Dracula's Deal

by Sage1988

We all know the story of Dracula and his eventual fate and those of his enemies. But what if a chance encounter on one dark night changes the course of everyone's lives? One deal struck in desperation has the greatest of consequences for one character in particular.

4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Dracula.

There we are, this chapter would have been posted awhile ago but I had computer issues which made it difficult.

Dracula's Deal 4

Deep in the heart of Transylvania…1944…

A German Unit stood in front of the enormous estate of Count Von Krolock, one of the fledglings of Dracula that held a lot of power in their people with all of the vampires in the dusty estate. They had been sent and had looted the place while using the day as a weapon against them as they would be sleeping and vulnerable. And to make sure that none survived, they had set the entire estate ablaze, the flames roared and high into the sky as they consumed the entire area.

They were marvelling at their horde which had a lot of valuable antiques and would enjoying taking some for themselves, if possible, but they were unaware of a pair of figures watching them closely. One went off to pee against a nearby tree, he wandered away from his fellow soldiers and stood in front of the tree, but before he could relieve himself something slashed him across the throat. He gagged as blood poured from his ruined neck and quickly bled out before he could attract the attention of his fellow soldiers.

The other twenty or so men were loading the looted treasures onto their truck and were like him not really paying attention, they were chatting and discussing the weirdness of the people in that building who rested in coffins but were not dead.

The two intruders crept closer and when they were in position, leapt forward with their swords drawn, slicing a bloody path through the unsuspecting soldiers. Only a few had time reached for their guns but even if they had a chance to shoot bullets would have been useless against this enemy.

The commander of the unit was one of the last two standing after mere moments of indiscriminate slaughter. They held their guns in hands that were shaking hard as they had no idea just what monsters they were dealing with but soon they would come face to face with them.

A tall and shrouded figure appeared with a pale face and glowing red eyes, his teeth were blood-stained fangs and the officer gasped in shock before shooting him, but the bullets seemed to have no effect on him and then another one, this time a woman appeared behind the only other remaining soldier and grabbed him with a strength that was beyond a normal human and bit hard into his neck as he screamed. The man smirked viciously at the officer and took the gun from his hands before bending the barrel sideways before his disbelieving eyes and threw it into the snow nearby before grabbing the officer and biting deeply into his neck.

Dracula drained him dry quickly before throwing the body carelessly aside, he turned to his bride and she was doing the same with her latest meal, her pale face stained with blood but to him she had never looked more beautiful.

Mina herself was still on the high of the kill and the fresh blood, it was incredibly addictive she admitted to herself and having so much blood meant she had never felt better in her entire life but she reminded herself with steel clad discipline that they were not here to get carried away.

They were here because of the war.

Not the second world war she thought to herself but the war being fought beneath it, by their coven against that of the Karnsteins.

The Karnsteins, Mina thought with anger, the family of the last rogue bride. They had been working with the Nazis since the war and had begun to destroy their covens like they had done to Krolock's, driving the few survivors into hiding while they did their best to spread across Europe. Dracula, enraged at this had commanded all of those that could fight be brought into Continental Europe to hunt down and destroy the Karnsteins and their Nazi allies. Stretching themselves thin they had moved across all of occupied Europe and chased down as many of them as they could especially the bride…Carmilla Karnstein. Particularly after she had sent the head of one of his favoured fledglings…the Countess Marya Zaleska who he had affectionately called his daughter.

Mina was disgusted at some of the things that she had seen in this war, the things that were happening made her sick especially in the concentration camps, she would have destroyed the Nazis but for Dracula's obsession with his missing bride he had not allowed her which only made her hate him more. Already she was making note of a number of different Nazi secrets they had uncovered and would deal with them the moment she was able. She had made sure they had no chance of gaining vampiric nazis, she shuddered at the mere thought of that. She had even founded a group that was responsible for cleaning up any trace of their existence, the Cleaners who had proven essential in this war.

She could only wonder how much Thomas and Kate were struggling to keep on top of all this Mina thought with gratitude that they somehow had. This was a dangerous time for them as exposure seemed only a single mistake away and Kate's expanding network of media companies had been key to making sure that didn't happen. Shaping public opinion to make sure they stayed hidden.

She made sure that the Germans were all dead before Mina using her sword to destroy any trace of their teeth marks and then they got into the truck and she drove it while Dracula sat in the passenger seat. He cared nothing for the fledglings that had been destroyed or the covens they'd lost. Hell Mina thought with disgust he had been more interested in taking any treasures that they had found for himself and she was fast growing tired of it and to honest in the privacy of her own mind she wasn't sure just how much more of him she could take!

