Disclaimer: The characters and concepts in this story pertaining to Van Helsing are the property of Stephen Sommers. This is an amateur writing effort. No money was made off the writing of this story.
Chapter 2: Something Wicked This Way Comes
Carl had reacted quite well to the prospect of Gabriel and Mina becoming 'involved'. At first he had said nothing. Gabriel had assumed he didn't realize it, but he was later proven wrong when Carl showed up at Mina's home and found them together. The small headed friar popped through the window in her bedroom, catching them mid-kiss.
"Carl..." Mina had said, immediately taking her arm off Van Helsing's back and separating herself from him. Gabriel was still staring in shock at the friar's head poking through the window.
He went still for a moment as if absorbing the idea of them as a couple. Then, without another word, he told Gabriel he was needed back at the Vatican and pulling his head back out through the window. Gabriel was silent, watching as Mina blushed and laughed.
"Do you think he'll tell the Cardinal?" she asked with another laugh. Gabriel shook his head.
"Not if he doesn't want the Cardinal to find out about all his relationships," he replied, getting up and off the bed. Mina pulled the sheets up and around her body, still blushing bright red.
"You really should have told her to buy a house closer to the Vatican," Carl stated, awkwardly riding next to Gabriel on his small brown pony. Gabriel glanced in his friend's direction as Carl continued. "The less time I spend on a horse, the better."
"Come now, Carl," Gabriel said, kicking the horse for a little more speed. Carl was starting to struggle to keep up. "It does people good to get outside. You don't expect to spend the rest of your life behind brick walls do you?"
"I should spend my life behind brick walls," Carl replied, attempting to keep up with the hunter. The stubby legs of his pony could not manage such a task. "I could avoid the troubles of being dragged cross-country, poked with electric cattle prods, nearly struck by lightning, thrown, tossed, and hit...and did I mention being dropped from the tallest tower in Morgan's castle?"
Gabriel shook his head in exasperation. He still remembers all of these things?
"What doesn't kill you...," he began.
"Just makes you live in fear," Carl finished the statement. His sardonic humour made Gabriel smile. It made life easier to have such conversations with Carl. They made the pains of the hunt and the difficulties of living a double life so much easier. "I can't think of anything more dangerous than being dragged along on a hunt."
"You can't learn everything from books, Carl," Gabriel said. "Eventually you have to learn things from experience."
"There are some things that should never be experienced," Carl said, looking at the cobblestone pavement as they rode along. "The Lord of all Vampires and the Queen of the Faeries..."
"Perhaps I'll drag you on the next journey Jinette sends me on, just to add more to that experience list," Gabriel said, amused with Carl's tone. He kicked his horse and took off in a canter down the street. It took Carl a moment to realize what Gabriel had said.
"What do you mean you'll drag me out again? Van Helsing?" He kicked his pony hard, trying to catch up, but ended up trailing just after the monster hunter, unable to catch up.
Gabriel always entered through St. Peter's Square. He had examined every inch of the interior of Vatican City from Borgia and Belvedere Courtyards to the tomb of St. Peter himself. St. Peter's Square always gave him shivers when he rode inside it, especially now that his nightmares had steadily worsened. He remembered falling down through the pouring rain and striking the ground not far from where he left his horse standing when he dismounted.
He looked over the steps of the Square and swallowed hard. Carl didn't notice his apprehension as he dropped off his horse and walked into the Basilica.
"Are you coming?" he asked, waking Gabriel from his vigil.
He nodded to Carl, answering him with a small, "Yes..." Carl started up the steps, inadvertently causing another memory for Van Helsing. He remembered the sounds of footsteps, the ragged breathing, the voices...
He wiped the sweat off his forehead and started after Carl. His boots made a small tapping noise on the marble steps as he ascended, staying close behind Carl.
Gabriel found that his head started to hurt the second the light from the Basilica hit his eyes. Everything was too loud or too bright at that moment in time. The chanting made his head ache. The light made his eyes water. Everything just added to how terrible he was starting to feel.
