Thanks for the great reviews, guys! I wish I could continue this story...sob...but the next chapter will be the last one...(well I'm adding an author note thing as well). Maybe I can write a sequel...?...
"Van Helsing, have you gone mad?" Carl nearly tripped over his own feet trying to keep up with his friend. "That's impossible! How could you have made a deal with the Devil?"

The other continued to stride at a reckless pace through the streets of Budapest, Carl trying to avoid being hit by the carts careening dangerously through the narrow spaces. "First of all," Van Helsing said, not looking at the friar, "I did not make a deal with the Devil. I listened to him, thinking it was God's words I was hearing: Lucifer is very clever, as you know." Both he and Carl crossed themselves, Van Helsing out of habit, Carl out of something more akin to fear.

"But why is it so important? What did you do on Lucifer's"—Carl crossed himself again—"command that was such an abomination?"

They had reached the stables where their mounts were being cleaned up in preparation for the return to the Vatican. Gabriel called out to a groom and, handing him several coins, told him that he would receive much more if he would pack their bags with enough food for several days and get their horses ready immediately.

While they waited, the two friends sat on a nearby knoll, out of earshot of the grooms and other stable workers. Van Helsing looked directly at Carl. "I murdered a woman and her unborn child."

Carl gasped. "Wha-! Why? What happened?"

Gabriel put his face in his hands. "God—I mean, Lucifer—told me that the child was the progeny of one whom we know very well: Dracula. And indeed it was."

The friar frowned at him. "I hate to sound unfeeling, Van Helsing, but isn't it a good thing that the…progeny…did not survive?"

"Not when…not when the father was mortal."

Carl stared. "What do you mean? Dracula was never mortal, except of course when he was alive, but that's a different matter entirely…" He babbled on in his nervousness, and Van Helsing held up a hand.

"No, Carl. My memory has returned to me, at least part of it, and the records of the Vatican tell the rest…I remember that, several centuries ago, there was a wedding in Transylvania that was, shall we say, unique, being outdoors instead of in a church. It was doubly odd in that the bride and groom were both nobility: a lord's daughter and a count. One…Count Dracula, I believe. Although news reached the Vatican of this almost-heretical event, I thought nothing of the name of the groom until nearly a year and a half later, when I was commanded by whom I thought was God to destroy the offspring of the monster Dracula, whom I had killed long ago. Later, after the deed was done, Lucifer returned and gloated, telling me that Dracula had made a pact with "God": in exchange for mortality and emotions, he would never kill another living soul save in defense. I had no memory of this until this morning."

Carl nodded slowly, turning the facts over in his head. "So Dracula was really mortal, then?"

"Until he broke the covenant. He made that pact so that he could live and die with the woman he loved, Carl." Van Helsing's voice grew rough, and he coughed as if his throat bothered him. "I destroyed him. I not only killed him, I destroyed every last shred of his soul." He related how he had sent three men to kill the woman and the child, and Dracula if possible, and how Dracula, naturally, had hunted them down and killed them with their own weapon, a poisoned blade. Later, several weeks to be precise, how he, Van Helsing, had denounced Dracula as a vampire in front of his wife; how she had, after proving it to herself, gone into early labor and died giving birth to a stillborn child. How a young blond girl had told him that she had watched "the dark-haired man with the ponytail" weeping by the side of the grave.

By the time he finished, Carl was staring at him with something akin to fascinated horror. "My God, Van Helsing," was all he could say.

Gabriel turned away, holding his head in his shaking hands. "When Anna died…when we burned her…I heard God say, 'This, my son, is why Anna was taken', and I saw a vision of the woman's gravestone. I didn't know what it meant…"

"I suppose…" Carl cleared his throat. "I suppose that the Devil realized that Dracula was going to keep his end of the bargain and not kill anyone, thus ensuring that his soul no longer belonged to Lucifer. I imagine Lucifer might have used any means possible to take one of his favorite servants back again, as well as gain two other potentially powerful ones…"

Van Helsing had not moved. Carl put a hand on his shoulder. "God has exacted his price, and it was a small one, for Anna is with her family at last. You must try to forgive yourself. Remember that I am your friend, Van Helsing."

Gabriel looked up at him incredulously. "Why? I am not worthy of friendship, Carl. I have destroyed a man's soul thrice—by murder, killing his family, and finally by ending his undead existence. I am not fit to walk this earth."

Carl shook his head. "Look at me." He waited until Gabriel was looking directly at him before he said, "All of us are sinners. By killing Dracula and, much later, by ending his undead life, you did your job. The other…" He held out his hands face up in a kind of a shrug. "You are human enough to be deceived. You were doing what you believed in. Since the dawn of man you have rid the world of unspeakable evil, Van Helsing."

He looked at Gabriel expectantly. The other looked away for a moment, then, with sudden steadiness, turned back and said, "What must I do?"

"Well! I'm glad you asked. We are going back to Transylvania."


You know the drill:D