Author's Note:

Whoa! Fortune Zyne, you are a lightning fast read and reviewer! I posted the chapter and like two minutes later I had received your very kind review. Props to you. Anyway thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoy it.

Chapter #7

It took a few minutes for anyone to come around after having a mountain blow up from under them. Nobody had seen Dracula. What they did notice was that they were no longer with the same people as they had been with before the mountain exploded.

The first thing Jill felt was a pounding in her head. Thinking hard she remembered something about a bar and a large mug of home-made beer. And there was something about a mountain that she couldn't remember.

She sat up, keeping her eyes closed tightly and cursed viciously. She was never drinking home-made beer again, this was the worst hangover ever.

Then she opened her eyes and the memory of the mountain bursting open like a giant bomb. In front of her was a man squatting and staring at her. The man was wearing a hat and a trench coat, both were black. She recognized the famous silhouette as Van Helsing. He also had a fancy revolver leveled unwaveringly at her face.

"Van Helsing," she breathed. His exploits were famous within the Knights Of The Holy Order.

"Who are you?" He said threateningly. "How do you know my name? Who do you work for?"

"My name is Jill Nikmis," she said slowly, "I work for The Knights Of The Holy Order, like you. That's how I know who you are."

"Prove it," Van Helsing said not lowering the gun at all.

"I have a ring that the Cardinal gave me for five years of service," she said quickly, "look-." But just then Jill realized that the ring she wore every day was no longer on her finger. "It isn't here," she cried out looking at the ground and seeing nothing but dirt, "it must have fallen off."

"How convenient," Van Helsing drawled, "it just happened to slip off."

"I'm telling the-"

"Put your hands up."

Two kids, in their mid-teens, were walking towards the mountain. They had seen the smoke raising out of the forest and had gone to investigate. One was tall for his age but very thin, his name was Elias. The other was shorter but built along the lines of a gorilla on steroids. He was called Cyrus and he was Elias' cousin and best friend.

"Hey what's that?" Elias said to Cyrus pointing down at the ground.

"I don't see anything," Cyrus answered Elias. Elias bent down and scooped a small ring off the ground.

"You should have seen it," Elias chided his cousin, "after all you're closer to the ground."

"Ha ha," Cyrus said dryly, "so what is it?"

"It's a ring of some kind," Elias answered looking at it closely. He was looking at the ring and didn't notice anything else on the ground. Until he tripped over a person unconscious on the ground.

"Whoa," Cyrus whispered. The two boys bent down quickly and began to try to wake up the woman on the ground.

Patrick Eivets woke up slowly. He lay completely still for a few minutes before dragging himself to his feet.

Then he heard the sound of someone running through the trees. Turning he recognized Anne Snave crashing through the trees.

"Run," she shouted seeing him, "run!"

"What-?" But then he saw in horror that she was being chased. Chased by five short creatures in brown cloaks that matched their body armor. They also wore goggles over their eyes completing the creepy effect. Together the two teachers ran but the creatures were quickly gaining on them.

But they couldn't run fast enough and soon their pursuers were almost on top of them. One leapt at Anne and tackled her to the ground while another grabbed the back of Patrick's coat and threw him to the ground. The other three creatures closed in.

Suddenly with a shout a third person entered the fray. Or rather many persons stitched together. Frank grabbed two creatures and threw them like they were nothing. Another ran at Frank, but as he was twice the size of the creature Frank calmly swept the creature aside. Then he moved on to the two that held the teachers. Once their captors had been tossed aside by the gigantic Frank Anne stared and Patrick nodded.

"We must keep going," Frank yelled in his deep voice, "or more will come."

"What were those things?" Patrick asked trying to keep up with Frank.

"Dwerger," he answered, "servants of Dracula. They were supposed to have been destroyed when Dracula died."

"Who are you?"

"This is Frank," Patrick told Anne quickly, "he's friends with Lydian Valerious and teaches at her school. Frank, this is Anne Snave a teacher for the Knights Of The Holy Order in Rome with me."

"Nice to meet you Frank," Anne gasped.

"No time for that," Frank yelled at them, "we have to keep running."

Carl woke up and realized that he was lying on a cold stone floor. To add to the ominous scenario his hands were tied behind his back and his ankles were bound together. He struggled against the ropes.

"Finally," a woman's voice spoke from behind him, "you're awake."

"W-w-who's there," Carl asked his voice shaking.

"A fellow prisoner," the voice answered. With a heave Carl rolled over and saw a woman, who also had her hands tied behind her back and her ankles tied. She had managed to get herself into a sitting position.

"I'm Carl," he said from the ground.

"Andrea," she told him, "I guess you were on that mountain too."

"I was," he said struggling to sit up and failing.

"Do this," she said, "roll onto your stomach and then pull yourself into a kneeling position." Straining Carl followed Andrea's example and got himself up in a sitting position as well.

"What now?" Carl asked.

"I have a dagger in my boot," Andrea told Carl, "I can't reach it but you may be able to pull it out."

"I'll try," Carl said.

"Madame Valerious," a voice called to Lydian, "time to wake up." Lydian opened her eyes and saw a familiar woman shaking her shoulder. It was a withered old women with grey string like hair emerging from under her bonnet cap. She held a walking stick that was as knotted and twisted as her arms which stuck out from under her traveling cloak.

"What happened?" Lydian said staring at the woman in shock. "Madame Claire Vouyent, is that you?"

"It is me Madame Valerious," Madame Vouyent answered with a smile, "two of my great-grandsons found you unconscious in the woods and brought you back here."

"Where is here?"

"You are at the gypsy camp of course."

Rosita ran through the forest desperately looking for Mina. Finally she found Mina sitting on the ground looking around in shock.

"Mina," she cried sitting down next to her, "are you all right?"

"I'm not hurt," she said slowly, "very confused and a little disoriented. Other then that I'm fine."

"There you two are," a voice chuckled. Mina and Rosita's mouths fell open in shock as Claudia stepped out from behind a tree. "I was worried that after that mountain exploded that you two would slip away before I could find you again."

"You were following us?" Mina asked stunned.

"That is so typical," Rosita yelled outraged, "you are so nosy. You're always going out of your way to find out what other people are up to."

"I was just looking out for my little sister."

"Oh no," Rosita exclaimed exasperatedly, "you can not pull that! You are nothing more then an insufferable busybody!" Claudia stiffened and glared at her sister.

"Well that's too bad for you," she said with an evil grin, "since I'm an insufferable busybody who works for Count Dracula."