Hey there all, new chapter. Finally found time to write it. Thanks to endoreovende for reviewing- (feels all warm inside) and asking for more. Find it really hard to get motivated to actually write unless people ask since it's just as fun in my head. As for Balfour, all will be revealed in due time. (Am sooo evil)

Warnings: this chapter contains fairly graphic violence.

Chapter 2 - Tarja

The night had passed rather uneventfully, with only Carl screeching like a girl at the sight of an adder in the grass, yelling "Poisonous!!!!!" at the top of his lungs. Now they were trekking through the woods, following an old trail, which the map had indicated would take them near to the town of Chaston, where all the strange phenomena were occurring and Balfour had last been seen.

The rain from the day before had dried up to reveal the hazy sun, whose rays could barely be seen through the dense foliage of the canopy above and they occasionally had to step over trees which had died in the previous winters. The woods around them were eerily quiet and few animals were seen, even the birds seemed to be ominously silent even though it was past midday and they had been walking since before dawn.

"Van Helsing, do you actually have any idea where we are going?" Carl, who was slightly red faced, asked. "Is this even the right trail, I haven't seen anybody at all, which doesn't make sense. There are no other main roads out of the town."

Gabriel paused, and turned to the friar. "True, even the woods appear dead. Perhaps we should take a break and look at the map again." Placing his pack on the floor, and taking a quick glance around, Van Helsing perched himself on a nearby fallen log and took out his canteen.

Carl, who had the map in his hands, was frowning and turning the map upside down and then right way up. "According to the map you are right Van Helsing," he said, looking up in time to see Gabriel roll his eyes, whilst taking a swig from the canteen. "And we didn't see any other trails, even ones inside the wood in case this one was blocked."

"Perhaps this is the only safe road in and out of the town, although I hardly doubt that." Gabriel was truly beginning to wonder whether they should turn back and try to find another route towards the town when a blood-curdling scream rent the air.

Carl jumped, dropping the map. "What in God's name was that?"

"It sounded as though it came from that direction," Van Helsing said pointing to a dense section of the woods that seemed to be cloaked in shadow. Grabbing his pack and weapons he took off towards the direction of the sound.

"Oh, just perfect, leave me alone with the rest of the gear and the horses while you run off to save the day," Carl grumbled. Grabbing the horses by their reins, he pulled them off the trail after Van Helsing.

Running as fast as he could, Van Helsing pounded through the woods. Ignoring the grabbing of the ferns and vines he ploughed onwards feeling that he was getting nearer to the sound. He could hear sounds of a struggle and a voice, low and chanting. As he drew nearer he began to feel the strong stench of evil and death permeating the area. The hackles on the back of his neck stood on end and began screaming as he rounded a large tree and came upon one of the most unusual sights that he had ever seen.

In the middle of a clearing stood a woman, eyes closed, with her arms outstretched, chanting in a low voice, using a language that he had never heard even in his vast travels. At her feet cowered a fully-grown man who, when stood upright, would be about six foot and easily tower over the slight form of the woman. Surrounding them was a white circle. Following the gaze of the man Van Helsing gazed upon what could best be described as a darkness that had a form yet didn't. It was as if the thing, for want of a better word, was phasing in and out of existence. Van Helsing could see parts clearly at one point and then they would turn hazy, as if it was too horrible to gaze upon in its entirety.

"Please," begged the man on the floor. "Please help me!!!" he began to edge away from the woman and towards the edge of the circle. "It wants to kill me, please, help me!!"

Van Helsing was unable to form a reply as the man edged towards the edge of the circle and the woman's eyes shot open. "Do not break the circle!!!!" But it was too late, the man in his desperation broke the circle with his hands crawling towards Van Helsing.

With an unearthly howl the thing dove towards the man, half seen claws outstretched. The man let out a terrified scream and half ran, half stumbled towards Van Helsing, as the circle released a blast of energy and the woman was thrown backwards. Paying the man no heed, Van Helsing reached for his pistols and fired at the thing, striking it twice before it reached the man. One arm swung out swatting Van Helsing as if he were a fly into the tree he had rounded earlier, before starting to rend the man apart, claws digging deep. Unable to scream anymore, the man simply twitched.

