Disclaimer: I still do not own Van Helsing, or Dracula, just April and the story. -Linwe
All Is Fair In Love and War
Revenge.
That was what Anthony needed. Truly, it was the only thing that could possibly bring him out of the mad rage he had been in since meeting up with "Prudence" and her dark companion. He had stormed back to the graveyard- for it was the only place he felt at home- and, after breaking a number of tools and things, sat and tried to think of a plot. When he had sworn that if he could not have "Prudence" than no one could, he had meant it with every single fiber of his insane being. He fully intended to carry out the threat, for it seemed to him that the dark stranger truly had "Prudence" in his clutches.
He looked around wildly at the graveyard around him, black eyes darting from side to side in a crazed sort of way. What could he use? A shovel? A pickaxe? No, too crude. This stranger was an intelligent one, he could tell, and it would take more than some grave-digging tools to get rid of him. He had to think of a real plan.
Trying to compose himself, he took a few deep breaths and kicked some dirt out from under his boot. He would have to put all his cunning toward this plan. What could he do? How could he get rid of that dark man? He wracked his brains for any kind of plan for hours, still too, much in a sort of jealous rage to fathom anything feasible.
He watched the sun slowly sink behind the great, snow-covered Carpathian Mountains on the distant horizon like a flame slowly dying on a white, wax candle. What could he do? And then, as the last luminous orange beam of light disappeared behind a snow-covered peak, it came to him…
-
Love.
April had never felt anything like it. To think: all those years she had spent in solitude studying, memorizing, learning, going to school… in all of her twenty-one years, she had never before felt anything like the love she was feeling now. Why hadn't she sought it before now? She asked herself this question over and over. Well, she reasoned with herself, she had thought it folly, only ridiculous infatuation or lust that could result in wasting too much of one's time. But now she understood that it wasn't that at all. Now she understood that love--true love, not mere lust-- was truly something to live for. She couldn't believe she had lived so long without knowing it. She had not even really known it from her own parents, for they had both died when she was too young to remember them. But none of that mattered now-- now she felt complete.
Every time she saw him she felt her heart leap at least a few feet and every time he held her, she felt as if her heart would beat itself out of her chest. Yes, it was truly love that she felt for him, and it was quite a rush.
About two days after their confrontation with the gravedigger, April found herself happier than she had been in a very long time and completely forgetting Anthony altogether. She knew Vlad had felt that Anthony was somewhat of a threat, but she had almost paid him no heed. Besides, what could Anthony possibly do?
That afternoon, much to April's pleasure and surprise, the sun could be seen, full and brilliant in the normally cloudy Transylvanian sky, shining down upon the village, making it a bit less cold and drab.
"Vlad!" she called from behind the counter of her bakery on the ground floor of her house.
"Yes?" he asked, his heavy boots making the already old, creaking, wooden stairs creak even more as he descended.
"How would you fancy a stroll to the village?" she asked, her voice light and somewhat chipper. He raised his eyebrows in surprise at her cheery tone.
"If you're going, I would very much fancy it." He said, shooting her a charming smile.
"Oh good! I just thought we should because the sun has finally come out!" she pointed to the small mullioned window to her right.
"Has it really?" he strode over to it and drew the curtains. The stunning rays flooded in through the sudden gap in the fabric like water pouring through a crack in a boat, illuminating the particles of dust floating around. As the sunlight poured into the room, he was momentarily blinded, bringing up his hand to shield his eyes. "Indeed it has." He blinked and then looked out the window once again. "And it hurts me not." He smiled, but looked grim all the same. "It has been long since I could look to the sun without fear or loathing."
"I'm sorry…" she started, feeling guilty for bringing it up.
"There is no need to apologize. That was another life." He smiled.
"Alright then." There was an awkward silence. "I'll just go get my cloak. Although the sun is finally showing his face, there is still a bitter chill in the wind."
"Indeed."
After she'd gotten her cloak and his, they strode out the door, April flipping her bakery's sign over to read "closed." They started heading down the hill, which was still slick and glistening with melting snow, toward the village.
