The Princess Anna Valerious- I'm glad you noticed your dedication! Woulda been kinda bad if you hadn't! And I hope you enjoy the chapter.
kydasam- Thank you for your, as always, lovely review! I'm glad you enjoy Cathy's sense of humor. Actually, the whole story's genre would be more like 'Mystery/Romance/Humor/Action-Adventure/Horror/Mild Angst' if fanfiction had that many spaces for it, since by the end it will have had elements of all of those. I just chose the two predominant ones... And this chapter should shed some light on your worries about Cathy! )
Anthem82- The wait is over! I hope this chapter doesn'tcompletely kill the suspense... which it probably will...
Irish Anor- Ohhhh man...... if they've invented a way to laugh harder than I did at your review, I haven't heard of it yet! I only hope my story entertains you as much as your reviews entertain me!
Chapter Seven:
Did You Just Try to Kill Me?
Cathy reached for the sword behind her and brought it swinging around towards Van Helsing, so fast that its diamond edges whistled keenly through the air like the wail of the dying. But it wasn't his wail or Anna's; he retained the presence of mind to roll to one side and pull his gypsy with him. The sword struck forest floor and stayed there, while the Hunter leapt to his feet and seized Cathy by both her wrists before she could attack him again. She seemed suddenly calm... confused, even... as he slowly lowered their hands.
"Did you just try to kill me?" He asked, his voice low and harsh, but shocked too. His brows knit heavily.
Cathy jerked her wrists out of his grasp and picked up her sword, ramming it into its scabbard. She would not meet his eyes.
"None of that. I'm not taking silence for an answer like I did on the roof." Van Helsing said in a rougher tone than he meant, grabbing her shoulder. She jerked away again.
"I'm sorry. It was just... instinct." She answered uneasily. Gabriel rocked back on his heels a little, his breath rushing out of his nose as he watched her. He was reminded distinctly of a grave digger he had met a year ago.
"I'd understand if you had tried to punch me or block when I touched your shoulder, but you were coming at us with a sword when you'd had more than enough time to figure out that we weren't enemies."
"Goddamn it! Not right now!" Cathy shouted suddenly, whirling around and pounding her fist so hard on the tree behind her that Anna could swear she heard the bark crack and saw the branches shiver. The hand that had struck it went slowly to Cathy's side and she stood there, head bowed slightly, like she was bringing herself under control. They got the sense she had not been talking to them. Despite this, she turned suddenly to the two Hunters, desperation in her eyes. "I don't know if I can tell you." She murmured uneasily, chafing her arms and stalking to the other side of the clearing. They watched her every moment. Her back was to them again, and when she turned around this time she looked defeated. She opened her mouth... and blood dribbled out.
They watched as every muscle tensed and her face dissolved into a mask of pain. She looked down slowly at the sword in her solar plexus- her sword -and then turned her head enough to see the vampire who had jabbed it through her. Then, calmly, she flung her hand out and backhanded him away, the weapon remaining imbedded in her. There was the sharp report of a gun being fired, and he burst into ash.
"Monsters do have a habit of jumping up at us when we think they're dead." Anna remarked absently, lowering Van Helsing's shotgun. Its owner was too busy staring at Cathy.
Calmly, she pulled the sword out. She reached for a cloth and cleaned the blade off, then sheathed it. She looked back at them. Blood was making its way down her shirt. Van Helsing knew the strike had gone straight through her spine, or at least through her ribs, punctured vital organs and blood vessels if not her lungs, exited out the other side, and now she was just standing there looking at them.
"How?" He asked, almost fearing the answer.
"Vampires don't die that easy. Not even where I come from."
Van Helsing came to a swift conclusion. The conclusion being that Carl had been right all along. He was incredibly stupid.
Cathy had been dropping little, unconscious hints ever since they met. She had sustained an injury that could've well been fatal, walked miles, fought, returned to the Valerious manor and slept under a blanket, moving the couch so it stayed out of the sunlight. When he and Anna had headed out to fight the werewolf, she had said she was sick so that she could stay inside. She had probably left not long after them, pulling on that huge, thick cloak to keep her safe from the sunlight, and hid out in the town until she thought they were done. She wasn't hot in all those clothes because by nature her body was cold.
Sitting on the roof, he had hardly seen her breath in the night air because she didn't need it. Whenever she was angry, her eyes flashed almost to the point of changing color. He hadn't been seeing things.
He closed his eyes and brought a hand up to his forehead. Everything she had done had pointed to it. And he had not seen. He had trusted her, even been fascinated by her, in the short time they had known each other. And he was to trust Anna's life in her hands, according to his dreams. He wondered, suddenly, if he was wrong as well as stupid. Maybe thick-headed would cover all bases.
Gabriel became suddenly aware of the silence. Anna was staring at Cathy sharply, but the woman didn't seem to notice. She was looking to Gabriel. Wanting his approval? Expecting it?
"Why did you l-"
"I didn't. I just didn't tell you." She cut him off.
"Why?" He rephrased softly.
