It was dark again and Reggie was glad to see it was only Sorin waiting for them at the rendezvous. She had had nightmares about obnoxious British officers getting in her way. At least the vampire seemed to have a brain.

"Well you look different," Sorin said as she walked up.

"I'm not pretending to be a lost English tourist tonight," she said with a smile, even if she didn't trust him as far as she could throw him. "There's no point in playing those kind of games where we're going."

Sorin, for his part, was dressed in hardy civilian gear. Reggie had chosen all black, also hardy outdoors clothes, fit for climbing a mountain.

"Just shoot him and be done with it," David said over her comm. "I don't trust him."

While Reggie appreciated the sentiment, she also knew Sorin was the only one who knew exactly where they would find Dracula's coach. That Sorin had an uncanny knack of knowing which part of the pass it would be in next was still bothering her. No one from Division 5 seemed to have asked how Sorin was doing what he was doing, but Reggie suspected the older vampire was working far harder at resisting Dracula's call than his colleagues were giving him credit for.

"We'll take the main road into the pass," Sorin said, indicating the battered Land Rover behind him, "then we'll have to go on foot. Dracula has avoided the modern roads, for now, at least."

"He's playing games," Reggie concluded.

"Possibly," was all Sorin said to that.

He walked round the Land Rover and climbed into the driver's seat, so Reggie took the front passenger side and left Magda to slide into the back. In the end they'd had to borrow some gear from Abe to clothe the werewolf for the mission. It turned out she was quite a lot bigger than Reggie and nothing of hers had fitted.

The smell of rust and oil tickled Reggie's nose as she buckled herself in. The inside of the vehicle was as shabby as the outside. The leather seats had holes, the dashboard was scratched to hell and back, and the rear-view mirror had a crack in it. However, when Sorin turned the key in the ignition, it started first time and growled into life without the slightest stutter.

She changed her assessment from 'heap of junk' to 'well used'.

"So, where are the rest of your team?" Sorin asked as they started off.

"Around," Reggie replied.

"Will they be following us?"

"Maybe."

Reggie wasn't about to reveal how her family went about their missions to a vampire she didn't trust. They had no way of knowing where Dracula's base was, and the coach was reported to travel in terrain nothing natural could handle, so there was no point in anyone tailing them. David was keeping an eye on them using satellite technology and she had his other little gizmos for later as well. Sorin didn't need any of the details.

"Do you know where the coach will be yet?" Reggie decided to get in there with some questions of her own.

"I have an idea."

"How exactly do you do that?"

"None of your business."

They were both being so cagey that conversation was clearly pointless. With Magda remaining silent in the back, Reggie took to watching the scenery and making only the odd comment to Sorin.

It was easy to see what had inspired Stoker about the landscape as they sped through it. Romania was a very dramatic land. Almost as dramatic as the vampires that lived in it.

~*~

They'd been climbing for what Reggie guessed was at least half an hour. The Land Rover with its rough suspension and dodgy seatbelts was parked down a short side road that ended at the base of a trail. Given how cold the air was and how rough the terrain, Reggie was beginning to miss it, even with all its faults.

Sorin was moving fast, sure footed in the dark. Given that he could have gone full vampire and left her and Magda way behind, Reggie was pleased with his restraint. However, she was sure he was testing her, never-the-less.

Reggie had a certain amount of vampire speed and vampire strength when she needed it. Any human would have been left in her dust on the trek. However, Sorin was an old vampire and had her completely out matched. Every now and then he put on a burst of speed, almost as if he forgot himself, but she was sure he was doing no such thing. Reggie kept up, but she was well aware they were travelling with a werewolf too.

Given a vampire's peculiar relationship to gravity they both could have left Magda trailing way behind if they had wanted to.

"Stop," Magda finally said, coming to a halt as they came to a very steep incline.

Reggie turned to find that her wolf had dumped her pack on the ground and was currently pulling off her outer clothes and shoving them into it. Before Reggie had a chance to ask what Magda thought she was doing, the werewolf was in nothing but shorts and a tank top. Double quick Reggie found the pack thrown at her as Madga shifted.

