Wanted… Preferably Dead.
By LatanyaDisclaimer: I don't own anything to do with Gabriel Van Helsing, etc, etc, etc. However, I do own anything that I created which means that Tasya Van Lura is mine.
Chapter Three: Strange meetings.
Torgny set up camp on his own, wondering how far his one time companion had reached. He hoped she was still safe and not suffering too much from her inner pains and the turmoil that had begun to tear apart her soul. Tethering his horse to a tree where it could graze on the lush green grass, he set about gathering a pile of wood to start a fire. The nights were beginning to get cold and he had always hated the cold.
"At least I am down here where is it warmer. Tasya is riding through the Carpathians where it will be starting to snow soon enough. She should have waited for the end of winter before she started for Transylvania in order to kill Vladimir." He spoke out loud, trying to provide himself with the human vocal company he was beginning to miss.
She had never been a talkative person but at least she had been someone else who would speak. Since he left her at the foot of the Carpathians, Torgny had noticed the change at night when one did not have someone else there to speak with. Even the lack of simple human company had made the world seem a very different place during the long hours of darkness. When he set up camp each night, Torgny pulled out the letter Tasya had written for Van Helsing and stared at it. He wondered what was written on the pages with-in and felt like opening it every single night. But remembering his duty and his promise, he never did for he felt it would be betraying her trust in him.
No, the letter was for Gabriel Van Helsing. For his eyes alone and Torgny understood her desire for that to be the way things were. The man she had once loved would be the last person in the world to read her words and to understand her troubled mind. Torgny would have liked it if he had been that person but Van Helsing was the one Tasya had chosen to have that honor and if there was anything he could do to ensure that her last wish was completed, Torgny would make sure of it.
"Where are you now Tasya Van Lura? How far have you made it? Are the nights as lonely for you as they are for me? Do you miss the lack of human company and conversation? The lack of someone there with whom you can discuss your crazy plans with and whom you can turn to in order to make more plans?" He turned his eyes towards where the Carpathian Mountains rose in the distance.
Every day they grew smaller as he rode further from them. Each day he put more miles between him and the person he had been charged with to protect and it hurt him to think that she might be there in need of his help and his knowledge.
"Ha! She is older than you are Torgny and she knows many more things than you. Tasya always suffered your presence because when it came down to a fight, she could always use someone who would be able to throw her more weapons." He snapped at himself, not noticing that there were two people riding towards him.
Setting fire to the branches he had gathered, Torgny was surprised when he heard the sound of footsteps behind him. There was a crossbow aimed at him in the grip of a tall man dressed in black with a large hat covering part of his face. Behind the man was another who was holding the reins to two horses and looking rather perturbed at the position the individuals had found themselves in.
"A lone man riding through this area is a curious thing. Who are you to be attempting such a feat?" Van Helsing asked curiously, his dark eyes narrowed.
Torgny blinked, "I wasn't alone when I started. My companion left me at the foot of the Carpathians to continue on her path while I have chosen to ride back to Rome. Now tell me Van Helsing, why you are riding in the direction I have just returned from?"
The other man startled, almost dropping the reins he held, "You know who Van Helsing is?"
"Indeed for I once served the Knights of the Holy Order. You must be the priest they send out with him as they once sent me out with the person I have recently parted with." He nodded towards the holy man.
"Well, I'm only a friar not a priest." Carl muttered.
Helsing lowered his crossbow a little and stared at Torgny, "You have just recently parted with your companion? You said that your companion left you at the foot of the Carpathians while she chose to continue on her path."
"She did indeed chose to leave me there for her mission lays deep within Transylvania in a place that I believe you are familiar with if you are indeed, the infamous Gabriel Van Helsing."
"You are the one who was traveling with Tasya Van Lura!" He exclaimed in shock. "There is much I would learn from you priest, if you are the one who accompanied that particular woman."
Turning away, Torgny walked over to his gear and rummaged through until he found where he had carefully placed the letter from Tasya. Returning to Van Helsing and Carl, he held it out, a faint smile on his face. "Everything you need to know is contained within this letter I believe. Tasya charged me with ensuring that it made it to you. She made me swear that I would be the one who placed it in your hands only and no one else was to ever touch it."
Carl nodded and started to unpack their gear from the horses. "Good man, would you be able to help me? I do hope you won't mind our sharing your good camping place with you."
Staring at the letter, Van Helsing wasn't surprised to discover that he recognized the carefully written name 'Gabriel Van Helsing' on the front. The style was so familiar to him that he couldn't help but smile. Walking away from the other two men, he carefully opened the letter, breaking the red wax seal that had been imprinted with the seal that was the same as the ring he wore. The ring that had once been Dracula's before he took it from him. He stared at the pages of writing and started to read.
