Hey guys, I'm back with another chapter, and I forgot to mention in the previous one that Elisabeth Bathory is a real person, she actually existed in the 1400's in Hungary and she really did drain girls of blood because she thought, drinking it, and bathing in it made her look younger. A noble who was searching for his daughter discovered her and they did storm the castle. They confined her to one room in her castle for the rest of her days and she died there. So if you would like to know more about the real woman, you can find her in books and on the Internet. I DID NOT MAKE HERUP! Sorry I forgot to mention that.
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It had been several days since the discovery of her secret diary and the only reason that Melania left her room was to go hunting. She only ate when someone forced her too and she didn't want to see anyone but Lilia, the one person that she trusted more than anything else in the world.
'How is she?' asked Gabriel as Lilia came down the stairs, an empty lunch tray in her hands.
'Better I think, but she is still very scared, even if she won't admit it, perhaps one of you should talk to her?' Lilia's suggestion seemed innocent enough but she had seen the tension between the two monster hunters and was doing a bit of matchmaking for her boss and friend. Gabriel smiled at the blonde woman before him and took her advice, bounding up the stairs two at a time.
He gently knocked on Melania's door, but there was no answer.
'Melania?' he asked as he entered, seeing her sitting on the window seat, the curtain drawn back and the icy grounds the only thing you could see for miles.
'She's had my blood, I don't know why she would want it now.' Her voice was quiet but she might as well have screamed for all the pain that was in it.
'You are a threat to her.' He replied as he sat down next to her, the breeze from outside penetrating the thin glass of the window and sending shivers up and down his spine, of course that could always be from how close he was to the woman beside him.
'But I don't understand, they locked her away in a tower, how did Dracula reach her?'
'He must have heard of her deeds and fulfilled her wish of eternal youth that she could never achieve in real life.'
'But all of this happened many years ago, did he turn her then?' she asked as she turned to look at him, and he was taken aback by how hollow her eyes looked.
'I don't know, that's something we'll have to ask when we see him.' He wanted to lighten the mood, but he didn't know how.
'Will you hunt with me tonight?' she asked out of the blue and he gave her a disbelieving look for a moment.
'Why?'
'I have never seen you hunt, only heard the stories, it is always better to see a legend in action than hear the exaggeration of it from others.' Her answer was candid and he heard some of the old Melania inside of it, so he agreed.
'Very well, we'll go as soon as it is dusk.'
He started to stand and when she didn't stop him he headed towards the door, glad that he had gotten her to talk a bit about what was bothering her even if he couldn't bring her peace by answering her questions.
'Gabriel?'
'Yes?' he asked as he paused by the door.
'Will you stay with me, just a while longer?' she asked him and he could feel the fragility of her voice just as loudly and as clearly as he could hear it.
'Sure.' He closed the door tightly and came back over to sit on the ledge beside her, they didn't speak and they didn't touch, but it was a comfort to her, to know that he was right there beside her even if he was only ordered to be here by his bosses back at the Vatican.
She had a feeling that even if Dracula came, even if Elisabeth was out for her blood, they could face it, together.
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Melania slowly changed her clothes as she prepared for her hunt with Gabriel, her mind was so filled with questions that she couldn't even process them. She didn't know why she was so special, some other girls had to have escaped in all the confusion, right? Bathory had to go after all of them, she was just next on the list, she was a hunter, not the hunted. And with that disconcerting thought in her mind she headed down the stairs and grabbed her bag of weapons, following Gabriel out the door and into the night.
'Several nights ago you mentioned something you did not know attacked you.'
'Yes.'
'Do you have any idea of what it could be now?' he asked her, a little uncomfortable with the situation, if they didn't have a specific prey then they really just stood in an awkward silence, neither being very good at small talk.
'No.' she sounded surprised at herself, she never forgot to research when something new entered her territory.
The pair reached the center of the woods, where the trees became thicker and both could feel something following them, the feeling familiar to Melania and she instantly knew it was what had attacked her days before.
Gabriel looked over at her, thinking along the same lines and she nodded at him, confirming a scary thought. This thing was hunting them and they had no idea what it was or how to kill it.
A low growl reverberated through the woods and then a high-pitched cackle was heard. Melania spun on her heel, her worn pistol making an appearance. Gabriel stood next to her, his own weapons weighing heavy in his hands. The pair of hunters stood there for a moment, neither moving, not even daring to breath too loudly. Then their hunter appeared.
It was a dog, or what looked like a dog; it had four eyes and reeked of death. When it came close there was saliva dripping from its fangs and its coat was matted down and covered with what looked like mud but when the wind shifted directions the stench of blood reached their sensitive noses and both Melania and Gabriel stepped back.
'This what attacked you?' Gabriel asked her; incredulous that she wouldn't remember that it was a dog with four eyes.
'I don't know.' She whispered, and she didn't, she remembered yellow eyes and the stench of death, but that was it, she couldn't dredge up any other image of what had attacked her.
'Well, if he listened then he is what attacked you.' Came a voice from the shadows and Melania felt all her blood run cold and her mind went numb, she knew that voice, it haunted her dreams.
'Hello Melania.' Purred a woman as she came into the moonlight, resting her hand on the dog's back, a small smile on her face. Gabriel looked from one woman to the other and made the connection.
'Elisabeth.' The voice fell from her lips without emotion. The woman, vampire, before her looked the same as she had when she was alive, the same dark red hair and sparkling grey eyes, her smile glittered in the moonlight and Melania could see the fangs. She was dressed in a floor length dark green gown, jewels around her neck and all her rings still on her fingers.
'You don't look happy to see me dear.' She feigned sadness as Melania took another step back.
'I'm not, and I don't remember you having a dog.' As long as she kept her talking, the longer she had to get out of there alive, with all her blood.
'I borrowed him from Hel, the goddess of Helheim, after I killed her of course. His name is Garm, and at one time he guarded death's gate.'
'You can't leave the gate unguarded.' Melania looked positively stricken and Gabriel just confused, he had never heard of Garm or Hel, or Helheim, they were not Catholic teachings.
'But it is, Yama still has his lovely beasts, I only borrowed the one.' Her smile was back and she took another step towards the hunter before her, making the proud woman prey.
'What do you want?'
'Your blood, dear, it will keep me young and beautiful forever, would you like that? To die the same as your friends?'
'You murdered those girls.'
'Yes, I suppose I did, but they kept me young, I haven't aged a day in nearly thirty years, you must try it.' Her fangs started to grow even more and Garm barked and lunged for Melania, who fired off two shots before tearing off into the woods, Gabriel on her heels.
She could feel her breath quicken, and pump through her lungs with a fierceness she had never felt before, her adrenaline was pouring through her body and burning her skin. She had to hurry; she could hear the shrill cackles and fluttering of Elisabeth's wings. She was going to catch her if she didn't hurry.
'Melania, duck!' she heard him but couldn't follow his advice fast enough and she felt claws dig into her shoulders as Elisabeth lifted her into the air, carrying her off towards the newest castle that housed Dracula, to her inevitable death.
'Damn.' Cursed Gabriel as he watched her get carried off.
