A/N: I love snow! Which is strange, because I hate the cold, but I love snow, and with cold, there is no snow. And I'm sorry for the long delay. I REALLY need to get a new computer.

Thanks to Shoysrock, Aviarianna O Lorien, Miss Hiss and Gem of the Stars for reviewing chapter 17 and up. And special thanks to nautikitti for telling me about the mixed up lyrics and to Crimson Streaks for one of the most inspiring reviews I've ever gotten. Thank you all and everyone else who has stuck with this fic!

Dracula's Answer

Zara watched Anna go, ignoring the blood dripping from the cuts she'd gouged in her palms with her nails, her eyes golden and her breath coming in short, angry pants. She turned on her own heel and stalked off in the other direction, back towards the lone corner of the white plane that was pitch black. As the shadows enveloped her once more, she let go and sobbed where no one could see her.

"Augh!" The last Valerious jolted upright, her chest heaving and her cheeks wet with tears as she stared, disoriented, at the purple of her room. Her breathing slowed and she childishly rubbed at her tear-blurred eyes with the heels of her hands.

Then she sighed and stared listlessly at the tangled silk sheets that were wrapped around her lower half, not bothering to resist the melancholic depression that was sweeping over her as she remembered what had just taken place. Her family thought she was a monster. She had blown up in Anna's face. They probably all hated her now.

Her shoulders began to shake again as tears began to stream down her face. She was sobbing, her nose was running and her eyes were probably bloodshot and her hair probably looked like something out of a horror move.

Her life sucked. And that was without mentioning that she was living with a psychotic vampire that had killed off the rest of her family and planned on making her his undead whore for the rest of, well, forever. She had lost most of her humanity and was now the monster her cousin had accused her of being: half vampire, half werewolf, and only the slightest bit human. And now she'd dragged her best friend into this mess.

Now her entire frame was shaking as silent tears slid down her face and self-hate consumed her. Damn it, she hated crying! She was such a weakling! "A…a weak little monster." She blubbered, her fists balling up in frustration as she slammed them into the bed. She took her anger and hate out on her bed for a few minutes until a sharp, cold scent entered her nose and she glared at the vampire with bloodshot eyes.

"Go away." She groaned, the pathetic rasping noise ending in a hiss. "I don't want to think about you right now." Confusion flashed briefly in his azure eyes and she could now sense the shadow that swept quickly through her mind and easily brushing aside the wall she'd hastily tried to throw up against his probe.

"Ah," He simply said, allowing a small amount of sadness to sweep into his face. "It hurts, doesn't it? Being rejected by the ones you love for being yourself." All her pain and hate disappeared as Zara gaped at him. No. He couldn't have said what she just thought he said. He was a heartless monster. There was no way he could sum up her pain just like that- "It's like your heart's been torn out; like there's a gaping hole in your chest that bleeds and bleeds, never stopping, always aching." A whimper (Oh, God no. She did not just whimper) pushed through her abused throat as she teared up again.

"How…?" But she knew the answer just as he knew the question.

"It's been hurting for four hundred years." He simply said. Silence enveloped the room as they stared at each other.

"Where…" Zara's voice faltered and she waited a moment before trying again. "Where do we go from here?" The rest of the question hung, unsaid, in the air.

"I'm not sure." He simply said. Both were confused, longing for the other to do something, anything that would restore order to the jumbled mess their lives had become. If Dracula started bossing her around in an effort to make her get ready to leave for the ball, or if Zara threw something at him in response, then they could go on pretending that nothing was wrong.

But nothing happened. The mess remained. As did the silence.

They now could no longer meet one another's gaze and Zara picked at the quilt with still-trembling fingers as Dracula crossed the room and ran one bored hand over the carvings on a bookshelf. The silence stretched on, broken only when they heard the radio click on in the next room. Ala was awake.

"I think," The vampire's cool, clipped tone was a bit hesitant for once as he paused from where he now stood a few feet to Zara's right. "That it would be best for us to continue on as we have. At least while your friend is here. After the ball on Sunday, we can start to work things out." Zara gave a small grin that only widened as he continued; now refusing to look at her, almost as if he were embarrassed. "And I'll be getting dresses for both you and Miss Alana."

