She was lying asleep, and he sighed as he saw the look of innocence on her face. He sat down opposite her, unable to concentrate on anything aside from her face. She gave a low moan. He smiled. He couldn't understand why he was so captivated by her. He told himself it was merely because she surely had an interesting story to tell, but he suspected it was something more than that.
He wondered if she could really be related to Van Helsing. It seemed unbelievable, but there were no records of his family, and she did look extremely like Gabriel.
"Carl," she whispered, waking up, her eyes haunted and wide.
"Bad dreams?" he asked, concerned.
She nodded. "Yes."
So she had bad dreams, just like Van Helsing. That was interesting; the plot thickened.
"Do you want to talk about them?"
She closed her eyes. "They are brief flashbacks of my past life."
He sighed. "Who are you looking for here?"
"Gabriel Van Helsing."
"Why?" Carl asked.
"He is my brother. My big brother."
Carl decided not to pursue this conversation. It seemed to upset her.
"Anything interesting in your dreams?" he asked.
"The love of my past life."
"That can't be so bad."
"It has a rather bitter ending."
Carl sighed. She chewed her lip, her eyes wide and sad. Carl slid from the chair to scuttle over to her, squatted beside her.
"Thank you," she whispered, her breath playing over his face warmly.
He leaned in close. His heart was pounding in his chest, his blood hot and passionate. Their lips were almost touching...
"Carl? You decent?"
Carl quickly stood up at the sound of Van Helsing's voice outside of his door. Alex's mouth tightened, her eyes widened. Carl knew she had realised who it was. He flashed her a quick smile and hurried out, closing the door behind him and looking at Gabriel, who looked haggard and tired. He had obviously just arrived.
"Who was she?" he asked Carl.
"Who?" Carl asked innocently.
"I saw the girl, Carl."
"Alexandria."
"Alexandria? Alexandria who?"
Carl reluctantly met his eyes. "Alexandria Van Helsing."