Vlad had gone from being fairly sure he knew what to expect to having absolutely no idea what Max was going to say. It wasn't about France, yet something about being brought to the past must have prompted him to feel the need to confess in the first place. Did it have something to do with the fables, perhaps? If he could hear Dracula, then Max must have been able to hear his... but how bad could it be? Whatever it was, it was bothering him far more than anything he'd ever seen before.
It was still confusing, though. Max had committed murder - what secret could possibly be worse than that? Judging from his body language, the struggle was genuine rather than faked. Feeling uncomfortably like he was dealing with a particularly resilient child, Vlad leaned forward slightly with one hand on his chin, offering silent encouragement.
At first it still didn't click, and his expression was carefully blank as he tried to work it out. "Mr. Hyde?" Well, it wasn't exactly a good fable, but could have been worse. "What does that--" He cut himself off abruptly, understanding flaring briefly in his eyes. Mr. Hyde was the creation of Dr. Jekyll, wasn't he? So if Max was Mr. Hyde... that meant there had to be a Dr. Jekyll. The implications left him with a creeping feeling of dread, even as he tried to hope that maybe it wasn't what he thought. "If you are Mr. Hyde... then who is Dr. Jekyll?" The question was asked slowly, and honestly he almost didn't want to know the answer.