"Mother will be so surprised when she sees what we got her!" Stela giggled as she clutched the cloth covered basket to her chest. "Do you think she'll like the food we bought?"

Adrian, who was walking beside her, gave a small shrug. "I'm sure she would, we bought it."

"I bought it. The baker wouldn't even sell it to you because you creeped him out!" Stela corrected him and swatted his arm with the basket. "You bought the cheese because the woman selling it was blind!"

"Mud puddle, watch your step." Adrian warned as he held a hand out to stop her. "Don't get that dress mother made you dirty, it's hard to wash mud out of silk."

Stela gave a small chuckle as she pushed her brother's hand down and handed him the basket to walk around the large puddle, lifting the skirt high enough to avoid touching the ground. Of course she wasn't going to get this dress dirty, it was a birthday gift from both their parents and she wasn't about to ruin it by stepping on mud.

"Is something burning?" Stela asked when her brother crossed the puddle. "Oh my god I see smoke!"

"Either someone is burning dinner, or a local's house is on fire."

"Wait...oh my god that's where mother's house is!"

Adrian's eyes widened in horror and grabbed his sister's arm as she yanked him towards the black smoke. By the time they got there the house was still in flames and they could see several people surrounding the burning structure and some were even cheering loudly.

"You there! What happened, why is everyone cheering at the sight of that house burning?" Adrian asked as he grabbed a man back from the crowd and turned him to face them. "Talk!"

"The-the woman living there is going to be burned!" The man sputtered. "Bishop said she was a witch, even had strange devices of black magic in her home!"

"Where did they take her?" Stela asked. When the man didn't answer, Adrian released him, only for his sister to storm forward and grab the man by the front of his shirt. "Talk now you fucking piece of scum!"

"Stela-"

"The cathedral! They're probably burning her right now!"

Stela dropped the man and grabbed her brother's arm to move from the crowd.

"Stela, father said-"

"Not to go near churches, I know Adrian! But mother needs us!"

By the time they reached the town, the two could see the black smoke from the cathedral and the smell of burning flesh reached their noses soon. Adrian gagged at the smell as his sister tried to block it off with her cloak, but it didn't seem to help. They stood near the entrance of the old church, watching as people were chanting and praying loudly as their mother stood tied to the middle of a bonfire crying out.

"Please! Please be better than them!" She cried out. Stela felt her heart almost stop at the sight.

"No...no mother! Adrian we have to save her!" She cried as she tried to step into the church.

"We can't!" Her brother hissed as he grabbed her arm and pulled her back from the crowd. "We can't expose ourselves like this, what do you think they'll do to us if they found out we are her children? We will surely suffer the same fate as our mother."

Stela couldn't bear watching the burning and buried her face into her brother's shoulder, desperately trying to ignore the screams of their mother as she cried out in pain.

"I want to go home, please..." Stela begged as she clung to her brother for comfort. "Mother wouldn't want us to be here to watch her suffer."

Adrian cast one last look to the bonfire, and for a moment he swore that his mother was looking straight at them.

I'm so sorry mother...

"Let's go." He ordered as he put his arm around Stela to pull her away from the church.

💫💫🌟💫💫

The whole journey home Stela wouldn't stop crying. By the time they reached the castle she was silent, her cheeks stained with tears she shed for their mother, and Adrian wished he could do something to make her feel better. But how could one comfort their sibling after they witnessed their mother burn for false accusations of being a witch?

"We'll have to tell father when he comes home." Stela murmured as they shut the doors of the castle behind them. "He's not going to be too happy, and who knows what he'll do when he finds out what the church has done."

"We should have left the castle earlier like you suggested." Adrian murmured. "Perhaps we...we could have saved her and brought her home."

"There's nothing we can do now, except maybe try and keep father from going mad." Stela said and placed a hand on his shoulder. Her brother smiled weakly, but before he could say anything, they heard a loud and angry roar from upstairs.

"That's not good." Adrian muttered.

"He's home, and he doesn't sound too happy." Stela said with a nod.

Both ran up the stairs and hurried to their father's study room, finding the vampire surrounded by broken pieces of wood and pieces of his magic mirror floating around him. "One year, one year for me to raise an army from hell to make them pay!" He snarled angrily.

"No!" Adrian shouted as he strode into the room.

"Father please! Don't do this!" Stela begged as she hurried after her brother. "Don't punish all the humans for something one person did!"

"Those humans took her! They took the one person who made their existence tolerable!" The vampire snarled. "I am giving them one year to redeem themselves, and if they haven't, I'm setting my army of death upon them!"

"I won't let you! I'll mourn with you and my sister, but I won't stand by and watch you slaughter innocents!" Adrian snapped. "Listen to yourself!"

