Hey there!

Hope this update was fast enough for you. I will say this to all who only reviewed "update faster" last time: I have a freaking PERSONAL life that takes much of my TIME!!! Please, no more pressure. I'm already hard enough for myself as it is.

Okay, to those who did review a little more, I thank thee: hellsingfan101, BigKwell, Tsuki Tamahoshi, InstigateInsanity, Irena, Breeze13 and Lord Makura.

Disclaimers: nope, there's not a single person in this chapter of whom I owe. Bugger.

CHAPTER 18: THE BLOODY COUNTESS

The 16'Th century was a busy time for Count Dracula. Although he had made his ultimatum to the entire Transylvania, he spent the entire century to make sure his power over the Transylvanian people would hold. There were two incidences when the people had gathered to an angry mob and tried to hunt him down. Dracula had then given them a lesson. First time he killed a young hot headed priest who had been organising the mob, and crucified his body upside down to a church bell. Second time, while the mob was on the move, he commanded his wolves to the village and kill women and children.

After that no one bothered him again.

Briefly he had wondered how he could do this to his own people. Was it because he had become numb to killing already in his life or the vampire instinct to survive that guided him? He didn't know and after some time, he no longer cared. In fact, he had begun to enjoy killing in a whole new way.

When he had still been human, Dracula had enjoyed killing his enemies. He had enjoyed causing them pain and seeing the realisation from their eyes when they knew they would die. But it had always been only in battles. Now, whenever he hunted or seduced his victims, depending on his moods, he didn't care who they were and still enjoyed it. Seducing them under his will was always fun game to play, but the hunter in him loved most of all the hunts, when he would take the form of a wolf or a bat, and capture whomever he could find. There was an unexplainable thrill in the chase.

Dracula did not merely spend his nights in killing. In fact after a good hunt he could go from four days to a whole week without eating. He had collected many of the books from the library of Scholomance and placed them in his castle, which was hidden deep in the Borgo's pass. He studied history, weaponry, alchemy, occult and magic. He mastered the art of telepathically communicating with another person even through great distances, he could control weathers to certain extent and even change his form to a harmless mist.

Granted, he could not eat in the form of mist or even harm anyone, but neither could anyone harm him then. The ability became useful everytime he encountered the Iscariot priests from Vatican Section XIII. Iscariot could not forget the insult Dracula had spat on them and time and time and time again Dracula was forced to battle against the hunters. However, they were men who were never fully prepared to encounter him. They did not know Transylvania so they never found his castle. The villagers gave no help to them or even shelter. Dracula's faithful gypsy slaves, who were loyal to him till death, kept guard during daylight hours.

Dracula was always victorious, and when time passed and Popes changed, it became obvious that Section XIII could not waste any more founds to Dracula's chase. They would instead keep an eye on things in Transylvania and wait for opportune moment. Dracula was pleased. They would be waiting for a long time for he had no intention of starting a war against the whole world...

...for now, at least.

--

The 16'Th century turned to the 17'Th century. Dracula was now nearly two hundred years old. It was the final realization that he was truly no longer human when he noticed that all the people in the village he had first warned had all been dead and buried for a while. He had all the time in the world.

Yet, eternal life turned out to have one downside Dracula had not expected. Loneliness and boredom that followed were almost insufferable to handle. Being a creature of the night limited his social life considerably. Sometimes when he felt the need to talk to some other people than bats or his slaves, Dracula would disguise himself, go to one of the towns further away from his castle, and meet passerby people. He especially liked talking to foreigners and hearing what had happened around the world. They were easy to get talking as he could be rather charming.

When Dracula felt incredibly bored by all, he would go to sleep in his coffin for a decade or two.

Still, he really did wish for a regular company around and started thinking of creating a vampire. That was something he had never tried before for the simple reason that he had not met anyone he considered worthy to change. Immortality was not something to waste.

Then, in 1611, surprising news reached his castle. In Hungary, a woman from a royal and noble family had been convicted for the murders of dozens of young women. Officially, from dozens, unofficially from hundreds.

For the next year Dracula little by little gathered enough information of the case to understand it. Apparently the woman had believed that blood of the virgins made her skin look younger and healthier. So she and her servants had taken girls to her castle, killed them, collected their bloods and thrown the bodies to the woods for wolves to eat. The woman had then bathed in the blood, thus intending to make herself appear younger. One night however wolves were late and the bodies were discovered. Since the woman was from royal family she was not killed, but sealed in the tower of her own castle, that was located in Slovakia.

Dracula was highly amused by all of this. The woman's theory of becoming younger by blood was so close to the life habits of his kind that he felt she was his kindred spirit. But what amused him most in this was who the woman turned out to be.

Countess Elizabeth Bathory, from the same bloodline as Istvan Bathory.

