“Dracula? You’re serious?” asks Alex, laughing.
“What do you know of Dracula?” Carpenter asks, his tone firm and even.
“Carp... you can’t be serious. Dracula? A vampire?”
“Deadly serious,” the older man states plainly. “Bram Stoker’s novel was based on truth. Not everything is accurate, though, but Dracula did exist.” Carpenter continues, “Dracula’s tale, however, starts long before the novel. Centuries before, in fact. And it intersects with your ancestry.”
“My ancestry?” Alex asks.
“Yes. You wanted answers. Now listen. It was centuries ago with a count. No one is certain the Count’s name, but he was bitten by nosferatu and was forced to drink from the creature. You see, that’s how it is passed on. A mixing of the blood. The movies and books get it wrong. A simple bite doesn’t do it. No. One must become one with the demonic creature.
“Well, once the change happened, the Count renamed himself Dracula,” Carpenter continues. “He was a young vampire, but had ambitions of greatness. And he was sadistic with his work. He wanted control of his victims. That is where your family tree came in. Dracula set his site on a young woman. Adriana. But she was not a normal woman. She was an outcast. Her village thought she was cursed, due to certain abilities she possessed from birth. She was strong. Super humanly strong. She was fast and had quick reflexes.
“The villagers may have thought Adriana was cursed... a freak, but Dracula thought she’d make the perfect bride. Dracula, however, did not wish to simply turn her. No, he wanted her to give herself to him willingly, before the turn. Dracula sought to accomplish this by ridding Adriana of her Earthly attachments. By killing her family. All of them.
“Adriana found herself alone. Her family, the only ones on Earth who she could turn to, were dead. Without her family she was driven from the village. That was when Dracula made is move. He first presented himself as a kind stranger, taking Adriana into his old castle. While taken in by Dracula, Adriana was planning to set out and find her family’s murderer. Dracula couldn’t have that. He tried to keep Adriana but she was determined and soon learned the truth.
“Upon discovering Dracula’s secret, she sought to kill the creature of the night. The battle raged on, long into the night, neither gaining much of an upperhand. Just before sunset, Dracula managed to escape. After that confrontation, Adriana knew what she was dealing with, but not how to kill the creatures. She studied and trained, using her powers to master several different forms of combat and studying to learn about the creatures that walk in the shadows.
“Adriana went out into the world, hunting Dracula, and killing any undead creature that she came across. She became a mythic legend. Rumors spread throughout the old world of a warrior which stalked the creatures of the night. A Huntress.
“Over the time, Adriana had a child, but the fight continued. Eventually it killed her. The legacy, however, continued on. Adriana passed her powers onto her child, who passed her powers onto her child and so on. I believe it was Elizabeth which first thought to hide her identity. The uniform was dark black, to blind into the night. On her chest was a dark purple cross.” James then pulls out the uniform. “This is your destiny,” he says, handing Alex the costume.
“Over the centuries, due to the Huntress’s proximity to vampires, the powers which your family possessed evolved. You have all of the origin’s powers, as well as a sixth sense. A slight... buzzing in your head when one is around. Almost like a headache.”
“A... headache? MATT!!” and Alex shoves the Huntress costume in her bag.
“What?”
“Matt! I got to go!” Alex says, rushing from the door.
Carpenter hurries to the doorway and yells, “Alexis! Wait! You can’t!”
Alex doesn’t stop. She can’t stop. She may already be too late.
On the rooftop of Carpenter’s shack, the man in his long black trench coat sits.
“Ahhhh... so there is another? Always good to know who the players are.”
Continued...
