CHAPTER EIGHT

Bethany woke up with her head pounding. She looked down at herself to see her coat was gone, revealing her black corset, black shirt with long bell sleeves, black pants and black boots that were usually hidden underneath it. The girl sat up to see she was on a bed. She looked around the room made of black stone to see that there were no windows in the room. Candles were her only light…a lot of candles. Across from the bed she saw a dark wood desk and chair. To her left was a pair of large twin dark wood doors.

Beth got up and walked around the bed slowly till she was at the foot of it. She sat on the edge and lowered her forehead onto her hand.

"What happened?" she asked herself quietly.

"I believe we ran into each other."

Beth quickly looked up at the ceiling to see Dracula standing on it, hanging upside down. To her horror, he quickly jumped down to the floor in front of her. Beth backed up on the bed wanting to put as much distance between her and the vampire as possible.

"Hello." Dracula said smirking at her.

"You are starting to get a little annoying." Beth replied.

Dracula's smirk grew as he moved to one side of the bed and Beth jumped on the floor on the other side of the bed. Her theory was if he couldn't get to her, he couldn't bite her.

"I do believe Mori is rubbing off on you." he said.

"Thank you."

"Why have you not killed her yet? She is evil you know." Dracula said.

"She has a soul."

"A corrupted one."

"Not that I have seen." Beth replied glaring at him coldly. She was careful not to meet his gaze or she would surely be under his power.

"What have you seen? Have you seen her when she thinks no one is watching? Do you even know where she gets her blood?" Dracula said taunting her as he slowly got closer to Beth, who was backing up.

Beth was caught off guard by this question. She had no answer for them. Was Mori truly evil, or was Dracula playing with her?

"I thought so." he said with a smug look on his face after Beth's silence.

"If she was evil, then why would I have not sensed it?" Beth retorted.

"You can do that?" Dracula asked her. He thought maybe he could get something from her past that he could use.

"It's a gift, now answer the question."

"I'm the one doing the questioning here, my dear. You will get no answers from me." Dracula said leaning down so he was less than and inch away from her nose.

"Same goes for me, bat breath." Beth said smirking at him.

"Hold your tongue, child!"

"I'll do what I please." Beth told him. Right now she was pissed off and found this whole ordeal annoying. She didn't care what Dracula did to her. Beth knew she was going to die because of Dracula, but with God as her witness, she swore she would at least bug the crud out of him first. It's what Mori would have wanted her to do.

Dracula was furious, but hid it well. However, Beth could tell he was angry by the crazy look in his eyes, which were now crystal blue. He was in vampire mode. Good, Beth had done her job and she did it well. Mori, Beth thought to herself. If only you were here. You'd be so proud of me.

The teen was brought out of her thoughts by Dracula slapping her on the face. The stinging sensation was quickly spreading over her features and it hurt like heck. Beth wouldn't let him see that. She wouldn't let Dracula have the satisfaction of seeing her hurt. What did he think she was, a baby?

Beth turned her face back to him and made a face to say 'that all you got? I can take more'. To her surprise, Dracula seemed pleased. He stepped back a few steps then turned back to the girl, who was still trying to ignore the pain in her face.

"I have a proposition for you. You become my daughter, and I promise not to kill your friend, Jennifer." he offered.

"Why would you want me?" Beth was going to finish with when you have Mori, but then it occurred to her. He didn't know. Mori would find this hilarious. He gets all the little things, but of all details he misses this one. If he doesn't know, I'm not going to tell him. Beth thought to herself.

"You are brave and strong, the perfect specimen. What do you say, my dear?" Dracula replied.

"Hell no." Beth replied immediately.

"And why not? Are you afraid you might enjoy being one of the creatures you have hunted?" Dracula taunted her.

All Beth could do was glare hatefully at him.

Mori was exhausted. They had spent the passed two nights looking for Bethany. No where. She was no where. They found her coat in a clearing but that was it. The tracks just vanished after that. Mori was beginning to fear the worst, as was Van Helsing. It seemed like everyday he got more and more on edge. Mori knew what she had to do, but she knew she wasn't going to like it.

Beth sat with her booted feet propped up on the desk. She was absorbed in a book she found in the desk. It was boring, but it was something to do. After two days and two nights of being cooped up in this little room, she was afraid she was going insane.

Suddenly, the book was jerked from her grasp and Dracula was standing above her. Beth looked up at him.

"Yes?" she asked him, knowing tonight would not end well for some reason.

"Have you thought about my offer?" he inquired as Beth stood up and backed up a few paces away from him.

"Yes, and the answer is no…still." Beth told him. He was beginning to annoy her.

"Then you leave me no choice." Dracula said calmly and dropped the book he had taken from Beth on the desk. "I must make you agree by force."

Beth reached up to feel the cross around her neck. Nowadays, it was the only comfort she had. As long as that was around her neck, she would be safe from Dracula…mostly.

Mori walked through the mirror, loaded down with as many weapons as she could carry. She looked back to see Van Helsing follow her.

"Why are we checking here?" Van Helsing asked.

"Because it's the only place we haven't looked yet." Mori replied.

The two got into the castle through the somewhat opened door and began to walk down the halls. Mori saw Van Helsing go tense. She knew last time he was here, things didn't end so well. She just hoped this time would be different.

"What do you mean by force?" Beth asked Dracula. Things really didn't look good for her at the moment.

"This." he said.

