A/N-- We're baaaaaaaaack! I'm starting to get all excited, too... M&M's to my lovely reviewers!

The Princess Anna Valerious- Yes, no more rhyming would be nice.... and we'll see about that wedding.
kydasam- Come on, you can do it!
Thanks for your comments on the humor! It was the only possible way to make that chapter bearable. As for your comment about 'shades of Buffy,' I've been waiting for someone to pick up on them! I definitely look to that show for inspiration.
Cathy: Poor little thing. Poor little thing?!?
Me: Honey, you're 5'5" and built like a twig. You are a little thing!
Cathy: But-
Me: Oh, get past your Napoleon Complex!
Lady Sirinial- Thanks for your review! And it's all resting on Cathy now as to whether or not Anna dies.
--sings-- But every hope and every prayer
Rests on you now......

Okay, I'm done quoting Phantom of the Opera...........


Chapter Nine:
The Dark Side of the Moon

"Game... set... match!" Cathy smiled devilishly and hopped down off the dying vampire below her, completely unperturbed as it burst into dust behind her. Her sword resting casually on one shoulder, she went to go find Van Helsing and Anna.

It wasn't very hard at all: find one and you find the other, they stick together like some sort of metaphysical superglue has permanently attached them to each other. Well, they did make a nice couple, she thought with a shrug. Being very used to their scents now, she found them at the entrance of the building waiting for her.

"Did you take care of the puppy problem?" She asked, her hand on one hip and using the name she had coined for anything having to do with werewolves... also translated as 'a problem that there's no way in Hell you can make me help with.'

"They're dead." Van Helsing said tightly. Over the past weeks he had discovered that there were times when Cathy's blase view towards killing was a breath of fresh air and others when it grated on him like nails on a chalkboard. Maybe the fact that she was a vampire allowed her to sense the tension on him- she really wasn't a very intuitive person as far as he could see -because her face softened.

"I had a werewolf friend, once." She said, leaving it at that as they headed out of the massive house.

Carl had already been about the previous day, hanging crosses and strands of garlic around every window and door so that their quarry- yetanother nest of vampires, but this time an immigrated one from England -could not escape. They had debated about torching it, and in the end decided to leave it with its holy garnishes and pray that would keep any new monsters out of it.

Cathy was still learning to ride a horse; the journey from the house wasn't much fun. She tried to distract herself from the pain of bouncing up and down at an endless trot- "To conserve the horses for tomorrow," -by losing herself in the environment, opening up her heightened senses to what was going on around them. She rarely did this; all things related to her monster were to be controlled with utmost care. The powers that had been thrust upon her were hers to control, not the other way around.

She flinched, her free hand coming up absently to touch her chest, right near where her heart was. Well, almost all of them.

The night was cold- too damn cold for her Southern Californian blood -and all she could really smell was blood. Stupid nose, zeroed in on it right away and wouldn't let her smell anything else. Oddly, what she was smelling now was not her blood or Anna's or Van Helsing's or even the blood of one of the creatures they had slain that night. She already knew those scents. This was something different.

She kept her mouth shut on the way to their campsite and wordlessly left them after tethering her horse. The other two Hunters didn't say or do anything, well used to her leaving of her own free will. She always came back.

Cathy followed where the scent led her, tensing and thickening around her almost like a physical thing as she got closer and closer to its source. Naturally, it made her more and more tense. This was human blood. God, her whole body was almost calling out for it. This only made her control more and more thin, and it was waning with the moon as it was. Why did I go wandering off alone again? I hate me, sometimes.

There was a sudden flare of light and magical energy lacerated her senses like the crack of a whip, unmistakable to any mystical creature. Cathy dropped onto all fours and held herself there, muscles taut and every sense straining. Her skin prickled everywhere with the residue of the spell.

"The fourth perimeter is set. All is ready. Our goddess arises with the sickle moon." said one voice, rich, sultry and reverent in the darkness.

"I smell another of our kind." Came a second, singsong in the darkness. "Why don't you join us, sister?" Cathy sidled out of her hiding place, unfazed by the fact that they had known she was there and they had even known her gender. It only made sense, since she had known they were vampires and that one was male and the other female. Scent was a most useful tool sometimes.

"It's already begun." Said the man, the one who had called her out, as he stepped towards her. She noted that he was stepping out of a circle of trees, while the woman was remaining within. "Already our kind are being drawn here, to these places of power. Why didn't you make yourself known? We should all be rejoicing!" He cried.

"I didn't come out because I had a feeling you didn't want to die." Cathy said lightly. In a flash a silver knife was out and buried in-between the vampires ribs. He didn't even scream before he burst into dust.

