Michael Belmont and the Heir of Van Helsing (The Adventures of Michael Belmont) (15 page)

Cisco looked as pleased as a dog that had been thrown a bone.
 
He scampered over and climbed up into the chair in front of the monitor.
 
The screen blipped again and Mr. Belmont’s face was replaced by a grid of the neighborhood.
 
Nothing looked amiss.

“WOW,” Cisco hooted as he gazed up and examined the map.

Liam bent down and pulled up his socks.
 
“Well, he told us to ‘come down’, but he didn’t tell us where to come down to, did he?”

At that moment they heard a loud whir, and watched as two platforms extended out of the cavern wall behind the waterfall; one appeared to be a bridge, and the one above it diverted the water to each side so they could pass through unhindered.
 
As they crossed over the short bridge, Michael looked down to see a large body of water a few dozen feet beneath them.
 
Liam pointed out a canoe tied to an iron post in the cavern wall.

“I wonder where that goes?”

“Jump in and find out,” Michael told him.
 
They exchanged smirks.

The passage beneath the waterfall led to a small room where an elevator door opened up.
 
They went inside and the door closed behind them.

Liam grabbed Michael’s shoulder and yelled, turning him around.
 
“It’s that bat again, look,” he said, pointing to the elevator roof.

“Hey, that thing
is
pretty big,” Michael told him.
 
“Looks like he’s sleeping though.
 
I doubt that’s the one you saw earlier.
 
Besides, this one’s white.
 
Was the one you saw white?”

Liam scratched his head, but didn’t answer.

“I bet there’re a lot of bats down here,” Michael assured him.

Liam didn’t look convinced.

Michael examined the control panel near the door.
 
It wasn’t the sort of thing he’d seen in an elevator before.
 
This one looked more like the keypad on a telephone, with the numbers 0 through 9 on it.
 
He thought that a bit odd.
 
He was contemplating what to press when the elevator suddenly began to move.
 
He half expected to hear elevator music as they descended farther into the depths of the earth.

The elevator door opened up to reveal a sight that Michael wasn’t expecting.
 
The chamber before them looked like a small living room.
 
The walls were stone, but there were a sofa, chairs, a coffee table, and even a television set.
 
His father was seated in an armchair and Mr. MacDonald stood beside him, sporting a mischievous grin.
 
A young man that he didn’t recognize sat on the sofa.
 
Michael guessed he was around twenty years old, and took note of how serious and unhappy he looked.

“Hello boys,” boomed Liam’s father.
 
“You two do seem to get around, don’t you?”

“I was actually starting to wonder what was taking you so long,” Michael’s father said.
 
“I found
my
dad’s relic vault when I was only nine.”
 
He looked at Mr. MacDonald and smiled.
 
“Maybe I was just a more crafty kid than he is.”

As they walked into the room, Michael kept his eyes on the stranger, not knowing what to think of him.
 
He saw that the Sword of Van Helsing was lying on the coffee table in front of him.

“Boys,” Michael’s father said, standing up.
 
“I want you to meet Caleb Boone.”

Caleb stood up too.
 
He met each of their hands in a firm handshake.
 
“A pleasure to meet you,” he told them without changing his solemn expression.
 
His pants, shirt, and boots were all black, which matched his black hair and five o’clock shadow.
 
Even the trench coat folded across the back of the sofa where Caleb had been sitting was black.

“Nice to meet you, too,” Michael said.
 
“So, dad, what exactly is going on?
 
Mom said you’d caught someone trying to break into the house last night.”

His father said nothing, but looked at Caleb and grinned.
 
Caleb sat back down.
 
“I’m afraid that was me.
 
Though at the time I didn’t know what I was getting myself into.”

“Are you the one that BURNT DOWN OUR HOUSE?” Michael growled threateningly, displaying a fist.

“No, he’s not,” his father said calmly.
 
“Why don’t you two have a seat.
 
We have a lot to talk about.”
 
He interlocked his fingers in front of his chest and waited as they sat down.
 
“First of all, Declan and I believe the two of you have the right to know about what’s going on.
 
We’re all a part of this now, but your mother’s not too happy about us keeping you in the loop, so make sure you respect her feelings.
 
You don’t want to cross her right now.”

“She knows we’re down here?” Michael asked.

His father nodded.
 
“I just got done speaking with her.
 
She’s already making travel preparations for us.”

“Travel preparations?
 
Where are we going?
 
I mean, our house just burnt down, aren’t there a few things to take care of?”

“Yes, but there’s also some pressing business we need to attend to.
 
I’ll let Caleb explain.”
 
He nodded at the young man, who looked less than thrilled at the prospect of going over the story again.

Caleb took a deep breath.
 
“All right.
 
Like I told your fathers, I broke in last night because I was trying to steal this sword.”
 
He pointed at the Sword of Van Helsing.
 
“I’ve been tracking some very bad people who’ve been looking for it, and after watching them carefully it became clear they believed your father had it.
 
I wanted to get my hands on it in order to keep it safe.”

“Safe from who?
 
The vampires?”

Caleb nodded.
 
“Once they have the sword, their leader can use it to reopen a portal- a gateway located inside his castle.”

“Mrs. Stoker told us about that,” Michael said.
 
“It’s where Dracula got the source of his evil power or something, right?”

“That’s partially true, yes.
 
You see, Dracula was born a shape-shifter.
 
He had the ability to change into a wolf, but after tragically losing the woman he loved, he turned away from God, whom he had once served.
 
He cursed God and learned to draw on the demonic powers that were trapped on the other side of that gateway.
 
