As soon as I walk into the hotel, mom jumps up from the chair she's sitting in and hugs me tightly.
She sniffles. "My baby!" She holds me at arms length and looks me up and down. "Where were you? I was so worried."
I sigh. "Mom, can we go home early? I don't want to stay here any longer."
"Oh, sweetie, of course. Matter of fact, we were going to leave as soon as you showed up. Thank heavens you're okay."
I walk over to the chairs with mom and grab my backpack. Then, I follow her out to the car and we head to the airport. At the airport we schedule for the quickest plane to Memphis, Tennessee and wait. At 4:35 in the morning, we board the plane and three hours later, we arrive in Memphis. In the parking lot, on our way to the car, I break the silence.
"Mom?"
"Yes, sweetie?"
"I don't want to go to Romania next year. I can wait till I'm an adult."
"Oh, sweetie. Are you sure?" She opens the trunk to the car and we put our things in.
"Yes."
"Okay."
We get in the car and mom puts directions to Jackson in her phone. We head home.
*****
For the rest of the summer, I can't stop thinking about Dracula. Then, August comes around and I try to push it aside with school, but it doesn't help. I decide to contact him, then remember that I couldn't find my phone once I got home from New York.
Suddenly, one day, in September, on the 18th, I come home from school to a quiet house. I close the door and holler,
"Mom? Mom, you home?" I walk into the living room to find it empty with the TV off. "That's strange," I mutter. "Mom usually keeps the TV on all the time."
I look around and sense someone watching me. "Hello?" I holler, ignoring the feeling of being watched. "Mom?" I frantically look around. "Mom?" I can sense the panic in my voice. Suddenly, a strange, deep voice says,
"Hello, dearest. You don't seem to be doing okay."
I turn around just as a hand reaches for me. I run down the hallway, fear growing as my heart pounds against my chest. Adrenaline coursing through my veins. I reach the back door, when I hear a yell from the living room and then a thud that echoes down the hallway. I hear someone scream and realize it's me. I shut my mouth as a dark figure moves down the hallway. I breathe faster and pull on the back door. I realize it's locked. I grab a pole leaning against the wall and turn around, pulling it back like a baseball bat. I go to swing and someone stops me.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. It's fine. It's just me."
I gasp and drop the pole. "Dracula?" I ask in disbelief. "What on earth are you doing here? How did you even find me?"
"Your phone told me where you live." He hands something to me. "You left it. I was going to give it to you, but I didn't get the chance because you just left."
For some reason, I hug him. His only reply is a surprised, "Oh." Then, whenever I let go and back away, he says,
"What was that for?"
I shrug and rub my arms. "I don't know. I just,....." I sigh. "I missed you."
He raises his eyebrows. "You missed me?" He chuckles.
"What's so funny about that?"
He lifts up my chin and leans in. "Anything and everything, Agatha Zoe Van Helsing." He smiles. "Yet again, I think you've forgotten who I am."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I already know. You're a centuries old vampire that calls himself a warlord, thinks he's perfect, walks the earth like he owns it, and is an undead asshole. But a sexy one."
He just stares at me, shocked.
"And yet again, I think you forgot who I am. Also, I can stand here the rest of the day and all night, if you really want to try me. And another thing I didn't tell you, I was born in a convent in Holland. I was raised there until I was five or six because my father went missing and the convent burned down. Then, I later found out that the person who burned down the convent was after my parents and myself. My mother moved here, bringing me with and I knew automatically that I'd have to hide my identity with another one. Happy now?"
He pulls me close and wraps his arms around me. "Do you ever know when to stop talking? Agatha was the same way. And Zoe. And Andrew. I think it runs in the family."
"Did you just say Andrew?"
"Yes. Why?"
"What was his full name?"
"Andrew Robert Van Helsing."
"That's my father!"
"Is it really?"
I sigh and roll my eyes. "Yes. Do you know him or something?"
