The sun rose, light filtering into the halls of Corvinus Manor. Carl wearily awoke to the sight of the rising sun, groggily pulling himself from the table where he'd fallen asleep. For a moment, he couldn't remember what had happened. Then, noticing the headless creature on the table, he groaned and nodded. "That's right," he muttered while rubbing his face. He looked to see that, fortunately, the sunlight was not destroying the vampirling's body, probably because it as already dead. Still, he had a plethora of notes he'd taken in studying the creature. It had been vile work, prodding the internals of the pygmy vampire animal, but they needed to know what they were up against in case Dracula made another such attack.
He yawned. He'd been up all night examining the vampirling, and from the face of the clock in the library, he'd only slept for a few hours. It was just as well. Once he informed Van Helsing about what he'd learned about these abominations, there would be no time for sleep.
Speaking of which, where was Van Helsing? Surely he and Adrian would have returned by now. More important, where was Anna? If that girl had run off again only to be captured by Dracula...
Eyes caught sight of something in one of the books, the one on ancient Roma tales and legends. Carl had forgotten about his research from before the attack, but now, noticing the bookmark, he decided to resume the study. He picked up the book, noting where he'd left off, then began to read aloud. "Dunpeal," he whispered, though he was sure he wasn't pronouncing the word right. It was one he didn't recognize from his study of the Romanian language. "'As a vampire sired in life, so may he in undeath, though it can only be possible on one day. On the moon of Hallow's Eve, his body regains the power to create a life, and the offspring are born into the dying of the seventh month.'"
Something came to mind, but it was a different word. "The half-dead..." Yes, it was similar to something he'd read about. Dom Augustin Calmet's treatise on vampires, written back in the eighteenth century, had delved into such a creature; the child of a mortal and a vampire. But Calmet had used the Hungarian term, which referred to the half-breed offspring as dhampir, not as dunpeal, which this book claimed to be a Roma word. Did they in fact mean different things? This book described the dunpeal as half-dead, caught between mortal life and undeath, while the dhampir was half-damned, something carrying a diluted curse of damnation. Perhaps the difference was in the meaning.
He continued to read the passage. Dunpeal were described as possessing unearthly beauty, ties to both life and death, and an air of command that was unsurpassed. A suspicion was crawling in the back of Carl's mind, recognizing these signs. "'Able to command the forces of natures,'" he recited. "'The art of shape changing, and a power to summon the aid of the sun.'" Summon the sun...Adrian had done that a day ago, when Marishka had been about to overcome Van Helsing. Realization came to the man's mind.
"He's Dracula's son," Carl whispered. It was obvious; Dracula was the only male vampire in the region, and only a male vampire could sire the half-dead. But it begged the question of why Adrian was fighting his father. Would the son not help his sire? Or had something happened to cause them to battle each other?
Looking now into the other books, he searched for clues, any hint of why this war was raging between father and son. What he found was more than he had hoped for, when, reaching a thick leather bound book, he discovered the history and genealogy of the Corvinus. Obvious were those most recent in the family; Anna, her parents, her grandparents, and so on right down to Matthias Corvinus. But there was a branching into another family, some clan called Tepes, represented by a man named Vlad.
Adrian said his family name was Tepes, his mind recalled. But who was Vlad Tepes, that was what piqued in Carl's mind. He knew he'd read the name somewhere before. Then, he realized it; Tepes was not a name, it was a title, the Romanian word for Impaler. And there was only one man who had earned such a name from the Romanian people. Vlad the Third, otherwise known as... "Dracula. Oh my god, that's it." He read the branching to discovered that Dracula had married into the Corvinus through Matthias' own sister, Elisabetha. And from them, there had been a single child; Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes.
But that would have to be after Dracula had become a vampire in order for that child and the Adrian of now to be the same. According to what he read of Romanian history back at the basilica, Dracula died in 1476, and he had married Elisabetha in the 1460's. Clearly, there had to be a discrepancy somewhere. If these records were true, then Adrian was more than four hundred years old. Nothing in the legends of dhampirs involved such immortal lifespans. Had Calmet missed something in his own research, or were there more differences in the legends of dhampirs from those of dunpeals?
