Note: thanx to everyone whose kept reading all the way through this story, It's not over yet so stick with me and review!!
lil-blonde-pirate: lol thanx for reviewing as always! Gotta say typing this is addictive too as are all the lovely reviews im getting : )
Disclaimer: I own nothing!!
Chapter 75
Dracula watched the princess enter, smirking as the foolish girl went immediately to the injured hunter.
As they embraced the count shook with fury, remembering the injustice of his own lost love.
For four hundred years he had suffered with the memory of Gabriel's betrayal, of his own father murdering his love out of fear. No other pain was more excruciating than watching the woman you loved being taken from you.
Now he had a chance to make Gabriel suffer that same torment, before he followed her into purgatory.
With a roar the count shed his human visage once more and dropped towards his prey.
Van Helsing and Anna heard the blood-chilling roar that signalled his renewed attack. As the princess prepared to strike Van Helsing pulled her tightly against him, their lips and bodies joined in a passionate kiss.
Dracula grinned as he soared towards them.
At last he would be rid of the family Valerius, finally after four hundred years he would have his revenge.
Anna allowed herself to fall into the kiss for only a moment, before mercilessly pulling the sword back and plunging the deadly tip through the thin fabric of the hunter's shirt and deep into his side.
Grunting in pain, Van Helsing's eyes shot open and his stricken gaze locked with hers. He staggered back as she removed the blade and glanced down to see the crimson stain spreading across his shirt. Anna let out a heart wrenching sob and held his gaze as she laid him gently on the cold stone floor; he flashed her a pained grin, pressing pale lips to the back of her hand before he lost consciousness, leaving her alone to face her fate.
Tony struck the floor hard, the back of his head hitting it with a sickening crunch that sent flashes of white light across his vision. Gasping in pain he glanced back at Sarah only to find her gone, a chill swept through his body and he began to frantically scan the room for her.
He spotted Chris lying unconscious in an awkward position against the wall; Marston crawled towards him cradling his bleeding wrist against his chest, his face contorted with pain.
Amie whimpered from the far corner and he strained to see her by the meagre light of the single candle.
Sarah was no-where in sight.
He swallowed the bile that had risen in his throat and groaning, tried to sit up.
In a blur of motion she was there, her hand in the centre of his chest forcing him violently back to the damp stone floor.
His the old bruising left by Verona, screamed in protest under this new assault and a tortured moan escaped his throat as she crouched over him grinning sadistically.
She winced in mock sympathy looking deceptively like her innocent human self for one painful moment.
Tony wished she would revert back to the vampire; he couldn't bear to see his friend laughing at his pain, the pain she was causing. Bitter hatred for the creature coursed through his body, he wanted to hit back at her to demand that she change into the demon she was…but the pain in his chest was to much and he could only gasp and close his eyes against the torment.
"That must hurt." She said with amusement applying more pressure. The boy writhed in agony under her touch. Gasping with relief when she withdrew allowing him a small reprieve while she granted his wish unspoken wish.
Tony shuddered to see Sarah's fully transformed face hovering above his own, but met her gaze proudly able to focus on the unnatural purple eyes…so unlike his friend, this time as he faced his death, she wore the face of an animal not a loved one.
Placing her hands on his face the bride gently tilted his head to the side, exposing his neck. As she bent towards his throat he closed his eyes tightly bracing himself for the pain, hearing nothing but his own heart beat as she teased him, dragging the tips of her fangs delicately across his skin.
With an amused giggle she kissed the spot above his jugular and opened a tiny scratch with the tip of her fang, licking away the small line of blood that escaped. Tony hissed with pain trying in vain to escape her grasp, exhausted and winded he couldn't utter a word as he felt her abruptly drive her demonic fangs in, breaking through his skin like delicate glass and striving for the warm fluid that began to fill her mouth.
The count was barely four meters from the couple when he saw Van Helsing fall. Time seemed to slow down. Why would the princess attack the one she loved?
Something was very wrong.
He could do nothing now to halt his decent; his momentum was too much, carrying him towards the last Valerius princess.
His demonic eyes widened as she spun to meet him, slashing impossibly fast with the blood stained blade before reflexively dropping and rolling out of his flight path.
Anna landed hard a few feet away, the gust of wind that tugged at her hair an uncomfortable indication of how close she had come to death.
With grim satisfaction, she watched as the creature that had hunted and killed her ancestors for the last four hundred years, land in an undignified heap barely ten yards from her.
Taking time to catch her breath she stood and made her way cautiously towards him. Her grip tightened around the blood slick sword in her grasp as she approached.
