Disclaimer: The characters and concepts pertaining to the movie Van Helsing used in this story are the property of Stephen Sommers. This is an amateur effort and no ingringement on copyright laws was intended.


Chapter 4: Elizabeth's Wrath

Gabriel wondered why he wasn't used to unnatural silences. They always seemed to surround him whenever something was going to happen. The whistling breeze would quiet to nothing but the rustling of papers as it brushed by the allies. The streets would be deserted and empty. He would find himself encircled by large, shadowed houses, ones that stared at him with vacant windows that pierced his soul like Dracula's eyes. He could see the flickering of candles just as they were blown out through the panes of glass, watching as darkness enveloped the room just as it was starting to do to him.

The horse was carrying him quickly away from the Vatican, past the large stone and marble homes with vine and ivy growing along their sides, down the city streets into the heart of Rome where he would navigate his way to the North East. His plan at the present was just get to Transylvania and to Cachtice, where he assumed Elizabeth would be heading, kill her and break the curse on the Order and himself. The vague details were little comfort to him since his mind was frantically asking him a plethora of other questions regarding his ambiguous set up. She probably hasn't left the city. She's probably watching you, toying with you, and teasing with you before she (he took a deep breath and turned down a nearby alley to avoid the streetlamps) mates with you.

That's NOT going to happen, he thought to himself, slowing the horse to a brisk walk while he checked around the buildings. The alleys were crawling with rats, nothing more. Nobody was out walking or riding at this time of night. He quoted Carl when he thought, "No one is silly enough to go riding and walking at this time of the night...except maybe you, Van Helsing."

There was a cackle. Gabriel pulled to a halt and whipped out his pistol, turning to face the full moon in the sky with his outstretched arm and weapon. The silhouettes passed over the moon, blocking the light for a moment, before soaring off in circles around him. He started firing just as the last one flew by. They were moving so fast they were large black blurs in the night.

It fell silent again. The four vampires who had been following him were perched on the rooftops, looming down over him from both sides of the streets. The female stood up, assuming her humanoid form. Her inhumanly pale skin was lit by the moon and gleamed with inexplicable brilliance that burned his eyes. She stood up, unafraid of his drawn weapon and looked at her subordinates.
"The great and wondrous Van Helsing," she began, clicking her tongue between her teeth. Her accent was elegant and Romanian, just as her mistress's was. It wasn't Elizabeth. The vampire's hair was a bright red, straight and sleek as it framed her angelic face. Her eyes were blood red, the same as all vampires. "I would have thought you would have been difficult to find, but your horse makes so much noise."

"Sorry to have disappointed you," he replied. One of the male vampires jumped down from the roof behind him. In one swift moment, Van Helsing had grabbed hold of his crossbow and fired, striking him square in the heart, pinning him against the wall. The vampire twitched and convulsed before turning into dust.

The female vampire hissed again, this time louder. "There is a crime amongst vampires: If you kill your own kind you too are killed."

One of the subordinates laughed maniacally. Gabriel took aim at the female who grinned coldly. "I'm not you're kind." With that, he fired the crossbow.

She leapt into the air, spinning around as her form changed again. Her white and crimson gown became her thin white wings and small body. She whipped around, hissing at him, holding several of the arrows in her hand.

"Get him!"

There were two other male vampires, one that had been hovering next to the female, the other who swooped down behind Gabriel. He fired twice at the one in front of him, turning just in time as the horse reared and threw him to the ground.

"Ow..." he said, his neck flaring to life in pain. He looked up in the sky at the three vampires who were now after him. "Just perfect..."

He rolled over and got up to his feet again, pulling the trigger on the crossbow as soon as he could see once more. The three vampires were thrown back against the pavement, their bodies filled with small arrows. Gabriel was too smart to assume they were dead. He raced forward and continued his barrage of arrows into their bodies.

The female was up and on her feet before the first arrow hit. She snatched it right out of the air, holding it tightly in her claws. Van Helsing's finger stayed tightened on the trigger, sending arrows into the smaller thralls. They were struck in the heart. The female was not. Like her mistress, the arrows simply would not strike her.

"Such a clever hunter," she said, throwing the arrow over her shoulder. Gabriel tried the trigger again. The weapon was empty.

He threw it to the ground, reaching for his pistol. The vampire hissed, lunging at him. She took a bullet to the chest, enough to knock a normal person back at least three feet, but kept coming, grabbing him by the arms and digging the claws on her toes into his chest. Gabriel cried out in pain, groaning loudly as she threw his gun to the ground. With her long tongue she licked his cheek, moving down to the neck wound where her mistress had left her scent. With every ounce of strength, Gabriel struggled to knock her away, before she could bite him. He knew she would do it. He could feel his skin prickle at the feeling of her fangs hovering over it.

"I wouldn't dare," she whispered. "Her mistress would have my head for touching her mate. She wants you...unscathed for when she claims you as her own."

