AN: Once again I owe nothing. No money is made of this fic and only thing I need for a reward is few good appreciated reviews.
"Janko! Janko! Get here now!"
Janko, the landlord of the Biztrits inn, tiredly moved himself from the kitchen and away from his warm meal to the desk where his wife was. "What is it now?" he asked irritated.
"We have quests" she said simply, nervously fingering her dark hair.
"Well, what of it? Surely you can take care of them" Janko said, not understanding her wife's nervousness.
"Well, look at them!" she said pointing to the window.
Janko looked out to the yard and felt his jaw hitting the ground. Four people were outside, all foreigners he noticed. A young man dressed in monk's robes, an elder man with glasses held a protective hand on a young woman's shoulder and a tall man with long brown hair dressed in a big hat and coat. During the last 48 years Janko had seen many different people but never such a strange looking company as this.
"We want two rooms with two beads in each. As close to each others as possible" said the tall man with a voice that told Janko not to start asking stupid questions.
"We have two rooms next to each others in an upper floor. There is a door that goes from one to the other" Janko said.
"We'll take them" man said and tossed a purse full of coins to Janko. "Arrange us something to eat" Gabriel Van Helsing said to the innkeeper before he guided others to the upper floor.
Mortte and his daughter settled to one room, Carl and Van Helsing to the next one. Van Helsing removed his boots and gave a relieved sigh as he lay down to a modest bed. He had been in worse places. He remembered how a German aristocrat who had sold his soul to the dark forces had been buried him alive in an old crypt. Or the other time he had faced Mr. Hyde and the damn monster had nearly ripped his head off.
Carl also was used of spending time in uncomfortable places. But he was not used to bad situations.
"Van Helsing, what are we here waiting for? Shouldn't we be looking for Princess Anna?" he asked worriedly, changing his weight from one foot to the other.
"We wait here for them to contact us, Carl. Don't you know that the hardest part of the fishing is waiting the fist to come to you? We know that Anna is somewhere in this village, we saw them flying here. We know that she is alive for if their intentions would have been killing her they would have dropped her to the ground. We know that Count wants Isabella. We have her so they are probably going to use Anna to get to her. I don't know what but I do know that whatever they are going to do they're going to do it soon" Van Helsing explained.
"So we just have to wait here?" Carl asked aghast.
There was a knock on the door and Janko entered, carrying a trait of something steaming that smelled delicious. He also hand a letter to Van Helsing. "This was leaved to you, sir" Janko said.
Van Helsing opened the letter.
Gabriel,
Meet me outside in five minutes. Come alone.
-D
"Who handed this letter?" Van Helsing asked.
"A hideous hunchback" Janko said a left the room.
The must have spied us when we came, Van Helsing thought. He moved the letter to his pocket and put the heavy boots back on. "I'm going to go outside, Carl. I'll investigate the surroundings" he said and walked to door. "Don't leave these rooms before I come back. If I'm not back for the night leave to Varna first thing tomorrow and don't look back" he added and left before young friar had anything to say.
Outside Van Helsing looked to the skies. It was still suspiciously cloudy. Count's powers are great he realized. The cold uncomfortable feeling returned and he sensed the presence. Van Helsing looked around and saw him standing opposite him in the street. His black cape hid his aristocratic clothes making him look less out of place. He had black gloves and his hair was pulled black. Count Dracula smiled as Van Helsing approached him.
"Shouldn't you be in bed this time of day?" Van Helsing asked.
Dracula gave a dry laugh. "Same old Gabriel; always trying to be the funny one".
"What do you want?" Van Helsing asked.
"You know what I want. I want the girl" Count said.
"You will not have her, you demon. I swear if you even touch her-"
"You will do…what? Kill me, perhaps? You've already done that and look how well that turned out".
Van Helsing stopped. He remembered his dream. "You said that you couldn't die because hate like yours would never die. What is it that you hate? Or who do you hate?" he asked. Dracula stayed silent and unmoving as a statue. Van Helsing wondered for a moment. "How much did you love Sabrina?" he asked, surprising both of them with his question.