She had found nothing about destroying him and none of the minions that they had found knew anything about it either but they had gotten a lead on Carmilla so at least they might be able to end their own private war. She would do anything to get some time away from Dracula she thought with a great longing. One of the SS officers after some considerable persuasion had given them the location where Carmilla was hiding…her family's old castle.

Mina had suggested that possibility earlier in their campaign but Dracula had laughed at her suggestion, thinking it was foolish to be there but then acted like it was his own great idea when they had learned that was the place to look which only increased her hatred of him. But she kept it under control and hidden, but it was always building inside her.

- x -

Karstein Castle…

Two days past and they did so with tense silence, but finally they reached the castle. No light could be seen but the ruin was well preserved and some repair work had been done in recent times Mina noticed as she looked at the castle. Parking up their commandeered truck and making the rest of the way on foot.

"We should rest and feed before going in? We need to be fresh in case she has help." Mina said with her voice tired from the long travel here but he grabbed her by the throat and for a moment she was sure he was going to kill her he just glared at her with his inhuman red eyes and snarled as he told her.

"She is in there! Do as I command!" He said before throwing her to the ground, she bent her head in surrender to appease him, all the while seething with anger and hatred beneath the surface.

"Yes…master." She said submissively and he seemed to accept that, stalking off towards the castle while she got to her feet and followed behind him. She honestly was sure that this was a bad idea but if so, she wanted to see him suffer first she thought with her chest feeling like it was going to burst with all the hatred that she was carrying inside her.

The route was a footpath that had been barely travelled by anyone but it did not take long for them to reach it and the castle was even more dangerous looking up close in the moonlight. It was barely holding together in places and you could feel the terrible things that had happened within these walls. No wonder most of the locals avoided it Mina thought with surprise that it was still holding together.

She was about think on how to find and trap Carmilla when a squad of German soldiers appeared, firing their submachine guns. This would not have happened if they had been cautious as Mina had intended, she thought with anger but while the bullets did not hurt them the damage it was doing to the structure of the building was rather more severe.

The wall behind them was peppered with fire and it collapsed, having been held together with nothing but friction and so it fell and the floor that they were standing on collapsed when it fell on them. Mina felt the sensation of falling through the air before the world turned black.

- x -

How long she had been unconscious Mina could only guess at as her watch had been crushed in the fall but otherwise, she was unharmed if stuck beneath some of the rubble. She looked around and realised that she must be in some kind of catacombs that ran under the castle. She hoped they were more stable than the castle above but she knew she had to assume otherwise, pushing off the rocks that held her prisoner aside and carefully getting to her feet. Looking around it would be difficult to get back up the hole but not impossible but that was when she noticed a figure trapped by the rocks more securely nearly, seeing a glorious if dusty mane of blonde hair. Mina carefully made her way over to the trapped woman and saw to her amazement that it was a woman and more than that it was none other than Carmilla Karnstein, the shattered bed beneath her showed that this place must have been her sanctuary Mina thought as she looked at her and saw the rock pinning her down was much more secure than what had pined her.

Carmilla looked around, now having regained consciousness herself. She tried to move only to find the fallen debris made it impossible, she looked up and saw Mina looking down at her and grimaced.

"So, I take it he is here? Sister." She said with anger mixed with fear. Mina hated being called sister by a woman that had torn down most of what she had built.

"We are not sisters." Mina told her as she stared down at her with disgust. "You tried to destroy all the covens I set up! Undermine everything I tried to build! Why would I feel kinship with you now?" Mina asked with exasperated anger.

Her words seemed to surprise Carmilla, as if she had not expected that and she asked.

"Did you really do that? For yourself or for him?" She said almost spitting the last word in the sentence but looking deeply interested in the answer. Mina was confused by the question before answering.

"I did it because I wanted too. If he had his way we would still be sleeping in coffins in a ruined abbey! He had no idea how to make the most of it all." Mina told her with some of her suppressed anger coming out which after nearly fifty years had been building like a volcano about to erupt.

Carmilla looked at her with considering eyes, as if assessing what she was saying and whether it was true. She then smiled as she realised Mina was actually doing things for herself right under his nose and told her.

"Then you and I are more alike than you know." Carmilla said with a sad look in her eye.

"In what way are we alike?" Mina demanded with disgust at the mere thought before Carmilla calmly told her.

