Chapter IX

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CaptainKrysSparrow

Lady Nessa

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Recap: The moon is full, and Aluka hears a howl from her porch in the darkness below.

Oh crap, she thought, knowing that when Dracula came back, his cursed werewolves must have come back again. And, they were probably once again under Dracula's control.

Great, she thought, another evil to deal with. Dracula will be enough to handle, and we don't need these things on our tail. She walked quickly up to the library to tell Van Helsing and Carl of what she heard.

Apparently Carl and Van Helsing had heard the howl too, because both were walking out of the library down to the armory.

"You heard it too?" Aluka asked.

"Yeah," said Gabriel.

"Well, are we going to go hunt it?"

"Yes, follow Carl and me to the armory. We have to get silver."

"Okay. Where do you think it is?"

"Where do I think what is?"

"The werewolf of course."

"It could be anywhere, but it is probably hungry. It will be headed for the village."

When they reached the armory, Van Helsing grabbed three silver stakes for him and handed three to Aluka. Carl tossed both Gabriel and Aluka each two guns with silver bullets.

"Thanks," said Aluka.

"Any time."

"Alright, Aluka, follow me. We need to get to the werewolf as quick as we can before it kills anyone."

"Are we going to take the horses?"

"Yes, because if we have a werewolf chasing us, we are going to need to get away," Gabriel explained, "You can't outrun those things; you can only try to outsmart them. Or if you happen to have anything made of silver..."

"I see. I have not been up against werewolves before. Are they difficult?"

"Sometimes they are, others they aren't. Most of the time they are, because there is a part of them with the intelligence of a human, but the other part of them is wild. The average werewolf I've been up against has been sent by someone to kill me, so they are very complicated to kill. In my case, I really hate werewolves. It is sad because the human inside them has no control over anything that happens. They could go kill their whole family without realizing what they are doing until they are human once more." Gabriel's eyes were once again filled with the sadness that had plagued over him after Anna's death, and Aluka could tell.

"Why don't we go out to the stables? Our horses will be waiting for us."

"Good, let's do that," said Van Helsing, snapping out of his moment. Gabriel led the way to the stables where they found their horses. The horses were a tad fidgety, because they had heard the howl too. Even though the horses probably didn't know what the howl was, just the sound of it was bone-chilling, so they had sensed to be afraid.

The last thing Aluka and Gabriel wanted to do was get back on their horses. They had just spent the whole day on horseback riding to the Valerious Manor, and they didn't particularly welcome the idea of having to get back on their mounts.

That's life, thought Van Helsing. Always having to go through what you don't want. He sighed as he mounted his horse.

"Okay, Aluka, these werewolves are tricky creatures. Stay on your guard, because they could be anywhere, and there could be more than one."

"I'll follow you then." Van Helsing took off down the path towards the village, Aluka right behind him. As the two riders neared the village, they heard another howl, closely followed by a scream that could raise the dead.

"Damn. The werewolf has someone," Van Helsing muttered under his breath. As the two slowly neared the woods at the edge of the village, they chose to dismount.

"Only use the silver bullets," Van Helsing reminded Aluka as they walked cautiously into the woods.

"Right."

"They're the only ones that can actually do any damage," he added, and Aluka rolled her eyes, because she knew this, like anyone who faced evil would.

"Um, yes, I know that," said Aluka sarcastically.

"Just a reminder, we don't have time for a bite."

There was a crack heard in the darkness. Aluka turned quickly in the direction that it came from.

"Shh," she whispered.

They heard a low growl, making them ever more cautious. Out of nowhere, a fully grown werewolf jumped out of the mass of trees from the left of Van Helsing and Aluka. Immediately Van Helsing took out guns from his many holsters and fired.

"Are you using silver bullets?" Aluka yelled across the sound of gunshot.

"Oh. Damn."

Aluka half smiled as she shot her gun at it, drawing its attention away from Gabriel and over to her. It advanced on her, and put a deep gash in her shoulder. Then, to add to it, the creature started to chase her.

"Aluka RUN!!!" yelled Van Helsing, as Aluka broke out into a run for her life.

She could hear the beast behind her. She could feel its warm breath just feet from her. Aluka didn't look back at it, knowing that one second could be the difference between life and death. As the chase continued, Aluka found that she was going farther and farther into the woods. The trees were becoming closer and closer together, so it was much harder for her to run through them.

The werewolf had no problem with size, just breaking through the foliage rather than going around it. In a minute, Aluka was in a corner, with nowhere to go, and the beast behind her. She took out her sword, ready to put up a good fight. As Aluka readied herself for the blow of a claw, the werewolf turned to meet her. Its arm was up, ready to strike, but instead of hitting her, or trying to bite Aluka, she heard a gunshot, and it fell to the ground. In the place of the werewolf stood Van Helsing, gun still up.

Aluka was white in the face.

"I used the silver bullets," he said, smiling slightly.

"Oh good," Aluka said breathlessly, just before passing out.

Well, that's it for that chapter! Hope u like! Review and get a sundae!

-the evil platypus of doom