-
He finally had a plan. And yes, he would admit it wasn't much of a plan, but it was the best a crazed man who was still blinded by irrational jealousy could come up with on such little sleep and less brain cells.
He knew that April was bound to venture down to the village again, now having to provide hospitality for someone else, to buy some food from the market. It had only been a day or two since their confrontation, but he waited in the village anyway, vowing not to leave until his plan had been carried out.
As fate would have it, on that very day, the sun had finally come out.
-
"It truly is a fine day!" April said, flinging her arms above her head and twirling in the snow, her boots leaving circular snake-like prints in her wake.
Vlad watched her curiously, wondering at her sudden liveliness in the sun. It surely didn't make him feel like twirling around in the snow. But perhaps that was from the 400 years of being a vampire. Or maybe he was just a morbid person. He would never know.
"Shall we go down to the village?" he asked her after a moment or two.
"Oh yes! Of course!" she jubilantly took his arm once again and they started down the hill to the village.
-
War
He saw them approaching the village long before they saw him. His heart leaped in his chest. It was time to strike.
"So I was thinking, Vlad, perhaps we should go to the market. I'm out of flour, and I run a bakery, so I really need to get-" she suddenly stopped talking and Vlad felt her grip on his arm tighten a great deal.
"Ap-- Uh, Prudence, what is it?" then he noticed she was staring forward, her green eyes wide, pupils mere black dots, shrunken from the bright sunlight. He turned in the direction she was looking.
Anthony.
But not just Anthony. He was standing there, blocking their path into the village, holding a long, silver dagger that was pressed against a little girl's throat.
"Dear God," breathed April to herself. But she remained calm. "Anthony," she withdrew herself from Vlad and started to walk toward the crazed gravedigger. "What are you doing? Please just put down the dagger…" She tried to keep her voice calm and neutral, her steps slow and unthreatening, as she had read heroes do in books when someone was being held hostage. It usually worked for them. She could only pray.
"Prudence!" Vlad hissed, shaking suddenly. "Don't get too close to him, he's dangerous!" She shot a pleading look back at him. He stopped talking, hoping she had a plan.
"I will not put down my dagger!" Anthony yelled, taking a step forward and pressing the blade harder against the girl's neck. She winced as a crimson stream started flowing down her throat onto the collar of her dress. April suddenly started shaking herself, very worried.
"Anthony, please, just put it down… what is it you want?" She knew it was a stupid question; she already knew what he wanted.
"Is it not obvious, Miss Prudence? I want you!"
"No!" Vlad involuntarily shouted from where he stood. He felt rage boiling up inside him. How dare this man do such a thing! If only I had my wings… he thought. But they would do him no good in the blazing sunlight anyway. He blinked, the thoughts gone, suddenly aware that Anthony was staring at him wildly.
"No, you say? Is that your answer to me?" he pressed the dagger even harder against her throat, making the stream of red flowing anew onto her clothes. The girl screamed, tears running down her face.
"No! No! Anthony! Stop, it's not… just please put down the knife!" April pleaded.
"Why should I do that? What will it gain me? Nothing!" Anthony shrieked.
Vlad was standing there, feeling frightened and helpless. He hadn't felt this way for at least 400 years. He'd always had his powers, his wings to keep him safe. He had been immortal. But no longer. He was a helpless mortal now-- but he needed to do something, anything…
He started walking toward Anthony at a startlingly normal pace. He saw unconcealed fear flash in April's emerald eyes, but he kept his steady pace toward Anthony.
"You want Prudence, do you?" he asked, trying to sound confident, despite his shaking knees.
"I said that, stranger! Now back away before I slit her throat and yours!" he spat at Vlad, who, as though unperturbed, kept walking until he was a mere five feet from the gravedigger and his hostage. "I'm warning you!" Anthony shouted. The girl sobbed, looking at Vlad with pleading brown eyes. Anthony looked down at the girl. "Won't you just shut up- Argh!"
