Van Helsing shut the door behind himself.
"Step into the light. Though I've followed you around for the past three days, I want to see if the wanted posters do you justice."
"Followed me around?"
"Yes."
"I will say it's a pleasure to at long last meet you."
"The pleasure is all mine." The voice was coming from a chair that sat in the shadows. "You are a far larger legend than I am. Seeing as how you've been around about two hundred years longer than I have."
Van Helsing heard the chair creak and knew she had stood up.
Rachael stepped into the light. "I will say, you age well."
Van Helsing raised an eyebrow. "The same can be said for you."
Rachael went over to the fireplace. She picked a glass up from the mantel and threw it into the fireplace. The fire leapt high and sizzled.
"What is your decision?" asked Van Helsing.
The room was now well lit, light finding it's way into the farthest corners.
Rachael turned away from the fire and went over to a table. She picked up a glass and filled it with whiskey. She downed the glass and studied the fire. "Light," she said softly. "There is nothing I love more than Paris than light." She looked at the window. "Though it is called the City of Lights, Paris is rarely full of light." She filled the glass again and drank it down. She set the glass down firmly. "John Paul knows I cannot refuse. But he has betrayed my trust." Her voice was cool and her eyes guarded.
"How?"
"You know. For you where hiding in the room that day," said Rachael.
Van Helsing raised one of his eyebrows. "Is there…"
"Anything I don't know?" finished Rachael. "Very little, Gabriel Van Helsing, one time brother to Count Vladimir Dracula."
"And how is it that you came by that piece of information?"
You'll die wondering, Gabriel Van Helsing," said Rachael. She went across the room to a large cabinet on the wall. She opened the doors. "It's almost time to go."
Van Helsing stared. "Bloody ghosts!"
The cabinet was filled with weapons.
Rachael sighed as she stared at the weapons. "There is nothing I fear more than those whose blood runs in my veins," she said softly. "Nothing."
"Dark or Silver?" asked Van Helsing.
"Neither," said Rachael.
"Do you not fear death?"
"Not anymore," whispered Rachael.
Van Helsing stepped foreword until he was behind her. "Do you trust me?"
Rachael turned. She blinked and took a stepped backward. "No. Why should I?"
"Because…Because I have never wanted to protect anyone as much as I want to protect you right now," Van Helsing said softly.
"Why?"
"I don't know. A feeling I have felt only once in my whole life, just made itself renown."