"Do you think he had the thought to travel and take the treasures that built his fortune? Do you think he planned out his arrival in England the way he did? No…those expeditions of his were my idea." Carmilla told her with a smirk. "He lusts but little else, after wealth, glory, blood those things but actual power is something he knows very little about. I was with him at the beginning, the first one he ever turned and I know a lot of secrets." Carmilla said with a satisfied smirk.

"Like what?" Mina asked, knowing better than to trust anything she said at face value but the idea that she had been with him at the beginning meant she could know things that no one else did. So, she remained guarded but hopeful.

"He wasn't the first vampire, no matter what he says." Carmilla said with a smirk knowing she was saying something that he would hate anyone else knowing. "He was a turned in the middle ages, a savage if somewhat cunning warrior as part of a horde that used the chaos of that time to fulfil their desires, he played the part of loyal acolyte well, even taking me as his companion. Ripping me from my family…something tells me you know how that feels." Carmilla said with a knowing look as she saw the ghost of pain in Mina's eyes before continuing with the story.

"He discovered that if he fed on another vampire, then he could take a part or perhaps all of their strength and abilities. He would pick them off one by one and use the hunters that once used to chase us as a cover for his actions until he was strong enough to take them all. He fed on the entire band, keeping me around solely as I occasionally proved a useful lure for him and my own cunning sometimes proved helpful. He hunted and drained every other vampire that he could find, settling into the castle that he took by force. Over time he would make other fledglings of his own, some of which you know about. But always he was afraid that one of his children would betray him and do to him what he himself had done to the others. He only allowed me to live as he thought I didn't know what he had done but at some point, after I fled his castle, he must have realised that I knew the truth. Some part of him probably suspected as he always kept me at arm's length from himself, even now he uses others so as to not take that risk." Carmilla said with a cold smile.

"So that is his secret? Only another vampire could truly kill him." Mina thought with considering eyes as it did explain why he would not hunt his former brides himself and why there had been so few of them at the beginning.

"I could never get close enough to do the deed." Carmilla said with angry frustration before something occurred to her. "But you could."

"Me?" Mina thought knowing this was all too convenient but at the same time it was the opportunity that she had been so desperate for across all of these years. That was what kept her listening.

"Get close enough and bite him!" Carmilla urged her with an eager hunger in her eyes. "Drain him and you can take away his ability to come back!"

"He's too strong for me." Mina said with detachment as she was starting to think that Carmilla had just been making this up to manipulate her.

"Not if you drain me first!" Carmilla said which completely knocked Mina off her stride. "I am nearly as old as he is! If you took my strength and added it too your own it might be enough, also consider that as you drain him, he will get weaker…you just have to get close enough to do it!" Carmilla added with desperation for her to agree.

Mina was confused as she was pretty certain to drain a vampire like that would be fatal to them and yet Carmilla didn't seem to care. She asked her with genuine curiosity.

"Why are you doing this? Surely that would destroy you too." Mina asked her and Carmilla bitterly scoffed at her.

"What else have I to go on for?!" Carmilla asked her with sudden seriousness, bitterness coming through with each and every word. "All of my family are gone! Even their descendants have been wiped out now! All my fledglings are destroyed! My revenge is all that I have left, drain me and stake me once you are finished, I want that monster dead forever. That is my only condition." Carmilla said with an almost desperation for her to agree.

Mina was taken aback, having hoped that she might find something that would enable her to destroy Dracula but never had thought it was this. She was finding herself believing Carmilla even when she knew she shouldn't, Dracula himself had declared she was the most cunning of the brides he had taken and this might be a trap but at the same time it was all that she had. So, with some reluctance she nodded and spoke.

"If that is what you want. I will give you my word to see it through." Mina said with complete honesty and Carmilla smiled before turning her head to bare her neck to Mina.

Mina slowly made her way over and with a great sense of trepidation, still wondering if Carmilla was playing her or not but it was too late to stop now she thought to herself as she plunged her teeth into Carmilla's neck.

She felt the blood hitting her tongue and felt the great power and age that it held, she kept on drinking as Carmilla held onto her, she smiled with the satisfaction of what she was doing…it would to her mind lead to the destruction to Dracula.

Mina kept on drinking Carmilla's blood and when she was finally done, she broke away to see the extremely pale Carmilla looking up at the ceiling of the chamber with a smile on her face. Mina could not help but admire her resolve and wondered if she might have become just like her in a few centuries but made herself not focus on that disturbing possibility. She pulled a stake from her belt and with a last mournful look, stabbed Carmilla straight in the heart. Carmilla gave one last happy look in her eyes before Mina finished it with a swift decapitation.

