Blood Lust

Transylvania, 1840. It is only a matter of time before Dracula resurfaces.

Two teenage boys sat at the table in the small dinging room, both of them asleep from being out all night.

“Wake up!” Their older sister set two plates in front of them loudly as they woke up, jumping in their seats.
“I stopped falling asleep in the middle of the day when I was ten. You two shouldn't be falling asleep like this still.” She looked at them with her hands on her hips, a mixture of disappointment and anger on her face.

“Well excuse me for being sleepy when I've been up all night.” The older of the boys, William, retorted.

“Cicilia, everyone gets used to it at different times.” The trio's mother sat down across from the boys and sighed. She was nearly as tired as they were. “That's why you are ready to fight Dracula and they aren't.”

“Momma, about that-” She sat down by her younger brothers, an anxious expression on her face.

“Cyril!” Just then, their father burst through the door breathlessly. He must have run all the way to their house. He held an envelope in his hand as he hurried to his oldest son's room.

“What do you suppose is going on?” Marie followed quickly after her husband, tucking her graying hair behind her ears.

“So you still haven't told them?” The youngest of the Capedocian household, Andrew, shoved a piece of bread into his mouth as he looked at Cicilia expectantly. William merely looked back and forth between the two, confused.

She propped her cheek on her fist and sighed sadly. “Does it look like it?” She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye as she waited for her older brother to come into the room and shed some light on what was going on.

Cyril came into the room carrying the letter and putting his jacket on. A dark determination was in his eyes.

“Cyril?” William looked at him, a nervous awe in his voice. The oldest son of the Capedocian family had inherited the mantle of 'vampire hunter' from their father, Augustine, six years ago. The younger boys held their brother in high regard, but they had never seen such a foreboding look in his eyes before.

“Its time.”

“Y-you mean, D-dracula's back?” William gulped and anxiously tugged at the collar of his shirt.

Cyril nodded and shoved the letter in his pocket just before heading out the door. Cicilia remained sitting, staring at the door in a daze.

Cyril poked his head back in the door. “Cicilia, aren't you coming?”

“Coming where?” She blinked a few times, still a bit dazed.

“The church.” He was still just a pair of shoulders and a head leaning past the door into the house.

“Uh, y-yes. Just a second!” She got up and quickly went to her room, putting on her hat and coat. Her golden curls bounced as she ran to keep her older brother from waiting too long.

“Good luck you two.” Marie kissed the sibling and crossed herself as she looked at them longingly. Augustine put his hand on Cyril's shoulder and simply nodded at his oldest children.

Cyril and Cicilia quickly walked down the streets of their small town in the direction of the church. A few people stared at them as they hurried toward the large building in the center of the town, a few went out of their ways to go around them. The Capedocian family was dealt with in fear because of their association with vampires and supernatural powers.

When they were inside the church they saw the bishop waiting for them, praying. They slowly approached him, and when they were right behind him he quickly finished up and turned to face them.

“I assume that you are the slayer?”

“Yes, Father. Cyril and Cicilia Capedocian.” Cyril motioned to himself and his sister.

The bishop looked back and forth between them, although it was not strange for the Capedocian family to utilize the majority of its members as vampire slayers, it still took him by surprise that a woman was fighting vampires.

“The letter said you know what Dracula's plan is.” Cyril pressed the man further, as he usually did. Even though others called upon him for help they usually wouldn't readily volunteer information to him, forgetting it would be to their benefit in their uneasiness.

“Yes. It came to me a dream last night.” He nodded before he continued on, “It seems he wishes to create a half-breed and then transfer his soul into the poor child.”

“He would be able to walk around during the day.” A grave look came over Cyril's face.

“Exactly.” The holy man nodded again.

“Can Dracula even have children? I thought that the ones created normally were the only ones.” Cicillia stepped closer to the men as she said this.

“Only with members of the Filioque family.” He motioned for them to follow him.

“What's so special about them?” The Filoques are a centuries old noble family that lived a few towns over.

“Fearing something like this would happen eventually,” The bishop led them into a dusty old room full of documents, “we kept track of Dracula's family line, back from when he was still human of course.”

Back, several years ago, Dracula had once been human. He became a vampire by making a deal with the devil for power. He was first slain by one of Cyril and Cicilia's grandmothers, and when he came back one of her descendants hunted him down and slayed him once again, vowing that his descendants would follow in his footsteps until Dracula was slain for good.

“So we tracked the family line through his brother, all the way to the only child of Lord and Lady Filioque.” He laid a large piece of paper out before them, tracking the family all the way from Dracula's grandparents to the current generation.

“And they just so happened to have a daughter?” Cyril asked as he looked over the bishop's shoulder at the document.

“Yes.” He handed him a small scroll with a condensed version of the family tree on it.

“And so we have to protect her or something?” Cicilia put her hands on her hips and looked at the man expectantly, this wasn't was she had signed up for.

“It'll be the easiest way to find Dracula. Besides, do you want to be the one responsible for Dracula being able to walk around in the day?”

“You would be just as responsible as I would Cyril!”

“Unless I die and I didn't have the back-up I was supposed to.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but closed it instead. She couldn't think of a reply to that.

“Now, are you ready to go?”

“Not quite. Uh, Father...”

“Father Edward.” He nodded.

“Yes, Father Edward, may I speak with you a moment.”

“Of course.”

“I'll just be a minute Cyril. You can wait for me on the steps.”