Chapter 15: Meet Vlad

The old hearse drove through an isolated winding road through deadly jagged mountains. The sky half yellow when the sun came out, but the clouds and mountains blocked out the view of the sun, save for the grayish end of the spectrum. At the wheel, Dracula drove the hearse grimly in silence with only Frank for company.

The hearse came to a stop at a dead end of the road. Dracula and Frank got out of the hearse, each of them looked at each other before going down a rocky slope into a deep ravine. Dracula gliding easily while Frank seemed to walk clumsily by the vampire's side. They walked down and down a long unending spiraling staircase, deeper into the mountain. It ended at a hole just big enough for them to crawl though. Dracula groaned before he started to crawl though and Frank had to squeeze tightly in, but he struggled with his oversized butt. In the cramped tunnel a swarm of mice and moles skittered by them. Dracula easily avoided them as he crawled on the ceiling, but Frank wasn't so lucky as they passed him, and one even crawled through his pants, which made him flinch. They came to the end of the tunnel, and brushed themselves off of dirt and grime and more room for them to move, but had to stop when they had come to another steep hill side near the end of the tunnel.

"Oh, give me a break, already!" Dracula groaned, and started his way down the side of the steep cliff.

Unlike the last one, this one was even steeper and they lost their footing when Frank tripped over some loose rocks and branches, and crashed into Dracula and they tumbled downhill. A frowning Dracula crossed his arms as he tumbled downhill in a sitting position while Frank grunted and groaned as he rolled downhill. The vampire landed in his sitting position while the golem slid down and Dracula was pushed back by Frank's ginormous backside, but the two of them got up again. Dracula and Frank stretched out their lower backs with the sounds of cracking and popping bones.

They had just started walking again as Dracula pointed ahead to Frank, "I'm pretty sure its straight aheaaaad!" They hadn't taken two steps before suddenly falling down a hidden trap door and through a seemingly endless vacuum.

Frank screamed the loudest in horror while Dracula once more frowned with his arms crossed, hardly bothered by the fall. He was clearly getting tired of all these gimmick obstacles and traps just to go see Vlad. The two monsters made a rough landing on the ground on their butts. Dracula got up unfazed while Frank grunted from sores and aches even he would feel tomorrow. They approached a dank cave entrance.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Dracula grumbled, when suddenly a terrifying looking giant bat monster appeared in front of them in a flutter of large wings, causing Frank to scream.

"Who goes there?" the bat monster grunted with a husky voice.

"It's Count Dracula," Dracula answered.

"Oh! Well, it's about time!" the bat monster growled.

"Just tell him I'm here, Sweetheart," Dracula instructed the bat monster in annoyance.

The bat monster grunted at them before flying back into the cave. Dracula and Frank followed afterword. The bat monster hung upside down from a stalactite next to a throne carved out of stone where the figure of a vampire veiled in shadows sat dignified, only his cold blue eyes could be seen glowing in the dark.

"Holy rabies!" he said with a Romanian accented, his voice raspier than Dracula's voice. He leaned out from the shadows to reveal an ancient wrinkled face with pale blue skin, sharp and long features with a long nose and chin, and wisps of silver white hair. "Look what the bat dragged in."

"Yes, hi... Dad," Dracula greeted unemotionally.

After a moment of smirking, Vlad announced mockingly to the other bat monsters, "Fellas, you won't believe it! It's the world famous Count Dracula, just as handsome as the day he deserted me."

His giant bat monster minions started laughing and cackling maniacally in amusement at him. Dracula frowned in humiliation while slouching.

"You're still slouching, though," Vlad commented.

"I'm not slouching," Dracula retorted quickly as he straightened up.

"Well, this is certainly unexpected, boy," Vlad commented. "It's only been… what…?" he mumbled inaudibly as though counting to himself. "600 years or so. What have you doing all this time, hanging out this thing?" He gestured unapprovingly toward Frank.

"Nice to meet you," Frank greeted nervously.

"This is a monster!" Dracula yelled defensively of his friend. "Frankenstein!"

"Made outta humans!" shouted the same bat crony, who met Dracula and Frank at the entrance, in disgust, obviously the lead bat crony.

Frank was suddenly lifted from the floor and levitated rapidly towards the ceiling, no doubt by Vlad's own telekinetic powers. He hit the ceiling before falling to the floor, creating a huge hole and cracks from his hard landing.

