JeanieBeanie33: I really really am sorry about Carl!! I love him as much as the next fan but he was getting off scott free while everyone else has been getting the crap kicked out of them for most of the story (and I noticed in the movie too, he doesn't get a scratch) So t'was only fair : ) forgive me if I let him live?
Sakura626: OMG! I didn't even think about tuskan Raiders!! You are so right the masks are almost identical lol Jawa and tuskans breeding…interesting idea while also deeply disturbing.
Marston: Lol you get to kick more ass in this chapter, and you know sometimes at least one person wants to hit me with a morning star Chris just got lucky ;) T'will get darker if I do my job right see you Saturday!!
lil-blonde-pirate: sorry If I confused you im trying to make it all make sense as I go on.
Fortune Zyne: I love that song and yeh I guess it does fit but I wrote most of this story with evanescence playing in the background.
Note: wow can't believe how many reviews im getting lol tis great!!! So without further ado on with the story!!
Disclaimer: I own nothing!
Chapter 73
Chris barely had time to raise his sword when Sarah swept through the chamber like a demonic tornado; he watched helplessly as Tony was flung across the room, before he felt his own feet leave the ground.
His head crunched sickeningly against the wall everything went black for a moment.
Groaning he opened his eyes. Sarah was crouched over him grinning wickedly, her demonic face uncomfortably close to his. He started violently, sending a fresh stab of pain through his head.
Giggling the vampire stretched out her hand and placed it to his skull, gripping the damaged flesh harshly in her talons.
Chris yelled in pain, dimly he could hear the others scrambling around somewhere in the darkness and felt a small sense of relief, at least Amie and Jory must have regained consciousness.
He would have chanced a glance in their direction, but all he could do was grit his teeth against the pain as Sarah held his head in place.
He watched in disgust as the demon brought her hand back into his line of vision, delicately licking the small pool of blood she had collected in her palm.
One arm held him in place while she reverted back to her human form, her leathery wings morphing seamlessly back into the white dress and the ridges on her brow receded, making the boy's chest constrict painfully as his eyes met Sarah's. He knew how Tony and Amie must have felt as she throttled them…unbearable grief that his last memories would be of the creature wearing his friend's skin.
He closed his eyes tightly when she reached out and delicately caressed his cheek with icy fingertips, tears prickled at the edges of his eyes when he opened them to see her pull back her hand and brush the same spot on her own face.
Undisguised rage flashed in her soulless eyes as her fingers came in contact with the newly grown pink skin, her only reminder of his brutal assault with the morning star.
Chris's stomach clenched in panic as she tilted his injured head to the side and sharp fangs pricked his skin. His eyes widened with terror as he felt her draw back slightly ready to plunge on to the veins within.
"You are a fool Gabriel!" Dracula hissed, walking calmly towards the fallen hunter.
Van Helsing spat blood and calmly wiped his mouth as the vampire approached.
"I am immortal! The left hand of God you may be, but as the saying goes. It is better to be the right hand of the Devil than in his path" the count lifted him by the collar and allowed his feet to dangle above the floor.
"You can not hope to better me."
His arrogant smile faltered as Van Helsing matched it.
"I'm not trying to beat you." He said calmly.
Taking the count by surprise he planted his feet on the creatures chest, using the vampires weight as an anchor, he pushed off in a neat back flip Anna had taught him, which twisted his shirt free of his opponents grasp.
"I'm trying to stall you." He finished silently looking hopefully at the door. "Any time now princess."
Dracula strode towards him, his heels clicking confidently on the cold stone floor of the ballroom.
"The order are still using you Gabriel!" he was saying.
"As they were using me, but I escaped and so can you."
Van Helsing turned as he approached; leaping away from him he tried to maintain some distance between them.
"Don't be afraid, Gabriel." The count whispered as if talking to a frightened child. "Don't be afraid my friend." And with a twisted grin he shed his human visage and became the monstrous hell-beast that was his true form.
Van Helsing swore as the creature leapt towards him and he felt his feet leave the ground.
Marston scrambled backwards until his back came up against the fallen candelabra. Aleera cackled as she stood over him, relishing his fear and licking Anna's blood from her fingertips.
"Poor little rabbit." She said silkily leaning in for the kill.
Anna gasped as sharp stones cut into her fingers, her feet kicked at the ancient stone wall searching for a foothold and finding it. If not for her fathers training she would have surely been dead, lying at the base of the castle.
The small outcrop of stone had been all she needed to grasp on to, now it was just a simple matter of reaching the window without falling. She gritted her teeth against the burning in her torn fingers hoisting herself up.
Marston looked around frantically for a weapon, his stomach clenching in panic as he spotted the shot gun resting uselessly in two halves, in a puddle across the room.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!" he spluttered as one taloned hand grasped his hair and Aleera's jaws opened revealing her hideously elongated fangs.
Suddenly his hand grasped something smooth and metallic, instantly he brought it up and struck a brutal blow to the back of the bride's skull.
The metal in his hand grew white hot making him cry out and causing angry blisters to rise upon his palm, he released it and watched in amazement as Aleera's head became a blazing inferno of burning hair and flesh.
Marston scrambled to his feet as she threw herself off him, screaming and desperately trying to stop the blaze.
Aleera spun madly, so consumed with panic that at first she didn't feel the cold metal slamming through her breast.
She stopped abruptly, a strangled cry escaping her ruined mouth as she glanced down to see the end of the silver stake protruding from her ribs. Her gaze travelled up the slender arm still clutching it, until her eyes met Anna's.
A steady trickle of blood travelled down the princess's face from her hairline and one sleeve had been ripped away, but she was alive.
She looked at Aleera with sorrow and regret.
"I always told you Aleera." She whispered gently "Always make sure your prey is really dead."
Aleera staggered back, her body convulsing.
Even while her body disintegrated around her, Marston saw her eyes soften. The malevolent yellow was replaced by delicate brown and a young woman stared out of them.
With sickening clarity he realised that now, at the very moment of her death she had become the woman she once was.
She stared at Anna in shock and horror before throwing her head back and screaming in agony as her flesh fell from her bones like rushing water.
The boy turned away leaning against the stone wall for support and fighting not to vomit at the sound and the smell.
When he turned back it was to see the princess staring at a pile of ash and dust. With a bowed head she whispered the prayer of her people.
"Dit e rog iubirea mea, primeste fericirea."
Van Helsing dangled helplessly in Dracula's grasp, the beast's foul breath making him choke as it lowered its fangs precariously close to his neck.
He kicked out at the beast, his boots scrapping its bony chest uselessly and his efforts producing little more than a throaty chuckle from his assailant.
Suddenly Dracula let out a wild screeching roar and Van Helsing found himself falling to the distant floor below.
Automatically he tucked and rolled on impact, lessoning the damage to his body but his ankle turn painfully and he heard the audible crack of at least two broken ribs.
Lying winded on the floor he smirked in satisfaction as Dracula screamed in grief and agony above him and an answering screech from Sarah echoed up from the lower corridor.
Now he knew for certain…somewhere in the castle Anna was still alive and on her way to end it.
"One down." He muttered to himself.