A/N This is the penultimate chapter...thanks for all the reviews! Nearly there now...
It was raining, raining with a force Van Helsing had never seen before, battering the streets and turning the path to thick mud. He stumbled frequently as he ran, struggling to keep on his feet, his eyes fixed on the rusty church steeple now only a few hundred yards ahead of him.
Tallander had to be in the church; where else could he have gone? Van Helsing cursed himself once more for a fool. He had not imagined that the two enemies might conspire against him, tricking him into thinking that Tallander's hideous ritual was designated to happen tomorrow night. Clearly, the two demons did not want Van Helsing to be involved, presumably for opposing reasons – Tallander because he feared Van Helsing might kill Carl, and Reicher because he feared he would not.
Lightning flashed, highlighting the dirty stained glass window, and Van Helsing saw him at last: the figure of the priest, his arms spread wide. Racing up the church steps, Van Helsing threw open the aged, rotting door, and saw Tallander standing before the altar, his eyes wide and crazed with terrible purpose, soaked and dripping from the rain. Reicher stood opposite him, a dagger in his hand, his intent very clear, but Tallander did not look afraid.
"Tallander!" Van Helsing roared, striding towards them...but Tallander raised a hand, gesturing almost dismissively, and a wall of blazing fire rose from nowhere before the monster hunter, cutting him off from his goal.
"Go home, Gabriel!" Tallander laughed, his voice high and shrill. "Go home and let me be! There's nothing you can do for your little friend now."
"There is something I can do for the world," growled Reicher, advancing menacingly upon the priest. Tallander chuckled.
"I won't force you back – I've waited for this moment too long, my old friend. You have dogged me through my eternal travels long enough - your path ends here, Reicher."
"Try it," the other responded, the dagger flashing in the light of several weeping candles set about the church. Tallander grinned.
"I would be delighted, you pathetic piece of filth. See my flock!" he gestured wildly, and Van Helsing swung around to see a group of people – no, things that had once been people – standing behind him in a grim, translucent line. Men, women, and children – dear God, the children! And the faces of them all - ghastly, grey, rotted, dead.
"My children," Tallander purred, "and the source of my strength. Haven't you seen what I can do? What you see is what remains of hundreds, Reicher – and dear Gabriel. When they are all gone and used up, I'll be unstoppable. Quite literally. If you stop being so naughty, you can stay and watch – I can promise you a most interesting performance."
Van Helsing met Riecher's eyes, and understanding came between them; Reicher could trust Van Helsing to do his duty. Tallander saw the look, and chuckled.
"Brave, noble men! Catch me if you can!"
Reicher had sprung at him, dagger upraised, but Tallander, with a speed and grace Van Helsing had not thought possible, ran straight up the wall behind him and tossed over in mid-air, landing neatly behind Reicher. He gave the other man a push.
"Tag!"
He darted away again, laughing like a child. Mad...unutterably mad, for all his genius, Van Helsing thought. He gazed helplessly at the flames licking around him – why had Tallander not killed him yet? An unpleasant suspicion came into his mind, but he ignored it. Whether or not he died this day was unimportant; destroying Tallander, once and for all, was the goal, and he must not lost sight of it. But he could not forget Carl's fate, no matter how little he was concerned for his own.
"Reicher!" the creature inhabiting Father Michael's body turned to him, as Tallander danced and capered around the altar – and the ghosts behind Van Helsing continued to fade, one by one.
"Can you take this down?" Van Helsing hissed, gesturing to the wall of flame, as Reicher came nearer.
"How?"
"You're like him – don't argue!" he snapped, as Reicher began to protest. "You stay alive by the same means. You must possess some of his powers. Can you draw on the congregation in the way he does, and employ that strength to get rid of this fire?"
"It's telekinesis," said Reicher. "He's drawing the fire from the candles, and fanning it with oxygen..."
"I don't care how he does it. Can you do it?"
Reicher's face flushed angrily. "Have you any idea what you're asking of me? To use his unholy power – to go against God...do you not think I would have used his strength against him before, had it been within God's law?"
"God would have you do it to save thousands of lives, Reicher! Tallander's insane – God knows what he might do!"
Reicher was silent a moment, his eyes locked to Van Helsing's. Slowly, he nodded.
"I can try."
"Good. Do it now."
