XxX

I said goodnight to Dante shortly after three in the morning, locking him back up within his coffin with perhaps more thoroughness than I had intended.

Despite telling him so multiple times, I hadn't quite forgiven him for his behavior with the young lady. It had scared me, me, who had seen so many things in the course of my career, things that no living person could even begin to fathom, the worst terrors of humanity and the undead unleashed.

It wasn't merely the fact that he was so ruthless and uncaring; that did bother me, however, the most terrifying thing was it was Dante. Dante was gentle and sweet, loving, and possibly a bit stupid at times, but he, or at least I thought, could never cause such careless and thorough harm to a living being.

Maybe I hadn't seem all of his sides; he had to be tough to a degree due to his upbringing and former profession as the Italian Minister of Magic's personal aid, but…it was Dante.

I sighed, shutting off the light in the refrigeration unit and closing the door behind me. My spirit was dampened to say the least. I found myself wishing he'd have died instead, that I would have spared him from this darkness that he was plagued with and that this side of him had never been exposed to me.

I would rather mourn the death of a good man than rejoice in the unlife of a monster.

I felt my stomach twist. We weren't monsters. What was I thinking?

Of course we were monsters, we were the very things that mortals feared, we were the things that hunted them, that preyed upon the living. In a world of black and white, Dante was right; what I had now done for over 50 years was no different than what he had just done tonight.

But I hadn't created a vampire until I created him.

It had been dangerous and stupid for him to do what he'd done; what if he had created a ghoul out of her? He would have been drained of energy, and there would have been a zombie on the loose, and I doubted even I had the energy to defeat a zombie, considering what I had gone through so far; I was low on energy myself.
But he did it for me, because Vampire blood was the best source of sustenance for me.

I looked down at my hands, shining moon-pale in the florescent lights of the kitchen of the muggle hotel.

Not since The Count had anyone taken care of me so, had anyone held my best interest at heart. Dante behaved as such because he cared for me, like a sister, like a lover, and like a friend.

I was complicating things again; the world Dante had presented me with tonight was black and white. I had to think in black and white to understand him.
I shook my head, fighting to conflict in my mind, logic and philosophy fighting violently with instinct and justification, my own proud English morals going against the very grain of what the world had made me.

Was this world really Hell? Was there any hope for us? Any salvation? Could it get worse?

I climbed the stairs, crossing the ostentatious lobby towards the revolving oak doors, my umbrella clenched firmly in my hands. I wanted to talk to someone, anyone who would listen to me, anyone who could give me advice on my situation. Dumbledore, Anna, the Count, anyone…anyone at all!

I paused beneath the large awning that covered the marble steps, feeling overwhelmed and close to tears. A man in a dark pea coat passed by, casting me a furtive glance before continuing on in the darkness, his rain soaked umbrella clenched firmly in his gloved hand.

I opened my umbrella, descending the steps and letting myself get lost in the mist.

When I was alive, I loved the rain. I loved the sound, the feel, the dropping temperature; it always felt like the world was getting cleansed from everything that was wrong with it. I felt like I would wake up the next morning, and the War would be over, and mother would be back, that all would be right with the world when the morning broke, fresh and clean.

Of course, to me back then it also meant that the fires started by the blitzkriegs would be put out. But even though the Nazi's were gone, and the fires were out, there was still a war over London, and the world still needed to be cleansed.

I had learned long ago that rain it's self could do nothing to help this.

I made my way across the city in silence, stopping by the pond near the tennis court in the park that bordered Highgate, a charmingly quiet little stretch of nature called 'Waterlow Park'. I watched the rain patter the water, making endless ripples across the black glass surface. The trees around me were full of water, their upturned leaves trembling from the heavy water droplets.

Though I was in the middle of the city, I always felt peace in that park. I sighed, sitting back against the bench and looking past the dome of the yellow polka dot fabric over my head. The clouds were moving endlessly overhead, rolling over the city like a great beast about to devour us.

It didn't look normal for London rain; normally, clouds were high and sort of filmy, but this was violent and wild beneath the surface of the clouds.

