Anna Van Helsing finally meets Mina Harker, the Bride of Dracula, in the flesh. Having captured Anna, Harker hopes to gain information about Anna's search for her and in turn give Anna information about her.

Chapter 26

"I was born Wilhelmina Murray in Manchester, England on Wednesday, September 11th, 1880," Mina Harker said as she began telling me her story. "My parents moved to London when I was three years old after my father found a job there. Tragically when I was five years old my father was killed when he was run over by a carriage. Five years later my mother died of a massive stroke. From there I was under the care of my grandparents, parents on my father's side. When I was fourteen I started teaching etiquette at White Water Primary School and along the way I met fifteen year old Lucy Westerna the daughter of the president of the local bank that time. Her mother suffered from heart disease but that didn't seem to stop her from living the wild life of an untamed teen. When I was fifteen I met a young law student named Jonathon Harker who hoped to become a solicitor. We fell in love after two months. A week after I celebrated my seventeenth birthday Jonathon was given an assignment in Romania. Just before he left he proposed to marry me in which I gladly accepted."

Harker pulled out a small photo out of her trench coat and showed it to me. The picture showed a girl with piercing eyes sitting on a chair wearing Victorian-era clothing. The photo was fading but the girl looked beautiful. Another thing, the girl looked exactly like Harker! "This is me at seventeen before I became what I am," said Harker. He placed the photo back her trench coat and continued with her story. "I've waited for Jonathon for an entire month. During that time I received letters from him telling me how he was stationed at a castle within the region of Transylvania and his host had shown great kindness to him. After those letters Jonathon stopped writing to me. During this time I was invited by Lucy to stay at her house for weekend. That night I was awakened by the opening of the front door. Lucy was walking out into the streets of London through the stormy weather. I followed her until I saw her in the arms of a tall black figure with red eyes. The figure disappeared and I ran towards Lucy and discovered that she was bleeding from gaping holes in her neck. She was taken to the hospital and then sent back home after a week because the doctors could do nothing for her. I was distraught. I thought she would surely die until one day she came to me with high spirits and the holes in her neck were healed. It was as if nothing had happened before. Five days later she was bed ridden and extremely weak. Dr. John Steward a physiatrist at local insane asylum who had earlier made a marriage proposal to her called upon his former teacher and close friend Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, your great, great grandfather. When he examined Lucy he acted very mysteriously withholding what he knew of Lucy's condition. He then requested blood transfusions from Seward, Lucy's fiancé Arthur Holmwood and American Quincy Morris who had also proposed to Lucy earlier. The blood transfusions seemed to be successful after two days when Lucy had regained consciousness and had full energy. It was during this time when I was contacted by Jonathon's firm to meet him in Budapest. I finally met Jonathon in the main convent where I discovered him in a state he was not usually in. In his eyes there was intense fear and trauma that was beyond my understanding. I stumbled upon his journal where he spoke of great evil and danger within the castle of a Transylvanian nobleman named Count Dracula. Through every page there was account after account of how he was threatened by three "female demons" and psychologically imprisoned by Dracula and how he barely managed to escaped from Dracula's castle. After a while Jonathon was nursed back to physical mental health and we were finally married. Two weeks later Lucy was back into a state of weakness. I then noticed the canines of her teeth were longer than usual and her skin turning pale when we talked for the last time. That night Lucy died in horrific fashion along with her mother.

I mourned her death for days but no one was more affected by the loss than Arthur. Weeks had passed when reports started to emerge of a young "bloofer" lady in white attacking children in the night. One night as I walked through the streets of London there she was: Lucy Westerna who was supposed to be dead three weeks ago. She assured me that she was indeed my dead friend and that she was now living the life of great longevity and power. She then left me within the crowd with the option of living a mortal life or being reborn. Three days later Lucy was reported to have killed seven more children but Abraham came to me and told me that Lucy had died. I was told it was a necessary death and that none would be harmed by Lucy's animalistic tendencies any more. I was saddened but I accepted the fact that Lucy's second death was justified. One night Abraham gathered Jonathon and the others, me included, to tell us of the danger that was unleashed upon our country. He revealed that Count Dracula, the nobleman who Jonathon attended to in Transylvania had arrived in London and sought to create a kingdom where his kind would rule the earth. Abraham revealed to us that Dracula was a vampire who turned humans into creatures that seek blood. Lucy was one of those animals. Dracula's flaws and weaknesses were also revealed and Abraham emphasized the need and the urgency to destroy Dracula before he was successful in his quest to turn London and the world into a vampire dominion.

