Disclaimer: I own nothing except the plot and all of Vlad and Gabriel's friends, as well as our new female character.

A/N Okay, more plot development in this chapter. I'm currently working on the next chapter.... and five is the cursed number since I lost grip on my other major fic, These Bloody Nights Spent, on chapter five, so reviews will help me break the curse!! Oh, and I must say that the reviews I got for my previous chapter highly amused me.... and I also suppose I should apologize for the very mean joke I just played on all of you.....

Chapter Five:

Sweet Sin and Bitter Memory

The world, for once, held still for Gabriel Van Helsing. She was there. Every detail was as he remembered. Anna. Anna! His soul screamed. It had been forced to cross time itself to find it's other half, but somehow its screams weren't being heard. But there she was. Anna...
For Dracula too the world had stopped. He had forgotten... Soon his customary smirk was back on his face.
"Analiese. To what do we owe the honor of this visit?" He asked smoothly.
"To my wishing to come, cousin Vlad." She replied evenly, gliding closer.
Analiese? No, that's not you name... God, she even has the same voice... His thoughts trailed off. The world may have started again, but his heart and mind were struggling fruitlessly to catch up.
"Here, I shall move so that you may sit." Michael, sitting to Dracula's left, said as he stood.
"Thank you, but no. I'd like to sit elsewhere." Analiese said politely. Michael sat down, noting by the sudden flash of his eyes that Dracula was stung. "Would you mind if I sat here?" She asked in a kind voice.
"Not at all." William replied, standing and drawing out his chair. With an appreciative smile, she sat down. (A/n For those who got confused in the last chapter, the names are in left to right order. Carl is standing in the back. Dracula and Van Helsing are sitting next to each other in the middle.)
"Hello John, James, William, Vlad, Michael, Daniel, David." She said, resting her gaze on each in turn. At last, her eyes fell on Van Helsing, who was seated next. "Hello Gabriel."
"Anna..." He whispered desperately, his eyes full of longing.
"I've told you not to call me that. My name is Analiese, and I don't much like being called Anna." The warmth in her voice lessened somewhat.
"How long has it been since we've seen each other? It feel like lifetimes." He replied with a weak smile.
"It has not been that long, surely." Analiese said thoughtfully. "My mind puts it at nigh two years."
"Certainly feels to be so much longer, dearest cousin. Every day not spent with you becomes the same, and so all days blend into something unrecognizable. Not to mention uninteresting." Dracula replied sleekly, leaning across Van Helsing to better see Analiese.
"Speaking of which, what shall we do tomorrow?" Daniel asked languidly.
"Same as today, I suppose: mock battles, races, and perhaps a hunt. There are many animals about, and we have the two best hunters with us: Vlad and Gabriel." John replied in a similar way. "Between the two of you, there's not a hart in the world that is safe."
"Yes. We can catch any hart." Dracula smiled softly, his gaze once more straying to Analiese. Either she genuinely didn't notice his fawning, or she was a master of making it look like she did.
"But what shall Analiese do? We have no women to keep you company. Mayhap we can set up a canopy and you can do your stitching or weaving as we practice." James offered in a quiet voice.
"I had intended to watch or even participate on my own. I have no fear of the sun." Analiese said stiffly.
"Ah, these gypsy women. You must give them free reign." William laughed from his place beside Carl.
"A gypsy? What is you last name?" Carl asked unexpectedly, intrigued.
"Valerious." She said slowly. "What is your name, stranger?"
"Carl." replied the Friar. "I arrived recently with Gabriel."
"Oh." She nodded. Van Helsing seemed to have frozen. Analiese Valerious. One of Anna's ancestors... Anna.... "Perhaps we should go to bed now. Gabriel looks ready to die, and we'll need him alive tomorrow." She smiled at him, a gesture probably to comfort him.
She could never know how much it hurt him.
"Yes. I trust you'll know the way to your room?" Dracula joked as he stood.
"Could you lead me there anyway, Vlad?" Van Helsing asked tiredly.
"Of course. Daniel, show Carl a spare room." Dracula said. "Good night, Analiese." He said with a sweeping bow.