"You shouldn't do this to yourself Gabriel," Mina said, running her fingers along his cheek as they lay together on her small, single bed. He turned his dark eyes towards her, staring at the top of her head as she rested it on his bandaged chest. She was careful not to set it on his bruised ribs, recently injured by the gargoyles atop Notre Dame Cathedral.
"What would you have me do?" he asked her softly, tenderly, running his fingers over her back unconsciously, feeling the groves of her spine under his fingertips. He tried to lighten the mood, laughing a little. "Lay here with you forever?"
"Don't joke about such things..." she replied lazily, staring at his bandaged chest. "I could make you stay, if I truly wanted."
"So you don't want me then?" He asked, pretending to be angry. "Fine, I suppose I'll just ride back to the Vatican then..."
"I didn't know you had a flare for melodrama," she said, snuggling closer. Gabriel swallowed hard. He wanted to stay forever.
Gabriel was half expecting Jinette to be standing there with his foot tapping, his arms crossed and his face contorted in anger. Strangely, the Basilica was only filled with the sound of the chanting and not the enraged shouting of his 'employer'. It was deserted except for him and Carl. His eyes narrowed. Something wasn't right.
"Is everything alright?" Carl asked him, noticing at last that the hunter wasn't moving. His body was still as he looked around the room, searching for something that he could feel but not see. Gabriel sniffed the air. Something was definitely wrong, he just didn't know what.
"Wait here," he said. Gabriel walked towards the confession box briskly.
"What's going on? Van Helsing?" Carl wasn't sure whether to listen to Gabriel or not. He took a step or two forward as Gabriel threw open the confessional.
"Bless me Father for I have sinned," he said quickly, waiting for some smartass reply from the Cardinal. There was nothing. He pounded on the window and still heard nothing from inside the other box.
Jinette wasn't there. He couldn't have been.
Gabriel stopped for a moment. He knew something was wrong now. Jinette always kept watch in the confessional, especially if he were waiting for the monster hunter to return. He pounded on the back wall, trying to dislodge the mechanism that kept the Headquarters closed from the general public. It was locked tight. He groaned and pounded it with his shoulder, just as it lifted slowly.
He stared at it. "Did I do that?" He said to no one in particular. He glanced over and into Jinette's side of the confessional and found Carl still holding the lever in his left hand.
"It's always that hard way with you, isn't it?" the friar asked, stepping down into the long staircase beneath Vatican City. "You can't just find the lever to make things work, you have to blow something up or shoot something wildly or..." His list went on and on. Gabriel couldn't bear to smile though. He would have normally. Listening to Carl's long and drawn out lists of his faults was one of his favourite past times. It kept him sane. But now was not the time for humour. He could sense something down there, and he quickly grabbed Carl's shoulder and halted him from walking any further into the Headquarters.
"What in the name of God...?"
Gabriel put a finger to his lips, silencing Carl immediately. The friar stared fearfully into the hunter's face.
"There's something down here," Gabriel whispered. Carl was silent, watching as Gabriel pulled his gun from under his coat. The hunter cocked the weapon before walking down the rest of the steps, swinging out and into the open with his gun outstretched.
The sight astounded him. It was as if the apocalypse had struck while he and Carl were gone. Every table was tipped over. Broken glass covered the floor. The tiny shards sparkled in the light like millions of stars. The coloured liquids that flowed around them made a replica of the Northern Lights at his feet. Metal was scattered carelessly in twisted fragments as if ripped apart by a supernatural force.
Then there were the bodies, piled together, some still twitching and convulsing, each bearing a pair of puncture wounds on their throat.
Gabriel felt like he couldn't breathe for the first time in his life.
Carl came down the stairs after Gabriel, discovering the Headquarters in shambles. He stared off in the direction of his own table, finding it too had been vandalized in the same manner as the others. The pile of metal cylinders he had been using to make his 'flame projecting device' were used as weapons and he found them sticking out of the corpses of his coworkers.
Carl couldn't breathe. He took a step back in disgust and nearly started vomiting.
