Chapter 2: The Hunters

[Friar Carl Wellingham]

Carl sighed, his first night had been a disastrous one. Blown into a new time, chased by a Vampire he thought dead, run into a werewolf, then another half vampire and nearly had his head taken off by Gabriel. The shock alone could have killed the poor friar. But now he was in a new age, and had to adjust to life in this time. One which despite new technologies seemed just as wicked as the one he’d just left. He’d decided the abandoned church he found would make the perfect place to set up his new shop. And all new contraptions awaited him.

It was another night and he wandered the streets. Sun had just set and he hadn’t heard word from Van Helsing yet on how things were being handled. Clearly he’d lived through quite a few changes of time. But Carl wondered if the order still existed, Vatican city. Finding his way into the library he was fascinated by all he saw and sat down in front of a computer. Earlier that day he’d gone back to the shop he’d seen to find out what it all was. Still he wasn’t quite sure he understood how to work it all.

Touching the keyboard he moved back as something on the screen happened and the computer beeped at him. A few more tries like that brought attention to the robe clad friar as a college kid moved to come around to his side. “Dude..what are you looking for?” Blankly Carl looked up “You mean you look for things with this beast, how on earth do you do that?” with a sigh the kid set up the internet “It’s not that hard man…just type what your looking for and use the mouse to..” but Carl interrupted with a squeak “A mouse, why would one use a rodent?” becoming frustrated with the friar trying to learn the world around him. “This…just type in what your looking for and hit enter…” then he walked away.

Pressing one button at a time Carl typed in something and a look of amazement came to his face as it showed different pictures and text. Finally he was beginning to grasp the idea of the computer, reading about all the history he missed and anything else he could imagine. “Oh my…” a pop up opened on his window flashing at him and he promptly stood up rushing out, leaving the porn display on the screen he rushed back to the sanctuary of the abandoned church he started to clean and set up.

[Gabriel Van Helsing]

Dr. Gabriel Van Helsing was more than just a man, he was an immortal being. He did not crave human blood, he wasn’t bitten by anything, and he certainly wasn’t complaining. The origin for his immortality was a secret he guarded well, keeping it a secret even from his past loves. Gabriel could be found stalking these unnatural creatures of the night with an unrelenting hunger for blood and retribution, his quest a never-ending battle of evil verses yours truly.

Tonight that battle had brought him to an abandoned building on the outskirts of London. The rain (which always seemed to fall here) plinked off of the copper rooftop melodiously. With a double sided axe in his right hand he walked down the darkened entryway. Rainwater dribbled onto his already rain-soaked t-shirt and bare skinned arm. Muscles flexed tighter as he pulled the axe to mid-chest level. The black cotton of his shirt was darkened to pitch with moisture, and the edge of his axe dribbled a trail of water and blood soaked fluids onto the floor.
‘I know it ran in here damn it…” he thought to himself.

A heavy military issue boot flexed as he side-strafed past the first doorway he came across. For a second he thought he saw a glint of light or a reflection from a lens, but then as the rain redoubled its efforts it was gone. He snarled with an animalistic growl of annoyance at the empty office. This search was going to take forever and he knew it. An all nighter if he searched all of the rooms. From the outside Gabriel had estimated the size of the building and grounds and he’d guessed it spanned at least an acre.

If memory served this building used to be part of a larger structure, a mental institution that had been in working condition from 1810 until 1963 when the funding to keep the place going was just too much for the county to afford. The interior was far from inviting. Clearly vandals had carved their mark. Broken windows stared out into the night like jagged teeth and empty eyes. When it rained everything swelled and creaked, and it didn’t take an immortal to feel the spirits of the dead that still roamed the halls. Gabriel continued his straight lined path, eyes glazing over moldering wallpaper, cracked plaster ceilings, and evidence of rodent activity… but nothing more.

