Wanted… Preferably Dead.
By LatanyaDisclaimer: Everything is great. I own nothing by my mind, my laptop and my PDA… not to mention the wireless network I've been spending the week setting up in my home so that I can access the internet from anywhere in the house as well as the printer, etc. Don't you just love WiFi technology especially when you have to change the wireless network card in your laptop and PDA from a B standard to a G standard and spend another three hundred or so buying the two cards in order to do that?
Chapter Seven: Forgotten.
Van Helsing carried her through into a familiar room of the Valerious manor home. It was Anna's old room and a room where he thought Tasya would feel comfortable to wake up. She mumbled, burying her face in his chest and wrapping her arms around his neck. Smiling, Gabriel wondered what was going on in her mind and if it involved him.
"Tasya, wake up sweetie. There's time enough later for you to sleep but first, we have to rescue your deal pet priest." He laid her down on the bed and shook her gently. "Come on Tasya."
She mumbled something again and her eyelids flickered for a moment before fluttering open. Her mind must have been clouded because she smiled and pulled his face down to hers to plant a loving kiss on his lips. "Gabriel my love."
He didn't pull back from her, "Tasya?"
"I knew you'd come back. Is he dead? Is he gone?" Her lips brushed against his ear softly. "Do I have to fear him any more?"
"Tasya, are you alright? This isn't you…."
There was hurt in her eyes when she pulled back from him, "Who is this Tasya you keep calling me Gabriel? I am Hanne Valerious, do you not recall? What has he done to your memory? What has he done to your mind if you do not remember me!"
'This is not good.' Van Helsing thought, placing his hands on her shoulder and shaking her. "Snap out of this Tasya Van Lura! I need you here with me, not your other half Hanne Valerious. Torgny has been taken by Vladimir, don't you remember?"
"Vladimir? What has he done and who is Torgny? And please, stop calling me Tasya! It is not my name." The woman snapped, standing up.
"Yes it is. It is your name now. I don't know why you have come out of your faint believing you are who you were once but we must find a way to get you back to normal." He frowned at her thoughtfully, wondering if she may have hit her head at some point.
Tasya spun around and looked about the room, "This is not my room… where are we Gabriel? I do not know this place."
Shaking his head, Van Helsing pulled one of his guns out and hit Tasya over the back of her head with the butt, "I'm so very sorry about having to do that Tasya but I can't have you running about stuck in the notion that your Hanne Valerious again. Or forgetting everything that has happened."
She'd collapsed to the ground and he picked her up, carrying her limp form back over to the bed. Putting her down, Gabriel smiled faintly and flicked a lock of her dark hair out of her face. Even in this unnatural slumber, she looked peaceful and innocent. Rather the pity that she had committed as many, if not more, heinous crimes as he had… and all in the name of God. The stupidity of the human race puzzled Van Helsing sometimes, it was all rather over the top. How could anything come up with the idea of starting wars that would kill people in great numbers in the name of God? Or kill countless innocents because of a feud in Gods name? What drove people to do such irresponsible, thoughtless things and say that they did it all in the name of God?
"Well I'm one of them!" He snorted, "One of those stupid, stubborn, idiotic humans who does such things. How many people have I killed? How many people have I caused the deaths of? Is it fair that I can say that I did it because what I killed was evil? At least Tasya sees what she does clearly. She knows that she does it for survival."
Survival. Was life really worth all the pain and anguish that it came with? Even as he lived each day, Gabriel Van Helsing was starting to remember Tasya as she once was. He could remember the sound of her laughter as he picked her up and spun her around in his arms. Or the gentle touch of her lips to his when she found him crying one night over the death of one of the towns' people. She had been his rock, his pillar of love, and the source of light in his life. God had been graced with the idea to give him one consolidation in the long and dark life that he was to lead… but why had he forgotten it all? Was it some kind of curse so that he would not be complete and therefore weaker? With Tasya by his side, he should be invincible or would they be able to turn away and live the life of peace that they both longed for? Would she welcome him back now, after so many years apart? Would she forgive him for leaving her and for forgetting her?
