Into Every Stranger Generation

Chapter 7

 "He is a vampire, but not a monster," Malcolm said, sounding more like a question than a statement, as they approached Eddie's hideout.

Becca sighed. They had been over this probably fifty times by now. Her, Ivy, and Jax had filled in the watcher this morning over breakfast at the local diner. She thought she had been pretty clear about everything she knew but he was still struggling to ingest it all.

"Yes," she replied.

"And he hasn't fed off a human even though he has been undead for a month?" he asked.

"Yes."

"And he still has a soul?"
"Yes Malcolm," Becca grumbled. "We have been over all of this already."

"It doesn't make any sense," Malcolm insisted. "Well, there is one vampire with a soul that we know of, but he was cursed by the Romani. I doubt that applies here. It seems implausible that this vampire would have ventured to Romania very recently. How would he avoid the sunlight? Also, the Romani who still participate in the old ways are few and far between these days so even if he made it to Romania, it is unlike he would be cursed." He was rambling, as he was known to do when he was struggling to understand something. "And he wasn't turned by another vampire, which is unheard of. You said bats caused this?"

"Yeah. Bats being controlled by some psycho sorcerer with bad skin...or well, I guess, no skin. They said it's like he has no skin, a bunch of bloody tissue and shit with a hole where his nose should be. His skin was burned off or something when Eleven sent him to the Upside Down place," Becca said, contemplating the thought. She shuddered. This Vecna creep had to be one nasty looking motherfucker.

"I have never heard of a vampire being created by bats," Malcolm said, shaking his head.

"Well, can't Dracula turn into a bat?" Jax asked. "I mean, maybe the bats were vampires like him."

"Oh, come on," Becca laughed, rolling her eyes. "Dracula's not real. He's just a story some old guy made up."

"Actually," Malcolm interjected, "it is quite possible that Dracula is real. The book was based off of Vlad the Impaler. He was a prince in Romania in the fifteenth century, a very cruel man with sadistic tendencies. All stories begin with some grain of truth."

"Are you shitting me?" Becca grinned, jumping up and down like a five year old who just found out they were going to Disney World. "He would be, like, five hundred years old! Damn, if he is real, I hope I get to fight him one day. Can you imagine how epic that would be?"

"A five hundred year old vampire would be a formidable foe. For one to survive so long, they would have to be very powerful," Malcolm said.

"Yeah, I don't know if you'd take on Dracula and live to tell about it," Jax commented.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Becca snorted as they climbed the steps to the house. "Whatever, I have another vampire to deal with at this moment."

She knocked on the door. Becca felt silly after just charging in last night, but now that she knew what was going on, she thought she should observe the normal niceties. The door opened, Eddie standing on the other side, and her breath rushed from her lungs. What was it about this guy? The very sight of him caused a visceral reaction everywhere, from her heart to her brain to her lungs.

"Hey," he said quietly, his eyes staring intently into hers. "Come on in."

They entered and Becca spotted Dustin and Steve, along with two girls she didn't know but assumed they were Nancy and Robin from what they had told her last night. Everyone looked apprehensive. She supposed that was to be expected between everything they had just gone through and now some strange people showing up who hunted monsters.