There was more to be done here. He'd found notes on what had become of Elisabetha; burned for witchcraft by villagers after she'd successfully healed the sick and wounded. No doubt, that had been what sent Dracula into total war against mankind. But as to why Corvinus had not killed Dracula when it was known he was a vampire...
There was a throbbing pain at first, then awareness, and then, she realized that she was still alive. Something heavy was on her, pinning her against the craggy wall, up to her neck in water. With a grunt, she pushed on the beams, trying to get them off, but it wasn't until Van Helsing finally pulled himself to his feet and helped her that Anna Corvinus was able to free herself.
They had fallen into a very dim, gloomy cavern that was barely illuminated by tiny fissures in the ceiling. From the looks of it, this place had been a basement storage chamber for the windmill when it was still in operation, which, from the looks of things both above ground and below, had been some years ago.
She was about to say her thanks when he covered her mouth with his gloved hand. She realized something else; there was no sign of Adrian. "Where is-"
"Something's down here," he whispered, indicating that she should stay as quiet as possible. He then gestured to a pile of small bones, obviously animals of some kind that had been picked clean of any meat. "Carnivorous at the least..." Van Helsing paused, tilted his head, then dropped his hand down into the waist-deep water they were standing in. Moments later, he pulled Adrian up, who looked to have just come to himself and was gasping for air.
The dunpeal breathed heavily, nodding his thanks to Van Helsing. It was then he as well noticed the bone pile, now on his guard for trouble. He stood upright, drawing his sword and moving slowly out of the water.
Van Helsing took the lead. As he stepped onto dry land, he bent down and picked up what looked like a burnt bible. "Whatever it is," he continued, picking the bible up for a moment, "it appears to be human." His eyes caught sight of large boot-prints in the ground, something very odd for a place like this. He pointed them out to his companions. "Looks to be a size seventeen, about...three hundred and eighty, maybe four hundred pounds, so probably around two to three meters tall." Standing, Van Helsing stepped forward, following the tracks. Something began to prick in the back of his mind, almost like a warning. He's learned long ago not to ignore it. "Has a bad gimp in his right leg," he added, then, turning to look to Adrian and Anna, stared behind them. "And, uh, three copper teeth."
"Copper teeth?" Adrian asked. "How do you know that?"
"Because he's standing right behind you."
The creature stood there, motionless. But when Van Helsing brought attention to its location, the creature moved instantly. Adrian and Anna dove to the sides while Van Helsing took the split-second he had to assess his opponent. It was human in form - more or less - very tall, with pale skin that looked to have been sewn together by a child in several places. A rough scar ran across its forehead, and around the rest of its head from what Van Helsing could see. Many more scars could been seen through the ramshackle clothing it wore that appeared to have been made out of the mill sails. It looked as animal as it did man, and there was a large metal leg brace on its right leg, the source of the gimp.
He didn't have time for more examination, for as the monster moved, it was like a blur; he didn't even have a chance to ready his weapons. In the time it took him to even reach back for a revolver, the creature swat him away with a powerful backhand swing. The gun fell to the ground while he crashed into a rock wall, falling into a pool of water and wincing from the pain in his back. However, Van Helsing had other worries besides his own injuries. He could see the creature boring down on Anna, gazing at her.
"Oh my god," she gasped, backpedaling away as best she could. "Frankenstein's monster..."
"Monster!" the creature roared, continuing to follow Anna. "Just who is the monster here!" It reached down and picked Anna up, lifting her into the air and pressing her against a wall. "I have done nothing wrong, yet you and your kind wish me dead!" The voice was indignant; the creature sounded remarkably articulate, revealing a great intelligence underneath the crude form.
More mysteries to this grand puzzle. Anna claimed it was a monster, but when he reflected on it, Van Helsing realized that it had been down there with them the whole time, and if it truly was a monster, then it could have killed them whenever it wanted. In fact, it had been trying to stay hidden, and was furiously offended by Anna's words. Clearly, this being was not what it appeared.
