I dedicate this fanfiction to my girlfriend and all my readers, reviewers and the beta reader wallaceb.

CHAPTER 16 - Through the Looking Glass

Whaaaa! Whaaa!

The desperate wandering thoughts of Dracula were abruptly interrupted by the ringing of his phone.

Tonk!

Dracula stood up so quickly that he violently struck his head on the lid of the coffin making it fly away as he rushed to get out of the macabre bed to answer.

"Dr Jekyll?" Asked hopeful the vampire.

Answered a hoarse voice:

"No, I am Hyde... Now the doctor is not here... but he left a note, saying:

Dear Dracula, your daughter is doing well and will recover in not too long of a time.

I cleaned the wounds of silver, but they will still have a regeneration rate slower than normal, and I am afraid they will leave scars. In addition the head of the arrow contained silver nitrate which has entered into her bloodstream, damaging several internal organs, including the for the boy, I am keeping him sedated and under observation, but the synthetic blood that I'm administering to him does not seem to quench his thirst."

"What the hell is 'silver nitrate'?" Asked Dracula.

"By the name it would seem a chemical compound made of silver, but I'm just an architect, not a scientist!" Said Mr. Hyde.

"Is she awake? How is she?"

"Yes, she is awake, but she is curled up at the window watching the falling rain. Since I arrived she has not opened her mouth, not even responding to my questions."

"Stay with her until I get there" Ordered the vampire and immediately hung up the phone with fury to run at full speed toward the dungeons.

He was running down the corridor but braked suddenly when a door in front of him opened to let out a mummynurse with a cart full of knives, saws, pliers, pincers and other tools, they were rusty and dripping with blood.

A shiver of concern went along the back of the vampire, then he took courage and looked up at the room, but as soon as he recognized the shape of Jonathan lying on the bed, he quickly looked away, he did not want to see him in that condition. Finally he turned to the Mummynurse:

"Where's my daughter?"

"Operating room, up the stairs down the corridor." She answered turning and pointing the stairs nearby.

Dracula thanked her with a nod of his head and walked, he was too rough to run.

Arriving at the door, he gritted his teeth and took a deep breath, trying to be brave, the reality was too hard to face. He opened the door with his eyes full of tears and immediately he was reached by Mr. Hyde, who looked at him, but he realized that there was nothing he could say to reassure the count, so he went out leaving father and daughter alone.

"M-Mavis?" The vampire asked in a weak and insecure voice, but he got no response. He went further into the room in search of his daughter. He passed many instruments of torture, when suddenly a flash of lightning lit up the whole room for a moment by displaying a human shadow on the window. Dracula came fearfully to it.

"My honey? Are you there?"

There was no answer, so he approached to rest one hand on her shoulder, but the vampiress seemed to continue to sleep with her eyes open.

"I know it's not a good time, but we have to talk about some important things.
I don't want to talk about that bastard who did this to you, but what you did to Jonathan..."

Mavis still did not say anything, her gaze was impassive even to the lightning which occasionally lit up her bandaged face and vibrated the window.

The drops of rain slid down the glass like tears on a face, it seemed that the castle was crying for her.

"Biting Jonny was an irresponsible thing; I warned you it would be dangerous..."

"If I hadn't done it, Jonny would die." Mavis finally opened her mouth, then turned to her father.

"Do you think he will be safe?" She added worried.

"I don't know that's why I have to talk with you. Turning a human into a vampire is difficult and dangerous, just a bite "infects" a person, but if death doesn't occurs in a short time the body can vanquish it. In addition to be transformed a human being must have within itself a bit of magical energy which can be transmitted by making him drink some vampire blood.

But the thing that worries me most is his soul. I do not know how you've been able to control yourself. The human soul is in the blood, and if you've sucked it all, Jonathan would return to life as a monster without a soul, incapable of loving and ruthless like I was a long time ago, and in this case I would be forced to kill him."

Mavis thought for a moment and then replied:

"I heard that hateful voice in my head who told me to bite him and..." She stopped for a moment.

"What's wrong, honey-claws?"

Mavis smiled, she liked those nicknames and still regretted for what she had said to her father in that dream.