He turned aside from the main hallway of the south building pausing for a minute to smoke a cigarette. Sometimes this worked with rookie foes. – The art of making oneself seem innocuous easy prey to lure them out of hiding. He was just bringing the lit smoke to his mouth when he noticed a tin can rattling subtly against the wall. It was minuscule, but he knew this hadn’t come from traffic this was steady, like the beat of a drum. Reaching up to his ear Gabriel reconnected his COM link back to Carl’s computer.
“Carl…?” His voice was scratchy and gruff, the question seemed more a demand than a request for the Friar’s attention.

[amedeo]

His body stretched as he woke for the nightly routine. Slowly he moved towards his dresser, nothing would stop him tonight… the few days he had spent with his mother had taught him something-never feed more than you need, else you shall have hunters knowing your existence. His eyes fell shut as he remembered his childhood, Aleera’s voice whispering softly as his head burrowed into her hand, “You must never give yourself away too easily… you bear the name of a Count now…. something that can draw attention my son… you must be good.”<br>
Now, we didn’t want that did we. His form seemed to crack and twist as it folded into human form. “Tell me mother…” he spoke into the air of his home, “Would I make him proud….” He asked in his final wordings with Aleera, the only mother he had met throughout his time alive.

The thought of it, the thought of everything, knowing he was alone-save for his sister Zaharia, which didn’t please him at all… he was alone! His arm pushed everything from his dresser top as he growled into the night air, fangs protruding as his jaw stretched. These stories, these fiction stories that these idiots of the movie industry had- all lies! Everything! He never once had enough time to spend with his father, but NEVER was his father like these falsities.

His form convulsed once as he growled again. “They should have fed, all of them… then they would have lived, but my siblings were not as smart as you and I, Zaharia… not as smart and look… we are alone in the world…” He spoke to his sister’s cameo necklace, a remembrance of her.

That was when it hit him. He shall become the new Dracula of this age, he shall live like a king as his father once had! He, Count Amedeo Dracula, shall live to be the reincarnation of his father, Count Vladimir Dracula. However….

His form turned towards the window of his London flat, he must find the one who killed him, and get him done with sooner than later. Gabriel Van Helsing, was on his to-do list.

[Zaharia Dracul]

With one look in the mirror her body shook, her arm raising and throwing the vase with a crash to the floor. Water splashed everywhere, covering the floor and window drapes. “Vampire! Vampire they all scream when they see I cast no reflection!” The mirror stood in front of her, void of any reflection. “Vampire…” she hissed before throwing a candle into the mirror.

“Tonight it my night to feed, bastard children of god… and I shall get revenge on those who dare upset me.” Her voice was a hiss as she cleaned the mess… however she found it pointless-her help would do it for her. “Minions…” she huffed before turning in her flowing night gown.

Cracking her fingers she gently swayed into the dressing room she so loved. Pulling an outfit, her lips turned to a wide smirk. “Never would I have guessed my birth would be the downfall of most vampires…” Although it was true only a select few of them-those that were Vlad Dracul’s children-survived… she and Amedeo had lasted the longest… most had created their own cults and went their separate ways, only to be decimated by Gabriel Van Helsing. However, she had to admit she did the same as them… she had created minions of her own, and other vampires to keep herself company-all without the knowing of Amedeo.

Slowly, her brush moved through her hair, as she made herself beautiful. A sigh escaped-it was a known fact that she was not Aleera’s nor Verona’s child… but the youngest of the deceased wives, Marishka. She looked like her mother, and as she was part of the first brood… her father had shunned her for looking like the beauty. However, Verona cherished her till her own death… it was a pleasant childhood.

A sigh escaped her lungs… revenge for the death of her mother. Her body quaked a bit. “Marishka… Dracula… Amedeo where are you?” Her mind reached out to her brother… she wanted to know where this Gabriel Van Helsing was… yes, Gabriel Van Helsing was the person who began the massacre of her family. Her voice hissed as she finished dressing, “I’ll find you, van Helsing.”

