Chapter 6-
No one was in the Church as Van Helsing and Carl entered. It was so still, dark, and silent. Almost all the beautiful stain glass windows were in pieces on the floor. When they were sure that no one was around, they gestured Camille in. She looked as shocked as they did.
"I don't know what happened…" Van Helsing murmured. It was so strange to see the Church like this, as it had been his home since the Cardinal had found him 'crawling up the steps of this church half dead.'
The three walked around, searching for any clues to what happened. Carl produced a lantern from the usual sack of weaponry, lit it, and held it up. Dim light lit the chapel, but all they could see was destruction.
Suddenly, they heard footsteps approaching. Carl blew out the lantern quickly and Camille had her sword out in an instant. Van Helsing shoved the three of them against a crevice in the wall that blocked them out of the vampires' view. Three walked by, two of them gossiping in hushed voices. All three were women. The first one was the only silent one—and the most beautiful, for that matter. Camille recognized her as the leader and she heard both Van Helsing and Carl intake sharp breaths when they saw her. Except she saw something she hadn't before peeking through the leader's low cut dress. It was something glassy and green, throbbing and glowing oddly. Carl knew what it was immediately. Frankenstein's heart.
"An--!" Camille and Carl both clamped hands over Van Helsing's mouth before he could finish uttering the name. It was enough for the vampiresses to hear, though. They all looked in the trio's direction at once.
"I thought I heard a voice," the leader said in a husky, low, Transylvanian accent that Van Helsing used to find irresistible. She approached the crevice where they were hidden slowly, her stiletto boots clicking until she was right in front of them. One by one, she pulled them each out of the hiding place. Van Helsing put up the least struggle.
"Ahh, what have we here? A gargoyle whore, a timid little friar, and oh… Gabriel…" she smiled up at him, red lips concealing her teeth.
"Anna," he stepped toward her, but only to be met by a slap. He reeled back, though more stung inwardly from the meaning of the motion than outwardly by her surprising strength.
She smiled seductively at him and his heart seemed to forgive her almost instantaneously. What was wrong with this? he mused, but his mind seemed to be made of mush. He couldn't think straight. The vampiress looked at the frozen faces of horror around her and laughed. She took one of Van Helsing's hands and put it to her glass heart.
"Do you feel this, Gabriel?"
"You… You stole Frankenstein's heart… why--?" Then it dawned on him. This wasn't his Anna. "You—who are you?"
"It took you long enough to notice." She waved a hand of dismissal at her companions and the two vampiresses left the chapel. Camille's sword hung limply at her side. She seemed to be in a daze, trying to figure out what she was missing.
"I am Anna in a way, Gabriel. Shall we say, half Anna, half Dracula…? And that seems to be the reason why I lived long enough to give myself this glass heart. Because my mother was human," she said, grinning, baring the fangs of her vampire father.
"No!" Anna couldn't have… Not with Dracula... This couldn't be their child.
"Do you remember the ball at All Hallows Eve? That's when it happened." Her eyes glittered with malice as she spilled this information.
"You lie!"
Unsheathing a stake, he attacked the vampiress. She easily dodged it. Her eyes taunted, same message as the next words that came from her mouth: "Come and get me, Gabriel." She laughed.
No one saw Camille coming out of her daze. She flew into the air and swung, sword at the ready toward the vampiress. They fought, steadily in the air, claws and teeth against the sword. Van Helsing was firing arrows into the vamp's stomach, which kept healing itself. Camille swung at the glowing heart and chipped a piece of the glass off. Shrieking with fury, the vampiress attacked the half gargoyle blindly. Within a minute, Camille was on the ground, wings bleeding as well as her back.
Carl rushed to her and Van Helsing glanced worriedly behind him, though his attention became diverted to the vampiress when she landed in front of him.
"What do you think, Gabriel? I'll let your companions go if you surrender yourself to me. After all, you're the only one who's any threat to my kind anymore. Stay and I'll let your companions go…"
He paused, eyebrows furrowing. The words 'no, I'll fight you to the end' were clawing their way up his throat. But he was putting so many lives in danger if he challenged her. "What about Vivienne and Camille's lover? They… they are who we came for…" he finally said.
The vampiress shrugged. "Now that I have used them to bait you here, they are no use to me anymore. Of course, I did really want to kill the last of gargoyle blood—" She eyed Camille, "But since I have you, it really doesn't matter. Will you stay?"
Van Helsing knew his answer already. He looked to the ground in defeat before replying.
…
o0… cliffhanger! I know, I have absolutely no right to do that after not updating in so long, but this story's nearly coming to an end. Please review! I love reviews
