Disclaimer: The characters and concepts in this story pertaining to the movie Van Helsing are the property of Stephen Sommers. This is an amateur writing effort and no money was made off the writing and or posting of this story.
Warning: The first two paragraphs of this chapter involve a child's corpse. I tried to be vague, but I would like to warn anyone who might be disgusted by that sort of thing.
Chapter 6: Still Fighting the Good Fight
Elizabeth Bathory held the young girl's throat. Thirteen years old and already the sweet Italian child was flawlessly beautiful. She had long chestnut curls and large green eyes, ones that spoke of a wisdom unnatural to such an age. It was not the unspoken intelligence the girl possessed that Elizabeth was taken with, however. She was much more concerned with the gorgeous features, the smooth skin and wonderful complexion.
She dropped the body to the ground. The angelic child lay on the floor of her bedroom as if asleep, staring soundlessly into the corners of the room with widened eyes. Elizabeth looked over at the large bed she had taken the child from, watching her younger brother sleep peacefully, dreaming of secrets. She walked away quickly, not hungry for a man's blood after the feast at the Vatican. Too much testosterone made her sick.
She approached the window slowly, but stopped short. Something was wrong. She could no longer hear the heavy breathing of her thralls. The emptiness of her world consumed her suddenly. Just minutes ago she could no longer feel Dorotta, but now her mindless servants were missing, something that made her feel very disconnected.
There was a sudden crack as the window shattered. The small boy sat upright in bed as the grappling hook shot right past Elizabeth and into the wall. Within seconds, Gabriel Van Helsing was at the window sill, and he had already thrown a silver stake into Elizabeth's breast.
"I thought we determined that this didn't work," she said, unamused, fumbling with the stake helplessly. Her hands moved over it too quickly to get a good grip on it. She sniffed it. Gabriel had covered the surface of the stake in lamp oil. She looked up just as he pulled the trigger of one of his pistols. The glass bullet struck her breastbone and ignited the oil.
Elizabeth transformed so quickly it was a blur. The boy in the bed had already made a run for the door, but with one flap of her wings, Elizabeth had him in her arms. She grabbed hold of his head and wrapped her arm around his body, pinning him to her chest.
"Do you want more innocent blood on your hands tonight Gabriel?" she demanded, her fangs just hovering over the boy's throat. The child was hyperventilating, his eyes staring at the dark figure that had entered his bedroom from the window.
Gabriel kept the pistol trained on her, aiming at her face. Her jaw tightened.
"I want you to release them."
"Never!" She hissed. "The Knights of the Holy Order deserve what they have been given! As do you!"
"Than I'm willing to make a trade," he said loudly. "I'll come willingly; just release them and the boy."
Elizabeth was quiet, her bright red eyes staring menacingly at Gabriel. The boy was whimpering softly under her hands as her teeth moved over his throat, leaving stinging pink flesh in their wake. Gabriel wasn't sure what she was doing, but she was probably considering his offer. She hadn't bitten the boy, but she hadn't released him either.
"You'll come willingly?" she clarified, still threateningly close to the child's throat.
There was a beat. Gabriel nodded softly. "Yes."
"And you'll descend into darkness freely?"
Another beat. He nodded again. "Yes."
She was seriously considering it now, silently deliberating the cost and reward of their deal. They were frozen together, at an impasse with one another. The hunter had his gun aimed at her face. She felt her skin crawl at the thought of something striking her precious skin besides blood.
"Drop your weapon," she commanded.
"Release the child," he answered, just as demanding as she. Elizabeth loosened her grip but kept the boy within her grasp.
"I said drop your weapon, Gabriel." She opened her mouth over the boy's neck, unfolding her wings until they nearly surrounded her and the boy in a cocoon. Gabriel took a deep breath, watching as she bit down slowly on the boy's throat and closed her wings.
Defeated, he threw the gun to the ground.
Elizabeth laughed, opening her wings again. A small amount of blood trickled down the boy's chest. Tears moved down his cheeks slowly. Gabriel watched him, the guilt consuming him in thick, impenetrable waves that slowly suffocated him. The vampire kept her arms around the child.