The woman just laughed and fled, transforming and flying off into the night. Cathy gave her a warning roar and then turned back to the clearing without entering. It had been blasted clear, whether by the magic she had felt earlier or by natural causes she didn't know. She wanted to say it was mystical, but old. No new spell had caused this, it didn't have that tingly new residue that all magic left behind. Instead she felt ancientness creeping over her skin, her scalp, making her keenly aware of everything going on.

The blood was screaming at her now, so strong a scent that she physically shuddered and groaned. When was the last time she had fed?

"No!" She hissed at herself. "Get a grip, Cathy!" She still couldn't help but look in the direction of the scent, though.

She saw a man lying on the ground, crumpled against a tree, and walked quickly over to him. His head lolled about to bring her into focus and he gave a strangled cry when he saw her staring at his wounds. Highly ritualistic, she noted with a detached air. He had been a sacrifice. Well, she could earn some brownie points by saving him.Preventing the death of the sacrificemight even nullify the effects of whatever went on here.

She knelt at his side and reached into her trench coat, lips parting to reveal slightly elongated canines as she concentrated on finding the herbs she needed.

"Hey, hey, easy!" She said to the man, who was trying furiously to wriggle away. "I'm just trying to help!" She waved her hands, accidentally brandishing the knife. His fingers seized her wrist, the grip unusually strong, and took it from her. She tried to stop him from plunging it into his throat but could do nothing except look away.

Cathy stood and regretfully pried the knife from his fingers and wiped it on the forest floor. If it hadn't been Van Helsing's, she would've left it. She wanted to run back to them now, just for the safety of friends. That blood was getting to be a bit much for her.

Yet as she was starting to head back the way she came, she found her feet arcing their path towards the clearing, stepping over the magical barrier. She shivered again and felt something rising within her, around her, something powerful and unstoppable.

"Oh, yes." She whispered. "I can feel you here. Siren's call indeed."

She kept herself from bolting until she was out of the clearing, and then she sprinted through the forest. She tripped, fell to her knees, and found herself throwing up the deer's blood she had drunk earlier. Well, at least now she'd be so exhausted from hunger she could at least sleep through the day rather than tossing and turning. Sleep would make everything much, much nicer.


Relying on this principle, she didn't tell Van Helsing and Anna what she had heard until the next night.

"They're resurrecting Chaos." She blurted over her breakfast and their dinner. Well, no one could accuse her of beating around the bush.

"What?" Van Helsing asked somewhat dumbly. They had taken to sleeping in the day too, unless there were werewolves to be had or a small nest they could catch sleeping, and he was still waking up.

"I thought Carl said they needed a key or something."

"Last night when I left I was following a trail of blood. Turns out it was a human sacrifice, and a vampire priest and priestess were there. The priestess said something about the fourth perimeter being set and everything being ready, and that Chaos would be resurrected on the sickle moon."

"Besides, it's not really a key. More like a vessel, a person." Carl piped up as his ghostly form appeared. "I did more research and that's what turned up." He clarified not long after.

"The sickle moon?" Van Helsing asked sharply. "You're certain?"

"Yes." She said.

"Where?" He pressed.

"Well, 'fourth perimeter' indicates that they're setting boundaries for something, probably to contain a great deal of magical energy. Presumably, Chaos is in Hell. If they're bringing her out- 'resurrect' her, so to speak -they don't want half the other baddies following them. So if what I found is the fourth perimeter, we just need to find the other three and our place should be in the center." Cathy explained.

"There'll be a path. It'll lead to a sickle-shaped clearing." Van Helsing blurted.

"Huh?"

"I had a dream."

"Let's hope yours doesn't kill you." She said with a sad, grim smile.

Van Helsing was about to explain it to her, but refrained. She didn't seem to be asking, and who was he to tamper with Fate? He had learned that the hard way. Telling her what was going to happen could change some vital thing. Looking over at Anna across their tiny, sheltered fire, he knew he didn't want that thing changed.

"Carl. Can you fly?" He asked.

"Excuse me?" The Friar's answer was another question, this one incredulous.

"Can you fly? Through the forest? To find the place I'm talking about?"

"I... erm... well... Iguess so...."

"Then we can find this place tonight. Find it and be ready when the sickle moon arrives. It'll be much faster than combing this whole forest ourselves." Van Helsing said tightly. Anna could see he was fighting the urge to bolt over to her and completely cover her with his body, staying like that until the moon began to wax again. She could feel the tension and worry and feet emanating off of him as easily as Cathy could smell it on the air.