Istvan had escaped Dracula's revenge by dying while he was still gathering his army of ghouls to attack Scholomance. The mere idea that Istvan's, who had been a knight of Iscariot, own blood relative was the kind of living vampire, seemed like the most amusing joke to Dracula. He decided that he would very much like to meet her.

It took couple more years before Dracula was able to execute his plan. He had not left Transylvania in decades, so certain precautions needed to be taken. He had his gypsy slaves to arrange travel plans and, preferring not to travel with his coffin which would have attracted too much attention, fill few boxes with the unhallowed ground of his castle, which helped him to preserve his strength. Since Dracula had visited Slovakia during his life, he did not need anyone from the country to invite him there.

--

Dracula arrived to Slovakia in August of 1614. The Castle Čachtice, where Elizabeth Bathory was sealed, was built on a mountain so that it loomed over the nearby village. Dracula didn't want to go to the village, since he believed that the villagers, having lost so many of their children recently to "the Bloody Countess", were easily alarmed and superstitious. Therefore, he had his gypsy slaves to take his boxes to the ruins of an old monastery, deep in to the woods.

For one week Dracula gathered his strength which the journey had exhausted and surveyed the area around him, before he made his way to the Castle. Seducing a weak willed guard to invite him in was not a problem, and using his ability to transform from a solid form to that of a mist, he easily made his way through the walls to the quarters that acted as a prison cell.

Countess Elizabeth was 54 years old and the past few years of imprisonment had left their marks on her. Her skin had almost dusty colour and her brown hair showed grey. Still Dracula, to whom age had become irrelevant, could easily see that she had been a beauty in her younger years. She had her back on him and couldn't hear his light steps.

"Good evening".

The reaction was as predicted. Elizabeth jumped from her seat and turned to stare at him with her eyes wide open. Dracula decided to let her take time before addressing her, and just stood there while she watched him with apparent surprise and shock.

Elizabeth took in the sight in front of her. A man with black hair, ivory skin, the most magnetic green eyes with red in them was standing in her private chambers, dressed completely in black. He had an air of otherworldliness around him and a darkness that invited her.

Hesitantly she asked "Satan?"

Dracula smirked. "Not quite, milady, though this is not the first time I have been mistaken for him".

"How did you get in?"

"Through the wall".

"Through the...?" Elizabeth started but cut herself off. "Who are you?"

"Oh, pardon me, where are my manners? My name is Count Dracula".

"Dracula? Impossible. The last of the House of Draculesti died over hundred years ago then".

"Ah, that would be my son Mihnea who was granted the peace of grave".

"Your son...?" Suddenly Elizabeth gasped. "Tepes?!"

"Ah, you've heard of me? I'm so glad my name is remembered even after such a long time".

"Are you a ghost?" Elizabeth asked, shaking but still interested.

"No, milady, I am not. What I am you can see from your mirror".

Elizabeth turned to look at her mirror on the wall. It was covered by a blanket, for she could not bear to look at herself anymore. But now she ripped the blanker off and saw her own withering reflection...but not his.

For a moment she just stood dumbly there until she turned very slowly, looking at him very unsurely.

"Nosferatu" she said. "Have you come to take my life?"

"I can consider it. But really I just wanted to come to meet the Tigress of Csejte, as they call you these days. I've heard a lot about your...activities".

"What about them?"

"Very intriguing. You were trying to make yourself appear younger by bathing in blood. That's pretty amusing, since I can make myself younger by consuming blood" Dracula said with overly huge theatrical gestures.

Spark of temptation showed itself in Elizabeth's eyes. "What have you come here for? My soul?"

Dracula laughed. "Your soul? What would I do with it? There's no blood to get from the soul. And yours I believe is already damned. You gave up your right to enter through the pearly gates when you took the life of all those girls. But do not feel too depressed about it. It only means you have nothing more to lose".

"What is it you want?" Elizabeth finally asked.

"I've come to propose a bargain. I shall make you one as I am. You shall have power over others, eternal life and everlasting youth. These walls will no longer hold you".

Elizabeth's lip was twitching and there was wickedness in her eyes that excited Dracula. But she calmed herself still. "And in return..."

Dracula chuckled. "In return, you will acknowledge me as your Master. You will obey and serve me, cross land and sea to do my bidding. What will you say?"

Elizabeth hesitated for a moment.

"I cannot force you", Dracula said, "One must choose the night by themselves".

Elizabeth finally took a step closer to him.

"Yes...my Master".

To be continued…

Historical facts: as many people who have bothered to look into the folklore of vampires know, Elizabeth Bathory really existed, killed many girls and, at least according to legends, bathed in their blood to make herself appear younger. She was imprisoned in her own castle where she died four years later.

Well, that introduces the first bride. Second one next time.