Disclaimers: Van Helsing doesn't belong to me, this is just a story based on the movie. The plot and OC's are copyright to me. There will be a prequel for this up soon.

Note: The ideas expressed here concerning the nature of the Devil, magic and origin of vampires are solely for the movement of the plot line and should not be taken as truth. No offence is intended to those that know more about these things than I do.

Thanks for the reviews, they help a lot.

[blah, blah] – Romanian

#blah, blah# - thoughts.

Chapter 3:

Day six:

They've been on the train for almost two days now, only getting off at night for refueling. Usually the village had an inn that wasn't too scruffy and her title afforded them the best room. Igor wouldn't let her out of his sight and, although it bothered her the first while, she was glad that he was around. She hadn't been feeling very well - a strange stupor was upon her and it was getting worse.

They had just passed the border post into Austria and she decided to revert to her true name at the next stop near the border of Hungary. Her real name, her real heritage. The past few days had given her a lot of time to think and her conclusions weren't very promising for them or their quest.

Igor had managed to secure them one of the luxury coaches on the train and the sixth day since the master's death found Alexis lounging on one of the plush chairs, staring out the window at the falling rain. Before her was a lit candle, a decanter of water and a glass half full of black liquid. Her suspicions were confirmed, although she had hoped that she was mistaken, but magic never lies.

The candle was burned low when Igor entered with a tray of food. He had tried to make sure that his mistress was well fed and strong, but something was wrong. She was very pale and he suspected that she had a fever. He had no idea what it was and it frightened him.

"Igor," she said as he put the tray down, "I'm dying."

He nearly dropped the tray in his shock.

"Mistress?" he squeaked.

She turned away from the window.

"It's true, look," she pointed to the glass and he went pale and sat down heavily on a chair.

"How...?" he whispered.

She stared a very long time at him and then decided that nothing was as important as getting the master back.

"You must promise never to tell anyone of this, ever. No human has ever heard this and I would prefer not to tell you, but since this is an emergency, I will need your help if I'm to survive long enough."

He nodded frantically.

"Very well then..."

She took a deep breath to compose herself - but she was terrified of her fate.

"When father was murdered, he made a deal with the Devil. As part of the deal, the Devil gave him a gift, a part of Himself. The gift cannot stay the same inside a human, it must change and in its changing, change the human as well. In my father, he changed into a vampire. But before he was completely changed, I was conceived. I received a part of my mother and a part of my father. As part of me - inside my Code of Life, as the Ancients called it - the gift stayed the same. It could not change, since it was not introduced, but part of my very being."

"That gift gave me magic, because of my connection to the Devil. It is almost completely unchanged - my father slept with my mother only a day after the Deal and had changed little in that time."

She turned to Igor from her pacing of the coach.

"I have an almost pure part of the Devil inside me."

Igor squirmed under her gaze, but then suddenly she turned away again.

"The problem is that the human body wasn't made to handle something like this, this alien presence. My very being was poisoning me from the inside, but we thought that I had just picked up some illness somewhere - we didn't even figure all this out until centuries later. I was changed almost two years before Father wanted to, but at the end I was so sick that he despaired for my life and was forced to bring me across."

"The gift - in its changed form from my father - overpowered my human side, but couldn't transform it like it does in normal vampires. That's why, when Father died the vampire he gave me died, but I didn't. Usually the gift would infuse into the human part and change, like it did for Father, but in me it stayed the same. I am his true equal; none other can claim this."

"Every descendent vampire would be weaker than the one that changed it, caused by the dilution of the gift. You remember those poor unfortunates that we had to destroy a few years ago - they were barely strong enough to transform, let alone hunt. They were the products of diluted blood."

"I had forgotten all about this, but it's happening again. I'm dying, slowly and painfully."

She sat down wearily on the chair.

"How long...?"

"A few days, perhaps a week. I don't know really, but there isn't much time left."

He patted her hand.

"Don't worry, mistress, we'll find a way."

----------

AN: Right then, this was a small interlude, with the added bonus of a backstory. Next time, even more travelling and a look at what Van Helsing and his little friend are doing.