Hallo, my dear friends. I hope your Christmas and changing of the year have been happy ones.

Well, here it is, another update as promised (for once). As I said last time, next Monday (4th of January) I'll be starting a new job and this will mean real life will be knocking on my door even more than it has these past few months. I promise I will do my best to update at least once a month, maybe more if I'm lucky, but don't count on that.

Thank you for all the wonderful, amazing people who sacrificed a minute of their time to review the last chapter: BigKwell, Andromeda, VampyreVixen16, Myriad of Willows, Tsuki no Rekuen, hellsingfan101, Irena, Fleatcher and the new reader Falling-Angel-Rising-Dragon! Thank you so much!

Disclaimers: was it in Stoker's book? Then it isn't mine.

CHAPTER 24: ARRIVAL

It was with long teeth, pardon the pun, that Count Dracula came to choose travelling through sea instead of land. Sure, going with train would have probably taken less time, but in that case the train would have stopped on every border and his coffin could have been found. So instead Dracula chose to travel through sea. He didn't like the idea of being so close to running water. If something would happen to the ship he would be in a serious trouble. But at least in ship his coffin would be safely hidden.

Besides just his coffin Dracula also brought with him a dozen boxes filled with the soil of his castle. He couldn't drag his coffin with him to all of his new houses, so he would spread the boxes in them. He wouldn't bring any of his gypsy warriors with him, they would be too noticeable and create attention. He ventured alone.

Dracula travelled in a Russian schooner called Demeter. With his powers of controlling weather he always arranged a good wind that made the journey go faster. During the nights he fed on the crew. Sometimes only little that made them weak and sick, sometimes he drank much and then threw them overboard.

By the time they finally started to approach the coast of England, remaining crew of Demeter had become paranoid and restless. The disappearing, cases of unexplained sicknesses and sightings of a stranger (in a ship even Dracula couldn't avoid being seen by a person or two) fed the simpleminded and superstitious' crews fears. And when they finally discovered rats beneath the deck, that had apparently ended in his boxes of soil, rumours of plague spread fast.

Being so close to England already Dracula decided to give them something else to think about and summoned a storm that still carried them towards their destination but kept the crew alert. When they finally reached England, the first mate had had enough and came down below to investigate. He found Dracula and ran out screaming till he fell to his watery grave. Since Dracula could already see the rocky beaches of Whitby, he decided that there was no more use of secrecy.

With quick efficiency, he killed the rest of the crew and disposed their bodies to the sea, for isn't the sea the cemetery of all sailors? Only one he left on board was the captain, who in the storm had tied himself to the wheel. As the ship collided to the rocks Dracula mentally contacted his servant Renfield.

Renfield...Renfield...the time has come.

Sitting inside his cell in the asylum, Renfield raised his head. "Master! Are you here? Have you arrived?"

Yes, Renfield. Now invite me!

Renfield ran to the window and shouted. "Welcome, Master! I welcome thee!"

With that Dracula jumped from the badly damaged ship and landed to the wet sand of Whitby shores. Feeling the earth beneath his feet after weeks of sea journeying felt incredibly good. He left his boxes of Transylvanian earth to the ship; local authorities would take them to their marked locations. However, Dracula did take his own coffin and headed to the direction of the nearest building he had bought in England, which was right here in Whitby.

The ruins of Carfax Abbey.

The abbey was very old and long since abounded and he had bought it with cheap. However it was also rather large and would serve to hide his coffin. Also the risk of anyone actually coming there was relatively small.

Except for Renfield of course, who had instantly escaped from the asylum and was now in front of him, panting from having run all the way. Renfield fell to his knees in front of him and kissed his cape.

"Master...Master, you have arrived" he kept repeating.

Dracula didn't really pay attention to the man bowing to him. Instead he used the energy the blood of all those sailors had given to him to change his appearance. His grey and moustache turned black and his skin from pale white to healthy live. All of his wrinkles disappeared. He imagined he looked like a man of his early thirties now. He was also now dressed in black clothes that followed the gentlemen's fashion in England. All he lacked was cane and a top hat.

"How do I look, Renfield?" he asked out of curiosity.

"You will certainly fit in, Master".

From the distance Dracula heard footsteps approaching. The men from asylum had come to get Renfield back.

Renfield noticed them too. "What is thy bidding, my Master?"

"For now go back and do not come here on your own again. When the time is right, I shall come to you and reward you for all you've done for me".

With that Dracula disappeared to the shadows of the abbey, while Renfield was taken back to asylum.

--

Next night Dracula ventured to this new town he had arrived. Whitby became peacefully quiet after sunset and only sounds he could hear came from local pubs, filled with drunks and sailors. The mysterious ghost ship was the talk of the town, and some young people, who during the day had not been permitted close to the ship, were now watching it.

Dracula was not interested in hunting this time. He simply walked through the streets, taking in all he could see of Whitby. He tried to memorise as much as he could for one most know his surroundings to win the battle. Some of the places he found familiar, due to his long mental connection to Renfield.

Next Dracula went through the large cemetery on Whitby hills. Although the interference of Iscariot or some private hunter were unlikely, he had learned to play safe than sorry. In case his coffin would be destroyed or he would be unable to return to abbey, he needed an alternative resting place in Whitby. So he scattered the cemetery in search of graves of people that had committed suicides. These graves, while not comfortable, also offered resting place for a vampire.

