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CHAPTER 12
A swell of emotions welled up inside of Anna. Horror. Fear. Panic. Rage. Her jaw clenched, her grip on her sword tightened, and her eyes narrowed, darkening dangerously.
The shapeshifter didn't seem to notice. "It was all too easy. Once he saw that it was 'you' approaching, he turned his back to me. He didn't even realize that the evil he was searching for was right behind him, not until it was too late."
Eyes wide, Carl gulped. What the man…creature, whatever he happened to be, was saying was plausible, the friar reluctantly considered. Van Helsing was a very trusting man when it came to those he was close with. He wouldn't have thought twice about turning his back to Anna, or in this case, something that looked like Anna.
"But don't you worry too much, Princess," The Shapeshifter sneered, "He wasn't in pain when he died," he paused and smiled ruthlessly, "Well, not too much."
And that's when Anna had finally had enough. Without notice, and despite her pain and fatigue, she launched into a series of quick acrobatic maneuvers, landing right in front of the Van Helsing imposter. She lashed out at him, her fist solidly connecting with his jaw, sending him reeling back.
The shapeshifter bent over, clutching his face in pain, but just as Anna was about to continue her attack, his hand shot out, catching her by the throat. He clamped down hard, cutting off her air supply before he lifted her off of the ground and held her there. "That's the second time you've hit me, Holy One," he hissed. "You will not get that chance again."
He reached forward and wrapped his other hand around her neck, intending on crushing her throat, but suddenly, before he could, a searing pain shot up his back. He let out a loud, inhuman screech and dropped Anna, grabbing desperately at his back.
Coughing, Anna quickly shuffled back away from him, grabbing her dropped sword along the way, and then looked over at Carl to see the friar holding out Van Helsing's crossbow in shaking hands.
"Well, that's one of the strangest things I've ever done," Carl mumbled, finding that shooting someone who looked like his best friend was very strange indeed.
"Shoot him again, Carl!" Anna cried as she, struggling to her feet, watched the shapeshifter get a hold of the arrow sticking out of his back and rip it out.
Startled, Carl fumbled for the trigger once more, but before he could pull it, the shapeshifter lunged at him, ripping the bow from his hands, and then threw the friar into the horses. With animalistic speed, he brought he crossbow around and aimed it right at Anna, pulling the trigger without a second of hesitation.
Anna, having seen the move coming, made a mad dive behind a tree managing to almost completely avoid the arrow that was aimed at her heart. It grazed her arm, but she was so focused on surviving that she didn't even feel it.
"It's pointless to hide from me, Princess," The Shapeshifter said, his voice thick with conceit. "You're only prolonging the inevitable. I will kill you."
Breathlessly, Anna moved slowly from tree to tree, trying to find a more defensible position. She was headed in the direction of the horses and Carl. Even if they couldn't find a way to kill the shapeshifter, they could at least run away…hopefully.
"You can't run from me either, Holy One," The Shapeshifter sing-songed, his dark eyes scanning the surrounding trees.
Carl lay on the ground near Blacky's feet, moaning softly.
Chewing her lip, Anna peered around a tree, glancing between Carl and the shapeshifter trying to decide what to do. Her grip tightened around the hilt of her sword.
The Shapeshifter shook his head. "Fine then, have it your way," he said as he turned towards the downed friar. "I'll kill your little friend first." He started closing in on Carl.
"N–" Anna started to protest, but before she could finish the word, a hand clamped down over her mouth, silencing her. On instinct, she wretched her elbow back towards her attacker's head in an attempt to defend herself, but her blow was deflected.
"Calm down, Anna," a familiar voice groused in a hushed tone.
A moment later, strong hands turned Anna around so that she could face the one holding her still. When she saw who it was, she gasped.
Van Helsing smiled at her and then put his finger to his lips, signaling for her to remain quiet once he removed his hand from her mouth. He waited for her nod of understanding before he let his hand drop.
"Gabriel," Anna breathed. "I thought you were dead."
"Me? Dead? Not quite," he said with a lopsided grin.
Anna eyed him suspiciously. "How do I know it's really you?" she whispered questioningly. She brought her sword up just to make her point.
Van Helsing glanced past her momentarily at the look-alike that was headed in Carl's direction. "You have a point," he said with a quick nod, bringing his eyes back to meet hers. "I supposed I'll just have to convince you."
Anna raised an eyebrow. "How do you plan to do that?" She knew they were putting Carl's life in even more danger by wasting time, but she had to be sure. It wouldn't help the little friar at all if she turned her back to another shapeshifter pretending to be Van Helsing and let herself be killed.
