Disclaimer:  The characters and concepts pertaining to Van Helsing in this story are the property of Stephen Sommers.  This is an amateur writing effort.  There was no intention of infringing on copyright laws in the writing or posting of this story.  There was no money made off any process I went through in thinking, writing, and or posting of this work. 

            Chapter 18:  The Dark Side of the Moon

            Gabriel couldn't sleep.  Outside of his tent there was laughing and talking, all of the voices garbled together into a large, resounding noise.  But it wasn't the sounds of his friends having a good time that made him lie awake inside his tent.  It wasn't even the thoughts of Alice Daniels as she had dismounted from the carriage provided for her (angelic as they were.  The sunlight and frost touching her cheeks and hair and as she stepped down it held great resemblance to an angel making their way onto the Earth).  He couldn't help but continue to think about his mission.  He couldn't stop thinking about the way 'the man' had told him he must complete it tonight, and there were many reasons why he couldn't do that.

            The first and foremost:  Count Dracula may have been a murderer and a killer, but Count Dracula was also his friend.  As sick and twisted as it seemed, Gabriel held great respect for his comrade.  Dracula had saved him many times in battles.  He had pulled Gabriel's wounded body and he had made sure he had a horse when Gabriel's was shot out from under him.  On one occasion he had Gabriel lie with him while they recovered in Castle Dracula, Dracula recovering from the injuries he sustained when someone had hacked at him with an axe and Gabriel took four arrows to his back and shoulders.  It made the weeks in the room pass by faster and it was surprising that they did not tire of each other by the end.

            The second reason was unfortunately Alice Daniels.  With her presence he could not bring himself to even think about killing Dracula.  Not when the Count was held in such high regard by the woman.  This too made him try and rationalize the situation somewhat, recalling the bordellos he had dragged the Count out of in the early hours of morning when Dracula was well beyond intoxicated.  He was usually surrounded by women of all nationalities.  He had dark skinned women from the Mediterranean clad in light, sheer fabrics and ornate golden headdresses.  He had pale Saxon women, not unlike Alice, and fiery red headed Scots.  But nothing gave Dracula more pleasure than the dark haired dangerous women from Romania.  Even Alice could not match the thrill the Count received when he seduced a local woman.  But Alice's feelings were important to him.  If he were to kill Dracula how would that reflect upon her?

            And what if she found out it was me?

            Gabriel shook his head and turned over on the thick furs that were serving as a mattress.  The other blankets were kicked away, down to his feet and were tangled near the entrance of his tent in a conglomerate mess.  He found that he was warm anyways, laying in his tunic and trousers, his boots laying somewhere in the blankets where he had kicked them off without care.  He wanted to sleep.  Sleep was a release.  Sleep and bliss.

            But it was always haunted with those faces…

            "  He found that he was warm anyways, laying in his tunic and trousers, his boots laying somewhere in the blankets where he had kicked them off without care.  He wanted to sleep.  Sleep was a release.  Sleep and bliss.

            But it was always haunted with those faces…

            Dracula's words about being a contradiction came back to him.  Was he really supposed to be so haunted when he contradicted himself?  It seemed so.  The men who say one thing and do another were always haunted with regret and pain, whether physical or emotional.  He didn't doubt that Dracula's ease to forget and his lack of regret made him less haunted than Gabriel.  Dracula was all too happy to rub it in Gabriel's face as well, but it was just their friendship.  Dracula was outgoing, rebellious, dark and mysterious and women loved that type in the underworlds that Dracula found his way into.

             He would never fall in love.  Every woman he would ever love would die.  Every woman he would ever feel for would be destroyed. 

            You're just scaring yourself Gabriel.  He couldn't believe what his mind was trying to convince him of.  Not even two weeks ago, upon his arrival in the cursed land Dracula owned, he had his Tarot read by a young gypsy woman with thick black curls and heavy hoop earrings.  She was picturesque, seated behind a table with a scarf tied around the crown of her head.  Her wrists were adorned with bangles and bracelets that tinkled with every movement.  She had him cut the deck before dealing three decks of cards, each with three cards in them.  The top cards were flipped over.