With stars still spinning before his eyes, Gabriel dragged himself to his feet to see the thing turn to gaze at him with blood red eyes. Its mangled face contorted into a bestial grin as blood dripped from its jaws. Reaching for his guns, Gabriel took aim again and struck home in its midsection. However as before the bullets had no effect, simply being absorbed into the creatures body. The thing released a hiss close to a boiler on overload and advanced, clawing the guns out of Van Helsing's hands.

With a gasp of pain, as blood from three long gashes in his arm began to seep blood, Gabriel began to back up, away from the creature. As if sensing defeat in its new victim the thing advanced and struck again. Ducking just in time Van Helsing rolled to the right. The tree behind creaked as it gave way under the thing's onslaught, and toppled over with a loud snap.

Moving backwards away from the thing, eyes watching for any hint of an attack, Gabriel didn't see the sapling and vines behind and tripped. Landing flat on his back, he dropped his weapons, biting back a curse.

The woman was not having a good day. Not only had she been forced to help one of the few people that she genuinely disliked, but she had also had her butt kicked in the process. And to top it all off, dragged a total stranger into the mess who was most likely by now being rent apart as well.

With a groan, she rolled over from where she had landed when the energy from the circle of protection had backfired and pushed her hair out of her face. Sitting up she turned to where she could hear the demon currently making kindling out of a very large oak tree. A few feet away on the ground lay the stranger who had come running to their aid when the idiot who was now fertilizing the woods had screamed. His predicament became apparent as the woman saw that he was defenceless and about to go the same way as the idiot.

Steeling herself she pushed herself to her feet and dug deep within herself. The creature was about to strike and she didn't have much time. Pulling on what little energy she had left she began to form the spell she needed.

Van Helsing was scrambling to reach his Tojo blades within his coat when he heard a new voice cry, "Stop!" Looking in the direction of the voice he saw that the woman was back on her feet, looking a little worse for wear, with a steely resolved look on her face. "You will not take his soul for your master, demon. I will not allow it, return to the underworld!!"

With a hiss the demon rounded on the woman. Dodging the demons sweeping claws, Van Helsing watched, as she appeared to draw light out of thin air with her hands and shoved it into the demon, causing it to let out an ear-piercing scream. With a chant from the same language as before the demon appeared to explode from the inside out in a backwash of energy, blasting the woman backwards. Van Helsing, who had risen to one knee, was slammed backwards off his feet to skid in the mud of the forest floor.

With a groan and a sensation that he was going to feel every bruise the next day, Van Helsing pushed himself up into a sitting position. Grabbing his pistols as he rose, he gazed over to where he had last seen the woman before the 'demon', as she had called it, was destroyed. She was nowhere in sight, however several broken branches could be seen behind where she would have been standing.

"Van Helsing!! What on earth was that noise?" Carl had finally arrived, pulling along the obviously unwilling horses. "The horses have been fighting me all the way from the trail. I nearly lost mine when the light show began." Replacing his weapons to their proper places, Gabriel turned to Carl with a look of humour. Carl was slightly dishevelled and had a twig sticking out of his already unruly hair. It looked like a pair of antlers. Carl seemed totally oblivious.

"From what I can gather and have been told, it was a demon," was his curt response, as he turned to investigate the hole in the foliage made by the woman.

"What do you mean, 'from what you have been told'?" Carl, who was looking around the clearing that had been created, stopped when he saw the remains of the man. "And what happened to him? I assume it was he who was making that noise."

"The demon ate him and took his soul," came the reply as Van Helsing disappeared from Carl's view.

"Where are you going now?" Carl asked observing the damage done to the area and the blood that appeared on the floor in droplets, obviously not from the dead man.

"There was a woman-"

"A woman?"

