She turned as he burst into the room, her life slowly ebbing away. "Alucard!" she cried out, reaching for him, pain etched across her face.

Her voice was lost in the din of raucous laughter that echoed all around them. "You should not have sent your Slayer-love to fight me, my son."

Alucard's eyes hardened as he carefully gathered Maria into his arms. The voice continued to taunt him. "Did you really think, that with your heritage, that she would be safe?"

Alucard ignored the voice and vowed quietly. "On her life, I will find you again. This isn't over, Dracula."

With her body cradled in his arms, he found his way out of the castle. At the gates, he turned to look at his father's cursed home. The door opened slowly to reveal the dark haired man who had possessed his thoughts his whole life. The man whose existence had ceased that of Maria, the love of his unnatural life. Dracula's face beamed with mirth. "No, my son. It is not," he replied to Alucard's previous statement. His form changed into that of a bat. As the bat flew off, the castle trembled and began to sink under the ground.

Today

He stood next to her headstone, now worn with more than two centuries worth of wear. Maria Renard. 1779-1796. Beloved, protector, friend. She had died that night. "He walks this world again, my love. I will have my revenge and rid this world of his evil, for good. Dracula will die by my hand."

Sunnydale

She turned as he burst into laughter, her anger slowly churning inside of her. "Spike!" she cried out, reaching for her stake, murder etched across her face.

Her voice was lost in his laughter that echoed throughout the cemetery around them. "You should have seen your face!"

He hopped down off of the headstone he had been sitting on. During the process of beating the fledgling vampire into a meaty pulp, he had been carrying on a running commentary, his statements sounding more and more like the announcers at a wrestling match. He flipped the wheel of his lighter, blew out a puff of smoke and grinned at her.

She didn't return his grin and looked her stake over carefully. "It's still cold. Do you want some?" she asked, waving the stake in front of her menacingly.

'What does it take?' Spike thought to himself. Circling her and reveling in the suspense, he asked her "You don't want me saving you - whoops - getting in your way. I can't have a little fun while you fight?"

He had been having fun, but not just with the commentary. He watched her as she fought, watched her muscles as they rippled under her skin with every movement, watched as her golden hair, highlighted with moonlight, as it whipped around her face, never quite getting in her eyes. The same eyes that never lost their deadly concentration. Even now.

"Go. Away. Spike," she growled fiercely.

"Why should I leave? I live here! You leave!" he roared, not really feeling it.

Her eyes blazed as she glared at him. Turning on her heel to leave, she let out an exasperated sigh.

Spike watched her as she left, wondering again how that girl managed to drive him nuts.

Elsewhere in Sunnydale

His unearthly eyes passed glancingly off the shops of Sunnydale's main strip. He was surprised with the town's ordinariness. He found it hard to believe that this sleepy town was the home of the Hellmouth, but he was hardly surprised that Dracula had made his way here. After two hundred years spent in a sorrow filled waking dream, his soul was filled with the desire for revenge. Vengeance for his love lost, vengeance for his mother's death. He would have blood for blood. *His* blood.

He could feel the Slayer here too. Another time and another Slayer so long ago. It had been their mutual quest that had brought them together. The hunt for Dracula forged a bond between them that had blossomed into love.

Then that fateful night came. Richter, her watcher had gone missing. As if an answer to their questions, Castlevania, Dracula's darkly enchanted castle rose out of the ground. Before he could stop her, before they could meet to plan their attack, she had gone in alone. She braved the monsters and creatures to face Dracula himself, and lost. He had killed her and her Watcher for no other reason than to spite him.

He felt a tingling at the edge of his senses and realized the second before she was on him that he was being followed. He turned and caught her fist as it came flying towards his face. The girl looked at him in surprise and he chuckled, remembering his first meeting with Maria. He took in her features as he wrenched her arm down.

His breath caught in shock. It was Maria! But it couldn't be. Maria was dead. He realized that it wasn't her. The resemblance was remarkable Petite, darker shade of blonde and the same fire burning in her hazel eyes instead of green. This distraction allowed her a brief moment to reclaim her wrist and she delivered a spinning heel kick to his chest.

Barely moved, he flexed with unnatural speed caught her foot and used her momentum to send her flying towards the ground. She got up and ran at him at full speed. He rolled his eyes and discorporated into mist. She ran through him and stopped short, turned on a dime and shoved a stake through his heart.

He staggered, but turned to her with a smile playing on his lips. He watched the realization dawn on her face as he pulled the stake out of his back and handed it to her. She reached for it automatically, unsure of herself.

"You must be the Slayer. What is your name?"

Clutching her stake as if it alone could ward off evil, she stared at this strange creature. Her senses had alerted her as she noticed him walking down the main road of Sunnydale and she assumed that he was a vampire. He was strong, but she had been quick and she was sure that the stake had found its mark. He was not human, that was for sure, but he certainly was not a vampire.

"Who - - what - - are you?" she asked.

He moved so that he was no less than three inches from her and sighed. "My story is long and dark. You may call me Alucard." Stroking her face, he whispered. "I need your help, Slayer. I must find my father and destroy him - forever."

Buffy reached up and ran her fingertips tenderly down the hand that still caressed her face. Those fingertips bit down sharply into his strange white flesh, drawing blood. She threw it off and the spell was broken.

"Who the _hell_ do you think you are?" she spat at him, knocking him to the ground. She must have just missed his heart, she thought to himself. She wouldn't miss again. Before he could get up, she jumped and straddled his chest.

"After meeting the real Dracula, I can say, your impression of him is really bad," she said conversationally, raising her stake. Measuring him this time, she saw clarity and thrust the stake right through where his heart should be.

She withdrew the stake and braced herself for the thud that would come as she landed on the pavement below his ashes. The thud never came.

Coughing and clutching his chest, Alucard sat up. He pushed his white blond locks out of his face, leaving crimson wakes and looked at her gravely. "That is who I need your help with, Slayer. Dracula _is_ my father."

TBC