Okay, let's write some more. Geeze I'm having a ridiculous amount of fun with this. Sigh…I have no life. Oh well. We get to see Lorelay and hear more of the backstory. Hope you enjoy and please review. Constructive criticism is welcome but no trolling or flames. Flames will be used to burn the bridges trolls live under and leave them homeless.

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Dracula remained silent throughout the journey to the sacred lake where Lorelay dwelled and ignored his friend's attempts to talk to him. It was a tense flight but he couldn't have cared less. The remnants of his dream still stuck in his mind and he could still feel the ghost of his little Mavy-Wavey's claws ripping his skin off. The pain he felt in the dream was realistic and it had been a long time since he had felt pain on that level. It made him wonder if he could do this. He hadn't fought in a long time and while he certainly hadn't forgotten what things like that felt like Dracula wasn't too sure how well he could handle pain of that intensity now. He had been flayed, burned at the stake, drowned, hanged, drawn and quartered, disemboweled and so many other things too many times to count.

Dracula was afraid. He had so much more to lose than his life this time. He had family, loved ones who would pay a high price if he failed.

He had died once, dying a second time couldn't be so bad.

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They all had to take a break and ponder that last entry. The spell will kill them and they all had to stop and realize exactly what Dracula had been through and all that he had suffered through in his very long life. They sat in silence, in too much shock to even cry, for hours before they mustered up the courage to turn the page.

I cannot rightfully explain how I can possibly be here writing this. We completed the spell and it has been four years since that day but it was the blink of an eye to us. I remember performing the spell and the agony involved in it. We channeled the energy of the elements without a filter and it tore us apart from the inside. I remember the feeling of my organs rupturing and tearing. I remember the blood filling my lungs and the burning need for air as I drowned in my own blood. I remember the Vours fighting against us and ripping the flesh from my bones in an attempt to stop us.

I am dead. We all are.

None of us have any blood in our veins and we've split our wrists wide enough to know. We have no heartbeat and we don't have to breathe to live but that doesn't take away the feeling of suffocation it brings. I don't breathe when I sleep and I always wake up to that horrible burn and greedily gasp for air.

None of us are human anymore. I have fangs, I have retractable claws, my eyes are black and red, I can see in the dark and change my form to a bat or mist. I have wings, huge wings with long claws and sharp bone protrusions. Inmoon is a silver wolf as tall as I am and she still stands on two legs and her eyes are purple. She has a mixture of hands and paws, the fur on her back is like steel and can easily cut through flesh when her hackles are raised. Isobel is so pale that her skin is almost clear. Her eyes are white and dead and her flesh is riddled with thick black veins that bulge out grotesquely. Viore is as he was aside from the bright orange of his eyes and wings of pure fire. Lorelay's blonde hair hovers around her as if she is constantly underwater. Her teeth are sharp and fierce and her eyes are black. Her body is covered in shimmering scales and her fingers and toes are webbed. She has claws as well. Zeyphx wears a green robe of dirt and stone that merges with the earth beneath his feet. It is literally made of earth and crackles with his movements. His eyes are a vibrant green.

The best that I can figure we were petrified for those four years, in a stasis of some kind. We've meditated in search of the elemental energies but we cannot find them anymore.

We are young once more and I look like a child again, we all do and we are all hungrier than we have ever been in our lives.

Vladislav Dracula

They all stopped again and this time Mavis did cry. She dropped the book on the cold stone floor and buried her face in Johnny's shoulder. Everyone was speechless and their emotions were so strong and so many that they could no longer identify what they were feeling and instead felt nothing.

"Dracula man, why didn't you tell me?" Frank whispered in horror.

"He has his reasons I guess." Johnny muttered back but there was nothing anyone could say to lift the burden of this knowledge from them.

"All this time he's been dealing with stuff like this and none of us knew. None of us could see how much he was really hurting." Frank said as tears shimmered in his eyes.

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He heard her voice drifting to him through the mists and over the shore of the lake. She was here and he took a moment to simply listen to the song of his old friend.

I am a creature of the wood

Forsaken in my solitude

My song is pleasure and is pain

My song can drive a man insane

So come with me, my pipes I'll play

And we will dance 'till break of day

I shall be thy lover

Her voice was strong as it drifted through the haunting mists that surrounded the trio. It was hypnotic and had they been mortal they would have succumbed to the siren's song.

