Chapter 4

Dracula tried his best to build a wall between his mind and his new progeny, Anna Valerious. But it was like trying to keep parchment paper dry in the middle of the ocean. Emotions and thoughts of his own kept bleeding through at times, and hers occasionally leaked through as well. This never-ending, reluctant exchange of thoughts and emotions continued for months.

He could sense she was not doing well. She was feeding off the animals in the forest and isolating herself from the townspeople for fear of hurting them.

On the opposite end, all Anna could sense was this great destructive anger behind the wall between their minds, and so she continuously cringed away from it in fear and disgust.

The loneliness grew on both sides of the mental wall with every passing month. He saw no one and stayed locked up in his icy fortress, deep in the snowy Carpathian mountains. She barely saw anyone, staying locked up in her family's mansion, pretending that grief for Van Helsing was the only thing holding her back. She only ventured forth at night to feed on the blood of the forest animals.

Sunlight did not yet burn her, but it was painful and uncomfortable to her eyes, so she avoided it as much as possible. Her pale skin, insomnia, and rapid weight loss was all attributed to her grieving by the townsfolk.

Finally, she could stand it no longer. She strapped on her best hunter gear and stepped thru the mirror to Dracula's lair. If she could slay him, then the last evil would finally be gone from the world, and the insanity clawing at the edges of her mind would leave, for she would finally be dead and at peace.

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Dracula stiffened the moment he felt the presence of Anna's mind within his castle walls. The insolent child! Didn't she know the meaning of a mental wall? It meant stay away, not come bursting in and forcing her presence upon him!

Without turning around, he felt her enter his inner sanctum. She was as quiet as a cat now, but he still knew exactly where she was. Her stench reached him next. She smelled of the blood of animals. A nasty smell indeed, of a decaying half-human vampire who refused to feed properly. Any strength or powers she might possess would be laughable and stunted at best due to her foul dietary choices. Her flesh was rotting away, stuck in transition. A transition that wouldn't be completed until she fed on human blood.

Dracula turned and sneered at her in disgust, grabbing her wrist at the last moment and forcing her to drop the stake at his feet.

"My dear Anna, you really do have a death wish, don't you?"

Exhausted defiance shown from her eyes, now tinted slightly blue in the darkness.
It was the sight of those eyes that caused him to reach out on impulse and caress her face. It had been so long since he'd had any vampiric company. A year's worth of brooding over his endless fate.

She gasped in surprise at the gentle caress, despite the anger and disdain written across his face.
Something clawed its way out of her throat before she could stop it, "Master… please..."

Dracula winced at the sound of a suffering animal that just wanted to be put out of its misery, and anger fled for a moment, leaving him cold and still.

Anna tried to jerk away in horror at what had just happened, but Dracula didn't let her. He simply pulled her closer and wouldn't let go. Like a child clinging to a long-lost doll. She squirmed for a moment, unable to break his hold with her feeble strength, and then just broke down into choking sobs. He said nothing, just gently stroked her hair until she finally went silent, having emptied herself of tears, and eventually she passed out from exhaustion.

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Anna awoke nestled amongst soft pillows and black silk. A familiar scent lingered among the sheets, but before she could identify it, she caught a whiff of a much stronger scent.

Her eyes zeroed in on the bedside table where two full bottles of blood awaited her. She had downed both before her conscious mind had even made any decision. She pressed her face into a pillow in distress, realizing immediately that those bottles had contained human blood, and it had tasted so sweet and wonderful. She already felt 100% better and more clear-headed than ever before. Limiting herself to animal blood would never be the same again.

She burrowed deeper into the pillow in humiliation at her weak control, breathing deeply, trying not to panic. The scent on the sheets was so soothing to her, she almost completely relaxed and fell asleep again. Until her brain finally put two-and-two together and realized who's scent it was. Her strong and sudden revulsion caused her to fling herself out of bed backwards, and land in a jumbled heap on the stone floor with a groan on impact.

A slightly dry chuckle reached her ears and she startled again.

There was Dracula, perched in the window sill, watching her like she was some kind of fascinating insect he was about to dissect.

She looked around for anything she could use as a weapon and found nothing. This was clearly his bedroom. Everything was draped in deep blacks with trimmings of silver or gold. A splash of scarlet was seen here and there in the décor, a pillow on the plush couch, or a painting on the wall.

"What the hell am I doing in here?" Anna snarled at him.

"You passed out in my lap." Amusement still lingering slightly in his voice, "I thought about dropping you off the side of a cliff. But it seemed rather inhospitable."

She hissed at him, no words could describe her displeasure at waking up in his bed, with bottles of human blood just waiting to sabotage her months and months of effort of living off of only animal blood.

"That blood did the trick. You're almost pretty again." Dracula mocked her.

"I am going to kill you." Anna vowed, in response to the insult.

His amusement only grew. "I would love to see you try."

Then surprisingly, he produced a knife and tossed it at her feet.

Anna stared at it in shock for a moment, before snatching it up, and lunging at him with a vicious cry.
He deftly grabbed her wrist, twisted until she was forced to let go of the knife, and then pulled her in closer. He inhaled deeply the scent of her hair. Yes, much better. After having fed well on human blood, the vile animal blood stench was already dissipating. She smelled almost completely like a normal vampire now. Delicious….. his instincts purred at him.

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Yeah, if Anna had just stayed away, Dracula would have resisted for longer. Now, she's made herself his problem by barging into his castle and looking half-starved and half-mad.

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