            Three of swords…six of swords…knights of swords…

            "You are a soldier, are you not?"  She asked in Romanian.  He nodded slightly.  She continued, her dark eyes moving over the cards.  "You have seen many battles.  You are returning from one.  You were injured.  There was a lot of suffering in these battles.  And you left them trying to find an escape."   The woman continued without much of a pause.  "That was your past.  In your present…"  She took off the top three cards and revealed the next three cards. 

            He couldn't remember the reading.  She had spoke of change and he had definitely seen the Death card in the third layer of cards.  In his future, Death would appear, but the woman had assured him that it was not physical death. 

            "None of the cards apply to the physical world."  She said.  "But I see much suffering in you.  Emotional suffering…you have lost a lot.  And I see regret and betrayal…"

            Regret and betrayal…You wear your heart on your sleeve Gabriel.

            He heard someone walking around outside his tent.  He tensed immediately, reaching under his pillow for the warmed sheath of his blade.  His hand gripped it and pulled it from under his pillow, waiting with bated breath until the swishing of a cloak on the ground had come inside entirely and allowing the thick door to the tent to swing shut.  Gabriel quickly pulled the dagger from the sheath and turned over, sitting up immediately to look into the face of the pale angel Alice Daniels.

            She was barely clothed, wearing only a long crimson robe and something (he hoped) underneath.  Her face was blank, waiting patiently for him to put the dagger down before she spoke or moved.

            "What are you doing here?"  He asked while grabbing the sheath from the pillow and putting the dagger back inside.  Alice said nothing and crossed over to the bed, grabbing his hands in hers before kissing him.  She tossed the sheath and blade over her shoulder as she eased closer to him and ran her fingers down his chest, kissing more and more hungrily with each moment.

            Gabriel was in shock.  She was the woman in love with his comrade, clothed in his fabrics, touched only by his hand…

            But she was kissing him with the same passion he had seen her bestow upon Dracula.  She was in his tent, dressed in perhaps only a robe, and kissing him as if they were lovers.

            He tried to push her away but she wrapped her arms around his head.

            "Stop."  She said, biting his lip a little with hers.  "You want this don't you?"

            Gabriel pushed her off him roughly, trying not to be that forceful with her.  The robe was wrapped around her bare white calves and he hated to think of the state of the rest of her body if there was nothing clothing that part of her.

            Alice looked up at him, her tongue between her teeth.  She got back to her feet, breathing deeply. 

            "I'm sorry."  She said, getting up to leave.  Gabriel couldn't control himself suddenly, drawn to the pale angel like nothing before her.  He got up and off the bed, taking her by the shoulder and turning her around again. 

            They kissed once more, his hand taking her shoulder and pulling her back into the tent.  Dracula was outside laughing with the others as Gabriel devoured his lover behind his back.

            There was more laughing, but it was faint and dull, stopped by the walls that surrounded him.  The darkness was gone now and his head was clear of the fog Morgan had put there.  Gabriel reached up and rubbed his temples as girlish squealing was heard somewhere next to him.

            He jerked back on the bed and fell off the other side, dropping to the floor with a grunt.  The hard wood connected with his aching bones and muscles, causing the bruises and cuts he had received over the course of the mission to flare to live agonizingly.  Groaning, he pushed himself up onto his arms and painfully discovered that his right arm didn't work.  The cut on the bicep was tied tightly with cloth and a poultice, treated with something that left it shaking and weak.

            Gabriel looked around from the floor, finding that he was somewhere that he had never consented to going to.  His eyes widened as he turned and looked around, looking at the painted walls and that wood stove to his left.  The two beds were messy and the blankets were kicked to the bottom in knots.  The walls were lined with painted handprints and finger painted symbols of protection and of enchantment.

            Question one, Gabriel:  Where the hell are you?  He couldn't believe he had wandered somewhere the night before.  He replayed the events in his mind, and suddenly realized that after the bright light swallowed them up in the faerie ring there were a few scattered memories but nothing conclusive.  He was at a loss.

            There was a laugh from behind him.  It took him a moment but he finally achieved a position on the floor that allowed him to look at the figure in the doorway.  The woman stood with her hands on her hips, her blonde hair pulled into a knot with flowers in it.  She laughed once again.

