There was that smell again. The vampire inhaled sharply and closed his eyes, gripping the edge of the table to refrain himself from attacking the human. He was so close. So unsuspecting. Nobody had even noticed the way the way he reacted yet. It would be child's play to just rise, grab the boy by the throat and sink his teeth into soft skin. The blood would come spilling out of the wound, so sweet, so addictive, and he would swallow every drop of it until the only thing remaining in his arms was a limp body!

Dracula didn't even notice he was moving.

His mind was so clouded by hunger and sheer need that when he encountered resistance, he didn't think of using magic to push whoever was preventing him from reaching his prey away. Instead, he growled menacingly, and started clawing at the monsters' skin. In a daze, he vaguely recognized two of his friends. They were speaking, but he didn't pay attention, his entire being focused on the scent.

Jonathan was scared out of his mind. He could only stare in shock as Wayne and Frank tried to hold back the Count, who suddenly resembled more than ever the Dracula from the legends. His claws were sharp and apparent, his fangs elongated, and his glowing red eyes were focused on him.

His fear increased tenfold when he saw Mavis, who so far had been standing still, in the same state as him, suddenly take a step toward her father.

"Ma- "

"Shush!" Murray silenced him, serious for once. "Hearing your voice will only make him want you more. Don't move either. I don't know how much longer Frank and Wayne can hold him back before he remembers that magic exists, and when he does…"

"When he does, none of us will be able to stop him," whispered a voice on his right, belonging to the Invisible Man.

Jonathan swallowed, throat constricted. His arm was still bleeding, but they couldn't do anything except wait and pray that the young woman knew what she was doing.

Mavis was scared. Dracula barely looked like her loving father, but she had to try and stop him.

She took a deep breath, turned into a bat and landed upon the Count's shoulder, gripping him tightly to keep from falling as the vampire was still thrashing about. Then she yelled right in his ear, knowing how painful that would be for his acute hearing.

"DAD! STOP! YOU'RE SCARING ME! YOU'RE SCARING ALL OF US!"

Perhaps it was the pain, perhaps it was the words, but Dracula stilled. Encouraged, Mavis kept talking, gentler this time.

"Dad? It's me, it's Mavis. Please come back to me. Dad, you're hurting Wayne, let him go!"

The vampire retreated his claws from Wayne's fur. His fingers were bloody, and the werewolf whimpered at the deep gashes left in his skin.

Mavis' words seemed to be reaching him. Jonathan saw the Count's eyes slowly returning back to their normal blue color, though his fangs and claws remained the same.

"Ma… Mavis? What… "

Sighing in relief, the bat turned back into a woman.

The fog in Dracula's mind was starting to dissipate, leaving him very confused. He looked at his daughter then at the other monsters around him. Their faces all seemed to be stuck on various levels of shock and fear.

He had been that close to killing a human, and setting monsters back centuries. And the worst thing is, he thought as he looked at Jonathan, that I still want to do it.

He fled.

–***–

He was flying. Flying, flying, going faster and faster with every movement. He needed to get as far away from the Hotel as possible.

He had to hunt.

Landing into a forest, he immediately caught the scent of a rabbit. The poor creature didn't have any chance to flee before its throat was being ripped out, Dracula quickly draining the animal before letting it fall to the ground.

Not enough.

He saw a wild boar and killed it in a flash of teeth and superhuman strength. Further away, he smelt a pack of deer and chased one until he had the beast in a choke hold, slicing its throat with one finger. He drank and drank, felt the animal go still.

Not enough!

They were too slow! Too easy to kill! He wanted to fight. He needed to rip and tear and feel strength coming from his opponent, he needed-

A bear.

Perfect.

He followed the scent back to its source. Sneaking up on the animal, Dracula attacked from behind, sinking his fangs into the bear's neck. A loud roar echoed his move, and the young male managed to shake him off of his back, making the vampire fall to the ground. Turning, the beast slapped Dracula hard, sending him crashing into a tree.

Oh, yes.

He grinned widely. That was exactly what he had been looking for.

–***–

When the fight ends, his clothes are stained with dirt, torn apart where the bear clawed him. His hair is a mess, his chin and hands are dripping with blood. He doesn't care.

He is finally calm.

He doesn't feel like returning at the Hotel just yet, and the sun is rising, so he looks for an empty cave to spend the day in.

Finding one, he curls up and tries to sleep. His dreams are filled with nightmarish visions of him killing Johnny, of him being killed, of his friends going mad, of the Hotel falling into shambles, just like when his wife died.

He wakes up feeling like he hasn't slept at all.

–***–

Back at the Hotel, monsters were freaking out, most of them not believing what they had just witnessed. Everyone was speaking at once, demanding to know what was going on until a roar silenced them.

Mavis was floating above the crowd, her cape flowing behind her. In the absence of her father, the young vampire was in charge of the hotel, which meant reassure the guests as much as she could, and look calm despite the growing panic and worry she felt.

"EVERYBODY PLEASE CALM DOWN! I want all of you to finish your dinner and go back to your rooms or activities. YOU are not in any danger here. As for Johnny…" she began, looking at her Zing, "…I want the doctor and witches to look at him. His arm needs to be healed, very fast. I will also have a word with the new chef about that fish."