While on cemetery Dracula became aware of a presence. From the distance he could see a young woman, barely in her twenties with blonde hair walking to the cemetery. She was barefoot and only wearing a nightgown. In the eyes of Englishmen she was practically naked. For a moment Dracula wondered if she was another escaped patient from the asylum, but looking closer realised the girl was actually sleepwalking. He has met these somnambulists before during his travel and had fun controlling them like marionette dolls.

However, Dracula was quite surprised when he realised that he knew this girl. He had seen her face before in the picture Jonathan Harker had had with him. This was Miss Lucy Westenra.

Too tempted to resist, Dracula lured the unaware sleepwalker to his side and went to her very dreams mentally. In there he could read her life as if it was written for him. Lucy was a young girl who had a good upbringing and knew what was and wasn't expected of her. She went to church and took care of her sickly mother. She was, all in all, a good girl.

That said, there was also another side to her. A side that longed for all the things her tight morality had denied from her. Her curiosity had her reading few pages of Arabian Nights once, the illustrated version, and what she'd seen and read had fed her imagination, often resulting in dreams she was quite ashamed of afterwards.

It also didn't help that quite recently this girl had started getting quite a lot of attention from three different suitors. A young son of a lord, local doctor of the asylum and an American cowboy. Although Lucy had chosen the son of a lord, she had wondered why a woman couldn't marry all the men who wanted her.

A feral grin spread to Dracula's lips as he knew how to play this one.

He manipulated her dream and made Lucy soon find herself in a scene of Arabian Night. She was in a tower of Sultan's palace, lying naked on the huge cushions. The three young suitors were all there, simultaneously kissing, caressing and loving her.

"This is what you want, isn't it?" Dracula's voice asked her.

"Yes..." Lucy moaned, her eyes closed as she dreamed and her hands tightly on his shoulders.

Dracula made the dream becoming blurry and misty. "This is nothing but an illusion, but it can become a reality. You can have all you desire without a hint of shame. But do you want it? Do you truly want it?"

The dream was disappearing from Lucy. "Yes, I want it!"

With that Dracula lowered his teeth to her neck. Lucy, in her very lustful taste, had a very tasty blood indeed. Dracula lapped it like a thirsty dog, even when he wasn't that hungry.

The moment was broken by the sound of approaching footsteps. Dracula turned in time to see Harker's fiancée Mina Murray running towards cemetery, obviously searching for Lucy. He left Lucy lying and panting on a tombstone where she was easily spotted and disappeared to the shadows.

He didn't leave however, but kept watching as Mina hastily shook her friend awake and then started helping her to her feet. Dracula followed them in the form of a bat to Westenra Hall in Hillingham, less than ten miles from Carfax.

Dracula would come again for certain. Not only to get more of the sweet blood of Lucy, but through her he could get her suitors and other people also. The first knights of his new army.

--

He didn't visit Lucy constantly, but decided to prolong this as long as possible. When he did visit her he did drank a lot, but didn't speed her transformation. In between the visits Dracula had other things to take care of.

Some days he spent in London. He located the five different houses he had bought and to where his boxes of earth had been delivered already. Then he started to get to know the city itself. He spent sometimes hours just walking amongst the people in the streets. He wanted to be in the midst of rush, to share all the lives, changes and deaths of this metropolitan centre of British Empire.

Dracula also found out the centres of social elite in London, he did want to catch powerful and influencal flies in his web also.

Speaking of flies, Dracula did make it a habit every now and then to visit Renfield in his cell and to take him flies, insects, moths and spiders, to satisfy his all the more growing desire to devour lives.

Dracula was enjoying himself. After centuries of Carpathian mountains London offered something new to enjoy. Yet, actual people, he discovered with amusement, weren't that different from people four hundred years back.

--

Having settled in London and slowly but surely making his plans of how to approach the social elite, Dracula returned to Whitby. It had been more than two weeks since he had first tasted Lucy's blood and he felt it was time to finish the job.

He approached the Westenra Hall in the dead of night, approaching the window he knew would lead to Lucy's room, but stopped when he sensed that something was different. Something wasn't as it used to be...

His eyes winded when he realised what it was: a smell of garlic. There was garlic hanging from Lucy's window.

He couldn't believe it. There was no way Iscariot could have been here in protestant land and surely no Whitby town doctor would know enough about midians. Yet there it was, hanging there almost like an insult to his face.

Lucy was lying on her bed, with her mother sleeping there also. With a fury that made his face twist monstrously Dracula shattered the glass and threw the garlic away. Mrs Westenra bolted up but the moment she saw him she clasped her chest and dropped dead to the ground.

Before Lucy could realise what had happened Dracula had her once again under his will.

"Lucy...my dearest Lucy" his hypnotic voiced purred. "I have come for you. All the pleasures you dream about will be yours tonight and forever".

"Yes..." Lucy weakly accepted.

"But first...tell me, who has placed garlic in your room?"

"Professor Van Helsing".

This Dracula had not expected. Van Helsing? Abraham Van Helsing?! How did he… has he been following me? How long…

"How do you know Van Helsing?"

"John Seward called him from Holland to cure me. He was John's mentor few years back".

Ah, so it's just a coincidence he is here. He knows there is a vampire around, but he doesn't know it's me. But he will, oh he will…

As Dracula prepared to give Lucy one final bite, he thought wickedly what a pleasure it would be to see the look of total despair on Van Helsing's face again.

To be continued…

Okay, not really much to say about this chapter. Except it's not mistake to call Dr. Seward John. John is his first name in book, it's only in American plays and movies they've started to call him Jack instead.

Till next time! I don't know when it will be but I promise I will do my best update at least once a month! Till then keep reviewing!