Chapter 4

"Hello, this is Monster Hunter Justin Russo. I'm looking for some fellow hunters to protect a family of mortals." The wizard on the other end asked the question Justin dreaded every time he'd made the call since he got Teddy's reply email. Reluctantly, he answered, "A vampire coven led by Alucard and Cindy van Heusen...hello?"

There was a click, then the dial tone sounded. Justin sighed at the familiar response.

With a frustrated growl, he slammed the receiver of the lair's phone down on its base. There'd been a constant shortage of monster hunters after Max released all of those monsters, so all of the experienced hunters were busy. And not one of the inexperienced hunters wanted to go up against a super-powerful, millenia-old vampire coven. Even Just was starting to get nervous at the idea of protecting the Duncans all by himself.

Hopefully he wouldn't have to, though. He still had more resources to check out. And one of them was in the Sub Station kitchen.

"Dad!" Justin exclaimed as he ran into the kitchen, then closed the freezer door behind him. Both Jerry and Theresa were there making sandwiches for the lunch rush, while Max took orders in the dining room. At his parents' concerned glances, Justin explained, "None of the monster hunters will fight the van Heusens. Dad, you have to get some wizards to help me out! I can't do this on my own!"

"Then don't!" Theresa blurted. She'd been filled in on the situation over the last couple of days. "Tell the family to leave town, go into hiding, something! My baby is not going to be torn apart by a bunch of vampires!"

While he actually had similar fears, Justin couldn't help but retort, "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mom." He added, "And I already tried that. Teddy won't listen."

Jerry shook his head. "I'm sorry about the monster hunters, son. I'll call around and see who's willing to help, but I have to warn you, no one will want to get involved with the van Heusen coven."

"So I've noticed." Justin sighed. "I just don't know what else to do."

The three paused for a minute while they tried to think of another option. Finally, Jerry's eyes widened. "I've got it! Bring the Duncans here!"

"What? That's ridiculous! Justin already said they won't listen to him," Theresa pointed out.

"Yeah," Justin agreed. "I doubt anything I say will get them to fly all the way here and live with us until I get some back up. What excuse could we possibly give them?"

There was a long moment of tense silence, then Jerry suggested gravely, "Then tell them the truth." At his family's shocked expressions, he said, "Look, the Duncans would find out about magic anyway when a coven of vampires attacks them, right?"

Even though the idea was outrageous, Justin realized his father was right. Getting the Duncans to cooperate would be much easier if they knew they were in danger. Then, he could magically transport them somewhere they'd be safe. At least he wouldn't have to worry about protecting them while facing off against vampires. Because despite his mother's fears, he wouldneed to battle the van Heusens as soon as possible. The Duncans wouldn't be able to stay in hiding forever.

Actually, this could work. Hopefully he'd get some back up, or some experienced monster hunters would become available, and the wizards could launch a surprise attack when the van Heusens arrived at the Duncan house.

He proceeded to explain that plan to his parents. While Jerry was all for it, Theresa needed some convincing. "Look, Mom, I know it's a lot to take in strangers," Justin said. "Especially since I'm not sure how many siblings Teddy has. But their lives are in danger! I guess they could stay at Wiztech if it came to that, but I'm sure the Duncans would be more comfortable staying in the mortal world."

"He's right, Theresa," Jerry added. "And this way it would be easier for us to protect the Duncans. Vampires are smart. If they found out that Teddy was at Wiztech, they could easily lure her away. And Wiztech would be their first guess. They might track her to the Sub Station, but it's a good hiding place since they probably won't connect her to Justin." Jerry paused. "Unless she's already told them that she messaged Justin, in which case Waverly Place would be their first guess instead."

Though she seemed like she was about to cave, Theresa still argued, "How do we know for sure that this family is in trouble? You just got a message saying she's going to meet up with them. You don't even know if she contacted the right van Heusens."

