Sorry about the delay, but it wasn't as bad as last time, right?

His head was spinning, and he knew the feeling of an open wound very well. His blurry vision cleared up soon enough, and the first thing he could see was a man in formal pants and vest placing cables someplace on his head. He was still slightly groggy when he finally recognized the man in the black three-piece suit, while at the same time finally figuring out who he was sitting across from. He wanted to call her name, but he didn't even know it, so he limited himself to look at her frail body, damaged for reasons he couldn't even begin to fathom. No reasons were enough to justify hurting such a beautiful and breath-taking creature, not in his book, at least. Although she tried to remain upright and as dignified as possible, he could see the pain and worry in her eyes, along with another emotion that he didn't dare to identify as concern. Why would she be concerned at all?

"He's ready", cables-guy declared before promptly getting out the way and towards a screen that was by Johnathan's side.

"Good. Mr. Marlow, thank you for joining us. As you can see, your demon friend here hasn't been very cooperative with us, something that really… upsets me. And let me tell you, I get very, very violent when people refuse to cooperate" a malignant grin began to form in his face as he got closer to him. The grin was instantly erased when Johnathan head-butted the bastard, sending him tumbling back for a few steps, clutching his broken nose with one hand. The adrenaline rush he felt was quickly quenched when he was struck himself across the face, "That wasn't polite of you, Mr. Marlow. See, in here, I've got nothing to lose. You on the other hand…" he produced a short blade from inside his pocket, using the sharp instrument to produce an ugly cut along Mavis' left cheek. The vampiress could only whimper at the pain that the assault caused her, a few tears staining the tatty clothes that still clung to her figure and her baby-blue eyes looking at Johnny pleadingly.

"GET YOUR HANDS OFF HER, YOU GODDAMNED BASTARD!" he shouted in anger, willing the blade to stop hurting her still beautiful face. Black-suit seemed pleased with his outburst, deciding to comply for the time being, if only to keep his sick game going on. He was getting far too much pleasure out of this, and that was dangerous for both of his captives.

"So now you understand. I'm giving you a chance here: cooperate, and I will make both your deaths quick and painless. Don't cooperate… and we'll see how much I can make you both suffer before you die"

It wouldn't be a choice in other circumstances. She didn't deserve what the bastard was doing to her. He wanted to do something, anything, to stop it.

"I'll do my best to help you, but when you get what you want she walks away. And you DO NOT touch her, ever again"

"Not an unreasonable request" black-suit replied, leaving out the part where he wouldn't hold his end of the deal. He wouldn't let the devil's spawn walk this earth after he got what he needed, but he toyed with the idea of finally getting progress.

"Wait, boss, I have something here" cables-guy called, looking at the screen intently while black suit joined him.

"What am I looking at, Mr. Robertson?"

"His Delta waves, they are disrupted. Which is weird, he shouldn't be conscious in that case" 'Robertson' mused, his mouth slightly agape, but his eyes wide open, now very interested in his discovery.

"I see… I think I know why. Tell me, Mr. Marlow, wouldn't you happen to personally know Count Vlad Tepes, would you? You may know him as Count Vlad Dracula, the King of bloody Vampires." His smug grin grew wider as he gouged Johnathan's response, "Yes, he does… That's why his Deltas are disrupted. That filthy vampire hypnotized him, probably erased his mind. What I can't quite put my finger on is…" he turns to look at Mavis, now genuinely thrilled, "why would that cockroach that you insist on calling 'Dad' do that?"

"Don't you dare talk about my dad!" she was silenced by a slap across her face.

"Hey! I told you to not touch her again!"

"That deal was brokered when I thought you had something useful to tell me. It's obvious to me now that whatever useful information you had has been suppressed by that filth. Unless, of course, that you actually remember something. Do you, Mr. Marlow?"

He didn't. And there was nothing he could say that would hide away that fact. Or rather, he certainly had to know something, but the fog in his mind kept it all under wraps.

"No"

"I thought so. In that case, you are not as useful to me as I thought" somewhere between 'useful' and 'thought', black-suit produced a handgun, one that had been on Johnathan's hands just days ago. Before anyone else could even blink, he pulled the trigger. The bullet grazed his abdomen on the right side, missing any and everything important, but painful nonetheless. The loud bang in the confined space also affected his ears, causing him to go deaf, a constant ringing in his ears the only sound making him company.