"Now," she said, "Prove your loyalty to me." She pushed the child towards him. "Kill him."
The boy started to sob.
"Kill him and I'll release the Vatican," she said, pushing the boy closer to him. Gabriel stared at the small boy, barely eight years old, standing just a few feet away from his dead sister. He looked from the child to the Countess. Elizabeth's eyes were narrowed in anger, waiting for him to do something other than just stand there. "Do it." She commanded again. "Kill the child, save the church. Allow the child to live, destroy all of human kind. This one boy, the boy of two peasants who will amount to nothing no matter what the fairy tales say, is the balance between of life itself. And all you have to do is drink from him."
There was nothing he could say. The boy was sobbing, screaming out for someone to help him. Elizabeth could hear footsteps coming up the stairs. She turned back to the door and with a sweeping motion of her hand, it slammed of its own accord, locking the parents out.
"Tick tock, Gabriel," she said quickly, transforming back into her human form. Blood still dripped from her face from her bath in the girl's blood. Gabriel took the boy by his shoulder. The child kicked and screamed as he was yanked forward to the hunter. Gabriel lowered, grabbing both the child's hands together and pulling his head to one side. There was frantic knocking on the door and Italian voices screaming for their son. But all Gabriel could hear was the throbbing of the boy's vein, the beating of his heart.
"I can read the character of a man by the sound of his heart beat," Dracula's voice echoed in his mind. Gabriel understood what the Count had meant as he stared longingly at the boy's throat. His throat felt dry and his stomach felt empty, as if he hadn't eaten in weeks. The heart beat was so rapid it sounded like a hum rather than a beating sound he was used to.
"Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock Gabriel. I'm losing patience. Just do it. Do it for me, Gabriel."
He felt his teeth sharpen, his eyes burning like flames as the blood colour swallowed them up, and suddenly he found his face moving closer and closer to the boy's neck.
Elizabeth was consumed with the sight as she wiped the blood off her face and into her mouth. She felt every pore fill with the beautiful liquid and suck it from her skin. She watched as her hungry thrall opened his mouth, his fangs just stubs in his mouth. They were hardly fit for adults, but the boy's soft skin they would pierce quite well.
In one swift movement, Gabriel pushed the boy behind his back and he grabbed his pistol out of his coat. Elizabeth screeched, jumping up and through the ceiling as a slew of Van Helsing's bullets flew to where she had once been standing. He ran to where she had taken flight and aimed upwards, looking off into the sky. There was nothing but stars above him, the blue moonlight cascading down on his face. Angrily, he turned and walked back to the window, picking up his pistol before turning back towards the child. The boy shrunk back to the bed from the sight of Van Helsing.
Gabriel never forgot the look in that boy's eyes. That shocked expression that he found only on the victims of vampires, the same expression his sister had, and the very same as Anna's face when she died.
"Have you ever killed anyone?" Shadow asked him, pulling the thick cigarette from her large lips. Gabriel shook his head, pulling his coat tighter around him as the chill of the desert passed over him again. During the day he was too hot, especially when he was out of the sun. However, when night fell, he was shivering even with his coat on. Shadow seemed oblivious to this though, having lived in and around the desert her whole life.
"Anyone or anything?" he replied, wanting her to clarify.
"Anyone," she said, "anyone innocent."
The question caught him off guard. He looked away from her and into the fire they had built outside the caravan for dinner. Silently, he thought about the question, wondering if that was true.
Shadow waited patiently, running her fingers through the sand. She took another drag on the cigarette and offered it to him. Gabriel shook his head.
"Those things will kill you," he said. Shadows shrugged and took another puff, blowing smoke rings in the air.
"You're avoiding the question," she said.
Gabriel smiled softly, looking away from the fire to the blanket of stars that moved overhead. He shook his head finally.
"No," he said. "I've never killed an innocent person."
Shadow sighed, blowing another cloud of smoke into the air. It moved upwards into the sky and vanished almost immediately, leaving behind the scent of burning herbs and leaves. She smiled softly.
"I don't think it's possible," she said finally. "I think everyone's guilty of something. Even those who can't remember what they're guilty of."
Gabriel turned back to face her, but Shadow had already gotten up and walked away.