            Question two, Gabriel:  Who the hell is that?

            "So you've finally decided to wake up?  I was scared there for a moment.  I thought that woman would never leave you alone.  Although I can tell why she fancies you."  The woman waltzed to him, bending over and without warning pulled Gabriel up with strength that didn't precisely match her size.  Within a moment he was on his feet, stumbling and shaking, but on his feet nonetheless.

            "Here, sit down before you fall down."  He was eased back onto the bed, trembling and feeling feverish.  The woman smiled and clapped her hands together as if she were dusting them off. 

            "There you go."  She stood up straight again and smiled with her hands on her hips.  Gabriel swallowed hard and found his mouth stale with a disgusting taste in his throat.  He gagged and made a face, coughing the thick saliva up from the back of his mouth.  The woman nudged a cup back under his mouth.

            He laughed suddenly, taking the cup.

            "Why have I seen this before?"

            "So you do remember last night."  She laughed a little.  "You were in quite a state.  Don't worry this is just water." 

            Gabriel took the cup from her and swallowed painfully.  The water moved over his throat, raw and dry from however long he had been unconscious for.  The woman went about tidying things up on the counter.  She rolled up bandages with her strong fingers, the tendons popping out of her skin from the strength she possessed in her grip.  She tossed everything back up in the cupboard and turned back around as Gabriel finished the water.

            "You're friend's been doing nothing but ask questions.  She fancies you I gather." 

            Gabriel nearly choked on the water.  Some of it found its way to his trachea anyways and he was left on the edge of the bed trying to breathe through his full mouth.  The woman rolled her eyes and he kept coughing, and with a loving hand and smoothed her palm over his back and hummed to him softly, mothering him once again.  She took the cup from him as he finally finished, taking deep breaths of the air and drinking it in hungrily.

            "There, see now, feel better?"  She asked him before standing up again.  Gabriel was red faced, still feeling weary and weakened from whatever had happened the night before.  He grabbed his aching head and groaned while rubbing his temples to alleviate the growing, throbbing pain.  The woman closed the cupboard.

            "How long have I been…asleep for?"  He lifted his head with a crack of his neck, starting to feel much better.  The woman smiled.

            "Oh, for the whole bloody day.  Fallon's been out tracking a trail you can take out of here when the sun comes up."  Gabriel's brow furrowed.  The whole day?  He turned to where he was sure there was a window and looked out to the sky. 

The sun was sinking low behind the trees, the sky painted in red, pink, and purple watercolours that were splashed through the horizon and only yielded for the thick bony trees beneath it.  Long shadows were cast from the blazing sunset and the growing fires around the camp as men and women and children tossed logs onto the fires to help them burn.  The people were glittering, moving about with flowers and ribbons tied to their limbs and long, fluttering fabrics that covered them from head to foot.

            They were celebrating something, and he had no idea what it could possibly be.

            "We're setting up an offering."  The woman revealed.  She spoke slowly as Gabriel watched it unfold.  Fragrant blossoms were thrown into the growing flames and giant clouds of smoke billowed out.  "To the council of Avalon, the seven women who rule over it with Arthur, hoping that they will help us."

            "Help you what?"  Gabriel asked, turning back to her.  The woman's eyes lowered.

            "Did Fallon tell you what Morgan wants with this land?"  The woman asked while she crossed her arms.  Gabriel nodded.  The woman sighed deeply.

            "Morgan has wanted Merlin's land since she killed him.  But when she murdered him she had no idea that he had left the grounds to Fallon's ancestors."  She walked to the window before continuing.  "So when she found out, she swore war against us, vowing that when she regained her strength, she would take the forests of Merlin in one foul swoop, and that these lands and Avalon would someday be hers."

            Gabriel was silent as the woman looked out the window, her eyes moving over the running figures of her two sons as they darted to and fro around the bonfires carrying long maypoles as offerings to the wind.  She placed her hand on the glass of the window, her fingers trailing down in a long smear of oil and sweat.  Gabriel said nothing and watched her silently.

