CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Bethany sat with Jen and Mori in the kitchen. Mori and Jen were talking to Beth while she was busy shoveling some mashed potatoes down her throat.
"I feel a little weird." Jen said.
"How's that?" Mori asked her.
"Just a little light headed, that's all."
Beth and Mori looked at each other. They both knew what was wrong with Jen. She needed to feed.
"Do you…"
"Green bottle in the very back of the fourth cabinet to the left on the ground." Beth interrupted Mori. She already knew what the question was.
"Thanks. Hold her down." Mori said getting up as she went to fetch the bottle.
"Like I'd be able too." Beth mumbled.
"My mom had to hold me down to get me to do it." Mori shouted over her shoulder.
"Alright."
"Hold me down for what?" Jen asked.
"Jen, remember how you're a vampire now?" Beth started. Jen's eyes widened as she realized what her friends meant.
"Oh no!" she said.
"Oh yes." Mori replied as she returned with a glass full of the red liquid.
"You can't make me." Jen said.
"It's either this or die." Mori pointed out.
"Death sounds pretty good to me right now." Jen replied.
"I could do that if you want." Mori told her smirking. Jen immediately backed off. "Just drink it."
Mori set the glass in front of her and Jen looked at it questioningly.
"Where did this come from?" Jen asked them.
"Bethany was the one who got it, princess." Mori turning to gaze to the girl at the other end of the table.
"Pig." Beth answered quickly as the memory of how she got that information ran through her mind.
"Not human?" Jen asked.
"Not human."
"Can I survive off animal blood?" Jen asked.
"According to Dracula you can." Beth mumbled under her breath as she took a drink of her own water. She smiled slightly at him being so stupid.
"What was that?" Mori asked her.
"Nothing, Mori. You must be hearing voices again." Beth replied.
"Uh-huh, sure." Mori said, not really believing her friend.
Jen picked up the glass and slowly raised it to her lips. She took a small sip and waited a moment as it slid down her throat. Mori watched her as a second later, Jen drained the glass immediately.
"First one's always the hardest, princess." Mori said removing the glass as Jen wiped the remainder of blood off her lips with her hand. Beth just rolled her eyes at the two.
"You would've had to do it sometime, Hun." Beth told Jen.
"I just didn't expect it to be that…"
"Invigorating?" Mori suggested.
"Well, yes."
"You get used to that too." Mori said dryly as she sank back into her seat next to Bethany.
"I'll get used to you two talk about it too." Beth said shaking her head. It still was weird, after everything, to hear her two friends talking about drinking blood. Mori and Jen just smirked at her. Beth saw that they had almost the same look on both of their faces. She just raised one eyebrow.
"Jen, you need to spend less time with Mori." Beth told her. Jen just laughed.
"Are you saying I'm a bad influence on her?" Mori asked playfully.
"I'm just saying that you are an influence. I haven't decided if it's a good influence or not…"
Jen then laughed again but stopped when Carl ran into the room.
"Girls…we…have…a…problem…" Carl said between gasps.
"What is it?" Mori asked him as all three girls stood up.
"Dracula…"
All three girls raced out of the room before Carl even finished.
"Wait!" Carl called as he ran after them. "Oh great, more running."
- - -
Carl lead the girls to where he left Van Helsing and Anna. They had been ambushed by the vampires and Van Helsing had told Carl to go get help. The little friar ran like heck back to the manor to get the girls. Now they were all running back into the fire.
As they were getting close, Mori grabbed Beth's arm and held her back.
"It's a trap." Mori whispered to her. "Jen!"
It was too late. Jen and Carl had already gone through the bushes into the clearing. The half vampire and half angel then heard their screams. Beth tried to move, but Mori still held her firmly in place.
"Stay here." Mori said and then vanished into the clearing before Beth could protest. If Mori would have let her, she would have.
Beth heard the sounds of a fight, but still didn't move. She feared that she would give away her presence. She didn't move till she heard Mori moan in pain. Beth moved to the edge of the brush and looked though. Dracula held Mori up against a tree by her neck. Everyone else was trapped in some sort of cage like contraption. It looked like a cage, so Beth concluded that the brides had carried it here.
"Leave her alone!" Jen shouted at him. She was the only one not in the cage. No doubt that it was because of her newly acquired vampire powers. Verona was holding her back.
"Do you honestly think I'll hurt her, Jennifer?" Dracula asked eyeing the teenager he held in his grasp.
"I can't wait till I get to rip you to pieces." Mori growled at him.
"Now dear Morianalynn, is that anyway to speak to me?" the vampire cooed.
"Yes." Was her reply. "I could say what I really think if you want me too."
"You mean we have time for that entire list?" Jen asked.
"Shut-up." Verona said shaking Jen.
"Thank you Verona." Dracula asked.
Beth had to fight not to shoot the crud out of him right now. That exactly wasn't the best idea at the moment. Then her position would have been given away. She still had the element of surprise on her side. Plus, she could hit Mori instead of him.