"I'm not paying for that floor," Vlad complained, and then tried to be nicer by inviting them for a bite to eat. "C'mon, I was just about to have some lunch. Join me."

Vlad got up from his throne and entered a kitchen-like area where dead rats were being grilled or rotated over an open fire, and a boiling pot with an open small barrel full of other kinds of whatever food he had.

"Have some," Vlad offered, holding some tongs and offered what looked like sauerkraut with live worms in it. "I got sauerkraut."

"I'm fine," Dracula refused, while behind him Frank politely shook his head.

"Too good for a ratdog?" Vlad looked offended. To get to the point of this unexpected visit, Vlad asked for the true reason for his son's late visit. "So, what do you need from me?"

"It's... my grandkids , Denisovich and Martha, " Dracula told him reluctantly, hesitating to not mention Luna .

"What? You've got grandkids?" Vlad gasped in surprise, squirting mustard on his ratdog.

"And you never told him?!" shouted the lead bat crony by Vlad's side as he took his own ratdog.

"Easy, Bela," Vlad calmed him down and looked very pleased by this piece of news. "At least there's another vampire in the family." But then he looked insulted. "So, your daughter got married. Neeever got an invitation."

"Well, you know, Mavis wanted a small wedding," Dracula told his father, holding his thumb and pointer finger a few millimeters apart. "And there's the fact that I can't stand to be around you."

"That's how you talk to your father!" Vlad accusingly pointed his finger at Dracula. "You bite necks with that mouth?"

"Speaking of biting," Dracula added, while Vlad ate his rat dog in one big bite, and Dracula came up to him in a swift movement, hesitating, "Denisovich and Martha ... they haven't got their fangs yet."

"No fangs!" Bela shouted, spitting out his food. "I'm gonna be sick!"

"So their late-fangers, Bela," Vlad said casually. "It happens. So, why are you worried?" He suspiciously leaned in closer to his son, just to make sure his great-grandkids is a full blooded vampire. "He's a full vampire, isn't he?"

"What? Oh, yes, o-of course," Dracula replied nervously.

"So they got 'til their 5. Which is...?"

"Uh, two days. Give or take an hour."

"Two days!?" Bela shouted, outraged.

"Bela, be quiet! I'm talking with my son!" Vlad harshly scolded his minion.

"Look, we're in a time crunch. I need to help this along," Dracula said as he gestured circles with his hands, before he came to the part he didn't like. "Even if it means… YOUR way."

"You mean... scaring the fangs out of them?" Vlad asked, with an intrigued menacing smile.

Dracula nodded reluctantly.

"Okay, so what's the big deal?" Vlad asked with a casual shrug. "That's what we did for you."

"Alright, Dad," Dracula groaned, as though trying to keep something quiet.

"Wait!" Frank asked, catching on to what this was all about. "Drac was a late-fanger?"

"The latest," Vlad answered humorously. "What, he's always pretended he's Mr. Tough Guy? The boy was in love with a baby raccoon."

All of the bat cronies started howling with laughing and jeering at Dracula, who seemed to shrink into his cape, more humiliated and annoyed at his father for cruelly embarrassing him.

"I had to terrify the sweetness out him," Vlad told the story to Frank. "Sort of like a wussy exorcism. Let's just say I took away his security blanket."

Hundreds of years ago, in what might have been an old and large castle fortress, a five year old Dracula with smooth raven black hair and a moon round face showing one day they will grow into sharp handsome features, slept in a child sized bed styled open coffin with an adorable baby raccoon sleeping by his side, and the little boy wore raven black pajamas with red lining.

A shadow then flew by his coffin, swiftly and quietly by the closed window. A much younger Vlad then peeked out from behind a nearby wall, with a menacing smile on his long face. He held up his hand and red tinted black mist enveloped it as his eyes began to glow red.

The baby raccoon woke up surprised and afraid to find herself levitating away from her best friend. She chittered to wake him up for help. Dracula felt around for his friend and realized she was gone. He looked up and watched in terror as the little raccoon continued to chitter for help as she reached out to him.

But then her little head began to spin around. Dracula whimpered in fear from behind his pillow. What was happening to his sweet little friend? All of a sudden, the raccoon's eyes glowed a demonic red and she growled sinisterly at the little boy. When the possessed baby raccoon snarled dangerously at him, Dracula screamed in terror as two long and sharp fangs suddenly burst in his mouth, and he released his first fierce roar at the little raccoon.

