Chapter 10: Dead Serious

Dracula was the first to land on a high rooftop and his brides followed. They looked down on the village, waiting for the right moment to reveal themselves. They didn't want to land in front of the villagers right away because they had to know if it was safe first; flying into a trap wasn't on top of their to-do lists,

"I shall stay up here, just to make it look like you have come on your own,"

Verona's eyes darted around the world below then looked at Dracula

"Why?"

"Just to be safe, in case anything goes wrong,"

That was a good enough answer for Verona. She took Aleera's hand and Marishka took Nshina's,

"Are you ready?"

Marishka asked Nshina and she nodded

"I'm very ready,"

They both giggled and took off with Verona and Aleera behind them. They circled above the village the dived straight down, the wind whipping their hair wildly around their heads. Their feet touched railing of a porch raised of the ground and they shape shifted back into their human forms. As the wind blew from the east the pieces of material that were at the back of their outfits blew in the same direction of the wind; gold and red material mixed with pink and green. They stood on the porch grinning at the people who were running around madly

"You would think that they would be used to us by now, knowing that we are going to kill one of them. They should just make it easier for themselves by staying still,"

Verona commented, Marishka flicked her head to look at her

"But dear sister, what is the fun is catching easy prey? Why not make them suffer; it's more fun that way,"

She looked over at Nshina who was laughing

"Don't you agree?"

That made her laugh again

"I totally agree with you,"

Nshina jumped down from the railing and walked toward the screaming crowd, she saw one that she wanted to take and materialized in front of him. She dragged her long, manicured finger across his neck and the man gulped,

"Please, whatever you are going to do make it quick,"

Nshina opened her mouth to speak but someone else got in there first

"It has become obvious that Dracula is trying to get as many brides as he can, but tell me why?"

Nshina grabbed the man she saw first by the throat and picked him up, tightening her grip on his neck as she spoke

"Oh really? I have not noticed that,"

She heard the stranger step closer to her and she heard him pull out something,

"Well you must be blind my dear. Now if you please, put the man down,"

Nshina sighed and dropped him to the floor. The man scrambled away on his hands and knee's and Nshina's hands dropped to her side, the man carried on talking,"

"Where is the younger one? I can't see her and I thought we had a meeting,"

There was a smirk to his voice,

He doesn't recognise me, maybe it's time to refresh him memory

She turned around and snarled at the man. He dropped his crossbow and looked at her with disbelief

"How… when… who…"

Nshina just laughed and whispered

"Magic,"

By this time Marishka, Aleera and Verona had all jumped down and had picked out their prey.

Watching Nshina is like watching Marishka

Aleera thought. Suddenly, someone man stepped out beside this man, someone none of them ever wished to see again but Nshina did not seem to realise to he was

"How are you fingers by the way? I expect they hurt a bit,"

Nshina commented

"Yes they do pain him quite a lot, but I'm sure he will be fine,"

The man had quite a rugged appearance with w voice to match it, Nshina frowned. She did not recognise him but she had a feeling she should.

Dracula had been sitting on the roof watching the whole thing, the man who stepped out was no one else but Van Helsing. He belted out an almighty roar and darted down next to Nshina's side and pulled her away

"You were banished from this place, leave now and we give you a head start before we rip you apart!"

His voice had become dangerously low, it finally clicked who this man was to Nshina but she was nor afraid but angry, very, very angry. Her eyes turned red and her fangs grew out, long and sharp, her mouth fixed into a deadly snarl,

"I thought your new bride was a young one Count, what happened to her? Did she grow up over night?"

Marishka appeared by Nshina's side and she grabbed her hand

"It's none of your business, you mortal scum,"

Van Helsing just ignored Marishka and carried on looking at Dracula

"I see you have met my grandchild Matthew,"

Dracula's cold eyes lightly glanced over him and he raised an eyebrow,

"Yes we have, my new bride is the one who dealt with him though. Matthew is a weak one if he can have mot of his fingers broken by one so young,"

Nshina smirked and Van Helsing looked at her,

"My dear you seem very confident of yourself, why is this,"

She considered the question for a moment the answered

"If I can manage to harm one like him as easy as I did then I'm sure someone as old as you will be incredibly easy,"

Van Helsing took a step towards her and put a hand in his pocket

"Is that what you think?"