"Now that I finally have the undivided attention of all of you, I shall tell you Morianalynn's little secret." Dracula said smirking at her. Mori's eyes widened at this, but he continued before she could stop him.
"She is my daughter."
Beth glared evilly at the man. He would pay dearly for all this…she just had to wait for the right time.
"You son of a bitch!" Mori growled at him. She was going to kill him when she got the chance, which she prayed would be very soon.
"Now where is Bethany?" Dracula continued. "She must have abandoned you. Well, this doesn't surprise me at all. Gabriel, she is just like you. She left everyone she loved to die."
Pure rage flared up inside Bethany. How dare he! He had mocked her, her family, ripped her family apart and put Mori and Jen though hell. She couldn't stand him any longer. No more miss nice angel.
"Is that so?" Beth asked as she revealed herself, her eyes filled with emerald fire. "If I had left I couldn't do this."
Beth flung out her arm and a beam of white light shot out of her palm. The light hit Dracula hard and flung him off Mori. She immediately fell to the ground. The young huntress ran over to her and knelt down.
"You alright?" Beth asked.
"Yeah, but Dracula won't be."
Beth was then stuck by Aleera. The girl flew about five feet in the air before she landed and slid another seven feet.
"You troublesome child. I should have killed you when I had the chance." Aleera hissed.
"And why didn't you? It was probably because I could even outsmart you when I was four." Beth replied.
Aleera dove for her again in pure rage. Beth rolled out of the way and pulled out one of her pistols. She shot at the bride and hit her right in the eye. As she screamed in agony, Beth bolted toward the cage where everyone was locked. She aimed for the lock, but missed when Verona punched her in the jaw. The huntress was sent to the ground with a bloody lip. She kicked herself back up again and faced off with the bride. Beth flung her arms outward and tojo blades slid into her hands. They spun to life as she charged at the dark haired vampire.
Verona knocked her back, sending the blades flying through the air. Beth swore under her breath and tried to get up, but found that the vampire's grip held her to the earth below her.
"Any last words?" Verona asked her.
"Go to hell." Beth said and her emerald eyes changed to glowing pure white. Faster than any mortal could manage, Beth flung out her right wrist and a silver stake slid into her hand. The glowing light shifted from her eyes to the stake right before she shoved it into Verona's heart.
She reeled back screaming and clawing at her chest. In a matter of moments, Verona was a pile of dust and the remaining two vampires flew off screaming in grief.
"Whoa…" Jen stated as Beth pushed herself up.
"I'll get you guys out of here." Mori said as she moved toward where the others were being held.
"You are his daughter!" Van Helsing almost roared at her. Carl scrambled to the back of the cage to get away from Mori. All Anna could do was just look at her. Hurt flashed in Mori's eyes before her hard outer-shell replaced itself again.
"On second thought, I should just leave you in there." Mori replied coldly.
"Mori!" Beth half scolded her. The young huntress then caught the look that the dark girl was giving her. It almost made her back up to keep away from her. It was so full of hate and hurting that it even hurt Beth to receive it.
"Don't be that way Mori." Jen said as she moved to stand next to Beth.
"I'm not going to let them out till they listen to me." Mori replied. "They'd probably kill me before I said anything otherwise."
"Why shouldn't we?" Van Helsing snapped back.
Those words cut Mori in half. After all the danger she's gone though with them…finally the truth comes out.
"Don't you dare say that to her!" Beth roared at him.
"How many people have you killed?" Van Helsing asked Mori, ignoring Beth's remark. Mori just froze in place at this. Beth saw sadness flash in Mori's eyes again.
"Just one." Mori replied softly. She then turned on her heel and marched off.
"Mori wait!"
"Don't you dare follow me Bethany." Mori told her and then vanished.
"Well, that went well." Jen said trying to lighten the mood.
"According to who?" Beth replied. She looked to where Mori had run off to. "I'm going after her."
Jen grabbed her arm to stop the girl from moving. "Give her some time, Beth. She needs it."
"Fine." Bethany said yanking her arm from Jen's grasp. She then turned to where the cage was. "We better get you guys out."
Beth shot off the lock and pulled open the door. When Van Helsing passed her, she jammed her fist in his stomach. The hunter hunched over in pain as the wind was knocked from his diaphragm.
"What was that for?" he asked.
"What do you think!" Bethany roared at him. She was furious, maybe even as much as Mori. He had no right to make her feel terrible. She couldn't help who her family was no matter how much she disliked him.
"Do you know what she's done for me! Just because she is Dracula's child doesn't mean that she deserves to be killed! She has a soul! She isn't evil! If she was, I would've sensed it the second after we met!"
"You can do that?" Carl asked.
"Shut-up Carl!" Bethany shouted at him before her rage was focused on Van Helsing once again. "Mori has been fighting against her father her entire life and now, when she finally has a chance to end it all, you go and do something like…like that! Do you even know who she killed! Marishka! People can't help who they are related too!
