Fic: Hunted

[csi_sanders1129]

Title: Hunted
Chapters: 5/5
Author: csi_sanders1129
Genre: Hurt/Comfort. Drama. Adventure. Romance. Established Relationship.
Ratings: T
Word Count: 2,870
Pairings/Characters: Dracula/Johnny
Synopsis: In which a familiar vampire hunter makes the mistake of targeting Johnny to get to Dracula and things spiral out of everyone's control.
Comments: This has been in progress for months now and I'm so so so glad it's finally finished. First try at a Hotel Transylvania fic, hopefully no one is to OOC. Takes some liberties with vampire lore not mentioned in the movie. Characters not mine, please enjoy! Comments are awesome.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 |

There was one thing that Van Helsing did not factor into his plan to use Johnny to bring down Dracula. Van Helsing was unaware of the link between Johnny and the townsfolk of Transylvania. After Mavis' party, when they discovered that humans were a little more tolerant than believed, Johnny became the sort of go-between for the town and the monsters. While the hotel's location miraculously remained a secret, Johnny organized a few small events wherein willing monsters would visit the town and interact with those who supported them.

The people of Transylvania knew him, liked him. It was Johnny who'd talked Dracula into the carefully arranged visits, and Johnny who always accompanied any monster that went into town. It was Johnny who told them all fantastical stories about the time he'd spent with the monsters and carefully corrected the fallacious assumptions about them.

So, when Frank and Wayne drive into town, the populace gathers quickly in response to the odd, unplanned visit. The only other time Johnny has not been with them was the first, when they'd been going after him. They all know something is wrong.

"Where's Johnny!?" Someone in the crowd calls, and several others echo the sentiment, anxious "yeah!"s follow, as worried groups gather around the familiar monsters.

By the time they've relayed the story to their loyal fans, the crowd is nearly rioting.

There are shouted calls for a counter-attack, disbelieving sobs, even offers to donate blood if needed.

Wayne and Frank turn them all down. They already have a plan.

"Spread the word," Frank calls in his booming voice, "Dracula will be here tomorrow night. Anyone who wants him can come get him."

***

It's been a month since the attack and they've heard nothing from their enemy. They've been tucked away in the safety of the castle while Johnny acclimates to being a vampire, but they can't keep living locked away like that.

So, today they make their stand.

Dracula had wanted to go alone, to ensure that both Johnny and Mavis remained safely out of harm's way, but of course, neither had agreed to let him endanger his life alone.

The drive into town seems to take forever, but really, it goes way too fast. Soon enough, he's standing in the stone square, waiting for something bad to happen.

A lot of their fans have turned up, too, forming a protective ring around Dracula, where he stands with Jonathan at one side and Mavis at the other, both partially hidden by the protective material of his cape. Other monsters have turned up, as well, Frank, Wayne, Murray, and Griffin are all still around. He's brought several of his knights out from the castle. Many loyal guests have turned up - a family of Skeletons, a couple of Cyclops, the Hydra, even Bigfoot, who is getting a lot of attention - to show their support, too. A portion of the armor knights and zombies from the hotel have been brought along, as well, for added protection.

"What if he doesn't show up?" Mavis wonders, when several hours have gone by with no sign of the vampire hunter.

Dracula doesn't have an answer. He'd been sure that this would work, that a challenge of this magnitude would force Van Helsing's hand, make him do something.

But it doesn't.

Dawn's nearly here and Johnny needs to be back at the castle well before the sun comes up. While rattled by the lack of an attack, they assure the crowd that this must mean Van Helsing has given up (even if no one really believes that), they thank them for their help, and they take their leave.

"Now what?" Johnny asks, once they're on their way back to the Hotel. "He's still out there, he could try something else and if he knows about Mavis now..."

"I know," Dracula says, just as worried as Johnny is, since they both know what Van Helsing is capable of, "I know, I know."

"Could we track him? I know it's been a while, but maybe there's still a scent trail that Winnie could follow at Castle Lubov?" Mavis suggests, though even she knows it's a long shot.

"We've tried," Dracula answers solemnly, "even she couldn't find anything."

"Maybe-"

Johnny's cut off when the rickety old vehicle is suddenly slammed sideways. Whatever hit it was enough to send it teetering to one side, and the impact when it topples over is enough to stun all of them.

"What's...?" Johnny tries, attempting to keep from crushing Mavis, who'd been in the middle, and Dracula, who'd been on the side that hit the ground. "Drac?"