He didn't have time to think much about it though. Adrian was already leaping into action, tackling the creature from behind and cracking its head against the stone. Anna was released, allowing her to get away while the creature turned to face Adrian. Incredibly, the top of its head and the left side of its face had popped open, revealing a cascade of electrical discharges into the delicate brain, and the metal plate that was under the skin of his face. Adrian made an attempt to grab the creature by the neck, but was met by a powerful shock that flung him back into the stone. Yelling in pain, the dunpeal fell to the ground in a heap.
It turned and stalked after Anna again. She stumbled back, fell on her rear end, and pushed back while it came on her. Finally, she opened her mouth, and probably did the smartest thing any of them had done so far; she asked it a question. "What do you want?"
Coming to a halt, the creature blinked in surprised. "To exist," it said mournfully. Suddenly, there was a whistling sound, and the creature yelled out when six darts stabbed into its back in rapid succession. It fell to its knees, Anna scrambling to her feet while Adrian moved to join her. Van Helsing, still in the pool of water, locked shut the steel expandable blowgun in his hand while giving an expression of exasperation. He stepped out of the water while slipping the device back into his coat, then moved quickly when Anna picked up his fallen revolver from the ground and aimed at the creature. Fortunately, Adrian was there in time to grab her by the wrist.
"Wait," he urged.
Frankenstein's creation was still moving, eyes blearily glaring at the trio. Amazing; six darts, all coated with a heavy tranquilizer, and it was still conscious. It looked exhausted, beaten, and deeply sad all at once. The expression in those eyes was all too human as it spoke. "If you value your lives," the creature intoned, "the lives of your kind, you will kill me!"
Van Helsing stepped forward toward the creature, noting how miserable it must have been this past year. The pathos in its voice was clear, revealing it to be more human than monster, and its breath grew increasingly labored. "If Dracula finds me..." It stopped, trying to stay awake. "I am the key to my father's machine...the key to life, life for Dracula's spawn."
"He already awakened them last night," Van Helsing replied, trying to put this poor being's fears to rest. But when it, he, gave a sorrowful laugh, it was clear that what had happened the night before was not the only such event like it.
"That was only one brood," the creature said, his expression full of pain, of regret. "One clutch from a single bride's flesh. They hatched and died, just as they did the last time he tried." There was fear now in the creature's eyes, fear of what could happen. "Only with me can he give them everlasting life."
Realization hit them all, and it was a terrible image that Frankenstein's creation had painted for them. If indeed the hatching last night was just one such brood, and it had happened before, then the implications of the true scope was far too horrific. But still, Van Helsing had to know for sure. "There are more?" he asked, kneeling down. "More of those...things?"
The creature looked at him. His gaze was long and soulful, lost, and afraid. "Thousands," was his answer, serving only to verify Van Helsing's fear. "Thousands more." He passed out, crashing to the dirt as the tranquilizer from six darts finally overcame his resistence. The horrible gravity of his words has hit the three like a ton of bricks, rendered Van Helsing speechless.
Anna raised the revolver again, stepping over toward the creature. Without thinking, Van Helsing swiftly rose to his feet and stop her from aiming. She looked at him in confusion. "You heard what he said," she stated.
He knew she was right. Better to destroy Frankenstein's creation than to let it be used against the entire world. It was logical. In fact, it made perfect sense. But there was something else that made him ignore logic.
For seven long years, since he had been found by Professor Van Helsing, he had wondered what truly separated him from the monsters he hunted. Far too often, the methods were the same, and no matter how much the Templar insistent that his actions were righteous, Van Helsing knew that sometimes, there could have been another way. But if there was one thing he knew, it was that he had never killed an innocent, and he'd never allowed one to die without making every effort possible to save them - God only knew he'd failed more times than he wanted to remember. It wasn't so much just a code as it was an ingrained instinct, something programmed into his very being. And that was what separated him from the Rippers of the world; he would not cross that line.
