Chapter seven:

One hour later

Gabriel Van Helsing approached the kitchen, leaving his used weapon on the table and fetch a dustpan before he cleaned up the bride's ashes from the dining area's floor. The two sisters still stood there before the youngest brushed away a tear that formed in sympathy for the fallen woman, with her hand whilst Clare moved to sit down near the fireplace and placed her head in her hands.

The monster hunter walked to the kitchen and into the outside world before placing the ashes in a brown small box and then closing the lid. He walked back into the house, leaving the dustpan on the kitchen side before standing before the sisters.

"At least," he began to say. "We now know where your sister has been taken to and it's getting close to All Hallows Eve, the one occasion where the Count will host his annual ball for all his people."

Clare lifted her head from her hands and spoke, "Tasha's birthday is on the 31st October… Halloween. She will be eighteen… if she hasn't been turned yet, will Dracula turn her on her birthday?"

He looked at the eldest sister and spoke only the truth, knowing if he didn't; she would find out eventually which wouldn't end well. "Yes. He will make her one of his brides, and trust me… Miss Maddison, you don't that to happen. Once she's changed, she won't be the same sister you know and won't hesitate to kill you or Miss Sophanne."

With that, Clare stood and walked into the hall where she grabbed her coat and walked back into the dinning room as she placed her coat jacket on her body.

Meanwhile

After Alina's death, which had been felt by her master and her older-turned sister. Dracula stayed in his study, getting ready for the up-coming annual ball that he hosts every year on All Hallows Eve. So much to do, so much on invitations and to make sure that the food is prepared for the guests as well as the music for the dancing.

Natasha mostly stayed in her room after what happened, and only came out when it was breakfast, dinner or when there was nothing to do beside read. The Count had allowed her to visit the palace's outside grounds such as the courtyard though did advise her that he and his bride will be watching, to which she nodded.

The fresh air was so refreshing that she missed it and even the sound of nature in the background.

For the meantime, Chloe had something nagging at her in her mind and couldn't ignore it, even though she had for the last few days. Her gut was telling her that it was something to do with Natasha and in a way, she noticeably reminded her of someone from her and her master's past. Every time, she was near the girl, her gut sense was stronger than ever. Also, she noticed how her master was around the girl. When the girl was seriously ill, and he refused to leave her, his face was full of concern like any worried parent.

She had gathered courage to ask her master and knew he would be busy at this time of year, but she had to asked. Chloe approached his study door and raised her fist to knock. The Count spoke with one command, "Enter,"

The polished-accented bride entered the warm-filled room as the fireplace roared to life with fire. Behind the desk was her master, one hand using a ink-filled pen and the other holding numerous invitation as he read each one with his sapphire eyes.

For a moment she was breathless and held the breath she didn't need. And then, her master looked up and grinned at her which brought her back to what she was going to ask him.

"My lord," she began to say, "There is something I need to ask."

He placed his pen and already-half-filled invitation on the desk before responding. "What is it, Chloe?"

"For the last few days… since Natasha Madison was ill, I've had this feeling that refuses to go away, and my gut has been telling me that there is something about this girl… something about her that bring up old memories."

As she spoke, the vampire leaned forward and placed his chin upon his crossed-finger hands as he listened. She carried on," I've also noticed how you have been with the girl… like when she had been seriously ill, and you refused to leave her side. I possibly knew that you might say that's because she's your guest and she's your responsibility… but your face had the expression of worried parent and I know that might sound stupid but for a moment, I kept thinking this thought that she might be your daughter which is stupid because us vampires can't have children… if we wanted too"

Once Chloe had finished speaking, she raised her eyes to meet her sire's and waited, like forever. When she had mentioned 'children', it brought sorrow to her heart and she hated this feeling but it was true, no matter what; vampires couldn't have children biologically.

Dracula leaned back into his seat and sighed briefly, blinking his eyes. His hands resting on his crossed lap as he fiddled his fingers before speaking. "My behaviour that regards Natasha is because she is mine and Caitlyn's daughter. During our little 'war', her mother and I always had feeling for each other and that fateful night where I was with her… was the same night that she was conceived though originally it was part of my plan to try and give Caitlyn what she always wanted in life before I gave up the plan and instead gave into my feelings for her. However, I must admit that when we discovered that she was with child, it took us by shock."