There are hands on him, pulling him out of the busted window, but he knows it isn't any of the monsters initiating a rescue effort. Some Dracula had sent ahead, to secure the hotel and others had stayed behind, to keep watch until the sun was up and they knew for sure Van Helsing wouldn't appear in the square. And now they're alone out here.

"You again," Van Helsing says, as Tweedledum and Tweedledee wrangle him into compliance. He has the advantage of vampire strength this time around, but as dazed as he is by whatever flipped the truck (another truck, apparently) has left his new skills a bit lacking in effectiveness. "You know you cannot escape me."

"I managed okay last time."

Van Helsing pulls a stake from his bag and Johnny can tell that it's the one. The one he used before. "Not this time."

"You will not touch him," Dracula's voice booms from the wrecked vehicle as he climbs up and out the passenger window. Mavis climbs out, too, staying at her father's back to keep out of the way. "You're finished taking the people I love away from me."

"People?" Van Helsing spits, "Ha!"

"Obviously I had enough people on my side to keep you away from the square," Dracula counters, realizing now his mistake on that front. "I knew you were a coward - you never came after me, directly, not even when I had no idea who you were. So why would you start when I was surrounded by an army?"

Johnny's forced to watch and wait as the argument continues, as Van Helsing gets angrier and angrier. "You've brainwashed them all, haven't you? There's no way those people would be loyal to your kind of their own free will, not if they knew what you were capable of. Bet they weren't too happy to hear that you've added to your numbers."

Dracula keeps his eyes on the stake, poised over nearly the same spot it had been before (this time there won't be any surviving it), and counters, "No, they weren't. They're all rather fond of Jonathan. You should have heard them when they found out some nutcase going after monsters nearly killed him. They were calling for your head like you wanted them to call for mine. They were relieved to hear he'd survived."

Van Helsing's shaking with fury now, but the stake doesn't move.

Johnny notes that Mavis has gone bat and quietly flown, likely on her father's orders. He's relieved she's safe for now and wishes the same could be said for all three of them.

"You're a monster," Van Helsing argues, seeming to default back to this point whenever anyone questions his reasons. "You're a threat that needs to be dealt with and it is my responsibility to do that."

"Who have I threatened? Other than you, of course. I've never killed anyone. I've only ever bitten Johnny. And I've turned two people, my wife - you know, the woman your family had killed? - and Jonathan - because you nearly killed him. Both of them consented long before I ever did it. All I've wanted is to be left alone with my family. How does that make me a monster?"

"You're lying," Van Helsing accuses. "The girl, you didn't count her."

"My daughter? I did nothing to her, she was not made a vampire, and nor was I. Your family killed her mother just months after she was born and I've managed to keep her hidden from you ever since."

"Where is she!?" He demands, having only just now realized that she's no longer hiding behind her father.

"Right here!" Mavis calls, switching from bat to human just over Van Helsing's head. She drops down onto him and grabs for the stake, knocking it aside. Dracula surges forward, too, barreling into the duo of thugs, which startles them into dropping Johnny so they can go after him.

"Johnny, get out of here - the sun!"

The sun, it's almost up now. Johnny has zero tolerance for sun right now, as a newly made vampire and even the smallest amount of light could kill him. He doesn't want to, but he runs.

He runs and runs and what is he doing?

Dracula and Mavis are still back there, fighting a battle that started because of him. He turns around, runs back, grateful that he has kind of figured out the super-speed thing. The fight is still going. Dracula's managed to take out one of the hulking figures, and he's in the midst of trying to hypno-eyes the other one into knocking himself out. Mavis is holding her own, has her arms curled around Van Helsing's neck, keeping him on the defensive. The second of the two thugs gets away from Dracula's attempt and grabs Mavis, throwing her aside to help a struggling Van Helsing. She cries out when she hits a nearby tree and crumples to the ground.

"Mavis!" Dracula calls out, but he can't go to her. Van Helsing and the oversized brute are both going after him now.

"It's over," the vampire hunter says, a sick grin on his face as he grabs up the stake.

He sees Dracula try to freeze Van Helsing like he'd frozen Johnny to keep him from plunging to his death in the hotel pool, like he'd frozen Quasimodo when he'd gone after Johnny, but for some reason, it doesn't work. Maybe vampire hunters are immune to his powers? Dracula tries to hypnotize them again, too, but he can't get the direct eye contact he needs to pull it off. He could fly off, or super-speed away from the site of the attack, but Johnny knows he won't, he'd never leave without his daughter.

So, with the threat of a stake through the heart closing in on Dracula, Johnny quietly moves around to the other side of the clearing. He takes a deep breath, revs up as much power as he can when he can already feel the burn of the nearly risen sun and then he runs.