"Juliet's parents are the only van Heusens on Facebook," Justin informed her. "And one of the experienced monster hunters I talked to said the van Heusens are definitely on the move again. The hunter is on another case right now, but he heard from a contact that the van Heusens found Juliet's ancestors and plan to turn the mortals into vampires as soon as they get to America." He swallowed. The next bit of information he'd learned was particularly horrible. "And...and they plan to replace Teddy's soul with Juliet's."

Jerry's jaw dropped slightly. "Oh my gosh...you mean...okay, no matter what, you have to get Teddy here and not let her out of your sight!"

"Wait, Jerry, what are you talking about?" Theresa asked, her brow wrinkled in confusion. "'Replace'? What does it mean to replace a soul?"

Since he didn't want to spell it out, Jerry uneasily explained, "Well, a body can only be inhabited by one soul at a time. And the van Heusens want Juliet's soul to inhabit Teddy's. Permanently."

"So what happens to Teddy...oh! Oh, oh my goodness, that's...that's..." Theresa sputtered once she understood the concept. Too terrified to speak, she just nodded. "T-the..." she choked out. "The Duncans can stay here."

Justin sighed with relief. This whole situation became much easier now that he didn't have to bother with calling Professor Crumbs to set up room and board for however long the Duncans would need it. Besides, he'd already called the professor for back up. The well-connected wizard said he would call around for help, and Justin didn't want to interrupt him. "Thanks Mom and Dad," Justin said as he went into the dining room. "I'll go figure out how to tell Teddy now."

"Good luck," Jerry called after him, but Justin barely heard it. Alex was stomping down the stairs, a mixture of troubling emotions on her face.

Though Justin needed to contact Teddy, he paused to ask, "What's with..."

"Mason's waiting out front," Alex snapped, then stormed out to Waverly Place.

Max was standing nearby, so Justin asked, "What was that about?"

"I...don't really care, actually," Max replied. Then he handed his order pad out to his brother. "Your turn to take over Alex's shift."

While he felt bad for leaving overwhelmed Max, Justin just couldn't spare the time. "I'm sorry man, I have to go." Then before poor Max could object, he ran upstairs.

After dinner that night, Alex wanted nothing more than to hole up in her room and avoid everyone, especially Harper. Unaware of the fight, Alex's parents made her have dinner at home since it had been over a week since she ate with the whole family. The resulting tension between Alex and Harper was so unbearably awful that everyone finished their enchiladas in about five minutes, and then bolted from the room. Only her mother remained to clean up the dishes.

On her way upstairs, Alex paused to look out at the upsetting scene on the terrace. Zeke, who'd eaten over, had his telescope set up, and an ultra-powerful camera in his hand. He'd been there for the past two nights, because he wasn't allowed to spend the night on the roof of his own building. Besides, he wanted to stay at the Russos since that's where the constellation had been seen so clearly. At first he'd wanted to go on the Russo's roof, but her parents had worried they'd forgot to make him go home.

He was out there alone, because Justin needed to straighten out some vampire crisis, and Harper was angry with Zeke too for ignoring her. Alex was still plenty furious with Harper, yet...as someone in love, she hated to see another couple fight. Hopeless romanticism was her one major weakness.

So reluctantly she went out to the terrace. "Hey Zeke, you know, Harper's mad at you."

Much to her confusion, he appeared to not hear her and kept his eyes on the sky. Alex rolled her own eyes, then loudly clapped her hands. Zeke whirled to face her. "Oh, hey Alex. Did you see that amazing paintbrush constellation the other night?"

"Yeah, fascinating," Alex deadpanned. Then she repeated, "Hey, Harper's mad at you."

Zeke turned back to the telescope. "Why? I haven't done anything. Is it because I didn't hear her right away at dinner when she asked me to pass her the enchilada sauce?"

Aggravated, Alex snapped, "No, she doesn't care about the stupid enchilada sauce! She cares that ever since that constellation appeared, you haven't stopped talking about it!" At his bewildered expression, she explained slowly, "You've been ignoring your girlfriend. And I've been busy with Mason, so you can't be doing this right now!"