            "So we wait here hoping that Morgan is not so foolish as to try and take us over so soon."  She had a devious grin on her face now, smiling to no one in particular before giving a small laugh.  "You see what Morgan doesn't know is that the majority of these woods are right over top of an iron mine."  The woman laughed whole heartily again.  Gabriel had nothing to say.  She stared at him in awe. 

            "Don't you know what iron does to faeries?  It takes away their bloody power, that's what it does.  They can't move or breathe and then they explode into dust whenever it gets too hard to handle.  Our greatest defense against Morgan is the fact that if she was to try and take over her whole kingdom would be destroyed before they could even reaps the benefits of their labour."  The woman smiled and laughed a little more, obviously visualizing what would happen to all of Morgan's subjects if they were to even set foot on the forest floor.  "It's the reason we can stay here in this clearing.  This is where the majority of the iron lies and it's the reason Morgan can't touch it.  It's the outside one has to be careful of."  She walked back to the counter and rummaged through the things there once again, tossing things away in the cupboards with other oddly shaped totems and charms.

            "Don't take that necklace off neither.  It will protect you better than a pentacle will."  Gabriel looked up at her, reaching his hand to his throat.  He hadn't noticed the thin chain hanging there, about his throat.  He moved his fingers over the charm hanging between his collar bones and found it to be a familiar shape. 

            It was the Trinity Knot, and although the meaning was lost to him now, he had a vague idea of what it looked like.  It was a Celtic design that was used often to symbolize the three plains or the unity of the mind, body, and soul.  He dropped it back on his throat and swallowed hard, still recuperating and recovering from whatever had happened last night.  Whenever he closed his eyes he could hear the music (after he drowned out the voices from outside and the soft breathing from the woman in front of him).  He could see Mina in that dress and the raven haired beauty that had replaced her and scorned him.  Inside his head he could see her smiling coyly, her eyebrows arched elegantly to accent her cruel gestures. 

            "We ask for their help so that you don't fail in destroying her.  So that we can eventually live in this land in peace."  The woman sighed softly, still staring at nothing in particular.  Her eyes had drifted from focus.  She turned her focus back to Gabriel a moment later.  

            "You best be getting up.  The walk will do you some good.  Come on now, I'll help."

            The woman, although she went unnamed up until now, took his arm and without much effort, lifted him back to his feet and helped him to the door.  Gabriel found that he could finally control his body again and he was able to make it to the door without much help.  She was there to steady him as they opened the door to the cool evening air. 

            It was a magical evening, the stars blanketing the sky and the moon shining brightly overhead.  The full moon still made him shiver and he stood there a moment and lost himself in the brilliance, feeling the freedom he had once felt, the rage, the anger, the hunger…

            "Even the moon has a dark side."  Jinette had told him that, once upon a time.  It seemed a lifetime ago and that wasn't far from the truth.  Van Helsing's idea of a lifetime was based on what he could remember consciously.

            "Gabriel!"  He didn't even see the blur of movement before it had pummeled into him, harder than he suspected Mina had meant to.  The smaller woman wrapped her arms around him from the front, just as she had done on the back of the horse, holding him as if he would float away and disappear.  It took Gabriel a moment to lower his arms around her, finding her head pressed against his shoulder and her soft brown hair hanging down her back.  His hand was on the back of her head and his fingers moved from the roots of her brown locks to the tips resting just beneath her tiny shoulder.  She was still so warm against him, even though her heart was never beating.  It was the rise and fall of her chest that reminded him that she still maintained some kind of humanity and still existed as a somewhat living creature. 

            And she called me Gabriel…his mind told him.  Up until that point she had always called him Mr. Van Helsing, regardless of the situation.  But she had distinctly shouted Gabriel.

            Mina was silent, even as she eased away from Gabriel and looked him straight in the eyes, a smile on her face.  She looked as if she would have lost her mind if he hadn't been standing there.

            "How do you feel?"  She asked him.

            He shrugged a little.  "I've been worse."

            "But you don't feel any different?"  She quickly asked him following his answer.  Gabriel's eyes narrowed and he shook his head again.  Mina let out an exasperated sigh and tried to calm herself, breathing deeply.

            "Fallon showed me Alan, his brother," She informed him, "The tenth victim of Morgan le Fey and the second person on the camp to become an utter lunatic."  She ran her fingers through her hair, tossing it over her shoulder instead of having it draped around her throat.

