Chapter Thirteen: 1886 Cluj-Napoca

Sheri: A Sun Child

I'm gonna soak up the sun
Gonna tell everyone
To lighten up (I'm gonna tell 'em that)
I've got no one to blame
For every time I feel lame
I'm looking up o I'm gonna soak up the sun
I'm gonna soak up the sun

-Sheryl Crow "Soak Up The Sun"

"My name is Chantal Lydie," and the child emerged. Except she wasn't a child at all. She was a woman with a child's voice.

"Where am I?" The Count asked nervously as the mist began to clear. He could see a forest.

"You are Cloj-Napoca," the child-woman said. "I have summoned you here to meet someone," she explained. The Count felt a nervous jolt go through his body as he heard another heartbeat approaching.

"Count Dracula?" He heard the most familiar voice…

"Shyriyh?" He spun around to face his old love. "Sh-Shyriyh? H-how?"

"Shyriyh?" The girl with the long, brown hair and odd clothing said. "My name is Sheri Willis." The Count felt his unbeating heart sink deeper into his chest.

"I apologize, I thought—it is a pleasure Ms. Willis," he said as he bowed slightly to her.

"It is quite alright, welcome to Cloj-Napoca," Sheri said as she shook his hand timidly. The little French-sounding girl stood giggling next to them.

"You two appear to be an oddly good couple," she said. Sheri's cheeks turned red along with the Count's.

"So you say you summoned me here?" The Count asked nervously as the two girls led him through the lovely forest path.

"Indeed," Chantal told him as she leapt happily over a fallen log.

"Very good, and how do I get back," he asked with still a bit of nervousness rushing through him.

"You leave whenever you wish and come back whenever you wish," Sheri explained as she took his hand and helped him over the log.

"How?"

"By imagining where you were last and you will be transported back there. Then to come back you must imagine this place and you will be back, but you must concentrate hard," she explained, "use the flash teleportation that all vampires have."

"Ah," the Count looked at her as she walked ahead of him. Sheri could feel him watching her.

"So, umm… it is a great honour Count Dracula. I have heard so much about you," she said as she took his hand and led him up towards the quick-paced French girl.

"Ms. Sheri, you remind me so much of… an old friend of mine," the Count said as he admired Sheri's beautiful face. He had the odd idea that the girl was his lovely Shyriyh in disguise. She looked exactly like her… exactly… Perhaps Shyriyh was turned too… and just lost her memory or something…

"I do? Who is this old friend you speak of?" She asked.

"Just a good friend who passed away many moons ago," he said as he felt the painful charge in his chest when he remembered Shyriyh's death so many years ago.

"Oh, I am so sorry," she turned around and gave him a hug and a smile that would forever warm his world. She seemed so… happy. Just like Shyriyh.

"I am an elf you know," she decided to announce randomly but rather excitedly, as if she'd only just found out.

"A-an elf?" the Count stopped walking dead in his tracks and looked at her.

"Yeah, Johnny just told me recently, is that not fascinating?" She said. The Count felt another odd surge in his chest.

"You know Lord Johnny?" He asked, not able to fully pronounce the man's name.

"Yes, and I know Queen Lily as well," said Sheri.

"W-wait one moment, why are you—why did you not know that you were an elf?" He asked rather confused.

Sheri shrugged.

"I was born to human parents but I am an elf… and that is why it is strange. I do not believe I have any elf in my family," Sheri explained.

"Ah, and why may I ask have I been summoned here?" The Count asked as he continued to admire Sheri's face.

"Well, I said I wanted you to meet someone," the little French girl said as she giggled madly.

"Who is this you wish me to meet?" The Count asked, he rather thought Chantal wanted to introduce him to Lady Sheri.

"Me," the Count jumped when he began to hear another heartbeat.

"W-who are y—Countess Naiara?" The Count had read of her as well. She was supposedly the Countess of the Wolf Demons.

The Lady bowed to him. She was the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen. She was tall and slender with the body of Venus. She had eyes like a wolf's and a perfect, narrow, nose at perfect distance from her seductive lips. She was… perfect.

"It is I, and I have come to speak with you about the trinity," the Countess Naiara said to him as she straightened up.

"The Trinity?" The Count looked from Sheri to Chantal and then back to the Countess Naiara.

"Yes," Chantal said, "we need your help. Johnny has done a search and you are the one who has a positive link to Sheri's soul."

"A positive link? What is going on?" the Count asked, speaking mostly to the Countess Naiara.

"There is a demon after the Trinity's power, but mostly after Sheri because this creature can do best with elf power," she explained, "and we needed someone with a perfect to near-perfect link with her soul to be able to protect her for they will have the greatest effect of blocking the demon from her if they are that close to her soul," the Countess Naiara looked deep into the Count's spirit, "almost like… a soul mate."