I, Jonathon, Abraham and the others built refuge in Dr. Seward's insane asylum where we planned our goals to kill the nobleman; and then one night it happened. Jonathon and I were asleep when Dracula descended upon us in our room and attacked Jonathon. I was deep in Dracula's clutches when he revealed to me that he knew of the plot against him and that it was time for me to become his queen so I would rule this world along with him. He began this task by biting me on the both sides of my neck and finally biting me on my right wrist. He completed the task by making and incision in his chest and forcing me to drink the blood from the wound. By the time Abraham and the others broke into the room I had already drank all of Dracula's blood and Dracula had escaped. When Jonathon regained consciousness Abraham revealed to him that I was now going through the first stages of becoming the vampire. He was most distraught over this possibility while Arthur and Quincy started to treat me with great prejudice. It was during this time I felt all the blood in my veins turn into ice. I would be a state of consciousness and then everything would turn black. I would go through periods of weakness and notice the canines of my teeth getting sharper every day. I would experience something I haven't felt before: extreme thirst. Days would go by and my throat would be parched. I started hearing the faintest sounds and smell the most distant things. One day a sparrow landed on my window and I grabbed it at a speed I never thought I had. I tore open its flesh with my teeth and started to drink its blood. The moment I tasted it I felt warmth, warmth I haven't felt since that fateful night. That day I confined in Jonathon and the others that if I was to become a member of the undead that they should promise to kill me. And then I started seeing things that distressed me. I began seeing people being killed from a person's point of view. It was as if I was right there witnessing it firsthand. There were at least two incidents where I heard the voice of a man speaking of a counter attack on those who interfered with his plans. There was this one incident where this man spoke of killing Jonathon. This voice belonged to Dracula. I didn't know why I was experiencing this. Soon I discovered it was one of my first powers: telepathy. Whenever Dracula made movements I was witnessing it psychologically. Abraham and the others soon discovered this power within me and used it to trace the footsteps of Dracula.

Dracula was headed back to his castle in Transylvania. Jonathon, Abraham, Seward, Holmwood, Morris and I arrived there days after I traced Dracula arriving in Romania by yacht. When we arrived a blizzard threatened to halt our advance against Dracula. We've spent nearly an entire month in blistering cold and deep forest until I was captured by three women. Abraham tried to fend them off but he was no match for their speed and their strength. These women were vampires. They all laid firm grips on me and took me away to Dracula's castle. There, Dracula imprisoned me intending to use me as bait for Jonathon and the others. During this time I began having seizures and feeling tremendous weakness. Dracula came to me and said that it was the norm for my metamorphosis and the only way for it to stop was for me to drink blood. I refused to do it. He then brought a man to me unconscious from tranquilizers. He left me all alone with this man. Hours seemed to had passed and I was still looking at him. I couldn't resist the thirst and there I had my first taste of human blood. It would be five days until Jonathon and the others would finally come to rescue me. Jonathon came to rescue me from the prison cell where I was held but he was caught off guard by Dracula's presence. Dracula and Jonathon then engaged in intense combat and then Jonathon right arm was severed by Dracula's sword. At this sight I felt immense fire build up within me which gave me the strength to break out of my cell and engage with Dracula. Our fight was never ending throwing whatever we had upon each other. The battle would finally end when I grabbed the bowie knife Morris had given to Jonathon and stabbed it in Dracula's chest. Dracula was finally dead."

"You killed Dracula?" I asked. Mina nodded. "But I thought it was Abraham."

"Who told you that?" said Mina.

"I have detailed files on what happened that day. It was written by Alexander Van Helsing in 1915."

"Alexander Van Helsing, a man full of hate and revenge. History is often distorted and re-written by those who cannot handle the truth. I met him in 1908. He sought to kill me while tracking me down in Paris. It was the first incident where I discovered that I was invincible to the stake. I'll get to that later. After I killed Dracula his castle suddenly began to collapse. Jonathon tried to convince me to escape with him. At that moment I began to think of the consequences of this. I didn't want Jonathon to live all the days of his life with a vampire as his wife. I didn't want to be tempted to drink from Jonathon's blood and I didn't want for us to be persecuted because we were not similar. I declined his offer to escape. Just then the room began to collapse and Jonathon escaped without saying goodbye. I managed to escape before Dracula's castle finally crumbled to the ground.

It would be ten years when I learned that Arthur Holmwood would be remarried and living in Scotland. Abraham Van Helisng would return to The Netherlands to continue his profession as a professor teaching philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. John Seward continued to run his insane asylum and Quincy Morris had died in the battle against Dracula's minions. Jonathon had taken up a profession as a criminal lawyer prosecuting various crimes. I would soon discover that he too was remarried and had two children, a boy and a girl naming the boy Quincy in memory of Morris. Through all this I was still a creature of the undead. I lived on the streets trying to control the creature within. I traveled the world hoping to have a sense of belonging in these countries. And then I ended up back in England homeless and thirsty for blood. I felt empty and alone. I didn't want to continue being held in this frigid prison. Every time I killed tremendous guilt overcame me. I didn't know how much of this I could bear. One cold winter's night February 5th 1910 I met the one who promised to give me the answers as to how to live the life of a vampire; a 300 year old swordsman from Japan."

"Todo Hotsumi."

