Author's Note: Sorry about the long wait I've been busy with school and other things. At least this chapter is fairly long.

Dracula stood behind Ashling, watching her in her trance. He blended into the darkness in his black cape and hair, his bright eyes shining out of his white face like stars. Ashling's head moved to her left, obviously watching something in her vision. Her brown hair was somehow tucked neatly behind her ear, allowingher eye was fogged over as if it was glass; the green shining as bright as an emerald.

Dracula was entranced with her. A clack sounded behind him: a werewolf had caught up with them. He grinned cruelly. He would let the werewolf get close and see how she reacted.

Ashling 'woke up'. The rain faded away around her, the sky returned to pitch black, and silence muffled around her ears, when something snorted.

She turned her head, still kneeling on the stone walkway. A big hairy thing, stood behind her. It looked mostly human, but for it's head and all its fur, it was like a wolf.

"Werewolf." she suddenly realized, finally waking completely from her waking dream. The werewolf leaped for her, and at the exact moment to save her she ducked forward and heard the beast's howl as it tumbled into the gap. With morbid curiosity she leaned forward and watched as it disappeared into the fog and its death.

Dracula stood behind her, smiling without showing his teeth, his eyes shining in a dangerous way. "Wonderful, my dear."

Ashling spun around, gritting her teeth to keep calm.

"You are what I thought you were." He swooped down and, holding her shoulders, picked her up and marched her off. "Come," he told her. "We have much to attend to."

They ended up back where she had woken, the broken laboratory. Here Dracula let loose of her. She scurried off like a mouse from a cat who had almost made it lunch. Dracula turned slowly and laughed, in his deep voice, as his mouse tripped on a step. The girl sprawled on her back over the steps to the oddly placed red couch, she didn't understand, and her eyes were wide on account of it. Yet in all her confusion her hair stayed out of her face, allowing Dracula to stare into her eyes.

"Poor Ashling," he told her, "So confused." he smirked, and his face was inches away from hers, having moved at lightning speed. She shrieked, but didn't move. Ashling knew he would only follow her using the same trick he just had to catch up with her.

She blinked and he was gone.

"I will explain," his voice came from the ceiling, and her mouth fell open when she saw him standing upside down directly above her. "If you wish."

Her breath shuddered as she took one to speak. "Yes. Please." she stammered out finally.

There was a slam across the room. She looked, fearing the other werewolves she knew lurked around here, wherever here was.

She stood up on the bottom step, ready to run if need be.

"There is no need for that dear Ashling." Dracula was behind her now. The moon rose behind him, it seemed so much larger here. Ashling's mind was, for a moment, pulled in by this picturesque sight, until he spoke again.

"I know, so different from your world." Dracula's deep voice sounded in her ears as he looked back at it. He let himself be behind her, and as he spoke, he ran his fingers through her dark hair. "In this world all those things you've read about, are real." Something clicked in her head and she jerked physically. "Witches, hunters, vampires, the werewolves you are so afraid of," he walked around her, staring into her eyes. Ashling looked back, not being drawn into his trance as others would by his bright blue eyes.

"Yes," Dracula said, almost to himself. "There is something different about you, Ashling."

"What?" her voice was demanding, she was sick of being in the dark and having to run in it. "What's so special about me?"

"Oh, Ashling, you really don't know?" he grinned secretively at her. Dracula turned his back to her to stare out at the moon again. "As a small child you have been blessed, baptized, you have relatives who are Jewish and some who practice Islam, and Buddhism. Yet after all this you remain unattached to any religion." he turned to look at her, a strange glee dancing in his eyes. "Doesn't that seem strange to you?"

"Not really. My parents don't do anything."

He smiled at her ignorance. "Oh, but they did. As children they had a set religion, but they seemed to have lost it along the way." He turned back to the moon.

Before he could continue, Ashling cut in, "But what does that have to do with anything?"

"You will see." his voice was grave. "Your body is also strange. It is not built like a mortal's, it is stronger. You fell from a tree as a child and relatives swear they saw your leg bend oddly, but it didn't break. In fact you've never suffered a broken bone or sprain in your life despite all the sports you have played."