"I'd like that." He almost seemed to flush, and was about to leave when a smaller, warmer hand covered one of his. He turned to see Zara giving him a happy smile that, albeit sad, was warm and unabashed. "Thank you." An odd look in his eyes, Vladislaus opened his mouth to say something, only to jump when Zara did (though he would deny it later) as Alana pounded on the connecting door.

"I'm giving you two minutes to wake up, Zara! Then I'm coming in with my markers!" There was a sound of giggling and the patter of feet walking away, followed by the sounds of the sink running.

Zara anticipated Dracula's question and answered before his mouth even opened. "If you don't wake up when she calls you, then she draws on your face with markers until you do. If she's in a bad enough mood, she'll use permanent ones." She pointed to a faint orange line on the shell of her right ear. "That's from when we were six and I wouldn't wake up so that we could go to the ice cream store." An ebony eyebrow was raised and an amused smirk spread across dead lips.

"Remind me never to go to sleep around her." Zara chuckled and stretched her arms out in front of her.

"Oh, I dunno. Just think how funny you would look with a permanent pink mustache." She teased, laughing outright as Dracula deadpanned,

"I would rip off my lip before I allowed that to stay."

The sink stopped running.

"Zara? I'm giving you ten seconds! Ten…nine…" Zara's teal eyes widened and she jumped off of the bed, pushing an amused Dracula towards the other door.

"Get out!" She hissed in a panicked whisper. "She already suspects that something's going on between us! If she sees you in here-!" Her back was suddenly to the door and a cool hand was cupping her cheek. Dracula smirked down at her.

"Is there something going on between us, Princess?" Zara turned red and her eyes darted away from his face as she pressed herself further against the wooden door.

"I…I…oh, you tell me!" She whined. "Now, go before-" Cold, gentle lips pressed lightly, almost questioningly, against her own. Her heart seemed to stop dead in her chest, and then suddenly restart and begin hammering against her throat as Dracula's lips moved lightly, wonderfully, against her own, which were suddenly responding.

Zara had kissed and been kissed before (after all, she was seventeen,) but all of those kisses paled considerably in comparison to this. And Dracula's lips were barely moving over hers.

But he kept the kiss chaste, and it was over in seconds. Seconds that felt like hours, but seconds none the less. Zara stared up at the vampire, her cheeks flushed and her eyes wondering and glazed over in pleasure.

"I…wow…" Her exhalation of breath was a cross between a sigh and a gasp. "That was…" The door began to creek open and they both jumped at the same time, their eyes, both confused, locking for only a moment before he was gone and Ala was there.

"…um, Zara? Why are you glaring at me?"

Zara shook her head like a dog, clearing her thoughts, and smiled at her friend, all of the gloom she'd been feeling earlier gone in place of a happy, bubbling energy that was too big to be contained in her body.

"I'm not! Now hurry up and get ready! You have to help me pack my stuff!"

---

Several hours later, while Alana rooted around in the kitchen for a snack, Zara had a hurried conversation with Dracula.

"How are we going to get there? You can't fly us, and won't it take too long by car?" Dracula gave her a smug little smirk.

"And why, my dear, would someone as exulted and all-powerful as I wish to travel by means of something as everyday and normal as a car?" Zara rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"And God forbid someone accuses you of being normal." She huffed, but a smile matching his in smugness played across her lips. His smirk turned a bit predatory and he took a half-step towards the teen, towering over her.

I hate how he can do that…

I know. That's why I do it. Zara's scowl deepened and she glared up several inches at the taller vampire.

"How many times do I have to tell you not to root around in my head?"

At least one more time. She slapped him on the arm.

"Stop."

I don't think so, my dear. Zara's scowl evaporated into an exasperated sigh and she set her hands on her hips, leaning forwards to glare up at him.

"Why are you being so childish?" Dracula's eyes turned contemplative and he stepped forwards, so close that her nose was almost touching his Adam's apple. She sucked in a surprised breath and took a half step back to stare him in the face.

"To tell you the truth," His voice was pitched low, and still held half of the ringing quality to its silken tone that was present when he spoke in her head. "I'm not exactly sure." His head cocked slightly to the side, a habit unconsciously picked up from one too many forays into Zara's head (she had gotten it from Ala.)