Gabriel paused, as if to think it over, and then suddenly pushed Anna's sword to the side, leaning in and crushing his lips against hers. He kissed her hard, passionately, and then pulled back just as quickly as he had leaned in. "Good enough?"
Anna, slightly dazed, blinked a couple of times and then narrowed her eyes at him. "For the moment," she conceded. "But now we must help Carl."
Nodding, Van Helsing pulled out his tojo blades and looked past Anna again at the shapeshifter. He thought a moment and then finally whispered, "We need a distraction."
"Leave that up to me," Anna said with a nod.
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"All right, you win."
The shapeshifter stopped just as he reached Carl and turned to see Anna standing there, her sword out in front of her. He smiled viciously. "You've come to your senses. Very wise."
"Leave Carl alone," Anna said, her voice unwavering despite the fact that she now had a crossbow aimed at her once more, "And…I'll surrender."
"Done," The Shapeshifter replied, not even bothering to look back at the friar. "He's free to go any time he pleases." His grin widened. "Now, drop your sword."
Anna slowly leant forward, holding her sword out in front of her as if she were going to place it down on the ground, but then suddenly stopped. She smiled. "On second thought…"
"My mother never mentioned that I had a twin," Van Helsing said from behind his look-alike.
The shapeshifter whipped around to see Gabriel standing there, tojo blades in his hands, and Carl nowhere in sight.
"Gabriel, meet The Shapeshifter," Anna introduced, standing back up straight. "Mr. Shapeshifter, Gabriel Van Helsing –the one you killed."
"Anna," Van Helsing said, "I'd appreciate if you didn't tell evil creatures what my first name is."
The gypsy gave him a questioning look. "Why?"
"Because it makes me sound less…"
"Manly?" She raised an eyebrow.
Van Helsing shot her a look. "Something like that."
"Enough!" The Shapeshifter snapped. He wanted to do some killing and their chatter was interrupting his concentration.
Gabriel returned his attention to his twin and narrowed his eyes. "You're right. We have some business to attend to."
The shapeshifter gave him a strange look. He had heard many tales of the great Van Helsing and of all those he had killed, and had actually been hoping to avoid any real confrontation with him. Sure, he could take the monster slayer, but why bother when it was Anna he wanted? At least, he thought he could take him…
The look in Van Helsing's eyes almost made the creature want to run. He wasn't like most of the other nightmarish beasts that were after the gypsy princess. He had a brain and knew when it was time to run. He had knocked the monster hunter out and then taken his identity with the plan of killing the man's love, he reasoned with himself. That would probably infuriate just about anyone.
"You took my crossbow," Gabriel growled, receiving odd looks from both the shapeshifter and Anna. "And my horse."
Not exactly what the shapeshifter had thought the man would be mad about, but anyway… There was a pause before he cleared his throat and replied, "Yes…"
Van Helsing raised an eyebrow, glanced at Anna, and then after a few seconds asked, "Why?"
"Why did I take your crossbow and horse?"
"No, why are you trying to kill her?"
The Shapeshifter looked at him as if he were the thickest person on the planet. "Because she is the Holy One."
Van Helsing suppressed a sigh. "Yes, I know that much, but what does that mean?" He wanted to know but he wanted to hear it from someone who wasn't reading it from a book.
"It means," The Shapeshifter began, obviously irritated by having to take his time to explain things, "that because she was not born by natural means, she is holy and has now upset the Balance."
"The Balance?"
"The Balance between good and evil?"
There was a slight pause and then Gabriel nodded. "And in order return the Balance to normal, you must kill her?"
The Shapeshifter looked like he was getting bored. "Yes."
Van Helsing nodded quickly before saying, "Thank you. That's all I needed to know," before he tossed one of his tojo blades with almost inhuman-like speed and accuracy. It lodged itself in the creature's neck.
Eyes wide in shock, The Shapeshifter dropped the crossbow and grabbed for his neck, gagging and sputtering out a thick, black blood. He dropped to his knees just as he started shifting into a number of different creatures and people whose shapes he had obviously taken on before. With one last choking noise, he looked at Van Helsing in the eyes and then sagged to the ground. He didn't rise again.
"Requiescat in pace," Gabriel whispered after walking over. He pulled his tojo blade out of the dead creature's neck and wiped it off before turning to Anna.
"That was rather anti-climatic," she commented somewhat absentmindedly.
"Are you all right?" he asked, tucking his weapon and its twin back into their holsters before picking up his crossbow.