"NO!" Mavis shrieked, trying to go forward, to get near of him. To help him. But she couldn't, the silver restraints stopped her dry as soon as she even tried to stand up from the chair she was strapped to, burning into her wrists some more and shattering her will, forcing tears to come from her eyes while she cried out of despair and impotence.

"Quit yelling, filthy demon. And quit pretending you care about him, because you know you don't. All your kind has ever done is trick young people into thinking you love them, just to satisfy your blood lust…"

"I'VE NEVER TRICKED HIM INTO ANYTHING! I'VE LOVED HIM FROM THE VERY BEGINNING, JUST LIKE I DID WITH MY HUSBAND!" her brain failed to filter or stop the words from coming out of her mouth, and she found herself just looking down at the floor, surprised by how true the statement was, yet, how awkward it was too. Her husband had been dead for a few days and she was already admitting that she loved a person that was virtually a stranger to her. It felt like she was already cheating on him.

"My, my… I almost believed it. But here is the thing: you parasites can't love. You only know thirst and hunger, and fucking bloodlust. You, and your ancestor, have already caused enough damage to our kind… and to my family" the last words caught Mavis' attention, who looked at black-suit straight in the eye, "Oh, your father never told you about my family? About how he killed my great-great-grandfather when he tried to stop him from killing innocents from the Transylvanian villages he terrorized every night? No? Yeah, I thought so. But don't worry; I'm setting the score straight. Your dad mutilated my family, and I will tear you and him apart, one fucking chunk at a time, and then I will do the same to all those cockroaches hiding out there. Count. On it, princess"

"Who is this?"

"Are you Daniel Marlow?"

"Who's asking? How did you get this number?"

"I'm… my name is Sean O'Donnell. Padraigh O'Donnell was my… he was my brother."

"Sean… yeah, I remember… Paddy mentioned something about you. Why are you calling? Do you know anything about Mavis?"

"No, I don't, that's why I'm calling. We were tracking down the bastard the killed my brother, we were sure we had him, and he slipped out of our grasp. Next thing we know, someone took Mavis away right under our noses, and then… your brother disappeared too."

"What?! How? Who did that? Who took him away?"

"I don't know, but it would be stupid to think that it wasn't the same bastard that killed Paddy."

"So wait, he has Mavis AND Johnny? We have to bring them back! Johnny might hold his own against him,, but Mavis will not. How can I help?"

"By coming down here with friends and artillery. We have some ideas on where they could being held, but not enough manpower and hardware for it, so a few hand on deck won't hurt at all."

"I'm on it, but this better not be a fucking joke, Sean…"

"I don't joke about these things, Mr. Marlow. Just… get here, please."

Daniel hung up the phone, bringing a hand to his forehead. He was running towards the Count's office as quick as possible, knocking on the hard wood door with moderate strength. The door parted open a few seconds later, the Count stepping out while slowly and quietly closing the door behind him.

"I'm sorry, Lilith and Nathan are sleeping. Are there any news?" the legendary vampire asked, while trying to keep his calm.

"Yes, but they are not good news. Your daughter, she disappeared…"

"What?! When? How... who took her? "

"We don't know, but it's safe to say that it was probably the same people that killed Paddy. And… Johnny's been taken too, probably by them. I'm heading down there to help Paddy's brother find them."

"I'm coming with you" and things went downhill from there.

"Are you nuts?! No! Your place is here, with your grandson and your daughter"

"My place is wherever my family needs me, and right now my daughter needs me. I've already failed to her in the past, but I won't fail to her on this, so you either take me with you out of your own will or I'll have to make you take me. Either way, I'm going."

A compelling argument, and Daniel found himself unable to refute or argue against it, so he did the only think he could.

"Fine. You might want to pack up something and tell your wife about all this, because honestly I cannot even begin to fathom how she's gonna feel about this. We'll leave in an hour"

"I'll take care of that, you just get things ready"

The vampire host sneaked back inside the office, careful not to wake up both toddlers as he got near their cribs.