Dracula lay twitching on the floor, his demonic body shrinking away to leave him looking small and vulnerable upon the cold stones of the floor.
Pain, real pain … he hadn't felt for centuries assaulted his body, spreading from the deep gash along his chest as Van Helsing's blood mixed with his own.
Panic seized his long dead heart as he waited in vain for the wound to heal itself.
A dark pool of his own blood began to spread around him in a grotesque living parody of his undead existence and his body convulsed violently.
Anna Valerius stood above him a look of intense loathing o her lovely features.
"What have you done?" he rasped weakly.
To his surprise the princess gave him an ironic smile, holding up her blood stained sword. Nothing could have prepared the count for that sight and what it meant for him.
The sword that had murdered him once, flashed before his eyes. Complete with the blood of the man who had wielded it, it was the only weapon capable of ending his immortal existence, and somehow … Anna had it.
The princess raised the sword glaring at the helpless monster. His clothes, filthy and torn and his hair loose and ragged, he was no longer the darkly handsome aristocrat she had danced with at a grand ball not three nights ago.
He was just any random vampire…and she knew how to deal with those.
"Van Helsing has paid his dept," she said simply. "Now…it's time you paid yours!"
Van Helsing groaned as he regained consciousness, his sudden movements pulled at the deep stab wound in his side. Growling with pain he twisted to inspect the damage.
"At least she missed any vital organs." He muttered to himself.
'Anna!'
With a sudden urgency he forced himself to sit up and spotted the princess only a few meters away, the count bloody and convulsing at her feet.
Anna was posed over the vampire ready to finish it; the sight filled Van Helsing with deep regret. If not for his actions more than four hundred years ago, none of this would be taking place; so many innocent people need not have died.
Suddenly something besides the princess and the vampire caught his attention.
Blinking in surprise and wonder, the hunter began to make out cloudy figures surrounding the pair.
Spectral men, women and children crowded around, watching the princess with rapt attention.
It was only when he noticed two of the men placing their hands around Anna's on the hilt of the sword, that he realised who they were.
Velkan Valerius stood proudly beside his sister, all traces of the werewolf curse gone from him in death and his handsome features aglow with an unearthly light.
An older man, unmistakably their father supported Anna's left. The eye patch he had worn in life was absent giving him a gentler look than the hunter had seen from his picture.
Surrounding them, numerous generations of the family Valerius leant their strength to their last princess as she prepared to free them from purgatory.
But one-man dressed in chain mail crouched beside Dracula's helpless form.
Valerius the elder stood beside his son gazing down with regret, ghostly tears traced shining lines down his worn cheeks as he beheld the creature he had helped to create and could not destroy. The old man's eyes glanced up suddenly and a faint smile graced his features as he beheld Anna.
The princess drew back her weapon and brought it down quick and clean, cleaving Vladislaus Dracula's head from his body.
Anna watched coldly as Dracula's body writhed before her, the arms spasamically clawing at the flesh of the headless torso. Seconds passed and the very skin seemed to become molten, before head and body disintegrated, leaving nothing but an ancient skeleton in its wake.
Eyes wide Van Helsing crossed himself muttering a Latin prayer for his departed nemesis.
"Sarah don't!!" screamed Amie.
Staggering to her feet she grabbed a discarded sword from the ground and rushed towards her former friend, tears blurring her vision.
'Don't make me kill you', she pleaded silently even as she raised the blade for the stroke.
Around the room her wounded friends watched in horror, as Tony struggled against the vampiress's deadly grip her fangs deep within his skin.
Suddenly an icy wind blew through the castle and into the room.
Amie was swept off her feet by the force of it, she cried out desperately as the sword clattered across the room too far for her to reach in time to help Tony.
Sobbing she tried to get to her feet again only to be pulled back down by Jory. Looking at his face in confusion she followed his gaze to where her friends were.
Sarah 's eyes widened as she felt the wind enter the room, she ripped her fangs from her intended victims throat as incredible pain tore through her body, forcing it back into its human form.
As the pain increased the vampire screamed out in grief and pain, as her bond to her master shattered.
Throwing herself against the wall she brought her hands up to her face trying to hide from agony coursing through her body.
Then as abruptly as it had begun the pain was gone.
Sarah blinked feeling a veil fall from her mind; slowly she brought her hands away from her eyes and looked around her.
Tony gasped holding a hand tightly to the bleeding wound on his neck.
With great effort he forced himself to sit up watching as the vampires looked at him with familiar blue eyes… Sarah's eyes.
She stared at him and his heart leapt as he saw recognition flash across her face.
"Tony?" she whispered.
