Chapter 2: Falling From Darkness

The stone wall that get the vampires asleep started to crack around the edges, a slender hand slid through the wall and Nshina broke through the rest of the concrete. She brushed herself down and watched as her sisters followed, Marishka yawned and looked back at her master who was still asleep,

"I think he may be a while yet, he woke up several times during the day and was incredibly restless,"

The wall still covered his sleeping form, the wall started to re-seal itself where the brides had broken it,

"I hope he is alright,"

Aleera commented as she put a hand on his. Verona rolled her eyes and walked out of the room, with her younger sisters following. Igor was standing in the entrance having a furious argument with one of the Dwerger, Marishka and Nshina looked down at them and listened to what they were saying, Verona and Aleera walked down the stairs to try and find out what was going on,

"Gentlemen please, what is wrong Igor?"

The Dwerger and Igor bowed down to them,

"My mistress, this lower being found a vial containing a strange liquid in the laboratory and he has decided to blame me for putting it there,"

Aleera frowned and took the vial from Igor's hand,

"If it was found in the laboratory then surely it is meant to be there,"

But Verona had been in the castle longer than all of her sisters, she knew all of the things that were kept in every room,

"No, this is not one of ours. Master keeps his vials in a locked place in the ball room and he rarely takes them out, have you tested to see what it does?"

Igor looked at the vial then at Verona,

"No, we haven't,"

Verona folded her arms,

"Why not?"

"Because we don't know what it might do! It might make us become deformed or kill us, please don't test it out on one of us, Highest Mistress,"

In normal circumstances Verona would have liked that compliment but this circumstance was not normal,

"We shall see what Master wants to do with it,"

Marishka and Nshina looked at each other,

"Do you think that this thing could have anything to do with your feeling lately?"

Marishka asked her. Nshina looked down at the vial,

"I don't know. It might, maybe we should have a look at it,"

Marishka and Nshina jumped down and glided to the floor without changing. They landed softly on the ground next to Aleera, Igor and the Dwerger both jumped,

"Aleera may we have a look at that please?"

Nshina asked her, Aleera held out her hand and Marishka took the vial. She looked at it closely, then she took the cork out of it and a horrible smell floated out of it. The liquid smelt like burning coal, Nshina looked at Marishka and frowned

"That's what the has smelt like the past few weeks, everyone I have walked past smelt like that liquid,"

Verona scowled

"Do you think they have making this stuff then?"

Aleera looked at Marishka

"It could be possible,"

At that moment the vampires hearing became alert, they could hear something. Then, the sound became clearer, it was something cracking and breaking open,

"Master is awake,"

Verona looked up and saw that Dracula was looking down at them; he smiled and appeared beside Verona,

"Good morning dears, what's going on down here Verona?"

"The Dwerger found something in the laboratory and we don't know what it is,"

Marishka gave the vial to Dracula and he looked at it closely,

"Well it's not one of mine,"

"Yes we know that, we think that the villagers have been making it,"

Dracula frowned at Nshina then looked at the liquid,

"They might have been, Igor can you send someone to find out for us?"

Igor nodded and ran off. Dracula turned around and walked away with his brides behind him, he gestured for Verona to stand beside him

"Verona my dear, had Nshina had another change in moods yet?"

Verona shook her head,

"No, she has been really nice to us today, why?"

Dracula looked back at Nshina and turned around,

"Did you eat anything last night?"

Nshina looked at him and nodded

"Yes I did, she was fourteen,"

"You said that everyone you walked past had the smell of that liquid, did she have it?"

Nshina coaxed her head,

"You heard that? Well, no she didn't come to think of it,"

Dracula looked at Verona

"You see none of my other brides have been like this, it's just you Nshina,"

Nshina opened her mouth to say something but Dracula hushed her,

"I'm not trying to have an argument I was just merely saying. The only thing I can think of is that the villagers have been drinking this stuff, but they don't know it. But, if that is true why is it only affecting Nshina?"