The vampire took another half step forwards, making the werewolf take one back as well. She couldn't look at his chest or his face without turning an embarrassing shade of red, so Zara focused on the collar of his military-style jacket, pitch black against the pure white of his skin.

She licked her lips; it was a nervous, unconscious gesture of hers that he didn't miss. It took a few tries to force her voice past the lump in her throat. "W-why-?" She cleared her throat and tried again, this time managing to meet his gaze. "Why aren't you sure?"

Another half-step, another retreat. Now more than ever, Vladislaus could see the differences between her and Anna. Where Anna would have stood her ground and gone toe-to-toe with him, her anger-filled mud-brown eyes narrowed in a hateful glare all the while, Zara retreated, her teal orbs wide with curiosity, apprehension and a little bit of the unidentifiable emotion that both of them had expressed earlier.

A pale, bloodless hand came up to play with a stray chocolate curl. "Because, my dear," He enjoyed the brief flash of annoyance that brought more green to her eyes. "Ever since you've arrived," He stopped and frowned, angry and annoyed at himself for not being able to find the right words. So he settled for a sigh and leaning down so that his nose was almost touching her darker one.

Zara's breath caught and a dull flush rose in a band across her cheeks and over her nose as she stared into the unreadable azure depths of his eyes. The thought …pretty… vaguely floated across the back of her mind as she stared at them, and then hoped that he hadn't heard that, because he'd kill her if he had.

She bit back the urge to laugh and tried to concentrate on what Dracula was saying. Except he wasn't saying anything. He was just…staring. The same look as earlier was in his eyes, and the hand in her hair slid around to the back of her neck, angling her face up towards his own.

His breath ghosted across her cheek. "Ever since you've arrived, my dear…"

"Nothing's been the same."

Both Zara and Dracula jerked, the former jumping away with a flaming red face.

Maria was leaning on the banister, a feather duster forgotten in her hand as she smirked at them, her emerald-gold eyes laughing (also most likely at them.) "Oh, I'm sorry." She chuckled. "Did I interrupt something?" She laughed outright as Zara squirmed and fidgeted, and Vladislaus glared disdainfully down his nose at her, but there was a black-red tinge to his cheeks that ruined his snobbish image. "Your friend's looking for you." She informed Zara after she'd had enough entertainment/blackmail material, but a mischievous gleam stayed in her eyes as she pointedly looked from Zara to Dracula and back again. "Unless, of course, you really want to get back to that 'conversation' you two were-"

Zara was gone before Maria had even finished her sentence.

Dracula pinned the blonde werewolf with an icy glare, but she just smiled innocently at him and his expression changed to what would be called a pout on a lesser man. (But if you accused him of pouting, you would be dead before you realized that you'd said the wrong thing.) "Things were going just fine without you." He grumbled, crossing his arms across his chest. "And I don't see why you continue to insist on deluding her about your being only a servant." Maria carelessly tossed the feather duster aside and ambled over to the vampire.

"Well, if Zara knew that I was the head Alpha of the werewolves, she'd be intimidated by me." She stared up at him, her green-gold eyes for once serious. "And that won't do because I want to be here to help her through the change." Dracula opened his mouth to say something, but she cut him off. "Not only did the last cub I left in your care go crazy and completely lose himself to his wolf, but Zara isn't just a regular werewolf. She's a mix of wolf, vampire, and human." She pinned Dracula with a semi-serious glare. "Not to mention that she's also the last member of the family you've been trying to kill off for the hundred years that I've known you. If I left her alone with you and a castle full of young, hormone-driven, male werewolves, God or Satan only knows what would happen to the poor child."

"I'm not that bad." The vampire protested, but Maria only scoffed.

"Says you. Now don't you have a plane to call for?" And she turned and strolled back towards the staircase.

"Isn't that what I have 'servants' for?" A phone was plucked out of its cradle in the wall and thrown at the werewolf's retreating back, but by the time she whirled around and plucked it neatly from the air, Dracula was already at the top of the stairs behind her. "You do it." And he was gone, leaving an amused and slightly annoyed Maria staring up at where he'd last stood.

"Lazy bastard." She muttered good-heartedly as she dialed the phone and held it to her ear. "Hello, John. Nice to talk to you again, too. Listen, Master Vladdy needs his plane."

