Vlad woke uneasy. Something was wrong. There was something Evil going on. “Wake Nightwalker.” He heard a voice say.

Opening his eyes he saw a young Jewish man holding a bloody stake. ‘Strange, usually when someone was going to stake me the last thing they wanted was for me to wake up.’ he thought. Then Vlad realized the blood on the stake was his own, this man had removed the stake that held him in this coffin. “Who are you?” the baffled Wallachian asked.

“My name is not as important as why I woke you.” The man said in flawless Proto-Hungarian, Vlad’s native tongue, “I woke you because you are needed to fight a greater evil than you ever were. Your world is under attack. Beings from another world have set up a puppet government and are killing off anyone that doesn’t fit one Madman’s idea of the ‘perfect’ Human.
You must destroy these beings, until they are all destroyed. Only then will you know true peace. You shall have allies, in fact, beings will flock to you. You will assemble a Council of Nightwalkers and arrange a set of rules to help you fit into society. You will also face the greatest threat Earth has ever known.
Only by vanquishing it shall you find peace. Only when you have driven them from this world shall you be granted entry into Heaven.” The Hebrew man said, handing Vlad a cross He had whittled out of the stake. He had carved it on a chain of wood.

Taking the knife the Jewish man pricked His finger and dropped a single drop of His blood onto the cross. “My blood will protect you.” the Jewish man said. “Now, rest until night wakes you and seek out the others like you, not just Fellow Nightwalkers, but any of the paranormals who roam the earth. Their instincts will have them fighting alongside you against the Templar invaders.” the Jewish man said.
As Vlad was drifting off to sleep, the Visitor rose through the crumbling ceiling...

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Chapter 1

[Transylvania- 1942]

Sgt. Abel Pickering stared at his orders again. He was to take his unit and meet a contact in the old castle up on the hill. He was to consider himself and his unit on loan to said contact until receipt of further orders. He was also to bring along one of the ‘Jerrys’ (German troops) that had been captured. The only problem he had was tonight was the full moon. His unit was well aware of what that meant, but somehow he had failed to put on his enlistment papers that he wasn’t exactly human. The symbiont that lived within his blood had kept him in perfect condition. So when the bloody Luftwaffe destroyed his Pack’s farm he had enlisted, rising quickly to the rank of Sergeant and remaining there.

The German soldier had panicked when he realized where they were headed. ”Nein! Nein! Gott in Himmel, Nein! Nosferatu! How you say... Vampire. In Jesus’s name, if you won’t turn back, at least shoot me instead of dragging me in there. I’ll tell you everything I know. You have Nazi agent gathering information on your planned invasion, we know everything about . Now, please, I beg you, shoot me! I don’t want to lose my soul. Please!” the young Nazi, who had not spoken a word prior to this, pleaded.

That had been many hours ago, at around noon, now Sgt. Pickering was starting to wonder if the Nazi hadn’t been wiser than he thought. It was almost sunset and he was beginning to hear noises from down below him. This uneasiness had already gotten to a few of his squadron, as was the fact that it was getting close to moonrise. A fact that PFC Jenkins had just reminded him about, saying nervously, “Sir, moonrise is in under an hour. Do we remain here or do we return to base?”

The private was one of the more stable of his twelve man squad, although Nurse Baerd was definitely not a man, She was one of the few true Witches who had joined the Special Services. She was also off limits. Her potions, brews and incantations had saved the squad on many occasions. At a mere 16 years old, she was a skinny girl with all too many curves for her own good. She also was his third cousin Agnes, and he felt it was his responsibility to protect her from her own hormones. To aid him in this endeavour he had a charm made by her mother that sublimated his sex drive and would ensure that he didn’t end up like she had, having to marry someone because she had gotten pregnant.

Agnes had predicted that things would get better and that he would be instrumental to helping end the war. She was a real asset to the squad. Now if he could only convince her that Francois, the Sabotage expert, was not really interested in ‘showing her his etchings’, but just in getting her alone for his own nefarious purposes.