Whimpering in fear of whom was no longer her friend, who didn't mean to frighten her, the baby raccoon recoiled and ran away out the door. A proud Vlad emerged from the shadows of his bedroom. Little Dracula watched her run away as heartbroken tears welled up in his bright blue eyes from the guilt of frightening her off and saddened at losing his best friend.

"Lulu..." a now grown-up Dracula moaned sadly, as tears slowly welled up in his bright blue eyes at the memory.

"Still resents me for it," Vlad concluded his story, and announced decidedly to help his son, "So now we'll do it for the kids . Of course, I'll need his whole family present, you, Mavis, the kids father." He counted them on his long wrinkled and gnarled fingers.

"The father!" Dracula hesitated, as a drop of sweat trickled down his forehead.

"What's the father's bloodline, by the way?" Vlad asked strictly.

"Oh, uh, he's pure vampire," Dracula fibbed while grinning. "He's a direct descendant of the, uh, Jonafangs, of, uh, Bucharest."

"The Jonafangs?" Vlad questioned curiously, clearly having never heard of this particular vampire family name.

"Yeah, so how about on the kid's birthday?" Dracula asked quickly before his father could become suspicious.

"Fine, fine," Vlad agreed. "Give me the address.

"Okay, it's going to be at my... hotel," Dracula said, twiddling his long fingers.

"It's at a hotel, huh? Fancy-schamcy," Vlad grinned.

"HOTELS ARE FOR HUMANS!" Bela roared so loudly he made the other bat cronies start flying around and shrieking in a frenzy, freaking out Frank, but Dracula not too much.

"Bela, shut your blood hole!" Vlad shouted angrily at his minion for causing this chaos. "Look what you started. Don't worry, gang! I raised my son to hate, and kill, and steal the souls of humans, like a good boy. Right, Drac?"

"Right, Dad. Heh, heh," Dracula laughed nervously, remembering why he didn't tell his own father about his own wife and daughter.

"After all," Vlad continued smirking, "you've hated humans since they killed my daughter-in-law... especially your own mother. Don't tell me those aren't good enough reasons for hating humans."

Dracula nodded, smiling awkwardly. His father was right about one thing. He despised humans because Martha was killed by them, even losing his mother to the humans long ago was hard enough. But he learned to let go of his grudge for humans ever since Ericka and Johnny entered his life. That was something he knew his father would never understand. At last, the cronies started to calm down.

"So this hotel of yours..." Vlad quirked a wispy eyebrow.

"Yeah, it's for monsters... only," Dracula quickly said, remembering that was once true.

"Well, or course for monsters. What else would it be for? Humans?" Vlad cackled maniacally, and the rest of his cronies joining in.

"Humans... that's a good one..." Dracula chuckled nervously, and Frank smiled awkwardly with him.

After he finished making plans with Vlad, Dracula quickly lead Frank out of Vlad's dark cave.

When he felt they were far enough out of ear shot, Frank asked, "Why didn't you tell him about Luna?"

"My dad can't know about Luna , not yet," Dracula replied protectively. "He's insulted enough he wasn't invited to Mavis's wedding, and he'd be even angrier if he found out I never invited him to mine. He'd never understand why Mavis and I fell in love with humans, and that would make it worse. Besides, if this works with Denisovich, Martha then I'll try it with Luna . But, until then, he can't know about Ericka and Luna ."

"If you say so, Drac," Frank sighed, feeling unsure.

No sooner Dracula and Frank made their way out of the mountains while driving the hearse, the sky outside got darker as grey clouds signaled an oncoming storm. Outside Vlad's cave entrance was his old and battered mailbox, to which Bela had gone out to check its contents.

Bela soon returned loyally to Vlad's side and handed him an envelope he took out from his mailbox. Vlad opened the envelope with his sharp nails and read the letter; it was an invitation to Dennis and Martha's and Luna's birthday party from his granddaughter, Mavis.

"Holy rabies!" Vlad stood up, smirking. "He finally invites me properly to something. Sure arrangements were made, but this invitation from Mavis makes it feel like they actually care about their old grandpa. And that reminds me, I must send out invitations to my daughter, Lydia, and to the rest of our clan." As he read the invitation, he quirked an eyebrow at something really confusing. "Wait a minute! A birthday for Denisovich, Martha and... who's Luna ?"