The sound of cold laughter reached his ears from above. Carl's eyes followed Van Helsing's gun as he searched the dark shadows of the ceiling for the culprits. There were the sounds of wings flapping and the laughter quieted.
"It appears as if we have missed two," a voice said from the dark recesses of the ceiling. The echoing made it hard to find where it was coming from. Gabriel scanned through the shadows with his expert gaze. The voice laughed again. "Franc! Killian! Kill them."
Gabriel already knew the voice was female. It was an alto voice, low and dramatic, with a heavy Romanian accent. The memory of Anna made him shiver.
The wall slid shut at the top of the stairs, activating the intricate locking system. Without Jinette, he and Carl were unable to escape the headquarters that way. Gabriel looked back through the chaos and grabbed Carl's shoulder.
"Carl," he began, keeping his weapon trained on the ceiling, "RUN!"
The two took off into the mess of bodies, glass, metal and wood. Carl slid on his robes and had to stop for a moment to grab the skirt of his robe before running again. There was the sound of wings as one of the creatures from the ceiling descended upon the two.
"DUCK!" Gabriel pushed Carl down to the ground and fired at the winged creature that flew towards them. His body was milky white with flesh that resembled leather. Gabriel could count out the ribs in its chest without much difficulty. Its wings were made of the same material, long and sleek. The resemblance to one of Dracula's brides was astounding.
The bullets struck his body and threw the vampire back into the darkness of the ceiling. Gabriel grabbed Carl by the scruff of the neck and pushed him further into the headquarters, moving away from the hissing and flapping coming from the ceiling. He kept the friar's head low as they moved in the direction of Carl's table, and Gabriel's second priority, his weapons.
"Here!" Carl said, handing Gabriel a silver stake. He always had a stash hidden within his thick robes. Gabriel took the stake and watched the shadows for movement, finding nothing. Not a trace of movement or glimpse of the monsters above.
Carl raced forward and grabbed hold of the crossbow from the floor. He shouted for Van Helsing just as the vampire swooped back down. Gabriel had fired before it could come within a meter of Carl. The vampire was thrown backwards and crashed into the opposite wall. Carl tossed Van Helsing the crossbow. Gabriel had it in his hands just as a second vampire came down upon him from behind. The hunter swung around and pulled the trigger.
Nothing happened.
He ducked in enough time to just narrowly missing the vampire's outstretched claws. Once he was turned around he tried the trigger again.
"Carl," he began, "It's not working!"
"I'm having a little trouble remedying that right now, Van Helsing!" He shouted as he ran from another attempt on his life. The vampire was the same as the last, but bore a long scar that moved down its back between its wings. Carl frantically tossed a small glass orb over his shoulder which hit the vampire in the chest. A shrill scream filled the room, making Carl grab his ears in pain. Gabriel hit the crossbow a few times and took aim once more, pulling the trigger. He was happy when a barrage of arrows started flying through the air, striking the fallen vampire with amazing accuracy.
The body struck the ground and convulsed once more before turning into nothing but dust and ash.
The other vampire had recovered from being thrown into the wall by Gabriel's bullets and had since started to fly towards Carl once more. He was struck with arrows, on finding its way to his un-beating heart.
There was silence suddenly. It came as such a shock to Gabriel. His blood was coursing with adrenaline. Every fiber of his being was focused now on the female: the sole survivor of his massacre.
He could feel her above him, her darkness rippling like the surface of water. At one moment it was exceptionally strong, filling his whole body with the sense of immortality, power, and greed...the descent into darkness. He looked up to the ceiling and scanned the shadows for whoever had started to laugh again.
"Killian and Franc were weak," the voice said in fluent Romanian. Gabriel tried to find the source but the voice echoed through every crevice and crack in the ceiling making it impossible to find where the creature was. "They were no match for you. I see you've kept up with your training, Gabriel."
Why do my enemies always know me better than I do? Gabriel didn't take time to ponder the thought. He didn't have time to. The final creature swooped down from the ceiling and grabbed his shoulders. Gabriel fired a few arrows into the beast as he was whipped around to face her. He continued firing, even when she bit down hard on his throat.
