Michael Belmont and the Heir of Van Helsing (The Adventures of Michael Belmont) (18 page)

"The very next morning, my mother slipped away with me.
 
She took me back with her to a nearby village, the place of her birth.
 
She had hoped to find her father or brother so that they could hide us and give us shelter.
 

"However, we never got far enough to find them.
 
As we approached the village, a sentry recognized my mother and shot her through the heart with an arrow.
 
Apparently the people of the region knew who she was and considered her a witch, just as much a monster as Dracula.
 
She was dead before she hit the ground.
 
I never had a chance to tell her goodbye, to thank her for protecting me, for loving me even though I was strange and different.

"As I stooped down to embrace her fallen body, two more arrows came to find their mark.
 
One pierced my right leg, and another went through my right shoulder.
 
Without thinking, I tore the arrows away and rushed at the archer, ripping him apart with my bare hands.
 
Devastated by my mother’s murder, and horrified by what I had done to the sentry, I withdrew into the forest and hid.

"After the sun went down that night, my father learned about what had happened, and took his revenge upon the entire village.
 
He slaughtered every man, woman, and child who lived there for what happened to my mother.
 
He came looking for me as well, whether to carry out his plans for me or because of remorse I do not know, and to this day I do not care.
 
At the time all I could think of was getting away.

"For decades I remained hidden, running from my father’s minions and barely keeping ahead of them.
 
One night they caught up with me, and although I fought fiercely against them I was eventually overpowered.
 
They bound me and began the journey back to my father.

"On the road to the castle, something quite extraordinary happened.
 
As we approached the fortress, a man charged at us from the woods.
 
He changed his form into a dragon, and ripped through my captors like a scythe slicing wheat.
 
I was certain he would kill me next, but instead of feeling fear, I felt… a deep sense of relief.
 
Even as the beast stood over me screeching with rage I remember resigning myself to fate.
 
I was going to be with my mother again.
 
I didn’t struggle; I simply closed my eyes and prepared for death- but death did not come.
 

"The dragon turned back into a man, and set me free.
 
He became a mentor and teacher who took me under his wing.
 
He taught me how to take care of myself.
 
He taught me how to live in the shadows, how to fight, and how to control my ability to change form.
 
Apart from my mother, he was the only true family I had ever known; yet I never learned his true name.
 
I knew him only as the Dragon.

"After the death of my father, I never saw him again.
 
Whether he walks the earth today or is buried beneath it I do not know, but since his departure I’ve been using the skills he taught me to stand against my brother Mihnea, who has always sought to take Dracula’s place.
 
But now the threat is greater than ever.
 
Mihnea must not be allowed to gain control over the portal in our father’s castle.
 
I can not stop him alone, and I humbly ask for any help you can give me.”

Michael’s head was beginning to swim, and he was struggling to stay awake.
 
He wanted to hear- needed to hear Alucard’s story.
 
After listening to his tale and experiencing the night’s events, he now felt they could trust him, and Caleb too.
 
But he didn’t like what Alucard had said about “the Dragon.”
 
What if this was Zuriel- the same man who’d kidnapped his parents and nearly gotten them all killed?
 
The same man that Anubis had sacrificed himself to stop?
 
After all, Uriel had warned George about him after giving him the sword.
 
He would ask Alucard more about it later, but for now he had no choice but to sleep.

Michael awoke the next morning with a pounding headache that began at the base of his neck and ran to the back of his eyes.
 
He looked out the window and rubbed his temples as his eyes adjusted to the light.
 
Down in the secluded park below, he saw a strange black and white form walking beneath the trees.
 
It looked like Alucard.

Michael threw on his clothes and opened the door to find Liam in the hallway.
 
“Alucard is down there in the park.
 
Come on, I want to talk to him.”

“What if he doesn’t want to talk to us?
 
To be honest, the bloke scares me a bit.
 
I’m still not sure we can trust him.
 
What if all that stuff you and your mom went through was just a show?
 
What if Alucard set it all up to gain our trust?”

Michael had already thought of that, but he didn’t think it was the case.
 
He still wasn’t completely convinced the man could be trusted, but he had a good feeling about him.

“Well, talking with him will help us figure that out, won’t it,” he taunted.

Liam followed him outside, pausing only to grab some bacon from the continental breakfast bar near the lobby.

They found Alucard sitting on a park bench, legs crossed in front of him, casting out handfuls of popcorn.
 
A small group of ravens had gathered to collect the treat.
 
It was an odd sight.
 
Alucard’s garb could have fooled the birds into thinking he was an unusually large cousin, if not for his milky white skin, which contrasted sharply with their black plumage.

Michael and Liam sat down beside him, but he made no move to greet them.
 
He kept his eyes fixed upon the birds, which were hopping around playfully on the grass.

“Beautiful, aren’t they?” he said without lifting his head.

Michael glanced down to watch them scamper after another handful.

“Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap,” Alucard said, “they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them.”

“How much more valuable you are than the birds!” Liam added.

Alucard’s lips curled into something that suspiciously resembled a smile.

“They are incredibly smart creatures.
 
Did you know that a raven will actually call a wolf over to an animal carcass so that it can do all the work of tearing it apart for him?”

Liam grimaced.
 
“That’s a little, er, macabre.
 
But, uh, very interesting.”

