CHAPTER TWELVE

A day or two had gone by since Bethany had had her nightmare. It was still bothering her, however. She tried not to think about it, but when it did cross her mind, there was no getting off the subject. Was that really going to happen? Did it have any relation to the dream she had a while back about Mori? If there was a connection, what was it?

Beth really didn't have time to worry about things like that because she was too busy making sure that Mori didn't kill herself or anyone else by her frequent tripping accidents. The girl had also caught Mori staring off into the distance quite often. To bring her back to the present time, Beth would snap her fingers in front of her nose. That usually brought Mori out of her trance-like state. On the rare occasions that it didn't, Beth would poke her in the shoulder. Mori would then slap Beth on the arm for poking her. The teenager had several bruises on her arm for that sole reason.

Beth thought that something was wrong. Mori was usually never tripping, never spacing off. Mori was mostly keeping to herself more as well. She rarely ever spoke to Beth and almost never to everyone else. The half vampire just didn't seem like she was herself. It was like all the energy was sucked from her body. Beth had never seen Mori this unfocused before, and it almost scared her more than the dreams she had been having.

Beth looked around the hidden library once more. She had been spending most of her time here. They were still trying to figure out why Aleera wanted The Immortalis Chronicles. No one so far had found any clue to what the book contained. Van Helsing was hunched over the desk where Carl sat. The two were going over a list of books they had found that mentioned the chronicles and who should check which book. Anna and Jen were sitting back to back on the couch, each with their feet propped up on the arms of the couch. Mori was seated in one of the large leather chairs surrounded by a pile of books as large as the Carpathian Mountains themselves. Beth herself was seated in a chair with her feet hanging over the armrest and her back against the other one.

"Alright…"Jen said looking up from her book, causing everyone to look at her. "This is a stupid question, but has anyone found anything?"

"If we found something do you really think we would keep it a secret?" Mori replied as she glared at Jen from over the cover of her book and then added with some extra spite. "…princess…"

"Will you stop calling her that!" Anna told Mori. "You sound like a vampire when you call her that."

"How do you…"

"Mori!" Beth quickly interrupted her, her green eyes wide with fright as she looked at the raven-haired girl. Something was most definitely wrong. Mori would never be this malicious, or so careless about her precious secret. She couldn't have been thinking clearly. Was it possible that she had finally crossed that thin red line to insanity? Beth didn't want to admit it, but Mori was beginning to act like…well…her father.

"Sorry." Mori said, her voice suddenly quiet and she returned a book to her pile and pulled out another one as quickly as she could. Beth saw the book and decided she had better say something, even at the risk of getting her head bitten off.

"Um…Mori…" Beth whispered to her. Mori pulled down her book and glared dangerously at Beth.

"What?" Clearly, she was very annoyed with Beth.

"Do you always read upside down?" Beth pointed out. Mori looked down at the book in her hands. It was indeed upside down. Mori just hadn't noticed that little fact just yet.

"Yes, I find it rather relaxing." Mori replied and then turned the book to it's proper position. She then plunged into it, not to come up for air anytime in the next few hours unless something important should happen.

"Prophecies!" Anna shouted suddenly sometime later, causing everyone in the entire room to jump a mile high.

"What?" Beth asked getting out of her chair and running over to look over Anna's shoulder at the book she had.

"The Immortalis Chronicles is a book full of prophecies and resurrection spells. Mostly it's just spells but at least one fourth of the book is prophecies." Anna said reading out of the book in her hands.

"He wants a prophecy?" Jen asked, making sure she got everything right. "Or a spell?" she added quickly.

"Yeah, but which one? And why? How did he even know about the book in the first place? How come he knew where to find it, too?" Beth asked herself. The girl then looked up at her friends who were staring at her for talking to herself.

"Did I say that out loud?" Beth asked them.

"Yes, you did." Jen replied.

"Uh…" Beth said, slightly embarrassed that she couldn't keep her own thoughts in her mind. "Then I won't have to repeat myself. So…any ideas as to the answers?"

Everyone in the library looked around at each other, well, everyone but Mori. She hadn't moved at all in the past hour an a half, let alone speak. No one really expected her to start now. Everyone was either had a loss for words or had no ideas whatsoever.

"I have no idea." Carl replied finally.

Mori sighed in aggravation from behind the safety of her book.

"Well, that was informative." she said, sarcasm dripping from every syllable she uttered.

"Mori!" Jen and Beth scolded her at the same time.

"What?" Mori asked innocently. Her head had jerked back when her name was said, as if she had been pulled out of a trance.

"Why don't you go rest, Mori." Beth told her quietly as she looked at the floor. Something about what Mori had said…it sounded a bit all to familiar. Could it be that she was finally turning into…Beth shook her head violently to get such thoughts out of her head. That was impossible. Mori was to strong for that. Wasn't she?

"Why?" Mori asked.

"You're not acting like yourself."

The next night, Bethany entered the library to find that Mori and Mori alone was in it.

"Where are the others?"

"On a werewolf hunt. One sounded while you were still asleep about a second after sundown." Mori retorted. She was obviously not in the best mood, but why? Why was she acting like this and always getting terrible headaches when she wasn't? Could it be that the blood Beth had given her sometime ago was not good enough to sustain her? Was this all Beth's fault?

"Well, that's pretty important." Beth said calmly as she walked over to a book shelf and reached for a manuscript. "It's just…something doesn't seem right. Some questions still need answering."

"Intelligent person, aren't you?" Mori asked as she eyed the girl from behind her book. "Very well. What do you want to know?"