With one swift motion, Vlad had lunged from his position, grabbed the frightened girl, and flung her out of Anthony's grasp. He and Vlad were now sprawled on the ground in a heap. April screamed. There was a puddle of red forming on the snow where Vlad lay. Anthony was temporarily out of commission. She ran toward them, but his voice halted her.
"Heal the girl! He slit her throat!" he hissed, his teeth clenched in pain. He motioned to the girl lying beside him. There was more blood pooling in front of her as well. Anthony's knife must have slipped on her throat when Vlad seized her.
"Vlad! Oh, God!" April sprinted to their position and threw herself on the snow in front of them.
"What the hell!" Anthony had seemed to have recovered from Vlad's attack. He then seemed to spot the pool of blood. "Ha! You didn't get past me unscathed!"
"Damn you." Vlad said in a dangerously quiet voice. It briefly reminded April of the voice he had used that time long ago when he had been trying to suck her blood. It was the same voice, minus its alluring quality.
He slowly heaved himself from the ground, supporting himself in a sitting position with his arm. April saw that the blood was coming from a place in his chest. She needed to heal him-- quickly. But first she needed to heal the girl. Her neck was bleeding more openly than before and her face was white. She was unconscious. She started toward her form on the ground and then stopped and looked in the direction of the village below. Was that a woman's screaming she heard? No, she must have been imagining it. She could hardly hear anything anyway over the beating of her on heart. She shook her head and ran to the girl, forgetting it altogether.
April went to the girl and propped her head up onto her lap. She saw Vlad stand and walk to the left of them, looking weak but ready for a fight. She wished he would wait until she could heal him before he tried to fight the gravedigger. But of course it couldn't be helped. However, she stayed focused on her present task and pulled her amulet out of her blouse. Pressing it to the girl's throat, she saw the green-blue jewel in the middle flash brilliantly before her eyes and the intricate silver designs reflect the sunlight.
Suddenly she forgot everything around her. She felt the familiar sensation of falling as the magical warmth of her gypsy amulet enveloped her. She could not even feel the chill of the cold, wet snow beneath her anymore.
Then, as soon as it had begun, it stopped, and the warmth was gone. She opened her emerald eyes and looked down at the girl. The long bloody gash that had been on her throat was gone; not a trace remained of it ever being there.
-
"Grace is missing! Grace is missing!" An old woman screamed as she ran, her dark purple shawls and long silver braid flying wildly behind her, from her wooden house into the busy town square. "Help me! Anyone!" she screamed louder. Every head seemed to turn in her direction. They all recognized her as Mrs. Riddley, the old woman who used to own the produce stand in the market. She was yelling about her granddaughter, Grace.
Some way away in the crowd, the constable, Mr. James Morris from London, heard the old woman's shrill shouts and ran up to her, pushing his way through the bustling crowd. A rather portly man, Mr. Morris didn't usually have a lot to do in the small town of Transylvania. He mostly had to deal with robberies in the market or arguments that broke out amongst hagglers and shopkeepers. However, today it seemed that this was an actual emergency. He had known Mrs. Riddley for quite some time, and she wasn't one to jest.
"Oh! Thank the Lord! Mr. Morris, my granddaughter is missing! I sent her out to fetch firewood and she hasn't returned. She would never stay out without telling me, something must be wrong."
"When did she go missing, madam?"
"Over an hour ago. I don't know where she could possibly be. I already searched our yard and the edge of the forest behind our house; that's where she usually is when she's getting firewood." She wrapped her shawls tighter around her shoulders as a cold wind blew.
"It's alright, I'll take some men with me and we'll go look for her. Are you sure she didn't mention anything about where she was going?"
"I'm sure, sir. I just asked her to fetch the wood and she left without a word."
"Rest assured, madam, we will find her before the day is out."
"Thank you sir, thank you!" he could see relief etched in her old, gray eyes. He knew that she had just placed all her hope in him. He hoped it was not in vain.
-
"Who are you?" the bemused girl asked April with wide, brown eyes.