---

TWO HOURS LATER

"Why isn't the plane here yet?"

"Because it isn't."

"But whyyy?"

"Because it isn't."

"But-"

"If you whine another why, I will hurt you."

"But Zaraaaaa…ow!" Ala rubbed her head where the book had connected and pouted at her friend. "The plane was supposed to get here an hour ago! And your uncle is nowhere to be found!" Zara rolled her eyes, but she was the tiniest bit worried. It wasn't like Dracula to be this late…

Very faintly, so soft that she wasn't quite sure that she'd really heard it, Zara heard a gun go off and the faint sounds of a scuffle and shouting. Her head turned towards the castle behind them. "Did you hear that?" Ala blinked at her.

"Hear what?" Zara frowned, her eyes still locked on the castle.

"I could've sworn…" A hand landed on her shoulder and she jumped, a scream rising up in her throat, only to die on her lips when the person behind her spoke.

"We need to leave. Now." Zara whipped around to glare up at Dracula, her mouth opening to chastise him for both being late and scaring her, but the burned arm hanging limp and temporarily useless at his side and the streak of blood (not his, judging by it's crimson hue) on his face stopped her.

"Dra-Uncle, what-?" There was another gunshot and Dracula shoved her and Ala to the ground, behind their piled bags and out of the bullet's path before disappearing. While Ala shrieked questions, Zara cautiously peeked up from behind the pile of bags to see who'd shot at them. "Shit." It was Van Helsing.

"Zara, who's that?" Gabriel was now running towards the airstrip, his gun still held in his hand.

"Someone you don't want to mess with." He'd seen her, and an almost relieved look came over the monster hunter's face as he changed direction, now coming towards them. Zara groaned in distress. "Hurry up, would you?" She muttered towards the vampire.

"Did you say something?" Zara shook her head, pulling back from the bags and looking around for any sign of Dracula or the – oh. She blinked up at the approaching plane, still a dot in the distance.

Hurry up, would you? She thought crossly at whoever was piloting the stupid thing.

Something grabbed the Valerious again, crushing her ribs in a bruising hug. She gave a strangled gasp that sounded like the dying gurgle of an animal. "Can't…" She choked out and painfully drew another rasping breath after a few heart-stopping, head-spinning, oxygen-less moments. "Breathe…" The bands of iron crushing her released, and Zara crumpled, only for an equally strong grip to close around her arm.

"I'm sorry," Van Helsing murmured, a happy grin still on his face as he suddenly scooped her up and twirled her around in the air. "I'm just so happy that you're still alive!" Ala was staring at the man like he had a few screws loose.

"That-that's nice," Zara wheezed, the world spinning before her eyes. "Now, could you put me down?"

"Right. Sorry." Van Helsing put her down and she almost collapsed. Alana rushed up and supported her, glaring fiercely up at the slightly surprised monster hunter. As soon as Zara was a bit steadier on her feet, Alana placed herself between her friend and the monster hunter.

"Who the hell are you?" She hissed, positioning herself between Zara and Gabriel, who blinked in surprise a few moments before opening his mouth.

"I'm Gabriel Van Helsing," He said, giving Zara a questioning look that said 'She doesn't know? Why haven't you told her?'

Zara snapped out of her daze and mouthed 'Don't tell her' over her friend's head. He frowned.

"Oh really? And what exactly are you do - OH MY GOD!" Ala had seen the gun that Gabriel carried and could only be described as "one big-ass piece of shit" and she screamed.

"What?" The monster hunter sounded a bit cross, but when he saw her terrified expression and followed her hazel eyes down to his weapon, he looked a bit sheepish. "Oh."

"Yeah, oh." The blonde snarled, still trembling in fear. "Why the hell are you carrying that thing around?" If the situation hadn't been so dire and Zara hadn't been so worried about Ala and Gabe finding out that she wasn't human anymore, the Valerious would have laughed at the sight of the great Van Helsing being talked down by a girl about a foot shorter and several centuries younger than him.

But the situation was dire, and Zara's breath caught in her throat as she realized that stupid, deluded Gabriel Van Helsing was about to blab to Ala. She stared at him helplessly, not able to do anything. (After all, if she yelled for him to shut up or reached over her friend to slap his mouth shut, it would lead to awkward, unanswerable questions.)

