What We Do In The Shadows: "Jen..."
Summary: There are unexpected consequences when Laszlo seeks a new human familiar...
Part XL...
The old residence...Living (more or less, at least currently a balance of the Living and Undead present) room conference...
"So lets be methodical about this..." Laszlo, seated on sofa next to Nadja, nervously holding his hand, urges. "Jen?"
"Ready, Master." Seated, she raises hand above laptop keys...
"Van Helsing has manifested twice to our knowledge...Once on the new residence's grounds, once here...Right here." Laszlo sighs.
"With stake, however illusionary..." Nadja, shuddering a bit.
"And he seems concerned about our lady friends..." Nandor points out.
"Indeed. I think we have to assume we are his 'foul minions of Hell'." Laszlo agrees.
"That's so wrong..." Jen sighs. "Never, Master!" Erika insists.
"No way..." Jacqueline in her chair, feebly...Taking another swig of water.
"The guy is crazy." Ginny shakes head. "Why can't he leave us alone? We've never been more content than in your service, my Lady...My Lords."
"Well, I hope we are good employers..." Laszlo nods.
"None better...!" Erika, stridently. "This man must leave us be!"
"But there is the question of these mysterious appearances in mirrors..." Nandor notes. "Laszlo, you have seen yourself in the camera crew's mirror?"
"And our friends with me...Right, gents?" Laszlo eyes the camera.
"And a few of us saw Erika, pleading..." Nandor ponders.
"It could not have been me...Yet...It did seem like me." Erika shaking head. "I swear Master..." pleadingly to Laszlo... "I never..." He putting up hand kindly.
"Of course, dear...I have absolute faith in you."
"If Mr. Devious is trying something...An illusion to fool us?" Ginny suggests.
"Simon is cute with his tricks and devious but not this good." Nadja shakes head. "Even if he knew which of your firm's people we'd taken or just assumed you were all in our grip, how could he pull off such an elaborate deception?"
"I agree with Mistress Nadja..." Jen nods. "I doubt he's involved here."
"Master?" she eyes Laszlo nervously. "Is it at possible...? Not wishing to hurt your feelings or suggest anything terrible...But could something in enthralled people...Cry out, like Erika's image did?"
"No!" Erika, angrily. "I love the Master as much as you, Jennifer! How dare you suggest I might...Some part of me might...Seek escape!"
"It could be me too, Erika." Jen notes. "The Professor came to me first, after all."
"But Laszlo...?" Nadja, anxiously. "If you were also involved in these images..." slight trembling...
"Dear, no...No..." he pats her hand. "I've no regrets whatsoever...None."
"You can't speak for your soul, Laszlo..." she sighs. "Somewhere, buried within..."
"Nadja, my dearest...Never..."
"When I took you, you were horrified...You tried to escape me for a moment, soon as you turned and were released from thrall. Said I'd condemned you..."
"Just a bit of foolishness...All vampires have that moment...And coming out of thrall, seeing poor Milly dead, at my hands..." he shrugs.
"Shock...Very common. I was a bit troubled myself on rising." Nandor nods.
"Soon as I realized the gift you'd bestowed upon me..." Laszlo insists, Nadja shaking head nervously.
"Oh, put your mind at ease, dearest lady wife." He sighs as she rises, pacing in her outfit...Her new modern suit purchased by Jen, worn at her claim to keep Jackie unsuspicious before her enthrallment. Laszlo, likewise in his new suit, teasing her that she'd refused to wear anything else since putting it on...Though it was now becoming serious after a week of constant wear.
"Something in you...And at least a few of our girls...Is calling out to Van Helsing." She insists, eyeing him.
"Oh, Mistress Nadja..." Erika, weeping suddenly. "You can't believe I would ever..."
"No, no...Dear..." Nadja pauses before Erika, now standing before her chair, sobbing... "It's not your fault...It's just some residue of your spirit struggling against your Fate, seeking escape."
"What can I do? Could the Master take more of my blood? Give me more of his? Perhaps I didn't receive enough from you, mine herr?" Erika, anxiously to Laszlo.
"Calm yourself, Erika. It's probably nothing to do with you specifically..." Nadja sighs. "And we will probably see more of the same..."
"Perhaps you should turn me now..." Erika suggests. "I don't want to escape..."
"No, I doubt that would help, given Laszlo." Nandor notes. "Lets calm ourselves and continue as Laszlo suggests, methodically, as in any military campaign."
"Right." Laszlo nods. "But the lady wife is probably right. We will probably find more of us appearing in these manifestations in mirrors and similar things."
"Could we just smash all the mirrors?" Ginny suggests.
"Even a window can reflect..." Colin points out. "Are we gonna smash every reflective surface and then find out it's done no good?"