I stood up suddenly. Dracula, or The Count, had the power to control weather to a small degree. He was indeed a powerful vampire, and while even I could control little bits of it, it was not uncommon for the Count to make it rain over London when he visited with me. I made it snow once in the late September when Anna had complained about going outside for class. A storm like this could have been caused by a powerful vampire, which meant that Lillith could be in London.

I folded the umbrella, taking a deep breath and setting it on the bench. St. Mary-le-bow wasn't far, and Anna said she could hear the church bells form her home. I could hear the bells, too, right now, even.

Had I only lived but a few minutes away from her all this time? For her entire life, when I could have been there to protect her? What had I been missing out on all these years?

Dante was in the protection of the Illuminati for the night, but Anna was defenseless. If Lillith was indeed here…

I took off at a dead run, my shoes pounding the pavement as I felt a lump rise in my throat. I hadn't paid attention to my location until now, because it hadn't mattered.
I passed the grim-looking 17 century statue of an austere yet childlike woman, drawing near to the high, brick wall that flanked one of the entrances to the famous park.
The rain soaked through my pants and jacket as I ran down the street, dodging cars and narrowly missing stoplights. I was quite certain I was traveling fast enough no mortal could even begin to detect me, but still it wasn't fast enough.

It seemed like forever before I found myself on Beaumont street, staring up at a vast wall of newer brick buildings, Anna's street address engraved into my mind like the carved face of the old statue.

I felt a prickle of excitement run through me; lights were on at her address, in a room on to top floor. It had to be her.

I leapt onto the painted white railing, peering inside the room. Anna was sitting on her bed, tissues placed carefully between her toes as he applied lacquer to her toenails with one hand and turned the pages of a novel with the other.

I hesitated, clinging to the side of the building like a rain soaked moth, peering wantonly into the windows. Sure, I could rap sharply on the glass, get her attention, possibly spoil her pedicure and make her lose her place, and at best, it would be a fun sport; she would get mad, but not mad enough to leave. I had done something like that a million times at Hogwarts.

But something was different, something had changed, like the red rinse Anna had put on her hair to alter her appearance, like the hardness at the corner of her green eyes, the unhealthy frailness that had taken over her visage, making her look to me like a rare flower that would crumble if exposed.

Butt here was comfort; in her room there, dirty socks and crumpled notes left laying on the floor in a sort of organized chaos, there was no sign she planned on leaving for Romania. Which meant that Dante and I needn't concern her further with our troubles.

She thought I was dead, and in her mind, I was. But I couldn't just leave her…not tonight, not with Lillith possibly skulking about.

I scaled the wall, my fingertips finding easy holds in the bricks; a trick the count had taught me.

Gravity and physics and such nonsense meant very little to vampires, and even less to wizards.

I settled down on the edge of the rooftop, the rain beating down on my skin, forming little silver droplets in the white flesh. I gathered it in my hands, letting it run down my fingers and drop onto the pavement far below all the while keeping my eyes and ears open for any sign of another vampire. I knew I needed to rest tonight, but Anna was more important. This could be the last time I saw her.

XxX

I must have fallen asleep sitting up on the ledge, because I found myself trapped in the midst of a demented dream; I was both awake and asleep, sitting alone in the ledge, the bells of St. Mary-Le-Bow running in my head, along with this inexplicable white noise.

"Get out." I muttered, my own voice seeming alien against the backdrop of my mind.

"Do you not want me here, my love?"

I shook my head, grasping my face as I stood, gravity placing bets on which side of the rooftop ledge on which I'd fall: the entire world seemed to be standing still in silent, maddening mockery of me.

"I…realized…" I began, my mind going numb, unable to formulate thoughts as the count slowly took over. I was fighting against him, as hard as I could. I could hear his thoughts as well; he thought I was weak, he thought I couldn't handle myself in the days that would come, he thought I needed to be stranger.

"STOP MOCKING ME!" I screamed, stumbling back onto the roof, clutching at my soaking wet face, the rain still smothering he world around me. "I can handle myself! I'm strong. I can do it! Have faith in me mas-" I froze mid sentence. No. He wasn't my master anymore, and as it was, I stood the risk of sounding like the zoophagous maniac Renfield.

More weakness, he didn't think I could handle myself, especially now when thoughts of Renfield crossed my mind. He was chastising me for doubting myself now! The outrage!