I've been alive since time began,

not beast, not god, and yet not man

I am the music and the dance,

I am the piper who enchants

So loose all ties to mortal kind,

my pipes shall play within thy mind

I shall be thy lover

The vampire grinned to himself and, before Lorelay could start, he sang the next verse into the chilling fog and grey landscape.

Come unto me my beauteous maid,

I'll lead thee to the hidden glade

Thou shalt be happy and be free,

when I play, thou wilt dance for me

We'll feast on fruit fresh from the vine,

and I will sample the fruit of thine

I shall be thy lover

He smiled wider as he sensed her surprise. She was looking for him now and she would make her way to them from wherever she was in the lake. He sang the next verse as well.

Sweet love I'll make for thee alone,

and show thee sights before unknown

I'll be thy master and thy friend,

for I'm the gold at rainbow's end

I am the beast within all men,

I am the rhyme past mortal ken

I shall be thy lover

They both sang the rest of the song together, their voices melding together to create a haunting melody at the lakeside.

I've played my pipes before man's dawn,

seen maidens ripe, turn pale and wan

Taught man the art of song and dance,

yet had to part from mortal clans

I must return to silent dells,

no fire burns, and nature dwells

So take thy rest within the shade,

and as the evening hours fade

I'll take thee deeper in the glade,

my cloven hooves through heather wade

I'll teach thee things man has forbade,

our souls entwined and unafraid

I shall be thy lover

I am a creature of the wood,

forsaken in my solitude

My song is pleasure and is pain,

my song can drive a man insane

So come with me, my pipes I'll play,

and we will dance 'till break of day

I shall be thy lover

By the time the song had ended Lorelay had emerged from the shroud of fog and stood before Dracula, unabashed in her nudity. Her golden locks floated about her head, spread out like a glorious halo in the dark, moving and shifting as if still under water. Her black eyes were gentle and her voluptuous red lips parted in a kind smile revealing her sharp white teeth. Her tanned skin sparkled in the faint moonlight as it reflected her scales. The dorsal fin on her back following her spine flattened to form a shining rainbow cape. Her body was well shaped and curved sensually in all of the right places.

"Do you ever wear clothes anymore?" Dracula laughed when he saw her.

"This is far more comfortable." Lorelay's voice was haunting, melodious and sensual as it had always been.

It was the kind of voice that made you want to do anything for its owner.

"Well, you need clothes."

"What's wrong Vlad?" Her smile vanished.

"The seal is breaking Lorelay. We have to face them again."

She gasped and her terror was evident on her face. She looked close to tears but she held back her emotions well. Lorelay had always felt things so deeply, she was a gentle person but a rage lingered beneath her surface that no one should ever have the misfortune of meeting. She nodded as she gathered herself and took deep steadying breaths. Dracula closed his eyes and tried to relax.

Then he heard her scream.

His eyes shot open just in time to catch Lorelay as she stumbled into his arms with an arrow embedded in her chest. He shook with rage as he smelled her blood. He heard Isobel screech and the stillness of the night broke into a sudden gale that tore his cape from his body in a tattered bloody mess.

He laid her down gently in the sand before turning around to see the group of humans gathered upwind of them on a hillside a fair distance away. He was there in seconds. His form changed in less time than that.

He towered over the group of slayers and snarled at them with his long teeth. His skin had turned gray and his clothing had melted into him. His talons thickened, his jaw broadened as his whole body grew massive. A tail, void of flesh extended above his head, tail blade pointed threatening at the group, as his ears grew larger and pointed, and the flesh of his nose faded leaving only bone left in its wake. His jaw grew and there was little of his face other than a wicked mouth of long fangs that looked akin to a menacing grin. His muscles doubled and gone was the thin form of Count Dracula, replaced by a monstrous beast.

"You dare?!" He snarled and they had the manners to be afraid. "You fools! You don't even know who you're up against! I have no time for your games. You have five seconds to leave before I kill you all! Your lives are a small price to pay for the world."

A woman stepped forward, brandishing a crossbow with a look of hatred and defiance in her eyes.

"Someone has to stop you monsters! I knew y-"She wasn't even able to finish her sentence before Dracula's hand snapped forward and wrapped around her neck.

His black talons dug cruelly into her flesh. He grabbed her shoulders and ripped her head and spinal cord from her body in a splatter of blood and the snap of flesh. He turned his angry gaze back on the rest of the group.