Shut up. She tried to tell him with her eyes. His mouth opened. Her imagination spat up images of Ala turning on her and calling her monster and Zara felt queasy. Shut up. She tried to tell him. Shut up, or-

The blonde girl was so annoying. Why wouldn't she drop the gun thing? Didn't she know there was a vampire around here somewhere? Where was that murdering bastard anyways? I need to kill him before I forget everything again. And why hasn't Anna-I mean Zara- told the blonde about everything?

She was somehow looking down at the face of a very angry Ala. How was that possible? Wasn't she standing behind her friend? And she was sure that she wasn't this tall. Sure she had a few inches on the blonde, but this was ridiculous. It was like a foot! And she was pretty sure that she hadn't been wearing this many layers. She felt like she was about to fall over from all the extra weight. Oops…she'd dropped whatever she'd been holding in her right hand.

Reflexively, Zara looked down to see what she'd dropped (She didn't think that she'd been holding something before) and froze when she saw Van Helsing's gun at her booted feet. Waitasecond. She hadn't been wearing boots! Panicked, Zara's head shot up, searching for Ala. She'd forgotten her newfound height and looked too high, only to see a pair of blank teal eyes.

A nasty, absurd suspicion was beginning to curl in the back of the Valerious's mind as she, still shocked and confused, looked from the teal eyes to the dark curls, to the peachy skin (her eyes instinctively seeking out and finding the annoying pimple she'd slathered with concealer that morning. She congratulated herself for doing such a good job under such hasty circumstances-)

Waitasecond.

Zara was staring at herself.

The shock seemed to snap her out of whatever had been going on, and Zara found herself back at her old height (hopefully in her own body,) staring over the back of Ala's head at a spaced-out Van Helsing.

"Whoa…" Her surprised exhalation was too soft for Alana to hear, and the blonde continued to glower up at the just coming-to monster hunter. What was that

But she didn't have time to contemplate, because suddenly Dracula was there, grabbing his one-time friend by the scruff of his coat and throwing him an impossible distance. Ala screamed, but as soon as his electrified eyes landed on her, she collapsed. Zara fought the stiffness in her limbs and just barely managed to catch her friend before she hit the ground.

"What the hell was that?" The two with vampire blood shouted at each other.

"Why were you just standing there?"

"What did you do to her?"

They just glared at each other for a minute before Zara decided to be the bigger person (vampire. Whatever) and relented, sighing as she pulled her friend upright.

"Thanks, I suppose." Whatever rant he'd had ready was apparently derailed as Zara looked around expectantly and he just gaped (in a very dignified manner, of course.) "Wasn't there supposed to be a plane?"

---

They had their alibi all worked out. Ala had fallen asleep while waiting for the plane, and Zara and her uncle had carried her aboard while she was still out and here they were now, only twenty minutes left between them and Budapest.

The silence was suffocating, so Zara broke it with the topic she'd been brooding over since they'd taken off thirty minutes ago.

"What's it called when you accidentally go into someone's head?" Dracula had obviously not been expecting this, and it took a second or two longer than it normally did for him to reply.

"That would be telepathy, my dear." He gave her a quizzical look. "And what, may I ask, is the reason for you to be asking about it?" Zara fidgeted in her seat.

"I think I might have accidentally done it to Van Helsing back at the airstrip." The words were mumbled and tangled in their rush to get out, but he somehow understood.

A grin split his face and he chuckled. "It's common in new vampires. The accidental part, that is. I assume that you were only looking out of his eyes and had only marginal access to his thoughts?" Zara nodded mutely. "It's completely normal in fledglings at your present stage."

"Fledglings?"

"Newborn or about to be reborn vampires." Zara nodded slowly, a disbelieving look on her face.

"Ooookay…" She was giving him that look again. The one that was practically screaming 'you're a fruitloop.' And the one that was really annoying.

"Look, I didn't come up with it." Dracula snapped, but Zara rolled her eyes. The look now said 'Whatever. Your excuses are pathetic.'

Just be quiet. Go to sleep or something. Zara jumped at his voice in her head, but didn't feel like exerting the effort it would take to glare at the vampire. It'd be wasted on him, anyways.

