BEFORE THE TWO quarrelling immortals could continue with their heated argument, they heard a ding emit from the door. Arabella and Dracula both glared at each other before turning towards the door.

"Don't take this as an excuse to drop the subject," Arabella spat at the vampire, who only smirked in return.

"But we have guests. And what sort of hosts would we be if we argued in front of them?" Dracula smugly spoke as he walked towards the door. Arabella's gaze followed him yet she remained by the table, her knuckles turning white as she clenched her fists in anger and torment.

Dracula swung open the door to reveal a young brunet man with a terrified look plastered on his face. Arabella recognised him as Jack. He was at Lucy's funeral and one of her 'friends' - by that, he constantly Lucy told the witch that he was always lusting after her, to the point where Lucy got engaged just to put him off. She had met him a few times, never had a full conversation with him - just the odd hello and how are you, but in Arabella's eyes, he was ultimately harmless. Next to him was -

"Agatha?" Arabella declared when she spotted the woman. "How the fuck are you still alive?!" She exclaimed, walking up to stand behind Dracula's shoulder. "Don't tell me you turned her too!" She whacked Dracula's shoulder.

"No, actually. This is Doctor Zoe Van Helsing. Agatha's descendant. She worked at the Johnathan Harker Centre, which I'm sure you would've heard of, Arabella."

"Arabella? As in Arabella Victoria Andrei?" Zoe asked, eyeing the girl behind Dracula. Dracula and Arabella nodded. "Oh, lovely to meet you, finally. Heard a lot about you," Zoe held her hand out to the young witch. Arabella tightly smiled and shook the doctor's hand shortly.

Zoe turned to Dracula with a faint smirk. "You don't look very surprised."

"You don't very dead," Dracula countered with a smile. Arabella watched the encounter with a heavy heart. Her nostrils flared as she watched his eyes travel across her face.

"I'm getting there," Zoe responded, pushing past him and Arabella to walk into his apartment. "Finding you wasn't difficult. A man of your breeding and ego is incapable of hiding. We just looked for a tall building with multiple exits and no view of a church,"

"Plus," Jack began. "Your number was listed-" he didn't finish his sentence before Dracula began charging at him, causing Jack to stumble over a seat at the table. Arabella stumbled after him, pulling his arm back to try and haul him back away from the innocent brunet, but it was no use - Dracula was too strong.

"How kind of you," he turned to Zoe. "Bringing a bottle to the party. Very inferior vintage," Dracula spoke, gripping Jack's neck harshly. Arabella furrowed her brow and used her powers to rip Dracula's hand from Jack's body.

"Can you not control yourself for 10 minutes?" Arabella seethed, helping Jack to his feet.

"Oh, I see," Dracula trailed off bitterly, his eyes boring into Jack's head with anger. "You love him now?"

"Shut up, you idiot," Arabella mumbled, her hands still secured around Jack's torso.

"So you don't deny it?" Dracula seethed.

Arabella snapped her head towards him. "And so what? It's not like you would care, hey?! Plus, it's better loving a person that can love than one that pretends to."

The room fell silent until Zoe spoke up. "Well then. I suppose you were expecting company?"Nodding towards the tray of drinks on the table. "Lucy Westenra?"

"Yes, you know her?" Dracula leaned slightly over the table. 

"It was Dr Stewart's phone you stole," Zoe nodded over to Jack.

"You could say I introduced you two," Jack bravely spat out as Dracula neared him. Arabella stood behind Jack, her hand around Jack's bicep to pull him back slightly. Jack turned his head towards Arabella who shook her head at him.

"And now she's dead," Dracula smirked as he watched Jack look down to the floor.

"If you were expecting Lucy to rise from the dead this evening, I'm sure you would like to know she was cremated," Zoe spoke.

Dracula snapped his head back to Jack and Arabella. Arabella smugly nodded.

"Cremated?! I warned her. And she still let them put her in the fire?!" Dracula shouted at the three people around the table. "You don't understand! She would've been conscious the whole time. Her skin melting, every cell carbonised, every part of her being incinerated!" Dracula yelled approaching Jack, who stumbled back, causing Arabella to follow his actions as she remained behind him.

A ding sounded at the door. Arabella winced, already knowing who it was. Dracula went to the door to reveal Lucy - or what was left of her.

"Did you have trouble finding the place?" Dracula asked leading Lucy into the apartment.

"I can always sniff you out, babe," Lucy responded with a smirk. Arabella rolled her eyes. Even if Lucy was once her best friend, she would have loved to see her burn in hell - in fact, she would've loved to have a front-row seat to her cremation at that moment in time. Lucy finally looked around the room, spotting her two friends. "Jack! Ari! What are you two doing here? Oh, who's this?" Lucy asked, nodding towards Zoe. "You finally found someone, Jack. A bit pale though, if you don't mind me saying. Did you start without me?" She asked Dracula.