"Well, I never was one for sitting around and researching anyway. I had my Watcher Boy for that." The vampiress sighed, dusting off her pants as she stood.

"Watcher Boy?" Anna asked curiously, hearing the fondness Cathy said those words with.

She shook her head, smiled that sad, grim smile again, and looked away.


"Here it is." Carl said with a flourish of his hand. "Your pathway." It had taken him the days leading up to the sickle moon to find the place, and now that he was here at last Gabriel stepped through the cloying trees like one in a dream... or a nightmare in his case.

"Let's not waste any time. Midnight's coming." He said.

"The witching hour." Cathy agreed. She reached behind herself and took off her cloak, arching backwards to stretch her back and then reaching down to touch her toes, slowly easing forward until her palms were on the ground.

Anna and Gabriel had a less formal ritual of preparing for battle. They twisted to different sides, stretched their arms, checked their weapons. Today was different, though. Today they made a point of avoiding each other's eyes.

In a consensus as silent as the forest around them, the foursome started to walk all at once. For the first few yards everything was fine, and then Carl was murmuring something about not being able to go any farther. His voice sounded like it was coming from miles away, and when the others turned to look for him he had disappeared. At that minute the magic washed over them, almost a physical tide that made the air suddenly stuff and hot, cutting off their ability to breathe. Slowly the wave receded and all they could hear was the garish sound of themselves gasping for breath.

As even that sound receded, Anna and Gabriel found themselves staring into each other's eyes. There were no words between them, just that glance and then one kiss beneath the not-so-romantic sickle moon. Then they couldn't look at each other again.

Gabriel was filled up with the weirdness of the moment, a feeling that went beyond de ja vu. Wasn't de ja vu recognizing something without knowing why? Well he recognized this place but he knew why, and yet it was still filled with that half-real dream quality. It set his mind reeling and his senses following. As in the nightmare he was painfully conscious of the unnatural silence of the forest, and as in the nightmare he was painfully conscious of the restlessness in the night, in the world, in himself. It wasn't at all surprising to him when he started to run.

At some point Anna and Cathy had peeled away from him, off the path and into the forest. It only made him run faster. Something about their disappearance wasn't right, it just wasn't.

The path he was pounding down began to curl, aligning with the sickle moon above. His stomach felt like that sickle had just cut into it or that something had punched him in the stomach as he remembered what happened next in the dream. He kept rounding the bend until it opening up into a clearing shaped just like the moon above. Anna had reached it before him, and now she was standing in the eclipse of two worlds, powerless, about to be sucked into the void.

And he couldn't even find the breath to scream.


Anna drifted away from Gabriel, but not too far away. She knew she couldn't look him in the eye again after their kiss. It had been too close to a good-bye. Even though she knew this, she couldn't be too far away from him, because she'd never forgive herself if he was attacked and she wasn't close enough to save him. Then it really would be good-bye.

Her feet seemed to be out of synch with her head, though, because while she was thinking these thoughts they were wandering slowly farther and farther from Gabriel, away from the faint path and into the forest. What happened next was a slow, creeping process really, but the realization of it was sudden: Anna lost control of her feet. It was not unlike the sensation of being led by Dracula across the dance floor. You were in your own body, and yet it was not your own. You knew that you weren't doing these things on your own, but you couldn't stop them from happening. The chilly rush that went over her was not unlike Dracula's glamour, not unlike the pull of his power or the sensation of his breath on her neck when he hissed. But as Anna felt the power now, she couldn't help but shiver.

Dracula, great and old and powerful as he was supposed to be, was nothing compared to this. This power, this hand that tugged at her invisible strings, was a hundred times older than he had been, and a hundred times more powerful. A hundred times more sensual and a hundred times more irresistible. A hundred times more frightening.

This old, sensual, frightening power just kept drawing her onward like a lamb being led to the slaughter. She was fascinated by the power, wanted to know it, wanted to see it. Part of her struggled wildly against it and the other part gave in. The sensible side said: I just want to know my enemy.The not-so-sensible side had nothing to say. It could only gasp in wonderment and longing. Unfortunately, it was this part of her that was currently in possession of her body.

Onward she was drawn, until she saw white shapes flitting in and out around her.

"A human?"

"She is a Hunter....!"

"She is under herhold."

"She has chosen one..."

Reverently, cold hands passed over her arms and back, trailed across her breast once or twice as they passed before her. Gently, like friends guiding a sleepwalker back to bed, they guided her forward towards a sickle shaped clearing. Then Anna looked skyward, feeling herself suddenly in the center of all that power. It throbbed here, a throb that made her want to groan at the unfulfilled longing for freedom she felt. Again she was reminded of Dracula, of the emptiness that had been at his core. But now she understood that this was the fountainhead of that emptiness, the epitome of loneliness. Everything that he was came from here.