Taking a hesitant step towards him she stumbled and fell to her knees eyes wide in terror as her body began to convulse violently.
Sarah blinked in surprise as she found herself in the cold stone room, she looked around in confusion and shock before her gaze finally fell on the figure lying breathless and bleeding at her feet.
"Tony?" 'Oh god what did I do?'
Suddenly she felt an agonising pull in her stomach, confusion and panic replaced concern as she doubled over in pain on the cold stone floor and began to convulse.
She could feel movements inside of her body, organs twisting and tearing.
White hot pain blinded her as she fell to the floor and began to vomit.
Terrified and confused, she tried to call out to her friends for help, but only succeeded in emitting a contorted scream before the floor came up to meet her and she was plunged into darkness.
The teens watched in horror as she began to vomit steaming green globules of fluid, which hissed and spat as they came in contact with the cool stone of the room.
Amie buried her head in Jory's shoulder; he held her close even as he was unable to look away. Marston gagged leaning against the wall for support while Chris crawled to Tony's side and they both watched Sarah's agony in grief and horror.
After what seemed like an eternity Sarah's eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed on to the floor, lying pale and still as death.
Silence settled over the scene as Tony staggered towards the body, his eyes shone with unshed tears as he knelt beside the head of tangled blond hair.
When Carl and Bob ran into the room, Bob gagged and immediately began to make his way to his distraught girlfriend.
Carl stared at the body, he gasped to see it intact. "She's dead?" he asked Chris who nodded solemnly.
Amie rushed into Bob's arms sobbing uncontrollably.
The friar frowned "Why is she still here?" he asked abruptly. The teens turned to stare at him in disbelief that he could speak so coldly over Sarah's remains.
"What do you mean?" asked Amie through her tears.
"Vampires disintegrate when they die." Carl elaborated bluntly.
"So she might be…" Tony's eyes grew wide as he stared at the friar.
Hesitating for only a moment he slowly brought his ear down to rest above the girl's mouth. He held his breath listening carefully.
The small sigh of air entering lungs came to him in the silence and he almost screamed in delight. Frantically he placed his hand over her throat feeling the flutter of a faint but definitely present pulse.
"Oh my God she's alive!!" he yelled joyfully pulling her unconscious body towards him.
Tears of relief rolled down his face as he hugged her tightly "she's alive and she's human."
Laughing with relief and joy the teens gathered around their friend, embracing each other and wiping away fallen tears. Amie quickly removed her long peasant coat and draped it over Sarah pale form happy tears flowed freely as she turned into Bob's warm embrace, overjoyed that he was alive and unhurt she failed to see his troubled expression as he beheld his friends around him and his eyes fell on Sarah's unconscious form. They may all be alive but he had lost the only way to get them home.
Carl watched his young friends, before turning his attention to the rank pile of vomit on the cool stone floor.
"What the hell is that?" asked Jory wrinkling his nose in disgust.
"The vampire's organs." Carl muttered, "Fascinating, her body was still transforming when the vampire within died and the organs disintegrated, rejected by the body like a virus. Allowing her normal bodily functions resume…she literally just rose from the dead. "
Jory laughed gazing fondly at his friends pale face "Trust Sarah to go and do something creepy like that!"
Chris shuddered as Carl began to shovel some samples of the green organs into a jar for future examination.
"So Dracula's gone?" asked Amie, hopefully.
Anna stared for a while at the remains of the vampire, bowing her head sadly as a sudden crushing wave of loneliness hit her.
A stray tear trailed its way down her cheek and she closed her eyes against the terrible pain in her heart as she was finally able to grieve the loss of her brother.
Cool fingers brushed her cheek wiping away the teardrop.
Gasping the princess turned and came face to face with the smiling spectre of her father.
"Papa!" she exclaimed in surprise.
He smiled pulling her to him and planting a tender kiss on her forehead.
Anna smiled, crying softly as she turned and found Velkan beside her and beyond him her mother, an infant in her arms.
The entire family Valerius beamed at her from around the room.
Anna wept as they smiled and waved, her cousin Duncan strode to the fore front after so many years he still looked like the fifteen year old boy who had recklessly died at the hands of Dracula's Dwergi. Anna didn't know whether to laugh or continue to sob as he proudly pointed out that all of his limbs had been returned to him in death.
She watched in awe and wonder as a familiar red headed woman emerged and stepped up beside Velkan flashing him a sly smile which he eagerly returned.
Aleera smiled brilliantly, showing off her shining teeth now devoid of demonic fangs. She stepped forward kissing Anna sweetly on the cheek and smoothing back her tangled brunette hair with a gentle hand.