A scream broke Abel's chain of thought. He looked up to see a mist coalescing into a humanoid form, Franz, their prisoner, had passed out from sheer unadulterated terror.

“Vlad Dracula? I bear a message for you to be given in private.” The Sergeant stated.

“A brave request, But one I feel inclined to honor, briefly. You’ve a look of the Carpathians, and the sound of London. Would you by any chance be related to Mina Harker?” The Wallachian asked.

“My maternal Grandmother, She told me that If I were to run into you to send you her love and tell you that she waits for your return. “ Sgt Pickering said as Vlad ushered him into another room. “I must tell you my message soon and then I must hunt. *The Queen greets you, and beseeches your aid in stopping a Madman from conquering her lands, she offers the rank of Commander, the return of your lands, and the services of the squad you see here for your use in stopping the Templar invasion. Should you accept, send word to the nearest yew tree, and the message shall be delivered.*” he quoted in a trance.
“I was told there would be a return message, I was also told you would need to feed, Please do not hesitate to feed from myself and/or my cousin, although I would prefer that you leave us alive to aid you.” He offered his wrist and the vein thereof.

“No, It seems I too must hunt and feed. It would not be right to feed from one who is under my protection when there are so many lesser creatures available. I shall send the return message myself. I don’t need the flesh of my dinner, would you care to share a deer with me? As I recall, Weres do not care whether there is blood in the meat they devour.” The Wallachian Prince, now Commander of the unit, offered.

“I would appreciate it and ask that when I am done you bring the rest back to the rest of the unit. I believe that the men will appreciate the meat. Rationing is hard on everyone. If you knew how long it’s been since we had any venison...” Sgt Pickering said as he stripped and leapt through one of the windows, his pale fur glowing in the light of the just risen moon.

“We have a new Commander, And an honourable one.” Private Puca stated as a mist flowed around him.

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Ch 2

Franz woke on a bed. The first one he had felt since he had been rousted from his estate outside Düsseldorf by the Schutzstaffel{SS} in December of 1941. He had been taken to a secret base and, six gruelling months later, he had been assigned to a shock trooper unit and shipped off to the front line.

“You’re awake I see! What shall we do with you?” The Nightwalker shook his head, “I have investigated what they did to you in Blitz der Götter Krieglager{the secret war camp Franz had been taken to}.I believe I can undo it once, If you are willing to swear loyalty to my mission. I will free you from the compulsion that they have put upon you. I must warn you, once given, the oath will be binding, your very soul will be at risk if you break it. If you are willing I will bring in the Chaplain to represent the Christ in whose name the vows will be made.” Vlad said, rising from the chair he was sitting in.

“Nein, Ich beschäftige nicht den Teufel!” Franz said, His fear causing him to lose his control of the English language.

“The Devil? I have been called many things, But you, Mein Freund,are the first to call me that to my face.” Vlad smiled. "As for not making a deal with the Devil, you already have. I offer you a way to end that deal and save your eternal soul.
I may have been a bloodthirsty monster against the Turks, but I come as an avenging angel against the fiends behind the Nazi war machine. * I shall bind ‘Die krieghunde{Dogs of war}’ and feed them to the Eagle and the Bear. Wolf and Cat, ‘Gods’ and Mortals, This war will unite them all.*” Vlad stated flatly. Where that last part came from, even he didn’t know.

“The ‘Allies’ seek to destroy Germany and give it to the verdammnt Christ killing Jews. Why else would they have forced us into this war?!” Franz replied.

“Christ help us all if I am wrong in this.” Vlad placed the Cross on the German soldier’s head and spoke in latin.

“No, Get that thing away from me... Who are you? Where am I? How did you get me away from the SS. Last I knew I was strapped to a steel table and Herr Himmler strode into the the room. Then He turned into a monster. Mein Gott! I must tell the people. Himmler is a demon from the pit of hell.” Herr Doktor Franz Helsinger said.