            "I'm just happy you're alright."  Mina said with a smile. 

            "Well that's all fine and dandy but can I get down the bloody steps now?"  The woman put her hands on her hips.  Mina sidestepped out of the way.

            "I'm sorry."  Mina said quickly as the woman walked off.  Gabriel took a deep breath and winced a little when he found his strength was still sapped.  Mina noticed his weakness and was silent about it, but helped him down anyways by taking his arm over her shoulder once again, just as she had done back in England.

            "Are you hungry?"  She asked him.  Gabriel found that he wasn't which was strange.  It had been days since he had last eaten, but he was too tired to think about food at the time.  He wanted to get out of the forest and ride for Carl, but the fog still lingered in thick clouds around the clearing (much to his dismay).  Morgan would in his mind pay dearly for a few things.  The first was the faerie ring (although the memories were vague, dancing alone was enough to make him mad enough to kill someone).  The second was Carl, and it was becoming enough of a reason for him to take off right then and there.

            Of course, there's just one problem, GENIUS, his mind mocked him.  How the hell are you planning to stay in the saddle?

            Gabriel decided to leave in a few hours, just enough to drink something, watch the ceremony, and make up some kind of plan to kill Morgan.

            "You should eat something.  You haven't had anything since…"  Mina stopped.  Had Gabriel even eaten while at her house?  Yes, she thought, but it wasn't much.  She finished her statement with, "You'll feel better if you eat something.  Here we go." 

            She knelt down with him, setting him on the ground in a sitting position, lingering under his arm for a moment (just to see what it felt like) before lifting up his arm and setting it beside him.  Gabriel stared into the fire in front of him, the same fire he and Mina had been falling asleep next to just the night before.  It felt like no time had passed.  Mina was searching through the clothing provided for her, examining the corset and the shirt.  He was tending to his wounds (badly due to the poor light provided by the flickering fire). 

            "Here.  They left this for me."  She handed him some bread, not needing it herself.  He could tell by her colour that she had been feeding off the rats and creatures that roamed the campsite.  Her eyes were gleaming from the living fluid she had been allowed to ingest.  Gabriel took the bread but couldn't find the strength or the will to eat it.  No matter what, he just wasn't that hungry.

            "You have to eat something, Mr. Van Helsing, especially if you intend on traveling in a few hours time."  He looked back at the food and to appease her, broke off a small piece and swallowed it without chewing.  He held back a wince in pain as it moved slowly down his esophagus, tightening on his windpipe, but hid it from Mina.  She wasn't looking at him anyways.  She was drawn to the ceremony that was beginning to take place.

            The garments of white were floating around like specters, moving about the fires with their offerings of flowers before tossing them into the flames.  The thick smoke was rising upwards, only to be fanned to the east by small children holding large blankets.  They were lifting them up and down to create a current strong enough to carry their offering out to the ocean and towards the fabled Avalon.

            Mina turned towards Gabriel, her eyes bearing concern.  She narrowed her gaze.

            "Are you sure you're alright, Mr. Van Helsing?"

            There was a pause.  He rubbed his eyes a little before nodding.  She nodded back, still concerned, but turned away anyways.  Gabriel sighed.

            "Less than a month ago I was bitten by a werewolf."  He confessed.  Mina looked back at him, staring at him intently.  Gabriel couldn't look back.  He watched the figures moving about around the fires.  "I was on a mission, not unlike this one, but I was going to Romania to kill Count Dracula and his three brides."

            Mina's lips parted slightly at the words Count Dracula.  She nearly felt her heart start beating again. 

            "When I was bitten I only transformed once, but it stayed with me for some reason.  I can't get it out of my head…"

            Her gaze softened.  Gabriel closed his eyes and heard the howl in the corner of his mind.  It was his own howl, the long weary howl of one who had just lost something very precious to him.