"Are you alright?" Claire asked without taking her eyes off the sleeping babies. Her hair was a bit messy from the day-caring she had been doing for the past weeks. The infants were a rowdy couple, and they were a bit hard for her to control, but she enjoyed the time she had spent with them both so far. It had made her reflect on the fact that her husband had made something incredibly reckless that had destroyed another person's life. While she could understand that he probably did it for a very good reason, the fact that he hadn't contemplated the foreseeable consequences that his actions would have, and that was exactly where she had had a problem with it all. He had overstepped the boundaries of ethics without thinking about it for a moment. It might seem like a small thing, but it had made her doubt about how much she could trust his judgment.

In the end, she decided to let it slip for this time, sure that he would never do the same thing again now that he knew that she expected him to respect those boundaries. She knew she could trust him to keep his word, for them and for their union.

"I… I got some terrible news. Mavis… she disappeared, along with Johnny, and there's reason to believe that they were taken by the same. His brother and Paddy's are trying to find them… I… I'm going with them…"

"What? Drac! No! It's dangerous! Lilith needs you, and Nathan too! And… I need you too, you know? If you go I won't know if you are alright or if you are coming back at all…" Dracula cut her off, gently bringing her closer to him and embracing the former maid with his arms.

"I know, my love, I know you three need me. If the circumstances were other, I wouldn't be going, believe me. But Mavis needs me more urgently. I can't sit here and just wait for any more bad news. I have to do something for her, ok? I know you are worried, and I'm frankly scared. For real. These people are exactly the kind of humans I wanted us to be away from the very beginning, and now… they have my daughter. I cannot avoid but feeling like I failed my promise of keeping her safe" the sadness in his eyes could not be measured, and Claire could feel it even without looking at them.

"You didn't fail her, Drac. She's an adult now, she made her choices, and this is what happened. It wasn't your or her fault; it was just the consequences of going out there. We knew this beforehand, and all we can expect is for these things to not happen. I don't want you to go, but if you really feel like you should then… just… stay safe, ok?"

"I will, I promise"

"Ok. I'll prepare something for your travel. Could you please watch over them while I do so?" Claire softly asked, turning her gaze to the small sleeping vampires in front of them, then gently caressing the cheek of each of them.

"Of course. I'll keep my eye on them."

The matter was settled, and the married couple tended to the tasks they had at hand.

"Hello?"

"Robert, is Daniel"

"Daniel? What a surprise! You pretty much forgot about me after the whole… incident, last year."

"That is not true, Robert, I sent you a Christmas card and invited you home for the holidays and YOU flipped me the middle finger, remember?"

"I'm frigging joking, Dan. Jeez, you are in a short fuse these days."

"Yeah, well, Mr. Funny Guy, I have a good reason. Johnny is in trouble…"

"He's drinking again? Come on! You know I can't help with that! We do the shooting part of the company, remember?"

"If you could shut up for a moment and let me talk. He…. He found her, Robert. He went and tried to help her find the man that killed O'Donnell. And now they are both gone. The bastard got to them first."

"AND DO YOU CARE TO EXPLAIN ME WHY I'M JUST GETTING TO KNOW THIS RIGHT NOW?!"

"Well, you know now. So gather your team, bring them in here, pack up some big guns and meet me where I tell you."

"Okay, but you better have a plan for this, 'cause I ain't bringing our guys in just to get killed"

"Just do as I say, Robert!"

Cold. Frigging cold!

That woke him up, just to feel the gaping wound on his side. The pain was bearable. Just barely.

"Ah, we are awake again, Mr. Marlow. Sorry about that, but I had to prove a point. And I still have to."

Johnathan noticed that Mavis wasn't anywhere in the room.

"Where is she? You said you wouldn't touch her again! What have you done to her?!" he could barely shout, or speak for that matter, but his words were still fairly clear.

"One, I never said that, and two, how I treat her or where I put her is entirely on you. Behave, cooperate with me, and I'll cut a deal with you. Do you like that idea?" There, the face of a liar. Johnny wasn't buying any of it.

"Why don't you bite me?"

"That's a no then. Well , we do this the hard way. Don't worry."

We are near to the beginning of the end in here. Don't worry, there are still quite a few chapters ahead of us, but I'm getting ready to begin wrapping things up. Do not worry, though, we still have 'All I Am To You' and at least two new stories I'm thinking on, so you all will have stories for a while.

So, I'm hoping this story is to your liking, as usual, please take your time to leave a Review, whether it's a suggestion or your thoughts on this story, that means a lot. See ya next update.