"Three seconds." He hissed.

They were smart and ran as fast as their mortal feet could carry them.

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Jonathan stared sadly up at the portrait of Martha and Dracula and sighed. He stepped forward, never taking his gaze from the painting of the vampirette.

"I wonder if you knew about any of this." He whispered. "I wish I could talk to you. Something is coming, I can feel it and I know you would have known what to do."

He sank to the floor and rested his back against Dracula's coffin.

"I just, don't really know how to deal with all of this and neither does anyone else. I can see it. Listening to all of that…I can understand why he's so afraid of humans. At first I thought it was just what happened with you but….he's been hunted and hurt his whole life. Even before he was a vampire."

Johnny sighed again in the dark and clutched the book to his chest that held Dracula's story. It had suddenly become so heavy in his arms.

"I don't know what to do. I don't know how to fix this. Hell, I don't know if this can be fixed. Last time Drac fought those things he died!"

Johnny wiped away the tears forming in his eyes.

"I really care about the guy you know? I'm so worried and scared. I know I'm not supposed to be scared bury your fears and all that but I am. I really am. I don't want to lose him. But then again, would that be so bad? He'd be with you again and all of this wouldn't affect him anymore."

A chill swept through the boy suddenly and he shivered in the sullen gloom of Dracula's chambers. He dropped the book and the pages splayed out before him. He nearly closed the book but as he caught a glimpse of the words on the page he stopped to read.

Martha has met Inmoon and I'm surprised that the introductions went as smoothly as they did. Inmoon is very good at saying the wrong thing or being too blunt. Martha piqued her sense of curiosity and for once I did not have to speak for her in the presence of a stranger, she is far too shy and tends to cover that up with aggression. I enjoyed the opportunity to talk with Inmoon again. I have missed her immensely as I have missed the other four Pillars Lorelay, Isobel, Viore and Zeyphx. I caught an odd look from Martha once but it faded quickly.

Vladislav Dracula

"So you did know." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

He flipped idly through a few more pages before Mavis ran in with his friends following her, the camera still active.

"Johnny, I just found a letter from my mother hidden in the book she gave me!" She exclaimed.

"Really?" He asked with a grin as he closed the book. "Dude let's hear it!"

She sat down next to him and ripped open the letter with a fingernail. Johnny pulled her close and they took a steadying breath before she began reading.

My dear Mavis if you're reading this without me then that means I'm dead. I love you honey and never forget that. I wish I could have seen you grow up and I'm sure your father has done a wonderful job raising you. No one thought he would make a good father but he proved them wrong. Within your first few weeks with us he couldn't resist holding at every opportunity and kept waking you up. He loves you so much.

But there are things you need to know about your father that he certainly won't tell you willingly and not because of the oath he took. He's afraid to. He doesn't want anyone to know about his past. He refuses to talk about it because it's too painful for him. He still wakes up screaming in the middle of the day. It's something he would rather forget but someone can never forget their duties.

Your father is one of the six Elementals. He is the embodiment of Shadow and his friends, the other Pillars are the rest of the elements. He literally is Shadow.

He is The Guardian of Monsters as Inmoon is The Gatekeeper. Isobel is The Guide, Viore is The Guardian of Humans and Zeyphx is The Eye. Each one has their duties to attend but the Vours are a foe that only they can face.

Should you ever find yourself in a situation where his duties come into play Mavis, listen to him and follow his instructions to the letter.

Despite what you may think Mavis, I never bonded with your father and I never told him why because it's something that he needs to figure out for himself. But I can tell you and maybe you can drill it into his sweet thick skull.

I am not your father's zing. Because of this I know that I will die. He was my zing but I was not his. I knew this the moment I met Inmoon. Sometimes, Mavis, love doesn't hit you like fireworks. Sometimes love sneaks into your heart and hides away, tapping softly at your shoulder. I'm fine with this and I only hope that he realizes this and accepts it so that he can be happy.

I love you so much Mavis. Please be there for your father, sometimes he needs a helping hand.

With all my love, your Mother

Martha Dracula

They were silent for a long time, simply staring up at the painting before them and thinking over the information Martha had given them. She was just as smart as Dracula, they had been so perfect for each other.

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Ugh, I need sleep. This chapter was difficult to write. LOTS of fun though. Getting yelled at for being up so late again. It's 3:12 in the morning….what's wrong with that? Odd hours happens when you're a writer.