Vanessa is a vampire, plain and simple. Dracula had raised her as if she was his daughter, and he had given her the choice to stay human, or to become a vampire at age sixteen.
Over the years, Vanessa has acquired an ego too big to handle, and she doesn't care who she steps on to get what she wants anymore.
When Dracula finally punishes her for what she's done, threatening behead and burn her, she humbles herself a bit. Once you're burned, you're gone.
So many emotions play inside of her as her adopted father leaves her in the alley. Her heart settles on anger and bitterness as she wishes that she would have never become a vampire.
That wish, granted by Harold the Wishing Fairy, sends her spiraling into the past--her new life at a carnival, run by the strange Ring Leader. Vanessa can tell that there's something different about him, something strange, but she can't place it. All she knows is that he wants her dead, one way or another, and he won't stop until she is.