"My name is… Prudence Leolius. But this is not really the time-"
"Was it your cousin that-"
"Yes, she was the gypsy witch." April said quickly, cringing inwardly. She still needed to keep her true identity secret. "This is no time to talk of such things."
"How did you do that!" Anthony shrieked, looking at the fully recovered girl then back to April. He seemed to have just noticed that the girl was alive and well.
"I… am a healer…" she chanced a pleading look at Vlad, hoping he would come to her quickly before Anthony recovered from his shock. But he did not move. His glance was angrily upon Anthony, although he looked ready to pass out at the same time.
"That is not healing… that is… that is… evil… witchcraft!" he said, his pointed finger shaking. "Just like that cousin of yours!"
"Oy! You there! Turn around! What are you up to?" a voice said from the bottom of the hill. April 's heart leapt with joy when she saw who it was. It was Mr. James Morris, the constable, with a group of five or six other men from the village. He wouldn't let Anthony do anything to them.
However, Anthony seemed not to hear him. He started walking toward April, knife raised.
"Stop right there!" the constable and his men started running up to them.
"I'll kill you, witch!" Anthony too took off at a run toward April and the girl.
"No! Stop!" Vlad roared as he started running as well. Anthony was less than four feet from
"I said halt! All of you! We're armed!" the men were getting closer.
Then it all happened in a flash.
A black form colliding with Anthony-- a gasp, a flash of silver, a splatter of crimson across the white blanket of shimmering snow, and the resounding thud of a body crumpling to the ground. April had squeezed her eyes shut when the forms collided, but the men had seen it all, as had the girl.
"Lord…" the girl breathed. April opened her eyes. She wished she hadn't.
"Vlad!" She deserted the girl and ran to his prone body. Flinging herself on the ground before him and using every ounce of her waning strength, she turned him over onto his back.
He was pale as a sheet, with another, larger chest wound from Anthony's deadly knife. It looked as though he had been stabbed, but the knife had not been withdrawn; the wound was in a jagged line that reached all the way to his waistline. It looked as though the cut was equally deep all the way down. Blood poured from it.
"Vlad! Vlad! Wake up! Please, I beg you!" she shook his shoulders and checked his pulse on his neck. He was still alive, but barely.
"You've killed him!" Morris screamed at Anthony. "You'll be hung for this!" And the men came upon the gravedigger and tied him up with rough, thick rope.
"Wait!" said April in a small voice, makeup smeared and running down her face from tears. "He's not dead yet!"
"Ha!" spat Anthony.
"You'll still hang!" Morris said back.
"I can save him…" she pulled the amulet off her neck, for it had been hanging out of her blouse since she healed the girl. Pressing it to his wound, she concentrated, held her breath, waited for the warmth to come… and waited. But it did not.
"What's going on?" she looked at the amulet, then back at Vlad. The wound was still there. "Why isn't it working?" she shook the amulet angrily, tried again… but it did not work.
"Damn!" she shrieked, crying. All the men were now watching her, confused. And then he moved.
"Vlad! Oh Vlad!" she cupped her hands on his face and kissed him on the lips.
"Ap… Prudence." he whispered and looked up at her with watery, black eyes.
"Oh Vlad. I'm losing you… the amulet… it's not working! Oh Vlad, I can't lose you!"
"Hush." Now he placed his hand on her cheek. " Perhaps you can only heal the same person once. It's alright."
"No! No! It's not! Oh Vlad, I love you! Don't leave me!"
"And I you… but now I may finally rest. I have given my life for yours. I can finally forgive myself, as God has forgiven me…"
"But Vlad--"
"Don't forget me."
"I shan't I promise!"
"Thank y--" and his head fell, slumped against her lap.
Tears streaming, she lifted him into her arms and wept, as the men dragged the kicking and screaming gravedigger back to the village. No, she would never forget him; and though she wept, she now knew that he was at peace in Heaven, and that she, because of her foolish infatuation with a charming vampire, had delivered him there.
The End