[Gabriel Van Helsing]

He wiped the blood from his heavy double-edged axe, not satisfied until the tempered blade shone dully despite the twilight of the hallway. He had redesigned all of his weapons to fit each adversary. For the last month he had been hunting werewolf. Unlike the undead vampires, the Garou were not allergic to sunlight, and thus Gabriel blackened his blades as not to draw their eye’s attention. But tonight he was on the trail of the vampire, where the sheen was a weapon in and of itself. Here he could not rely on stealth and cunning alone, here he had to use more than higher learning to trap a dog, he needed every asset at his disposal.
“Carl! …I can’t get a bead on…”

Ears perk, preternatural senses catch a scrap of clue; a flap of red cloth licks across the edge of a doorway. Gabriel stops in mid drag turning his head to the inky black void of the hallway’s mouth. Laughter floats toward him, the edge of his axe sings out as it’s scraped up and he runs. Without care or thought he continues down the ancient stairwell, following the hideous laughter. A hand grips the railing as he launches himself up and over the mid-section. He lands on the second tier of stairs, boots thud mutely against the stairs as he felt the impact on his knees. Age was certainly getting to him, but was he going to let that on to anyone? – No; His feet never stopped the downward spiral. As Dr. Van Helsing kicked open the dented metal door, he entered the lower catacombs. It was resting in the open doorway, the overhanging light swaying to and fro revealing the flashes of rust-dried blood and malformed remains that used to be human coating the walls and floor. Callused fingers run though his short cropped locks of grey flecked brown as keen cornflower blue eyes take in his target.
“You’ve been busy,” he taunted.
‘I’ve been hungry,” he corrected with a wicked tenor.

The Vampire attacked almost immediately, knocking the axe aside and then sweeping Gabriel’s feet out from under him as he tossed him into one of the softer corners. Slowly he moved to a standing position, ignoring the cold squashy substance his hand pushed into. He felt his knee pop sickeningly, the lack of cartilage evident. He thought of the medicine cabinet at home. Percocet, Vicodin, Oxycontin… the works. If the pain in his shoulder or knee got too bad he might add a touch of a drink, but that was rare. Alcohol made him lose his edge… dulled the lines too much. Made him forget why he did the job.
“You’re getting soft old man…”
His muscles twitched involuntarily.
“So are you,” he said with a grin as he hit the button to the flash detonator.

The vampire screamed as the room lit with the phosphorous light. Gab shielded his eyes as the glowing husk of undead Vampire screamed in a final rage. The room’s horror was fully revealed in that instant and then thankfully was washed back into near utter darkness. The plink of water somewhere further down and ragged breath roared in his ears as he finally let himself feel the weary. After a heavy sigh he retrieved his weapon taking the stairs back up toward the wash of rain.
#nosmileys

[amedeo]

His form made it to the delicious housing development in which his beloved sister created her life within. On the surface, it looked like any other house… but underneath lay the catacombs of the dead, of the cemetery that used to lay in the very same spot. Yes, his sister did choose a wonderfully morbid area, but then again, that was Zaharia… morbid in every sense.

However, even upon this darkest night, the catacombs grew bright, with the light of 1000 suns. A brightness that seemed to burn him deep inside, and sent a hiss and a tingle through his spine. Instantly he knew who was here, the man he looked for was looking for them. How quaint.

The rush of death caused Amedeo to let out a roar of frustration, pulling his body back and into darkness, traveling as fast as his father once had, as if dust in the wind. The scent filled the air of the man who killed his father and mother, and now he killed his trusted minion Clarence…

“Van Helsing…” Amedeo’s voice was but a raspy wind chime as he watched the tall brunette walk out of the catacomb. A growl proceeded to follow his voice as it moved with Amedeo. However, before one could say ‘bobs your uncle’, Amedeo stood in front of Gabriel, however more than two arm spans away.

“Gabriel… it is a pleasure to finally meet you…” his voice still had it’s Romanian charm as he spoke, his eyes following the blood flow to each and every muscle. He could hear the calmness in Helsing’s heart, but also the weariness. “Ahh… no rest for the wicked I see… Van Helsing…” Amedeo paced slowly, eyes intent on Gabriel.

