Disclaimer: I own my friends that's all. (Friends glare) ok ….. maybe not.
Chapter 59
Sarah was sitting in front of the fire in the large foyer of Valerius manor; her gaze stared unseeing into the heart of the flames.
Marston walked silently into the room. If she had heard him approach, and he had no doubts that she had, she gave no indication.
Silently he settled on the couch opposite her, waiting to be acknowledged, his head resting lightly on his hand. After a few moments Sarah blinked, her eyes becoming focused once more.
She turned and smiled at him "You know sometimes you're too polite for your own good." She said teasingly.
Marston smiled "Didn't want to disturb you, you looked very involved with whatever was in your head." Sarah raised an eyebrow.
"That and I didn't want you to bite me." He added grinning, producing the desired smile from the girl, though it was more haunting than cheerful.
"Couldn't sleep?" she asked changing the subject.
He smiled "How could you tell?"
"Cause your awake." She answered neatly. Marston grinned.
"You stole that from x-men2" he noted amused.
She grinned and shrugged "What they don't know won't hurt them…so how come you're the insomniac tonight?"
He looked into the fire "Bed's too soft."
Sarah raised her eyebrows "Aha…a troubled mind. What's bothering you?" she asked concerned.
"You mean aside from the fact that we're all, number one on the most powerful vampire in histories hit list?" he asked sarcastically.
Sarah grimaced involuntarily at the thought of Dracula, an action Marston politely ignored.
"Yeah, aside from that minor detail." She prompted.
The boy sighed "Same thing that's bothering everyone…I want to go home, I want to be in my own bed in a blissfully vampire free world." He hesitated "Present Company excluded of course." He added grinning.
Sarah forced herself to smile and quickly turned her face away from him to stare back into the fire.
"You know technically our world does have vampires in it…not the undead kind, more the freaky gothic "I think I'm a vampire" kind."
Marston smiled "And people thinking their vampires are different to you thinking you're a witch how?" he asked cheekily.
Sarah flushed and stuck her tongue out at him. They both laughed and a comfortable silence settled around them.
Sarah listened to Marston's steady heartbeat; unconsciously tapping it's rhythm with her foot.
She recoiled as she felt the edge of the vampire hunger touch her mind briefly. They beast was getting stronger and she couldn't hold it back much longer, the strain of pushing it back must have shown because Marston was watching her with concern.
"You ok?"
She didn't answer him for a moment, using all of her concentration to push the beast back.
She could still feel it, a dark shadow influencing parts of her mind.
For now it was held back but every hour it grew stronger, if she didn't do something tonight someone she loved would die and she would fade away forever. 'the moment I feel like I'm losing control…I'll let you know' she had promised Van Helsing…tonight was the night, by morning her friends would be safe from her.
Steadying herself she nodded quickly to her friend "I'm ok just a little bit dizzy that's all."
He looked doubtful, but seemed to accept her answer, leaning forward to regard her closely.
"You know the day they took you; Tony was all ready to ride out on a white charger, sword drawn to bring you back."
Sarah grinned. "He was? Aww knew he loved me really." She laughed. "My knight in shinning armour."
Marston laughed. "That would have been one hell of a rescue! You'd probably start arguing with him about how sexist he was to think that because you're a girl you needed him to save you."
Sarah smirked at the thought. Marston frowned suddenly uncomfortable.
"What?" she asked.
"The night Anna was kidnapped; Amie and I saw you before you left the manor…you looked awful."
"Thanx a lot."
"You know what I mean, you were nearly white. It was because you lost so much blood and hadn't replaced it. When Van Helsing brought you back later…you looked…well…alive."
She cringed at his use of words "Your wondering who I ate right?"
He nodded "All the animals had been killed and burned."
She shook her head. "Not all, Vaseria had a large population of stray cats."
"Had?" he asked swallowing the bile that gathered in the back of his throat at the thought.
"Don't tell Amie, she loves cats."
"Indeed."
Sarah smiled suddenly "I never did get the play by play of you guys facing down drac and his skanks in the square did I?"
Marston smiled "Nah you and Tone were too busy kicking Veronas ass." He said teasingly.