"Let me, just for tonight if nothing else…"

No, it was always like that, he was always telling me that 'just for tonight'…

"Why tonight of all nights?"

"You will see. She is here."

I stopped: I smelled another vampire on the rooftop behind me, my blood running cold. Why here? Why now…?

I turned slowly, my hand dropping to my side, inches away from the gun beneath my jacket, but I stopped. Anna stood before me, her mint green pajama's soaked through with the rain, her head hung slightly, reddish-brown waves falling past her shoulders.

"Anna…?" I called, my voice struggling to find itself in the rain.

Her head rose and she looked at me, but her face was changed; it wasn't the anna I knew…

"Lillith's taken over her in her sleep." The Count's voice whispered in my head.

"What?"

"There is a reason why Lillith is called 'The Queen of Dreams'." I felt a weight on my shoulder, pressing into my back. The Count was here, physically…it didn't seem possible…but…here he was!

"So you finally have the nerve to show your face, Count Dracula…" Through the oncoming rain, I could make out Lilith's form over Anna's shoulder. "Are you going to run again, Count?"

I felt so much hatred for Lillith I could barely contain myself: but I was also afraid, afraid that she would do to Anna what she did to Dante. The Count's grip on my shoulder tightened; he knew my thoughts, he knew my fears, and in my head, he was speaking to me again:

"Don't be afraid."

I think I might have scoffed inwardly, but Lillith's face was that of utter amusement, and this time she spoke to me in that bating tone.

"Do you enjoy what I did to Dante? Oh, he's going to be a violent one, that one…"

I narrowed my eyes. "No, he's not."

"My sweet little girl, you really don't know him, now do you? Unlike you, I was able to see inside his heart and mind when I turned him…"

"No! That was me! I turned him! You killed him, you…sow!"

"You really are a fool, little one!" Lillith laughed. "You really do have delusions of your own power. It can't be helped though, the vampire that sired you being who he is. The train crash, I am the one who opened his coffin, I am the one who gave him unlife…"

"I tried to stop her that day, but people were going to die if I didn't let her win this battle…" The Count said quietly. "I tried to keep everyone safe from her, but the Wars, the killing…Is my so-called 'kingdom' worth it, Lillith? Even now?"

"Your kingdom doesn't matter to me anymore. You made a promise, and you fled when the time came to deliver, you fled into the arms of that Illuminati vampire hunter, Van Hellsing, thinking that he would save you…"

"No. I fled to Madam Mina. The truth is, for some reason, you couldn't go near her…"

"I can now." Lillith whispered, her full, voluptuous lips forming the words slowly as she shook Anna's shoulders, making the teen's head loll from side to side. My stomach twisted; humans have such fragile spines…what if it snapped? Lillith seemed to guess my thoughts and smiled, stopping and tilting Anna's head upwards, leaving light bruises on the girls chin and pressing their cheekbones together with a smile. "This lovely girl right here is the descendant of the Harkers!"

I felt a sudden realization his me as the Count's grip tightened painfully on my shoulder, the pain of his fingernails lost to the fabric of his white gloves and the many layers of my jacket. Now the Count was concerned, and I could feel and outpouring of love coming from him. Love for Anna, as one might love a child they have stove so hard to protect.

I was shocked: Anna…was a descendant of the Harkers? What kind of divine joke was this!

I took a deep breath; I had to wake her up, I had to wake us both up. The Count nodded to me, as if he approved of my plan.

Without any further though of consequence, I lunged at Anna, grabbing hr away form Lillith. All at once, the fog vanished from my mind and I was laying there, in the rain, Anna stirring in my arms.

" Anna..." I immediately took off my jacket, putting it around her shoulders. She gave me a puzzled, almost angry look before her face eased into one of relief.

"So you ARE alive…" Anna whispered, wrapping her warm arms around my neck in a sort of half-asleep embrace. "I'd been having dreams about it ever since you left…"

A sudden thought of the Count entered my head and I smiled inwardly; he'd been coming to her in dreams. "Anna, let's go inside, I think we have some talking to do."

A/n: Hooo boy, I have a new job that's been taking a lot out of me, so I haven't had the time to write. I really hope you'll forgive me!

Please review! It means so much to me!