CHAPTER SEVEN
Bethany woke up some time later that night. She sat up clutching her head. It was throbbing with a dull pain. When Beth turned around, she almost had a heart attack because Mori was staring at her. There she was, leaning against a tree with her arms crossed over her chest.
"Morning sunshine." Mori mumbled to her as a greeting.
Beth just stared at her blankly, clearly still in shock. It's not like she had forgotten what Mori had told her…how could she? And how come Mori was acting as if nothing was wrong?
"Please tell me that was a dream." Beth said, trying to comfort herself. Mori sighed as she walked over to her fallen friend.
"Sadly no. It was real." Mori replied as she crouched down before Beth and looked her square in the eye.
"Oh my gosh." Beth whispered.
"Welcome to my nightmare." Mori told her. Obviously, Mori wasn't thrilled about her family either. With that kind of family, Beth hated to see what her enemies were like.
"How did this happen? I mean you, how?" Beth asked. How could I have not known? I should have sensed it. Beth thought to herself. At least the vampire part I should have known. The Dracula thing is still a little much. My gosh, I'm best friends with Dracula's daughter! Is this good or bad?
"Well Bethany, when someone…"
"I know that part Mori." Beth cut her off. When she was ten she made the mistake of asking Carl about where babies come from. Needless to say, she had to go get a dictionary and ask him to repeat himself. It's wasn't very helpful but it got the point across.
"I mean…"
"I know what you mean." Mori said cutting Beth off before she could say another word. "Well, to put it plan and simple, Dracula put my mother under his will and he…you know…against her will."
"No wonder you joined the Order." Beth said trying to lighten the mood.
"Like I said, family history. The revenge is just a perk." Mori said smirking slightly.
"Thank goodness you take after your mother." Beth said.
"I know. " Mori replied. "We better get back."
Beth sighed and nodded 'yes'. She knew that everyone would be worried about them. She could just picture Carl in her mind's eye, freaking out as usual.
"Van Helsing is going to be mad when we get back." Beth said.
Mori smirked slightly as if she was thinking. There was a slight glint in her eyes before she spoke.
"The problem with that is what?" Mori asked, still smirking.
Beth sighed and shook her head, smiling. Same old Mori. she thought to herself. Beth tried to push herself up, but Mori had already stood and then gently grabbed Beth's upper arm. Mori carefully pulled Beth to her feet and then quickly let go of her friend's arm.
"Thanks." Beth told her.
"You did the same for me." Mori pointed out.
"Sorry about my little fainting spell." Beth told her as the two began to walk back toward Valerious Manor.
"Actually, you took it a lot better than I thought you would." Mori told her. "I thought you would try to kill me. That or hate me forever."
"I couldn't do that." Beth told her.
"True. I have too much blackmail on you." Mori said smirking.
Beth laughed slightly and smiled as the wind blew her coat and hair out around her slim form.
"True, Mori. Then again, considering what I just learned…"
"You aren't going to tell Van Helsing, are you?" Mori said, suddenly in a state of worry.
"Of course not!" Beth replied, shocked that Mori would even think of such a thing. She couldn't see herself turning over her best friend to Van Helsing, who would most likely kill her. It was like killing Mori herself! Beth wasn't about to let anything happen to her.
"So…does he know?" Beth asked Mori.
"I think so…maybe. Then again, he is senile, so I don't know." Mori replied.
"How do you think he'll react when he finds out you scared the brides?" Beth asked smiling.
Mori's smile grew and a mischievous spark glittered in her ice blue eyes.
"Those are the things I live for."
Dracula was surprised to see his brides come flying into his home. They were approaching quickly and screaming…in fright. They landed and returned to their human forms, screaming up a storm and chattering on like small children.
"My darlings, slowly, tell me what happened." Dracula told them wrapping them in his cloak to calm them enough to talk.
"The half one, Mori, flung us away several times with strength we don't even posses." Verona said.
"She roared and frightened us away, master." Aleera said, still cowering.
"But her little friend was there. Beth, she knows Mori's secret." Verona pointed out.
A smile formed on Dracula's lips. A half-vampire and a human, friends? This is simply unheard of. However, his twisted little mind found a way to turn this situation to his advantage.
"My brides, this is an angle we can work with. We will simply turn Beth against Mori. Beth will then tell Gabriel and he will do our dirty work for us." Dracula said, still a little stunned that the brides were scared by a teenager.
"Let us go…intercept Miss Beth, shall we?" Dracula said.
The brides smiled at this thought of getting revenge and flew off after their master into the full, silver moon.
"Dang it Mori, you walk fast." Beth told her as she leaned on a tree to rest again. She and Mori have had to rest several times because when Mori was running away from the mansion, she had covered a lot of ground. Beth suspected that it was partially because she was angry and really couldn't control herself.
"That's what happens when I get mad."
"Good thing you don't get mad a lot then huh?" Beth said smirking at her
"Well, not like that. If that happened a lot, humanity would cease to exist as we know it." Mori replied.
Beth looked up as if she thinking about something. "For some reason, I don't doubt that."
Mori smiled and leaned against a tree. She didn't want to admit it, but the fight with the brides almost drained her. She was tired, but she wasn't going to show it. She knew that Bethany would worry and, in the girl's current exhausted state, that would not be a good thing.
"Sorry Bethany, I didn't know how far I'd actually gone." Mori told her. She really didn't mean to wear out Beth like this. Heck, she didn't even know that Beth was following her. But right now, she was glad she had. Who knows what else Mori could have taken her anger out on?
"Don't think on it, Mori. You can do a lot when you are mad. Anyone can." Beth replied smiling slightly at the memory of the look on Van Helsing's face when Mori shouted at him. It was really quite funny and Beth would cherish the moment forever.
