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 40
Van Helsing swore as he heard the distant roar of the beast, turning impatiently he took his pistol from Carl while Amie scrambled around the armoury collecting every silver sword, mace and knife she could find to help defend against the beast.
Tears ran down the girls face as she strapped on a breast plate and short sword, her fingers slipping off the straps in her haste. Sufficiently armed they ran towards the stairwell.
Sarah hit the floor hard momentarily stunned a deep gash in her forearm spouted blood as the muscle and skin knitted cleanly, leaving nothing but a dull tingling sensation around the now unblemished area.
Anna was less lucky, she had managed to avoid the beast's claws so far.
Not an easy feat in the narrow corridor. Her shoulders bled freely where she had pulled the stitches of her old wounds, the smell of fresh blood driving the werewolf almost mad with blood lust.
Dancing just out of reach of the beast, she held it back with one of the lit torches from its stand on the wall, the fire gave the beast pause and it was momentarily driven back.
"Van Helsing's on his way!" Sarah announced clambering to her feet.
Anna felt a mixture of alarm and relief at those words; taking the opportunity she slashed forward with her sword, hoping to weaken the werewolf.
With astonishing speed and intelligence the beast countered, grasping the blade and ripping it free of her grasp.
At the same instant Marston opened his bedroom door, drawn by the sounds of the battle. The guys crowded behind him, forcing him to step reluctantly in to the corridor. They stood and stared in terror as they beheld Sarah and Anna dwarfed by the hulking form of the angry werewolf.
Anna and Sarah turned catching sight of them. "Run!!" they both screamed as the werewolf snarled and knocked the flaming torch from the princess's grasp.
Taking their own advice both woman abruptly turned and headed for the stunned lads.
Sarah reached them first and, grabbing Jory and Marston by the arms, began to drag them along with her, the others close behind as they headed for the stairs.
"What was it about "run" you didn't understand?" she yelled.
Bob struggled to keep up, crying out as his leg gave way beneath him and he crashed to the carpet. Tony and Chris grasped him under the arms and dragged him between them, ignoring his cries of pain and discomfort and panting with the effort.
A loud crunch of broken wood sounded behind them, Tony began to turn his head to glance over his shoulder. Anna gripped his arm and pushed him ahead of her violently.
"Don't look back!" she screamed.
The princess dropped behind the teens and ripped an axe free from a decorative piece of armour, turning she met the advancing wolf head on.
The beast was less than a yard behind them, taken by surprise it failed to react as she swung the axe around and delivered a brutal blow to the beast's skull.
A howl escaped its throat and it thrashed out instinctively, its arm catching Anna and propelling her into the wooden door to her left.
She hit the hard wood with a sickening crunch, splintering it beneath her weight and bringing it down on top of her.
Sarah turned as the wolf howled, watching mortified as Anna disappeared beneath the splintered remains of the door.
"Keep running, Amie's getting Van Helsing!" she yelled at her friends, turning to make her way towards the fallen princess.
Marston grabbed her arm. "Are you crazy? That's a freak'in werewolf!!" he exclaimed in panic.
"Yeah and I'm a vampire." She countered. "Last time I checked you were still human which means that thing will rip you apart and you won't get back up from that…I will."
The Wolfman shook his head in anger feeling the dull ach of the axe receding. With a menacing growl he sniffed the air for his prey, waves of fear drifted to him in intoxicating clouds.
His eyes opened and focused on the group of people staring at him at the end of the corridor. The fallen princess forgotten, he charged.
Jory's eyes grew wide as the wolf once again focused on them. "Oh shit!"
Sarah and Marston turned and found themselves in the path of the charging beast.
Without a word, the lads launched themselves down the corridor to the opening of the stairwell, they lingered at the top long enough to see Sarah throw herself at the beast, tackling them both painfully to the ground.
"Someone get me a fucking sword!" Tony yelled leaping the stairs two at a time in his hurry to reach the armoury.
Sarah rolled over painfully in the centre of the corridor, wincing as the bones in her arms reset themselves with audible cracks.
She glanced around for the beast which, to her surprise, had been flung the length of the corridor to rest just inside the door of her own room at the very end.
"Don't know my own strength" she muttered weakly clambering to her feet.
A small groan of pain sounded from the pile of splinters next to her.
Sarah crawled over and hurriedly began to pull the heavier pieces off the injured princess.
"Anna?" she asked rolling the body over.
Anna groaned and coughed. "Where's Velkan?" she asked immediately, her eyes wide with concern and fear.
Sarah quickly glanced towards the end of the corridor, expecting to see the hulking form of the wolf as he advanced towards them.
The corridor was empty.
Through the open doorway at the end she could see the orange glow of the fireplace illuminating the small room.
"Where'd he go?" she whispered.
Anna painfully pushed herself into a sitting position and followed the girls gaze.
"You lost him?" she hissed. "How could you lose him?"
Sarah fell silent her eyes narrowed. "I didn't." she whispered as she heard the faint sound of the creatures heart beat.
Quickly she pulled the princess to her feet and pushed her away, just as the werewolf dropped from the shadowy ceiling and pinned her to the wall.
Anna yelled her name as strong claws lashed out and grasped her throat, the sharp talons driven mercilessly into the skin leaving her helpless.
Before she could stop it Sarah let loose a primal roar of pain and anger, the vampire came to the surface.
Anna watched in horror as Sarah's skin turned a decaying grey, the clothes being absorbed into the leathery flesh. Bat-like wings protruded from her back, instantly hindered by the solid wall.
The vampire cried out as her body shifted and the werewolf's talons dug deeper. Dark rivers of blood began to seep from the wounds, staining her long neck and shoulders crimson.
Vampire and Werewolf locked gazes, cobalt blue met orbs of deep purple suspended in a sea of endless darkness.
Anna did the only thing she could…She ran like hell.
Instinctively Sarah lashed out with her talons, tearing a line of bloody furrows across the creature's snout, succeeding only in increasing her own discomfort as his claws dug deeper.
Tears of pain blurred her vision as she stared into its dark eyes. Unable to utter a word her mind screamed out to Velkan, willing the black soulless eyes to change into the dazzling brown orbs that had given her some comfort in the dungeons of castle Frankenstein.
Abruptly an icy wind swept into the corridor whipping her hair violently back.
Both vampire and werewolf paused when they sensed the malevolent essence of count Dracula enter the corridor as a dark and shapeless shadow, moving silently across the wall towards the combatants.
Sarah recoiled at the sudden surge of joy and lust that rose in her heart as its tendrils briefly caressed her vampiric features.
The werewolf growled low in its throat but did not bare its fangs in its master's presence.
Silently and without lessoning its grip on the young vampire's throat, the creature closed its soulless eyes and allowed the shadow to enter its body inhaling the vile black cloud with deep purposeful breaths.
Sarah watched in awe and fear, as slowly the eyelids flickered and opened, revealing brown orbs shinning with malice and arrogance. The wolf's jaws twisted, its lips contorted into a mocking grin at Dracula's will.
He had entered and taken full control over his servant's body.
"That was not in the movie." Sarah muttered as the torches around her dipped and flickered out plunging them into total darkness.