"Yes, she was protecting the man from the demon using some sort of ritual magic." Sounds of him breaking twigs could be heard as he went deeper into the wood. "Carl, get over here, I found her."

"Is she okay?" Carl asked grabbing their meagre but extensive medical kit from Van Helsing's horse. Usually when trouble appeared, Van Helsing in his usual manner, went ahead or chased after the target and more often than not, got a bit banged up. Because of this, he usually carried the first aid kit and was able to do a semi decent job of patching himself up before Carl arrived to take care of the more serious wounds that he sometimes sustained.

Van Helsing appeared from the hole in the foliage carrying the woman in his arms. She appeared to be unconscious, but when laid upon the ground began to stir. "She seems to be just stunned," Carl said in a tone of awe. "Judging from those broken branches and the force needed she should at least have broken something, but she seems to just need a good nights rest"

Before Van Helsing could say anything in reply a groan was heard coming from the woman. "Uugghh, I really, really should have stayed in bed today." Opening her eyes she looked up to see both Carl and Van Helsing looking down at her. "Okay, you I know, but Blondie I haven't met so if you don't mind, could you please remove your hand from my leg?"

Carl, who had been checking for breaks, turned a faint shade of pink and removed the hand. "I'm sorry, miss. I was only checking for breaks. From appearances you took quite a tumble."

"Yes, well, appearances can be quite deceiving." With a faint smile she sat up, only to start to fall down again. With gentle strength, Van Helsing grabbed her by the shoulders to prevent her falling. "Thank you."

"Perhaps you should rest?" Van Helsing asked, as she sat up on her own and began to rise.

"No, I will be fine. I just used up a lot of energy; white magic really takes it out of you." Pushing her waist length black hair out of her face and over her shoulders she gave him an appraising look. "You know, that arm will need to be seen to. It looks like it got you good. They may not be quite corporeal, but when they focus they can do real damage."

Van Helsing looked down at his arm, which was still oozing blood. Since it had happened he had forgotten all about it. The wonders of adrenaline, no doubt. Carefully using his fingers he prodded the edges of the cloth of his coat from the wounds, wincing.

"Here, let me." The woman took the kit from Carl and steered Van Helsing to the fallen tree. Pushing on his shoulder to make him sit she removed a clean cloth and some alcohol. "This is going to sting a little," she said as she started cleaning the wounds from the edges in with the cloth.

It took every ounce of self-control that he had not to shout as the cleansing alcohol took effect. "Was white magic what you used to protect yourself from the demon?"

"Yes," she replied as she carefully peeled back the sleeve and began to bandage the wound with obvious ease and skill. "The white circle the idiot broke was a circle of protection used to keep either evil in or out. Knocked me on my ass when he broke it because it was using some of my power, other wise I would have been up to help you earlier."

"You seem skilled at patching up injuries," Carl noted as she finished dressing the wound.

"It's all in a day for me, patching up bruises and the like. I'm the local doctor, or as near to it as you can get in these parts. Mainly it tends to be herbal remedies but I've seen my fare share of fight injuries." Placing the remainder of the supplies back in the kit she turned to Gabriel. "You know how to fight, and I'm not talking about people. Otherwise you would not have survived until I could force it to retreat, you have a name?"

"This is Friar Carl and I am Van Helsing. We were sent here to investigate the strange reports and the loss of a friend." Van Helsing gestured to Carl and himself in turn.

"And how did you come across these reports of strange things? Word does not travel far in these parts," she asked giving them a guarded look.

"It's a long story that can wait for another time, and you are?"

"The name is Tarja. Tarja Balfour."

"Balfour? Tell me, do you know a Nicandro Balfour?" Van Helsing asked. He hoped that she might be able to tell him what had happened to him.

"Of course I know him! I'm married to him." She raised her hand to reveal the wedding band that had been overlooked.

Well, let me know what you think. Reviews really are appreciated by the author. Any ideas as for how it will end? Have an idea but suggestions are welcome.

Oh and did anybody see the end coming?