Chapter IV

The torchlight danced on the faces of the frightened villagers. A young man out hunting had seen the foreigners. According to what he had overheard, they had not killed the vampire and were planning to leave. They were going to run away like cowards, leaving the villagers defenseless and still under the terror of the vampire. He had spotted the warrior and followed him. The boy stayed long enough to see the vampire join him and the then had returned to the village before the monster noticed his presence. This story shocked the whole village. They concluded that the foreigners must be demons, sent to assist the vampire from Satan himself.

"I say we kill 'em," said Nicolae, their self-appointed leader. He had been orphaned as a child as a result of one of the vampire attacks and hated them vehemently. At the age of ten he had nearly decapitated Dracula with a rusty axe and had ever since enjoyed a sort of celebrity status among the villagers. "If we leave them alone they'll become a big problem. Mark my words, we need to get rid of them now."

The crowd murmured its assent.

"The sun will rise in a couple of hours. They'll be weaker then. We'll hunt them down and kill them. If we're lucky, the old bastard will be sleeping and we'll just have to deal with the foreigners. If not, well, me and the bloodsucker got some unfinished business between us and it's about time it got cleared up," he said with exaggerated bravado and looked around at the crowd. He had them now. "So, do we hunt?"

The crowd cheered.

Nicolae raised his fist. "We go forth in the name of God!"

"In the name of God!" the crowd echoed and then dispersed to prepare for the hunt.

Vlad awoke with the taste of ashes in his mouth and an unshakable feeling of dread. He had dreamt of rotting corpses.

Thump, thump, thump.

They were coming.

Thump, thump, thump.

Was that their footsteps or heartbeats that he heard?

He tried to wake up but realized that he wasn't asleep.

They were coming.

Who? Who was coming? He gave himself a mental shake. Quit thinking with the human part of your mind. Reach out with the part of you that is vampire.

Slowly, he let down his mental barriers.

He smelled the dust and the trees but most of all the blood that pounded through their veins. They were angry. He saw the shine of their weapons and the similar cold glint of their eyes. Did they hunt him? Foolish, foolish humans. He gently reached out to the mind of the leader.

Who do you hunt?

Die foreigners die vampire foreigners demons devil spawn destroy them.

He pushed harder. Who do you hunt?

The demons. The foreigners.

Vlad opened his eyes and found himself back in his room.

Gabriel. They were going to kill his Gabriel.

Van Helsing started packing their things as the sun rose. He wondered why it had to rain all the time in this damn country. The last thing Carl needed was to catch hypothermia. The last thing he himself needed was another death on his conscience. Lost in thought, he didn't notice the vampire until he was almost directly behind him. Van Helsing silently cursed himself for not paying attention.

"Gabriel, you must leave."

Van Helsing would have asked why but just then an arrow whizzed past his ear. Vladislaus pushed him down to the ground and a whole volley of arrows soared overhead.

"Gabriel, you need to come back to the castle with me. They want to kill you."

"Yes, Vlad, I kind of guessed that."

The vampire flashed him a grin that quickly faded. "You need to come back with me. You and Carl both."

The army of villagers rushed into the clearing. Van Helsing jumped to his feet and fired several shots into the crowd. He purposely ignored Vladislaus. He managed to grab his sword from where he had strapped it to his pack and stood his ground. The vampire's eyes burned holes in the back of his head.

"Gabriel, you have no food, little money, one horse, and a wounded companion. You are coming back with me. You won't survive if you don't come with me."

A villager charged at him and Van Helsing gored him through with his sword. "Yes, Vladislaus, but if it wasn't for you I wouldn't have a 'wounded companion.' We would have been long gone. No, wait, we never would have had to come here at all. And the villagers would have no reason to try and skewer me."

The vampire did not reply. Instead, his face seemed to ripple like it was made of water. His fangs lengthened and his features began to contort and change. Van Helsing knew that he could have transformed in a split second but he figured he was just putting on a show for the angry mob. Typical of Vlad. And, like most of Vlad's ideas, it worked. They froze with fear at the display. But one stepped out of the crowd.

"Quick, while it's changing shape! Kill it while it's vulnerable!"

The one that seemed to be the leader rushed at the beast. The half-formed monster carelessly knocked the weapon out of his hand and drained him of his life and blood. Instead of falling back, the villagers swarmed around the vampire, hacking and stabbing until the ground was slick with blood. He changed back into his human form and ran into the woods. The majority of the villagers gave chase.

"Run!"

Van Helsing killed the few remaining people, picked up Carl, and ran. A few minutes later Vlad appeared.

"Gabriel, they're right behind us. They realized that I was a diversion and most of them went back after you."

"Take Carl."

"Gabriel, do you even hear me?"

"Take Carl back to the castle. I'll meet you there."

"Gabriel," he began but the sound of shouts behind him stopped him from finishing.

"Vlad, I need you to take him. I'll hold out," he said and drew his sword.

"I'll come back for you," Vladislaus replied as he transformed. He lifted Carl and rose into the air.

Van Helsing heard the exclamations of the villagers and hid himself behind a tree while they stalled. He ambushed them from this point and realized that he had dramatically underestimated how many of them there were. One against forty. Not very good odds. He held out against them until he felt his arms start to ache. He continued to fight, sustaining only minor cuts, but he knew that he couldn't keep this up much longer. He was holding off three men at one time and they began to have the upper hand. As a last resort he pulled out his concealed pistol and shot them all point-blank. Blood spurted from their severed arteries and drenched his shirt. A cowardly shot, perhaps, but a life-saving one. The remaining few rounds took out two more of the enemy. So focused was he on the opponents that he was facing that he didn't notice the man behind him until he felt a wooden club connect with the back of his head. His vision spun in a dazzling array of colors until the next blow melded it into black.

Sorry for not updating as soon as I promised. A bunch of factors all chose to work against me, one of which was my Internet being down. So I won't promise a date for my next update in order to not jinx it but Chapter Five, if all goes well, should be posted soon.

I realize that I sound like a whiny review-hog but please guys, keep sending me your reviews! And if you happen to read this on the 23rd (the review thingy will be down, in case you didn't hear), come back on Tuesday and review. Thanks!