He became something new, something diabolical; a warped, horrific version of the shape-shifter he’d been before.
 
He became the father of all vampires.”

“So Dracula wants to get the sword back so he can reopen this portal?” Liam asked.

“No, Dracula’s dead.
 
It’s his son Mihnea that’s after the sword.”

Michael felt like he’d just been punched.
 
“Mihnea?
 
You mean…not the Mihnea that Elizabeth has been seeing?”
 
He looked at his father pleadingly.

“Apparently he’s been using her to get closer to us; to fish for information that might lead him to the sword.”

“And now he
has
her, doesn’t he?
 
Mom said she was taking a trip to Romania with him.”

“Your mother hasn’t been able to reach her.
 
She’s not answering her phone.”
 
He sighed and frowned.
 
“She hasn’t been able to get ahold of your Uncle Link either.”

Uncle Link was going to be furious when he found out about Elizabeth.
 
Michael’s head began to spin.
 
He looked at Caleb, trying to read the stony expression on his unflinching face.
 
“Well, why should we believe him, he tried to break into our house and steal the sword.
 
He’s probably the one that burned it down, too.
 
Someone could have been
killed
.”

Mr. MacDonald shook his head.
 
“We’d already caught him before the fire, he’s not the one who set it.”

“That doesn’t mean anything,” Michael retorted.
 
“He could have been working with somebody else.”

“I am working with someone else,” Caleb said, rising to his feet.

“Oh yeah, with who?” Michael demanded.

“With me,” came a man’s voice from somewhere behind.

He spun around to see a tall man, dressed all in black except for the inside of his cloak, which was crimson, and the silver cross hanging from his neck.
 
He had long white hair and snowy white skin, and his eyes were the color of blood.

“Intruder Alert, Intruder Alert
,” came the deep voice that Michael had heard when the robotic ball had scanned him in.
 
The words were followed by a high-pitched alarm.

He leapt toward the coffee table and reached for the sword, but Caleb beat him to it.
 
He slid across the table on his stomach and crashed face first into the sofa near Caleb’s feet.
 
Michael rolled onto his back and looked up to see the man holding the sword at his side.
 
They’d been betrayed, and now they were surrounded.

“Sentinel, stand down,” came his father’s voice.
 
Caleb reached down and helped pull Michael back to his feet.

Suddenly, the Cisco Kid popped up on the television screen.
 
He had a surprised and dutiful look on his face.
 
“Hey, Mr. Belmont, the security grid shows you’ve got an intruder down there.
 
Is everything all right?
 
Do you want me to flood the level with water or something?”

Mr. Belmont’s eyes grew large.
 
“NO, Cisco, don’t do that.
 
Everything’s all right.
 
It’s just a misunderstanding.
 
Look, you’d better not be messing around with anything up there.”

Cisco gave him a guilty nod before the screen turned to black.

Mr. MacDonald turned to see Liam ready to spring on the intruder.
 
He smiled reassuringly.
 
“This must be Alucard.
 
Caleb was telling us about him just before you lot arrived.”

“It’s alright,” Caleb explained, holding his hand out to the strange looking man.
 
“These people are our friends.
 
They’ve agreed to help us.”

“Is that so?” Alucard asked in a cool voice.
 
“Then I’d appreciate you
not
trying to attack me every time you see me,” he told Michael, who responded with a confused glare.
 
Alucard pulled his cloak to the side and lifted up his shirt, revealing a section of his white torso where a bandage covered his ribs.
 
“It’s nearly healed now.
 
Your arrow fell true to its mark,” he said sullenly.
 
“I’m fairly certain you nicked my lung.”

“YOU’RE the WHITE WOLF,” Michael shouted at him accusingly.
 
“And what about that other wolf I saw?
 
The one that was about to attack me?”
 
He turned to Caleb.
 
“I suppose that was you, wasn’t it.”

“That was my brother, Mihnea,” Alucard said.
 
“He was trying to get the woman to invite him into your home, and was most displeased when you interrupted.
 
He would have killed you and the female child had I not drawn him away.”

“That’s why he leapt over Sarah?”
 
Michael looked down.
 
“I was wondering why he ran off like that.
 
But Mihnea is your brother?” he gasped, suddenly realizing the implication.
 
“That means that Dracula’s your…?”

“Yes,” Alucard nodded.
 
“Dracula
was
my father, though I’ve never known anything but sorrow because of it.”

“How exactly did you get in here?” Michael’s father asked curiously.
 
“How did you make it past my security systems?”

Alucard pointed at Liam with his thumb.
 
“I came in with them.”

Liam looked at him dumbly for a moment.
 
“You mean to say you were that bat?
 
You’re a vampire aren’t you?” he shot at him.
 
“Why should we trust anything that you have to say?
 
Hmm?”

“We trust him because Caleb trusts him,” Mr. Belmont said.
 
“That’s good enough for me.”

“What?
 
Why?”
 
Michael stuttered.
 
Had his father gone mad?
 
“What’s that supposed to mean?
 
We don’t know these people.
 
We just met them, and they were trying to rob us!
 
They’ve been spying on us!
 
What’s so special about this guy that makes you want to believe
anything
he has to say?”

“Show him the mark,” his father told Caleb.

Caleb pulled his left sleeve up.
 
Just below the shoulder was the emblem of a dragon.
 
It was curved with its tail winding around its own neck, so that its body formed a circle.
 
A cross divided the wings upon its back from the top near its neck down toward the base of the tail.
 
The emblem looked as though it had been burned right into the young man’s flesh.