CH 6

Sera awoke to a blinding headache. She moaned pitifully and shut her eyes, allowing the darkness of hiding behind her lids to soothe the pain slightly. Her tongue felt dry and swollen, her entire body ached. A stinging sensation by the side of her mouth caused her to bring a hand to the corner of her lips. She opened her eyes, ignoring the agony for a moment to stare at the crimson liquid on her finger. She brought the finger to her mouth, then pulled it away, almost laughing at her own lust for blood. ALMOST laughed.

She felt her healing powers creeping slowly around the pain, engulfing the sore atoms in an unholy embrace of comfort. She sat back, trying to understand where she was. Van Helsing…Van Helsing…she remembered seeing him. The masquerade? He kidnapped her at the masquerade…that was it.

Her large dark eyes took in her surroundings. A tall cell, sold stone floor, iron barred door, with gaps about a foot wide between the bars. She snorted with laughter. Like a cat, if she could her head through, the rest of the body somehow followed. She placed a hand on the metal, and then leapt backward, her hand burned.

"It's been blessed by a priest" came a slightly stuttering voice. Sera snarled and retreated to a corner, locating the speaker by the racing heartbeat that gave away his fear.

"You can't get through"

The voice was decidedly male. He stepped from his hiding spot, well outside the bars in case she decided to sear her own flesh off by running through the bars. Sera eyed him coldly. He was short, with a mop of sandy blonde hair. He had no beard, but was in desperate need of a shave if he intended to stay that way. He was hunched over slightly, and wearing the brown robe and cowl of a friar.

"My name is Carl. I'm…going to be looking after you" he said in that quavery, mousy voice of his. Sera rolled her eyes.

"Looking after me?" she said, allowing the words to come from her lips in a hiss.

"You will need looking after when I am through with you, Friar!" she snarled, exposing long fangs. He stepped back, hands shaking.

"No need for…any violence now" he yelped. Sera heard approaching footsteps and a second heartbeat. She crossed her arms and melted back into the shadows. A blonde girl in a plain dress, with rosy cheeks and an angelic smile hurried into view, carrying a jug of water.

Sera noted that as she approached, both heartbeats sped up slightly. She smirked. How sweet…they like each other She thought.

"Muriel" Carl said in relief.

"She's not responding well to me"

Annika smiled lightly. Sera noticed she was very curvaceous for a servant girl.

"Obviously. You wouldn't expect her to accept kindness"

Carl shrugged his shoulders, andMuriel left, throwing a backwards glance over her shoulder, and leaving the water jug with Carl.

Sera giggled coldly in amusement.

"How adorable. The friar and the servant girl"

"She is no servant!" Carl said brazenly. "She is my assistant"

"Otherwise known as a servant" Sera said mockingly. He frowned at her.

"I know who you are, friar. You are Van Helsings little friar lackey. The stuttering, bumbling brain that hides in the shadow of the glorious monster hunter, who'd never left the abbey before going to destroy a man who'd only wanted to have children"

She snorted with contempt.

"And now you kidnap his only daughter, his own flesh and blood, in hopes of luring here to capture him. That is not justice. That is cowardice. That is despicable!" she spat. Carl bit his lip.

"I'm not sure this is the best way to do it…but we must destroy your father…" aware of how horrid his words sounded, he opened a small additional cage that connected to her cell, and placed the water jug inside. By tugging on a rope, he lifted a small wall of bar, which allowed her to take the jug. She did not take it.

"I need blood, friar" she said coldly.

"There will be no manslaughter here!" Carl said squeakily.

"Then butcher some form of livestock."

Carl hurried away, glad to be out of company with the vampire girl. Sera curled herself into a corner and did something she had not done for quite a while.

She wept.

---

"We are coming with you master!" declared Aleera decidedly. Dracula rounded on her, his eyes flashing blue.

"It is too dangerous!"

Aleera snarled back, her eyes going dangerously pink.

"I do not care! I love Sera as much as anyone! We WILL come!"

Marishka and Verona watched the spat with worried expressions.