            "How did it look when she died, Gabriel?" Her cruel voice whispered again.  Suddenly he was looking at her body, still beautiful even in death, still appearing as if she were sleeping in his arms at Castle Frankenstein after he had given her a healthy dose of the knock-out dust.  Anna was beautiful, it was true.  She was Gabriel's type, aggressive and dangerous, armed to the teeth with every sharp and fatal object known to man.  Her ferocious eyes and vivid stare were all the more signs of a true hunter, the marks that time and training leave on a person.  When he had first seen her he had seen something he had never seen in women before.  He had seen himself. 

            "I used Dracula's cure."  He confessed.  He had never spoken about the event even to Carl since it had happened.  They had brushed the subject but always lightly. 

            Mina's eyes were vivid and locked on him, her brows arching at the thought and meaning of his words.  They seemed to make her breathe very deeply and her expression was melancholic, lost in a train of thought that was far away from her and Gabriel.

            She looked away and nodded.

            "I know."  She replied.  "I knew when I drank your blood.  I imagine I knew the first moment I found you in Hamilton's house that you had."

            Her eyes were back on him again.

            "Do you miss it?"

            "Miss what?"  He asked, growing weary of conversation and laying back on the ground.  Mina continued anyways, knowing he wouldn't sleep.

            "Do you miss being a wolf?"  She asked him. 

            Gabriel's eyes opened at the question.  Mina's eyes were still on him, locked with his face. 

            "I assume it feels like being a vampire."  She said, turning away and staring at the ceremonial pacing that was taking place by the fires in front of her.  "It feels like the whole world is yours suddenly and the rage eats you alive, tearing you up from inside like a disease.  And the hunger…"

            Mina choked on her words.  Gabriel closed his eyes again, remembering, lost in the life he could remember. 

            Yes Mina, it does feel very much the same as that.  The hunger chewing at you from within as the rage feasts off every conscious thought and locks you inside the cage of the werewolf venom.  It's losing all your self control and inhibitions and becoming the basic fury that lies underneath the surface of every human being.  And even though it feels like your drowning you cannot die, and the lack of breath doesn't stop the primary instincts that flare to life. 

            He smiled wistfully and gave a small laugh.  Mina was taken out of her vigil by his throaty chuckle and she turned. 

            "What's so funny?"  Gabriel's eyes were still closed.  He's talking in his sleep…Mina thought for a moment.  But his hand lifted and he pointed from himself to Mina's general direction.

            Then his hand fell, and his last words before sleep took him were inaudible, but after a moment Mina found that she understood them.

            "There's a dark side to every moon."  He had said.  It made her smile.

Author's Notes:  This chapter took me a little more than a week to post, and I am trying to post ASAP because of my schedule.  I've been working on this for a while and have found that it's getting easier to write because my schedule is more concrete.  I work from ten till three or four in the afternoon (five or six hours a day, which isn't bad if you consider what other people have to work).  Next week I have an eight hour shift and am scared about it because I will be all alone (big shriek).  Oh well, I'm sure it will be okay.  How badly can one person screw up anyways?

            There's not a lot of excitement in this chapter.  It's a lot of dialogue, but I am setting it up for a pretty big realization (ie Gabriel talking to no one in particular at something he just discovered even though the audience has caught on, and in this case I'm making a direct reference to Carl's line:  some 'vague references to the Left Hand of God', which in the movie WERE NOT THAT VAGUE).  Also I'm deepening the relationship with Mina and Gabriel to set it up for 'the big kiss' (You know, the pretty cliché moment where the main characters grab each other in a frenzy of passion and the whole theatre is enthralled) and the possible sequel (which I'm still working out).

            In the beginning of the chapter (when I was describing Gabriel's relationship with Dracula) I wrote in that they shared a room together while injured.  This is taken from the book The Sky Stone when the two characters have their beds pushed together to shorten the length of recovery time with each other's company.

            But there's more excitement and more Carl in the next chapter so it will hopefully make up for this chapter.

Reviews

Verona Dracula:  I don't know if I could kill off anyone at this point.  Gabriel is my favourite character to write for, and that's saying a lot considering I've never been able to write well for male characters.  Carl is well, Carl, and killing him would be too hard (although I could do something really interesting….NO!  Sadistic thoughts!).  Mina has really grown on me.  Jinette is fun as well.  Morgan however…oh well, she's the villain. 