Within a second, Dracula had Beth by the arms and had driven a dagger into the side of her stomach. Beth inhaled sharply in pain as Dracula pulled the dagger out and stepped back a few steps. The teen grasped her side in attempt to stop the bleeding, but it wouldn't work. Thank goodness that a person could live through this kind of wound, but only if they could stop the bleeding. That meant bandages, which Beth didn't have and she knew Dracula wouldn't supply. If she didn't accept his proposal, she would die and if she wanted to live at all, he would have to bite her. That was his plan.

"I'm sorry I had to do that child, but it was necessary." Dracula tried to explain.

Beth grabbed onto one of the bed posts with one of her hands as her head began to spin. Oh heal. the girl prayed over and over again. Please heal.

"You see, now the only way you could live is becoming an immortal being. Plus, no one would come to save you anyway." Dracula taunted her.

Beth glared up at him, hatred filling her usually calm green eyes. Dracula met her gaze and to his surprise, she didn't flinch, shudder, or even look away. She just glared at him. Maybe she thought if she glared at him long enough, she could kill him. Right now that was exactly what the teen wanted to do.

"How would you know?" Beth growled at him defiantly.

"They've abandoned you." Dracula told her coldly. "If they were looking for you they would have found you by now."

"They will come."

At that moment, a gunshot was heard outside the door to the room and it was flung open to reveal an angry looking Mori and Van Helsing, his crossbow up and ready to fire.

Beth just smirked. Her head was spinning and she knew she was losing consciousness, but she had one more thing she had to do. Since Dracula was wrong about her friends, she was going to rub it in.

"Told you."

With that, the girl's eyes rolled up in the back of her head as she fell to the floor.

"Bethany!" Mori said and ran forward to get her, but was stopped by Dracula throwing her into a wall. The vampire smirked and turned to Van Helsing.

"You keep such unusual company Gabriel. First little friars and a gypsy princess and now teenage girls. Such a pity you can't find anyone better who likes you." Dracula told him, his icy eyes glittering at the thought of the insult.

"Shut up and fight!" Mori roared and jumped on the vampire's back. Dracula flung her over him and straight into Van Helsing, knocking the two down. The gun that was in Van Helsing's hand went flying through the air, landing only god knows where.

Dracula strode over to the fallen hunters and picked Mori up by the neck and pinned her against the wall.

"You again." he told her.

"Just can't seem to get rid of me, huh?" Mori hissed at him, anger flaring up in her crystal blue eyes.

"I'll soon fix that." Dracula said.

Van Helsing reacted quickly by shoving a silver crucifix between the two. Dracula roared and flung the cross away from himself before he grabbed Van Helsing's neck with his other hand. Now he had both of them pinned to the wall.

"I will finish off the legendary Van Helsing first. I guess he isn't so legendary after all. Well, it was wonderful knowing you." Dracula hissed at them.

"Leave them be."

Dracula turned around to see Beth, clinging to the side of the bed for support. She was still bleeding heavily and all the color had flushed from her face. She looked as if she was a walking corpse.

"Let them go!" Beth ordered, looking like she was going to collapse again at any given moment.

"What do you intend to do about it?" Dracula asked her. "I seriously doubt you could do anything to me child."

"Want to bet?" Beth asked and then revealed something she had been holding behind her back. It was Van Helsing's gun. Beth aimed and fired the weapon, a bullet hitting Dracula square in the chest. Beth continued to fire the handgun till it clicked empty. Dracula was pushed back away from Van Helsing and Mori by the force of the bullets hitting him.

After the gun was out, Beth could feel her legs fall out from under her again. However, Van Helsing caught her before she hit the floor. The man picked her up gently with Beth cradled against his chest and he ran out of the room, followed by Mori. Van Helsing and Mori didn't even need to try and figure out where the door was, they knew already. Once they were out of this hall, it was a straight shot to the door.

The three made it to the long hall way and out the door safely, thank goodness. But still they kept running. They didn't stop until they were through the mirror and had laid Beth down on her bed.

"I'll go get Carl to come treat her." Van Helsing said and quickly left the room.

Mori stayed by Beth and watched her, the girl's eyes half open. Mori understood that Beth had gathered up all of her strength to save them back at the castle. That was amazing. Mori had never known anyone who knew what she was and still tried to save her. Beth was the first true friend she had ever had. Of course she would never admit it…never!

Mori looked over what Dracula had done to Beth. That just gave her one more reason to kill him. Every time Mori got something good in her life, he would destroy it. Sometimes it was directly or indirectly, but he would destroy it nonetheless.

Mori was brought out of her thoughts by Carl running into the room, Van Helsing, Anna, and Frankenstein behind him. In his arms were bandages and a little bottle of whiskey.

"All right, everyone out. I need complete privacy to bandage her up." Carl told them as he set the things he carried in down on a night stand.

"I'm not leaving." Mori told him.

"Neither am I." Van Helsing cut in.

"No, out. Out, out, out." Carl said shooing them out of the room and closing the door behind them.

The door slammed an inch away from Mori's own nose, the sound echoing down the empty hallway. Rage boiled up inside her. It was her fault this was happening and she couldn't even do anything to help. She hated having absolutely no control over what was going to happen.

Van Helsing glanced down at the girl next to him. He noticed that her hands were clenched into tight fists.

"I would assume you are upset." he said.

"How could you tell?" Mori asked, anger dripping through every syllable she uttered.

"You look the part." Van Helsing said and decided to be nicer. He knew how connected Beth was to her and he didn't see why Mori would be any less connected to Beth.

"Anything I can do to help?"

Mori glanced over at him, surprised that he offered any help at all. She thought about it a moment.

"I'm going to go practice my shooting." she said and left abruptly with the gentle swooshing of her black cloak behind her.