"You will do no such thing!" Dracula roared. Aleera wheeled around, terrified, and clutched at her sisters. The trio comforted her, patting her hair and hugging her. Dracula faced them, an almost pleading look in his eyes.

"I don't want you hurt, my darlings. Losing Sera is hard enough, I could not bear it if I lost any one of you"

Verona stepped forward, her chin high.

"We can be replaced, and your affection for us will wane if we die and Lucifer refuses to let us return to the world of the waking, you know that from past experience as well as I do. Sera cannot be substituted in your heart Vladislaus. You will need all the help you can get in returning her safely to the castle, and we offer ourselves willingly. As her mother and aunts, we will be a part of this. It is not your fight alone"

Dracula met her gaze imperiously.

"Then come" he spat, then swirled his cloak and disappeared, leaving Verona staring at empty space.

"You don't think he's angry, do you?" Marishka said sarcastically.

---

In her cell, Sera sat in her corner. Her beautiful ball gown was filthy and torn, her face was stained with tears, and her lips were stained with blood. Her eyes were sunken into her pale face, and dark circles gave her an even more skeletal appearance in the gloom.

She thought back, to the last kill she made before the ball. It had been a girl, no more than thirteen or fourteen. Her hair was long and brown and straight as a pin. Her eyes were green-grey, her face pale in the moonlight, and her long legs tucked beneath her. Ser had alit on the grass behind her, reveling in the sheer joy of the hunt. The girl turned, her eyes wide.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"No one" Sera replied, raising her hypnotic eyes to meet the young girls.

The girl was sitting on a bench, a few hundred yards outside of her large house. Sera sauntered slowly around the side of the bench, long fingers trailing on the smooth wooden arm of the seat.

"You shouldn't be out alone in the dark" she hissed. "The creatures of the night are always watching"

The girl frowned, and Sera grabbed her neck, snapping it instantly. The child went completely limp in her grasp. The vampires sunk her fangs into the mortals' neck, and felt her senses instantly awake. The warm, metallic blood flooded her mouth and filled her body with fire. Sera drew back as soon as she had drained the girl. She arranged the body in a peaceful position, one hand touching the dripping wounds on her neck, sitting up, silhouetted against the moon.

She stared at the bloodstained collar of the white lace dress the lass had been wearing, smiled a crimson stained smile, and took off, spiraling upwards into the darkness with a shriek of pure delight.

And now she was crouched, powerless, weak, and living off the blood of livestock, in a church that was slowly draining her of the little power drinking pigs' blood gave her.

She knew her father was coming to save her. She knew they were going to capture him. And she knew there was absolutely no way to stop them.

The feeling of helplessness was completely overwhelming.

---

Dracula and his brides stood on the tallest spire of the summer palace, hair whipped by the icy breeze. Dracula offered a slight nod and jumped, spreading his arms and legs, allowing the transformation for man to hell-beast. His brides followed suit, gliding on their enormous wings. There was no need to guess Sera's location. A note had been sent to the castle, declaring the whereabouts of the counts daughter. If Dracula surrendered himself, then his daughter could go free.

He would have to rely on his own strengths to get Sera free. It wouldn't be easy, and it was not going to be pretty, but this was the sort of thing Dracula lived for. Strategizing, planning, being able to think like a soldier again rather than living in the lap of luxury with nothing to do.

And of course, someone he actually LOVED was on the line. The life of his own daughter. And Lucifer might not be so willing to let her come back to him. Life without his daughter seemed very very bleak. He had never experienced this bond with any of his brides, although his connection with his present three was more than any he's ever had, but still. If any of them died, sure, he would mourn their losses, and beg the devil for their return. But if he refused, then eventually new brides could be found, and life…or death, would be continued as normal.

But if he lost Sera…he could not think of life without his daughter.

As they soared through the cold, grey clouds, revenge darkened his mind. He would make Van Helsing and the Order pay for this.

His eyes glowed blue as he flapped his great leathery wings, once, twice, until he was above the clouds, staring at the moon which illuminated the inky darkness.

They would pay…yes, they would pay.

Death was coming on dark wings.

----

Fangy: ACK! Why are these chapters so SHORT? RRGH!