"So fighting Aleera in the square…did you do your cool, flip off the wall-playing-keepy-uppy-with-the-head-thing?" she asked grinning.
Marston smirked "Yep I well and truly kicked her fine vampiric ass" he announced.
Sarah laughed "Liar."
Marston frowned "I wasn't lying…I was writing fiction with my mouth."
"Heard Jory got her arm."
"Yep I'm suing his ass."
Sarah grinned at him before frowning sadly her chest tightening painfully. "Before… when you said Tony wanted to save me…I needed him too…I needed all of you."
Marston avoided her sad gaze. "We tried to come for you, Van Helsing stopped us…"
Sarah nodded sadly "It's good that he did, Dracula would have killed all of you. Thanks for trying." She whispered standing and hugging her friend.
"Come on lets go for a walk, you can show me what you usually do in the wee hours of the night." he said cheerfully pulling away.
She shrugged "I lurk…care to join me?"
He shrugged grinning "I'm more of a skulking man myself." He said in amusement.
Sarah smiled and led him out of the room heading towards the tower.
The entered the room silently, grinning at each other when they discovered Carl fast asleep, slumped over a stack of ancient books and papers.
"He works too hard." Marston muttered stifling a giggle as the friar murmured something and shifted to begin snoring loudly.
"Don't know why you're laughing." Sarah said grinning "You sound like a rusty gate when you sleep!"
Marston grinned. "Indeed."
Sarah rolled her eyes and gestured to the pile of papers that partially covered a wide desk.
"I've been trying to figure out how to get us home." She explained relighting the oil lamp next to the desk.
"Any luck?" asked Marston hopefully.
Sarah shook her head sadly "Theories about solar flares, blue moons. Nothing helpful."
Marston couldn't conceal his disappointment and sighed sadly, "You'll work it out. But I still say it was the tree"
"You and your bloody tree." She said grinning.
They left the tower, making their way through the manor to the library. "This is where I spend my "wee hours" Sarah announced smiling fondly at the dusty volumes scattered on the shelves.
The boy nodded and turned to look properly around the room, crossing to the large map, which covered the far wall.
Sarah followed him "Beautiful isn't it."
He nodded "where are we?" he asked puzzled by the Romanian words and strange diagrams covering the magnificent piece.
Sarah stepped up and pointed to the small circle labelled "Vaseria"
"There, that's the village and…that's castle Frankenstein." She said darkly tracing the short distance to the count's layer.
Marston frowned clearly disturbed by the short distance before his eyes were drawn to a part of the map that was worn slightly, as if someone frequently traced a route over it.
"What's that?" he asked.
"The Adriatic sea" she whispered saddened.
Marston looked at her confused "and you sound so thrilled that I mentioned it." He stated sarcastically before asking seriously "Why does it make you sad?"
"Anna's never seen the sea." She whispered "It's all she's ever wanted and if things happen the way they did in the film…she never will."
"That's morbid." The boy muttered looking between the three map locations. "Between the devil and the deep blue sea" he muttered darkly. Sarah smiled briefly, not for the first time glimpsing her friend's poetic nature, an incite in to the man he would become; she wished she could watch him grow in to that man.
Just another regret to add to the bottom of an infinitely long list.
"Where's your Van Helsing book?" he asked suddenly.
"I'm keeping it safe." She answered evasively.
Marston grinned "Keep it secret, keep it safe." He recited quickly.
Sarah scowled "Ok how come you get to say stuff like that without any repercussions and when I do I get a "no honey." from Amie?"
Marston shrugged "Because you're obsessed with Lord of the Rings?" he suggested.
Sarah rolled her eyes. "Says the man who taught me elvish." She said pointedly.
Marston looked sheepish "Did not!"
"You found the complete website!" she said smirking.
"By accident!!" he exclaimed indignantly.
Sarah grinned, rubbing the dust off an old book on the desk.
"So Anna and Van Helsing are getting fairly loved up." He commented. "He never lets her out of his sight now and she doesn't even seem to mind."
Sarah grinned. "Yep, great isn't it?"