Then his form stopped, his eyes locked onto Gabriel’s. “Do you know who I am… Gabriel Van Helsing? Do you know how your ‘righteous acts’ have ruined my family and the life my sister and I try to live?” It was true, if his father still lived, his family would be alive… he would have family. “Or has it been too long?”<br>

[Friar Carl Wellingham]

It had taken sometime before Carl was used to the new technology. Then he was sort of a genius when it came to the like of that. It’s how he’d always been ahead in the underground inventing ring. And how Van Helsing ended up with items, weapons and gadgets a head of their time. Like the gun, or the spinning blades. So the computer was no different. The half vampire had gotten a hold of him.

“What are you doing to me. Let go! I warn you vampire, I’ll…I’ll steak you through.” She only laughed at him as she forced him down into a chair a pair of scissors being pulled out. A look of fear in the young friars eyes as she came towards him with it. Sandy blonde hair that once flicked out was cut and chopped to fit into a modern style. Strange green stuff, which he found was some sort of gel, slicked into his hair which caused it to stand in an unruly mess. From there he was pulled and led around until the brown cloak he wore was shoved into a plastic bag. And a pair of jeans and a blue shirt with white stripes buttoned down against his chest. He was a bit flabbergasted with the look, but no one stared oddly at him when he went out.

Still he wasn’t entirely sure he was used to the fasion. Gabe had fit in well and now he did as well. He didn’t concern himself with trying to get back to his own time. A time that Van Helsing had lived through and he blasted himself into. Finally back he pulled a plate out of the microwave, which he’d recently been taught how to use. “Ow. Hot hot…bloody.” The plate crashed to the floor and he moved scooping up the pieces and his dinner when he heard Gabriel’s call.

A bit awkward in his sneakers Carl rushed over to the large set up of computers and communications systems, sliding the ear piece into his ear and the little mic so it could pick up. “Van Helsing, you there?” there was some interference and then a loud piercing sound in his ear and the friar dropped to the ground, falling in reaction to the unexpected noise. Shaking his head and opening his jaw repeatedly to pop the ringing in his ear. “Sorry, there was some interference. I’m ok now. Are you there Gabe. The system shows you’ve got him. I lost my dinner…well not really, it’s still on the floor. She didn’t tell me that things feel as if they’ve come out of a fire from that little microwave thing. Oh, did you test the new sun bombs? I’d love to know how it worked. Hello?”

[Gabriel Van Helsing]

He clenched his teeth together as he saw his shoulder’s move. Always his eyes watched the torso; it was the definitive body part that would determine a target’s next move. Surprisingly enough this one seemed more inclined to posturing and talk rather than a physical parry. As Gabriel and the vampire sized each other up he felt the vampire’s quick scan over his features. His eyes of honest blue faded a bit, this being the one feature he possessed that still clung to his humanity. Van Helsing was decorated with tattoos and a crisscrossing web of scars, his work marring him with evidence of its brutality. In one such incident the vampire he was hunting decided to give him a taste of his own medicine and proceeded to give him the mark of a heated cross burned into the skin between his shoulder blades.

He appeared roughly thirty seven, but his agility was still quite impressive. He had lost some of his speed, and his knees were starting to feel the strain, but for the most part, Gabriel was just as physically fit as he was in his twenties. He did not like to talk about why or when he’d stopped the aging process, because as far as Gabriel knew he hadn’t. As far as he was concerned the aches and pains that came with the job pointed to evidence that the process of aging had merely slowed to a snail’s crawl.

He leaned against the wall, a callused palm pressed against the surface, digging bits of loose plaster into the few spots of his hand that weren’t hardened from constant friction against the butt of a weapon. As he sized up the master vampire he found himself wondering why he’d worked alone for so many years. He’d heard about their work… The Death Dealers in their base in London, or Jan Valek and his crusaders back in the states… But alas, this evening he’d not the foresight to bring along backup. Much like his grandfather and namesake, Gabriel took pleasure in hunting alone.