Beth's blood immediately ran cold. Her eyes widened in shock and horror. The way Mori said that, and with the exact same words as well. She just couldn't help but remember.

"Intelligent werewolf, aren't you?" Dracula said eyeing the purple form in front of him. "Very well. What do you want to know?"

Beth looked at Mori and the half vampire looked back. It wasn't Mori. It couldn't be. The eyes alone were enough to strike fear into anyone who looked into them. Those weren't Mori's, which usually held a terrible storm at bay. These were the eyes of a killer… a cold, hollow, killer.

"Dracula?" Beth asked.

Suddenly, Mori fell on the floor grasping her head.

"Mori? Who am I talking too?" Beth asked franticly.

Mori thrashed around of the floor, her eyes closed and mouth open in pain gasping out silent moans. Her fangs had grown out, showing that something wasn't right if one couldn't tell by the violent thrashing. Beth backed up in fear. What was happening?

"Bethany…" Mori gasped out in a quiet voice. She was doing something that Beth had never heard from her before. She was pleading.

"Bethany…run. He…he's coming."

Beth's eyes widened even more. She quickly bent down to Mori.

"I'm not going without you." Beth told her.

"GO!" Mori said literally throwing her at the door. Beth landed on her back out in the hallway. After something like that, she didn't need to be told twice. The girl quickly got up and ran for her life…

"She said something about Dracula, at least I think it was Dracula." Beth told Van Helsing, Anna, Carl and Jen as they arrived back at Valerious Manor. The girl had gone to find them for help. It had been about an hour and Beth could only pray that what was going on with Mori was about over, or that Dracula hadn't come yet. She and the group behind her were practically running into the manor.

"What did she say?" Van Helsing asked, who was following closely in Beth's wake.

"That he was…oh my God."

Beth stopped dead when she saw the Valerious library. It was a disaster. Books were thrown all over the floor along with the pages torn out of them. Some of the torches that lit the room had been put out and fallen on the floor and the gas lamp on the desk was now on the floor, shattered. The glass from the windows were broken as well, the night breeze entering. Stuck to the windowsill with a bloody piece of gas was a note.

Beth ran over and grabbed it, not really realizing what she was doing. Her body was working on it's own even though all her limbs had gone numb. Her brain had seemed to stop working. All she was thinking was this can't be happening, this can't be happening!

"Oh my…" Jen breathed from the door way, the others finally catching up to Beth and Van Helsing.

Blinking back tears of pain, Beth pulled the sharp glass out of the windowsill causing her own fresh blood to appear in her palm when she dropped the piece to the floor. On the parchment with long curvy handwriting where these words.

Have no fears for young Mori. The child is with me, as she should be. She is safe for the time being, but only till her purpose is served. After that the girl is quite disposable. Don't attempt to find the child. Even Gabriel will not be able to find the girl where I plan to keep her.

My best regards,

Dracula

"I'll kill him." Beth whispered, hatred filling up her emerald eyes. "I'LL KILL HIM!"

The girl whirled around and headed for the door. She would have made it too if Van Helsing hadn't stopped her. Beth tried to shake him off, but the hunter's grip was firm and strong as ever.

"What are you going to do, Beth? Get killed while you look for Mori?" Van Helsing asked her.

"At least I will have a clear conscious when I do." Beth replied, her blood boiling at the thought of dying before she could kill Dracula herself.

"There is no why you are going out there and there is no way you can convince me otherwise." Van Helsing told her looking Beth square in the eye.

"You tried that last time and see how that worked out? Now let go!"

"You are angry, Beth. You'll make stupid mistakes because you're blinded by rage!" Van Helsing told her as he grabbed Beth's other arm.

"What do you expect me to do! Sit here and knit till Dracula kills Mori!" Beth roared an inch from the monster hunter's face.

"It's actually quite relaxing…"

"Shut up Carl!" Beth growled at the friar, who quickly hid behind Anna.

"I'm going to find her and no one will stop me!" the teen declared as she blinked back an ocean of tears. After years and years of building up her wall inside her, Mori and Jen were the only ones who had entered it. They were the sisters she never had. Beth wasn't going to let her sister die, not if she could do something about it.

"Beth, I know Mori is family to you…" Van Helsing told her gently as if he had read her mind. "just like Carl is to me."

"I am?" came Carl's meek voice but it was ignored, as usual.

"Think about it. Would she want you to die because of her?" the hunter continued.

Beth looked down. Why did he have to do this to her?

"No, but she should at least do something about it." Beth said looking back up at him.

Van Helsing saw the unshed tears in her eyes. He really did have to feel sorry for her. No family, like him and now one of her friends, who was like her sister, was at the mercy of the world's deadliest vampire. He probably would have done the same thing if it was Carl or more if it was Anna that Dracula had captured.

"We will look for her, but you, Jen and Carl have to stay here and out of danger. We can't afford to lose you two kids as well, especially Jen since she is the youngest Valerious." Van Helsing replied.

"But I…"

Van Helsing stopped the girl by placing his index finger over her lips. He knew her all to well. Beth would find a loophole and use it. He had to say all of it all now.

"You or Jen can't sneak out either to do it, and having Carl with you still counts as sneaking out. If you don't slip away, we will let you join us every once and a while. You can't search during the day either. You must stay in the manor. Got it?"

"Can we search in the day if you are with us?" Beth asked, seeing as that was the only hole she could find.

"Yes."

"Okay, but you better find her." Beth told him. Van Helsing smiled. She was still acting tough.

"Don't worry. We will, I can promise you that. We will find Mori."