"Yes, I know him. I met him before and drank his blood. He stayed at my castle. The day he started to stay at my castle, he ate supper and went to the bedroom that Jonathan Harker stayed in at my castle and went to bed. The next morning, I waited downstairs for him and waited for an hour. Then, I went upstairs to check on him and found his room empty. He was no where in sight. His room was trashed and there was three drops of blood on the floor. They were fresh, too. I haven't seen him since."
I gasp. "Could you help me find him? Please? I don't care where we have to go and what we have to do, I just want to find him. I want to see him. I miss him so much. I didn't get much time spent with him because he was always back and forth to England. I remember one time when he came back to the convent, stayed thirty minutes, and had to leave again." I sigh. "I just want to hear his voice, see his face." I lean against Dracula as tears roll down my cheeks.
"Of course I will, Zoe."
"Do not call me that in public."
"Why not?"
"Well, first of all, if mom finds out that I told someone my true name, she'd go insane and we'd have to move again. That's why we moved here to Tennessee from Pennsylvania. Someone found out my real name and we had to move and change my name again so I couldn't be tracked down. I have to keep my name a secret because that person that's after me, mom, and dad is still alive. And that's where the second reason comes in. If someone finds out my true identity, I'd cause a really big issue for my family and we could all be separated. I really don't want that."
"Why would that certain person be after you or your parents?"
"It's not just my parents. My aunt and cousin are in trouble too. They only stay in Europe just in case my father shows up. Then, they'll pack as much as possible and come here with him." I stop, not believing that I'm trusting a man like him with this information. I sigh and continue. "To answer your question, that guy is after all of us because of one certain thing: my father and aunt are identical twins, but they aren't normal twins."
"How's that?"
I look up at him and say, "Their umbilical cords were connected when they were born. They had connected while they were still inside their mother. They wouldn't come out one after the other like normal twins. Therefore, the doctors had to do a c-section birth in order to get them out. And because they were so close when they were born, that makes me and my cousin so close that we're almost able to be sisters by blood. But, of course, the Van Helsing running through my blood is stronger than hers. And that man is basically after me mostly because I'm able to hide the fact that I'm a Van Helsing even though I look more like Agatha than anything. It's also said that I'm partly Agatha and Zoe back from the dead at the same time combined." I stop, unsure if I should continue. Dracula must sense my hesitation because he says,
"You can trust me. I don't do this much, but I promise you can trust me."
I sigh and rest my forehead on his chest. "That guy, I've met him before, but he didn't know I was the one he was after. He didn't know that I was the person he was looking for when he talked to me. He had said that he believes I'm the one who will be able to rid the world of you forever and put the world at peace. But I don't want to do that. I really don't."
"Why not? That runs in your bloodline too."
"Dracula, I don't care if it runs in my blood or not."
"Why?"
"Three little words that mean the world to me."
"What's that?"
"I love you."
He had started to say something, but now he snaps his mouth shut and looks at me in shock. I can tell he's speechless. Five minutes pass and he finally says,
"You love me?"
"Yes."
"How? Why?"
I scoff. "Dracula, you act like there's something wrong with that. I don't understand. You may not be human, but you're a person just as much as everyone else on this earth. People criticize you for the person you used to be, but they don't seem to realize that you've changed. I see that. I can tell that you're trying your best to change and take control of things you didn't have a single drop of control over in the beginning. And plus, I love you for who you are. I don't want you to change any more just to please the world. You used to be careless. You didn't care what the world thought of you then. What happened to that you?"
"I've changed more than I've wanted to. And plus, after I met you, and stayed around you for a little while, I started feeling something for you. It wasn't until you left that I realized that that feeling for you was love. And you do remind me a lot of Agatha. More than Zoe did. It's almost like you're her identical twin or something. But so many years after."
I smile weakly and look away, but he lifts my chin to look at him. He leans in and kisses me. I feel my heart skip a beat as his left hand goes under my shirt and strokes the bare skin of my back and his other hand runs through my hair. I feel him pull me even closer and I wrap my arms around his neck. He stops kissing me and gazes in my eyes.
"How about we go find your father?"
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