Anna smiled through her tears and Aleera hugged her before turning and clasping Velkan's hand in her own finally reunited with her husband after a decade of servitude to Dracula.
A white light began to shine within each spectre and they faded one by one, finally free to enter the gates of heaven, until at last only Anna's parent's and beloved brother remained.
They kissed her and each whispered the Romanian prayer she herself had muttered at each of the passings she witnessed.
"Dit e rog iubirea mea, primeste fericirea." I ask you my love to accept happiness
She watched distraught as the light began to build inside each of them.
"Papa please… don't leave me!" She begged as his hand became like smoke in her grasp.
He regarded her sadly before finally fading away.
"Mama, Papa, Velkan please!" she screamed falling to her knees and sobbing.
She had done it; she had set her family free. But now she was truly alone.
When she could cry no more, she heard a small hiss of pain at her back looking up in surprise she spotted Gabriel Van Helsing struggling to crawl over to her.
Getting to her feet she rushed over to him, helping him to sit up and lean against her.
"Gabriel, are you alright?" she asked in concern helping him to remove his heavy coat and shirt to reveal the bloodied mess of his side.
"Gotta say that was one hell of a kiss." He muttered wincing as she pulled some stray fabric from inside the wound.
Anna grimaced in sympathy, tearing his shirt into strips to make a temporary bandage.
The sound of many footsteps heralded the arrival of the rest of their party. Van Helsing sighed in relief seeing them all apparently alive and well, although some looked to fit the category of walking wounded.
Marston and Chris hurried forward to support him as he got shakily to his feet. "I'm sorry about Sarah." He whispered sincerely.
The hunter and Princess frowned in confusion when bright smiles greeted his words.
Carl stepped from behind the teens, Sarah's limp body in his grasp.
"She's alive; the vampire has gone from her now." He explained quickly. Anna closed her eyes as fresh emotion threatened to overwhelm her, she silently nodded unable to utter a word.
Amie clung to Bob as her gaze fell on Dracula's skeleton lying a few feet away from his head.
"Hunskull can we leave now?" she begged quietly.
Anna smiled wearily at the group. "Carl, take them to the horses I'll be out in a minute." She ordered.
The Friar raised an eyebrow but didn't argue as he adjusted the body in his arms and made his way out of the ancient ballroom. Amie and Bob followed immediately, grateful to escape the dark of the cursed castle.
Tony stood over the body of the count and said a few well-chosen Cantonese curses before he followed, Jory trailing after him looking deeply impressed.
"You've got to teach me to swear in Cantonese!!" he begged much to Tony's amusement, acting for all the world, like he had not been fighting for his life moments before. Only the blood soaked cloth clamped firmly around his wrist gave him away.
"Ok. Er "Pukei"."
"Pukei" Jory repeated. Tony promptly punched him on the arm.
"Hey! What was that for?"
"You just called me a bastard."
Marston and Chris grinned at each other as they heard them go.
Van Helsing watched Anna as she went to the wall and picked up a lit torch.
"You two go, I can manage." He assured the boys who supported him.
Marston raised his eyebrows. "You've got a bloody great hole in your side! I can see right through you!" he exclaimed.
The hunter grunted and grinned "Trust me I've had worse." He assured them.
Without a word they let him go and followed their comrades.
Anna walked over to the large crimson curtains cutting off a large piece with her sword and draping it over the skeleton.
"What are you doing?" asked Van Helsing staggering over.
Anna dropped the flame on to the fabric, watching in satisfaction as it began to burn.
"I'm sending him to hell. Destroying any trace of his evil." She announced with pride. Van Helsing smiled and kissed the top of her head.
"A woman after my own heart." He whispered leaning on her slightly as they made there way out of the castle.
The ancient walls of castle Frankenstein burned, the torture chambers were destroyed and the bodies of Dracula's faithful servants were consumed.
Viktor Frankenstein watched from his laboratory window as nine horses and their injured riders fled into the night.
He looked fondly at the delicate picture of a beautiful woman in his hands and with a smile clasped it to his chest. He smiled to himself as the room burned around him and the ceiling began to collapse under its own weight. He was about to see his beloved Elizabeth again.
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Note: my longest chapter yet!phew hard part over. I always thought in the movie that it was abit mean to let Van Helsing kill Dracula talk about stealing Anna's thunder!! The girl had been training her entire life for a chance at him, her family had died to give her that chance for over four hundred years!! And what happens? A cocky (and sexy) vampire hunter just strolls in kills him just like that and for good measure crushes her on an old sofa!
Ok rant over, keep reading and reviewing folks more too come : )