For a moment a shot of red appeared in Dracula's steel-blue eyes. But then he recovered. "All my life, my human life that is, I can't remember a time I had not been filled with battle and war inside me. You don't remember much, Gabriel, but during the time of our youth Eastern Europe was in a brink of war with Turk. I was born to battle, ever since my childhood the war was my only goal. I have always felt the fore raging inside of me. Even in our childhood games I was willing to fight and win. But never with Sabrina. Whenever your sister was around I felt peace and calm. I didn't feel the desire to kill and conquer when I was with her. To everyone else I was master and lord but to her I was slave, ready to do anything for her. My enemies and competitors called me Dracula and Tépés, the devil and the impailer, but she called me love and husband. You can't understand what it is like to lose someone like her from your life" Dracula said. He spoke passionately but the coldness of his voice never left completely.
"Why did you succumb to this? I know it must have hurt when she killed herself but…" what Van Helsing was about to say never was said. Dracula gave a cold mocking laugh and removed clove from one of his hands. Van Helsing didn't sense any immediate danger so he didn't react in time when Dracula's cold fingers touched his forehead.
It was night. Black sky was seen trough the windows. A dark haired man with steel-blue eyes entered an old cathedral. He was dressed in black armour that had a golden dragon in its chest. His loyal men waited outside. He walked fast towards the altar that had priests hovering over it. He walked close to the body laid before it. A young woman's body. Man fell to the ground next to the body and touched woman's pale face gently with his hand.
"Sabrina…" Prince Vladislaus Valerious chocked.
"I am sorry for this tragedy, Prince" said an elder priest with grey beard coming toward him.
"Wh-What happened?" Vladislaus managed to ask between his sobs. He didn't care that priests saw his tears.
"The Turks send her a letter claiming that you had died, my lord. It send her to madness and she drowned herself in to the river" priest said.
"She was supposed to be safe here, in the cathedral. Wait till I've returned" Vladislaus cried.
"My mistress did not kill herself!" shouted a voice from the back of the room.
Everyone, including grief struck prince, raised their heads to a limping, pale woman who seemed to be wounded. She was holding tightly on her rib and everyone saw immediately that her simple clothes were soaked with blood.
"I know that woman. She is one of my wife's chamber maids!" Prince Vladislaus said and run to the woman who collapsed to his arms. His years in the battles told him that the woman had been pierced with sharp object and that she had lost too much blood that anything could be done for her now. "What do you mean my wife didn't commit suicide?" he asked.
"She was murdered by your brother Radu, sire" she said weakly. Vladislaus gasped.
"She is hysterical, possessed by demon, my lord. Don't listen to that witch" the old priest tried to interfere but was silenced by prince.
"Tell me more" prince said.
"He came here, Prince Radu, and he wanted to be alone with mistress. I soon heard yelling and shouting. My mistress had denied him his carnal desires. He killed her and ordered his soldiers to kill us," woman winced with pain, "…the priests are his servants. He wanted that mistress would come here because he had wanted her so long. This is his church…" she coughed badly. "They killed everyone but I escaped and I waited in the cellars till you came, sire" she whispered.
Prince Vladislaus spoke tenderly. "You've done well" he said.
"It hurts" woman winced.
"I know" Prince said softly and in blink of an eye snapped the woman's neck broken.
He walked to the altar and raised Sabrina's dead body to his arms. He walked to the door with a stern unmoving cold look.
"Prince Valerious?" priest asked, scared for his life.
Prince Vlad turned one time at the door to look the priest. "I am Dracula" he said.
He walked out of the church to his horse. He climbed up holding the dead body close to him. "Lieutenant!" he shouted.
"Yes, my lord?" asked an armoured man.
"This church is filled with traitors. Burn it down and let no one come out alive" he said before riding away, leaving his lieutenant with his terrible task.
AN: Damn, it took me all day to do this! You better send some reviews now.