In the seconds before he hits, Johnny sees Dracula's eyes blow wide at the sight of him, as he realizes that he's here and risking himself when he'd thought his zing was safely on his way away from all of this danger. He sees Dracula flash into rage mode and surge forward.

Johnny catches Van Helsing off guard, and tackles him with enough force to send him stumbling forward. Dracula crashes into the vampire hunter, too, and that's enough to spin him to the ground, where he lands with a choked off shout and a sickening thud, motionless.

He only has a second to realize what happened - the stake, he thinks, Van Helsing must have landed on it - before Dracula's grabbing for him, already pulling him into what's left of the shadows of the trees. "Take this," he says, wrapping Jonathan up in his heavy cape to protect him from the sunlight. "Stay," is all he says, as he doubles back to carry Mavis over, too. He sets her down next to him, and she's starting to come around, but she's dizzy and confused. No way can she fly out of here.

With two grounded vampires and one of Van Helsing's henchmen still advancing toward them, Dracula has no choice but to keep fighting.

The sun is high enough now that it's making Dracula smoke. He's darting all over the place, hoping to lead their last enemy away from where he and Mavis are tucked away in the woods. It's working pretty well, they're circling each other by the wrecked cars.

And that's when the cavalry shows up. Frank and Wayne, who'd stayed behind at the square to keep watch, are finally making their way back to the hotel. They're clearly surprised when they happen upon the accident site, but they're both out of their car and moving in on the remaining thug within seconds.

"We've got this, Drac," Wayne calls, giving him all the assurance he needs to get out of the sun.

***

It takes a while to sort everything out in the aftermath of the fight.

Dracula, Johnny and Mavis are all a little singed, all a little worked over, but they're safely smuggled back into the sunless walls of the castle. A round of blood substitute takes the edge off of their battle wounds and leaves them anxious and jumpy while they await word from the others.

But, slowly, the reports come in.

The two thugs have been dealt with, left to the townsfolk to punish however they see fit (the monsters are all a little unclear on the current laws these days, so they'll leave it to them to sort out). They've sent people to make sure no other wicked henchmen are lurking in the ruins of Castle Lubov. And the body of Van Helsing has been properly disposed of.

They're all visibly relieved by the news that the man - the monster - who caused them so much pain will not be bothering them any longer. It's almost poetic, really, that he met the same fate he had planned for Johnny, for all of them, really. And it seems like more than a coincidence that Johnny managed to survive a purposeful attempt on his life when Van Helsing just happened to land in such a way that the stake had pierced clean through his own heart.

"It's really over," Johnny says, and he's so beyond relieved that they can finally start to get back to something resembling normality.

For now, though, it's no surprise that the exhaustion that comes with a month of hyper-vigilant paranoia hits all of them before too long. Mavis is the first to abscond off to bed, after nearly falling asleep standing up.

The other monsters have been in and out all day, some dealing with the chaos of Van Helsing's attack and others reigning in the townsfolk when they found out what had happened. But, now, finally, everyone seems to be settling down. So there's no reason that Dracula and Johnny cannot do the same.

"Come on," Dracula says, catching Johnny's hand and pulling him to his feet. "We both need some rest."

"Mm," Johnny grumbles in agreement. He'd already been half-asleep in the chair Dracula had pulled him out of, but the new bed in their room would be more comfortable. He follows blindly after the other vampire and, upon arrival, he had planned to aim himself straight at the bed and flop across it without pause.

But Dracula doesn't let him go. "Not so fast," he says, steering the young vampire to the bathroom, where a sizeable shower waits. Which, even as tired as he is, is not exactly something he can complain about when Dracula accompanies him. The water takes care of the rest of the sunburn, Dracula takes care of some sore muscles (a favor that he eagerly returns), and the chance for some much needed alone time (having guards on the doors was on precaution they'd taken while Van Helsing was loose) takes care of the last traces of anxiety over today's draining events. A quick pause to dig out the most comfortable clothes he owns from the depths of his backpack is the only thing that stops him on the way to collapsing in a boneless heap on the bed.

Dracula's there, too, just a moment later, arms curling around Johnny's chest as their legs tangle together under the blankets.

"I think I'm gonna sleep for a week," Johnny declares, pressing closer to his bedmate, reveling in the warmth and the comforting sound of Dracula's heartbeat beside him.

"You have to eat," Dracula argues.

Johnny amends his previous statement accordingly, "I think I'm gonna stay in bed for a week, then."

Dracula laughs and leans in close, pressing kisses along Johnny's neck and jaw, moving up until he can claim the young vampire's mouth in a kiss. "Whatever you want, my love."