The Harker Family Tree Part 1

Vampire Family Tree


Everyone assumes that what Bram Stoker wrote was simply a work of fiction, a good horror story. Those with the insight to see it's truths assume that what he wrote happened during the era that he wrote the story. Well children, it's not a story, it's more of what you'd call a documentary, a biography. However, the events that Stoker speaks happened hundreds of years before he ever wrote it. Hundreds of years.... it's a long time for names and faces to be forgotten.
No one during Stoker's time knew who Van Helsing was. Nor had they ever heard of Jonathan and Mina Harker, or of Quincey Morris, the man who died for the cause. What Stoker wrote was simply a publication of the memoirs and notes given to him by my grandmother. She of coures inherited them from her mother, Mina Harker.
As you can see, there is more to the story than Stoker has given. No, my grandmother was not the child of the famed Count Dracula, but neither was she the child of the brave Jonathan Harker. You see, the blood left in my great grandmother's veins after Dracula's destruction affected her both body and mind. She knew things that no one else knew. By her consumption of Dracula's blood, she had also absorbed his knowledge. Everything he knew was passed to her by his blood. More than that, the vampire blood sustained her, giving her lasting youth and elongated years.
Jonathan Harker died within 20 years of their battle with the Count, but Mina remained alive. Her young son, fondly called Quincey, was untainted by the vampire's blood. Thus he was given a normal life with short years and a carefree heart. However, Quincey was not her only child.
Many years after the death of her husband and son, she met a very handsome gentleman named Aleksander. Having been alone in the world for many years, she found comfort in his companionship. He found a light in his eternal darkness. Aleksander was nosferatu, a vampire.
How old he was I cannot say. All I can say is that they found comfort in one another and shared what remained of her mortal years together. Had she forgotten Jonathan? No. She simply knew that he was passed beyond her world and that she could no longer stand the pain of being alone. How I understand her torment in this!
During their time together, she conceived a child, a vampire child. Yet as she was mortal, the child carried both the mortal and vampire blood in it's veins. Half human, half vampire. This had not been heard of before, in either world. They chose to hide the child's identity, to protect it from any who would bring it harm. That child was my grandmother, Adina Harker.
True she carried the last name of a man who was not her father, but it was also the name of her mother. To survive in a time when suspicions of the dark realm were high, she needed the facade, the name. It was she who gave Stoker the documents to write his tale, hoping that perhaps her father would see them and come for her.
Mina Harker had died when my grandmother was only 25 years old, but she had lived well beyond her normal years. Sadly, her death left my grandmother alone in the world. Aleksander had left after Adina's birth, hoping to prevent other vampire's from finding him and knowing the child's true heritage. It broke his dead heart to leave them, but he feared for both their lives and thought he did what was best. Adina saw it very differently, though. She felt betrayed. She hoped he would come for her, but he never did. All she had from him was a necklace that she wore around her neck until her last day when she passed it to my mother, and a promise from long ago that he would always be watching over her.
Aleksander could not really leave his family, it was all he had in the endless, deserted eternity. He never ventured far from them, always keeping a watchful and protective eye on them. Even when my mother was born, he was there, making the same promise to always protect her. My grandmother never knew he was there, but my mother saw him several times as a child.
My mother had been born about 50 years before Stoker's story was written, and I was born as it was being published. It was my grandmother's last act before her death. I lie to say that Aleksander never came. The story was published and my grandmother fell close to death; Aleksander was the last thing she saw.
My mother recognized him and embraced him, presenting him with me, a newborn child. I remember his face distinctly, it was in fact he who named me. My mother had not chosen a name and he gave me the name Morgan.
That night Aleksander lost not only his daughter, but another loved one as well. The other vampires had heard the rumours of Aleksander's human family. This human/vampire breed was said to possess vampiric powers, as well as human abilities. Sunlight was said to be no issue, as were coffins. It was thought that this new breed was invincible.
On this particular night, several vampires had tracked Aleksander and discovered that he was with his family. They'd hoped to be able to take one of his descendants and learn the truths, as well as use them to their advantage. If the rumours were true, vampires could breed with these descendants to create a powerful new breed of vampire, invincible. If the rumours were only partly true this breed could at least be used for daylight protection. There was obviously a lot to be gained from capturing one of Aleksander's descendants, monetarily if nothing else.
These vampires found their way to my grandmother's home, she being only a short time passed. At first they simply knocked on the door, and without thinking my mother bid them come in. As soon as she said this, Aleksander's eyes grew wide and he whirled around to face the door just as the vampires burst in. They came through the doors, the windows, the roof. I was hidden under my grandmother's pillow; Aleksander hoped that the scent of her death and my silence would keep them from finding me.
My mother and Aleksander fought the vampires furiously, but there were many. They kept coming no matter how many were turned to dust. Though I was just a babe at the time, I remember this all clearly. A vampire's memory is different than that of a human, we can remember anything and everything that happens to us, as well as the knowledge absorbed through the consumption of blood.
I lay, quiet under my grandmother's lifeless head, but I could see all. I watched as a vampire came through the roof, landing on my mother's back. She fought furiously trying to free herself of him, but could not shake him. My great grandfather saw this, but was incapable of helping her as he was being attacked by three other vampires.
He and I watched helplessly as the vampire flew into the air with my mother, fleeing through the roof. She continued to struggle and actually managed to free herself of the vampire's grasp before clearing the roof. Just as she did, Aleksander killed the last of the three vampires and turned his attention back to my mother, but it was too late. He watched in horror as she was impaled by a broken rafter jutting from the ceiling. Her blood dripped in small drops at first, a few dropping onto my face. Then it came quicker, in streams, soaking the pillow, the bed, my grandmother, me.
I saw her looking down, smiling with love as her life slowly ebbed away. Aleksander flew to her, quickly destroying the one remaining vampire, but it was too late; he could not help her. He wept bloody tears as she handed him the necklace and kissed his hand. Aleksander swore to her that he would care for me and watch over me as he had the rest of my family. Then she breathed her last and fell limp, silent.
I distinctly remember that though I was covered in her blood and had witnessed her death, I shed no tears. Silent as the grave, I watched as Aleksander searched to be sure all was safe before coming to collect me. Scooping me up into his loving undead arms, he wiped my face clean with his handkerchief and placed the necklace around my neck. He quietly removed his jacket and wrapped me in it, speaking to me as though I were already an adult, telling me of what my life would be like now. I was to live with him, travelling from place to place so as not to be found. There was even a secret home he'd built where he didn't believe we'd be found, but that we could not go to for some time. He spoke all of this to me without saying a word, merely using his mind to tell me and to listen to my answers.
Clinging to me tightly and turning my face away from my mother's body, we flew up through the roof and out over the world.