Alucard finally lifted his red eyes to look at them.
 
“Macabre?
 
Maybe a bit,” he shrugged.
 
“But they can’t help what they are.
 
They do what they can to survive.”
 
He threw them more popcorn.

“I’ve always liked ravens too, actually,” Michael told him.
 
“I’ve always thought they seemed playful.
 
I think Poe got them all wrong.”

Alucard smiled once again, obviously approving of Michael’s words.
 
He moved his eyes down to gaze at the birds again.

Michael hoped they’d broken the ice.
 
“Mr. Alucard, do you think Mihnea means Elizabeth any harm?
 
I mean, what exactly does he want from her?”

He sat silent for a moment before responding.
 
“I don’t think Mihnea means your friend any immediate harm.
 
I believe he is actually quite fond of her in his own way.”

“In his own way?” Michael asked.
 
“I don’t know if I like the sound of that.”

Alucard frowned.
 
“I’ve never known my brother to truly love anyone or anything.
 
At least not in the sense of a giving, sacrificial love.”
 
He threw more of his buttery treat to the ravens.
 
“My brother is an extremely self-absorbed man.
 
He looks at people only from a perspective of how they might benefit him.”

“So, you’re confident he won’t hurt her then?” asked Liam.

The man raised his white eyebrow.
 
“No, I have no such confidence.
 
But I don’t
believe
his intent is to harm her.
 
At least not right now, not while she serves whatever purpose he has in store for her.”

“And what purpose does he have for her?” Michael pressed.
 
“What does he want her for?”

Alucard looked at them sadly, and with something that hinted of pity.

“You two are only boys.
 
You should not have to concern yourselves with such matters.”
 

The ravens hopped around over Liam’s feet, racing for a piece of the falling popcorn.

“You might be right,” Michael protested angrily.
 
“But whether we
should
or not doesn’t really matter does it?
 
We’re caught up in the middle of all this now whether we want to be or not.”

Liam frowned.
 
“If she was a friend of yours, you’d want to know what was happening wouldn’t you?
 
You’d want to try and find a way to help!”

Alucard paused for a moment, and then nodded slowly.
 
“Your fathers are planning on going to Romania to retrieve her.
 
I will be guiding them, and I promise that I’ll do everything I can to ensure she returns to you safely.”

“Thank you,” Michael told him.
 
“But you still haven't told us what he wants with her.”

“You seem like a fairly intelligent young man.
 
Why don’t
you
tell
me
what Mihnea wants with Elizabeth?”

Michael and Liam looked at each other, each knowing what the other was thinking.

Liam spoke first. “He wants to make her his bride.”

Michael’s eyes fell to the ground.
 
He knew what his friend was going to say, and he didn’t want to say it himself.
 
He felt that saying it out loud might make him sick.

Liam shifted nervously, and one of the ravens that had crept up close to him hopped a little farther away.

“He wants to have a child with her, to offer it as a sacrifice.
 
He’s going to try and become more powerful by doing to his own child what
your
father tried to do to you.”

Alucard cast out another handful of popcorn.
 
“Yes,” he said softly.
 
“Although I don’t know with complete certainty that those are his intentions.
 
I’ve come to believe recently that Mihnea’s insatiable hunger for power will lead him further down the path of depravity than even our father traveled.”

“But why Elizabeth?” Michael pleaded.
 
“After all this time, hundreds of years, why has he chosen her?”

“My brother has only recently discovered what our father’s plans for me were.
 
I’ve never told him the story as I’ve explained it to all of you.
 
I could never trust him with such information.”

Michael clenched his fists.
 
“Well, HOW did he find out then?”

“I don’t know.
 
Someone or something must have told him.
 
He’s been dabbling in the occult all his life; who knows what kind of dark forces he might have consulted.”

“Elizabeth won’t go along with any of this once she finds out who he really is,” said Liam.

“No, but she won’t have any choice at first.
 
He’ll control her mind and blind her to the things he doesn’t want her to see.
 
Eventually his control over her will weaken, and she’ll be slowly driven insane by the things she sees.”
 
Alucard gazed into the distance.
 
“That’s what happened to my mother.
 
She was a good and kind-hearted woman too.
 
She didn’t deserve what happened to her.”

Alucard reached into the popcorn bag once more, but found it empty.
 
“No,” he said determinedly.
 
“We won’t abandon your friend to that fate.
 
Too much is at risk; I won’t let her suffer the way that my mother did.”
 
He rose to his feet.
 
Michael could see the fire burning behind his red, narrowed eyes.
 
“Come, there are still many things to discuss before we leave.”

Rachel Belmont looked down upon the white, fluffy clouds beneath the plane.
 
The final rays of the evening sun shone through them as if the doors of heaven had been opened, and she could almost see inside.
 
It was a beautiful sight, and she longed to be out there, soaring through the sky on her own wings.
 
She’d always hated flying in airplanes; it seemed so artificial.

Michael, Abigail and Liam were all seated behind her, sleeping peacefully.
 
Caleb Boone was there too, sitting quietly and sharpening his swords, immersed in some determined thought.

Rachel got up from her seat and stuck her head into the cockpit, where Declan and Mark sat flying the plane.

“Are we there yet?” she asked her husband with a smile.

“Actually, pretty darn close.
 
We’ll be landing in Eindhoven in about twenty minutes.”