This one seemed the epitome of everything Gabriel hated. Sure Vampires were smart and cunning, maniacal and psychotic, but most of all they represented humanity’s’ lesser qualities; Vanity, self-importance, and greed being but a few.
“Do you know who I am…? Gabriel Van Helsing? Do you know how your ‘righteous acts’ have ruined my family and the life my sister and I try to live?”<br>Gab smirked. Pretty boy here seemed to favor vanity. It was evident in the way he spoke, the clothes he wore. Nostrils flared as he pretended to smell an invisible reek on this Vampire, grimacing as if he’d just taken a strong drink.
“You really should hire a cleaning crew to come down here once in a while… spiff up the place.”

Gab’s eyes darkened now as he stepped closer to the boy.
“I don’t know who you are, and frankly I don’t give a shit. I just do my job. I come to these dark places even the devil himself would fear because it’s what I do.” Gab’s voice was graveled, hard.
“Family? Traditions? I’m just looking for good place to shove a stake.”<br>Gabriel snorted and spat on the floor, clearing his throat as he eyed the open frame of window behind the Vampire.
Just then he heard the feedback in his ear, and with a curse he pressed his fingers to the small speaker. He wanted to say something to Carl, but at the moment he wasn't sure a hashing out of a plan of atack would be prudent.

[ryneharker]

Day was beginning to break, her body was tired, sore and close to a drain of energy. Last night she had found what she was looking for, a club teaming with vampires and she alone took them down; One. By. One. Now she was paying the price, her human weaknesses coming to prey on her and causing her vampiric systems to go into over load. Her wounds though numerous were none fatal, only her prey had taken on fatal wounds, but some of her's had come close. She had reminded herself afterwards as she stretched slowly out in her tub that was slowly turning pink from her blood, that she needed to be more careful, that next time she might not be so lucky.

Hours later when the water had become cold and nothing but her own blood, weakly the young woman crawled to her bed and slowly coccooned herself within the sheets. She needed to heal and in order to do so she needed to sleep. Hours went by, possibly even days, her mind lost track of time, slipping into a vampiric coma as her systems hit overload, shut down and restarted time and time again. Scars would cover her, truth of what she had been through and the carnage she had to unleash to make it out alive. But she didn't care and her sleep slowly became sated as the healing process grew close to being finished and the dreaming part of sleep began... but that was sometimes never pleasent either.

Day was once again fading into night, her breathing was airy, soft and normal for the state of sleep she was present in, her body, naked and tend of flesh and scarred was wrapped comfortably in the sheets. Hair of deep auburn and various other colors layed on the mass of pillows like a rippling stream of dark colors. The room sparsely decorated was slowly being plunged into complete and utter darkness. Just the way she liked it. The darker it grew, the more her mind became alive and the more the web of dreams began to spin... but something about this dream was not like all the ones before it. It felt real. Her body slowly began to convulse, her mind spinning at the events she was seeing. Each scene was like the preview to a movie, only a fragment of the actual film itself. Each one showing two times, two different worlds to be crossed, changes to occur and only six not to be effected by it. She saw their faces one by one... first Gabriel, then his little friar friend, Dracula and a man and woman she assumed to be his children and then finally a man she had never seen before with a smile on his face and she was suddenly reminded of a wolf... in sheep's clothing" Ah, Mina so we meet again." And there it ended.

With a scream, her voice reaching out both physically and mentally in the mind ways of a vampire, Ryne awoke. Her breath coming in quick short gasps, her eyes glowing bright blue in the darkness. She had to get out, that man in her dream... it had been as if he was speaking to her, but why? Slowly she crept from her tangled bed and began to dress. Black jeans slung low on her hips, a deep purple tank top her holster belt which held most of her toys and of course her guns, her thick soled boots, and finally her long trench coat.. It was time to visit the archives of the Harker line... something about the dream seemed to make her believe answers to it were held there, or at least a better lead. Moving in the cover provided by shadows, Ryne headed for the Harker Manor and it's library.

[Det Harker]

The air was cold, the crisp smell of rain abundant, the cobblestone streets and alleyways moist. Her hair hung in a mass of loose curls about her shoulders, a strand or two falling across her face, she never made any attempt to brush them aside and actually appeared oblivious to their whereabouts.