"She won't be doing anything like that," Gabriel replied. The female pointed her feet, digging her claws deeper into his stomach. He grunted again. The force of her legs was knocking the wind out of him. She licked his cheek longingly, moving up from his defined jaw line to his temple slowly.

Somewhere off to his right he heard the tightening of a bowstring. The female vampire looked up, her blood red eyes in a frenzy suddenly as she looked off in the darkened alley. Without another word, she kicked off Van Helsing and flew off into the night, leaving nothing but floating ash in her wake.

Turning, Gabriel caught the glimpse of a bow loosening, the arrow sliding back into the quiver as the woman walked away, disappearing into the darkness. She glanced back over her shoulder once, her olive skin catching the light majestically before looking back in the direction she was walking in.

Gabriel's mouth opened. He knew that woman.


Dorotta watched him from above, unable to do much else. She had seen the woman, the fury in her green eyes, the swiftness of her bow...she had seen it many times, despite their differences in origin. She scowled at the sight and shook in fury. This meant telling Elizabeth they had problems, and that was something her mistress would not take kindly too.

She watched as the hunter picked up the crossbow, checking his coat for an extra clip before loading it once again. He shot a look in her direction. He was being cautious because he could still sense her, a darkness as old as her mistress, though not as potent as the Countess's evil. The blood Countess was evil incarnate, aside from Dracula, one of the four elders that watched over the realm of the vampires. Dorotta was pleased and eager to serve such a cruel mistress.

She lowered herself on the rooftop, flattening her wings against her back. Her blood red irises scanned over the hunter as he gripped his throat. Elizabeth's poison was taking hold of him, gripping his senses. The first twenty-four hours were hell, but only seconds later he would be a thrall, her mistress's creature and nothing more.

But the woman's appearance was now a thorn in her side, and despite the woman's oath to never interfere, Dorotta was worried that she might destroy her mistress's work, something she could not allow happen.

The hunter was already back on his horse, cursing it for being a scaredy-cat before riding off into the residential district of Rome. Dorotta stayed within close range, wanting to catch him off guard and without protection.


Gabriel searched the streets, up and down in all directions. There was a lingering feeling of evil somewhere, a darkness that seemed to follow him around the city relentlessly. He was unsure of whether it was the darkness growing within or the female vampire he had failed to kill earlier. All he knew was that he needed to see Mina for a moment, but he would not put her in harm's way if he could prevent it.

He knocked on the door, still searching the streets for anyone or anything. When Mina did finally reach the door he put a finger to his lips and pushed inside, shutting and locking the door behind him.

"Gabriel? What are you doing here at this hour?" Mina was wiping the remnants of sleep from her eyes, clutching an open book to the chest of her night dress. He started checking the windows and found that they were closed and bolted, just as he had hoped they were. Mina stared at him as he searched the rest of her house.

"What on earth are you doing?" She demanded. He left the bedroom after turning off the lamp inside. The only light they had was from the fire she had started in the living room fireplace. It was dim enough that she wouldn't be able to make out the wound on his neck. "What is it Gabriel, what's wrong?"
"What do you know about Elizabeth Bathory?" he asked her. "Carl said you had some books on the subject."

"Well, yes," Mina said, crossing the room to the bookshelves on either side of her fireplace. She started moving her fingers over the embossed titles to read what they were. "She's a vampire elder, the youngest by standards of Dracula and the King and Queen of the Damned."

"Skip that part. How do I kill her?" he asked quickly. The words made his neck burn. Mina didn't notice as she scanned over her book titles.

The world was dancing in front of Gabriel's eyes. He found everything was growing hazy and his eyes were watering so much that every object in the room was beginning to have a cloudy glow to it. Mina whipped around, flipping through the pages of the book to find what she was looking for. Gabriel tried to pull himself together.

"Nothing," she said, slamming the book shut and grabbing another, "Nothing about how to kill her at all."

For some reason, this doesn't surprise me, he thought to himself, putting his hands on his hips. His mind strayed back to Dracula. He had to become a werewolf to kill Dracula. He had to sacrifice everything: his humanity, his soul, Anna...everything to kill Dracula. What made Elizabeth any different?

Mina tossed another book down and into the chair. She was about to grab another off the shelf when...

THUD! The sound of something heavy striking the floor made her jump back and Gabriel to cock his pistol. He heard the sound of screams from the woman above before she was silenced and there was another thud.

Gabriel dragged Mina into the centre of the room, holding her wrist as he turned about, checking over the entire house from wall to wall. The windows were the most likely point of entry. The vampire would probably soar in through the windows and tackle them to the ground before biting Mina over and over...

No, stop thinking about that...his mind drifted back to the present as he listened carefully, only able to hear the sounds of Mina's shaky breathing and his own heart beating, the constant lub-dub that never sped up, never slowed down, never did anything but beat continuously, over and over.

"What is that?" she demanded. Gabriel hesitated.

"A vampire," he replied. "One of Elizabeth's servants."

He pulled Mina closer to him, keeping the gun trained on the windows and door. The darkness was growing thick around the home. Even Mina could smell it. She groaned audibly. He attracts too many wicked subordinates to my house. First faeries and now this...