He hoped with all his heart that she would forgive him and welcome him back into her life. Van Helsing did not think that he would be able to continue on with out her now that he knew she existed. Hanne Valerious… Tasya Van Lura… what ever she chose to call herself; she was his past and she was his future. She was the only family he probably had.
Slipping down out of the saddle, his dark eyes swept over the gathered crowd of people and with a sigh of frustration, he called out. "Where is the person in charge of this place?"
A woman stepped out from behind him, her dark hair pulled back in a long braid. She was dressed like a man in brown breeches and tunic shirt colored in such a fashion that it reminded him of leaves in fall just before they fell from the trees. Curious blue eyes met his and a smile curled the corners of her red lips. "I am the person in charge Mr Van Helsing. My uncle sent a letter from Rome telling me to expect you."
"You are the one in charge? A Valerious woman." Van Helsing asked her.
With a slight chuckle, she walked towards him and Van Helsing noticed the sword belted to her side, "Van Helsing, your tone implies that you do not think much of women being in charge. I assure you, if my two brothers were not children, they would be in charge despite my being older."
He inclined his head, "You know my name young woman thanks to your uncles letter and may I be so fortunate as to be allowed to enquire after yours?"
"My name is Hanne Valerious and I am sure that you know that means that I am a Gypsy Princess." Her blue eyes flashed with sorrow as if her statement displeased her. Turning to the fearful people, she swept her arms out, "My people, this is Gabriel Van Helsing, a man of God who has been sent to help rid us of my evilly misguided cousin. Make him welcome."
And with her announcement, Hanne inclined her head to Van Helsing before starting to walk off in the direction of a large castle like home in the distance. Following her quickly, he pulled his weary horse along after him.
"Wait, you're not just going to leave me to sort out myself are you Miss Valerious?"
Her eyebrows arched, "Why of course that was what I was going to do. You don't need me to hold your hand and walk you through the activities of getting a room at the tavern or finding a stable to keep your horse in. One would hope that you're a grown man Mr Van Helsing and that you can do these things on your own."
"I though that I was meant to be staying at the Valerious manor where I have complete access to any information I might need which will help me destroy this evil?" He muttered, following her still.
Coming to a stop, Hanne turned her head to stare at him with her vivid blue eyes. She said nothing and not even her eyelashes flickered. If Van Helsing had not known better, he would have sworn that she was a statue – she was so still. It was really rather disconcerting to be standing there with such an icy and intelligent gaze resting on him. He was itching to say something but he dare not incase she snapped at him.
"I suppose it could be possible to arrange some where for you to stay in the manor. Very well, follow me and I shall see what I can do though you must obey any rules I put down. First of those being that you go nowhere near my brothers as I do not want them becoming involved in this silly war against my cousin… they are by far to young and innocent of the ways of the world to understand what exactly is going on." Hanne turned her eyes away from him and he sighed inwardly at being freed from her gaze.
Van Helsing smiled suddenly at a thought, "You're the one he wants aren't you Miss Valerious? Your uncle mentioned that there was someone important who could not be lost to his son. I can understand why he would want you."
In the next moment she had drawn her sword and had the tip pressed against his throat, "I do not like to have strangers speak to me like that. It is not your place to say such things or to know such things."
Her accent was strong and Gabriel liked the beautiful sound of it. "I take it back. It is blatantly obvious why your cousin would want you. You're a strong and intelligent woman who knows how to behave and how to handle herself."
She hissed at him, her eyes blazing with fury as she spun around on her heels, sliding the sword back into the scabbard. Stalking down the street towards the manor, Hanne muttered Romanian curses under her breath and ignored the man following her with a grin on his face.
"You will regret saying that to me Mr Van Helsing. I can assure you of that." Hanne spat angrily as she called for a servant to come and help him. "You will regret it."