The sky above was over cast, the glow of the moon barely visible behind the wispy shadows that slowly cruised across the star studded bleakness. Something about the old world city gave her a chill, one that went right down into the bone. The streets were mostly empty, the occasional woman of the night strutted passed or a group of drunken fools stumbled by and yet despite the visible aspects, Adryen knew the city was far more alive than most realized. The underground was teaming and the air stunk of the undead and the cursed. A war had been brewing here for far to long and the living was becoming aware of it and so that’s where she stepped in with ISDA at the helm. The mission was a simple one, get inside the quote Underworld and send back information of what was going on exactly. But of course she knew that was easier said than done.

Clad in dark clothing, Adryen felt she blended in far to easily, but then again that was exactly what her employer wanted. They wanted her to be mistaken for a full vampire, but the woman had ideas of her own, it was time she got into a little trouble. Opening her black leather jacket to reveal a red lace camisole, Adryen sauntered into a shady bar reeking of those cursed by the moon. She felt eyes staring at her, she knew lips were curling both in hunger and in lust. Inwardly she smiled, it was just the reaction she was going for. As she settled herself on a grimy bar-stool, she let herself fall for the stench of blood that was vaguely present.

“ What can I gitcha?” Glowing blue eyes met the form of a large man, gnarly and the short that any normal person wouldn’t want to run into on the street, let alone an alley, “ Beer is fine.” She answered, her accent slow, almost elegant in it the way it made the words roll off her tongue. Making herself comfortable, the Detective slowly shrugged herself out of the jacket she was wearing to reveal her extremely unnaturally pale skin.

Taking a drink of her beer, Adryen quickly sat it aside, the amber liquid tasting more like dirty dish water than what she had hoped for. She was just about to ask for wine instead, but that idea was quickly dropped the sensation of warm air against her skin, “Didn’t your Mum ever teach you it isn’t nice to breath on a girl?” She asked with a narrowing of her eyes, her body turning slowly bringing her face to face with a man big enough to make any wrestler even on steroids scared enough to shit his pants. Suddenly she was glad she had opted for silver rounds in the gun she was packing.

“ Nope.” Came the gruff voice of the man, “ Didn’t your maker ever teach you it isn’t good to walk into the lion’s den?” His arm shot out roughly grabbing her’s, but she never flinched, “ Seems you and I have something in common luv,” With her free hand, Adryen went for her gun, “ We both don’t know how to listen.” Suddenly the sound of a gun firing silenced the bar as the large man fell convulsing to the dirty wooden floor, “ Keep the change.” The dark haired woman said quickly to the bar keep as she dropped money on the bar and moved for the nearest exit with oddly enough a grin on her face, “ Come on you bastards, chase me.” She muttered under her breath as the door she had just went out from shot off it’s hinges and into the middle of the street, “A head start… how predator like of your lot.” It was time to run as four large hairy forms headed towards her. Taking her gun from it’s holster again, Adryen turned and fired a few rounds before going down into a subway entrance… not exactly the smartest place to go, but then again she did have a plan, kind of, bad thing was, her pursuitees had a seemingly better one as she found herself circled by the creatures as the area went dark and shook with the force of a train going by, it’s roar barely muffling the carnage as they began their attack.

Breathing raggedly, Adyren’s eyes slowly lessened in their glow as the lights returned giving her a view of three bodies laying in a substantial pool of blood, some it their blood and a lot of it hers, “ Shit.” She counted the bodies again… one was missing. Narrowing her eyes she listened, she could hear it breathing. Gripping her gun a little tighter, she moved slightly and as she did the air just above her shifted also. Lifting her eyes to the ceiling above her, Adryen moved swiftly dropping to her knees and firing several rounds before rolling to one side as the werewolf fell from above her and landed where she had been standing previously. Cautiously the Detective moved towards the creature and emptied her gun on it and giving it the same fate as the other three, a head and chest full of silver before she collapsed to the ground from her own wounds her plan having worked so far… sort of.