Since you guys have been good to me with the reviews I decided to release the next chapter! Thank you for the reviews aleera13, Lady Wednesday, and Ron's Sexy Girly 750. Hope you all like! Of course I don't own Van Helsing.
"Gin," Adrienne said as she laid down her cards. Eric blinked at the row of four sevens, three jacks, and an ace, two, three of clubs. Looking down at his hands he had no matching cards. Throwing his cards in the air, Eric groaned in defeat.
"How is it you keep winning," he moaned. Carlton let a small laugh lose in the kitchen, earning him a death glare from Eric. "Are you using Magick?"
"Of course not," Adrienne sighed. Rowan had been downstairs for awhile now, she was starting to miss her only friend. After all she had left her with the guys she could never really connect and talk with. "You are just a sore loser. I'll be upstairs meditating if you need me."
"Fine," Eric huffed as she walked out. After she left, Rowan and Van Helsing emerged from the basement. "Did he agree to help?"
"Of course he did!" Rowan said as though she was shocked by his question. "Was there any doubt in your mind."
"Tons," Eric muttered as he left the room to retire to his room.
"Don't mind him," Carlton called from the kitchen as he brought tea out. "He is always as cuddly as a cactus when he loses gin to Adrienne."
"Cuddly as a cactus?" Rowan gaped, thinking she had heard the phrase on some holiday movie. "That's it no more TV for you!"
"Huh?" Carlton replied, as he seat the tea down on the oak kitchen table that could sit four. "But why!"
"Because," Rowan said simply as she picked up her tea in the pure white china cup. "You watch it far too much, my proof is in the references you make from either TV shows or movies on a daily bases."
"Fine," Carlton huffed as he stood. Marching out of the room, he turned to say one last thing. "Remember pay back is a bitch."
"He is such a whiny bitch," Rowan muttered into her tea, she set the cup on the table and look to Van Helsing. Letting a small giggle past her lips she stared at Van Helsing, who refused to touch the tea. "It's not spiked in anyway. If anything he would have mess with my cup first."
"Sorry," Van Helsing said as he pushed the cup away from him. "But the last thing I drank a drink that was offered to me knocked me off my feet."
"Guess I will have to earn your trust then," Rowan sighed as she looked out the archway separating the kitchen from the dinning room. In the dinning room, Adrienne was reaching for something underneath the table. Rowan couldn't help that her eyes were expressive, even when she did not want to express anything. Van Helsing saw her eyes grow wide, and quickly turned around to face the dinning room. He saw a small figure of a woman underneath a table, reaching for something. But before he saw her face, Rowan interrupted his gaze.
"Don't mind her," Rowan said quickly, trying to get him to turn away from Adrienne. "She is a witch protégée for Hecate. In fact she is here representing Hecate, I am suppose to release you to her when everyone knows you can be trusted. Of course you could always just work for me and screw Hecate over."
"Really," Van Helsing said tearing his eyes from her as she emerged from underneath the table, with a wooden wand in hand. Trying to not let out a sigh of relief, Rowan watched her head back upstairs. It just wasn't time yet to explain Adrienne's situation quite yet, Rowan justified herself. "You want to know the only reason why I agree to help you with any of this?"
"Of course," Rowan said as she polished off the rest of her tea. Knowing he had his own reasons in helping them, made her feel less worried about him betraying them.
"Stefan, the warlock behind most of this pending disaster," Van Helsing said, his voice full of disgust. Zytka had come back after everything was done and told him everything about Stefan. From how Atrum met Stefan, to his last little dirty trick against her. With this knowledge he blamed Stefan for her death, after all if the circle wasn't tainted by him Satan would have never trapped her. Then she would never had to face Satan one on one and end up making the ultimate sacrifice. "I owe him one."
"And how do you plan to repay him?" Rowan asked with mild curiosity. After all the reason they knew they could get his help is because of his grudge against Stefan, at least that was what Eric had told her when she was told to fetch. Fetch, as if it would end there. Now that she had fetch Van Helsing it was her duty now to stop Stefan. Sneaky witches, all of em, she thought.
"With his life," Van Helsing said as he pounded his fist against the table, bringing her from her thoughts. The china cups shivered under his fist, as his anger burned. "I will make that little whelp pay for everything he has done to my beloved. His life is mine to take, after all he took hers."
"If I'm not mistaking you are speaking of the death of one Andreana Atrum Luna, witch of the Dark Moon," Rowan baited him, she wanted to hear his side of the tale. The story of the witch of the Dark Moon was one she heard from other witches who wished to keep her story alive. Some believe if you keep the story of the person alive the spirit would live on forever. Of course that was just superstition, after all who really knows what happens on the other side.
"Witch of the Dark Moon," Van Helsing repeated, slightly confused. "I've never heard of her being called that."
"It was how she is identified among the witches of the small village she last entered," Rowan said, as she racked her mind for the little pieces of the story she knew to be true. "So the story is true?"
"Story?" Van Helsing gaped in horror, had his and Atrum's history become a story passed down.
"Yes," Rowan nodded, thinking it a honor to have your tale told years after your death. Would anyone tell of her tale? "Yours and her story has been passed down for generations. Of course there is the normal little edits people make and turn it into more then what it really is. Like I am sure she didn't take down Satan and his army all at once."