Anna eyed him wearily. She still wasn't sure if she should really trust him or not. If he was another shapeshifter, he would undoubtedly try to fool her and then when she least expected it, he would strike, and she didn't particularly feel like dying again so soon after returning. "How do I know it's really you?" she asked, repeating her earlier question.
"Wasn't my earlier explanation proof enough?" Van Helsing replied, giving her a cheeky, lopsided grin. But then there was a pause and he noticed that her serious expression had not changed. His smile faded and he sucked in a breath as he tried to think of a way to prove it. A moment passed and then, putting his crossbow back down, he pulled out a small knife. He held it out for her to see before running it across the heel of his hand. Rich red blood seeped out of the wound left behind. He held his hand up to show her. "Satisfied?"
Anna looked relieved, but before she could reply, Carl suddenly came charging out of the bushes with a branch in his hand. He spotted Van Helsing and ran at him, yelling, "Leave her be, you evil monstrosity!" He swung the branch at the other man's head, but he was too slow.
Van Helsing caught the other end of the small log in his hand before it could connect with his skull. The last thing he needed or wanted was to get walloped in the head again. Once was enough for one night. "Calm down, Carl," he said firmly. "It's me."
"Ha! As if I'd believe that!" the friar retorted, trying to pull his branch free from Van Helsing's hand. "You're a ghoulish beast, and I won't let you harm Anna!"
"Carl…" the gypsy tried.
"No Anna!" the little man argued, "Van Helsing would have wanted me to protect you!"
"That is Van Helsing, Carl," she replied, slowly walking over to the pair.
He didn't even bother to look at her. "No, it isn't. It's a shapeshifter, remember?!" He glared up at Van Helsing. "Why can't she remember? What have you done to her?!"
"It is me, Carl." Gabriel's expression was calm, but his tone was slightly strained.
"Lies!" the friar all but shrieked, "Vicious, cruel lies!"
Van Helsing sighed, muttering something along the lines of "Always so overdramatic," before he grabbed Carl by the back of the neck and steered the smaller man around and forced his eye sight to align with the dead version of himself on the ground a moment before the shapeshifter morphed back into his grotesque self.
Carl let out a sharp "EEP!" and jumped slightly, startled by the dead creature's hideous form.
"See?" Van Helsing rumbled, smirking slightly at his little friend's reaction.
The friar cleared his throat and nodded his head quickly. There was a pause and then he turned his attention back to Gabriel. He smiled tentatively. "It's really you?"
The taller man settled the short one with a soft look and then nodded. "Yes, Carl, it's me."
Before Van Helsing could react, Carl threw his arms around him, hugging the monster slayer as hard as friarly possible. "I thought you were dead!" he exclaimed.
Gabriel coughed. "Yes, yes I'm aware," he said, trying to pry the little man off. "I missed you, too." He managed to get his arms free from Carl's death grip and took the man by his upper arms, pushing him back. He patted him on the shoulder.
"We really should go," Anna finally stated, glancing around at the dark forest.
Sobering up, both men straightened and looked around as well.
"Yes," Gabriel agreed, picking up his weapons once more. "I don't think setting up camp again is a wise idea. We should probably just ride out of the forest."
Anna nodded. There was no possible way she wanted to stay in the forest now. Van Helsing had told her when they had originally stopped for the night that there was a town half a day's ride away, and given how far and fast they had pushed the horses to get where they were now, they had to be substantially closer. Or so she figured. You could never really tell when you were in the forest when it was dark. Although, it would be morning soon, thank goodness, and even if it wasn't, she trusted Van Helsing, the real Van Helsing, to get them through it.
The threesome moved over to the horses and mounted up, taking off without even a glance back at the dead shapeshifter.
TBC…
(HOORAY! I updated again! YAY ME! Can you believe I'm STILL working on this story? It's crazy!! Haha. Anyway, I wanted to thank everyone who reviewed the last chapter! Hollyberries230, Liz-Bathory, Spaztic Arwen, anett, vampirediva07, bakabaka135, Ellesie, Hughfan, Angel In Sorrow, Volume-5, possessed, A Fan, YOU GUYS ROCK! And everyone else who reviewed previous chapters, you guys rock, too! I miss you, Sirinial! ARE YOU ALIVE?! Hehehehe…So yes, more coming at some point! HOPEFULLY SOON!! Hehe!! Oh, if you have any ideas of where I should go with this story, I'm open to them! Thanks!! LOVE! hugs - Emily)