"No, just reminds me that I'm still annoyingly single." He said sighing.
"If it makes you feel any better, when you first came to sixth form most of the girls fancied you." Sarah said grinning.
He looked at her intrigued "Like whom?"
"Me, Louise, Kat, Kate…the list goes on."
He grinned broadly "That gave the old ego a nice boost."
Marston gave a huge yawn, his eyes beginning to droop slightly.
She smirked. "So much for insomnia." She said in amusement.
He grinned "Yeah, think I'll head back to bed." He agreed. "See you tomorrow Sarah-Lou!" he said grinning as she glared at him.
"Night James Timothy Marston" she answered in kind. He walked out of the room giving her a little wave.
"Have a nice life," she whispered as he disappeared down the passage.
Van Helsing was a light sleeper; he had to be in his line of work.
It was a brief whisper of shifting clothes on skin that alerted him to the unknown presence in his room.
He feigned sleep, keeping his breathing even, as his hand grasped the hilt of the silver dagger beneath his pillow. Nothing human could have entered his room so silently.
In one swift movement he sat up and threw the blade directly into the shadows at the far corner of the room.
A pale hand shot out and caught the blade, its tip barely a centimetre from the skin between its eyes.
Van Helsing relaxed, leaning back against his headboard. "You're getting good at that." He stated calmly.
Sarah frowned "You should have aimed for the heart, I could have been Aleera." She stated crossing to his bedside and offering him the hilt.
He took it, slipping the dagger beneath his pillow. "And lose the vampire before I can question her?" he asked, the girl shrugged.
"I doubt, even with a knife in her head, Aleera would be very helpful."
He cocked his head to one side "I didn't specify that the vampire in question was Aleera."
Sarah grinned at the subtle hint. "You want to know why I'm in your room?"
"I am slightly curious." He admitted.
Sarah sighed turning away from him to peer out of the window. "I was hopping you'd aim for the heart." She said sadly.
The hunter frowned for a moment before her meaning dawned on him. "You hoped you could startle me enough to kill you by mistake?" The girl winced at the shocked and angry tone to his voice, nodding her affirmation.
"Why would you ever want that?" he asked furiously climbing out of his bed to tower over her. Even dressed only in his creased grey trousers and vest top, he commanded a sense of unquestioned power and authority.
Sarah stared at him in disbelief, "You don't know why I want that? Where have you been the past few weeks?" raising her hand she began to count off her fingers.
"First full day back I lose control and attack Marston…and that was when the vamp influence was weak. Dracula haunts my dreams, so sleep is out of the question. I spend most of my time skulking in some dark room just to avoid spontaneous combustion, I went mad with hunger and dragged you and Anna into a trap where she gets kidnapped by the guy that wants us all dead! During the rescue I put you all in danger again and now all I see when I look at my friends are potential meals."
Van Helsing watched her in amazement. "I could only say that so long and fast because I don't need to breathe." She explained sheepishly.
He raised an amused eyebrow "From what I remember you spoke like that when you were human, breathing never really came into it."
Sarah looked at him sadly "I can't ever go back to that." She whispered sorrowfully.
Van Helsing sighed running a worried hand through his long hair. "It's getting bad isn't it?" he asked hesitantly.
The girl's eyes filled with tears. "I can't fight it anymore…I'm going to kill someone…and I'm going to go back to him." She raised her chin "I'd rather die than live that life. However brief it might be if you did kill Dracula."
"So you want me to kill you?"
Sarah looked at him levelly "We both knew you'd have to eventually."
"Not if Carl could find away to bring you back! You're not fully a vampire yet there could still be a chance." The hunter said sounding defeated.
Sarah shook her head. "It's too late for that, I can feel this thing inside of me…I feel it growing everyday. It's got to die…and I've got to go with it."
"Tonight?"
Her eyes glittered with cold determination. "Tonight."
Note: That's it for tonight cuz my fingers are aching and I'm all angst out, also there's a great Witchblade fic i'm in the middle of reading by Dragongrrl called A Family affair so thats where I'm off to. Read and review, and even though i haven't had any so far, flames always welcome!!