She blinked owlishly, like she was seeing the sky for the first time. The moon was directly ahead, that sickle shaped moon. The gypsy princess realized for the first time that it was the same shape as the clearing she stood in. The second she realized this there was a blinding flash of light. For one instant before it stole her vision, the moon above was illuminated and she could see its darker side against the black sky. She heard hisses and screeches behind her but she herself did not scream. She didn't want to. She was fascinated by the light, because this was the power. It was a cold light and sent waves of cold down her spine. As she leaned in, she saw there was dark at the core of the light, just as she had seen the dark side of the moon for that brief instant, that side that was always hidden. Just like vampires masqueraded in human bodies and kept the dark hidden behind their blinding charm. Then the dark grew, and suddenly she realized what was happening.

Now she wanted to scream.


"What are you doing?" The Wavewriter smiled, her hand bouncing jauntily on her lap, watching the curled up figure on the floor before her.

"You haven't figured it out yet?" She giggled, answering a question with a question.

"I can't think of anything now!" The figure growled, turning those incredible, frightening, black-on-red eyes to the Wavewriter's ocean blue ones. "You're driving me to madness!"

"Oh, not so fun when someone's doing it to you?" But despite the teasing air she had, she knew better than to toy with her guest. "I have used these vampires to bring you closer to the surface of that dimension."

"I know, but I cannot get out!" There was anguish in that voice now. "You're holding me on the edge of a prison I can't break free of yet!"

"Precisely." The Wavewriter replied. "With you so close it will be all to easy for you to escape... in due time." Now black-on-red eyes met the ocean eyes of her companion, and understanding swelled between them.

"Oh, clever girl!" The goddess laughed. "Clever, clever girl! Oh, chaos we'll have yet. Chaos we will have yet."


Van Helsing hit the ground so hard he could swear he saw the flashes of his brain exploding from behind his eyes. The telltale white shape- a vampire in bat form -that he had seen in his dreams flew past him with no more sound than the whoosh of wings passing over. It landed behind him and held him down with those terrible claws while another kicked him in the gut, keeping him from fighting.

That wasn't in the dream.

But there was something that, while he knew it was going to happen from said dream, was even more terrifying.
Terror was hardly the word for it anymore; the nightmare had hardly compared with the stark, naked fear of actually seeing Anna there, caught in-between two worlds, about to get sucked into the black hole in the middle of that light.

He vaguely heard himself screaming her name over and over again while the dozens of vampires around them laughed and laughed in triumph. Then there was a blur, a small, dark shape silhouetted against the light. He watched helplessly as Cathy alluded the other vampires, shouting something in Latin that had them freezing in midair. Her form seemed to become distorted as she stepped into the humongous pull of the rift, seizing Anna by the shoulders. The light picked up the natural gold in her hair, making it seem as though her otherwise dark hair was streaked all through with starlight. There was that terrifying moment- the breath before the plunge into the sea -when he thought that her struggle was in vain... and then both she and Anna collapsed to the ground, away from the rift. There was another shout of strange words, and then it shuddered and began to seal itself.

Gabriel regained his senses, reaching for a pistol and putting it to the forehead of the shocked vampire above him and then pulling the trigger. He scarcely waited for the dust to kiss his face before he shot the one who had kicked him in the chest, and then he was on his feet, rushing to Anna's side as Cathy dragged her away from the fading light.

The other vampires around them were howling and shrieking angrily as they watched the portal closed, but as it did, they disappeared as if they had never been. Van Helsing was reminded oddly a time in Budapest when he had gone to see the Wavewriter in Count Dracula's old summer palace. One moment the strange being had been there talking to him and the next minute it was gone, the dust on the floor not even showing a trace of his passage. But the memory faded there and he rushed to Anna's side.

"Anna...." He whispered, cradling her.

She couldn't even say his name. All she could do was shake and hold him and realize how close she had come to becoming her enemy's pawn, just as she once had with Dracula. That power terrified her now, terrified her in a way that her family's nemesis never could have.

Cathy stood by, breathless from her sprint and the two spells she had thrown out. The instantaneous ones were always a bitch to you afterwards. She felt like shriveling up and dying.

But she knew it was not just the spells. That only made her shiver harder.

"Thank you." Gabriel whispered, as breathless as she was, Anna still clutched to his chest. "Thank you so much." Cathy shrugged and smiled goofily.

"Don't mention it." She let them hold each other and kiss on the forest floor for a minute longer before she began to get antsy.