Carl threw a stake through the air, aiming it as best he could. The beast screamed and flew off with another laugh, taking a large mouthful of Gabriel's flesh with her. He ignored the pain and swung the crossbow to his shoulder, firing a large amount of arrows at the creature.
The woman laughed. She landed on the ground, absorbing all the arrows in her body by standing completely still. The arrows would not strike her heart. Gabriel heard the hollow click of an empty barrel. He reached for his gun again just as the vampire shook her finger at him, clicking her tongue between her teeth.
"No need for that Gabriel," she said. Her long white claw shortened into a delicate finger. Every inch of her leathery flesh became human skin once again. Her large white wings shrunk into her back and disappeared as her naked body was clothed in crimson.
Gabriel could not describe her beauty. It was like trying to describe heaven. She was pale and her skin was flawlessly smooth, like marble. She had long, sleek black hair that hung down on both sides of her face, framing her cherub features. She licked her blood red lips, still bearing small dribbles of Gabriel's blood. "You wouldn't want to waste those bullets on something that cannot be killed."
"Go to hell," he said and took up the stake Carl had given him. He charged forward a little and threw it at her. The vampire grabbed it out of the air. Gabriel stopped and grabbed his throat. He could feel something cold spread out into his veins and through his face. She laughed and took a few steps closer to him.
Carl got up with another handful of grenades. She held out her hand towards him. An invisible force threw him into the back wall, knocking him senseless.
"CARL!" He shouted. His voice cracked. The wound on his throat hurt like hell. He could barely breathe.
She laughed coldly again, smirking at him. "You really shouldn't surround yourself with people like that," she began, moving through the corpses comfortably. She was hardly a stranger to death. She had seen many die and most of the time she was the cause of their deaths. "They always prove their worthlessness at the most inconvenient moments."
She grabbed his chin harshly with one hand. Her nails dug into flesh leaving long lines of red, burning flesh in their wake. He tried to move, to punch her away or kick her in the chest, but every time the thought of injuring her came into his head he was left gasping for breath. The neck wound had started to burn.
"That wound is filled with venom," she began with a cold smirk. "In twenty-four hours you will begin to transform into my thrall, not unlike those worthless subordinates you just killed." She ran a finger down his chest. "And when you embrace your darkness I will take you as my mate."
"In your dreams," he said, gritting his teeth against the pain before kicking her across the room. He snatched up a silver stake off the ground, triggering the mechanism that slid the sharpened tip out and ready to use. Without another word he charged the woman and sent the stake sailing into her heart.
She choked. There was a moment where he thought it had worked. The silver stake was embedded in her breast, moving straight through her heart. Gabriel stopped, grabbing hold of his neck again. Blood dripped down into the spaces between his clavicle and shoulder bones before seeping through his shirt and down his chest.
The woman laughed.
"You don't remember me, do you Gabriel?" She said with a laugh. Her hand reached to the handle of the stake and ripped it from her chest. "You can't kill me with just silver Gabriel."
He groaned and turned back to find another weapon. The woman caught up to him quickly. There was a rush of wind before she had grabbed him again, holding his shoulder tightly in her hands.
"My name is Elizabeth Bathory," she said with a hiss. She leaned close to his ear and whispered, "Never forget it again."
She kicked off his chest.
"Twenty-four hours Gabriel!" She called to him as she flew away. Her body transformed into her vampire form. She broke through the ceiling of the headquarters and disappeared into the night.
Author's Notes: YAY! It's the second chapter and I'm seeing familiar reviewers. Thank you once again to Grissom who worked on this chapter and to everyone who left feedback! By the way, the flamethrower idea from Chapter 1 was J's idea. Sorry I left it uncredited and I used it without asking. I loved the idea though. Thank you!
'Something Wicked This Way Comes" is a Ray Bradbury novel, one that everyone should read. Ray Bradbury is awesome.
Reviews:
Lady Nessa: I'm so happy you're enjoying it! I hope you continue enjoying it!