"Oh," Zeke said in understanding. Then once again he returned to the telescope. "I'll tell Harper I'm sorry, but this is important to me. If I could get this recognized by astrologists, maybe they'd name it after me - 'Beekerman's Brush.' Has a ring to it, right? That would be the most amazing thing ever." He sighed and gave Alex an apologetic glance. "Harper's my girlfriend. She should be out here supporting me, right?"

The reasoning made Alex realize that if she disagreed, she'd be incredibly hypocritical. That didn't bother her as much as the realization that she actually agreedith him a little. Unable to come up with a retort, she just muttered, "Shoot!" Then went back inside.

And while Zeke did have a right to feel that way, she couldn't totally blame Harper either. First, Harper knew that Zeke was wasting his time, so she was probably trying to discourage him. Second, Alex had to admit she wouldn't sit outside and be bored out of her mind while her boyfriend completely ignored her.

Before she could go up to her room, Justin rushed in, Jerry right behind him. "My contact got back to me, and it's pretty bad," Justin announced to Theresa, who'd looked at him with concern. "Some of the van Heusens' coven lives in the States and could easily reach the Duncans by morning. Depending on where they are, they could already be close to the house since it's been dark for about a half hour."

"Oh my goodness, Justin! You have to go save them now!" Theresa exclaimed.

"That's the plan," Jerry said, then looked to his daughter. "You should go with your brother."

Her arms crossed, Alex protested, "What, why? I barely know what's going on!"

"What do you mean? We filled everyone in earlier," Justin reminded her.

Alex shrugged. "Yeah, I didn't pay any attention to that."

"I'm not surprised," Jerry remarked. "Look, just go. You're good at straightening out tough situations. Granted, you're usually the cause of them, but I think you'll be able to help here too."

While the idea of helping others for no reason didn't especially appeal to Alex, she decided to go along with it. Mason was busy getting ready for the full moon anyway. "Got nothing better to do, so sure," she said as she pulled out her wand from her boot.

"Whoa, hold on! We can't just appear in the Duncan house!" Justin protested. "They'd be traumatized! We need to wait a minute and think of a calm, gentle approach."

Alex rolled her eyes. "Justin, the family is about to be kidnapped by vampires." A spell already in mind, she held up her wand. "'Calm' is not the way to go."

Teddy couldn't believe it. The project that had eaten up most of her summer vacation was finally done.

Well, part of it was at least. She wouldn't be able to finish the essay until she talked with Alucard and Cindy some more when they were in town. But the other part, a full timeline for each of her parent's family history presented on a piece of oak tag, was ready to go.

Too proud of herself to just sit on the living room couch and admire what she'd accomplished on her own, she yelled to the kitchen, "Mom, Dad! Come look at my project!" She'd eaten quickly so she could get back to her work, but her family was still clearing the table.

A couple minutes later, Bob, Amy and PJ entered, along with Charlie in her mother's arms. "Is it finally done?" Amy asked as she sat next to Teddy on the couch, the baby on her lap.

"The timeline is! Look, we're Transylvanian!" Teddy said. She pointed to the top of the poster since she'd started from the earliest ancestor, then put her generation at the bottom.

"Transylvanian? Cool!" PJ remarked from his seat on the arm of the club chair, while Bob sat on the chair's cushion. "Are we vampires?"

Teddy gave him an exasperated glare for the ridiculous suggestion. "Didn't I only call for Mom and Dad?"

Offended, he retorted, "I was just kidding! Seriously, I'm very curious about where I came from."

"So are we," Bob and Amy teased in unison.

PJ crossed his arms. "This family is cruel."

"Anyway," Teddy continued. "I started with what I already knew, that Mom's grandmother immigrated from - "

Before Teddy could explain further, Amy interrupted, "Wait, Teddy, Gabe should hear our family's history too." Then she called, "Gabe, get in here and see Teddy's project!"