I like the casualties of war idea too.  It's employed in a lot of my favourite movies (The Matrix) and favourite books (Cold Mountain, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) and Stephen used it really originally in Van Helsing (unless he intends to bring Anna back…growls).  If I found a character I could do it with, I could use it in this story or the possible sequel.

Fanfiction Fanatic:  Oh my goodness!  I'm glad that you're recovering and that there's not a major problem (although a lung collapse is pretty serious).  I hope that the rest of your recovery is quick and successful without any more complications!  Thank you very much for sticking with my story!

Scholar:  I felt like I had to give the visuals.  It's easier to imagine something when you have a definitive idea of what you're looking at and thinking about.  I think that's the main reason people like writing Fanfiction before tackling original fiction because the characters are already there and there's not a lot of vivid descriptions that they have to make up on their own.  I'm not saying that Fanfiction writers don't have a lot of imagination.  Hell, a lot of Fanfiction writers have more imagination that original fiction authors.  It's easier to write about Gabriel Van Helsing with the image of Hugh Jackman and the dialogue from the movie in your head than write from scratch about characters you have to create on your own.  But that's just me.

            I'm glad you're enjoying the story!

Grissom:  I wish I knew what I was intending to say there, but even I've confused myself.  Maybe I forgot a quotation mark.  Bloody hell (slaps forehead).  I've really got to start proofreading better.  Sorry about that.

            I was happy to share so of my ideas on the sequel.  I'm considering writing a trailer which will be posted at the end of Shards and see what everyone thinks (the saved copy of my trailer is at my computer at home and I can't post it until I get back anyways…growls).  I've still got some fine tuning to do with the plot, but I can tell everyone that it will focus more on Gabriel's past that Shards does, and the two characters from the previous chapter (the man and woman) will play a much bigger role.  I can tell everyone that the characters are not from Dracula, but I'm not saying anything more than that.

            I'm plotting bigger and more evil ways to get back at Morgan (by this time Gabriel's pretty angry).  I can't wait to write her death or mortal injury, although the movie does state that Gabriel's methods are admired (so Morgan's probably going to die).  The only detail I have to work in is the connection to the sequel, since I need Morgan to set up the villain for it (otherwise the villain would pop out of nowhere and I hate plot holes, mainly because my stories usually have one or two by the time I'm finished with them). 

            Lol.  I laughed when I read the part in your review about the Dwergi putting the hat on.  I now want to rent the game and play until that part simply to see it happen (laughs)  Sommers so should have put that in the movie and just have had Gabriel go psychotic on the Dwergi's back side.  Or if Carl went after one, but either way I would have been entertained.

            On a final note, I love long reviews and short reviews.  Besides, I like talking/writing about some of my favourite topics with people (Van Helsing counts).  So don't feel bad about the length!  Regardless of its length it makes me smile.

J:  Thanks for setting me straight on the Ripper killings.  I have read a couple of accounts but didn't look too hard at the dates.  One of the main things that screwed me up was thinking that every single one of his murders happened at the turn of the century and that lead to the screw up with my time and Stoker's time. 

            I don't know how old I'll make Gabriel.  One could assume that he was twenty-ish because Mina recognized him really quickly.  Then again, one could also assume that Gabriel's facial features were still the same (I tried to be as vague about Mina's ability to recognize Gabriel to avoid any plot hole about the topic).   That way I could make the decision later on and it would still be consistent. 

            I started reading Lady Erised's In the Name of God and was in shock.  She is good!

HyperCaz:  I agree with you.  I wouldn't bring back Dracula unless there was a big reason to.  Although some people have some very good stories about it, it's not something I would want to do.  The best sequels in the world are the ones that build on the original characters with an original storyline.  Most of the time if I villain is brought back from hibernation or death it's not the best option (unless they didn't die in the predecessor and were able to come back plausibly). 

            I just saw Spider-Man 2 and wanted to slap him every time his mask 'fell' off or whatever (even though more of Tobey Maguire's face isn't all bad). 

Quicksilver:  Thank you! 

I'm glad that everyone has been enjoying the story (spelling errors aside).  I love reading every review I get.  It's nice to hear that people are enjoying my work.  I promise for more excitement but please review again!