Alexander Lucard paced about in his office; he glanced at his watch. Ten minutes had passed. She’s late, he thought as he continued to pace. He had made sure her office was all ready at least five times that morning and she was late for her first day.

"Mr. Lucard?" called his secretary on the speaker. "Miss Drake is here to see you."

"Thank you, show her in." He walked over to the window and looked out. Finally, she’s here.

"Yes, I’m here," he heard her voice behind her. "Please, Alexander, have faith. There was traffic."

"Cassandra," he said looking at her. She was only a couple of inches shorter than he. Her blond hair went past her shoulders and her eyes matched his perfectly. "Don’t call me Alexander."

"Sorry, father. I wasn’t sure if your walls had ears."

"My office? This room is better than soundproof. Did you like your new apartment? How about the rental car?"

"That apartment is smaller than any dorm I lived in at prep school or college. And that rental car...I miss my convertible Mercedes."

"I know, but I’m keeping them all at the castle along with your room. Remember the plan, Miss Drake."

"Yes, I know. Can I at least see my new office up here? I can tell you’ve been waiting to show it to me."

"Yes, I’ve had it hidden behind this wall for so long," he said as he pressed the city of Paris light on his global map. The wall opened up to reveal a second office. He walked in and smiled at it; the desk resembled his, with the same black leather chair. On it were two computers (one a custom-made black iMac; the other a sleek black imaging workstation—per Cassandra’s request), a printer, scanner, digital camera, and a few odds and ends. She had her own TV, VCR, filing cabinet, and a phone headset.

Cassandra walked around, inspecting everything. "It’s perfect, I love it." She walked over to inspect the computers, particularly the imaging workstation. "Yes, this is everything I need."

"Are you going to finally tell me what this project is that you’ve been working on? Surely you didn’t just request that expensive imaging machinery for play," he asked looking at her.

"But father, I want it to be a surprise. Trust me, you will love it. My computer program will change the image of LI for years to come."

"LI?"

"Lucard Industries."

"Ahh, children. I can’t wait to see this new program. How much longer?"

"Not much; before the end of the week, I’m hoping. Just need to work on a few odds and ends. Sadly, I can’t work up here all day; I have to make my father proud and work in the mailroom."

"Yes, let’s discuss the plan."

"Very well. I’m Cassandra Drake, mailroom employee of LI. I live in a shack of an apartment, drive a microscopic Toyota, and I’m a sorry excuse for a vampire hunter. Did I forget anything?"

"Your appearance. I can’t have you meeting the Helsing clan like this."

"Being the daughter of a vampire and a mystical gypsy does have its advantages," she said as she turned away from him. When she turned back around, Lucard took a step back.

Cassandra had put on eyeglasses, her eyes were now jade green, and her hair had changed from blond to black. There were also a few minor structural differences in her face. "Clark Kent, eat your heart out!" she said with a laugh.

"Bravo," he said as he applauded.

"Yes, this look will work for the other me. Still, I can’t wait to be back in the castle."

"You will, my darling. You have to stop by and visit your old man."

"Yes, that I will. Anyhow, I’ve been told about Gustav Helsing all my life, but you haven’t told me much about these children."

"Ah yes. Max, Chris, and Sophie: the new thorns in my side. I think you will get along great with Sophie. You two have much in common, but she plays the viola, while you perfected the violin years ago...among other instruments."

"Max and Chris...those are the brothers, right?"

"Yes, they are Eileen Townsend’s sons. Have a seat in your chair and I’ll explain," he said as he held her chair out for her.

Max Townsend whistled as he walked in front of his brother Chris, and his girlfriend Sophie Metternich. He didn’t care to watch the couple hold hands and act all loving. He thought he could hear a fight up ahead, and started to move a little faster. A scream came out of the darkness as he ran to the two figures that suddenly appeared on the sidewalk in front of him; a woman was being attacked by a vampire. Max reached into his pocket and pulled out the small wooden cross as he ran towards them. The vampire saw him and hissed at the sight of the cross.

"Max, hold on!" he heard Sophie say from behind him. She had pulled a wooden stake from her purse.

