The baby cried while the house burned, the sparks flew up in hot pinpoints like stars against the smoke that clogged the sky.

So much had gone so, so wrong...

Tears fell and dried and died over and over against a pale face as the little baby girl was clutched closer, slowly soothed from her fears in a familiar embrace.

For a while the figure simply stood on the hillock, dark and despairing, yet calm in its vigil.

More tears spilled before their creator blinked them away, to glare at the crowd that fled from the flames like rats as the main structure collapsed.

". . . Hush now, my love." was murmured softly with the barest quaver to the baby as the little one fell asleep, as the house was left behind with the graceful swish of a cloak. There would be no body to find when the ashes cooled: their kind never held high resistance to light and light's heat.

A safer place, they'd have to find a safer place, safer than here. Far, far from here. How far was far enough?

Grief chilled the heart and stung the eyes and laid raw the soul, but the baby was still here, and still needed love and safety and a parent. As this was thought, the chill turned into a slow, resolute burn, and all tears dried from the dusk-grey eyes, as a calculating brain already laid plans for future years.

For the child, all this would be for their child.

"Don't worry, my Mavis," Martha Lubov Dracula said quietly, cradling her daughter closer to her chest, "After tonight, we will not fear humans ever again..."

. . .

Brief Note from the Author: Perhaps a dark start for a short story, but I promise for the ending to be sweet!