Beth was in tears now. They were streaming down her face even though nothing but wrath. The girl turned away from him to calm herself. She could feel her power rising up in her. She didn't want to blow Van Helsing up, no matter how good the idea sounded at the time.
"Mori is a good person, despite the blood that runs through her veins." She said only this time in a quiet tone. "I thought you would understand that."
"Beth, she is a vampire." Van Helsing tried to reason with her.
"Half, she's only half." Beth said whirling around to face him. "Honestly, some days I just wish I had never met you!"
Beth bolted away from them. She didn't know where she was going, but she didn't care. Just away. She wanted to be gone from this place. Beth wished all this was all over, or at least she was normal. No vampires, no monsters, no Dracula…no father. She craved solitude. The girl prayed for something steady in her turbulent life.
She wasn't at all surprised when she found her feet had carried her to the town's small church. Bethany let herself in and found she was the only one in there. Good, solitude. She sat down right in the center of the first row pew and stared at the large cross at the front of the church.
"Why is life so hard?" she asked aloud. "Why are people so stuck in the ideas of right and wrong and what they know? Why can't they just believe?"
Beth sat there mulling the questions over in her head. Was she really questioning Van Helsing's actions or was she questioning her own? Why didn't she stop Dracula sooner? She could have…at least she thought she could have. Was she really waiting for the right time or was she just waiting for Dracula to tell everyone Mori's secret? Did she just not want to keep it anymore? Or was it more than that? Was she scared? After all this time, was she scared of doing what she had been sent here to do in the first place?
Beth's head jerked around when she heard a scream outside the door. She jumped up and ran down the long aisle way. She flung open the door to see a werewolf, who had Jen pinned to the ground. However, that was not the reason that she was screaming. A beam of sunlight had just hit Jen's hand and it was sizzling the flesh off her bone.
"Jen!" Beth said as she pulled out her revolver. "Don't move!"
The teen fired and hit the wolf in the shoulder. It howled in agony and flew into the nearby woods. Jen was now fully exposed to the sun's beams and she was screaming in pain. Beth flung off her coat and laid it over her friend. She had to think fast and had very little time to do it in. Who knew how long Jen would last under that layer of dark leather.
"Jen, c'mon." Beth said pulling her to her feet. She put an arm around Jen and guided her into the church as fast as she could. Beth slammed the door shut and didn't stop running till she hit an empty back room. She knew, since Jen was a vampire after all, that her friend wouldn't be able to stand that gigantic cross in the main chapel.
Beth pulled her coat off of the girl and had to fight not to flinch. Jen looked horrible. The right half of her face was badly burned along with both of her hands. Part of her hair had shrunk back, giving her a very uneven hairline.
"That bad huh?" Jen asked, her hazel eyes cast on the ground.
"It's not that bad." Beth replied, mostly lying.
"We're in a church right?"
"Yeah."
"Then stop lying."
"Alright then." Beth said now planning to be brutally honest. "You look like something that the cat spit up, ate, and then spit up again."
"You didn't have to be that honest." Jen told her.
"You asked for it." Beth said and then moved toward her friend. "Let me see your hands."
Jen held them out and saw the damage that the sun had done to her. Her face fell into an expression of 'this is not good'. Seeing her hands made her realize why they stung so much.
"Emm…" Beth bit her lower lip. "Well, Jen, since you're a vampire it will heal faster. It still needs bandages however."
Beth then looked at Jen's bloody palms and knuckles. "A lot of bandages."
"I forgot about…" Jen started off quietly but quickly trailed off.
Beth looked up at Jen and saw sadness in her eyes. She completely understood. Jen didn't want to be an immortal being anymore than she or Mori did. Jen was different than them for one reason. She had physical limitations that she couldn't control.
"You'll remember next time. If you don't, you'll be dead." Beth told her calmly.
"Sounds like a pretty good option to me." Jen mumbled.
"Don't say that Jen. You have a soul. You have a life. Not everyone has that, especially in this business. You should use them to their fullest." Beth half scolded her as she began looking around the room for something to use as bandages.
"Why do you say that?" Jen asked.
"I know you all to well Jen. You're far to kind to be soul-less."
Jen smiled slightly as Beth motioned for her to sit in a chair. She did so and Beth came toward her with bandages and a bottle of whiskey in hand. They were hidden in a cupboard in the corner of the room. The teen had noticed that Jen's injuries had already begun to heal, but only slightly. Beth just dressed her wound and then leaned back to inspect her work. It would pass, for now.
"Now, would you care to tell me why you were out anyway?" Beth inquired.
"Is this an interrogation?"
"It can be."
"I came looking for you."
"You of all people, Jen, should know that I can take care of myself." Beth told her.
"That still doesn't stop me from worrying about you." Jen said.
Beth just smiled at the young Valerious.
"Thanks Jen. I needed that."