Vlad was barely able to register that it had worked before he collapsed with a thud that was loud enough that Agnes came rushing in to see what had happened. As Sgt. Pickering’s unofficial second in command, she took responsibility when he was off hunting. She also was one of two people to know that Francois didn’t actually want to sleep with her, that it was just a cover for the relationship he and PFC Jenkins had, although he didn’t know that she knew. He actually did have a collection of etchings and rather nice ones at that.

"Private Puca, I need your help!” She called to the unit’s chaplain. How the unit had rated a chaplain was not her concern. She was just glad that it had.

Private Puca entered to see the nurse cutting a small slash in her left wrist. “Make sure I don’t bleed too much and apply this poultice when I remove my wrist from the commander’s mouth.” The young nurse said.

Vlad came to with the wonderful taste of virgin Witch’s blood pouring into his mouth. “That’s about a pint, Lass.” The ageless chaplain spoke gently but firmly. “If you give him much more you won’t have enough for yourself.”

“Could it be? Is that you Pooka?” Vlad asked.

“ Thou speakest right, I am that wanderer of the night,” the Private replied, “Although here and now its Private Puca. And no other name willst I answer to. By my lady’s command so must it be until the war is won. I enlisted without His permission and he swapped me for Calalily. Can you believe it?”

“From what you told me about His Majesty, if Calalily is female, I’d believe it. Last I remember,you were regaling The Raven with stories of the Fae.” The Nightwalker said.

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Ch 3

“You drank the girl’s blood, yet you didn’t kill her? How is this? My father forbade me to read that book that bore your name, in fact he went so far to distance himself from anything to do with his mother that he even changed his name. Adding the ‘er’ and changing his name when he left home.” Franz said in german.

“There is much Benjamin would want to forget. Your grandmother went crazy learning that your grandfather Abraham would stay youthful and she would wither and die. Towards the end she started attacking young men and drinking their blood, hoping that it would grant her the life span that he had due to his brief affair with a Vampiress.
When Abraham found out, he turned to his fellow vampire hunter Emil Corday and asked him to please end the tragedy that he had created by allowing his wife to find out that there were beings that didn’t age and fed on blood.”

“And what did this Corday do with this knowledge? Did he kill the woman?” Franz asked, a slight edge in his voice.

“Alas, the woman was dead by the time I got there, she died in her sleep. The blood did nothing for her. She passed away as any mortal must. No man knows the hour that they will be called. Only Jesus can change when a person dies, although many have tried. When a person is supposed to die by God’s plan, they die. I could have died tonight, would have, had the Lord not put such a giving woman where she could save me. You could have died when I destroyed the micro organisms that were infesting your blood. But, by the grace of God, you survived.” Vlad said matter of factly.

“ You are Dr. Corday?” Franz asked incredulously. His father had owned copies of Dr. Corday’s treatises on blood disorders as well as his groundbreaking work on certain mental conditions like the condition that had tragically claimed his grandmother. For that matter, Franz had noticed the treatises in several doctor’s offices. The one thing that Franz recalled was that Dr. Corday had suggested the concept of adding an anti-coagulant and thus being able to store blood for several days in refrigeration thus being able to provide for transfusions in an emergency. He had also stated that there were at least 150 types of blood and that he believed that transfusions between incompatible types would be fatal. These treatises would not have been as groundbreaking had they not been written before the turn of the 20th century.

“I am. You seem familiar with my work, were you by any chance in the medical field before you were snatched by the Nazis?” Vlad asked.

“Third generation doctor, I was working on blood diseases when all of a sudden, I was pulled out of my home, right out of the arms of my new bride and dragged to a Krieglager, strapped to a table and then...” Whatever had happened at the Krieglager was so horrific that the German couldn’t recall the details.

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