"I can only assume that you have heard of the three Fates of Greek mythology," said Viktor, his face shutting down and he took on the mantle of the Van Helsing.
"Yeah. Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos," replied Mike, starting to wonder where this was all going.
"The Greeks divided the roll into three. The one that spun the thread, the one that determined the length of life, and finally, the one that cut the thread. We only have one name for the three, the Tesalor, the Weaver."
Mike gently placed his empty glass down on the table. "You believe that Nads is connected to the Fates?"
"Yes and no," said Viktor, signaling for Sasha to leave before he continued.
"There were six families that lived in Romania thousands of years ago. As with everything, there were both good and bad in each of the families, but the Gypsies were the best of all of us. Most believed that they were witches, but they were the ones that took in the homeless, that cured sickness and fed the starving."
"Spit it out Helsing," said Mike, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"There was one family in particular that called themselves the Weavers. We assumed that they were the Weavers because they weaved the cloth and made the clothes that outfitted royalty. It was thought that they were weak because of how much they helped everyone."
"You're stalling," pointed out Mike.
Viktor sighed, closed his eyes, and leaned his head back.
"You have to understand. The world back then was completely different than how it is now. If you were weak, if you couldn't defend yourself, you would be wiped out."
Mike leaned forward, his hands folded together in front of him like a prayer.
"No one knows which one of the other five families did it. No one came forward so we were all punished for a crime that only one of us committed," explained Viktor.
"What did they do?" asked Mike, forcing Viktor to tell the whole story.
"In the dead of night, one or more men entered the Gypsy camp. As they wandered around looking for treasure, they found the oldest daughter of the Tesalor family. I was told that what happened next was not pretty and that whatever was left of her the next morning caused nightmares for those who found her."
"Did she live?"
"No, she died that night. It is said that the head of the weaver family sewed her back together as best as they could, but all it did was give her an intact corpse."
"I assume that the Gypsies were one of the six original families?"
"Yes, and when they went to their Count demanding justice, the Count said that as long as no one came forward, no one could be held accountable. After all, each one of the six families was powerful in their own way."
"So, they were denied justice for their daughter," said Mike, his voice soft.
Viktor nodded his head and poured himself another glass, finishing it in one gulp.
"So, they were denied justice. But what we didn't know was that they didn't need the Count to gain justice for them, they were just willing to give our system a chance."
"No one confessed?" Asked Mike.
"Not a one. The Weavers waited one week, and on the seventh day, they went back to the Count," Viktor paused, as if he was reliving that moment.
"What did they do?"
"They said; 'because you did not grant us the justice we deserved, you are cursed to hunt down those from the six families that break the laws… for eternity'."
"The Count was a Van Helsing," said Mike, figuring out the first piece of the puzzle.
Viktor shook his head. "The Count was named Dalibor. To prevent the curse from hurting his son, he had his son adopted by another family and renamed Viktor Van Helsing."
"Are you telling me that you are that Viktor?"
Viktor nodded his head. "The Count that denied the family justice was my father. And now, everyone in my bloodline is cursed to hunt the monsters that break the Code set forth by the six Houses."
"Well, that explains you," said Mike, assuming that that was the end of the story.
Viktor faintly smiled. "Then they turned to the Vseslav family and said; 'since you love your wolves so much, you will become what you love. But you will be enslaved by the moon. Since our daughter was slaughtered on the night of the full moon, every full moon you will be subjected to the same thing that she experienced.' Now, every full moon, the Vseslavs will experience unimaginable pain as their body is ripped apart and transformed into a beast."
"What about the others?"
"The Weavers then said; 'the one that drank the blood of our daughter will be cursed to feed on nothing but blood for eternity, never to know a moment's peace'."
"Thus the vampires were born?" Asked Mike.
"Mmm," hummed Viktor. "We never knew that Vlad had a craving for blood back then until the first night that he was not able to consume food and killed one of his cousins to drink his blood."
"You said that there was a House of Monstru?" Mike pushed, wanting to know everything.
"Yes. They were the most innocent of the five families, but that still did not prevent them from being punished."
"What was their punishment?"
"'Because you didn't open your mouth and, by your very silence, agreed to be a puppet to the other families, you will remain a puppet, never having your own name again,'" said Viktor.
"What does that mean? Never have their own name?"
"They are referred to as nothing more than 'the creature'. Although it is forgotten now, they were originally not called Frankenstein, but Frankenstein's monster. Their name has been lost to the ages and even their House is just called Monstru. Monster."
"That explains four out of the five families, what about the last one?" asked Mike.
"They are the Skinwalkers, people that can turn into any human or animal that they wish."
"That doesn't seem to be too bad," said Mike, not knowing what the curse would be in that sense.
Viktor hummed non-committedly. "'Those that sneak through our forests, killing indiscriminately, thinking that we don't know, you are cursed to never having your own shape and getting lost in a blood rage. You will never know peace, and because you won't know peace, neither will anyone else.'"
"Blood rage?"
"I believe you know them as Berserkers," said Van Helsing, finally telling the truth about the five families.
"So the Gypsies are able to curse people," concluded Mike, looking towards the room Nads was staying in. He wondered where she fit into all of this.
"It's more than just a curse that death will free us from. They are the Weavers of Destiny, the Fates. They had decided that no matter how many years, decades, or millennia pass, we will never know peace."
"You can't die?" Asked Mike trying to clarify everything.
"We can die. However, we will be reborn with all of our memories intact and when we reached the age of our first death, the curse will strike us all over again until the next time we are killed."
"How does Nads fall into this?"
"She is the last of the Tesalor family. She is the last of the Weavers and carries their Pure-blood in her veins."
"And that means?"
"That we, and every member of our bloodlines, will continue to live in a circle of life and death until the day she dies. She is both our torturer and our savior. And there are many people that will want her dead when they find out who she is."