Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell ~ 'Destined Lovers' Book 7

Chapter 7 - The History of The Van Helsing's

Chapter 7 - The History of The Van Helsing's

"Of all the moments he could have picked, Van Helsing had to show up now?! The man is as insufferable as his ancestor...with a sense of justice just as warped as well."

"I thought Van Helsing was just the name of a character in a book..." Alana frowned as she sat, later that evening, with Ville in his parents private living area on lounges before a great fire.

"The character of Van Helsing in Bram Stoker's Dracula is pure fiction... he only used a name." Ville's father said sternly, leaning with one arm resting against the mantelpiece as he stared into the flames. "He also changed the setting to Transylvania and London... instead of Austria."

"Austria?" Alana frowned.

"Yes, for many centuries the royal families ruled from Europe's centre." Ville's father nodded, but his frown deepened. "But, for the past few centuries, we have ruled from a distance...from safe havens like this one. Most threats wouldn't think to look for us here..."

Alana admitted to herself that it made sense, but a small thought began to make her teeth worry her bottom lip. "Why did he call Ville 'Prince Vlad'? And... why did he say he got the name from you?"

"My father has been around a very long time, Alana... and, perhaps, was not always as civil as you have come to know him to be." Ville replied uncomfortably.

"My Vladimir has been known by many names. Son of the Devil, Dragon, Solomon...but none so ominous as the one you would remember him for... Vlad Tepes."

"You... you were Vlad the Impaler? Vlad Dracul?" Alana let out a shaky breath. "You were Count Dracula?"

"I was never a Count." The King scoffed, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"Well, clearly." Alana deadpanned back at him. "But, if the story was recounted to Stoker by Van Helsing... how is it so much of it was wrong?"

"It never ceases to amuse me how much mortals cling to their stories like they were fact... often forgetting that we orchestrated their making." He glanced back at Alana. "There are some among us who can alter memory...like my wife."

"You're gifted?" Alana quirked a brow as she turned her head towards the Queen. "Like the vampires in those books you gave me to read?"

"Yes... I thought that it would be easier if you learnt as if from a textbook about our kind...seeing as humans are all taught that way nowadays." She pursed her lips slightly, as if disapproving of the current education system employed, since the industrial era, all over the world. "We can change dates, places, times...but not events. At least...not entirely." The Queen sighed sadly. "And you wouldn't listen when I said that book would be our undoing."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, no one's undoing anybody." Alana stood, now cross. "No one's touching my family!"

Ville looked up, surprised. "Family..."

Alana smiled. "I made a decision, and I'm sticking by it. I love you. I loved you from the moment I saw you...and that frightened me. But, no more. I love you and won't let anyone hurt you." She looked towards the King and Queen determinedly. "How can I help?"

"You can't. I know you want to, but you can't." The King answered as gently as his gruff, accented voice would allow. "You're mortal still... and Hunters have always been something more than human. They needed to be to stand up against one of us."

"And the Van Helsing's have always been an elite breed of Hunter... ever since the thirteenth century their name has been a curse to any vampire who hears it."