Hmph, seems like my jinks stroke again. The number of my readers seems to have lessened dramatically. Darn…
Well, maybe you remember me now.
Early next morning both Heinrich Mortte and his daughter Isabella, both still very tired after hardly sleeping at all, climbed in to a carriage, destined to take them to Varna where a ship would travel them to Vatican. Anna Valerious had personally come to travel with them, to look that Mortte and his daughter would get safe to Varna. Once they would be at the ocean Dracula could not harm them. Anna sat at the driver's seat in the carriage and three of he men were riding side the carriage. Both Gabriel Van Helsing and Carl were riding by horses near them.
"Carl," Anna shouted from the carriage.
Young friar rode next to carriage. "Yes, Princess?" he asked.
"I've noticed that the sky is unnaturally cloudy. No sun light is seen. I think it's best to let Van Helsing know about this" she said.
Carl would have wanted to ask why Anna didn't just tell her business to Van Helsing directly, but after seeing Van Helsing's angry red cheek he decided better of it. Instead he rode next to Van Helsing.
"I doubt I actually need to tell you this but you've seen recently our current climate?" Carl said.
"It's suspiciously cloudy, I know! Jesus, does she take me as a complete idiot?!" Van Helsing muttered darkly.
Carl wasn't sure if he had asked him or had it been rhetorical question but he decided not to answer. Instead he just yawned.
"Why are you tired, Carl?" Van Helsing asked.
Carl looked Van Helsing like he was five years old. "I'm tired because you send me to find some long forgotten information in the Valerious library. I spend almost entire night there!" he commented angrily. "I could have spent the night sleeping in a warm bed, but no! Nor could I spend the night enjoying warm beer down in the village pub or with that barmaid I saw there evening…" his voice suddenly trailed off.
Van Helsing raised an eyebrow. "Carl, I'm not sure you really care of your wows" he said.
"Shut up!"
For a while they rode in silence.
"Well…?" Van Helsing's voice finally asked.
"Well what?" asked irritated Carl.
"Well did you find anything useful from the library?"
"Oh! Er…no, nothing about Order of the Dragon, but the seal in your ring is definitely the Order's seal. But I did found an old, incomplete document about Dracula's wife" he added.
Van Helsing's attention was Carl's now. He could still see the image of his past in his mind. Young, happy looking Dracula kissing young girl called… Sabrina Van Helsing. His sister, of whom he knew nothing about.
"What did you found out about her?" he asked.
"Well, according to the document Count Dracula was married to a daughter of the General who fought in his father's army. It seems they loved each others very strongly, so strongly they couldn't live without each others. When Dracula was on battlefields fighting against the Turks a letter was sent to his wife. It carried false news of Dracula's death and his wife flung herself to the river. When Dracula found out he became bloodthirsty monster who killed even his own men" Carl told.
"So he became monster when he was still alive" Van Helsing said, remembering the impaled bodies in his dreams. "Did you found out his wife's name?"
"No, as I said it was incomplete old document. It only described the circumstances of her death and Dracula's last days. It seems that he met his demise following year" Carl said.
"But not permanently…" Van Helsing muttered. This was all too much. In his dreams he had been the one to kill Dracula, just like he had playfully fought against him in that strange vision. Through whose eyes had he seen these happening? Some ancestor he didn't know? But he was called Gabriel Van Helsing in these visions. Had it truly been his past? Funnily, Van Helsing was more willing to accept that as an answer. Years he had spent hunting peoples of the night had teach that anything is possible.
Suddenly that cold feeling crept to him. That feeling that made alarming voice in his head and made his body tense. The feeling that had always warned him the presence of evil. He looked up to the skies and saw that they were as cloudy as yesterday when they had come. God, had it been so little time ago? Vampires could move in the day time now. He looked around him. They were currently making their way through a deep forest. Alarm bells in his head were ringing fully now.
He quickly rode before the carriage and saw Anna holding her blade close. She had lived in Transylvania her all life so she also felt the feeling of something being wrong. They rode still forward but trying to detect any sings of some other being.
"Stop the carriage" Anna said suddenly to the driver next to her.
In the middle of the road, right in front of them was standing a figure of a man. To anyone else he would have seemed like a young man who had partied too much last night. His dark hair was a mess and his skin was sickly pale. His arms were shaking and he looked like he was about to vomit. He raised his head, revealing his face.
"Velkan!" Anna said breathlessly.
Not a move was made. Everyone was expecting something to happen. Anna was fighting the urge to run and hug her brother.
"Hey, Anna" Velkan said with a weak, broken voice.
"Hey, Velkan" Anna answered. "Where did you go last night?"
"To his castle" he answered.
Both Anna and Gabriel drew breath. "You know where it is?" Anna asked.
"Yes".
"Where?"
Velkan shook his head. "The choice is not mine to make. He has forbidden me to tell" he said. Then they saw his dark eyes turning to yellow. "Kill me, Anna!" Velkan shouted when the transformation occurred. In a blink of an eye Velkan disappeared and in his place was gigantic werewolf, covered with black fur. His claws and tooth looked unnervingly sharps.
Before anyone could make a move another werewolf attacked from the forest and two Brides from the sky. All of Anna's guards were suddenly down. And so would be Carl if he hadn't been able to jump down from the horse that became werewolf's lunch.
It all became such a blur. Van Helsing tried to analyze the situation but found it almost impossible. He attacked the Brides that were drinking blood from Anna's men, while Anna herself was fighting against her own brother. Unfortunately that left the other werewolf who was ripping his way to the carriage. Van Helsing took his sword and cut off leg from one Bride. He knew that it caused them only a moment of pain before they would regenerate the leg. Only heart and head are the lethal parts.
Van Helsing turned around and saw that werewolf had now ripped part of the carriage open and was hungrily looking inside. Van Helsing felt his stomach twist. There was no way he could stop that monster now.
But then he hear a gun shot and werewolf fell down the ground and transformed to a bald dead man who had a bullet wound in his forehead. Van Helsing saw Heinrich Mortte holding a smoking gun in his shaking hand. It was a gun given to him by Anna Valerious, holding silver bullets. Van Helsing would have been ready to marry and carry children for Anna right then and there.
His happiness was shortly lived as another Bride attacked carriage. Mortte shot her but she only laughed. "Fool! Silver doesn't effect on vampires!" she hissed and throw Mortte away.
Van Helsing launch himself towards the Bride but another one attacked him. "This is for my leg!" she screamed and hit Van Helsing. "And this is for Marishka!" Another blow. "And this-"
She didn't finish it for Van Helsing cut off both of her hands with his sword. She screamed and flew to the sky. Van Helsing turned his attention back to the other Bride who was holding Isabella by the wrist. But then something incredible happened.
Out of the blue Anna jumped to the other Bride, forcing her to let go of Isabella. Anna raised her blade in an attempt to cut of vampires head but other Bride, who had now regenerated her arms as well as her leg, took the blade from her and threw it away. Van Helsing watched helplessly as the three women flew higher and higher and ultimately disappeared totally.
He quickly looked around. Carl seemed to be little shocked, Isabella was taking care of her father who was trying to stand top and Velkan…had disappeared yet again. Van Helsing watched to the direction where Anna and Brides disappeared. To a little village called Biztrits.
AN: Both Varna and Biztrits are dedication for Bram Stoker's novel.