"Stay close," he said, pulling her behind him in an attempt to defend her. Mina looked over his shoulder as the footsteps above them moved to the far side of the room. Gabriel moved the gun around cautiously, just waiting for anything to happen. He was ready for it, whatever it was.

He ignored Mina's breathing and his own heart beating. Every fiber of his being was focused on the footsteps moving above them.

The footsteps were moving back into the center of the room until they came to a stop just above the hunter and the vampire. Mina stopped breathing entirely. Gabriel kept the pistol trained of the area where the vampire was standing.

Moments felt like hours. The vampire finally walked towards that stairs and the footsteps disappeared.

Gabriel heard Mina sigh and her body relaxed. He kept the pistol aimed at the ceiling for a moment more before lowering it. "What's going on, Gabriel?" Mina asked him.

The hunter didn't have time to respond. There was a loud crash as the ceiling broke and Dorotta dropped to the floor.


Author's Notes: In celebration of the release of Van Helsing, I have posted my new chapter. May I say that Stephen Sommers has outdone himself with the special features. The outtakes were an especially nice touch. And may I also say that anyone who owns the special edition is incredibly lucky. I got the regular version as a birthday gift. Oh well, I'm glad my family remembered. Not that I let them forget or anything...

May everyone have a Van Helsing filled day! I now dub October Nineteenth Van Helsing Day! Where everyone must watch the Van Helsing movie and only think about Hugh Jackman and how much they wanted a plane to fly out of Anna's cloud face at the end of the movie (in my opinion anyways).

Reviews:

J: There are so many things Carl should not have access to. Greek fire, large automatic weapons, gas powered crossbows, nitroglycerin...it's like giving a chimpanzee a revolver. (Gets a weird mental image of a chimpanzee with a gun) Wow, strangely it's still cute, although very morbid.

Azreal would be a cool addition to the story. I looked up his name on the website and in some books at the library and he would be a cool character to have pop up somewhere along the line. Who was the author of the story? I wouldn't want to plagiarize.

Cowboy Bebop is awesome! I love Ed, and Faye, and Spike, and Jet...and wow that basically the whole cast, besides Ein of course who's awesome too. I have the movie and watched it about six or seven times in one weekend. By Monday my friends were about ready to kill me.

Emeraldjewel: Read the book Queen of the Damned, but be sure to check out the rest of the Vampire Chronicles along with it. I would not recommend the movie at all. Stuart Townsend was a terrible Lestat, for no living person on the planet can play that character perfectly (say for Tom Cruise who did an excellent job in Interview with the Vampire). Aaliyah was annoying at best and the storyline missed out so many plot points from the book because the movie was a merger between The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned books. Ah well, whatever floats your boat. Anne Rice is phenomenal though, especially if you love vampires.

I've never read Ramses though. Is it good?

Darkchylde: Interesting notion with the Queen of the Damned story. I'm not sure what I'm doing after this story, since the ending is still a mystery to me. Carl will probably go insane when the Vatican starts going batty (starts laughing) sorry, bad pun. There is a gag reel on the DVD! And I'm loving every second of Hugh Jackman's pretty face smiles giddily.

Doodilydoo: If Jinette had superpowers, he would so have laser beams shooting out of his eyes or the power to make things burst into flames. Van Helsing wouldn't be in a good mood after that. Hmmm...perhaps in the next story Jinette could become a pyrokinetic mutant!

Gabriel will tell Mina and Carl about the bite. Or they'll find out about it, he'll drug them and ride off in a fit of rage after Elizabeth Bathory. Or maybe I'm saying too much about the next chapters...

I'm pretty sure they're doing Van Helsing 2, because Universal just re-released the classic versions of The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Invisible Man, and The Mummy. I'll take that as a good indication that Van Helsing 2 is a good possibility. But trying to choose between two Hugh Jackman movies is like trying to choose between cake and ice cream. Why not just have both?

Trinity Van Helsing: Posting online is really starting to get on my nerves too, especially with my original fiction. I've got writer's block with both unfortunately and can't finish them. This story too is becoming an inconvenience, especially with school.

Hope you post though!

Vampire Princess Morwinda: Oh my gosh! I am so sorry to hear about your stroke of bad luck, especially with you CD player and money. I can empathize totally. It sucks to be the target of other people's greed (gives her a cookie).

Have a good time in Ohio! I've never been.

HAPPY VAN HELSING DAY!

HyperCaz: We all came from frogs? That's a little awkward. I feel weirder than I did when I found out we may have come from monkeys. Of course I hated anthropology and barely paid attention in that class. Frogs would be cool though. Eating flies though? Shudders

Lady Nessa: It's always an interesting battle when Van Helsing starts the fight. Mina will have an awful lot of reason to kick Elizabeth's arse, and maybe Dorotta's, or maybe just Dorotta's...It'll be cool either way.

Fanfiction Fanatic: YAY! No surgery! Glad to hear everything's going to be okay!