"Yes your highness." She muttered, but did as he suggested, turning to rest her head on the window. She fell asleep to the sight of the European countryside flying away beneath them.

---

"So…why are we here again?"

They had landed and dumped off their luggage at a ridiculously ornate palace. Then Dracula had to forcibly drag the two gaping girls back into the limousine so that they could make their next stop.

And Zara would not shut up about said stop. Especially after learning (via mental communication) that they were in a completely vampiric section of the city.

"You are here to get dresses for the ball tomorrow."

"Well, yes. But here?" He could understand her reluctance. He really could.

Lady Madeline's All-Age Dress Emporium read the swirly, gold-on-pink sign. It nauseated Dracula just to look at it. He had had unpleasant dealings with this place and it's…enthusiastic owner.

"Yes, here." The door opened and Dracula stepped aside, leaving the girls vulnerable to the inevitable attack from within the store.

"Oh, are you not just the most precious little things?" Came a squeal from within, and Zara and Ala stared up at the, well, massivewoman that emerged from the depths of the store before them with identical expressions of horror, both thinking: Oh god, save me now.

Lady Madeline was a rather…spherical vampire with tightly curled gold tresses pinned to her fleshy, undead head in a fashion that belonged several centuries in the past. Her taste in dress was likely outdated, it being a frilly, Victorian era concoction of various shades of pink and white trimmed in gold. She was also (thanks to what nature had given her and with the aid of a ridiculously high pair of shoes hidden under the frills) about seven feet tall, which meant that she towered over even Dracula.

"Oh, Lord Dracula, it is such an honor to be entrusted with your flesh and blood!" And Zara was suddenly being crushed in an icy, heavily perfumed hug. She gasped for air, her eyes frantically seeking out Alana, and then locking with Dracula's, who seemed torn between laughter and relief that he wasn't the object of Lady Madeline's affection.

"Help." She gasped to him, pleading to be rescued.

Fortunately, Lady Madeline dropped Zara before she died of asphyxiation and turned to Ala, pinching the blonde's cheeks and exclaiming over her hair, not noticing the lone human's expression of horror. Then the massive vampire turned to Dracula, but he was gone.

"Coward." Zara muttered under her breath, knowing he would hear as the pink woman ushered (in other words, dragged) the two teenagers into her lair, already speculating about what color and style dresses would be "just perfect!" for each of them.

---

Never before had shopping been this painful.

Sure it was great to have an unlimited amount of time to try on dresses (priced way beyond what either teen would have been able to afford under normal circumstances) in every imaginable hue and style, made from every cloth in the world. Some were originals.

Ok, so being immortal definitely had its advantages.

Zara ended up in a Victorian dress that fell off of her shoulders and ended at her elbows in a froth of lace. It bared several inches of skin south of her collarbone, and had a three-leafed clover-like cut out in the direct center of her chest, which was, instead of the dark blue-green color of the rest of the gown, was a sort of lace fishnet of the same color, with a circle of regular material square in it's center. The bodice of the dress had subtle, raised patterns on it, swirling flowers that, if you weren't looking hard enough, seemed to not be there. From below the bodice, the rest of the silk gown fell in beautiful folds down to her feet, where it covered all but the tips of her toes.

Lady Madeline had procured white silk gloves from somewhere, exclaiming over the necessity of "covering that nasty scar." The gloves went up to her elbows, effectively covering the physical proof of Zara's new status as one of the lycanthrope population.

The rotund vampire had also coerced the Valerious into a pair of heels (that same shade of green-blue, the slightest bit darker than her eyes) that laced halfway up her claves up with silk ribbons and were so tall that Zara was sure they would be the death of her. (In reality, they were only three or four inches, but it seemed to Zara that they lifted her several feet into the air. But they still managed to give her a mild case of vertigo.)

The pink vampire also gifted her with a pair of beautiful, dangling earrings that were half the length of her neck, and were each a cluster of blue and green stones of gold wire.