"Colin Robinson makes a good point. We need more information." Nandor nods, rising now. He also in his modern suit.
"If this is communication from the Ether, perhaps I am the One to probe here. My skills in penetrating the Ether are rather good." He notes.
"How would you even begin to do that?" Nadja frowns.
"Someone cleverly mentioned a séance..." Nandor points out, smile at Erika who beams.
...
JFK Airport...
Guillermo, shaking head as he walks the hallway with the infamous though certainly charming Dracula...
Susan anxiously glancing back at them from her gate seat...
"I just don't understand...Why is Professor Van Helsing appearing to me now? He's never tried to reach me before...When I took up as Master Nandor's familiar...When I first...Helped...With a victim...Why now?"
"I'm sorry, my boy. But you do accept that you are a Van Helsing, a descendant of his illustrious line..." Dracula, sympathetic tone.
"I guess...But...This is so wacky. You're Dracula and my great-plus granduncle's good friend...? Trying to tell me I have to kill my friends?" anxious hand to forehead.
"My boy, my boy..." Dracula sighs, shaking head. "No one is asking you to kill anyone. Though, technically...Your friends are dead. And horrified at what they have become...As I was, once I came to see what I had done to my dear wife and to others and restored my soul."
Guillermo eyeing him...
"And it was your dear ancestor, my beloved friend, who helped to make that possible. And now I have a great debt to pay, to him and to all his line. But I am not here to add to your problems, my poor boy. Only to help you see your way clear..."
"How...?" Guillermo sighs. "And how do you know Auntie? Was she a Hunter too?"
"Oh, yes..." smile. "And in her day, a great one." Dracula nods.
Susan now pacing by her chair...
"We shouldn't let your poor friend get too nervous..." Dracula glances back to her. "I see she cares for you very much."
"She's enthralled...She can't help herself." Guillermo shrugs.
"Yes, I sensed it the morning I met her."
"Yeah...And now she thinks she loves me..." Guillermo, shaking head. "Though of course, if she finds out who I am...Who my ancestor is..."
"She cares for you, boy. That can't be fully forced by enthrallment..." Dracula pats him. "But you do have a duty to her and the others...And that is why..."
"That's why Great plus Uncle's come..." Guillermo sighs. "To make me do my Duty?"
"These poor women...And your friends...Are trapped in horror. Someone must help them." Dracula eyes him.
"But me? Doctor, I'm no hero. I helped my friends kill people, lets face it. I'm a monster as much as they are...Maybe more so, they can't help what they are."
"That's so." Dracula, calmly. "As I was a voluntary convert to my dark Fate. But no one, boy...Not even me, or you, is irredeemable."
Guillermo stares at the old man's stern but sympathetic face... "You're here to help me...Redeem myself?"
"To help you find your way...I can't do more, I'm afraid. Each man or woman's soul is their own to save, Guillermo. As was mine, so is yours. But God...And yes, now I can say His name...Is merciful and allows us a chance to escape our Fate. And to save others trapped by us and by the Darkness."
"You are not the Dracula they talk about..." Guillermo eyes him.
"I was...But mercy came to me. My wife interceded for me and our love saved me. And the friendship of a good man."
"Great plus Uncle..."
"Oh, yes. A great and good man. Who still labors to do all he can, from his resting place in the Other World. And because he is my friend I am here to help you to have your chance at redemption."
"Sue said she couldn't sense you as a vampire...I'm a little bit able to get vibes. But there are none from you. Are you still?"
"In a way, yes...I remain relatively Immortal. My Duty requires that I continue on Earth to do what I can for the suffering. But not the traditional vampire...I'm free of much of that curse and I can exist during the day, which I assure you makes a doctor's life much easier. Though my powers are weakest then and I did not wish to risk an encounter with your friends at my weakest. Nandor, my old frienemy is still a very powerful vampire, even if he has gradually recovered fragments of his humanity, as have all your friends."
"He's still a bit pissed at you."
"He should be..." grin. "We had some rough times in the 15th century. A few good ones, too. No one can carouse like my old nemesis, Nandor."
...
From her hiding place, down the hall, a janitor's closet, Phyllis carefully peered at Guillermo and Dracula as they walked.
Who is that guy? She wondered.
And why are he and Gui thick as thieves? Is he a family friend, he does look a little foreign...
Jesus, Sue...She looked down hall to where Susan was anxiously peering after Guillermo but keeping close to her seat.
If you really love Gui, you oughta be pushin' in and finding out what's up.
Though that'll have to wait far as I'm concerned...Gui would order me home or even ask Master Nandor or the Mistress to command me if he sees me following him.
But, since I have no orders not to go to Mexico...She smiled, patting her boarding pass for a different airline...
Someone has to look out for Gui...And Sue is just not up to the challenge, clearly.