In-humanly fast he pulled out a silver stake and stabbed it through the air to where her heart was, before it even got close to her skin she caught the stake and yanked it out of his grasp and threw it to the side,

"Yes, that is what I think,"

Marishka, Aleera, Verona and Dracula snarled and flew at Van Helsing and Matthew. Nshina felt the wind rush past her and it almost knocked her off her feet, but she frowned. Van Helsing wasn't where he was a couple of seconds ago. She was just about to shout at Marishka but someone grabbed her shoulders and pulled her back to them, he put his hands around her shoulders and wouldn't let her move, however much she tried to kick and punch him she could not seem to fight him off. A stake was pulled out and put over her skin where her heart was

"Excuse me! I think I have something that belongs to you!"

Van Helsing shouted over the noise and everyone stopped dead. When Aleera saw Nshina she started to whimper. They dropped the people they were holding and turned to face Van Helsing,

"That's better, well I now see that to get your attention this is what I had to go,"

Nshina looked up at Van Helsing and snarled

"How did you do that?"

Mathew was standing next to them and he replied

"Magic,"

Nshina remembered that she had said that to him, that annoyed her even more. She started to kick and struggle more but her efforts were failing miserably

"If you don't stop that now I will kill you, and my betters would rather I not do that,"

Verona watched them with terror in her heart

"You wouldn't kill her!"

She exclaimed. Van Helsing looked over at her and tightened his grip on the stake, pressing it against her skin harder so that she yelped in pain

"No my dear, I am being dead serious,"

He simply replied, seeing that he had got the vampires full attention he started to walk backwards, still holding Nshina

"While I am here you will not kill another human, if you do your beloved will die. Do you understand me?"

They understood. Dracula could feel Nshina's intense fear, it was so intense that he didn't think he could take it, he could feel Marishka's helplessness. She felt helpless because there was nothing she could do, if she tried to save her she would die but Nshina could die if she didn't try, the sorrow was pouring out of Aleera, the sorrow was there because she had come to love Nshina, just like her master said she would. The only thing he could feel from Verona was anger, anger because Van Helsing dared to come back and threaten them, threaten her littlest sister. Dracula felt that he was so overloaded with emotion that there was no room for his own emotions. But his emotion was tied to his brides. He felt the anger, the helplessness, the sorrow and the fear.

Van Helsing could see the emotions on each of their faces, he could almost feel their hate for him and his grandchild but he could see that what he was doing hurt them. To his surprise he almost felt sorry for them, if he killed this new one then they would have lost one of their own, a part of their family. He felt like this the last time he was here but he could not show that. This was because in his own beliefs is you showed any kind of feeling you showed weakness.

"I am sorry to break the ice but I need to go, do you mind if we borrow your bride?"

He asked Dracula smirking. Dracula almost lost it, he muscles tightened and his face darkened completely but he did not do anything, his reaction was just to answer the question. Even if it was a rhetorical one

"Yes, we do mind,"

This amused Van Helsing,

"Well in the words of Marishka: Too bad, so Sad,"

This time it was Marishka who lost it and she didn't try to stop herself. She kicked off the ground and flew directly in a straight line at Van Helsing, not caring if he killed her or not. The only thing she wanted now was to save Nshina. Dracula watched Marishka and caught one of her feet and pulled her back into his arms, and comforted the sobbing bride.

Van Helsing watched it all and this time he felt sorry for just Marishka, even he could tell that they were close and it was breaking her for him to take but he had to, he had orders to. With a kicking and screaming Nshina in his arms Mathew and his self walked out of the village and got onto 2 horses. Nshina was so tired by this point she could not carry on this fight, she just leaned against Van Helsing and closed her eyes, her eyes crying blood once again.

Dracula and his remaining brides flew back to the castle in silence. When they landed they looked at Marishka who was sitting on the floor rocking back and fourth her own blood tears pouring out of her eyes, but her blood tears were black with age. She had not cried for so long she had almost forgotten how to, but on this rare occasion it came naturally to her. The human emotion had surfaced after 500 years of laying in slumber. Aleera rested her head on Marishka's shoulder and started out blankly, none of them could now feel emotion. They felt numb with pain and fear, Dracula finally spoke his words coming out quietly

"Marishka we will get her back, I don't care if Van Helsing is immortal. I will not let them harm her in any way,"

There was no reply and Verona and himself bent down and cuddle the brides. Marishka let out a long scream of pain and sorrow; the Dwerger and Igor were all watching their master and mistresses. There was nothing they could do now, they just wished that Nshina was strong enough for what was too come…