"No," Van Helsing sighed. It was common knowledge most people couldn't tell a story without adding a something little extra to make it more exciting or more unbelievable. Maybe that's why people turned their noses when something supernatural happens. The belief that none of the supernatural could actually happen is more dangerous then believing. After all if you do not believe then how could you possible protect yourself against the unknown if you deny the unknown exists. Placing his head in his hands, his reward for his inquiry was a massive headache.
"Do you believe she is at peace?" Rowan asked all of a sudden. The pain look in his eyes at the mention of Atrum's name, made her want to know more.
"I wish and hope every night she is," Van Helsing confessed, not realizing that Rowan was weaving a spell around him that was compelling him to tell her all. She found it easy to make anyone tell her the information she needed, of course this got her into trouble too. Hecate had order him to tell no one the she lives. He was to find her on his own and was not allowed to tell her who she was until she figured it out for herself. "My dreams say otherwise. She comes to me every night, I feel as though she wants to tell me something."
"What happens," Rowan urged him to continue, as tragic love was her favorite story to hear. After all if you can't be happy, why not share in other's misery as well. If that fails just bring others to you misery level.
"She tells me to wake up," Van Helsing said as he snapped from underneath her spell. Hecate had also warned him about Rowan's little spell to charm anything from a person. "You know I do not appreciate you weaving spells around me."
"Wow you are good," Rowan laughed as she took the tea back to the kitchen and placed it in the sink. She would make Carlton clean it up later, then she returned to the table. "So now that you gave I guess it's time for me to give. Tell me what you would like to know."
"Who are you exactly?" Van Helsing asked, glad he would finally receive some answers.
"Rowan Scott," she replied, as she leaned back in her chair. "I am a second degree witch for Erie Knoll. Keeper of the Lost One, and teacher to Carlton the pansy."
"Carlton being the one I had in a head lock?" Van Helsing inquired.
"Aye," she snorted. Most would speak fondly of their apprentices, but Rowan had hardly any fond feelings for Carlton. After all Eric was the one who made sure he would train under her instead of him. She hated getting someones hand me down.
"He looks like someone I use to know," Van Helsing said as he thought of Carl.
"Of course he does," Rowan said as she put her black leather boot clad feet on the table. "He is Carl's great great add a few more great grandson."
"He never had kids," Van Helsing coughed in surpirsed.
"Actually when you both where in Romania he did sleep with a bar wench," Rowan said as she almost fell back in her chair. Straighting up, she placed her feet back on the floor. "Of course neither of you returned so he never found out about his son. Shame really. Now let's move on! Next question."
"What is the Lost One?" Van Helsing asked her, as he listen carefully to her answers and gauged her expressions. Shock took over her face as she realized what had slipped out.
"The Lost One?" she laughed nervously. Oh crap. "That was just a slip there is no Lost One."
"Tell me about the Lost One or I'm going to find a way around your damn wards," Van Helsing threatened. Hating when people hid things from him, he had a feeling this was important. "How will you explain it to your male friends when I disappeared."
"Do not threa…" Rowan began as she stood up. They were both interrupted when Adrienne walked in.
"Hey Rowan where do you keep the matches?" she said as she walked in. Van Helsing turned to face her. Flying out of his chair, he pointed at her.
"You," he gasped, and stared at her. Rowan grabbed the nearest thing to her and ended up knocking Van Helsing down with a frying pan. Falling to the ground unconscious, he let out a small grunt. An ear piercing shriek came from Adrienne's mouth, as Carlton and Eric ran into the kitchen.
"Did you kill him?" Adrienne asked, as Carlton knelt down by him and felt for a pulse on Van Helsing's neck.
"Nah," Carlton said standing up. "He's still alive."
"Rowan!" Eric fumed, he had enough of her antics for one day. "Just what were you thinking!"
"Oh look," she said as she grabbed Adrienne's hand, a book of matches and fled out of the room. "Matches!"
"What is going on!" Adrienne hissed as Rowan dragged her back to Rowan's room, and warded the door. Thinking fast, Rowan came up with a small excuse.
"He was going to kill you!" Rowan blurted out, failing at keeping her cool.
"What?" Adrienne replied, confused. Staring at Rowan, she was getting more confused by the minuet.
"Oh fuck it! Sleep!" Rowan commanded as she wave a hand in front of Adrienne, who fell asleep. Catching her, Rowan plopped her onto her snowy white bed. "I never did do well under pressure."
Slumping into one of her light blue bean bag chairs, she put her head into her hands. Life just got more complicated every moment it seemed. She was slightly beginning to crack under the pressure, and she laughed at the thought. Leaning back in the chair, head up, she let out a crazy laugh. Continuing until she heard Eric pounding at her door, she figured she handle this all later when she regained some sanity. Drifting to sleep in her bean bag, she relax and submitted to her dreams.
Ha Ha Rowan came out a little more funny then I thought she would. Don't you just love it when people crack under pressure? I do. Next time Rowan tries to explain. Reviews are always love, so do it! You know you want to! Till next time!