Chapter 2

We traveled much, seeing the world as only those with immortal blood can see it. Our hidden estate was always home, but it was never a place we stayed for long. Aleksander showed me the wonders of the world, the hidden meanings and truths. My mind filled with awe; I was a youth entranced by the world that surrounded me. I thirsted for knowledge, and longed to fill my need in any way possible. Aleksander was my best teacher in all things; he gave me knowledge, strength, love, and even taught me to fight.
There was one thing that developed itself within me that did not develop within my mother or my grandmother: bloodlust. The warmth of my mother's blood on my lips when I lay under that pillow of death had awoken the lust within me. My grandfather would catch me licking my wounds before they healed, drinking the blood from the meat that he had prepared for the mortal part of my body, and searching out blood in other ways. Thus he realized he would have to raise me as a vampire, and not only as a child.
I was taught to hunt, and I relished in it. I was not a cruel killer, but I loved the thrill of the hunt and the kill. The taste of fresh life flowing down my throat made my eyes light a deep red, gave me passion and strength that a mortal alone could never understand or feel. I was the only one of my kind, and to this day I know of no other that is akin to me.


Aleksander and I spoke rarely when I was young. We merely communicated through our telepathy. He was determined to make me as strong as he could, that nothing like what happened to my mother could happen to me. It wasn't until I grew older and he wished for me to be able to keep up my human appearance as much as possible that we used actual words to speak to one another. During the day I was human to the world, but my nights were what I thrived upon. I truly was the great-granddaughter of this master vampire.