"Because... in this place, vampires are different. You're used to seeing them as always evil, always soulless, always something to be destroyed."
"And what, you have a soul?" Anna asked dryly.
Cathy looked at her and laughed bitterly.
"No. But a lot of my good friends didn't either. And we were Hunters just like you. Fighting the good fight. Loving a lot. Dying a lot. Pretty fun, actually. It was us against Hell, and we did a bang-up job." Gabriel nodded, and the accusation went out of his eyes.
"Vampires fighting vampires?" Anna was not so easily swayed.
"That and demons, and each other on the occasion. We didn't have the greatest sense of control, sometimes, cuz when you love without a soul... it can tend to get out of hand. Don't worry," She smiled wryly. "I was always the innocent, loveless one. I won't be going nutty likethat anytime soon."
"So you're saying we should trust you again?" The gypsy asked.
"Yes." Cathy said quietly, unassumingly, with a nod of her head. The motion made her hair catch and shimmer faintly in the moonlight.
Anna sighed and looked at Van Helsing, her gaze so hard she seemed to be trying to force her way into his mind by sheer will and find out what he thought of this. He figured a nod would suffice and nod he did.
"Being a vampire can be pretty helpful." Cathy supplied. "I mean, it's hard to kill me so you can send me into some pretty bad situations-not that I'm cannon fodder -and I'm really strong and fast and I heal quick and... well..." She stopped abruptly, realizing she had run out of abilities for her kind. "Don't send me away. Kill me if you must, but don't just give me the cold shoulder." Anna realized that this was the closest she would ever come to getting the woman before her to plead. It was a rather pathetic attempt in any case.
"Helpful? I'm not sure your victims feel that way."
"I don't kill humans." Cathy said harshly, glaring at Anna. "I drink pig's blood back home since the butcher's shops are always happy to give it away, and here I've been hunting deer in the forest and drinking their blood. The only ones suffering are the wolves and werewolves I guess, but I don't take too much from them."
"Alright." The princess sighed. "Come back to the manor with us. We'll discuss it there."
"Anna, we can't send her away."
"Yes we can. I'm just wondering if we should." She sighed, polishing her sword.
Van Helsing watched Anna from his place in the doorway to her room, sensing her tenseness.
"We can't send her away."
"And why not?" She asked, turning in a flurry of chocolate curls.
"Because she's the one that's going to save you-"
"You're obsessing over this dream!" Anna accused. "Maybe she sent the dream to lure us out there. Maybe it was a lie so that she could kill us both. I won't lose you like that."
"And I'm not taking any chance of losing you to... whatever that was!" The other Hunter shot back hotly. "Look, I know my gut instincts. Do you remember when I told you that I could sense evil?"
"Yes. Underneath the old windmill." She replied softly.
"After somestrong absinthe." Gabriel grinned, a smile she returned. They had mended through the memory of harshness, as only a couple that's been through an ordeal by fire can. "Well, she isn't evil. I know it." Anna sighed, sheathed her sword and crossed her arms.
"I guess you're right. She's been a vampire since the moment we met her and that hasn't stopped her from helping us out and I happened to like her then. I shouldn't let this change that."
"Maybe you should go talk to her." Gabriel suggested. She nodded and was heading off when he caught her arm. "And if you're late, run like hell." He smiled. They decided to skip the rest of the memory, going straight to the kiss, before he let her go off to find the vampire.
Cathy kept a watch on Anna out of the corner of her eye.
"So vampires where you come from are different?"
"Yea. No flying or teleporting or walking up walls for us. Hell, are fangs aren't even that great. Oh, and silver won't kill us. It has to be a wooden stake, head cut off, full exposure to sunlight, and I have a nasty suspicion that forcing us to drink holy water just might kill us too. And it's possible for us to control our demons. It really is. I've been fighting evil for about twenty-four, twenty-five years. Since I was thirteen."
"How old were you when you were turned into a vampire?"
"Seventeen." Cathy said with a quiet nod, her gold eyes flickering the ground momentarily. "Seventeen." Anna nodded and they walked through the crisp night in silence.
"I'm sorry I jumped on you earlier." She said after a moment.
"No big. I'd probably have the same reaction in your shoes. After all, I did attack your man." She smiled grimly. "It was probably all the blood around or something like that... I'm so sorry. Normally it doesn't affect me that way."
"I've got news that should affect everyone!" Both women jumped back with a start at Carl's appearance. He had the same eager, determined light in his eyes as he had had when explaining to Anna and Van Helsing about Dracula.
"What?" Cathy asked, her voice sharp for no fathomable reason. Carl was all too eager to answer.
"I know whoshe is!"
A/N-- Sorry for the copious amounts of dialogue/nothing happening/no humor/no romance/no action!! Just some plot development that needed to be conveyed!! I would've turned the chapter after this and this chapter into one, but the next one might be kinda long and this was about the only place I could cut it off. So, review but try not to kill me! Well, maybe you should kill me cuz I feel insanely bad for such a horrible chapter.
Cathy: Yea. Review. She needs to die. Oh, and I'm dying to know how many of you hate me for being a vampire.
