Hey guys, a new day, a new chapter. The cliffhanger season is over guys and gals!! Thought that i would post this, since no body reviewed last time there are no thankyou's. All i can say is it took a while because went down for upgrading and i had to de frag my computer. any ho here you go.
Chapter 4 – Always with you.
The demon stepped further into the house, making Carl and Van Helsing to back up. On the floor Tarja was breathing in sharp gasps and was chanting over and over.
"Tarja, what is going on? What's wrong?" Van Helsing crouched beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Instantly he had a vague idea, as he could sense the evil from the demon trying to encroach upon her soul. She was fighting it and losing, fast.
"Can't fight it," she panted. "Too tired from last time." Groaning, she curled herself into a tighter ball on the floor.
"Well, Carl, any ideas?" Van Helsing had drawn a blank.
The demon again moved forward and stepped into the feeble light of the room to reveal its form. This one appeared to be more corporeal than the last, with clearly defined limbs and torso. It was vaguely birdlike in appearance, but closer to that of a pterodactyl with sharp claws and no wings. It opened its mouth and released a scream as it lunged for Carl with its long arms, a long tail thrashing behind it like a whip.
Ducking like a pro, Carl rolled to the side and came back to his feet next to the mantle and fireplace. On the opposite side of the room, were Van Helsing and Tarja. In his bid to escape the claws, he had effectively separated himself from the others. "Well, the only one I can think of is prayer. I am a friar after all," he said giving Van Helsing a helpless look.
"In that case, start praying!!!"
Not one who needed to be told twice, Carl began reciting the first thing that popped into his head. It was ironic that it happened to be a similar version of the prayers he had said at Anna's funeral, and the irony was not lost on Carl, or Van Helsing.
The demon, upon hearing the prayer being recited began to scream in agony and claw at its ears and body. The claw marks on its body revealed flames through the split skin and through the flames a glowing metal symbol could be seen to begin to glow.
At about the same time as the demon began screaming, Tarja began to unfurl as the agony of evil battering her soul declined. Looking up she saw the reason that the demon had managed to breach the wards on her home; a metal talisman glowed from the body of the demon in the shape of two snakes entwined around a sword. Mercers sign. He was using the talisman to keep the demon in this world even in her home where the pain of her built up defences were causing it agony. The only way for it to escape was to kill the person that Mercer wanted dead. Her only option was to destroy the Talisman and pray that her remaining energy reserves would be enough to banish the demon back to hell. The only reason she could see the talisman was the prayer that Carl was reciting, it reacted to Mercer's brand of magic violently, causing it to glow.
"The talisman!!! Destroy it and I can send the demon back to the underworld!!" she screamed, steeling herself and readying her last reserves of energy. If she were able to return the demon, then the rest would be up to Van Helsing and Carl.
His Tojo blades did not have the range he required and his pistols were at the other side of the room. "Carl, the sword!" Van Helsing shouted, reaching his hand out for the weapon which Carl had wrested from its home in the wall and thrown to him. Taking one step forward and leaning to the right to avoid a swipe from the demon's claws, Van Helsing swung with all his might at the talisman, hearing it shatter.
Upon shattering, the demon returned to its semi-corporeal state and hissed, red eyes gleaming as a thin whip tongue appeared then disappeared. Before it could move closer Tarja leapt to her feet and summoning the last of her energy called the banishing spell, forcing it into the demon's body as hard as she could.
The blast knocked them all on their collective asses, Tarja landing on top of Van Helsing in an unconscious pile. The demon was nowhere to be seen and the three undead zombies were climbing to their feet, having been blown back and out of the door. Carl was beside the fireplace, nursing a bruise on his head where his head had struck the mantel on his flight to the floor, and looking quite terrified.
Gently rolling Tarja to the side and ensuring that she was not seriously injured, Van Helsing rose to his feet and passed Carl a pistol, since he had landed within their reach. "Any ideas on how to get rid of these guys?" he asked, hefting the sword a bit higher and levelling out his stance, ready for their next move.
"Actually, yes, I do. I think they are zombies, Tarja mentioned that Mercer could raise the dead. The only way to stop them without having raised them is to burn them and release them by fire." Carl, looking less terrified and more like a scientist who merely had an annoying problem in the lab to overcome, grabbed two thin logs from the log pile. Ripping sections from his already tattered cloak he wrapped them around the sticks and began to light them.
The zombies, not wanting to make life easier for the duo, were already forcing their way in past the splintered door, and were steadily making progress towards Van Helsing and Tarja, who was still out cold on the floor. Van Helsing could only surmise that they had been sent along with the demon to kill Tarja, in the event of the demon failing. As Carl was creating the torches, one of the zombies lunged towards Van Helsing, forcing him to parry and thrust the sword into the zombie, driving it back wards.
"Now would be a great time for your plan, Carl," Gabriel grunted as he used his weight to force the impaled zombie back outside and into its two friends, causing them to fall into a disorganised pile on the floor.
"Here, catch!" Carl tossed one of the lit torches, keeping one for himself and crossing the room to guard Tarja.
