Dracula was an old vampire created by a human merging with a demonic entity more ancient than Reggie dared to imagine. She had taken on older vampires before, but never something like this. Her hunger exploded like a starving woman shown a banquet. It took over her mind.

Reality vanished. All she could see, all she could feel was Dracula.

"Regina!"

Dracula's voice reverberated through her very being. She could feel his confusion and his anger at not understanding.

Around her was darkness, but it was not empty. In places it shone like Dracula's eyes, shifting to red and back to black as it undulated. Reflections of the man appeared and disappeared like a hall of mirrors, only this one tried to press in on her from all sides. This was Dracula's power, as strange and as new as the legend had been in the flesh.

Reggie had never dealt with anything like this before. It was like nothing she had ever imagined. No vampire had fought back before, no vampire had been able to. This almost smothered her.

She threw out her arms, digging them into the darkness. Her skin burned. She knew this wasn't real, that is was all in her mind, but she could feel the fire. This part of her that was not vampire but something beyond, burst free. The energy at her own core sang even as she screamed. She had never guessed at the terrible possibilities around her. In her agony she almost failed.

"Regina ... stop."

Perversely it was Dracula's demand that fortified her will. The command was so entitled, so expecting that it annoyed her. She clamped her lips shut, ground her teeth together and growled in the back of her throat. This was what she had been born for, this was her reason to exist, she would not fall now.

Abandoning the restraints of her human nature, she allowed her own beast free reign. She cut every limitation she had ever put on herself to control the creature inside. Instinct sailed free.

Lightning erupted in the darkness, sparking from her fingers and crackling over her skin. It spread like fungus, lancing out, growing with each heartbeat into more and more of the black. Each time it lit up it had travelled further to create an intricate web.

The roar of the beast shook the very foundation of her soul. As her power spread thin, the thing in Dracula that had never been human, could never be human, fought back.

But it was too late.

It felt like her soul was ablaze, but it didn't matter.

Her net was cast and there was no escape.

She could feel the alien thing in all its horrific glory. It was ancient, far older than they ever could have dreamed. She wanted to laugh, it was no wonder Dracula could never die. As her power stretched into it, it was revealed in all its hideous truth. For a fleeting moment she felt some sort of admiration for Dracula. How he had ever contained something like this she would never understand.

Then her power touched on something else, something not demonic. It was not human, but neither was it the chaos railing against her. Instinctively she knew she had found the corrupted shell that contained the beast. She pulled back on her onslaught.

Throwing back her head she laughed. Maybe she was insane, but her course was set. Her hunger was staggering and, as Dracula's beast raged, she let her other nature feed.

Her net of lightning lit up, glowing in the darkness. It sucked in all it touched, growing brighter and brighter as it sent more and more power to her core. She felt the tearing, renting energy as she ripped demon from what it had twisted Dracula into. She heard it scream.

Black vanished to be replaced by bright, brilliant white. Reggie was sure she was standing at the centre of a sun and in the end there would be nothing left of her, not even ash. She had no control. Nothing she had ever done could have prepared her for this. She abandoned herself to fate.

Around her Dracula writhed. She could sense his pain, his fear, but it was nothing compared to her own.

Eventually even thinking was too much.