Ashling thought about it and found he was right.

"You are supernatural in your reflexes, your speed." he turned around on his heel and let his eyes rove over her body.

A thought entered Ashling's mind then. How her mother had, had to give her the sex talk early, in third grade. What!?, formed in her mind but she did not speak.

Dracula strode toward her, she saw him, but he was too fast to dodge.

His hand gripped her neck under her chin, his thumb on on side his fingers on the other.

Ashling didn't move, she could feel his nails, as long as talons, dig into her skin.

"Your most valuable asset," Dracula ducked his face next to her neck and breathed deep the smell of her. "Your blood."

Ashling whimpered, as he let out a sound close to a growl and his lips pressed to her skin. He jolted and hesitated then shoved her away. She stumbled and fell and hit her head on a metal bar.

Dracula pressed his hand to his face, trying to get a grip on his vamipiric urges. He had almost bitten her. He did not want to kill her or turn her just yet, it would ruin his chances of getting a child from her.

"Smooth, master, sir." the Bogey squatted beside the unconscious girl, his frock coat trailing the ground. Slowly Dracula took his hand from his eyes.

"Shut up, Vay." he gasped for breath trying to steady himself. "If I brought a child here you could not hold yourself back."

The Bogey laid his head on one shoulder then the other, almost agreeing with his master. Most night creatures have a hard time controlling themselves when it comes to their object.

He took a step toward Vay. He jumped up and skittered away, afraid he would be hit for his insolence.

Dracula paid him no mind as he bent down and gathered Ashling in his arms. When he stood her head lolled against his chest and her legs hung over his arm.

"Is she the reason?" Dracula's back was to Vay and he didn't see the puzzled look on his servant's face.

"Yes." he answered. "She is the reason I am alive."

The puzzle of why the Bogey was so far from the town ate at Dracula's mind as he laid Ashling in a bed.

Vay had run off after getting an answer to his question, and his footsteps had sounded like any other child's. Dracula's weakness was children and this had provoked his thoughts.

A prickle at the back of his head told him the sun was rising. There was no window in this room, so he couldn't tell if he could go out without being scorched.

Taking on more look at Ashling, he walked out into the hall. A storm gathered outside, it was plenty dark, as if the sun had never risen. He transformed, unfolded his wings and leaped out of the window.

The moment Dracula was out of sight, Vay crept into the room he had exited. He slunk up to the bed. The first thing he saw were Ashling's pair of black converses. A gray bat was embossed on the outside, red strings were laced through the top. But it wasn't just the colors that caught his eye, the smell of the rubber soles amazed him. Proving how strange and curious Bogey's are.

He took them and did whatever it is Bogey's do with their trinkets.

Dracula peered around the edge of a building into the midmorning market. The people bustled around just as they had when he was truly alive. Winter's chill could not touch him through his cloak, though would he have felt it anyway?

The same could not be said for the fierce looking dog that lingered beside him.

The thing must have been a cross between a wolf and one of the short-haired village mongrels. Its hair was dark gray studded with white and bristly, its eyes were a dark brown, its ears were long and pointed.

Now his ears were nearly horizontal to his head as he crouched by Dracula's side.

Dracula could sense something about it, the aroma of the night in his coat. He glanced down at it, Why is this one so close to the village if all the others have fled? he asked himself. He forced it out of his thoughts and returned to scanning the village.

The lights were on in Valerios manor, and even as he stared trying to catch a whiff of Anna, a man came out.

He was small, with small cropped blonde hair and a catholic monk's robe. He looked around nervously, clutching the crucifix around his neck.

The dog at Dracula's side began to whimper and slink backward into the street. As he got farther it boosted his courage and he began to bark and growl at him.

"What is wrong with you, you mangy-"

An icy pain went through his back and out his chest. He gasped and looked down at a silver point jutting from the center of his chest.

I'm out of practice, he thought.

The man behind him forced him forward and dumped him face first into the dirt just in front of the village's well.

The stake was pulled from his back as he heard: "You see! He is still alive! That is why we must take the offensive!"