That last sentence was pronounced in a very angry tone, and the monsters shivered. None of them ever wanted to have to face to wrath of a furious vampire, and a Dracula at that.

–***–

The following night found Mavis, Johnny –his arm all bandaged up and healing quite quickly thanks to the witches' magic- as well as Frank, Wayne, Griffin and Murray all waiting in Mavis' bedroom for Dracula's return. The atmosphere was heavy, and not even Murray could find a joke to crack to lighten it up a bit. They didn't even know if Dracula would come back at all. Mavis had been checking the window every two minutes for the past hour, hoping for the best.

"He's back," she suddenly whispered, making everyone jump in surprise. Opening the window, she let the black bat come in.

It resumed the shape of Count Dracula as they all knew it.

The vampire looked at the faces in front of him. He noticed the way Mavis' body was slightly angled towards Jonathan, as if ready to jump in front of him and act as a shield if needed. He sighed.

"I believe I owe all of you some explanations."

They nodded at once. He leaned against the wall behind him and started speaking, struggling to find the right words.

"As you all saw, I… I almost attacked Jonathan last night. I would have, if it wasn't for Wayne and Frank holding me back. There is no denying that," he admitted quietly. Silence followed that declaration before Johnny spoke.

"… Why didn't Mavis want to attack me?"

"Because my Mavis was raised on blood substitutes all her life," stated Dracula, raising his head to look at the human. "They work just fine to satiate our thirst, but… The taste of human blood is something else entirely. It's addictive. Getting used to Blood Beaters took me months, and if it wasn't for your mother, Mavis, I would never have done it."

"But there is a simple solution to this problem."

They all piped up at that.

"Jonathan, you and Mavis should go on your world tour as soon as you can," and oh, was it painful for him to say that. "I have become a danger to him, but hurry away and I will have the time needed to get myself back together. I…I have tasted human blood. I have enjoyed it. I cannot promise that I won't lose control again, but the last thing I want is to kill my daughter's Zing and destroy the happiness you and Johnny have found with each other. I could not live with myself if I did that. Which is why you need to leave," he finished, looking sadly at his daughter.

Mavis felt defeated. That was another thing he had never told her about, to protect her, but she couldn't find it within herself to be angry at him this time. Mostly, she felt worried and sad, because she could see he had been suffering a lot silently. Jonathan seemed to be following her train of thoughts. For once, he wasn't smiling. He just nodded at Dracula, took Mavis' hand and they both exited the room. The Count didn't stop them.

"All of you," Dracula looked at the four monsters that remained, "I want you to do everything you can to prevent something like that from happening again. If I do lose it, you are allowed to set me on fire if that's what it takes for me to be stopped!"

They all agreed. Though deep inside, they wondered if it was really possible to stop a vampire as powerful as Dracula once he was set on a target.

–***–

"Okay," began Jonathan. He and Mavis were inside his bedroom. "Since we're going to Hawaii first, you will need to have some very protective clothes. And a hat. Sunglasses. Do you have sunglasses?"

Mavis nodded negatively.

"Okay, so we will need to buy you that… Tell you what, tomorrow during the day I'll go to the nearby village and buy you sunglasses as well as a new hat and some very strong sun cream… That's a thing humans put on their skin to protect them from the sun rays. I don't know if it'll work on you but we'll give it a try… I will also go to the airport and book our flight! So we should be gone … tomorrow evening?"

"Johnny," interrupted his girlfriend. "Are you… are you okay?"

"Ah," Jonathan let out a shaky laugh. "Let me think… I know that somewhere in this Hotel, the legendary Dracula is out there to get my blood, which is… messed up. And scary as hell. Also my arm still hurts. But …" he put his hand through his hair, messing it up even more. "At the same time, I do get to go travel with the most perfect girl ever, much sooner than expected?"

Mavis blushed at that. Johnny took her hands in his.

"It will be okay, Mavy. Tomorrow night we'll be gone, or worst, the day after that, but anyway it will be soon and your dad seemed to be okay. I trust he'll do his best to avoid me until we've left, and I'm pretty sure he probably asked his friends to stop him if anything should happen. And I have you! You managed to stop him last time!"

"Yeah, but …"

"So we will enjoy our last moments here as much as we can and… Try to 'roll' with it, because afterwards, we're going to Paradise!" he grinned.

She smiled, reassured for now, and hugged him. They stayed that way for a long moment, just enjoying the other's presence, before they parted. Jonathan kissed her lightly on the lips and whispered, "We will be okay."

They both really wanted to believe in that sentence.

...Yeah, I want to believe in that sentence as well.

There you go for chapter 4! I struggled with this one, so do not hesitate to comment. I wanted to post it yesterday but life got in the way.

Tomorrow college starts again for me, which means I probably won't be able to update until... Next Friday *grimaces* but I'll do my best. I hope you enjoy the story so far!

Oh, and at the beginning of the chapter, Jonathan cannot move because if he flees, Dracula would immediately pursue him. Kind of like when you run in front of a dog, they can't help but chase you. So he is forbidden to move as it would just make things worse.