HyperCaz: I am feeling extreme envy at your semi-friend. I would love it if my mom knew Hugh Jackman! Of course, I think my mom would enjoy that too (thinks about that a little). Hmmm...is it cool to like the same guys as your parents?
I'm glad to hear that you're not creepy enough to stalk him. I'll watch for you on Entertainment tonight just in case you ever become that creepy. Just so you know: I'll probably be one step behind you in the stalking department.
But that's too much information. Talk to you later!
Vampire Princess, Morwinda: I think Carl does have eyebrows. I hope he does. One of my friends got one of her eyebrows shaved off at a party and it wasn't pretty. Not only that, she held me responsible (even though I wasn't even at the party evil glare) Okay, I'm done. I said it because I could see Carl enjoying not having any facial hair so it wouldn't get burned off whenever he started a fire (a popular occurrence, Lol).
It's very fun to explain Gabriel's past. Everyone has such different views on it. Some people separate his character entirely from Bram Stoker's Van Helsing while others love the connection between the original hunter and Gabriel.
I hope this update was fast enough!
Grissom: No problem about getting back to me. Whenever you can get around to editing and e-mailing me is great. You probably have more of a life than I do anyways (still unemployed...GAH!) Anyways, thanks for all the work and confidence you have in my writing. I just got your story and I'm starting on it right after I get off the computer, and with my little sister nagging me, that will be pretty soon.
Don't be dawdling in the computer lab! Talk to you later!
Scholar: First advancement in the characters: Gabriel as Elizabeth Bathory's mate. Don't try and think about the mechanics of that. They're boggling my mind too.
Darkchylde: Thank you very much for the comment about the Mary-Sue. I was really worried when I added Mina that everyone would immediately point, shout, "MARY-SUE!" before chasing me with pitchforks and torches threatening to hurt me. It happens too often on this site and I was worried it might happen to me.
Thanks for looking back so often! I was worried I wouldn't post fast enough and then everyone would lose interest and then I would lose interest...but I love hearing that people are enjoying the story that much. THANK YOU!
I added a little more Carl and Van Helsing at the beginning of the chapter. It isn't much but I'll try harder for some more conversations between them. Thanks for the suggestion. Plus, I added the whole, "Carl-finds-out-about-Mina-and-Gabriel" thing. I could just imagine what Carl would do if he found them kissing (Lol). God I love Carl.
Saerry Snape: Glad you're enjoying it! (Does the happy dance)
Emeraldjewel: It's not the nicest feeling in the world when bad reviews start appearing on good stories. Just after I read Harry Potter I logged onto a Christian website and found all these bad reviews talking about how J.K. Rowling is the Anti-Christ. And while that happens, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are still allowed to sell their "Two-of-a-Kind" drivel shudders. Even on this site I know some authors who write some of the best stories and find themselves with bad reviews.
I've only been attacked once, way back in the beginning with a Lord of the Rings story. Yes, it was a blatant Mary-Sue, but it still hurts. Thank you!
Fanfiction Fanatic: Smiles Thank you very much! I hope you've gotten a lot better since July. Hope to see you back again!
DoodilyDoo: I totally agree. Carl does have the best lines! Such favourites like:
"Why does it smell like wet dog in here?"
"Well actually I'm a friar."
"You killed him didn't you? That's why they get so annoyed!"
"I'm not going to like this am I?"
Elizabeth Bathory: cruel, violent, sadistic...It's like Dracula under a microscope with a sex change.
J: I'm sorry I didn't put that it was your idea! I was so intrigued by the notion that I just had to use it. By the end of the story he'll have it finished...I hope.
I checked out the site and saw what I think is the DVD cover. The actual cover looks...bright to me, but the cover with the stake looks really cool. I smiled at the look, although I did like the green better. Oh well, as long as it's in my DVD player the day it comes out, I'm happy.
Trinity: What type of camp did you go to? I'm glad that it was fun to read the story.
Thanks to all reviewers, new and old. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I'll be sure to get working on the next one ASAP!