"I'll take any punishment you deal me in my stride Miss Valerious. I'm a strong man and I know what I want." He replied, bowing to her. "Don't worry, I'll deal with your troublesome cousin soon enough and get out of your hair."
"One had better hope so."
He laughed, shaking his head as he watched her storm off into the house. "Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful."
Opening his eyes, Van Helsing looked over at the still form of Tasya and smiled. "You're still a beautiful and proud woman Hanne. It is a pity I'm still working on remembering everything about you that I once knew. When did your opinion towards me change from distain to love?"
Standing up, he exited the room quietly so that he could go and find Carl. Anything that that friar might have dug up about Vladimir would be useful information because Van Helsing had a suspicion that he would have to find a willing werewolf to help defeat the Vampire. But then, if Tasya had been convinced that she would be able to destroy him on her own, there might be some other way to send the bastard to hell for the last time.
When he entered the library, Carl looked up with a startled glint in his eyes. "Ah Van Helsing, there you are! I was beginning to wonder if you had forgotten about me or if you perhaps were planning to leave me here to rot amongst these old books and documents."
"Sometimes Carl, I wonder what happened to your sense of humor."
"I have a sense of humor?" The friar looked surprised. "Didn't know that."
"That's my point Carl, you don't have one and sometimes it sounds like your trying to make a joke without understanding what you are doing." He grinned, looking at the picture that showed how to defeat Dracula.
Mumbling, Carl looked back down at the book in his hands, "Can't find anything useful yet. Don't know if Vladimir will be as easy to destroy as Dracula was but you never know."
"I just hope his defeat won't involve me turning into a werewolf again."
"Yes well, Tasya might know how to make the cure for that little problem. You'll have to ask her when she regains consciousness."
Looking sheepish, Van Helsing shrugged. "She did gain consciousness for a while but it was as if she had forgotten everything after I left to kill Dracula the first time. In her mind, she was still Hanne Valerious and we were still betrothed."
Carl looked at him over the edge of the book as he snapped it shut, "Oh dear me. What did you do about that little problem?"
"I hit her over the head with my gun to knock her unconscious again. We don't need her forgetting everything or ending up like that again because God knows, what she has locked away in that brilliant mind of hers could change our chances of wining this fight."
"She won't be happy about that when she wakes up, Van Helsing. I'd watch your back just in case she tries to extract revenge in the form of your blood." Grinning, the friar opened another book.
Noticing a book on the top of the pile, Gabriel picked it up and dusted off the cover. It had 'The Valerious Family' inlaid on the front in gold leaf and curious; he opened it to see what was in side. To his astonishment, it was a detailed family tree listing every Valerious and their descendants to date. Within a few pages, he discovered the name 'Hanne Nika Valerious' and a line was drawn from her name to another name.
His name.
Letting go of his breath, Van Helsing wasn't aware that he had been holding it. Looking over at him, Carl frowned at something on the page. Laying a fingertip slightly down from Hanne and Gabriel's names, he arched an eyebrow.
"Did the two of you actually get married?"
Letting his eyes drift down the page to where Carl's finger was, Van Helsing was surprised to see the name 'Bellona Valerious Van Helsing' but judging from the dates, the child had only lived for a year and a half before death. After that name, there were no more on the page dedicated to Hanne Nika Valerious and her descendants because there were no descendants.
"I had a child…." He murmured.
Carl shook his head, "You'd have thought that she would have told you that Van Helsing. Something as big as that is not something she would keep a secret from you… is it?"
"No, it is something that I would expect her to keep from me no matter what. She wouldn't want to force me to stay by her side because of something like that. But you're right; she should have told me that we had a child. A little girl who did not even get to see two years." He wondered what had killed the baby girl at such a young age.
"Perhaps you should have a good talk with Tasya when she wakes up? What else could there be that she should tell you…." The friar left it at that and returned to his research.
Van Helsing closed the book with a snap, "I don't want her to know that we know. Let Tasya tell me in her own time because a woman never forgets her children and to bring this topic up is bound to cause her emotional hurt."