He continued on, "During the pregnancy, Caitlyn even accepted me to touch her stomach where I actually felt Natasha within. I could feel her life… her heartbeat, and it was on All Hallows Eve to which you and Alina had question on where I had gone. Even though you two were worried about where I had gone to, you mustn't have been. I disappeared that day, only for minutes, to be with Caitlyn as she gave birth to our beloved child. I can still remember what she allowed me to hold our child in my very arms."

All Chloe could do was just stand there with pure shock on her undead face. Her master, who had thought that he would never be a father and had given up, had indeed fathered a child with the woman he had come to know and love. "I watched over them from the shadows and would only be able to see Natasha when she was asleep because I didn't wish to want her react if she knew her father was an infamous vampire that had done some much evil in the past."

"But you've changed, my lord! …and I never knew," she responded, "about any of this."

"You weren't to know… and it was part of a vow I made to protect both Natasha and her mother… from those who wished to destroy me. If it had gotten out, they would have been in extreme danger and would never be safe." He finished saying as he gazed at his still-fiddling hands.

Though, he missed the rest of her childhood and was responsible for secretly giving her the money for her to attend university; he will admit that he is proud of how she has grown up to be.

"Does she know?" the vampire bride asked.

"No," he responded as he gazed at his bride, "she has no idea and must never know because I fear it would destroy her the moment she has discovered her true nature."

Dhampir… the product of a human and vampire's forbidden union.

The thought of Natasha, now revealed as Dracula daughter, has changed everything. "But, my lord, she has a right to know that the man who had her kidnapped and then became her host is actually her father,"

The Count rose from his chair and approached the window to his study with his hands behind his back. His eyes focused on the snowy mountains over his beloved country. "I know but it's best, for her sake, if she never knows… Even if it means that she would live a mortal life and die without knowing the truth about her true father."

After their talk and revelation, the day and went. Night came in an event of a sunset which was beautiful setting for the end of the evening. While the servants went to bed, with one vampire out in the city and the other in his study. Natasha laid in bed, in her night attire as she fell into a nice slumber with her book of monster laying open over her thick-bed covered stomach with left hand bushing against it and the other near resting near her turned-head.

The small lamp near her bed was kept on, for when she was reading herself to sleep. All that could be heard was her light breathing and the faint howling in the distance with whispers of drunken men and laughter from nearby inns and bars.

Although she seemed to be having a nice sleep, it was the opposite. Natasha was forced back into a memory from when she was very young and around the time her mother was gravely ill.

Natasha stood by the open door to her mother's bedroom as numerous nurses and one doctor stood around the bed, checking on the ill-sicken barmaid as her fever became worse. Caitlyn Madison had sweat sticking to her fair-colour skin like water drops and her breathing was harsh, yet her eyes were calm. She was dressed in a floor-length white cotton nightgown with frills hanging around the neckline over her clothed medium-sized breasts.

After taking her temperature and pulse, the doctor helped her sit up and leaned her against the bed board with using pillows as cushions. The thirty-two-year-old barmaid briefly smiled at the doctor before her gaze turned to her young daughter in the doorway and a smile rose upon her lips again.

Caitlyn opened her arms to the child, who instantly moved and once close enough; wrapped her own short arms around her ill mother. The woman's similar-coloured hair brushed against her daughter's fair skin and rested over the front of her body via her shoulder with the tips brushing against her clothed breast.

"Momma," she said with her voice worried about the only family she has.

"Shush, little one. I am fine," her mother said before using her hand to cover her mouth as she released a violent cough that shook her body and left her breathless for a few seconds. "Momma has a small cold, nothing more."

The doctors had told her that she might not recover from this illness and would need to plan for her daughter, as a guaranteed.

Numerous women, over the years, had become victim to this type of disease and it has been more-than-likely that Caitlyn would soon followed.

A few hours later, after the doctor and nurses had left. Natasha and her mother had fallen asleep in their linked arms until she woke up as the sun was about to rise. She glanced with her blue eyes to her still-sleeping mother and unwrapped their linked arms as she moved to gather herself off the bed. Her long-sleeved dress was used as a bed-cover during her sleep.

