I just want you to know who I am:
Song lyric not mine, characters not mine, Xana is mine. Ah, ya know the deal
Van Helsing had made his way to the ship in the shadows as Carl freely brought their luggage onboard. When the ship moved out of the harbour, Van Helsing came out of the shadows, leaned on the side of the ship and breathed in some early morning sea air. He then sensed that someone was looking at him, and looked around but there was only a woman there staring out into the sea, as if she were longing for her home.
The woman spotted Gabriel taking in some sea air, she couldn't believe it, it was him, and she quickly looked away.
Van Helsing looked at the woman, the backs of the recesses of his mind urged him over to her, he spotted the letter that she kept clutched close to her, it had the mark of the Holy Order, and then he knew that she was the one he was meant to protect.
"Excuse me, I couldn't help noticing that letter that you are holding, I think that that is meant for me" he told her. "And who might you be" she asked him, unbeknownst to him that she actually knew who he was. "My name is Van Helsing, I was sent by the Holy Order to protect you" he replied adding "and yours" "My name is Xana" she replied. Her gaze shifted to Carl, who was now by his side, she smiled warmly at him, he did also and she ran over and hugged him. "Carl" she said. "Xana, good to see you again" he replied. "You know her?" he asked his friend. "Yes, well, I helped to bring her to the Vatican, some time ago" he replied to Van Helsing before turning to Xana again, "Must be three months since I saw you though, what happened" he asked her.
"I was in hiding, things were stirring in Transylvania and the Cardinal thought that it was unwise for me to venture out, I was put in the care of some old nuns, they were very kind to me, I told the cardinal a month ago though that I had to go home, he understood what was going on in my homeland and agreed that it would be a wise move, I was more of a use there than here, especially with Dracula dead now" she replied.
"You knew of Dracula?" Van Helsing asked. "Yes, only too well, he terrorised our lands for many years before turning his attention to creating his offspring" she replied adding "Me and a few others like me, joined together to fight against him, some got killed, others lost to us, I hated Dracula more than anything, he had made me loose a friend of mine seven years ago, someone who fought side by side with me, together we were a force to be reckoned with, but no more." "I am sorry that he has caused you so much grief, but he is gone now, I made sure of it" said Van Helsing to her, when he looked at her, he knew that she had already known of this, she smiled at him sadly and walked away from him. "She is acting very peculiar, not like herself at all" Carl noted as she walked out of earshot of them both. With that they headed to their individual cabins to unpack.
They did not meet Xana again until dinnertime, she was particularly more nervous now, as if anxious about something, every now and then Van Helsing noted that she would look out of the window, as if the setting sun was her warning. She ate fairly quickly and headed to her cabin and locked the door. A storm had started up shortly after sunset which made it impossible for Van Helsing to stay on deck, he tried to keep himself preoccupied by reading a book that was placed on the shelf in his room, but he soon found himself nodding off to sleep.
Dream Scene;
He found himself carrying the sword that the cardinal had given him in the armoury. It fitted well in his hands, there were hoards of werewolves and vampires heading his way, he killed them easily enough. He had his werewolf senses back, he smelled the blood of the werewolves he had killed all around him, in the distance he spotted Xana fighting on more werewolves and vampires, then he spotted Dracula, he found himself changing and jumping up in the air to try to take him down when he was in bat form, only to be met by another barrier, the scenes of fighting disappeared around him and he was alone and human again. Then the wolf came again to him. "She misses you" said the wolf. "Anna?" he asked. "No, her" he replied and pointed with his snout to directly behind him, where Xana could be seen crying in her cabin, she looked up and he saw that her eyes were feral golden brown.
He woke up and went outside, the sea was finally calm, and then he spotted her on the deck staring out into the sea, her face masked somewhat from the hood that covered her head. He went over to her and pulled her around to him to make him see her face. Her eyes, those feral eyes that he had seen in his dream, he instinctively took out his gun and pointed it towards her. She looked down and closed her eyes, he clicked the gun into active and prepared to fire. "Am I evil?" she asked him suddenly. She found when she looked up that his gaze change from hardened determination to confusion. "WELL, AM I?" she added louder and even more determined than before. She knew that he couldn't sense any evil in her, he lowered his weapon. "I'll take that as a no" she said. As she left, she heard him shout towards her, "Wait"
She looked around at him, she thought that she would be faced again with a gun so she braced herself; instead, she was faced with a confused looking Van Helsing. "What happened to me?" he asked her, almost pleadingly. At that moment, she didn't care that he didn't remember her; she had to let him know what she was really feeling inside. "My friend, when I saw you today I was filled with joy and sorrow, joy at the fact that you were still alive and sorrow because you didn't remember me and your power taken from you" she told him adding "I've missed you so much"
Then the realisation dawned on Van Helsing, "I was your friend" he said and looked towards Xana for the answer, she nodded. "I don't remember anything, it's as if it had been blocked in my mind, that's what my dreams meant" he added. "Your dreams?" she asked him. "Yes, my dreams, they have been steadily getting worse each night since the night we were at Dracula's lair" he told her. "The seer was right" she said inwardly. "Seer, what do you mean?" asked Van Helsing. "A person who was said to be a seer of future events made a prediction about what would happen to you, we didn't take it seriously at the time, but it seemed that now, it has come true, partially at least. He told of someone within the pack that would be lost to us and who would become fully human again with no memories of his life with us, that this individual would find his way again and kill Dracula, but at a great personal loss to himself" she told him, she came over to him, but slightly distanced herself from him. "He said that person would help us and that person who fought with me all those years ago would fight with me again" she told him. Her feral eyes looked cautiously at him, he looked at her. "Well, I'd better be getting inside" she said and turned to leave. "Wait, what creature are you, you cannot be a werewolf, they don't have the level of control to keep a human form" he asked her. "The good ones do" she called back to him before going into her cabin.
Van Helsing didn't believe what he had just heard. His dream, that's what they meant, he was meant to be a werewolf. What if what she had told him was a lie? The best bet for him was to be cautious still, for all he knew; she could be leading him into a trap. He went back to his cabin, but was unable to get back to sleep and morning came quickly enough.
She decided that it was best to keep her distance from Gabriel for the remainder of the journey. She was nervous and didn't know whether he would kill her and not believe her own story. A couple of days later they arrived, the chaos very clear to see from the moment that they set foot on land.
"Oh, God, what have they done!" she exclaimed in pure disbelief in the carnage she witnessed around her.