Catching the torch with practiced ease and dropping the sword to the floor, Gabriel shoved it into the pile of struggling zombies and watched as they burned into ash and vanished into the wind without making a single sound. He thought it was odd that they were silent when any sentient creature would have been screaming in agony. It was almost as if their souls were grateful to be released from their imprisonment in their rotting bodies as opposed to where their souls should have been.
Turning, he walked back into the house to find Carl had thrown his torch into the fire and was trying to rouse Tarja.
"How is she?" he asked walking over and crouching beside the friar as he checked her pulse.
"Not good. Whatever she did has completely exhausted her; she's in a deep sleep. If I didn't know any better, I would say that she is in a coma, but she seems partially responsive to pain." Carl looked up at Van Helsing, who even crouched was taller. The look of worry was clearly visible. "We need to get her to a bed and give her some rest."
Being careful to avoid hurting her further, Gabriel gently lifted her into his arms and made for the kitchen.
"Van Helsing! Where are you going?" Carl asked, clearly non-plussed as to where he was going.
"The stairs to the upper level are not in here, so they must be in the kitchen. You said that she needs bed rest?" Van Helsing replied patiently, waiting for the logic to sink in.
"So, the stairs must be in the kitchen." Carl said, realisation dawning and a hint of embarrassment evident on his face. "Yes, well, I think that I will stay down here and try to tidy up. Although, what I'm going to do with the door, I have no idea…"
Hiding his smile from Carl, Van Helsing walked into the kitchen and up the stairs to the upper level. The first room that he came to was the master bedroom, and was obviously the one in use as he could see various garments scattered on a chair and the bed was still crumpled from the previous nights use. Placing her gently on the bed and pulling the covers up over her, he paused to brush a few strands of hair out of her face.
"Balfour is one lucky man to have someone with such fire and spirit. You must love him very much," he said, thoughts drifting back to Anna. Not really expecting a response, he left the room and went downstairs to see how Carl was faring with the cleanup.
"At least I don't have to clean up extra crispy zombie," Carl quipped as he righted one of the metal sculptures on the wall, which had been knocked off kilter during the fight. "Did she wake at all?"
"No, I think that she will be out for a good few hours." Van Helsing said as he settled in a chair. "It appears that we will have to wait until she is able to tell us more before we begin a search for Balfour and determine how to stop this Mercer from doing what he has been doing. I do not want to leave her unprotected, especially not with Mercer trying to kill her."
"You think that it was him, and he's trying to kill Tarja?" Carl was beginning to look worried, casting looks over his shoulder at the door, which he had covered using a blanket to block the draught.
"I'm sure of it. Who else would know about the woods and that she would not have enough energy to stop both the demon and the zombies?"
Van Helsing can be downright scary when he figures things out this quick, Carl thought to himself.
"I think that he believes that she can stop him with our help and wanted to kill her before she could tell us anything of value about him and what his operations are. And that he has something to do with Balfour and his disappearance." Van Helsing left off his fear that Mercer had killed Balfour. No, the less he thought about that possibility, the less it would bother him.
"So we just settle down for the night and wait for the morning and Tarja to wake up to give us some kind of a plan of action?" Carl asked, settling further into the chair.
"That sounds like a good plan for the time being."
Tarja stirred in her sleep at the sound of the lovingly familiar voice. "Angel, you need to listen to me, I don't have long."
"Mmm, Nico, where are you?" She murmured turning her head from side to side. No matter how hard she tried she could not open her eyes and her body threatened to drag her back into sweet oblivion.
"Angel, you need to listen, I can't stay long. The only reason you can hear me is our connection through your wedding gift." In her mind's eye she could almost picture him, his green eyes and honey blond hair gleaming. "Mercer plans to use the Cross of Rhade to seal his power, and to decimate all those who stand in his way. This means you angel. I wasn't able to stop him, and I'm not trapped."
"No, Nico, please you have to come back, I need you!" She felt that he was fading.
"Angel, I am always with you, but I cannot help you. You must do this yourself. Only you have the key to stopping Mercer, you just have to believe in yourself and trust my old friend. He will help you, he is a warrior of god and will give you the strength you need. By now he will have begun the ceremonies the to unlock the powers of the cross. Destroy the cross, angel. Destroy it and you destroy him, only then can I be free. I fear your love is the only thing keeping me here, my angel." His voice began to fade as she felt him becoming weaker and weaker.
"No please don't leave me!!!!" She cried, feeling her soul despair at the thought of losing him.
"I'm always with you angel…" His voice faded and she could no longer feel his presence within her mind.
Mourning the loss of his presence she unwillingly let her body drag her consciousness back into the darkness of exhausted oblivion.
Well that's it for this chapter. No, Balfour is not dead. I'm not that mean, at least, not yet. Things are starting to heat up. We may even meet this evil Mercer in the next chapter. It depends on what comes out of my warped mind.
Anyway, read and review please and I will write more. Just in case people are wondering you do not have to sign up to leave a review, it can be done anonymously, i had a few friends ask. - Fen.