Monster

Adam ran across the field, tears streaming down his face. Frankenstein had forgiven him, but the battle was lost and there were so many dead on both sides. Vampires with blades through their hearts or holes in their chest, and Homo Lupis with blood on their faces.

But none of the faces were his blood-brother's face. Where was Robert?

Then an anguished yell echoed over the bloodstained plain, and Adam turned to see Abraham knelt over a young man's body. Adam broke into a run, and when he got there he saw that Robert was alive, and relief flooded through him until he heard what the young man was saying to his father.

"I can feel my mother calling me to her side. Bear my body back and bury me with her, I beg you. Take in Adam and shelter him. He is my blood-brother and my dear friend. And read this."

He passed his father a letter, and then turned to Adam. Adam knelt and took Robert's hand. He was too weak now for any more words, so he simply held tightly on to Adam as the light faded from his eyes.

The grief on Abraham's face was pitiful. He seemed to be unable to comprehend that he had to read the letter, so Adam took it gently from the numb fingers. He could not understand the words, so he carried it over to where Ernest and Victor stood vigil over their fallen cousin.

"What do you want now?" asked Ernest through his tears.

"I apologise," Adam replied, "but I cannot read. Would you tell me what this says?"

Ernest took the letter and read it out.

"To Mr Abraham van Helsing and Mr Robert van Helsing.

The High Council of Warlocks commands that you end your feud and swear the oath of peace to which our families are bound. This next battle with Dracula must be the last you fight, whether you win or lose. Signed Louis de Courcy, Erik Hirsch, Leon Banshikov and Francesco Allocco."

Adam took it back to Abraham, who still knelt, weeping, by his son.

"Sir," Adam began, trying to soften his naturally rough tones, "they say you cannot fight any longer."

He pressed the letter into Abraham's hands, and the man painstakingly read it.

"I will retire back to Tilburg, and bury my son. Adam, come with me. You were his blood brother. You will be my son now. I will teach you to read and write French, and I will teach you the speaking and the reading and writing of Dutch."

Adam stared at him for a moment, barely taking it in. Then he looked past him, and for a moment he could see everything. And right at the boundary of his vision was a cemetery, and in it a headstone. It was very faint, as it all was, but he could just make out the name Lavinia on the epitaph.

"Father," he said, the word feeling strange on his tongue, "I can see far away from here. What direction is your home?"

"It is behind me."

"I believe I see a grave," Adam began, then guessed, "I think it is your wife's. Was her name Lavinia?"

Abraham nodded.

"It is as I suspected. Some of Robert's blood flows in your veins, and so upon his death his powers were transferred to you. It is a weak and small gift, but what little Farsight you have I will teach you to master."

They embalmed Robert on the field, with help from Victor Frankenstein. Then they rode back towards Tilburg with his body, planning to bury him with his mother in Amsterdam.