Disclaimer: Never have and never will own Van Helsing or anything to do with the merchandise or actors lip trembles

Chapter 3

Jory shivered as he awoke. The first thing that hit him was an intense pain at the back of his skull. He winced and touched the spot feeling the beginnings of a large raised bruise. Swearing he sat up and opened his eyes expecting to see the inside of a tent, instead he was met with absolute darkness.

"What the hell?" he shivered again and realised that he was wet through and that the air around him was bitterly cold. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness he began to make out the trees that surrounded him, piles of snow glinted in the places where it had gotten through the thick canopy of evergreen above his head.

If it wasn't for the fact that he was freezing and his head hurt like hell he would have thought he was dreaming. Taking a few hesitant steps forward he began to vaguely remember falling, Tony had fallen with him.

"Tony!" he yelled his voice too loud in the silence of the night.

Common sense told him that if they had fallen together then his friend couldn't be far away. Frantically he began to search around the trees. Barely past his own landing spot he tripped over something soft, landing hard on his hands. He spun and saw a figure lying under his legs. "Tony!" he crawled over and felt for a pulse. He began to panic again when he couldn't find one but then laughed with relief when a low groan escaped his friend.

"Jory?" Tony asked not moving.

"Yeah it's me. You ok?" Jory asked concerned.

"You just had to touch it didn't you?"

Jory laughed. "Yep your fine." Tony sat up and looked around at the dark wood.

"Don't suppose you had a torch on you when you fell?" he asked hopefully. Jory shock his head helping Tony to his feet.

A twig snapped in the darkness to their left and they froze. Something big was moving towards them. Tony felt around and stood up clutching a large stick in his hands, he held himself ready as through the darkness they saw something approaching. Silently Tony moved around to the other side of a tree watching as whatever it was walked past him.

With a wild yell he swung the stick and it impacted with its twin. Sarah screamed in shock and raised her own weapon to counter Tony's attack. They stared at each other in shock for a moment before Sarah angrily swatted his stick to the side "Are you trying to kill me!" she yelled. Behind her Amie, Bob, Marston and Chris came into view.

"You came at me through total darkness waving a stick around! I thought you were trying to kill me!" he yelled back. Sarah grinned sheepishly and put out her hand.

"Truce? On account of we both attacked each other?" she asked. Tony smiled and shook her hand. Sarah looked around the clearing concerned "Do you know where Jory is?" she asked. Tony raised his eyebrows.

"Why? Do you need to attack him with the stick?" She glared at him and Jory laughed coming out from behind the tree to their left.

"So is everybody ok?" he asked. They all nodded.

"I think on account that it's snowing and very cold we can assume we're not in England anymore." Bob said shivering in his thin T-shirt and jeans.

"Thank you Dorothy." Muttered Marston.

"So where the hell are we?" asked Tony.

Chris grinned, "Well when I found Sarah she was pretty insistent that we were in Narnia."

Sarah blushed "I was barely conscious and I was dreaming when you woke me up!" They laughed.

"Ok so we can put that down to mild concussion, what's your excuse for the other weird stuff you come out with every other day?" Tony asked pleasantly.

The werewolf crouched just beyond the clearing. Formerly Prince Velkan Valerius, it was now nothing but a servant of Count Dracula. Now it acted as his eyes and ears watching these strangers as they started walking through the trees.

The wolf growled low in it's throat and began to track them at a distance by their scent alone.

In castle Frankenstein it's master saw what it saw, cautioning it to keep its hunger in check or face the consequences. The beast had come across the new comers quite by accident on its monthly hunt and their sudden arrival was of the utmost interest to its master.

Dracula stood on the Balcony over looking the river; his two remaining brides huddled together in his shadow watching him as he followed the wolf's progress. From the trees another scent reached him through the animal. "Ah the hunter is also the prey" he muttered to himself recognising the scent of silver ammunition.

He turned to his brides "Make your way to the village and watch the strangers. Stay out of sight less you suffer the same fate as Marishka," he ordered. With wicked grins his brides leapt off the balcony and flew away in their bat forms towards the lights of the distant village. Dracula noted the absence of the third bride; Mariska had been lost to him over a month previously the day Van Helsing had arrived in the village. He could not afford the Princess to gain more allies. Focusing he once again linked with the werewolf feeling a small measure of satisfaction when he recalled this latest victory over his enemies. Velkan had fought the change impressively managing to hold it off longer than most, but like those before him it had consumed him eventually. Right in front of his beloved sister, Dracula couldn't have hoped for a more fitting end for the brat prince.

Smiling to himself he continued the hunt.

Note: It will get better I promise!

Want to thank my friends for providing their own dialogue, even if they didn't know it at the time.