THIS IS SLASH!

IF YOU DON'T LIKE, DON'T READ!

I only went to see Van Helsing because I'm a vampire buff. So, I saw it.

Then, I came straight home and started web searching for slash.

This came to me one morning as I was half-asleep. Pretty thoughts, but I wasn't going to write it. I haven't written anything in a year!

I wrote this long hand, typed it in the next day, and then edited it myself using the 'go away and come back' and the 'Microsoft Word' method. Hopefully, nothing too glaring...

But, it wouldn't let me go. I even figured out a title without problem. I suck at titles.

So, I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own the movie. Just the story idea.

---

Gabriel Van Helsing glared at his tarnished reflection in the mirror portal that led to Dracula's castle. With the vampire lord's death, the portal had become two-way instead of the prison gate it had been before.

"Why did we return? We need to report to Rome," Carl asked from off to one side, his voice slightly worried.

"There is something I need to do," Van Helsing replied, still glaring at his reflection. Finally, he turned his head slightly and sternly told the friar, "Stay here. I won't be long."

With that, he walked through the glass and onto the snow-filled courtyard of Dracula's former prison.

Ignoring the impaled skeletons lining the edges of the walkway to the portal, he pulled his hat more firmly onto his head and strode towards the entrance.

Without pause, he strode through the halls. Soon, he arrived at the location of Dracula's destruction.

The stones were dark and radiated soot, as if someone had set off a small explosive and left the residue to stain the floor.

He pulled his gloves off, tucked them into his belt, and crouched down. Cautiously, he reached out and touched the center of the black mark. It felt as if he were touching wet ash.

"I remember you, Vlad," he softly told the mark. "I remember staying with your family while I hunted a demon. You captivated me in a way that no man or woman before or since could. I believe that is what drew me to Anna. I subconsciously saw you in her. Your drive, your passion.

"And then..." Van Helsing drew in a shaky breath. "And then, proof was given to me by the local priest. Proof that showed you as the summoner of the demon I hunted.

"My duty was clear. My heart shattered when I executed you. My only consolation was that you died with no pain.

"Then, it was discovered the priest had fabricated the evidence against you. He did not die quickly or without pain.

"He would've died in the same manner even if he hadn't been the summoner."

Ignoring the tears rolling down his cheeks, he stood up and peered through a broken window.

"I threw myself into my vocation. I took risks; I hunted things that would kill even me. All in hope of dying so I could be with you.

"Then, I heard what you had become. I despaired. Because of your actions, we would never be together again. Never."

Van Helsing lowered his head to stare at his hands. "In my grief, I forgot everything I was. I became a blank page. And yet, I still could not stop giving people peace from being the monsters they had become. And, the church found me, and yet again, I became their executioner.

"Then, I came here. I saw you. I knew you, yet I didn't.

"And, then, I killed you again. The one being I love, and I've murdered you twice."

A heavily-accented voice broke into Van Helsing's monologue, "They say that the third time is a charm."

By the time the hidden being had finished its sentence, Van Helsing had whirled, a gun aimed directly at the shadowy figure.

"Come, come, Gabriel," the voice whispered into Van Helsing's ear as a pair of arms wrapped around his torso. "We both know your bullets will not do more than annoy me and ruin my new suit."

"Dracula?" the hunter whispered. "No. That's not possible."

"Oh, it is very possible. And, do not worry about dear Anna and the rest of the family. They did go to heaven. I was officially dead for a few days. It took that long for my servants to find the proper sacrifice to bring me back." Dracula, still draped across Van Helsing's back, nuzzled his neck.

"Sacrifice?" Van Helsing growled.

"Temper, temper, Gabriel," Dracula warned as he minutely tightened his arms, showing the hunter that he was firmly in the vampire's grasp. "Yes, sacrifice. If you were to pour the life's blood of an innocent over the ashes of a vampire, the vampire returns." Returning to his nuzzling, Dracula murmured, "Mmmm... You smell so good. Just like I remembered."

"You... you can't..."

