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It all happened so fast. From his position on the floor Ephan tried to work out what had happened. They had walked through a large door, behind which the Doctor insisted that he could hear movement. Ephan tried to explain that if that was the case, then not going in would have been a good idea, but the Doctor did not listen. He wanted to see the Count by whichever means necessary. Ephan barely had time to take in his surroundings before the Doctor was attacked by four Kuang-Shi. For his own part all Ephan could do was stand there and watch. The Doctor had given him hope, but seeing four Kuang-Shi together had over-ridden that and the fear returned. The Doctor had fought back valiantly, but the might of the four Kuang-Shi was too much for one man. He was soon held in a tight grip by two of them. That was when the other two Kuang-Shi turned on Ephan. As they advanced he stumbled backwards, moving as fast as his legs would enable him. The fear had removed any kind of co-ordination and Ephan soon found himself falling backwards on to the floor. The Kuang-Shi had reached down for him, their hands coming nearer, when a voice rang out. ‘Stop!’ It was the Doctor. The Kuang-Shi turned to face him. He continued. ‘Harm him in the slightest, and I swear that I will destroy you all!’ Ephan had taken deep breaths as the Kuang-Shi considered the Doctor’s words. Just seeing the determination and anger in the Doctor’s eyes had convinced Ephan. There was no doubt in his mind that the Doctor would bring freedom to his people. That all changed, however, when a dark and evil laugh echoed through the hall. As one, all heads turned to look at the figure that stepped out of the shadows. That was when Ephan looked back and wondered what had happened. Ephan recognised the figure immediately. It was the Count. Ephan glanced up at the Doctor only to see a look of uncertainty sweep across his face. ‘It’s about time you came back to me, Doctor. I have been waiting many years for this.’ Robes about him, the Count swept across the floor of the hall until he was within touching distance of the Doctor. ‘What, no words to say?’ The Doctor studied the tall, thin vampire. ‘Do I know you?’ The Count laughed. ‘Oh yes, we met many long years ago. On my planet. You saved the last non-vampire from me, remember?’ Realisation dawned. The Doctor’s mind drifted back to the first journey he had taken with Brad in the TARDIS. They had landed on a vampire-infested planet, and come across the only surviving human. A man called Oryan. The Doctor also remembered the leader of those vampires, a leader the Doctor had spared. ‘Count Orlock, unless I am mistaken.’ Orlock smiled. ‘I am glad you remember me, Doctor.’ The Doctor shrugged, not as easy thing to do when held in such a tight grip. ‘Not too difficult. I haven’t come up against many vampires in my travels, only on your planet and here on Styria. And anyway, for me it was not all that long ago.’ ‘How nice. I knew you would find your way back to me, sooner or later. I have been waiting.’ ‘Waiting? For me?’ The Doctor shook his head and laughed. ‘There was no guarantee that I would come across you again.’ ‘Ah, your return to me has always been beyond your control, Doctor.’ Orlock nodded, relishing the look of disbelief on the Doctor’s face. ‘You had no choice, for you are one of my children. One of the Kuang-Shi!’ The Doctor let out a bellow of laughter, surprising everyone in the great hall. He looked at Orlock with pity in his eyes. ‘I am a Time Lord, not a vampire.’ ‘Oh no, Doctor, you are mistaken.’ Orlock moved closer to the Doctor. ‘You remember Oryan, of course?’ A nod from the Doctor. ‘He was a vampire, Doctor. As soon as you arrived on my planet we could sense your mind. Latent telepaths; vampire and Time Lords alike it seems. Once you were close enough to us, we played out that little charade. To infect you.’ ‘You killed one of your own, allowed me to dispose of two others, just to infect me?’ ‘Of course. Your mind was open to us, and we knew you could spread our mark throughout time and space.’ Orlock’s yellow eyes glowed. ‘And you will.’ Strain showed on the Doctor’s face, as Orlock imposed his will. Orlock smiled as the Doctor’s features relaxed. He nodded in satisfaction as the Doctor lowered his head in obedience. There was a gasp from near the floor. The Doctor looked down at Ephan. The look of pure horror greeted him. The boy was rigid with fear, his eyes wide and full of pain. ‘Take the boy back to the cells. The Doctor and I have things to do. Once we have finished we shall celebrate the Doctor’s Becoming with a nice little beverage.’ The Kuang-Shi released the Doctor, and one of them scooped Ephan off the floor. The boy did not struggle. He just looked at the Doctor, his eyes brimming with tears. Orlock wiped a tear away from the boy’s face. ‘How nice. Worry not, boy, the Doctor will soon enjoy you. As will I.’ He snapped his fingers. ‘Take the boy away!’ *** Alf gagged on the coppery taste in her mouth. She spat, repulsed by the amount of blood that could come from one torn lip. The blood from her cheek wound had dried, leaving a stiff feeling around her upper jaw. The muscles in her legs and arms were all tight, her limbs having long passed the needles and pins stage. Nicholas stood before her, brandishing the metal pole in his hand. Blood dripped from his sharp teeth. Alf wanted to rub her neck, knowing full well where that blood had come from, but there was no way she could get a hand anywhere near there. Again she tried to get her hands free. To hide her movement, Alf engaged Nicholas in conversation. ‘I swear, Nicholas, before today I had never even heard of Lady Dorothy. Heck, I didn’t even know that my real name was Dorothy.’ ‘Why do you bother?’ Nicholas turned away, as if bored by the conversation. ’I know the truth and it haunts me.’ Alf sighed, twisting her wrist further than it should be able to twist. ’So do I! And I had nothing to do with...’ Her voice tailed off, as she remembered the tatty tissue where Nicholas’ genitalia should have been. She swallowed. ‘What she did to you.’ ‘Don’t lie!’ he yelled, and span around. The pole connected with Alf’s shoulder. She bit her tongue, refusing to yell out at the pain of breaking bone. ‘I know the truth,’ Nicholas repeated, ‘and it mocks me! You mock me!’ Alf clenched her teeth, attempting to block out the pain. Sweat started to form on her head. She said; ‘We both know the truth, Nicholas, and I have told you mine.’ She bit her lip as her shoulder moved an inch. ‘But I swear, after what you have done to me today, when I get out of this I will kill you. You can count on it.’ *** The doors to the banquet hall flew open as if on their own accord. Count Orlock was the first to enter, followed closely by the Doctor. The imposing figure of the Count was diminished beside the large figure of the Doctor. When next to the Doctor, the Count’s stature and power was as nothing in comparison. The dead body still lay tied to the table. The Count waved the Doctor to one of the seats around the large table. ‘Please, take a seat, Doctor. As my emissary I would like you to know what has been happening since we last met.’ The Doctor bowed and took a seat. ‘I would certainly be interested in learning such things.’ Orlock pulled back his lips into a smile. ‘Good.’ He took his seat at the head of the table. ‘Then allow me to explain. But first, do you care for a drink?’ He indicated the dead body. The Doctor raised a hand. ‘Not for me, thank you.’ The Count leaned across the table. ‘Ah, but you should, Doctor. Your body will soon be in need of such sustenance.’ Orlock picked up a chalice and placed it next to the out-stretched arm of the dead body. He lifted the arm and squeezed at the wrist. Drops of blood fell from the open wound and into the chalice. Once the chalice was filled to a satisfactory level the Count offered it to the Doctor. ‘I insist.’ The Doctor bowed his head and accepted the chalice. ‘Thank you, Count.’ Orlock sat back down. He waved his arms open. ‘And now for the story of my arrival.’ The Doctor placed the chalice on the table before him and made himself comfortable. The Count smiled. ‘I was quite content to rule my little planet, but I have never been one to ignore an opportunity.’ The Doctor rubbed his hands. ‘Indeed. As I now know.’ ‘Yes. Well, centuries ago on my world a strange portal opened. Exactly like the portal that brought you to Styria. It also brought me here. It did not take me long to work out that Styria was another version of my home, just as my home was another version of your companion’s world.’ ‘Earth?’ ‘Yes, quite so. And the place I arrived in was, in my world, called Chinor. Within months of my arrival I learned that vampires were but a myth on this world. Ah, but in Chinor they called my kind Kuang-Shi, a term I adopted for my own children. As you can now see, I have spread my mark throughout this world.’ The Doctor raised an eyebrow. ‘The whole of Styria?’ ‘Well, not quite that far, but I am getting there.’ The Count laughed. It was a strange sound, shrill and high. ‘With you I can spread my mark even further. I had hoped that perhaps you would have begun to spread it by now, but obviously you are stronger than I first thought.’ The Count indicated the chalice. ‘Sip now, for without it the Becoming will be very painful.’ The Doctor picked up the chalice and looked at it. He glanced down at the dead body. Again the Count laughed. ‘Ah, your conscience will prick a little. It always does in the beginning. But you cannot resist, my blood is in you.’ The Doctor put the chalice to his lips and closed his eyes. He drank the blood, then looked at Count Orlock and smiled. The Count clapped his hands. ‘Superb, Doctor, superb! When you left my world I thought I had lost you, but then the portals began to open up all over Styria. More importantly a portal had opened in Larkhowl, the kingdom of my favourite children, Bradley and Nicholas. I just had to come here. Have you met Bradley yet?’ The Doctor nodded. ‘Yes, but then you should know that. Don’t you share a link with all your children?’ ‘This is true, Doctor, but once they went through the portal I lost my link.’ The Count smiled. ‘Have you noticed how Bradley is this world’s version of your companion?’ ‘Of course I noticed. I am not blind.’ ‘Which is why I sent him. Standing by the portal I got a sense of you. It was not very strong, weaker in fact that the sense I had of Bradley when he was on the other side of the portal. But I knew you were there. So I sent Bradley to fetch you, which he has done.’ The Doctor looked at the chalice in his hand. ‘You made a mistake, though.’ The smile was wiped from the Count’s face. ‘I did?’ The Doctor continued to play with the chalice, his eyes focused on the blood within. ‘Oh yes. You see my companion, Brad, died quite some time ago. So I knew that Bradley was not the same person.’ ‘But you still came. You had no choice.’ The Doctor looked up. ‘I came for only one reason. Bradley told me that there was another version of me on the other side of the portal. If that were true I would have sensed him. I still came, though, but not for the reason I told Nick.’ ‘You came because you are Kuang-Shi, one of my children.’ The Count smiled, secure in his arrogance. The Doctor shook his head. ‘I came because I wanted to discover where Bradley had come from. Not because I sensed you. I only considered you when your vampire friend tried to attack me in the cell.’ ‘You lie, Doctor. I can feel you bending to my will.’ ‘Oh really?’ The Doctor stood up, still holding the chalice in his hands. ‘Your will means nothing to me.’ ‘But my blood is in you! Oryan passed it on.’ The Doctor removed one hand from the chalice. ‘Yes, I remember that. Yet I do not feel even the slightest inclination to obey you, let alone to become like you.’ He pointed to his head. ‘Go on, read what is in there.’ Orlock closed his eyes. After a moment he shook his head. ‘No, there is nothing. But I could feel you submitting to me while the boy was there.’ ‘A simple ruse. I needed to get some information from you.’ The Doctor looked down at the blood in the chalice with disgust. ‘Not the best ruse in my life, I admit, but...‘ He threw the chalice to the floor and folded his arms across his big chest. ‘I am a Time Lord. Did you really think that the blood of a vampire could infect me?’ Orlock got up from his chair and shook his head, advancing on the Doctor as he did so. ‘No, Doctor, it is not that. There is another reason. As you said goodbye to Oryan on my world I could feel my mark working its way through your system. You may have been able to hold it back for a while, but in the end my mark would have won.’ Again he shook his head. ‘Something must have happened to you between then and now.’ The Doctor narrowed his eyes. ‘You just don’t like admitting that your powers have no effect on me.’ ‘We shall see!’ Count Orlock hissed and launched himself at the Doctor. Not expecting that, the Doctor had no time to prepare his defence. The Doctor found himself being lifted off the floor and carried, with great speed and force, across the hall and into the far wall. All the time Orlock held onto him. The Doctor struggled to get free, but Orlock was stronger. The Count dug his teeth into the Doctor’s neck and began to drink the blood contained therein. A well of deep satisfaction overcame Orlock as the blood flowed down his throat. Once he had drunk enough to weaken the Doctor into submission, the Count pulled back. He allowed the Doctor to fall to the floor before he bit into his own wrist. He reached down and forced the Doctor’s mouth open. ‘Now drink, Doctor! And your Becoming will be achieved.’ Count Orlock forced the Doctor’s open mouth over his open wrist and smiled as the blood began to flow.
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