"Have you told anyone else, or am I the only person who knows?" Beth then asked her friend.
"Yes, but everyone I told didn't live to see the next sunrise." Mori said looking down then quickly turned to Beth as a thought came to her. "Please don't make me kill you."
"No!" Beth replied quickly out of shock. She would never betray Mori like that. "You don't have to worry about me. I won't even tell under torture. Then you can come in and hurt the person who's torturing me."
"That's why I like you, Bethany. If all else fails, you have the same philosophy I do." Mori said smiling slightly.
"Break or shoot whatever is in the way." Beth said looking up at her friend. "It always works."
"True, very true indeed."
Dracula watched the girls as they carried out their conversation. He couldn't hear them from where he and his brides were hiding. Frankly, he didn't care what they were talking about. Why should he? Aleera and Verona sat next to their master, both craving the taste of blood. However, that would have to wait. They just wanted to get the girl and turn her against her friend. Only after she has served that purpose could they have the pleasure of sucking the child dry.
Verona and Aleera looked over at their master, anxious to begin. Dracula looked at his two brides, each in turn. He then nodded to them, the signal for their mission to begin.
Mori suddenly went stiff and Beth saw it. Mori looked up at the night sky and listened intently. Beth followed her gaze and felt something at the base of her spine. Something was coming.
"Bethany, get to the manor. It seems that I have some visitors." Mori told her.
"I'm not going anywhere." Beth argued with her.
"Yes you are. They won't stop trying to get to me and for that, they might go after you. In that case, we are both targets." Mori told Beth.
"I see what you mean." Beth replied. "We'll have a better chance if we split up. Heaven forbid, but if they get one of us, then they couldn't get the other."
Mori nodded to show that Beth completely understood her way of thinking.
"Be careful." Beth told her. She didn't like this idea, but it made to much sense to argue otherwise.
"Hey, I'm a half blood. What could go wrong?" Mori said then thought it over a moment after she just listened to what she said. Beth was giving her a look that said 'you're joking right?'
"Famous last words." Mori mumbled.
Beth and Mori went their separate ways. Beth kept her eyes open and her finger on the trigger of her revolver. Her gun was out and ready to use. She just prayed she wouldn't have too. The metal of the gun was cool in her hand, even though she was holding onto it for dear life. If anything happened, that might well be the case.
Beth moved slowly, listening hard for any unfriendly thing that came her way. She was on her own again, but she was in her element. They wind played with her coat and her hair (she had forgotten her hat in the library) as her crystal green eyes scanned the area around her. She didn't care much for her own situation. Her weapons were minimal, which was an unusual occurrence for her. This was the first time anything like this had ever happened to her. Frankly, she intended to never let it happen ever again. Beth hated this feeling of vulnerability. Now, she would never go outside without at least her revolver, grappling gun, three stakes and silver bullets.
Beth noted her surroundings. She was in a small clearing in the forest with thick brush and trees all around her. She needed to get out of there and into the cover of the trees. That way she would be harder to see and have a better chance at escaping incase of the worst. The open was not the best place to be in case she was attacked by anything.
Beth thought she heard something in the trees and looked up. She didn't see anything, but remained still, straining her ears to catch any noise. The feeling in her gut and at the base of her spine told her that she wasn't alone. Beth wanted to bolt, but didn't know where the noise came from. If she ran, she could run into the thing that made it.
Suddenly, Verona and Aleera came out of no where and flew down at Beth. The girl flung herself to the ground to avoid being picked up by the two rats with wings. Beth pushed herself back up and bolted into the woods. She looked back to see if the brides had followed her. It was then she ran into something and was flung backward onto the ground. Beth looked up to see the cold ice blue eyes of Dracula staring down at her. The girl scrambled backward to put distance between the two of them. She looked back to see the brides land behind her, cutting off her chance of escape. Beth pulled out her grappling gun, but it was knocked away by Aleera.
"Not this time, dearie." the red-head told her as Beth crawled away from her.
"No little friend to help you now." Verona hissed at her.
Beth quickly pushed herself up and backed away from the two.
"What are you going to do now?" Aleera hissed.
Beth fought to keep her heartbeat calm. She had never been this scared before in her life. She really didn't want to become dead…or worse. She needed to get away. Her mind was telling her to bolt. At the moment, it seemed like a very good idea.
Beth turned on her heel and sprinted away from the brides…only to slam head first into Dracula. Beth fell to the ground once again, breathing hard. Whether it was from the running or her own fear, she didn't know. Dracula grabbed her coat and pulled her up to her feet roughly. He wrapped his arm around her waist to prevent her from escaping his grasp.
Beth pushed against him to try and get away. It wasn't working. The vampire only pulled her closer against him. Beth froze when he felt her neck with a chalk white hand.
"Don't worry child." he told her gently. "It will all be over very soon."
Dracula blew a powder into Beth's face and she immediately lost consciousness.
Mori returned to the manor around five in the morning. She went to the hidden library to find that everyone was still in there, researching.
"I'm back." Mori announced and looked around.
"Where is Bethany?" she asked.
"Isn't she with you?" Van Helsing asked looking up from his book, his face full of confusion.
"She was but we got separated. I told her to meet me back here." Mori said.
"She's probably just running late." Carl said.
"It's not like Beth to be late." Jen said.
"She might have gotten lost." Frankenstein suggested. "The forest outside is a very vast and confusing place."
"That's probably it. I live here and I sometimes get lost in that thing." Anna pointed out.
"Well, if she isn't back by tomorrow night, I'm going to look for her." Mori said as she began to walk out of the room.
"Oh, and Van Helsing," Mori said from the door way. The monster hunter looked toward the girl.
"I'm still really mad at you."