"Have I driven you speechless already?" Dracula exclaimed, a pout in his voice. With a deft twist of his arms, he spun Van Helsing around so they were pressed chest to chest. "I was hoping for the verbal foreplay to last a bit longer." After a pause, he gave a languid shrug, "I'll just have to move to the non-verbal foreplay."

With that, he leaned forward and snared Van Helsing's lips with his own. Not content with a short, chaste kiss, Dracula nibbled lightly on Van Helsing's bottom lip. After gaining entry with the hunter's parted lips, the vampire set out to map the man's mouth with his tongue.

The kiss lasted until Van Helsing pulled back for air. Gasping, he stared at the vampire, who stared back with a manic grin.

"How can you..."

"Really, Gabriel. You must learn to complete your thoughts," Dracula said teasingly before leaning forward and swiping his tongue across the hunter's nose.

"Stop that," Van Helsing huffed. Taking a deep breath and ignoring the amused vampire that had ensnared him, he demanded, "And what of your children? Your army?"

The vampire's amusement turned to sadness. "You had destroyed my heart when you killed me. Was it so hard to believe that when my brides came up with the idea, I backed it fully? I saw it as a way of punishing humanity for what you had done to me."

"And, how can you still want me? I murdered you. Not once, but twice."

"Ah," Dracula responded. "When you were talking to my 'remains', I finally discovered the reason you killed me the first time. You may have been the instrument of both my deaths, but the Church is my real murderer. And, after tonight, their greatest weapon, the one being capable of destroying me, will be of no use to them." Dracula smiled wolfishly. Before Van Helsing could start questioning the vampire's last statement, Dracula continued with a pout, "Did you have to cut off my finger?"

The hunter looked slightly sheepish. "I wanted something to remember you by. It was the only way I could remove it."

Dracula shook his head in fond exasperation. After a few moments, he grinned, showing off sharp canines. "Back to the foreplay."

The next kiss caused Van Helsing's gun to go clattering across the floor as he dropped it to wrap his fingers in Dracula's hair.

As they broke to let Van Helsing breathe again, Dracula nibbled his way across the hunter's jawbone. "And, you taste the same. The same glorious mix of death, light, power, and dark."

"Please... Vlad..."

Hearing the almost incoherent words from his beloved's mouth, Dracula gave a feral grin. "Mine," he growled as he pushed the unresistant Van Helsing down to the floor. "And, after tonight, mine always."

---

THE END... I hope

Ehh... I don't think it's that good a story. Oh well.

And, after that is a really bitchin' sex scene that is in my head and will probably never come out. It's been at least two years since I've written sex, so I'm very rusty. That, and I don't think I do very good sex scenes. So, I'll leave it as a fade out. I usually visualize better than I write...

I tried not to write this, but the plot bunny bit me in the ass and held on.

The whole 'blood on the ashes' bit comes from my limited memories of the Castlevania games. They're a series of video games. (I may get parts of this wrong as I only played a bit of two of the games.) In each game, the hero, who is from a line of cursed hunters, must battle his way into Dracula's lair and destroy him... again. The hero likes whips. The makers of the games kept bringing Dracula back in different time periods by pouring blood (I can't remember if it was an innocent or not, but it had the right folklore 'feel' to it) on the ashes or body parts of Dracula. (I've since found out that it's a plotline in a few Dracula movies. Looks like I get to watch more movies!) That became the major pinion in my plot bunny.

Hopefully, I've staved off future bunnies for awhile. Oh damn. I didn't. After all, there's Carl still wandering around on the other side of the portal glass. (Ack! Stop it! The bunny just became a threesome... Damn it all!) And I never mentioned why the portal glass was still two-way even though Dracula was alive again. Oh, bother. Hopefully, I can fight this one off.

I mentally cringed when the gun went clattering across the room. I know you don't do that with a gun, especially a gun in that time period! I was waiting for my pen (Wrote this long hand in bed last night) to start writing about the gun going off and shooting Van Helsing, mortally wounding him. That, or hitting him in the butt. Luckily, my mind cooperated.

Comments appreciated!