From Best Friends To Lovers

1. Meeting

In the land of Transylvania in August of the year 1879, there lived a royal gypsy family The Valerious'. The king, King Boris and his wife Queen Annabelle had two children. First was their son, Prince Velken who is 12 and second is their daughter, Princess Anna who is 10. Throughout their history, all of their family members were killed in some way by the vampire king Dracula.

Growing up, the children didn't have many friends. Since Velken's 12th birthday, Boris his father has been training him to fight Dracula and his minions. Anna was always fond of her father and wants to be trained as well. But every time she asked him, he said, "You are too young yet, My Daughter. I have only just started training your brother. When it is your twelfth birthday, I will start your training. But until then, you have fun helping your mother and being a child."

It is Saturday the 15th and Boris is in the middle of training Velken for the day. Anna was bored and decided to go to the kitchen where her mother Annabelle was in the middle of cooking dinner. "Mama?"

Annabelle turned around and smiled. "Yes, My Darling Anna?"

"I'm bored. Can I go play outside? I'll be back in before dark. I promise."

The woman smiled. "Alright. As long as you keep your promise to be in before dark, you can go play outside."

Anna smiled and quickly hugged her mother before grabbing her winter cloak and heading outside to play.

When Anna gets outside, she sees a carriage all packed up next door with a woman and a boy carrying the boxes in the house. *He's cute.* She thought as she saw his face. She smiled and ran over to him as he turned back around to carry his next box in. "Hi!"

The boy turned around. "Umm... Hi."

Anna giggled. "I'm Anna Valerious. I'm the princess of Transylvania. I live over in the manor next door." She said pointing.

The boy looked at it then turned back to her. "Wow. Impressive. I'm Gabriel Van Helsing. I'm eleven years old and I am just now moving in this house with my mom."

"What happened to your papa?"

"He died just before I was born. I never knew him. But my mom has shown me pictures and told me about him. She said he was excited to become a father and couldn't wait until I was born so he could teach me stuff like baseball and other sports. Also to fight. He wanted me to be able to defend myself if it ever came to that. But then about a week before I was born, he was killed by an evil witch."

Anna looked sympathetic. "I'm so sorry, Gabriel. That's awful."

"It's ok. My mom's wonderful. She tries her best to be both mother and father to me."

That made Anna giggle. "How can she do that?"

Gabriel cracked a small smile. "It's hard to explain. You'd have to see it for yourself. How old are you anyway? I told you mine, but you have yet to tell me yours."

Anna smiled. "I'm ten. I have an older brother who's twelve. His name is Velken."

"Anna!" Came a voice from the manor front door.

Anna turned around to see her brother. "I'm next door, Velken! We have new neighbors!"

Velken ran over to her and saw Gabriel. "Who's this, Baby Sister?"

"This is Gabriel Van Helsing. He's just moving in with his mama."

"Nice to meet you." Gabriel greeted.

"You too. The name's Prince Velken Valerious. Welcome to Transylvania."

"Thanks. We moved from Greece."

"Greece? That's quite a journey."

"Gabriel." Came his mother's voice from behind him.

All the children turned to look at her. "Hi, Mom. This is Princess Anna and her older brother Prince Velken Valerious. They live in the manor next door."

"Oh! It's nice to meet you, Your Highnesses." She said giving a curtsy.

Anna giggled. "Don't be so formal, Mrs. Van Helsing. We are not your average royal family. We like to be treated just like everyone else."

"What my sister said." Velken agreed.

"Oh. Alright then. But you must call me Hera."

The siblings nodded. "It's nice to meet you, Hera."

Velken turned to his sister. "Mama wants us back for dinner."

"Ok." She sighed. She turned to Gabriel and Hera. "It was nice to meet you both. Our parents would like to meet you soon. It is only proper that they know everyone."

"Of course." Hera replied. "Come by tomorrow and we'll arrange that meeting. You are welcome here anytime."

Anna nodded and walked back home with Velken.