Blix: Thank you! It's hard to keep chapters long when you desperately want to keep people updated but don't want to lose track with schoolwork and other stories!

Fanfiction Fanatic: Thank you! Glad you liked the chapter!

HughJackmanFan: Here is the next chapter! Well, they are not completely sure if it has worked or not. Like Carl said, need to give it time before they fully know.

Exam time again, only this time A levels! I hope my stories may all get back on track now! Hope I still have fans out there!

Chapter 7

Rain thrashed against the windows as Van Helsing lay in his bed watching the dark ceiling. His heavy items of attire were draped over a chair at the other side of the small stone-walled room, and Van Helsing found it a relief to be not wearing the articles of clothing, save for light weight undergarments, for once. In times when he wanted to relax and sleep, they were bulky and uncomfortable to lie in. But out in Transylvania he had little choice but to keep all his thick layers on. It was that, or freeze to death. Even though the outside storm rattled the windows and howled vehemently in distaste, the air was sticky and warm, not helped by the previous fire that had been lit in the fireplace when he entered his chambers.

He had only just arrived back from Transylvania two weeks ago, returning to find out that Cardinal Jinette deemed Anna's death as nothing more than a werewolf's savage murder, the Frankenstein's monster was not welcome within the walls of Vatican City, and that it was possible that he, Van Helsing, still carried the curse of the werewolf. To top all this off, that Van Helsing may become the hunted by the Holy Order and be assassinated by the Cardinal's orders. It wasn't welcoming to say the least, and Carl did not help matters; for he had become distant with Van Helsing ever since the pair snapped across the kitchen table about assassinations and books. This icy exchange had been evident in the past weeks, and Van Helsing remained resolute in his ways.

Anyway, he had more pressing things to think about. Whilst he did not believe Carl's information about foreign gypsies and their so-called cures (something Van Helsing thought was far fetched nonsense,) he did take in the information that he may be cursed quite seriously, and tonight was another night of worries. You see, tonight, was the first night of the full moon. He had from now until the end of the week to discover if he was still a werewolf or not. Van Helsing lay watching the eerie moon peek at him through stormy clouds as the wind continued to bang at his windows for entry, the catches rattled and the rain pattered upon the glass like a thousand bullets.

His hand scraped gently across the defined features of his bare chest as he moved to grab the necklace he wore. This necklace had never been seen by the public eye, and had never been mentioned to Carl or Anna. Only Cardinal Jinette and himself knew of its existence. It wasn't anything elaborate, on the contrary, it was a rather plain excuse for a necklace, but Van Helsing treasured it as an important possession. It was a thin chain-linked necklace of gold that had a simple gold ring looped through its thread of chain, which sat on his slowly moving chest. This ring held little decoration too, only a sparse pattern of winding vines that were flowered as it twirled along the ring in it's engraving. The Cardinal had told Van Helsing that this was another piece of his forgotten past; it was a wedding ring, apparently one that Van Helsing had given to his first and only wife a hundred of years ago. He had been told she was a fair English lady he had met in his unholy days where he was of a man of mortal standards and not a fighter for the Holy Order with no memories. But apparently, he had been murdered by an unknown killer a short while into the marriage and Van Helsing could only guess that after grief his previous wife, known only to him as Emily, had settled down with another man.

Of course, he knew that she was now dead, and so would be her generations previously, but Van Helsing always thought as though something was ignited in his heart every time he touched this ring, as if somewhere inside, there was the same devotion he had carried for Emily was still present. The ring was a source of mental protection; he believed that with it he was stronger and that her spirit would guide him from the other realm. This reason had been why he was so reluctant to admit his feelings for Anna. He had been with other women since returning to the earth as a fighter for the Holy Order, but never had he had such strong feelings that would turn nights of pleasure into years of love. And when such feelings began to surface for Anna, he felt guilty, as though he was cheating on his wife, a wife that had been dead for hundreds of years.

Van Helsing quickly pulled his thoughts back off Anna, for it caused an overwhelming sadness to settle over him and could feel his eyes burn with tears he did not wish to spill, even in the lonely blackness of his bedroom. His hand clutched the ring tightly on its chain as though trying to summon reassurance from it. It felt hot under his palm as he had been holding it for a while, and he released it to let it fall upon his chest again, glinting serenely in the faint rays of dusty moonlight.

By now, Van Helsing could feel the lull of sleep beginning to take over him, for his eyelids were feeling heavier and his hands that rested on his bare chest were sliding down to rest on the white covers that sat across his hips. Feeling peaceful, he just about to slip into sleep, when he was awoken coarsely with a bout of severe pain and mixed emotions tumbling around his head in a dull frenzy. Before he realised what was happening, the perfect circle of the moon had transpired from it hiding place behind the gathered clouds and full ominous rays bathed his bedroom in startling white light. Van Helsing tried to draw breath, but it hurt his chest to do so, he exhaled a low growl that could not have been done by his usual voice. The gentle rest in his bed was disturbed as he suddenly sat up, bedcovers being thrown back by a mad swipe of his hand as he staggered out of the bed and collapsed on the floor on his knees, a hand clutching his chest like his heart would burst.

Yearns of feral longing made spasms through his mind, causing his hands to fly up and clutch his head that felt it would split under searing pain that caused him to throw back his head with an unearthly roar that drowned out the raging storm outside. His eyes had suddenly narrowed - their pupils in abnormal slits, but they returned to their usual sphere shape in a second as Van Helsing bent over on the floor, gasping for breath as the pain and longing fled from his body. Breathy growls escaped from his throat as he remained on his hands and knees in a feral like way, staring down at the floor between long strands of hair. His chest heaved for air haggardly as he remained on the floor, his necklace swinging slowly as the ring swayed like a pendulum from all the motions. With a desperate cry in his throat a hand raised to clutch the ring hard in his palm. He discovered his hands were shaking.

A loud bang summoned Van Helsing's eyes to look up. The door to his room had been thrown back, and Carl stood in a nightshirt staring down at Van Helsing with a pale face. Terrified eyes watched the hunched form as Van Helsing blearily returned the gaze. The moment had passed and it left him drained.

"Van Helsing?" whispered Carl gravely, the fear evident in his tremulous voice. Slowly his round wide eyes lifted to watch the moon disappear innocently behind a cloud, "The first night of the full moon," he uttered quietly, before looking down to Van Helsing, "The curse is still alive.."


I hope that was worth waiting for! You got some insight to his past there! Emily will become a main focus of the story later on. There is something very important about her that Van Helsing and the Cardinal are not aware of.