Surprisingly, Gabe rushed into the living room as if his mother had just said the family was going for ice cream. At Teddy's raised eyebrow, he explained, "Hey, if it's not reading that book, I'm in."

Teddy nodded in understanding. "Right. Like I was saying, Mom's family was easy since Great-grandma Kathleen immigrated from Ireland. Dad's family gave me a headache."

"Because it's what they do best," Bob said apologetically. "Did cousin Marty try to sell you car insurance?"

"Yup, even when I said I don't own a car," Teddy confirmed.

Bob grimaced. "Yeah, sorry about him. And everyone else you had to call. See, now you know why we spend every single holiday with your mother's family."

"Yeah. By the way, thank you for that," Teddy replied. Then she went back to her presentation. "So I talked to the van Heusens some more today. They confirmed that the original Juliet van Heusen, Dad's earliest known ancestor, definitely immigrated here from Transylvania in the 1690's, where she fell in love with a local in one of England's thirteen colonies, New York."

PJ's eyes widened. "Even more awesome! Not only are we vampires, we're New Yorkers!"

"Stop it, PJ! We're not vampires!" Amy chided.

Disappointed, Gabe said, "Okay, so not ever Transylvanian is a vampire, but we could be!"

"No we couldn't, because vampires don't exist!" annoyed Bob reminded the boys.

"Thank you Dad, the voice of reason," Teddy spoke up. This had been why she would've rather just had her parents look at her project instead of her whole, irritating family. "So, Juliet's son moved to Louisiana. A few generations later, his ancestors moved to neighboring Georgia, here they stayed for another few generations."

Fascinated, Amy glanced at Bob. "And you never knew anything about your ancestry?"

"Well, I've always heard stories," Bob remembered. "But they were always the kind where, like, a great-uncle got arrested during Prohibition. No one really cared that much."

Teddy laughed. "Now, if anyone does care, it's all here. Actually I was thinking of sending my report to all of our relatives in case they - "

A bright flash of purple light and smoke suddenly exploded in the area between the door and the couch. When the light faded, two teenagers were there - a girl with a strange red stick in her hand, and a boy who had a serious, nervous expression on his face. Based on their similar facial features, Teddy guessed they were brother and sister.

The teens coughed as they waved their hands to make the smoke clear faster. "Alex, what were you thinking?" the boy snapped.

"I was thinking I wanted to make an entrance! Is that so wrong?" Alex retorted as she slid the stick into her boot.

"Hello, second-hand smoke?" her brother pointed out while he glanced at the Duncans. "And there's a baby in the room! Even better!"

"Okay, okay, sorry!" Alex muttered. Her eyes wided when she noticed Teddy. "Whoa! You never told me Juliet had a twin!"

Her older brother gave her an exasperated glare. "They're not twins, she's Juliet's ancestor. Which you would know if you paid attention when I told you things!"

Oh yeah, definitely brother and sister, Teddy thought. then she was even more shocked when she realized she knew one of the visitors. "Oh my gosh...Justin! What are you doing here?"

"And...howare you here?" PJ added while the rest of the family was shocked speechless. "And whatever it is, can I try?"

"Not unless you're a wizard," Alex said with a chuckle.

"What Alex means is...okay, there's no easy way to say this, so I'll just tell you," Justin said, clearly unnerved. Then he tok a deep breath. "Alucard and Cindy van Heusen are powerful vampires. Their daughter Juliet is too...and your ancestor. Since mortal ancenstor of vampires - that's you - make powerful vampires, Alucard, Cindy and their coven are on their way here to...uh, well..."

"Turn you all into undead bloodsuckers," Alex finished cheerfully.

The second wave of shock rendered the Duncans speechless once again. Finally, Teddy remarked in an overwhelmed daze, "Huh, what do you know. Dad was wrong - vampires do exist."