Mina stood up and felt…invigorated she thought with amazement, it was an incredible sensation she thought to herself. Carmilla was centuries old and her blood was so potent it felt like a euphoric high just drinking it. Mina wiped her mouth clean and smiled before solemnly being respectful to Carmilla. She bowed in respect before leaving to find Dracula, even though she could feel her newfound strength was great it would not be enough against Dracula, so she reasoned she would need to get creative with how she got close to him.

Finding her way out of the catacombs took a little longer than she had thought it would but it was day time before she finally did. She looked and saw Dracula was already looting much to her disgust before she smiled with a seductive smirk before coming over.

"Master." She said with an almost purr to her voice which made him turn around and see her there, leaning against a pillar and she told him. "I got the bitch."

Dracula's eyes widened at the announcement and he seemed angry for a moment but then seemed relieved. He asked her with a probing gaze.

"Did she suffer?" He asked her and she told him with complete honesty.

"Till her last breath…so to speak." Mina told him with a smirk of her own.

Dracula honestly was grinning from ear to ear in satisfaction, he closed the distance and kissed her on the lips and despite her surprise and revulsion she managed to force herself to respond. He was feeling aroused and while she hated the idea of having sex with him for that would be what it was…sex it would get her the chance she needed.

- x -

Some time later they had found the master bedroom of the castle which had been slightly restored so it had a bed they could use. Mina was not blind to the other reason he was doing this she thought as she rode him much to her disgust, it was to make a mockery of the Karnsteins now that they were gone. One final disgusting act of triumph.

But finally, he was tiring she thought, feeling him losing his energy and she allowed him to flip them so she was on the bottom, locking her legs around him and her arms around his shoulders, giving every appearance that she was enjoying this as much as he was.

Waiting for the right moment.

Then as he reached his limit, she rallied her courage and lunged forward, biting down on his neck hard.

Dracula stilled in shock and roared in anger, trying to push her off but she with more determination than she had in anything else during her long life, she kept clinging on. He was already tired from the long travel and lack of feeding while she was stronger than ever with Carmilla's blood and he could not get enough leverage to get her off of him.

She felt his blood and it was more potent than she had ever dreamt! Carmilla's had been strong but his was in a league of its own and she drank deeply, taking all of the blood that she could. He struggled desperately to get her off of him but she would not let go…not till she had taken every last drop from him.

As she drank, she had no idea that her eyes were changing, going from the blue that they normally were into a burning red as the opposite was true of Dracula, his eyes were losing their red aura and turning into a rather dull brown. Mina was in the midst of an almost orgasmic high, her senses so alive and her entire body feeling like it was bursting with power in a way that she had never dreamed.

When Mina was finally sure that she had taken all of the blood that was possible, getting up she looked down at the still and extremely pale Dracula, picking up a stake from her belt and looking him in the eyes, smirking before driving it straight into his chest, seeing him squirm was enough to bring a sadistic smirk to her lips before taking his own sword and severing his head from his shoulders.

Seeing his body without his head honestly brought her more joy than anything else had for a very long time! Mina thought as she felt all his power coursing through her, looking out at the now falling sun she concentrated her efforts on the clouds above which began to thicken and darken on her command, the wind picking up seemingly from nowhere and lightning race around the sky.

Mina's face turned into one of complete enthrallment at her new powers, she knew that would need to feed more often to make sure she kept them but it would be worth it she thought with a smile. She eventually stopped the storm and let the weather return to normal to stop wasting time.

Speaking of which she thought as she turned back to Dracula's corpse, she put her clothes back on and poured gasoline over Dracula's body, setting it alight and watching it burn. She made sure the body was nothing but ash before collecting up the remains in a box she found and vowed to make sure it was buried as deep in the earth as she could…she would not take any chances of him returning Mina thought now that they had finally rid themselves of him.

She would take anything of value that remained here, she thought as it would be a shame to let it go to waste and she would properly bury Carmilla here amongst her family as she would have wanted. Mina was solemn for that moment, thanking the other woman as she had set them all free of Dracula and just hoped wherever she had gone now her time on this earth was over that she was happy.

She had a lot to do Mina thought and went to get to work, moving all the valuables onto a jeep that parked just out of sight of the castle and that presumably had belonged to the soldiers and then digging a grave for Carmilla, gently laying her to rest before filling the hole and placing a rock over it, using a knife she found to carve Carmilla Karnstein into it so that she would have a marker and buried near the family that she had lost.

As she drove the jeep back down to where they had left the truck, she smirked not able to help herself as at last she had managed to free herself of Dracula. For the first time in nearly fifty years, she was not tied to him anymore and could do things her way. She honestly felt excited for the first time in years until she caught sight of the red eyes glowing back at her.