Men tentatively walked out of the crowd gathered around the edges of houses, toward Dracula and-

"Van Helsing." Dracula scorned as he lay sprawled on the ground, pinned by a boot.

"But you have just left him alive." someone in the crowd yelled and shouts of agreement followed.

The pressure was taken off his back and he took the chance to leap up into his bat form. Van Helsing swiped at the space where he had been with the stake.

Dracula landed on the far edge of the well. His cloak was now absent and a smirk of triumph was smeared across his face.

The wolf dog yelped and ran toward him. He stood behind him on the steps and growled at the people like a faithful watch dog.

"I see you have not improved in my absence Van Helsing."

"Your absence? You should be dead!" a growl covered Van Helsing's expression.

"Ah, yes, but my soul lingered on and I took a vassal to serve my purpose." he meant Ashling, the one his soul had fled to when his body had ceased to be.

A little girl of perhaps six took a step away from her ma. She recognized the dog; she had fed it for the past year scraps from her own plate. He had been thankful and had been the girl's playmate. No other child would be around her because of her icy blue eyes.

Dracula saw her movement out of the corner of his eye and he turned his head to look. Her mother collected her in her arms. Dracula caught her ice eyes with his. They looked much the same, and some who had seen him had accused her mother of being his whore. The girl continued to stare, as his eyes began to glow inhumanly.

"Children." he said simply. When he looked back at Van Helsing a dark haired boy stood by his side, holding a crossbow. Dracula sneered thinking this boy was his enemy's son.

"And where is dear Anna, Van Helsing?"

He gulped at her name. "She's dead." his voice remained calm, but he had stopped loading the bow in his distress.

"No doubt birthing one of your prodigy." Dracula seemed unmoved by this news in his biting tone, but his head spun.

"No, she died, three years ago, just after I killed you." the stony look returned to Van Helsing's face.

Three years, Dracula repeated to himself, I have been truly dead.

"Such a loss. She would have made a fine bride."

Van Helsing took a step and the boy put a hand on his arm. The boy had good sense, he saw that Van Helsing's rage would have been his undoing.

"Don't you have enough brides?" his teeth were grit as he spoke, not looking at Dracula.

"Oh, but think, Van Helsing, you've killed them all. I will have to find more." he smirked. "I already have a young girl in mind."

Van Helsing took no time for words, he hefted the bow and shot.

At the same moment, the sun moved out from behind the clouds.

Dracula hissed and with his inhuman speed dived into the well. Van Helsing's shot whizzed through the space beside the dog's ear. Knowing he would never make it out of the well, the dog shot off, never the more noticed by the townsfolk than he ever was.

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Van Helsing ran up the steps and looked over into the dark chasm much as he had done with Anna years ago. The dark haired boy, Ahlf, stood across from him. Carl yelled to them from the steps of the church, but Van Helsing could not make out his words. The boy answered for him and he was so keen on making out a shape from the darkness he did not hear the response.

The clouds covered the sun once more. "Uh-oh."

A huge man-like bat burst out of the opening, knocking Van Helsing and his boy to the ground with the gusts from its wings. Van Helsing began to shoot at it, running around to re-coop with his young apprentice.

"Here's a lesson for you boy," Van Helsing said as he paused in his shooting. "Night creatures are always unpredictable." he shot again as Dracula swooped and grabbed the little ice eyed girl about the waist.

Fleeing Van Helsing's shots he took off with her. Van Helsing gasped, "Didn't see that one coming."

The girl's mother ran up behind him, she was crying hysterically, scratching at her face, and throwing blame around.

"Calm down, Miss." Van Helsing tried. "There are only two places he could have taken her-" he gave up. Peony, the cleaning lady Carl had hired when they had taken over the manor, came up and began to soothe the woman.

"Thanks." he nodded to her and she nodded back.

Van Helsing knew he had to start searching for the girl right away. And if he didn't find her in time, well. . .

He sighed, as he looked off in the direction Dracula had gone.

In the distance a wolf howled.

The girl did nothing as she was carried in the monster's arms. She didn't know what to think. She had endured the teases of her peers and the lectures of the priests and wasn't sure if this was what was meant to happen to her.

