Chapter V: Death

"Serenity wait!" Nathan called after her. When she would not stop he ran in front of her and placed his hands on her shoulders, "Serenity!"

"Let me go Nathan," she said simply and tried to walk around him.

He pushed hard against her shoulders making her stop. He could see the rage in her eyes, and he could also scene a deep bloodlust emanating from her.

"You can't be that angry with him," Nathan stated as Hugh and the others caught up to them.

Serenity looked from her brother to the others with her anger draining ever so slightly, "I can and I am. I don't know about this other vampire and his daughters, but having Death here puts all of us in danger." Hugh was about to inject when she shushed him, "The fact that he is acting like a child without even hearing us out is going to get one of them killed. Maybe even one of us if we're not careful."

"I understand how you feel," Simon stated with a nod, "but you have to think about how they feel as well."

Serenity shot him a glance as Richter elaborated, "Simon is right. Look at this situation through their eyes. Three vampires and two hunters who were supposed to long be dead showing up out of nowhere seems pretty unbelievable. Especially since they're hunting three vampires themselves."

As Richter's words sank in Serenity took in a deep breath. Of course what he said was true. Simon and Richter themselves had needed convincing before they were brought through time, but at least they had the better sense to listen.

"What do you think we should do?" she asked folding her arms.

"First of all," Nathan started, "Are you alright?"

Serenity eyed him carefully before answering, "Of course I'm alright."

"Are you sure?" Hugh asked, "When you clashed with Jonathan I could sense your bloodlust for him. I've never felt that from you before.'

Here Serenity cast her eyes down. She was ashamed to admit it, but keeping what she felt for the boy inside was not going to help any of them.

Brining her face up she explained, "Honestly I don't know what came over me. I remember thinking that I needed to protect Nathan. When our swords clashed I felt so hungry. Like all I wanted to do was drain him."

The men shared a look of concern before Richter said, "Perhaps facing off against him, even though he's still a child, awakened the vampire blood within you."

"We need to go," Serenity said quickly, "I don't want this to affect our mission here."

"Where do we go?" Hugh questioned looking above them, "If it's Brauner we're after…"

Suddenly Nathan's faced the direction Hugh was looking with great speed, "We need to go up. Death is there!"

Nodding in approval Serenity and the others followed Nathan as he led the way through a maze of cogs and gears. They had just reached the top of the town where they saw a large room. In that room stood Charlotte, Jonathan, and Death. Another blue door was beginning to slide shut, cutting off the room from anyone entering or leaving.

"Damn it!" Nathan yelled, "We're too late!"

"They can't take that thing alone!" Simon replied.

Upon instinct Serenity pumped her legs even harder. Unlike many other vampires she, Nathan, and Hugh were unable to transform or teleport their bodies in any way, however, Serenity had always been quick on her feet. She dove under the door mere seconds before it slammed shut.

Breathing hard Hugh slammed a fist on the door as they call came to a stop, "Damn!"

"At least Serenity is there with them," Richter stated, "they have a fighting chance now."

"Is she going to be alright thought?" Simon questioned, "If her bloodlust takes over again she could very well kill them both."

No one said a word as the battle unfolded within.

"Oh great," Jonathan said holding his sword at the ready, "Not you again."

Taking out her own sword Serenity focused her attention on Death, "I could say the same about you."

Taking no notice of Serenity Death smiled at Jonathan and Charlotte, "That look you have…I'm assuming you're run into Brauner."

"That's none of your business!" Jonathan yelled, "You won't escape this time!"

Serenity could not believe what she was hearing. She had never been in the presence of Death before, but she knew perfectly well that he had not simply "escaped" the last time he encountered Jonathan and Charlotte.

Death let out a small chuckle and asked, "You do realize there's no connection between myself and Brauner, don't you? And yet you still challenge me?"

"If my research is correct, you have a strong desire to see Dracula revived, correct?"

For the first time since entering the room Death shot Serenity a glare that caused a shiver to run through her. He was not as intimidating as the Time Reaper had been, but he was very close to it. Something in the way he spoke also sparked a sliver of remembrance in her mind, but at the moment she could not grasp as to what it could be.

"Even if you're not working with Brauner, you still have to be defeated!" Jonathan shouted brining Serenity back to the present.

Death sighed, "Challenging me even though you can't use the whip…How utterly absurd." Here he paused to summon his scythe, "But I'll play with you anyway."

As Death began floating around the room Jonathan turned to Charlotte and Serenity, "If we let him do what he wants, he'll definitely revive Dracula," he looked Serenity hard in her eyes and continued, "We've got to stop him right here!"

"Gotcha," Charlotte nodded, "Still he's a tough one. We have to be extra careful."

