It was not like her father to allow himself to be followed by anyone, female or not. They must be together. She must be a great Vampire Killer to accompany him…unless she was important to him. Resentment rose up in her. Of another taking the place of her mother in Alucard’s heart. If this woman was Father’s lover than she would…what? What could she, Tara, do? Alucard was much more powerful than she. He would not appreciate his … lover … harmed. Tara ground her teethe together.

Henry suddenly stopped as they approached the gates to the maze garden. He and Reinhardt exchanged a covert glance and nodded. Those two were up to something, Tara thought to herself, but what? They did not trust her and they were right to do so. They knew her not, and her recent actions have not assisted her cause in winning the two over. Not that she wanted to, of course.

She approached the gates and tried to open them. They were locked.

"Locked?" Henry asked.

She gave him a go to hell look. She then turned towards the gates, grasped the metal handles, and pulled with all her dhampire strength. The doors ripped from their rusted hinges.

Tara then turned to look at Henry and sneered, "Not any more!"

Then her delicately pointed ears twitched. There was an unfamiliar sound bearing towards them from the north. It sounded similar to rusted metal gears grinding against one another. She turned towards the sound. Through the thick, unnatural fog she could see the outline of an enormous figure carrying something over its head. She raised her bow, notched an arrow and aimed at the approaching figure. And cursed in every language she knew when she saw the mechanical hedge trimmer carrying Frankenstein monster heading for them. She then aimed for a headshot and fired a blessed arrow.

The arrow struck the monster right between its mismatched eyes. It did not slow. Still cursing, she brought forth a vial of Holy Water from a bag at her waist and hurled it at the reanimated creature’s head. The vial broke, splashing the sacred water all over the creature. Tara could have sworn it screamed. It still came forward. Tara drew her sword. It was an estimated 5 meters away. Tara screamed the high, inhuman war cry of the vampire and attacked. The creature slashed at Tara with its hedge clipper arm. She brought her sacred blade down upon the stitched flesh above the device. The blade went through the flesh in a manner akin to a hot knife through butter. The severed device slammed down upon the ground with a thud. And the creature then smacked Tara. She was tossed back into the arms of Reinhardt and Henry.

She used their abdomens as a springboard, launching herself back at the creature. Her blade flashed in the diminishing sunlight as it sunk into the monster’s shoulder. It once again slapped at her with it’s remaining arm. Tara nimbly avoided the blow. She placed her feet at the creature’s armpits and pulled her blade from it. As the blade came loose, Tara agilely flipped backwards, away from the reanimated monster. She landed at its feet. Tara drew back her blade and sliced at the creature’s ankles. Once again, the creature’s flesh was no match for the sacred blade. It fell on to its side, still attempting to fight Tara. She raised her blade, ready to slice of the monster’s head. She heard Henry shout something at her as a rock hard body hurled itself at her. She once more back flipped, this time leaving shades of herself in her wake in order to confuse this new enemy. It apparently worked. She could hear confused whining in the location she had just vacated. Tara landed, turned, and brought her bow up, arrow notched in a single fluid motion.

Before her was an animated stone dog. It trotted over to the gardener-monster, whining. The gardener-monster then attempted to stand on its ankle stubs. The gardener-monster fell forward to its knees. Tara brought up her bow and aimed directly to where the thing’s heart should be located. The arrow merely protruded out of the gardener-monster’s chest. She cursed anew. Then tossed a vial of Holy Water at the stone dog. Then, Tara leapt towards the gardener-monster, sword drawn back to deliver the final blow. Only then did the creature sense its immanent demise. It tried to block her blow, but her dhampire strength and the blade’s razor-sharp edge allowed her to slice through the arm and neck of the gardener-monster.

