A battle of might becomes a battle of wills.

Very little effort was needed to reconstitute his form, gathering the red mist together and remaking his body one blood cell at a time. When he had fully manifested in front of Power Girl, Dracula had taken on the visage of a young man, his black hair tied back with a green silk ribbon, his cloths an extravagant grey silk suit with a thin green hem and button shirt. A green silk corsage adorned his breast pocket and green frills lined his collar and cuffs. Staring deep into the woman’s eyes, the undead king’s blood red eyes met those of the ocean blue eyes of Karen Starr, making the man smile slightly to know that even this woman as POWERFUL as she was, could still be controlled through the simplest of his abilities.

“You killed my bride, under most circumstances I would punish you greatly for that.” Raising a gloved hand, Dracula traced a finger over Power Girl’s cheek, impressed that even in the intensity of their fight, she never bore a single scratch. Kingdoms would have fallen under such displays of power, and yet she stood transfixed in his gaze with not even a paper cut to show for it. “But anyone who ignores power for what it is would be a fool, and I am no fool.” But something else did catch his eye. Looking more deeply into her eyes, Dracula pressed for answers.

“How did you kill Dr. Eva Mendez?”

Not even blinking, still dazed and staring back into his red eyes, Karen immediately answered, her voice sounding fatigued. “Dr. Mendez attempted to kill Bruce Wayne at his home, I stopped her, but not before she tried to bite my neck.”

“Bruce Wayne? The local trade baron of this doomed city?” His curiosity peaked, Dracula questioned further. “I suspected he was the prize I was after since I arrived here, why would she try kill the man?”

“Because she stated in our fight that Bruce Wayne was Batman.”

Raising an eyebrow, Dracula pondered that answer. His lacky the Riddler warned him several times while under his protection that the ‘Batman’ was not to be underestimated or ignored, even his late bride told him such after her crossing paths with the Dark Knight. Looking over to her cheek where his blood still stained her flesh as a mist, he found it smoldering on her perfectly smooth skin. Gently rubbing a finger over the now black specs of his blood, they smeared against his thumb and forefinger like ash. “You said my bride bit you, how did she die?”

Breathing in slowly, sleepily, Karen Starr answered. “Bruce informed me that my blood is so filled with solar energy she burned up trying to feed off it.”

“Oh?” Bringing his eyes lower to stare into the space of her cleavage, Dracula’s eyes narrowed, allowing him to see the flow of blood in her veins. What he saw made his eyes go wide and a very mortal chill ran down his spine. Power, limitless, unbridled power flowed through her the same way lightning would flow through a copper wire. NEVER had he seen such incredible power locked in such a mortal being, it was as if her flesh was forged from the sun itself! Keeping himself from blinking in surprise and breaking the hypnosis, Dracula stared back at the tall, buxom, athletic woman standing transfixed in his gaze. If he were to be considered a King of undeath, then this woman would be a Queen of life! His exact opposite, she would never need to feed off the living or draw power from the darkness, for her power was the sun itself, a fountain of power with no end. His bride tried to drink from that fountain and drowned tasting a single drop of it. At that moment he realised just how dangerous this woman truly was. “Tell me there are no others like you.”

“I have a cousin… “

Going cold, Dracula made plans to keep his future decisions tact and unnoticeable to the public eye. He finally admitted to himself that turning Dr. Mendez was now a mistake, her brashness and lust for blood had attracted this… Goddess’s attention and had it not been for the attentive care of his new bride, he would surely have been vanquished as easily as the late doctor. But for now, at the very least, he had an opportunity to remove all his obstacles in one swoop.

“You told me that Bruce Wayne is Batman, correct child?”

“Yes…” Answered Power Girl, sleepily.

“Did he send you to kill me?”

“No… I thought I could handle you by myself, he tried to stop me… I wanted to one up him.”

With a smile now gracing his fanged lips, Dracula stared deeper into Karen’s eyes, tracing a gloved finger under her chin. “You are to return to him, you are to KILL him and make the event look like an accident, a house fire he could not escape in time.”

“Okay…”

“When the deed is done, have NO memory of this, have no memory of the act, or our battle, OR my face. Forget all of this once the Wayne estate goes up in flames.” Letting go of her chin and stepping back, Karen swayed slightly to the shift of Dracula’s feet walking back to give the woman space. “Now go.” With an explosion of air, Power Girl shot up to the sky with the speed of a rocket, leaving behind a sonic boom in her wake as she cut through the clouds like a knife and darted towards the far end of Gotham.

“To kill Fenrir, I send one of Odin’s Valkyries to slay the beast.” Straightening the collar of his vest, Dracula began to casually walk out of the wreckage of the building their battle had ended in, the paramedics and firemen already having arrived to put out the flames, completely ignoring the well-dressed man as he slowly made his way down the street while a crowd built around the scene.