Max circled around the vampire so that its back would be to Sophie and she could strike him from behind; the vampire appeared to be very stupid, falling for the trick in a matter of seconds, and the remains of the vampire smoked on the ground. "We got him!" said Max.

"Alright, Soph!" said Chris as he gave her a high five.

Max walked over to the woman who had been attacked. She looked up at him shaking her head. Her glasses were crooked on her face and her black hair was tousled, but otherwise she looked fine. "Are you okay?" asked Max.

"Yes, I think so. Is he gone? That guy?"

"You mean that vampire who was trying to attack you?" asked Max.

"Yeah...uh yeah, vampire."

"My friend Sophie staked him," said Max as he held out his hand to help her up.

"He’s dead?"

"For sure."

"I’m a sorry vampire hunter," she said as she stood up and wiped the dirt off her jeans. "I practically get bitten and three kids save me."

"You’re a vampire hunter?" asked Chris.

"Yeah, brand new at the job. Can’t you tell? I didn’t even have a cross or stake on me. But he came after me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting to find any vampires in this town; I only ran into one outside of Paris once."

"Oh, let me introduce myself," said Max. "I’m Max Townsend, fearless vampire hunter. That’s Chris, my brother, and his girlfriend—also our housemate—Sophie. We live right here in that house with our great uncle," he said pointing to the house.

"Pleased to meet you all. My name is Cassie Drake. So where did you kids learn to be such good vampire hunters?"

"Uncle Gustav Helsing."

"Helsing? You’re joking, right?"

"Nope," said Max proudly. "You want to come inside and get something to drink?"

"Okay."

Max led them all to the house and opened the door. "Uncle Gustav?" he called out.

"Children, is that you?" said Gustav from the upstairs.

Cassandra looked at the large cross hanging on the wall. "Wow, nice cross."

"Yeah, that baby would have killed your vampire friend in a few seconds. It’s very powerful."

"Not the Cross of the Magyars?"

"Yeah, you’ve heard of it?" asked Sophie.

"Yes, I came across it in some books I read up on about vampires. I’m beginning to wonder how many of the legends are true."

Gustav walked down the stairs and stopped when he saw Cassandra. "Hello," he said as he looked at her.

Max didn’t take much notice to Gustav’s puzzled face nor the fact that his uncle almost tripped on the last stair while looking at the woman, whose eyes flashed crystal blue for a split-second. "Uncle Gustav, this is Cassie Drake. She was attacked by a vampire just down the road from here."

"Are you children okay?" he asked looking at all of them.

"Fine," said Chris. "Sophie staked him."

"That’s good to hear, but you children should be more careful. You have improved over the year, but you’re still children."

"Yes, we know. Have a seat, Cassie," said Max as he showed her into the living room. "I’ll get you a drink. Soda okay?"

"Yea, that’d be great. Thanks."

Max walked into the kitchen and was followed by Gustav. "Max, what did I tell you about inviting strangers into the house?" he said.

"I know, but she appears harmless. She would have been killed—or even worse—had we not gotten there just when we did."

"I’m proud of you all, but do you really know this girl?"

"Well she touched my cross outside, so she can’t be a vampire or even a zombie."

Max smiled at his uncle. "Give her a chance?"

"Okay."

"Like I said, I’m a poor vampire hunter," said Cassandra to Sophie as Max walked back into the room.

"Max, Cassie tells us her mother was killed by a vampire," said Sophie, "and she’s been wanting to find the one who did it."

"I don’t know anything about him. I was a baby, but the midwife who was taking care of my mother and I says that he had a coldness to him unlike any other vampires she’d ever seen. He was going to come after us, but she was a gypsy and knew how to fight back, so she scared him off; she hid out with me for months until my father came searching for me. He wasn’t married to my mother, but he had heard of her having a child and came to take me away. The midwife ran into me years later at a boarding school where she had become a nurse. She told me about my mother and gave me a necklace that had been hers. At first I thought that the idea of vampires was absurd. But, being part gypsy, she showed me a place where one lived in France. She killed him before my eyes.

I was in shock. She gave me books and some vampire hunting things, which I hid in a trunk. If my father had ever found them, I can’t even imagine what he’d do."