"To my dearest Gabriel,
You do not remember me any more it would seem but I hope that you will pay heed to these words, which I pen to you. Once I was called Hanne Valerious and was the cousin to the man who became Dracula. You were sent by the Knights of the Holy Order to destroy him and we fell in love. Though you had been sent to stop his evil from spreading, your mission changed from that to making sure that he could never hurt me again. Oh how we loved then my Gabriel but you were stolen from me after you had killed him and so damned my family for years to come. God only knows what took you away from me, the woman you had promised to live out the rest of your life with but I cannot ever express how much sorrow I felt at your leaving. You promised me that you would never to forget me or to stop loving me… I promised the same to you and I have kept that promise. Gabriel, I am not sorry that I helped you in that city but I should have told you everything that you wanted to know then. How we laughed, how we smiled, I was yours and you were mine. We loved then Gabriel and nothing would have stood in our way. Please forgive me for never making myself contact you but the Order would not have me tell you everything. You are the hand of God upon this earth. You are the one charged with destroying the evil that walks among mankind and dooms his way. I was the one charged with making you happy, the charged with making sure that the pain of what you did never stopped you. I was chosen to make sure that your heart remained pure and that you were never hurt to deeply but something didn't want that to happen. Our lives are entwined and we can never really be parted, at least, that I what I have always believed. You were never told but angel's blood flows in your veins. No one knows who your parents were or where you came from. Not even I know if you have a family out there somewhere. It was always my belief that you were sent directly from God to do his work. Why you lost your memories, I do not know and I cannot begin to tell you what you have forgotten for I don't know the full scope of it. I can however remind you of our love and that you do have someone out there who cares for you and who considers you family. When I was told about Anna Valerious, I found it amusing to think that no matter what, you always fall for the strong and stubborn women of the Valerious family for I was very much like Anna - once. Gabriel, by the time you get this, I will have departed from Torgny at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains and will have ridden to Castle Dracula where an old foe of mine has taken residence since you killed his 'brother in blood'. Vladimir was my cousin's closest friend and companion and when my cousin sold his soul to the Devil, Vladimir did the same. He is yet another Vampire who would spread evil throughout the world. I go now to fight the final battle with him and I do not expect to return for it is my belief that I will be killed in destroying Vladimir. If I do not succeed, you will know and if I do, you will never be able to find me for I will part with this dark life I have lived and take up yet another new name for myself and live a peaceful life. May you never know the full scope of the pain I feel in writing this for I know that you will feel my fight with Vladimir as I felt your fight with Dracula and the pain you suffered when you turned into a werewolf. I felt your heart break when Anna died and it made mine break as well. Forgive me Gabriel, for I have forgiven you everything and I hope that we shall both find peace one day in Heaven where we will be able to love again.
Your once beloved Hanne Valerious,
Tasya Van Lura."
He feel tears forming in his eyes when he finished reading her letter. The words swam before him and Van Helsing slumped back against a tree, clutching the paper to his chest. "Hanne." He moaned in sorrow.
Carl looked over at him in worry before glancing at Torgny, "What do you think he reads that could shock him in such a way? Who is this Tasya Van Lura?"
"Her name was once Hanne Valerious and she was the cousin of the one you know of as Dracula. She and Van Helsing were lovers, they were to be married after they destroyed Dracula." Torgny shook his head.
"Why weren't they?"
"She never told me any more than this. Apparently after he killed Dracula and damned him to become what he did, Van Helsing disappeared. No one ever knew what happened to him and Hanne spent many years searching the world for him before she turned to the Knights of the Holy Order for help. She became a monster slayer for them and a dutiful one. She served without question and obeyed blindly for she was broken from the loss of the one she loved. When Van Helsing turned up on the stairs of the Holy City, she trusted to hope again but she was forbidden to ever go near him, to ever speak to him. I was with her when that happened and one night we stole away and never returned." The priest told the other man, watching Van Helsing carefully.
Van Helsing noticed Torgny and cried out, storming over to grip him around the throat in an iron grip, "You left her to ride into this danger on her own! Why?"
"Van Helsing!" Carl was shocked by the man's behavior.
"She charged me with getting that letter to you so that you would know. We have been friends for so long and Tasya did not want me to die as well for she knows that she is riding to her death. That letter was not meant to reach you so soon for she did not expect me to find you until I had reached Rome at least. But it has reached you now and I have only been parted from her for three days! With luck, you can reach her and help her destroy Vladimir. With luck, you can save her from the doom she had chosen for herself!" Torgny managed to get out despite the hand wrapped around his throat.
Letting go of the man, Van Helsing watched him drop to the ground before turning to Carl, "We must not stop to camp at night. It is important that we reach her soon."
"But Van Helsing, how will we find her? It is the beginning of winter and she is in the Carpathian Mountains somewhere!" The friar thought that he was acting a little unreasonable.
"In her letter, Hanne told me that this Vladimir has taken up residence in Castle Dracula. That is where she has headed. She is going to the same place that we were."
"The Valerious mansion?"
Torgny nodded, "That is the only way that someone without wings can find Castle Dracula. She will be going there to go through the mirror-door. It is the only way."
Van Helsing folded up the letter and slipped it inside his shirt, "I will not let her die for she is the key to my past."
"She is not just the key Van Helsing. Tasya Van Lura or Hanne Valerious as she was once called, is your past. But if you do find her, try not to call her Hanne for if pains her terribly when she is called by the name she has chosen to discard."
Glaring at the priest, Van Helsing signaled to Carl that he should help pack up their gear. Doing so, Carl heard the monster hunter growl at Torgny, "You can come with us or not. It is your choice. However, I will not suffer fools easily."
The man replied, "I am not a fool. If I was, Tasya would have killed me a long time ago for she will not suffer fools at all."
"If you come with us, I want to know everything about her and I will expect you to provide me with the information that I want to know. If you don't, I will kill you or worse, I will send you back to the Vatican City." Gabriel smiled darkly.
Gulping, Torgny nodded, "I quite understand Van Helsing and I can assure you, I will do whatever I can to make sure you know as much as possible about her before you two meet again… if you do in fact meet again."
His eyes narrowed, "What do you mean if we do meet again? She has only been gone for three days. We will catch up with her."
"She is a Valerious. She knows this place like the back of her hand. If she does not want to be found, we will not find her. And the other danger is that Vladimir might find her before we do."
"Well then, we had best hurry up and leave."
When they had finished packing up the camp, the two holy men were quick to mount their horses and follow Van Helsing for the fear of being the cause of a foul mood. Little did they know that Torgny would be right about Tasya choosing not to be found for she did not wish Vladimir to discover her location which meant that no one else would either. Unless she made a few mistakes.