From woman she grew, human frame stooping forward, legs and arms lengthening, muscles and shoulders broadening, fur erupting from all over her body, and her head changing from something human to something between a woman and a wolf.

Then, as if to make her point, Magda went into a crouch and bounded past Reggie, up the side of the mountain.

Reggie looked over to Sorin.

"Should have thought of that," she said.

Sorin grinned and shook his head, starting up what might laughingly have been called a trail at a brisker pace.

"Where are we going?" Reggie asked, coming up beside him a minute or so later.

"One of the old road ways," Sorin said. "It was once a route through, but landslides left it isolated and unusable centuries ago. There are several in the mountains."

"I suppose you've seen a lot come and go," Reggie commented.

"Enough."

"Have you ever thought of leaving Romania?"

"I did, once," Sorin replied and surprised her. "I travelled quite a bit for a couple of centuries, but home always draws us back. These are the mountains in which I was born, these are the mountains that saw me die, and these are the mountains which will eventually see my end."

There wasn't much Reggie could say to such a certain statement.

"What about Division 5?" she asked.

"I am with them because of the threat of Dracula," Sorin said, "no more. Humans have no business poking their nose into things they do not understand. Dracula and his spawn are the danger, which is the only reason I allied with them."

"So as soon as Dracula is dead you go independent?"

"If you mean, do I plan on remaining a soldier of the humans," he said, pausing and looking at her for a moment, "then no, I have better things to do with my time. The world is full of far too many interesting things to spend eternity fighting. I will remain while the danger exists, and I doubt it will be as simple as being finished when Dracula dies, but after that I am done."

"But there are many more vampires out there," Reggie pointed out. "I have never met another one who does not prey on humans."

"I have," Sorin said. "The world is a much stranger place than even we can know. You were born a weapon, maybe, when this is over, take a moment to stop and decide if that is what you wish to be anymore."

Reggie didn't reply. It wasn't as if she hadn't wondered what her life would have been like if one of her siblings had turned out to be 'the one' instead of her. But it didn't do anyone any good to dwell on such things. Fact was fact, and her purpose in life was written in her genes.

She had always been taught all vampires were evil. Everything she had ever seen, everything her family had seen, had pointed to this truth, but Sorin was giving her reason to doubt. Maybe her well read, highly prepared family didn't know it all, but, for now, they knew enough. She put all such thoughts out of her head and continued to climb.

"We're nearly there," Sorin said eventually, as they paused behind an outcrop of rock twenty minutes later. "We can leave the equipment here."

"How much further?" Reggie asked.

"Up between those rocks and over the rise and we're there," Sorin said, pointing.

Reggie nodded.

"Magda, time to shift back," she said, looking over at her wolf. "We need to get ready for our meeting."

Magda nodded and immediately began to shrink back to her human form. Reggie handed her, her backpack.

"Are you sure Dracula will believe you answered his call?" Reggie asked as Sorin pulled off his own pack and began to unbuckle the holster he was wearing.

They had been prepared for anything on their climb up, but facing Dracula armed was a recipe for disaster.

"He has wanted me back since the day I broke away," Sorin replied. "He'll be delighted."

"What if he decides to just kill you?"

"Unlikely, he'll at least want to gloa-"

Sorin stopped mid-sentence, hand going to his neck where there was a dart sticking out of it. His face screwed up in annoyance and he just had time to stare at Magda in shock before he crumpled into a heap.

"Sorry, Sorin," Reggie told his unconscious form, "but you would just get in the way."

There were already far too many variables, Reggie had decided that evening that she was not dealing with any more. She had kept the gun she had acquired during her escape from Division 5, and she had put it in Magda's pack. David had some of the rounds to analyse, but one had always had Sorin's name on it.

"You get dressed," Reggie said, "I'll get Sorin and the rest of our things stowed safely."

She had no idea how long they had, so they moved quickly. It was time to face the enemy.