Once Natasha had slid off the bed, she gazed at her mother again and gently reached forward with one hand to grab her mother's arm. Her hand wrapped around her wrist and she perform a mild tug, and as she did so; her mother's body collapsed to one side as if there was no life inside. The girl's face became confused and she removed her hand from the wrist and briefly touched her mother's skin to find only coldness, no heat or pulse. Removing her hand once more, Natasha reached for her mother's face and placed her small hands with her palms to her mother's cheek to find no breathing nor movement whatsoever. It was obvious her mother was dead, having died in her sleep from the illness that she caught days ago but this little one had no idea.

Natasha opened her mouth as her eyes filled with heavy tears and gave a small cry as she comforted her mother's corpse.

In the downstairs room was Sister Caterina who had been looking after the barmaid's daughter whilst she was ill and slept in the backroom. She could hear scrap noises and then crying which she knew had to be investigated. She left her room and headed the stairs which lead her upstairs and approached the back bedroom, taking the doorknob in one hand and pushing the wooden door forwards which greeted her with the sight of young Natasha Madison holding her mother's lifeless body in her small arms as she cried and begged her mother to awaken.

The sister just stood there at first and in shock before she mastered it and in no time; grabbed the girl to pull her away from her mother's body and comfort her instead. "She's dead! Momma's dead! She's not waking up!"

Before she opened her eyes, she knew she had been crying and shot upwards to wipe away tears that were forged from what should have been forgotten memories of her six-year-old self-comforting her mother's dead body that had fallen prey to an uncurable disease.

Momma.

It was this place, that was bringing up long-forgotten memories that should remain buried. It's not that she didn't want to face them, it was too much and required strength that she believed she didn't have in her. It was said long-ago that nightmares come to life in this cursed land.

As her tears dried, Natasha moved to close her large book and place it on the side before turning off the lamp and then snuggling under the covers as sleep overtook her.

That same night.

Clare, her sister and their friend reached the beautiful city of Hungary; Budapest though it took about a week to reach in a hired-carriage. Van Helsing had told the sisters that an old friend offered them a room in his inn which was around the corner from the dock. Even though, the constant chant of drunken and dirty men would keep them awake for a few hours with the smell of salt in the air.

All the girls could think about was their sister and what the vampire could be doing to her at every second. After Van Helsing had told them of what powers the undead possesses, they became even more worried that she might not be their sister anymore if the vampire might have her memories erased, instead of her being a vampire, to be a servant.

'We mustn't think like that. Our beloved sister is strong and has survived the worst.' Eldest Maddison sister thought as the girls came into their room after having dinner in the inn whilst the monster hunter spoke with his fellow Holy Order friend in the bottom kitchen. He had to replenish his ammo of holy water-blessed crossbow arrows with revolver bullets in addition to gather further info about the vampire that arrived in the city weeks ago with his bride.

As the girls got ready for bed and fell to sleep in mini-seconds, Van Helsing sat in the kitchen with a small glass of whisky in one hand as the informant sat across from him and swig half-a-bottle of whisky down his throat before speaking. His hat resting on the table beside his leather-coat covered-arm as he used it to lean on.

"What's the news, Nigel?"

"Well… your vampire appeared in the city about two week ago, with his bride in tow. The girl wasn't with him, but I heard that she was taken his estate after being found by a doctor, who mentioned that she had been caught in the storm in my inn, a week before." The informant named Nigel said as he swigs another amount of whisky down his throat. His other hand scratching his semi-bald thin-grey hair with his uncut nails. All his younger years of fighting dirty has lead to him neglecting his body and causing mild problems of losing hair quickly and bad odour with oddly-shaped teeth.

"And also, I'd received your letter about the other bride. Thank god, that you dispatched her before she could harm the other two sisters." He arched an eyebrow into a perfect curve as he raised his eyes to his fellow Vatican hunter. "However, it does make you wonder about the sister that she did take? If the girl has been turned?"

"Wouldn't think of it. I don't want Clare nor her sister, Sophanne to have thought of their sister joining the undead and becoming that creep's bride." Van Helsing responded as he swigs his whisky glass through his mouth and down his throat which sort-of burned his inner side, as he stood to stand. He placed the glass down and picked his hat up.

"Even if it comes to it, I don't think that I could kill their sister. I don't want to bring them girls that pain. They didn't deserve all this… any of it."

XXX

Thanks all for this chapter, what did you think?

Bet you were surprised about a certain character's revelation about another character?