Disclaimer: I don't own Van Helsing nor anything associated with it, it is the property of Universal and the brain child of Steven Summers

Chapter 37

Days past comfortably in Valerius manor, Carl buried himself among the towering volumes of the family archives sometimes forgetting to eat all together.

While the others spent most of their time training with Van Helsing and the Princess, Sarah watched from the sidelines, a deep rooted fear making even the happiest moments a battle to control the evil within.

The nights became endless hours of solitude for her. Her friends tried their best to stay with her but inevitably they had to sleep…a luxury she would not allow herself after Dracula's little dream visit.

Jory had watched her one evening, jumping at the slightest sound or shadow, and had commented on how paranoid she had become.

She gave him a serious look and replied shortly "Just because your paranoid doesn't mean their "not" after you."

And within five minutes her status as "Paranoid" had escalated to "mentally disturbed" which, she supposed, was an accurate description of her current mental status.

How do you stay sane when half of your head wants you to kill people? She wondered walking into the dark kitchen.

The scent of fresh blood had drawn her, Anna and Van Helsing had freshly slaughtered a pair of chickens for the winter stores of the household. The carcases were hanging in the wood shed freshly salted, but the blood had been packaged and placed within the kitchen cabinets for future use.

More accurately, for Sarah's use.

Though she hadn't been willing to admit it to herself, her bloodlust was getting stronger, a danger which Anna had quickly picked up on. The official plan was to give them more time by providing animal blood to slack her thirst.

Chicken blood was a poor substitute for the life of a human victim, though the components in the fluid were almost identical it lacked something that the vampire craved, life.

Even as she found the congealing liquid, the vampire essence within her began to rage at the insult. It was at times like this that she believed she was truly mad.

When she poured out the foul substance with trembling hands and bitter tears of self loathing blurred her vision. In those moments she was little more than a freak between two worlds, neither of which she would let herself be part of.

It was all an illusion now, the bright smile she greeted her friends with, the sarcastic banter she kept up with them…it served as a brief escape during the day when the light momentarily pushed back the shadows. But every night the light slipped back again to be that much dimmer when it reappeared behind the curtains that were forever closed to her.

Gasping with silent sobs she tore at the lid of the container with elongated nails, the force of her hunger and rage making her struggle until it slipped unopened from her grasp, to clatter noisily on the table top.

"For fuck sake!" she exclaimed furiously wiping the moisture from her eyes.

A small sigh behind her made her spin aggressively, her fangs elongating to meet any potential threats.

Amie stifled a scream of shock as Sarah spun to meet her, half transformed into the feral visage of the vampire within.

Sarah froze in shock, fear and guilt glinting in her lilac eyes.

With an effort she drew back into her human form, hearing the audible sigh of relief from the girl in the doorframe.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." Amie stammered.

Sarah shook her head looking pitifully down at the still sealed container of blood.

Amie stepped forward tentatively, and picked it up, easily removing the lid. Sarah gave her a painfully amused smile.

"You just did that to mock me." She whispered.

Amie gave a nervous chuckle. "Nope I'm just freakishly strong." She answered lighting the kindling under the stove and pouring the blood into the waiting pot.

"I can do it." Sarah said hurriedly, stepping around her friend to take over the heating of the disgusting liquid.

Amie pushed her back and gave her a scowl. "Nope I'm always the hostess!" she exclaimed proudly.

Sarah stared from her to the pot "But…its blood…you're heating blood, it's gross."

Amie shrugged seemingly unconcerned. "Please, I once cleaned out a try of lambs hearts for my Granddad. That was definitely worse."

Sarah wrinkled her nose even as her vampire mouth watered. "Lambs hearts? Eww."

Amie shrugged "he has cravings"

When the pot was suitably warmed Amie ushered Sarah into the sitting room beside the large kitchen and settled her near the fire like a good hostess before presenting her with her meal in a large ale tankard.

"Here you go 98.6." she said grinning and settling down cross-legged on the carpet opposite her friend.

Sarah grimaced "How long have you been waiting to say that?" she asks with a grateful nod of thanks.

Amie smirked. "At least three years."

Sarah laughed and took a long swig of the warm plasma turning away from her friend as she did so.

She felt instant warmth spread along her marble like limbs and shuddered with disgust and pleasure, it was funny how recently those too had become hard to distinguish between.

"You look better, less pale." Her friend said giving her an appraising look.

Sarah smiled. "Blood. Way better than make-up." She said sarcastically grinning as Amie made a face.

"Actually there was this woman in the sixteenth century called Erszebet Bathory, who believed the blood of virgins could keep her young and beautiful forever. So she killed over four hundred virgins and filled her bathtub with their blood and just laid it in for hours."

Amie shuddered and Sarah grinned "don't you just love that I'm full of disturbing facts?" she asked, her eyes shinning with amusement as she took another long swallow of her meal.

Amie wrinkled her nose "Something's, you should never tell me."

Finishing her dinner with a relieved sigh Sarah grinned. "I definitely feel better than I have for hours." She admitted.

Her senses, she discovered, seemed to always become razor sharp after a 'feeding' and now she closed her eyes and lost herself in the nightly sounds of the manor.

Distant heartbeats reached her ears, relaxed within the throws of sleep. Safe in his room Bob stirred and muttered secrets to his dreams causing Sarah to snigger as he burst out laughing only to become abruptly silent again.

"What?" Amie asked smiling at her friends amused expression.

Sarah giggled keeping her eyes tightly closed. "Your boyfriend's talking in his sleep."

She heard Amie snort with amusement sending a soft whisper of sound across the room as her loose hair moved with her laughter.

Vampirism in itself was a curse to Sarah, but some things she considered gifts, to hear the sounds and smells of the night was beautiful, painting vivid images in her mind that she could transform into day lit photographs to give her comfort in her darkest and loneliest hours.

The sounds of the animals were her favourite, the whinnying of the horses in the stables at the back of the house, the bark of a vixen to her cubs. It was all so clear and hers alone.

Abruptly she tensed, suddenly troubled.

Within the manor all was as it should be, the usual night creaks and noises of the house familiar after so many nights within its walls.

But without…there was nothing…not the scurry of a tiny creature from the woods, or the flap of the owls and bats. No snorts or whinny's escaped the stables.

It was as if the creatures of the night were frozen with fear; fear so great they held their breath until the danger passed them.

It was a silence thick with expectation, a silence she had heard during the full moon when she and her friends were stalked by the werewolf their first night here, and again when the vampires attacked.

Something stalked the night.

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Random-Battlecry: Thanx for pointing that out must have missed it on spell check, trying to keep mistakes to minimum I know my punctuation and Grammer can be off sometimes too.