"My life," he began, trying to explain his reasons for sparing the creature. "My...job, is to vanquish evil." He pointed to the creature. "This thing...man...whatever it is. Evil may have brought about his creation, evil may have left its mark on him, but evil does not rule him...and so I cannot kill him." A thought came then. He realized that perhaps there was more to letting the creature live than just his instincts to protect innocent lives. "Your family has spent the last four hundred years trying to kill Dracula," Van Helsing explained. He turned to Adrian. "And you have been there this whole time, fighting that war. Maybe this poor creature can help us find the answer."
He suddenly realized something; he smelled a wet dog. Instincts went off, his hand pulling the gun from Anna's hand as he spun about and looked up to see the werewolf hiding up in the cleft in the ceiling. His hand came up, firing away, but his heart wasn't truly into making his mark, and the bullets impacted on rock. The werewolf snarled and scurried away, leaving the three to stare in horror.
"He's seen us," Adrian stated. "Now Dracula will know exactly where this creature is, and nothing will stand in his way of capture it and Anna!"
No, there was a way, there had to be. "If we get them to Rome," Van Helsing replied. He turned to face the dunpeal, eyes filled with fire. "If I take them to the Templar, we can protect them there. Dracula would never be able to set foot on those grounds."
Are you so sure? The voice now was taunting him for some reason. It was like he was remembering something he'd always known deep down, but never could recall. Dracula is practically invincible, with a single weakness that no one knows.
Adrian was clearly conflicted. Part of him was trying to demand the logical outcome, but another part had to admit that Van Helsing might be right. In the end, it was the latter that won out. "I'll get a coach," he said, stepping back and transforming into a bat. Wings flapping rapidly, the white-furred creature flew up through the crevice. Van Helsing was worried though. He didn't doubt that Adrian would be back, but it was the point of how much time they had. Dracula most certainly could move about in the daylight, and so long as they stayed out of the sun, his brides could do the same.
"Why didn't you kill me!" the giant's voice rang. He was now chained to the seat in the coach, precautions so that there would be no surprises from him. Van Helsing hated to do it to the poor man, but Adrian had insisted when he had returned.
His answer was clear and simple. "I'm not a murderer," he replied calmly.
"Why didn't you leave me alone then?"
That was an easier question to answer. "Dracula's servant, a werewolf, saw you in that cavern. It wasn't safe anymore." He paused a moment, looking outside and trying to calm his nerves. "I'm taking you and Anna to Rome, you'll be safe there."
"This is not wise. By exposing me, you have condemned me...me and all of humanity."
It was true what Frankenstein's creation said, but given the situation, it was the only choice. "Perhaps, perhaps not," was the reply Van Helsing gave. "But it's the best I could do under the circumstances." He looked at the creature for a moment, studying him. "If I might ask, what name would you prefer I call you by?"
The creature was speechless. He had been asked what name he wanted to be known as? Surely, no one else would have given him the chance to choose a name. But, there was only one name he could assume, to honor the man who had given him life. "You may call me by my father's name," he said, a touch of pride in his voice. "Frankenstein."
He nodded. "I'm..." There was hesitation. For seven years, he'd gone only by the name Van Helsing, but never once had he seriously tried to take on a name of his own. But ever since this mission, since he had met Dracula, he was starting to know who he was. And his instincts told him that there were things Dracula had not lied about. His identity was one of them. "Gabriel...Gabriel Van Helsing."
There was an odd warmth in him. For the first time, just with those words, Van Helsing felt like he knew who he was. A sense of completion, though not total, but it was something. He had a name, a sense of being. Most important, he was regaining who he was, and it had been that name which sparked it.
The patchwork man looked to Anna, who, having accepted that this being was no monster, gave a curt nod. "Anastasia Corvinus."
"This is a very bad idea," Frankenstein said, looking to the man in black. "You're a dangerous man, Gabriel Van Helsing. A very dangerous man."
"I get that a lot," he replied.
Frankenstein rattled the chains of his confines, testing them almost. "You don't trust me," he growled.
