Okay...I got ONE review...(grr) jk thanks Ciea!

But I couldn't stand it anymore, I had to post this...sob...LAST chapter...hides face

I have absolutely loved writing this, I just hope that it won't be "lost" in the rest of the VH fics (it gets pushed farther "back" as people update theirs)

And please check out my blog (it's on my biography, click on the "etherealfire" link at the top of the page), I need your help deciding what to write next! I love you guys!

etherealfire


They stood in the ruins of Dracula's ice fortress. The ice had disappeared, revealing the location on top of a crag deep in the Transylvanian forests, surrounded by the desolate beauty of the Carpathians. The fortress was almost more impressive without all the ice; it was a hollow, dark shell with so little life in the way of rats and such that it was almost a part of the crag upon which it rested.

Van Helsing no longer sensed evil in the castle, but could not seem to shake a slight chill regardless. It was more of a sense of accusation than anything else, and he wasn't sure if it was residual emotions—Dracula, his bride Aleera, and several of his creatures had died here, after all—or something else.

They made their way through the castle until at last they reached the laboratory where Dracula and Van Helsing had fought to the death—and where Anna had died, slain by the werewolf-Gabriel. No. He would not allow himself to think of that. Yet how could he not, with the same red velvet couch there in the corner—a bit tattered, but the same one on which she had lain just moments after midnight, staring sightlessly up at him before he took her in his arms and begged God to return her to him. A prayer that had been met in silence, for reasons that he had not understood until now.

"Van Helsing!" Carl's excited voice came from the other side of the room. "I found…him!"

"Where!" Gabriel strode over and found Carl pointing to a rather eerie sight—a neat pile of ashes heaped against the place where Dracula had died at last. Shouldn't they have been blown away by now? he thought. In the center of the pile was something odd. Van Helsing bent closer and saw something that made his heart stand still.

A single lock of hair, tawny golden auburn and of the most beautiful hue, lay in a soft, gently winding curl atop the pile of ash. Van Helsing showed it wordlessly to Carl, who nodded.

Van Helsing no longer felt a sense of evil, nor one of horror, as he carefully swept the ashes of his centuries-old enemy into a burial urn and placed the piece of hair on top before closing the lid. A breath seemed to fill the cavernous room, very briefly, and faded.

They saddled their horses and rode for hours until they reached the place that Van Helsing remembered so well. A path, well-worn yet cleverly hidden, trailed over the hillside.

They followed it to its end. The grave was the same as Van Helsing remembered it, small and worn and obviously a place of great grief and…love. Even Carl sensed it, and his eyes widened.

Van Helsing went to the headstone and read aloud the words that he had never bothered to even look at before: "Countess Tatiana Dracula. Beloved wife of Count Vladislaus Dracula. May she ever rest in peace…Eleanor Anna Dracula. God bless and keep her…My heart dies with them."

Reading the words aloud made the whole thing so real that Carl sat down for a moment, unable to bear it. Then he stood again and bravely handed the urn to Van Helsing.

Van Helsing opened it slowly, with the utmost care, and took a handful of ashes. Reciting a prayer aloud—no, not reciting, for he said it from the very depths of his being—he scattered the ashes slowly over the headstone and the grave, Carl reciting what he knew of the burial mass. When all the ashes were spent, Van Helsing took the lock of hair, shimmering in the sun, and held it before him. "Rest in peace, Tatiana Dracula. Rest in peace, Eleanor Anna Dracula. And rest in peace at last, Vladislaus Dracula. May the Lord have great mercy upon your souls. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Amen."

"Amen," repeated Carl.

Van Helsing dropped the lock of hair.

It fluttered downward, gently, as if on tiny invisible thermals, and came to rest in the midst of a patch of wild irises, shining strands of auburn-gold floating on the petals like strands of gossamer light. One single hair slipped off its petal and floated languidly, flowingly, to the ground. There was no sound at all when it touched.

There was a great rush of wind, and Van Helsing and Carl stepped back from the graveside, startled. The air began to shimmer before them, just as the clouds had for Van Helsing, and two figures appeared. One was easily recognizable; the other was an exquisitely gorgeous woman the likes of whom Van Helsing had never seen, even—he had to admit—in Anna. She was wearing a deep-crimson, almost burgundy, ball gown, and the flowing skirt swirled around her as she danced with Dracula, the two of them laughing and smiling and looking deep into each other's eyes. They turned as one to face something that neither Carl nor Gabriel could see; curious, the two men watched as a little dark-haired girl who bore a slight resemblance to Anna came running out of the shimmering haze. She was scooped up into Dracula's arms and kissed lovingly on the forehead, and he half-waltzed with Tatiana while holding his daughter in the crook of his right arm.

They turned slowly to face their observers at last, and, to Van Helsing's utter amazement, both smiled at him. Dracula gave his archenemy the first genuine smile that Van Helsing had seen on his face in many centuries, and said softly, "Thank you, Gabriel." His child in his arms and his wife beside him at long last, Vladislaus Dracula turned and walked into eternity.


Thanks for being a great audience/group/whatever! You guys rock. What should I write next? I have about a billion ideas...tell me at my blog! (it's on my bio, click on "etherealfire" at the top of the page) (yes I know I wrote this already, but sometimes people skip the author notes...looks guilty...um...)

There will be one more chapter in this story, it's a personal note thing that might be interesting to those of you who try to fit the stories into the movie.

Thanks! And please review/recommend/etc!

etherealfire