She looked at the glass of the windscreen and saw the red glinting back at her, honestly for a moment she was afraid that Dracula had somehow risen from the dead and come back to kill her but then she realised to her equally great horror that the red was now in her eyes!

She almost cried out in despair, even now when he was dead he was still haunting her! She thought with hatred, feeling trapped by him even more now!

Mina would have no real idea just how she did it but she began to calm down and concentrated her new powers and saw to her great relief that her eyes slowly returned to the deep blue that she had always known. The red was still there, she could feel it much to her discomfort but now it was hidden. That made her feel a great deal better and she breathed a sigh of relief before starting the truck and heading back towards home, she sent a message along the lines that they had established for all the coven members and the survivors of the destroyed ones to come to London as there was an important announcement to make.

But before that meeting, Mina thought with a sense of deep depression, there was something else she needed to do.

X

Graveyard, London...Some Days Later...

The graveyard was quiet in the early evening, it was older and a figure dressed in black with a veil that hid her face moved between the gravestones with two bouquets of flowers in her arms. One was made up of white lilies and the other made of yellow roses.

The first of the two places she had to visit came into sight, she walked over and knelt down before placing the lilies on the grave as she parted her veil to read the inscription.

'Jonathan Harker, Beloved Friend, Husband and Father. He who endured such tragedy and yet found life again, he will be sorely missed.'

A tear ran down her face as she read it, to this day she missed him and still loved him as dearly now as she had then even though he had moved on from her. She knew that he had been happy, her information said that much but he had always struggled with what had happened not only at Dracula's castle but also with her disappearance. She just hoped that he was content in heaven, he had earned that she thought to herself.

Getting up from his grave she walked away and made her way to an area that was not too far away, a much grander one that spoke of an old and wealthy family and emblazoned with the name, Holmwood.

She walked inside and passed the different graves of all the dead members of the family until she came to the last place she had to visit before tonight.

'Lucy Holmwood, wife of Arthur. Lady Godalming, Loving Wife, Mother, Grandmother and Friend. She who was spared death and made every day special, a ray of sunlight in a dark world. May she always know peace and love as she showed in life.'

Mina again let a single tear fall from her eyes at the death of the last person who had known her as a human, her dearest and closest friend that she had sacrificed her mortal life to save and would do so again in the blink of an eye. She had lived a good life, with much love and happiness and for that Mina was truly grateful, Lucy had been a luminous soul and always had been. She had deserved to live her life free of Dracula and his taint, a smile came to Mina's face as she put the yellow roses down and let herself say goodbye.

She didn't stay there long, instead she straightened her back and left the graveyard. Her face becoming stern as from tonight...it was time for a new beginning.

X

Vampire Coven, London...Later that Night...

That night was a major gathering, all the vampires that were left in Europe were there and others from more distant covens as well, this was an unpreceded gathering the likes of which they had never had before. David stood with Mina's inner circle, all of them looking concerned as none of them knew why Mina had called this meeting and as they waited the more tense it became.

Finally when the doors opened and they all turned, expecting to see Dracula and Mina standing there but Mina was standing there alone. This confused most of them as they knew Dracula did not allow others to enter before himself. But instead Mina strode in with her head held high and proudly walked to the throne like chair that Dracula alone used, his seat of power and much to their shock...Mina sat in it.

The crowd was confused and honestly expected that Dracula would come in any moment and snarl at Mina before killing her for doing such a thing.

But as the moments went by and nothing happened, it finally sank in just what this meant. Slowly with her inner circle and those that knew her personally starting they knelt followed by more and more of the crowd, one person dared try to show defiance and question her about the missing master but Mina turned her gaze on them and for a moment they all could see the red in her eyes.

He knelt swiftly after that.

Mina sat on the throne of the coven that she had built, now finally free of the shackles that held her to Dracula and with the power to do all that she wanted without answering to his beck and call. She looked regal and stared impassively at many of the gathered vampires except for those that she considered her friends, she gave them a small smile and then allowed her eyes to glow red for a moment, a chill running through them all as they all thought the same thing.

The King is dead...long live the Queen.

X

There we are, hope you all enjoyed the chapter but this is not the end. A few more chapters are to come.

Count Von Krolock is from The Fearless Vampire Killers, a film from 1967.

Countess Marya Zaleska is from the film Dracula's Daughter from 1936.

Carmilla Karnstein is inspired by the Karnstein Trilogy of Films made by Hammer with elements of Mircalla interwoven.

Next Chapter - The 1960s.