"No, I'm fine ... I felt that we were dying, so I did the only thing I could do to save both of us. I bit him, and I felt an incredible feeling to which I couldn't stop. My face was full of my blood, I could taste it in my mouth, so I think I transmitted it to him at least a little. When his heart stopped beating I got scared and I left him..."

Dracula's face became even more worried.

"Are you saying Jonny died in your hands while you bit him?"

"Yes... I think so..." Mavis became worried seeing her father get agitated.

"Damn... my little baby, I have to ask you a bit of a personal question... well... you and Jonny... have... that is... you kiss and... I would like to know if you ever went over..." Dracula beated around the bush, he was embarrassed to ask a question of this kind.

Mavis blushed and looked away from her father, she adjusted a strand of hair behind her ear and said, embarrassed:

"Yes..."

This answer made the vampire sigh, who seemed sad, but relieved, then Mavis continued to speak:

"We kissed with the tongue... it was too awesome!" She said euphorically, then continued with the gaze of a puppy:

"I wanted to tell you before, but I was ashamed..."

"Well... I understand... I'm glad you've made some pleasant new experiences... but what I wanted to ask you was... if you had done something... deeper... " The vampire continued to babble without getting to the point.

"I cannot go deeper than that!" Mavis said, pulling out her little tongue in its entire length.

"No, what I'm trying to ask is if you're still... maiden..."

The girl looked puzzled at her father raising an eyebrow, then said with certainty:

"Of course not..."

The vampire's eyes widened, then she ended the speech:

"You know September 28 is in the sign of Libra and not of Virgo!"

Dracula slapped his palm on his face in despair, so he took courage:

"You still do not understand me my baby ... You and Jonathan have never had sex or not?!"

Mavis looked petrified with opened mouth at her father, while he had retired in his mantle; he cringed, regretted for the excessive frankness of his words.

"A-are you crazy? I love him but I met him only a few days ago. What do you take me for?"

The vampire did not answer, so she began to speak in a very contemptuous voice:

"Maybe you think I'm a slut?!"

Mavis stood up and came face to face with her father, she was very angry.

Dracula would have willingly disappeared, but he did what his daughter would never have expected, he hugged her tightly wrapping her in his mantle.

"I'm sorry for what I said to you my honey. I don't know why I lost control of myself and I will never forgive myself for the pain that I caused you. But now I'm really worried about you, what you did was very dangerous. The soul which you have nourished is too powerful for you and I don't know what might happen to you."

Mavis raised her head and looked at her father gently returning the hug:

"I can't stay angry at you, but what do you mean 'the soul of Jonny is too powerful'?"

"The soul of living things can contain more or less energy depending on various factors, the strongest is undoubtedly the human soul, then if you add up the feeling like the first love, the fear of death and his own companion, the determination to find a way of salvation, to be a good and generous person willing to sacrifice yourself for the good of others and especially be a virgin and pure makes it powerful and both of you satisfy all these requirements. Moreover Jonathan died while you bit him, then you've tasted his soul until the end.

I tried to do what you did, but never succeed for hundreds of years when I was looking for absolute power. What do you think will serve my powers of psychic control? To force the girls to fall in love with me, but it was only a mental love and not of the soul. I'm terrified that you will become what I was trying to become into my dark past."

Mavis took a few steps away, she was ashamed for her father's past and she did not want to be near him when he talked about it.

But she stopped almost immediately, turned in the middle of the room. She reached out a hand in front of her and then began to walk until she touched an old mirror with the palm of her hand.

A shiver ran through her back.

"Holy rabies..." Mavis's voice was choked with emotion.

"Dad, is this normal?"

Dracula turned his gaze to his daughter and he froze.

"No, my honey-bat. It is not normal..." Said Dracula getting worried.

Her reflection in the mirror was clear and a flash of lightning made her even more visible, which is impossible for a vampire.

"Dad, I'm afraid ... that's happening to me?" Mavis began to shake.

"I do not know my baby, I do not know..."

After a long time this chapter is a less distressing and with a bit of comedy. Obviously I could not close the chapter without a cliffhanger. By now you may have guessed I like do a excessive use of it...
Greetings and see you soon!
Ps: just for the record, now I'm finishing to write the chapter 21 in Italian :-D