"Nothing personal," Van Helsing replied, trying to calm the man. "It's just, I don't trust anybody." There was a moment of silence, but Van Helsing had questions that couldn't wait. "You talked about your father, but you were created."
He nodded. "By Doctor Victor von Frankenstein," the man stated. Again, there was pride in his voice, pride and honor for a man who was obviously held in great respect by this marvel of science. "I was assembled from the bodies of seven different men. My father had discovered the secret to life, and under Dracula's influence, created me." Frankenstein stopped. It was obvious the recalling of events pained him. "But father's intentions were noble, even with the influence of the count. On the night he awakened me, he realized Dracula's true plans, and tried to protect me, save me from that horrible beast."
Pain was very evident in Frankenstein's eyes, and Van Helsing could swear he saw tears running down the pale cheeks. "Dracula murdered him," he continued. "For defying his control and wanting a good life for me."
Truly, noble intentions twisted for evil. "If this all happened the night that you were brought to life," Van Helsing asked, seeking answers to questions his mind now dwelled on, "how is it that you know about Dracula, and how you were created? For that matter, how is it you can speak?"
"The parts that my father used to build me had lived before," Frankenstein replied. "I have no memory of those lives, but I can speak, and I can read." He hesitated, not sure if Van Helsing could understand the reason why he knew the events of before his awakening. "Yet, while my father created me, I had a connection with him. Our thoughts were shared, minds linked, even before I lived. After he died..." Frankenstein paused. It was obviously painful for him to remember still. "I went back to the castle and retrieve his notes and journals, read them in the cavern where you found me. It was then I burned them, so that Dracula could not use them for his purpose. My father was under Dracula's influence when he created me, but make no mistake, Gabriel Van Helsing. He was a great and noble man, and his work had noble intent."
The reverence in Frankenstein's voice when speaking of his creator touched Van Helsing. There was such dignity in the creature, despite his odd form. It was truly remarkable. He had lived before, yet he held none of those memories. Humans wanted him dead, Dracula wanted him for something far worse, and yet, all the poor being wanted was to live a peaceful life.
Soon, they approached Corvinus Manor, and Van Helsing could see Carl waiting anxiously outside for him. Before the coach had even stopped, Van Helsing leapt out, walked over, then gave Carl a nod. "What is it?"
Carl was about to answer, then was fixed on the sight of Frankenstein just as Anna got out and closed the coach door. "Is that a man?" he asked, most unsure what to make of the creature.
"Seven men, actually," Van Helsing answered wryly. "Parts of them anyway." He quickly went into a brief explanation of Doctor Frankenstein and his creation, as well as what had happened at the castle the night before. Carl nodded in satisfaction, then informed Van Helsing the results of his research, as well as the events in the city when the vampirlings had suddenly expired. There was no problem Van Helsing saw with accepting it; he'd seen stranger things, after all, in the last seven years.
"They seemed to be made of a mix of things," Carl said, explaining what he'd discovered from disecting the vampirling corpse. "Animal parts, what looks to be some kind of black fluid for their blood...I'm suspecting that he some how created them from his flesh and that of his brides."
Van Helsing nodded. Frankenstein had confirmed as much on the ride here. "That would probably be why he calls them his children." He sighed, wishing that this mission wasn't so complicated now. But, it was the way things went. He walked back toward the coach, Carl beside him. "So what of this poem? What does it mean?"
"I'm not sure," Carl replied. "But I'm sure that it may hold some clue to defeating Dracula, and the other one may tell us how to find him. I still haven't figured out the meaning."
This wasn't going well already. Still, they had a plan, and it hopefully would work in protecting Anna and Frankenstein. The trouble was getting to Rome with little trouble from Dracula and his minions. That was where Adrian's horses and coach would hopefully come in handy.
"Transylvanian stallions," the dunpeal remarked while petting the lead steed softly. He glanced to Van Helsing and grinned. "No land-based creature in the region is faster, not even a werewolf." Again, there was that spark in his eyes, and he patted Van Helsing on the shoulder. "Anything else, and you're on your own, Gabriel."