Reicher's eyes narrowed in concentration, his spare frame shaking with effort. Thunder crashed outside, wind howled, rain poured, leaking through the crumbling roof of the church –and Tallander's congregation screamed as they began to fade faster. At the altar, Tallander swung around to stare in fury.
"What are you doing? Stop it!" he roared, as though Reicher might follow his command. A rumbling sound above that of the thunder caught Van Helsing's attention and he looked up; Reicher's eyes were closed tightly in concentration. He was pulling the roof down.
With a last effort and a cry of triumph, Reicher's eyes flew open, and he yelled,
"Move!" as the ancient roof finally came down, letting a deluge of rain pour in, quenching the flames surrounding Van Helsing. The monster hunter threw himself out of the way of the tumbling masonry, dodging the stones as he ran to the altar, where Tallander was standing, mouth open in shock.
"You...you!" he flung out a hand and Van Helsing found himself propelling by an unseen force, thrown backwards into a niche in the wall. He struck something, an irregular stone structure, and fell to the ground, winded. Reicher, meanwhile, was taking his turn at Tallander. Van Helsing grabbed at the stone thing he had struck to pull himself to his feet – and found himself looking down at water. The font, chipped and discoloured, filled by the rain.
Water.
Aqua.
It finally made sense – Carl's message. Obscure and enigmatic enough to confuse Tallander, it had been a calculated risk. Van Helsing understood now. Water.
If only he could get hold of Tallander for long enough.
Reicher had managed to grab him, and was grappling with him, using his own newly discovered telekinetic power. If only he could hold Tallander off, keep him from using his own skill, until Van Helsing's task was complete...
Van Helsing ran forward and grabbed Tallander, pulling him away from Reicher.
"Concentrate!" he yelled, at the being who was finally his ally. "Keep him at bay!"
Without his telekinetic ability, Tallander was no match for Van Helsing's strength. He struggled in Van Helsing's grasp, then suddenly stopped, and turned to look up into the monster hunter's face.
"If you try to destroy me now, you'll kill him, Gabriel! And he'll go straight to hell, his soul damned for eternity."
"Better that than what you damn him to, Tallander."
"I'll let him go!" the priest was struggling again, but Van Helsing had no time to listen to bargains – Reicher was weakening, and the ghosts were almost gone. Tallander knew that; he was playing for time.
"You're the one who's going to rot in hell!" With sudden fury, Van Helsing dragged the priest to the font, where the rainwater spilled over to the floor, cold and filthy. He thrust Tallander's head deep into the water, and held him there as the priest struggled wildly. It took all Van Helsing's strength, both physical and mental, to hold Tallander – Carl – under the water until his lungs filled with water and his heart stopped, but he did it. He did it begging for forgiveness not from God, but from Carl, who was dying in his arms, by his hand.
"Van Helsing..." Reicher was leaning against the altar, exhausted. "Van Helsing, I can't hold on any longer. The ghosts are gone. Is he dead?"
Van Helsing, his hands shaking, pulled Carl's limp form back from the water, lowered it gently to the floor.
"Yes," he whispered. Reicher nodded, his flushed face relieved...and then, with a howl of terror, he doubled over, clutching his stomach, his eyes bulging from his head. Horrified, Van Helsing watched as the being writhed and screamed on the church floor...until Father Michael's body burst into flames, burning with impossible rapidity, until it fell to ashes, and was gone.
Van Helsing shook off his horrified fascination. It had all happened too quickly – there was nothing he could do to save Reicher, or Father Michael, now. Turning away, he knelt beside Carl's lifeless body, and gently gathered the friar into his arms, his vision blurred by tears of grief – and hope.
"Don't let me down, Carl," he whispered. "You were the one who told me to do this. I hope to God you had a plan. Come on!" Desperately, Van Helsing laid Carl down again and struck him a blow on the chest, over his heart. He had seen it done...he had seen men breathe again when they had been thought dead. He had heard holy men call it wrong, against God, all sorts of arguments why the dead should not be brought back to life...none of it mattered now. None of it had ever mattered to Van Helsing, who ignored the rules of men when they did not suit him – just as Carl did. Leaning forward, he pressed his mouth against the friar's and exhaled as hard as he could. He did it again, and again...and was rewarded, finally, with a choking gasp.
He turned Carl over quickly, holding him as the friar coughed water from his lungs, struggling for air between each heave. Finally it stopped, and Carl collapsed, exhausted, deathly pale, and very weak – but alive.
Alive.