Why so afraid? Isn't the danger gone, Cathy? That mocking voice inside seemed much louder now, unusually so. But then, Cathy wasn't surprised by this.

"Um, we might want to get going." She stuttered. "We need to get back to the manor or a town or something before the sun comes up. This vampire prefers herself rare, not well done."

"You're right." Gabriel said, heaving himself to his feet.

Together, the three of them headed back into the dark, ignoring the sphinx-like smile of the moon above them.


After seeing Anna safely in bed, Gabriel went looking for Cathy. His body already felt as numb and slow as though it were already asleep, but his mind wouldn't shut off until he thanked her at least a thousand more times. She had saved the woman he loved, his hope. She had been a good friend to him. And he was still fascinated by that secret longing inside, that hidden pain.

His intuition led him to the roof and it did not disappoint him. Cathy was sitting there calmly, probably waiting for the dawn to head back inside. He knew she was aware of him and didn't bother saying anything before sitting next to him.

"Isn't this cold for you?" She asked.

"Not really." He replied. "You?"

"Nope." She shook her head, one hand reaching up to comb some of her hair back and then let it fall in her face.

"I wanted to thank you for what you did. You saved Anna." He said without any further preamble.

"I told you not to mention it." Cathy laughed lightly, looking out towards the horizon.

"Well I felt I had to. I put a lot of trust on you, Cathy, a lot of trust in what seemed to be thin air. I didn't know you, I didn't know where you were from, and you did lie to us once- Iknow you were just hiding it but there's little difference." Gabriel cut her off. "Anyway... It just makes me very happy to see that trust fulfilled."

"Well, you're welcome." She said a bit stiffly. "I'm used to saving friends... what is it with them and getting in trouble, anyways? It sure makes my job much easier being a vampire. It was so hard to keep up with all of them when I wasn't, but now that I am one I'm much more free. I can take more risks to take care of them. It feels right to be using it that way."

That caused Van Helsing to look at her more closely, like he was seeing her for the first time. In truth he was realizing for the first time who she was and part of why he was fascinated with her: when he had been bitten by a werewolf he had despaired, couldn't wait to be rid of it. He was disgusted with his curse. But Cathy had taken her curse and embraced it, making it her own. Instead of wallowing in misery and guilt at everything she had lost, she had rejoiced at everything she had gained and everything she could do now.

"Dawn's coming." Cathy noted absently. "I should be going to sleep now... long night." She yawned and stretched, arching her back as the yawn turned a little deeper; she had explained how your vocal chords chained to allow deeper vocalizations when you became a vampire, and the capability always seemed to pop up when you yawned. He couldn't help but smile at the sight, thinking to himself that she would certainly be a different person if she weren't a vampire.

"Good night, Cathy. I owe you one. I owe you my life." He said, watching her head for the skylight they had both used.

"Good night Gabriel." Was all she called over her shoulder before disappearing from his sight.


Cathy was shaking when she headed for her room. Wrapping her arms around herself didn't help, either.

"Not now. Not here. Get out. Leave me alone." She hissed. She could already feel herself bruising from the strength of her own embrace as she rushed inside and sat on the bed.

There was no response, but the power grew.

"Get out! I don'twant you! I don't care if you're a part of me, I will fight you! You know I will! I always have! I always will!" She was thankful her words were so strangled, or they might've come out as a shout.

The power just kept growing, growing, growing, swelling, leaving her to crumple backwards onto the bed, lying with her arms spread out like some helpless offering, sweating under the duress of her battle.

"Get out..." She whimpered weakly. "Get out..." And just like that, the power receded. The wave had never even pounded on the shore. It just skipped that stage and backed off.

The shaking had returned as Cathy sat up, fumbling inside her shirt for the chain. Her fingers adamantly refused to do the task though, and she ended up practically tearing the garment over her head so she could grab the pendant herself. She fingered the faceted surface of its diamond, twisted it so that the blood within the hollow gem moved listlessly around within it. She fingered the sharp, scalloped iron edge, and started when she felt it prick her finger and saw the solitary drop of blood slide down her finger.

The iron edges formed spikes, clamping hard onto her chest. Her breath was sucked in by way of a sickly gas. She could almost hear her death rattle in it as the pendant bound itself to her chest. When she looked up slowly, her gold eyes were dilated with the fear of knowing what she had done. She could find only one thing to say to voice it:

"Oh shit."


A/N-- Ooh, what has got Cathy so terrified? Well, she ain't talking! Sorry there wasn't more action, it came out differently than I thought. And sorry for the lack of updates!!! Life can be such a bothersome creature. The next chapter we reach a climax and our plot begins in earnest, so review!