Ala, on the other hand, ended up in a peach-gold strapless dress that made her look (if possible) even more stunning than she was naturally. (Zara hoped that the hungry look in Lady Madeline's eyes was nothing serious.) The bodice was pure peach, the raised patterns more noticeable than on Zara's, curling around in a beautiful design. The double-layered skirt slowly faded to gold, so that the very bottom edge was a rich ocher. The top layer of the skirt was folded tastefully, dipping down in the center, gathered up at the sides, and dropping down to the floor with the rest of the dress in the back. The second layer was uniform, the folds falling evenly all around the dress.

She too had gloves, hers a pale gold and reaching only to her wrists. Her shoes were more traditional heels, covering her toes and the sides of her feet (none of the ridiculous ((in Zara's opinion)) ribbons that adorned Zara's) and raised her exactly four and three quarters inches. In the way of jewelry, she was given a mediumly sized pair of plain gold hoops that had triangles of lacey gold dripping off of their lowest points, ending in two perfectly round white pearls. Her necklace was yet more lacey gold, circling the base of her neck in a beautiful ring of thin gold and alabaster pearls.

"This is beautiful," Zara sighed, looking at herself in a mirror. That didn't even look like her!

"Yeah," Ala breathed from across the room, admiring her image in her own mirror. "How can your uncle pay for all of this?"

Lady Madeline shot Zara yet another 'she doesn't know?' look. Zara was getting really tired of getting that look.

"Well, my dears, that does not matter. But you will be coming back tomorrow for the full make over, yes?" Ala was easily and successfully distracted by this promise and laughed giddily, clapping her hands in joy.

Zara grumpily wondered why Dracula was going to all this trouble and really wished that he wouldn't. She had no desire to play Barbie Doll to a vampire as…unique as Lady Madeline.

And so, after an hour or so of fretting and cursing (on Zara's part) of trying to remove the two girls from their dresses, they retreated from the shop with a promise to return the next day.

---

In Zara's opinion, the next day came too soon. Both her and Ala had collapsed as soon as they'd gotten back to the mansion, and were awoken much too early so that they could be whisked back to Lady Madeline's lair.

Of course, it really wasn't all that bad. Because after all, who could (or would) argue against a totally free complete spa and makeover treatment? Of course, knowing that everyone around them –even the small child massaging that was massaging Zara's neck- was a vampire. The neck thing would have been more unnerving if she hadn't been wearing the necklace-collar thing. She still hated it, though. (Even though Dracula had somehow switched for a teal one while she was asleep.)

But, come sunset, both Ala and Zara looked like something right off the pages of a fashion magazine.

"Wow," Was all Ala cold say. "Wow,"

Zara was speechless as she shamelessly gaped at the beautiful stranger's reflection in the mirror. The vampires had somehow tamed her wild curls into an elegantly messy bun that dripped a cascading strand of artfully arranged curls to her bared shoulders. Her makeup was better than what she could have done on her best day, and her nails were painted perfectly.

"I…whoa," Was all the brunette could say as she stared at herself.

"Your uncle is the best ever." Ala proclaimed from across the room. The beautiful reflection proved itself to really be Zara by rolling its eyes.

"Don't let him here you say it, or…whoa, Ala." Ala giggled as Zara blinked. That was Ala?

The normally gorgeous blonde looked like a supermodel. Her golden hair fell in a solid, ironed straight curtain to the middle of her back, with it cut in an angle to perfectly frame her heart-shaped face.

"Whoa yourself, silly." Ala giggled again, but the look of awe returned to her face. "Really, Zara, you look beautiful." Zara gave a decidedly unladylike snort.

"I look beautiful? Look who's talking!"

"My dears, you both look beautiful. You also both look very late." Both turned to see a smirking Dracula standing in the doorway. "Now, if we may?"

As they exited to the waiting limo, Zara hissed to him, "I can't believe you left us with her all day!" He only smirked.

"Yes, I forgot to warn you. Lady Madeline can get quite…enthusiastic."

"No, really? I never would have guessed." Now he chuckled.

"Your sarcasm wounds me, my dear." And he closed the door behind him and the limo took off.

---

Well, I think that was good. Was it good after two months of nothing? Well, hopefully people will review so that I can find out. The links to the pictures their dresses were based off of are below. Just get rid of the spaces.

Ala: www. bridalchalet Gallery / bridalgown / ballroom / product. Html ? id item aDBBuVvbvh

Zara: www. bridalchalet backup / VictorianLandingPage / index. html (the second one down)