't it?"

He made a good point, but I was quite certain he had some ulterior motive. He read my concern on my face before I could voice it, though, and favored me with another unnerving grin.

"I find myself in a unique position, don't I?" He rose bonelessly from his slouched position, as if lifted by a marionette's string, and sat perfectly straight on the edge of the cushion. He extended his left hand, palm outward, before him, examining the effigy of the Seal scribed on the back of the glove; then the crimson eyes lifted to meet mine. "I doubt it was your intention at the time, Professor, but as you're no doubt well aware, this spell of yours, even as it bound me, also gave me access to more power than I ever could have gained on my own." He gave that a moment's consideration. "Well, at least not for several more centuries." A smile. "I never thanked you properly for that."

"I think that is better passed unacknowledged," I replied coolly.

He inclined his head in a parody of graciousness. "With the strength of your blood augmenting my own, I could make this world my playground. But I don't think I will. Do you know why?"

"Because you're locked in your kennel?" Gabriel ventured, dryly.

Alucard sneered. "Aside from that."

"Because," I interjected my own reasoning, thoughtfully, "there would be no challenge."

The sneer turned back to a satisfied smile. "Precisely. Boredom is the true bane of immortality, in the end. So the dog is also best served by keeping things interesting, isn't he?"

"I could," Gabriel deadpanned, "go outside and throw a stick for you."

"I could tear your throat out," Alucard countered pleasantly. It was an empty threat and Gabriel knew it. He didn't even bat an eyelash.

I cleared my throat loudly before the situation could escalate. "Then I see no reason not to start immediately."

Just then, quite unexpectedly, the front bell rang.

"Who on earth comes calling at this hour?" I demanded irritably, trying to hide the startle the sudden noise had given me.

"I'll see who it is, Father." Gabriel was already halfway across the room. "Like as not it's some vagrant children daring each other to knock the loudest…"

I rubbed a hand over my eyes, tempted to let him handle it. I was certainly in no mood to greet callers at this time of the night. But then, I reasoned, anyone who'd come all the way out to haunted Carfax at nearly midnight must surely have a good reason for it. I sighed, pushed myself out of my chair and went to see what the trouble was.

I stepped into the foyer and saw Gabriel already engaged in conversation with a pale, wiry man whom I recognized as Franklin Hobbes, of the local police. Briefly, the notion fluttered that he might have come to arrest me for the travesty at Eastwick; but no… the few surviving guards had testified adamantly that it was some demon they had fought – not any companion of mine. Only Murphy had guessed Alucard's true nature; and priest or no, his witness was outnumbered.

"Men see only what they can comprehend," Alucard's deep baritone whispered near my ear. I had not even heard him rise and follow me.

"Well in that case, you should be nigh invisible, yah?" I twisted a glance over my shoulder at him, and jumped when I saw only his eyes and smirking grin, suspended in empty air. The grin spread into a barely-audible laugh at my reaction; then he faded completely at a snappish wave of my hand. I harrumphed softly and turned back to my son and our guest, covering my moment of discomfiture by striding forward and greeting briskly: "Captain. What brings you out so far in the middle of the night?"

"Ah yes, Doctor Van Helsing, I do apologize for the hour." Hobbes dipped his head deferentially. "But as I was just explaining to Master Gabriel – well, I didn't think I should wait."

"What's this about, then?" If I sounded snippy, I was sure God would forgive me. He knew well enough what I'd already been through tonight.

"You remember, Father, that trouble I mentioned with the livestock attacks while you were away?"

I rubbed the bridge of my nose. "Yes. Yes – of course I remember. You said it was wild dogs?"

"Well," Hobbes explained grimly, "it seems our dogs have moved on to tougher game. We had a mauling tonight: a young couple on their way home from the country. Something like a big wolf, according to the report, attacked them on the outskirts of town. The horse spooked; broke his tracings; they found him more than a mile up the road. And then evidently this thing attacked the carriage." He paused for a moment, rubbing his chin as he collected his thoughts. "I've been to the scene, though, and it had to be more than one. I got a good look at the prints in the mud: at least three distinct sizes that I could see. And the bite patterns were the same as on those sheep up at Harwick's place. I think it's our mystery pack."

"All right," I frowned, "but what exactly does this have to do with us?"

"Two things," the captain replied, ticking off points on his fingers. "First off: although the husband's body was… well, pretty brutally worked over, if you'll pardon my skipping of the details – the lady was completely untouched. Not a scratch on her. Not that we were able to get much information out of her anyway. Shock, you know. It was the same with the livestock. Every animal killed was absolutely ripped to shreds but the others were left utterly alone. We'd thought at first it was some sort of instinctive behaviour. Wolves generally only kill what they need to survive."

"And the second item?"

Hobbes glanced at Gabriel, who supplied the answer. "This," he said, holding up a small metal disc and walking over to place it in my hand.

"What's this, some sort of foreign coin?" I tilted my head and adjusted my glasses to squint at the object.

"That's what you'd think at first, isn't it?" Hobbes agreed. "But look at the markings. There's no government in the world as stamps coins like that. We found it," he added, "mashed into the mud under the dead man's body."

I was forced to agree; the peculiar engravings on each side of the disc were unlike any I had seen on any coin. They seemed almost… arcane. And so the reason for the police captain's visit became clear. "You hoped I might provide some insight," I concluded.

He nodded. "You're my go-to man for… oddities. I took the liberty of going back out to Harwick's myself, after we'd cleaned up the mess on the road. Had to root about in the mud for a good spell; but I found another coin just like it. Wedged up under a tree root. Bloody odd coincidence, wouldn't you say?"

"Yes…" I murmured thoughtfully, rolling the disc between my fingers. "I'm sorry, Captain; I don't have any answers for you tonight. But I can certainly look into it. May I keep this?"

"Go right ahead. If you should find anything out, you can call for me at my home; no offense, Doctor, but if the boys down the station knew I was working with you, well…."

"I understand." Hobbes had already taken one beating to his reputation for asking my advice in the past. "Ours may not be a popular profession, but that makes it no less necessary, eh?"

"Aye," he agreed dourly, replacing his hat on his head. Gabriel quickly attended to the door. "I'd best be home before the wife puts out a bulletin on me. You'll let me know as soon as you discover anything…."

"I shall. Good night, Captain."

I stood in silent place for some moments after the door had shut behind him, fingering the coin in my hand as I sorted out my thoughts. Gabriel waited, watching me patiently; then fell into step beside me as I finally turned and headed for the basement. I sent out a tired mental summons for Alucard. The hours were growing small; but it seemed my night's work was just beginning.