"What happened to this nurse?" asked Gustav.

"She passed away before I went into college. I was to take over her job hunting vampires; I’m sorry to say that she would not be proud of me, but I do try. I keep it from my father...that’s not hard to do though."

"Who is your father?" asked Max.

"Some wealthy stuck-up bastard...I hardly know him. I was raised in schools and by servants. And now, he won’t even let me work under his company. I had to get a job here in this town at the very bottom of the ladder.

But anyway, if you guys are the great Helsing family, is there a Dracula?’

"Oh you bet!" said Max.

"Max!" said Gustav.

"I actually meant that as a joke," said Cassandra with a chuckle.

"So where do you work?" asked Chris.

"Lucard Industries."

Max, Chris, and Sophie all looked shocked; Gustav shook his head. Max spoke up, "Excuse me?"

"LI, what I call it. Why are you all looking at me funny?"

"We know of some vampires who work for the company. It’s not a safe place to work," said Gustav.

"Vampires? At LI? I know some of them are real stiffs, but vampires? You wouldn’t happen to know any names, would you?"

Max made a coughing noise, "Lucard," he said.

Cassandra started to laugh. "Mr. Lucard? Mr. Alexander Lucard?" She began to laugh even harder. "Oh, come on," she said as she kept laughing.

"Yes," said Gustav. "You wanted to know about Dracula, well you found him. He’s the Dracula my family has been hunting."

Cassandra only continued to laugh and wiped away the tears in her eyes. "Lucard is Dracula?"

Max pulled out a piece of paper and wrote "dracuL .A" on it and handed it to Cassandra. "Look at this and read it backwards," he said.

"Dracula...A. Lucard." Cassandra stopped laughing. "Oh my...you guys weren’t kidding. Wasn’t very big on hiding his name, was he? But how do you know for sure?"

"Trust me," said Max, "we know."

"Well it’s not something I’ve heard around LI, that’s for sure. I’ve never met him. Couldn’t tell you what he looked like if he walked up to me and shook my hand."

"What exactly do you do there?" asked Chris.

"I told you, I work at the bottom of the ladder, hell in the basement."

"The mail room," said Gustav.

"You got it, the mail room. The only people I know are the few guys and girls who are stuck down there with me. Anyone else, any executives, are just names on memos and faxes. I copy, mail, shred, all types of memos and documents and crap. Never really even read them, especially since we could get in trouble for it...but sometimes, on particularly boring days, we do."

"Miss Drake, you could be a very useful vampire hunter," said Gustav.

"Really? Help you guys? I’d be glad to...after all, you did save my life."

"I know it’s going to be a little dangerous, but if you could get me some of those memos and documents, it could help us out," said Gustav.

"And here I thought my job was going to get me nowhere except to show my father that I could work for a living."

"Lucard doesn’t know you exist, right?" said Max.

"You betcha. Lucard doesn’t exactly come down to the mail room and say hello to everyone. I see his signature on my paycheck and that’s it."

"Then welcome aboard the Helsing clan," said Chris.

"Thank you...and speaking of work, I have an early day. I need my sleep."

"I understand," said Gustav.

"Let me walk you back to your car," said Max as he stood up.

"Sure."

Gustav Helsing wrote in his journal about Cassie Drake. Although he hoped that she was sincere about working with him against Lucard, he had to wonder. After all, she did work for Lucard, and it could be a setup...and there was something about her eyes that haunted him. I feel as if they saw into me, and I know I’ve seen that look before," he thought as he wrote it in his book. But when and where do I remember this?

Gustav closed the book and placed it and the pen inside a drawer. He turned the light off and fell sound asleep; it didn’t take long for him to dream...he was walking towards a black car parked in front of a toy store.

The Mercedes back seat window was rolled down slightly and he could hear a child’s laughter from inside. He began to walk closer to the car, thinking he might know whom it belonged to; as he approached, he could hear the child singing a song.

In the night, when the seas are rolling in,
In the night, when the stars are shining clear,"

Gustav woke and looked around the room. He had only been asleep for a few minutes, but something about the dream puzzled him. He had wondered if he had dreamt the same thing before. Or is it a memory?, he thought.