"Yes. He told me that he saw great potential in me and that staying in England would not unleash that potential. He took me to Japan where he presented his school where he recruited vampires the world over and trained them in the ancient marital arts. I've spent twenty years learning and eventually mastering the arts in Kung Fu and Tae Kwon Do but it was Ninjutsu and Kenjutsu where I had true strength. I was an expert in the 18 disciplines of Ninjutsu; none other among Hotsumi's pupils had such an achievement. Hotsumi was greatly impressed with my skills. He came to the conclusion that a mere katana was no sword to unleash my greatest strength. It was forged with 120 of iron making it ten times stronger than the mere sword's blade, 30 titanium which enables it to survive for centuries and plated with 60 of what Hotsumi discovered in one of his local factories: silver nitrate. So you see, dear, the humans were not the ones who first discovered the vampire's greatest weakness. He had confined in me that he knew of this two centuries prior and wanted to use it "when the time was right." I knew I would be attached to the sword's beauty and strength for all eternity. I requested for Hotsumi to place an engraving on the blade. It was a Latin engraving of Psalm 23 placed to serve as a reminder of my origins: "Yea, I walk through the valley of the shadow of death; I shall fear no evil, for thou art with me." Despite his objections he agreed to do it. Immediately this sword helped set me apart from the other students. He placed me in this group called Hallow Dragon. Many within Hallow Dragon had persecuted me saying I was not different from humans and that Hotsumi had made a great mistake in choosing me to be a part of his foundation.

Years would go by and Hotsumi would reveal a side of him that was vile and dark. He became manipulative, controlling and tyrannical. I was the prime target of this behavior. He would make sexual advances towards me and force me to give in to his desires. I recall this one incident where he sought control of this village in Osaka and he ordered all the occupants to be killed. The others came to this girl and sought to kill her. I stopped them insisting that they spare her life. One of them, Alexandria Wolfe reminded me that Hotsumi specifically ordered that all the occupants be eliminated and that if one was spared this would be a failure of duty. She also emphasized on the willingness to report to Hotsumi that I was the reason for this failure. I already knew the kind of man Hotsumi would be if he found out that one of followers had failed him. I offered to do the task of killing this one last occupant, taking off her head. Though it was quick, that girl's death by my hands would place a heavy burden on me. I would later discover that the whole mission was set up to test my loyalty to Hotsumi. And then World War 2 came and the atomic destructions of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. I was a part of the campaign to eliminate the American-led occupation of Japan. I came to this one American soldier. The sent of his blood was familiar. It was as if I've met him before. His name was Kenneth Van Helsing."

"Kenneth Van Helsing? He was my great uncle."

"Yes. I spared his life fearing that if I killed him it would break a promise I had made myself forty years earlier. I had promised that if I was to live the life of a vampire I would never kill a Van Helsing. Two days later Hollow Dragon was attacked by a group of vampire hunters known as The Dark Saints. A stake was stabbed in my heart thus, letting everyone know that I was no common vampire. That was when things took a turn for the worse. Many within Hallow Dragon allowed their lust for power and invulnerability to control and relentlessly sought a taste of Dracula's blood that ran through my veins. At day Wolfe and the others would seek to slit my wrist just to have a taste."

"Your wrists could be slit? I thought since you're the most powerful vampire in the world you can't be hurt like that."

"That is what your kind does not know. At daylight the vampire's skin becomes soft and can be easily penetrated by any blade without healing in an instant. In this case my right wrist was slit, but no one was close to experiencing the taste of Dracula's blood. This was an action that caused me to engage in fierce battle with Wolfe and the others. That's how that bitch was able to live all these years without her right arm. Wolfe and her handful of followers would not be the last of those who wanted to experience living the life of a vampire with the blood of Dracula running through their veins. Hotsumi would ultimately be the last one searching for a way to be the most powerful. He sent me on "assignment" in the rural territories of the Ryukyu Islands to recruit new pupils. Little did I know that I was walking into a trap. He along with about 60 members of Hollow Dragon entrapped me to drain Dracula's blood out of my body. I was able to free myself from imprisonment and fight through their defenses. I was last stopped by Hotsumi who tried to convince me to stay with him but I refuse. Instead I gave him something to remind him of the thirty years of torment he had caused me: A 25-inch scar across his torso. I escaped the island and to that effect Japan and from there I became a ronin. I was a master less samurai who would forever roam the face of the earth. "

"God, I really didn't know the guy hurt you like that. He never really gave me that impression when I sat down with him."

"A mere vampire would never give that kind of impression now would he? He is an expert in hiding secrets that would destroy the pleasant image he seeks to present. The reason he chose me was because Dracula was like a brother to him. When Dracula died it was as if a fragment of Hotsumi's soul had died also. The truth is when we first met he was well aware of Dracula's blood that ran through my veins. He waited until I was unlike any human or vampire that walked the earth. His real intentions were to become Dracula to carry on his legacy with me joining him; when I refused Hotsumi unleashed full venom upon me. After leaving the Japan I traveled the world in search of who I really was: human or vampire? I wish I would be free of the thirst for human blood but I am deep within the vampire's clutches. My human sides tells me that the more I kill the further away I am from God but the vampire tells me that blood is the only remedy for my great hunger. From London to Paris, Paris to Berlin, to Rome, to Moscow, to Tokyo, to Sydney, to New Orleans, to Chicago, to Toronto, to Miami, to New York and now to Los Angeles I've roamed these streets trying to find purpose for my life while at the same time learning the languages of these countries."

"Well, how did you ended up working for guys like Abrams?"

"That, child, is something I'm more than willing to address."