Random-Battlecry Thanx again for reviewing, yeh this is gonna be a long one.
Fortune Zyne (Hugs) aww sorry I made you cry will look out for your fic and I'll do my best to make ahappy ending promise!
Disclaimer: Do not own or profit from Van Helsing as it is the property of Universal and Steven Summers
Chapter 19
Two nights…48 hours, it felt like an eternity to Sarah in her small prison.
After the count had left she had slept, she didn't know how long for, but she had been tormented by horrific nightmares. The first had her fleeing something in total darkness, trying desperately to run but being unable to.
The second she had escaped and gotten back to the village only to find it burnt to the ground her friend's bodies scattered across the square, each with suspicious marks on their throats. Sarah had then discovered that her mouth was full of warm blood…their warm blood, and she had screamed waking violently to face the small candlelit room.
Hours had past since then and she had spent them all in quiet meditation willing her self to forget, to feel nothing and move away. She sat with her legs crossed her back leaning comfortably against the head board of the bed, she began to discover that she could mimic the act of breathing and relished the feeling of the cool air rushing in and out of her body.
Her vampiric abilities were also steadily making themselves known and she found that with a little concentration she cold hear the tiniest sound in the corridor beyond her room and fainter sounds from deep within the castle.
Shortly after she had awakened her skin had begun to prickle as if she was sat before a roaring fire. The sun had risen which meant that her friends would be safe for the next twelve hours, the thought cheered her making her isolation more bearable. Her friends were alive and safe under Van Helsing's guardian ship and he would make sure it stayed that way; it would be his mission now she knew, and the Hunter would not allow himself to fail a mission.
"He's the terminator," she muttered to herself grinning in the darkness.
Unable to concentrate on her meditation she opened her eyes and replaced the candle on the dresser finding four or five replacements in one of the upper draws.
"No matches." She muttered searching the other draws in turn and finding only a hairbrush.
Slamming the last draw shut in frustration she sat back heavily on to the mattress and stared at the candle Dracula's grinning face entering her mind. "What idiot gives you a candle but no matches!" she yelled furiously.
Suddenly out of the corner of her eyes she saw her nails elongate into claws, her eyes widened as she brought them up to her eye level, they began to retract as she watched returning to their normal length. Sarah stared at them puzzled wondering how she had caused them to change.
She began to concentrate willing them to grow long and sharp again, nothing happened and she started to get frustrated and angry with herself. As the emotion built up the change began to occur again and she held the emotions building them up until she felt her entire body shift.
She looked down at her torso and saw the gown dissolve to form thick leathery skin over her body, her feet became long and deformed, huge clawed toes began to appear and she found that she could use them much like hands to grip and move objects. Her gums began to ache slightly and sharp teeth pricked at her bottom lip confirming the elongation of her vampiric fangs. Finally she glanced to either side and saw bat-like grey wings protruding from her back.
As she stared at her own transformation in awe she became aware of another presence within her body, she drew into herself trying to identify the presence. Something dark and cold and evil lurked in the recesses of her mind, she could feel it coiled and slithering inside her subconscious.
It was the essence of the vampire she would become. She was feeling the being that would slowing wipe her mind, destroying her human memories and transforming her fully into a mindless killer, a shadow of herself, possessing her personality and body in a sordid mockery of existence.
She shuddered disgusted at this violation of her body and then became aware that the presence was slowly growing. It has already begun. She thought, trembling she forced herself to relax and began to build up her protective shields, surrounding the creature within a cage of light in her mind and shutting it away.
The presence was weakened so that she could barely feel it and she slumped down on to the bed exhausted with her efforts. After a while she glanced at the unlit candle on the dresser, angrily she swept her claws along the stone wall behind it, sending a shower of sparks on to the wick which began to smoulder finally bursting into life in a display of golden light.
Elsewhere in the castle, Count Dracula stood upside down on the ceiling of his laboratory, watching his servants scurry below him like so many vermin. The sun was up and had been for many hours at this time he would usually have been in the safe confinement of his coffin but the morning found him restless. With astonishing grace he allowed himself to fall, twisting midair to land perfectly on to the distant floor.
His servants stepped out of his way but showed no fear as their master strode among them. "Igor!"
"Yes Master."
The small-deformed man appeared beside the count bowing his head awkwardly in reverence.
Igor's main deformity was his horrifically twisted neck; it was a souvenir of his time in the village of Vaseria where the mob of villagers had hanged him in the centre of the square. Victor Frankenstein had saved him, cutting him down and nursing the bones in his neck until they had been repaired. He was fully recovered now even if his neck was horrifically contorted. There after he had served as the good doctors assistant and when the good doctor had be made into Dracula's new puppet he had gladly entered a new life of torture and servitude at his command.
Dracula eyed the mortal with open contempt, he would have killed the man but for his usefulness.
"Bring me the good Doctor there is much we must discuss." He ordered.
Igor cackled and scurried away returning shortly with Doctor Victor Frankenstein in tow. The young doctor had a glazed look about him, induced by the powerful trance Dracula kept him under, his dark hair was overgrown and uncombed and his lab coat was stained darkly with what looked suspiciously like blood.
"Hello Victor," the count said pleasantly. "I trust you are well today?" the doctor would not meet his gaze and shifted guiltily in the count's presence.
"Alas no my friend." He answered quietly.
Dracula frowned irritated. "Must you dwell on your failures? So you did not succeed in creating life, so what? I admit it was a disappointment but we must move on to new projects, new research, the love of science demands it!!"
Over a year before under Dracula's guidance and funding Victor had committed unspeakable crimes in his quest to create life-using electricity, he assembled various body parts making a creature of humanoid appearance containing mechanical components. The experiment had failed and the creature had not lived. In his fury Dracula had thrown the thing into the arms of the village mob as the Doctor watched heartbroken, his creation was rendered limb from limb under the orders of Lord Valerius. Hearing the Valerius lord scream as he died sometime later had given the Doctor more than a little satisfaction.
"New projects?" he asked the count with interest "What did you have in mind?"
Dracula grinned. "I have stumbled upon something momentous my friend, something which could very well affect the way we view the science of our time."
Victor shuddered with excitement and the count grinned at his little puppet.
"It appears that a group of children arrived in Vaseria two nights ago, unremarkable by itself but for the manner by which they appeared. I was lucky enough to get my hands on one of them and from what her simple mind has revealed to me I have concluded that they are from a different world. A parallel universe along side our own."
The Doctors eyes grew wide with wonder "But…that's not possible…" he stammered.
Dracula grinned, "Oh it is, and the possibilities are endless, what I wish my friend is for you to study this matter further and find away to open a portal to this other universe. I would very much like to see it."