Without warning, Dracula gave a loud yell and threw himself at the two, his claws outstretched. Adrian shoved Stela to the side and threw himself at his father, giving out a loud cry of pain when his father's nails slashed the front of his chest. Stela let out a terrified scream when her brother fell to the floor with a groan, their father standing over him with blood dripping from his hands.

"You want to defy me, boy?" The vampire snarled as he grabbed Adrian by the throat and lifted him high into the air. "If you cared about your mother, you wouldn't stop me from cleansing this world of those humans!"

Stela didn't know what overcame her, perhaps it was fear for her brother, or the fear of Dracula killing her brother and killing her next, but she ran forward to grab his arm.

"Father stop! Please stop!" She screamed. "Stop it! Look at yourself, mother would not have wanted you to be acting like this!"

"None of those humans did anything to save your mother, both your mothers are dead because of those humans!" Dracula snarled. "After all these years, you still care about the people who hurt the woman who died trying to save you, and the ones who killed the woman who became your second mother?"

"Not all humans are like that, not all think the way that bishop and his followers think! Please don't kill my brother, I'm begging you!" Stela cried as she clutched his hand. "Please don't kill him!"

She was so sure he was going to strangle Adrian and then kill her too, but much to her shock and relief, Dracula released her brother and lowered his arm. The half vampire coughed and gasped for air when he hit the floor, his sister dropping to the floor to pull him into her arms.

"Get out." Stela looked up to see Dracula with his back to her. "You and your brother have one year to get away from here as far as possible, and never return. For the sake of your mother, I'm not going to kill either of you, but heed my warning and leave now."

"Yes sir." Stela said quietly as she carefully helped her brother to his feet and dragged him out of the room.

💫💫🌟💫💫

"We can't leave, we have to stop him." Adrian mumbled and hissed in pain as his sister pressed the already bloody cloth to his chest. "I can self heal you know."

"I'm cleaning the wound up, I'm not going to have you walk around with a blood covered chest even if you are self healing." Stela retorted as she wring the cloth out and dropped it into the small stone bowl of clean water. "It's not healing as fast as it used to, and that's worrying me."

"I'll be fine, and I'm sorry for dirtying your dress."

"It's just a dress, I can just wash the blood out."

Stela hadn't even noticed the drying blood on the front of her dress until her brother pointed it out, but chose to ignore it. Cleaning her brother up was more important than this dress at the moment. If the wound hadn't healed soon she was now considering using the material to bandage Adrian's chest in case the bleeding was not stopping and the wound wasn't healing as quickly as it was supposed to.

"You remember that old Speaker story we heard a few years back, the one about Dracula?" Adrian asked as Stela finished cleaning the wound and winced. "Oh that's certainly going to leave a nasty scar."

"Oh hush, at least it was your chest and not your face. You probably would have lost an eye if he aimed higher." Stela scolded. "And yes I remember that old story, how a hunter and a scholar were to help some sort of sleeping soldier who sleeps under one of the old cities and together the three of them will defeat Dracula and drive away the creatures of the night. What about it?"

"I think that old story will be coming true soon, but how many vampire hunters are there that are still alive?"

Stela tapped her chin in thought. "When I was little I remember hearing about this one family who specialized in killing monsters, especially vampires. Originated in France, and moved here a few centuries back."

"The Belmonts, and I remember hearing how they despise our father."

"Aren't the Belmonts dead? Mother mentioned a few years back about how they became excommunicated and their home was burned down as well. No one knows if there are any left."

"Then I suppose I should look for another hunter, as for a scholar I'd probably have to find one that won't try and kill me on sight."

Stela saw her brother's lips twitch in a smile and took his hand into hers. "Adrian, I'm not leaving the country, I'm staying here but I'll try and find this hunter and scholar you need. But where can we find this sleeping soldier?"

"I'm not sure, but there's a place under a city where the sleeping soldier rests, but the last time I was out I saw it was actually some sort of tomb that looked like the inside of the castle." Adrian responds and gingerly touches the wound. "I think I'm supposed to be down there, be the sleeping soldier and await the hunter and scholar to find me. I'm going to find it, and wait there. What will you do in the meantime?"

"Find this hunter and scholar before the year is up before the army of demons come upon us, learn how to defend myself, and keep a low profile wherever I go."

The dhampir nods before taking his sister's hands in his. "Please be careful Stela, I'd never forgive myself if something happened to you. Grow strong, learn to fight so we can fight together and defend our mother's people."

Stela nods and gives his hands a small squeeze. "You be careful too little brother, I'll try to find where you are at before the year is up and have some help."