"Good night." She said a little coldly as she swept past.
Everyone said a brief good night, then dispersed. Dracula and Van Helsing walked in silence through a couple of corridors and up several flights of stairs, ending at the door to one of the tower rooms. They stopped before the door.
"Analiese... she's changed in these two years. Or maybe I'm looking at her with new eyes. She's not the same woman we played with as children." Dracula paused, seeing the distant look on Van Helsing's face. "Ah, you've noticed it too."
"Has it only been two years? Feels so much longer..." said the other distractedly. Dracula's face took on a look of concern, and he put a hand on Van Helsing's shoulder.
"Truly Gabriel, I hope you're well in the morning. You've been strange today." He said. "Good night my friend." He continued with a warm grin, then he walked back down the stairs. With a tortured sigh, Van Helsing went into his room.
Down one floor in the tower, Vladislaus Dracula paced his room in a state of agitation.
He had forgotten. He had become too comfortable as he relived the happiest time of his long life, when he and Gabriel Van Helsing were the best of friends. He had forgotten about HER. Her. The original sin. He couldn't fall prey to her cruel charms again. If he did, everything would fall into its old rut, and he'd lose again. But what agitated him the most was that he felt like everything was out of his control. He was saying things he had said before, standing on the verge of making identical mistakes. And now Van Helsing was there too, and likely in a similar predicament. But this wasn't the 'old' Van Helsing, he knew what he was about. He and that Friar were out to kill him, and since he was no longer up against the same Gabriel that had killed him before, he had lost his edge. The playing field was level once more.
Sin. He had committed many in his long life, but she was his greatest sin. Because he loved his cousin and would've killed his best friend to have her, he was damned. The taste of bitterness rose in the back of his throat, but quieted as the memory of the actual sin came back. He realized that now, still in the mindset of a soulless vampire, it wasn't at all a bad one. He would be cautious this time, but he would live through this more or less as it had happened originally.
Some sins are too sweet to not be lived again.
Van Helsing sat on his bed, trembling. He had managed to forget Anna, after a while. He had shoved her broken memory deep inside himself to a place where its sharp edges could cut him no longer. He had flung himself into his battles, and found solace in them. It no longer hurt him to be called murdered because it was no longer untrue; in that respect, her death at his hands had lifted a huge burden off of him. He had even begun to move on a little, laugh at Carl's jokes again, feel less anguish as he slept at night.
That existence, hollow as it could be, had possessed an odd form of comfort. Now it had been brutally snatched away from him. When he had first seen Analiese, all those bitter memories had risen from the grave and washed over him like blood flowing from a mortal wound. He remembered the way she walked. The way her silken voice lilted as she spoke. How she smiled. The way her muscled body swayed as she walked. Her determination and devotion. How warm her body felt as he swept her out of Dracula's arms on the dance floor. The noises she made in her throat when they kissed.
He remembered... how cold she felt when she was dead. The limpness of her beautiful body as he cradled her. The tears on her face as she ascended into heaven. She was happy, he knew it. He didn't want to wrench her out of there, but he was tired of having his heart wrenched out of his chest.
He thought that maybe this Analiese could heal his wounds At the same time, a terrible fear of the consequences loving her might have ran through him. And there was a sense... that he had to love her. And, no matter the consequences, maybe it could bring him closer to Anna. Maybe he could feel like he had her again. Like he wasn't just loving a fading memory anymore.
Some memories can never be forgotten. Some fates can never be changed.
A/N Okay, I hope these past two chapters have made sense! What can I say? eight hours on a bus twice in thirty six hours and two nigh sleepless nights.... as well as an incident at a theme park that landed me with a stuffed purple dog now named Carl. You guys do the math, and review when you are done!