People accused her mother of adultery, and with Dracula no less. But why would she be punished for what her mother had done? Though she didn't believe her mother would do such a thing, she was a devoted wife and did everything her husband asked of her. She took good care of her children, kept a clean house, and cooked very well.

One of the women who taunted her mother openly, was a whore by night and acted like a saint during the day, an owl had told her that.

Dracula was as careful as he could be with the girl. He held her tight and was distinctly aware of where his claws were.

As he flew the girl sat silent looking down, as he was, at the forest below. Between the trees Dracula saw the wolf dog. The dog ran faster than a horse and jumped like a gazelle; he was a creature of the night.

He screeched to it, and the girl looked at him. He gave her a grin with his huge teeth. She looked away quickly, and down as the wolf dog howled back to him. It sounded more like the screech of a bat than a wolf's howl.

The dog fell out of their sight as they flew over the mountains. It would take the dog much longer to reach the castle.

The girl saw the huge palace, and marveled. It was so tall its spires were lost in the clouds.

The huge bat flew through a window he had busted long ago.

He changed to his human form still holding the girl in his arms. He set her down on her feet just as the sun touched his heels. He screeched and skirted away from it toward his coffin frozen in the middle of the room.

When he looked back the girl still stood in the full sunlight, looking at him strangely. She was too young to know what he was, and what it meant, all she knew is that everyone spit when they said his name.

"I don't understand." she said in her sweet voice.

Dracula's tone was harsh as a sudden rage gripped him. "Come out of the sun and I will explain it to you." he found himself regretting that he could not stand in the heat of the sun as this little girl could.

She shook her head tossing her short black hair around her face.

He screeched again in his anger. The girl jumped further backward, putting herself in brighter light.

Dracula took a breath, calming himself.

"What is your name, girl?" he asked, a little more gently.

"S-Sophie." she said quickly and quietly.

"Sophie," Dracula sighed. Flying had made him tired, his fatigue and lack of blood had caught up with him. He managed a warm smile for her. "Would you like to meet your new mother?"

Ashling awoke in a dark room, her dreams immediately dissipating as wakefulness overtook her.

Opening her eyes was little different than having them closed, her ears were equally unresponsive. She could feel beneath her a smooth silk, and around her the frigid still cold. She looked around her eyes questing for anything.

A candle burned in the far corner of the room, sending a glare off a doorknob beside it. She swung her feet off and touched the cold marble floor. Her shoes had been taken off.

Not good for my running. She decided.

Ashling wrapped her jacket tighter around herself and shoved her hands into her pockets, subsequently finding a hole in the cloth. She sighed, but continued on out the door.

Gray sunlight filtered through a small high window when she stuck her head out the door.

The hallway was wide and made of a dark stone. Doorways were set in alcoves at irregular intervals along the way. One of them was set in midair just below the small smudgy window. That was the only one window that she saw and dust flittered across the singular shoot of light.

The rest of the corridor was dark and Ashling was reluctant to venture out, but what else was she to do?

The girl took a step, looking apprehensively down the darkest way.

The door slammed behind her and she jumped and twisted around to stare at the polished wood with wide eyes. A cackling filled the air and traveled up and down assaulting her ears multiple times.

Ashling stood frozen, her hands over her ears. As it subsided she let her hands fall.

"Who are you?" she kept her voice level, but when it echoed back to her it sounded scared and small. She closed her eyes in an effort to get control of herself.

"Who are you young mistress?" the boy appeared across from her when she opened her eyes.

"Ash-" she was cut off by a far off screech, a cross of a puma's scream and a bat.

"Mistress Ash," the boy seemed unperturbed by it, as he bowed to her.

"Ashling actually." she muttered, looking around nervously. He nodded as if he already knew.

"I am Vay." when he looked back up she noticed his eyes; full black orbs like a barn owl's.

She was curious and would have asked if something hadn't screeched again. Instead she said:

"Vay?" she thought he might be a friend and asked of her worries. "What is that?"

He looked at her superciliously as if she should know.

"The master."

Author's Note: I need reviews here I need to know if I'm being clear. I'm begging you!