Aleera flicked her head up; she had a triumphant look on her face,

"Because it only affects vampires under a certain age,"

Dracula folded his arms and looked at her

"Explain,"

"Well a younger vampire doesn't have the same immortalities as an older one does; in fact a younger vampire is weaker in more ways than one. Whoever this person is obviously knows that and has found a way to make something that will turn a younger vampire against everyone. Have you ever heard the term falling from grace?"

Verona nodded,

"Yes, I have but I think I'm the only one,"

Aleera laughed,

"I don't know the proper meaning but I know one way to describe it. When an Angel falls from grace their wings are clipped and the become mortal,"

Dracula groaned

"Do we have to talk about such things?"

"Yes, if you want to know what I know. Do you want me to carry on,"

Dracula sighed and nodded,

"So anyway, they become mortal. This could be the same for a vampire, except we are far from angels, I don't actually know what would happen but it is the same concept. If this carries it could happen to Nshina, she will feel ashamed of everything she has done as a vampire and in return your Master will do something to her,"

Nshina looked at Marishka,

"Well that's one theory, does anyone have any others?"

No one answered. Dracula looked at Nshina,

"So we need to find out who is doing this fast, I'm not going through almost loosing you again Nshina, I simply wont,"

Nshina smiled at her master,

"Si I guess you could call it falling from darkness then?"

Aleera just laughed,

"I suppose you could,"

Dracula watched his brides laughing

How can they find any of this funny?

He thought to himself

We could loose Nshina and they are laughing about it?

Verona was watching Dracula and she took his hand, she whispered into his ear,

"They are just trying to hide from the truth, laughing is the only way that they can make themselves believe it is a joke, that they will not have to go through any of that again,"

Dracula smiled and Verona

"Thank you my dear, you always know what to say to me. How do you know?"

Verona just smiled in return

"It's what I got for being your first,"

Marishka looked around and saw that Igor was standing behind them, she snarled at him,

"How long have you been standing there?"

Igor looked down,

"Not very long, I came to tell you that the group of vampires I sent out have just come back,"

Dracula looked over at him,

"Did they find anything?"

"Nothing about the vial but a stranger has arrived, no ones seems to know much about him. He isn't a relative of anyone who has ever come to this place, but there are rumours that he is a werewolf,"

Dracula grinned,

"Thank you Igor, this is very good news,"

Dracula loved hearing news about werewolves because it meant that he would have a new servant around the castle. The werewolves were kept in the dungeon below and were kept there by Igor; they were always useful to have around because they feared Dracula and would usually do as he said. He would send them out and usually got whatever information they wanted or killed who ever they needed to kill,

"Master, shall we invite this man to our castle?"

Nshina asked. She had never seen a werewolf; the only ones she had heard of were Van Helsing and Velken. But Dracula had killed Velken in rage before Nshina was even born as a human. Dracula looked at Nshina,

"Yes my dear, I wish to meet him and see where his allegiances lie. If they are with us then we have become most fortunate, but if not then we shall have to dispose of him. His coming here is curious though, we suddenly find something that can help us during this hard time and then we hear about another werewolf! We should be careful around this one,"

Hid brides nodded, Dracula put a hand under his chin and started to think,

"How should we get him here?"

Marishka smiled,

"We could capture him, that is always fun,"

Dracula laughed, that was her answer for everything,

"That is one idea. It seems to be the quickest; we do not want to wait to long for the full moon is near,"

He looked outside and estimated that they had a few hours before sunrise,

"We could go now, I'm sure he wont mind us paying him a little visit now,"

Igor nodded and walked off smiling. He was going to ready the cage for when the werewolf arrived, although it was his job to look after the werewolves Marishka seemed to spend the most time with them. They seemed to trust her and she liked spending time with them, she found that werewolves were very complex beings. They had a lot of emotion and thoughts, Igor thought that because Nshina and Marishka were alike that Nshina would get on with the werewolves as well. He was about to learn that there was a lot for them all to discover about Marishka's and Nshina's relationship.