Its head and limb fell to the ground with a faint thud. Just then the Holy Water holding the stone dog at bay fully evaporated. The stone dog leapt at Tara’s throat. There was an explosion. The stone dog’s head blew up. As she was pelted with stone debris Tara recognized the sound. The explosion was a shotgun firing. Tara turned in the direction of the sound. There stood a young woman about Tara’s age (around 18) and height, with long brown her tied back in a tail, with almost unnatural pale lavender eyes. Her outfit was, in Tara’s opinion, outstanding! It consisted of a blue violet shirt with a single sleeve on her right arm, deep brown pants with a matching vest, black leather boots, belt, and gun holster, on her left forearm was a metal bracer with a deep blue violet stone embedded in it. Strapped on her back was an ancient sword with a matching deep blue violet stone embedded in its hilt.

"Carmen!" Shouted the sepulchral voice of a dhampire. A dhampire named Alucard.

"Father…?" Tara whispered.

As she expected, her father came round a corner. And stopped in his tracks at her barely whispered word. He was just as she pictured. He was inches taller than Reinhardt, though leaner. He wore the splendor of Victorian finery from centuries past, composed of black knee-high boots, lavish black cape, large black leather gloves, an over tunic of black and silver silk, an overflow of white ruffles came from an undershirt.

She could sense another familiar presence near by. It was…her mother? Sure enough, her enhanced sense of hearing detected the faintest flapping of wings. ~Mother does not like to show her wings…unless it was an emergency~ Tara thought with worry. Tara watched as Alucard stiffened and turned to face the sound. Jade Draco, came into view, bat-like wings spread to their fullest width.

Alucard hissed "Succubus" and launched a trio volley of fireballs at Jade.

Tara’s heart nearly stopped as she witnessed the near destruction of her mother. Tara observed Jade agilely avoid the volley. Alucard was drawing his sword. As were Henry, Reinhardt, and the unknown woman. Tara snarled and drew her ancient sword. She then attacked Alucard. Startled, the group of allies watched as Alucard and Tara went at it. As Jade drew closer, she witnessed her former lover and daughter battling one another. Jade gave an inhumanly high battle scream and attacked Alucard.

"Get away from my daughter!" Jade screamed.

"Get away from my mother!" Tara screamed.

Alucard was thrown back as Jade’s lithe body slammed into his with a surprising force. Alucard grunted and smacked at Jade. Jade merely caught his wrist and threw Alucard into a near by hedge.

"That will be enough, Alucard!" Jade said in her best mother-knows-best tone, "I came here to fight your father, not you!"

"Alucard?!" Henry and Reinhardt exclaimed as one.

"Yes, Alucard," Alucard sneered as he pulled himself from the hedge. "And why would a Succubus wish to destroy her master?"

"Because I am no Man or Vampire’s slave!" Jade snarled. "And I’m half Succubus, remember, Alucard?"

Alucard frowned as memories came to him of him and Jade…together.

"Yes, I remember…" Alucard grumbled.

"Good. Now apologize to your father for attacking him, Tara." Jade ordered, watching with a slight smirk as Alucard became even more so pale than was normal for him.

"We have a…child…." Alucard stuttered.

"I am no child! But by blood you are my father, Alucard." Tara snarled.

"This is all very interesting…but we have a vampire to destroy, remember?" Stated the unknown ‘Carmen’.

"And you would be?" Henry asked her.

"Carmen Stuart, of the Belmont Clan." She stated, and then asked "And who would ya’ll be?"

"Henry Oldrey, knight of the Church."

"Reinhardt Schneider, also of the Belmont Clan."

"Jade Draco, of the bloodline Draco."

"Tara Draco, of the bloodlines Draco and Tepes."

"You know who I am," Alucard snapped at Carmen.

"To my misfortune, yeah I do." Carmen sighed.

"And your English is deplorable!" Alucard sighed.

"You got a problem with the way I talk, Al?" Carmen sneered.

"For the last time, my name is ‘Alucard’ not ‘Al’…" He sighed.

Their bickering continued for some time as the small group journey farther into the castle. Tara sighed to herself thinking, ~This is Alucard? My Father? He is not what I was expecting… ~ Her musings were interrupted by the sent of a nearby vampire. Both Alucard and Jade stiffened as the stench of undeath came to them. Tara noticed a many number of slinking shadows. Shadows of Hellhounds and vampire and other undead beings. They were walking straight into an ambush.

Well, readers, what do think of this chapter? Please review and tell me…well until the next chapter…