Prologue
After two thousand long, torturous empty years of languishing and being trapped in a state of motionlessness, the first breath of fresh air to Vlad Dracula was a blessing that only the gift of blood could surpass.
Bolts of pain shot through his undead body as every frozen muscle came alive, but it was worth it after being stuck that long in immobility.
The magic that had bound his body let loose, unbinding everything. Muscles, blood and organs that had been petrified for too long, frozen against their will, stretched for the first time in years.
The process was slow but after three agonizing hours, the Count was able to sit up in the coffin those faithful to him had graciously stored his body.
"M-m-my lord?" stammered the guard who had guarded his unaware body for five years.
Toby had never met the count personally, in fact no one in his generation had. Not even their great-great grandfathers.
What he knew were legends and none too pleasant for him to feel even slightly comfortable in the same room as a reputedly cruel, merciless and sadistic vampire that had not had a drop of blood in two thousand years.
While Toby was subordinate to the Count's right hand vampire who had appointed him five years back to guard the Count's body with the promise of eternal life, he also had a good sense of self preservation.
He knew without being told that standing within twenty feet of Dracula in that moment was a death wish stamped in his own blood. He had not expected the Count to wake up on his shift. Not after two thousand years.
Toby did not even have time to assess his escape options before his jugular was ripped out from his throat and his body drained of every single drop of blood in it, leaving it a pallid looking sack of flesh.
Dracula let the lifeless body fall to the ground carelessly and stepped over it, viewing the tomb his faithful servant Alexander must have laid him in.
And only one mission, one goal, one thought, one quest called to him as he surveyed his surroundings: to find her.
It was time.