"Listen," Serenity began looking first at Charlotte then at Jonathan, "I know you may not trust me, and I'm sorry for blowing up at you earlier…" here she paused to look down, "Dracula has taken everything from me, even my humanity, I want to stop him," she looked back up at Jonathan, "Stop him for good so he can never hurt anyone ever again."

"Don't feel so bad," Charlotte said with a smile, "Jonathan can be pig headed at times but he's really a good person. You should give each other a chance."

Jonathan turned his attention towards Death and forced a smile to his face, "Alright. Help us with this and then we'll see."

Nodding Serenity gave Charlotte a smile and readied herself for battle as well. The battle did not last long. All the while Serenity knew Death was just toying with them. He nearly clipped Jonathan on several occasions, but as Serenity observed he was at least good at fighting. Charlotte provided backup with her spells, though they did not seem to be doing much damage. At the start of the battle Death had been constantly laughing and taunting them, but as the minutes ticked by he became more and more erratic.

Serenity sent her sword out in a large flaming arc that caused him to stagger. This allowed Jonathan to deal multiple hits with his own sword. Growling in anger Death summoned four strange circles that created odd chains with hands attached. Charlotte did not see this in time and got caught by one of them. This caused the other three to grab onto her, immobilizing her completely. She yelled out in surprise causing sudden panic in Jonathan.

"Jonathan!" Serenity called as she ran to the farthest set of chains.

Nodding slightly he ran after her. As he closed the distance she made the flames die down as low as they would go on her sword and held it up so that she could give him a boost to his jump. As the full weight of his body lifted up on the blade of her sword Serenity shot him up to the ceiling in an arc so that he would be perfectly level with the other set of chains before jumping up to the opposite set herself.

Just as Death was arching his scythe to cleave Charlotte in half both Jonathan and Serenity let out a fierce battle cry and brought the blades of their swords through the chains that were holding her. They cut through the top two with ease and shattered the bottom two as their bodies landed back to the ground along with Charlotte. Serenity was quick to act as Death was still making his attack. She caught his scythe with her sword mere inches from Charlotte's head. Holding him firmly in place Jonathan ran his sword straight through him.

"Ugh!" Death cried out in agony, "How can someone like you possess such amazing powers?!"

"I may not have the whip's power," Jonathan said keeping his sword at the ready, "but I can still kick your ass!"

"Hmph," Death scoffed, "I underestimated you…Still," here he paused to look at Serenity, "I have my reasons for holding back…"

Charlotte stood upright and brushed herself off mocking, "Is that your excuse? How typical," frowning she opened up her spell book and readied a spell, "Now resign yourself to your fate!"

This caused Death to laugh, "Know the limits of your power. You still have a task to perform, so for now I will take my leave." Death flew away as the far door opened stating, "We'll meet again."

They watched him leave while Jonathan shouted, "Damn it! He ran away."

"Say," Charlotte began carefully, "What do you suppose Death meant when he said we still have a task to perform?"

"Forget it," Jonathan shrugged, "We can take on anyone. No problem!"

Serenity was again reminded how tiring the boy could be when Charlotte asked, "How can you always be so confident?"

"I like to think positive, that's all," he replied with a smile, "Look, stop worrying so much and focus on what we have to do. Defeat Death and Brauner, got it?"

Charlotte forced a smile to her face, "Okay, okay. Worrying only makes things worse than they really are, right?"

"You got it," he said with a grin before getting serious again and turning to Serenity, "More importantly…I want to apologize to you for how I've been acting."

Serenity gave him a nod and said, "It's alright Jonathan. I need to apologize to you as well. I was so caught up in what was going on I didn't realize how our situation looked from and outsider's perspective."

"That's what I was saying," Charlotte said giving Jonathan an intense glare, "Before jumping to conclusions we should have listened to what you had to say. I mean we're friends with Eric and he's a ghost."

Frowning Jonathan replied, "That's a little different from a vampire."

"Oh! By the way,' Charlotte exclaimed ignoring Jonathan's statement completely, "Where is the rest of your team?"

Before Serenity could answer her the other side of the room opened and Nathan and the others ran in. They took one look at Serenity, then to Jonathan and Charlotte before breathing a sigh of relief.

"Fantastic," Charlotte exclaimed, "everyone is here."

"Are you all alright?" Simon asked coming forward.

Jonathan gave him a small shrug, "More or less. We were able to fend off Death with Serenity's help, but he ran away again."

Nathan and Hugh gave Serenity a nod and she replied with a smile.

"We should get going," Hugh said walking passed everyone, "We still have work to do after all."

Serenity turned to Jonathan and Charlotte, "The two of you can join us if you like. We can fill you in on what's been happening as we go."

Jonathan was not able to answer before Charlotte agreed wholeheartedly as she began walking after Hugh, "Absolutely! I want to learn how Simon and Richter are here."

To be continued…