"I'm not on the menu. I'm an old friend. We go way back," Zoe spoke in a Dutch accent, sounding exactly like Agatha, catching both Dracula and Arabella's attention.

"Why are you two just standing there?" Lucy asked Arabella and Jack. "Jack, kiss me. Kiss me like you used to," she teased, approaching the pair. When Lucy realised Jack wasn't going to kiss her anytime soon, she turned to Arabella. "How about you, Ari? We've kissed before. Let's give 'em a show," Lucy winked to the witch. Arabella grimaced at the notion, resulting in Jack pulled Arabella further behind him.

"Kiss the girl, Dr Stewart!" Dracula demanded. "Journeys end. Lovers meeting," he softly spoke towards Zoe, making Arabella's blood boil, and he knew it. 

"What's wrong, Jack? You can't look at me? The boy who looked at me every day, all day, can't look at me? What's the matter, Jack?"

Jack reluctantly looked up at Lucy's burnt and crisped figure. "Lucy, can't you see yourself?"

Lucy scoffed. "Of course, I can see myself. Bluffer Lady, bluffer lady. Everyone smile when you're beautiful. So why aren't you smiling, Jack?"

A tear ran down Jack's face. "You're beautiful, Lucy," he weakly spoke.

Zoe stumbled up from her chair and slowly waddled over to Jack, Arabella and Lucy. "Why don't you take a selfie?" Zoe proposed, sliding her phone to Lucy on the table.

Lucy sneered as she sniffed the air. "You smell funny," she declared.

"She's dying," Dracula announced from the opposite end of the table.

"The blood of the dying is poison to a vampire," Arabella added on. "It would be wise to leave Dr Helsing's blood to herself, Luce,"

Lucy glanced over at her friend and sniffed too. "You smell weird too?"

"Oh, that's because she's a witch. Her blood is arguably more toxic to us than Dr Helsing's here," Dracula grinned over at the witch, who sneered at him.

"You're a witch?" Jack and Lucy questioned at the same time - the latter with wonder, the prior with terror.

Arabella closed her eyes, and picked up Zoe's phone and shoved it in Lucy's hands. "Just take that bloody selfie, Lucy,"

And so she did. She took a while finding the perfect pose, but it was useless. The moment she saw the picture she burst into a fit of wails, cries and sobs. Jack went to comfort her but Dracula pushed him aside, declaring she was his 'patient'. Dracula tried his very best to calm the decaying Lucy, but nothing seemed to work. Like Arabella suspected, she would be a mess when she discovered her new appearance.

Dracula finally gave up to sit up at the table. Jack approached the still knelt Lucy. "Lucy, kiss me," he demanded softly.  

"You - you don't want to kiss me," Lucy choked out. 

"Lucy Westenra. There's never been a day where I haven't wanted to kiss you. And there never will be," Jack lovingly spoke. It made Arabella's heart warm watching the two, but it also made her want to cry. She could never have that. Even when Lucy was a burnt and melting vampire, Jack still loved her. Arabella felt green with envy, and it made her stomach churn ever so slightly. After their kiss, Jack pulled away with a few words of encouragement from Lucy. He pulled a wooden stake from behind his back and plunged it into her torso. Within a second, Lucy's crisp body was alit but soon disintegrated into nothing but ash and embers. 

As Jack cried at his lover's death, Dracula stood in her ashes, stepping out the small flames. He looked up at Jack with a disappointed look. "She was my most promising experiment. Took my 500 years to make a bride this good. Now, look what you've done."

"She was never yours," Jack spoke up. "Or mine. Or Ari's. Or anyone's," he straightened his back with pride.

"And I suppose she died well. That's a rare quality, you can take it from me," Dracula smiled back, causing Jack's glimpse of a smile to disappear.

"Quality or flavour?" Arabella and Zoe questioned in unison. The two women whipped their heads at each other before turning back to Dracula, both with raised brows.

Dracula grinned at the small exchange. "You two are too similar. I suppose it's true that I have a type, as you say," Arabella and Zoe both widened their eyes - the doctor out of embarrassment and the witch out of anger. "And flavour. A very particular. In my experience, unique. She almost seemed in love with death."

Zoe gasped. "That is it! That is everything! That's why her! That's why Arabella!" Zoe seemed to connect the dots that the other three in the room had still failed to see. "Jack, you must go," she pointed to her younger friend. "I'm about to have a personal conversation with Count Dracula and Arabella Andrei and I'm certain they wouldn't want it to be witnessed."