Michael Belmont and the Heir of Van Helsing (The Adventures of Michael Belmont) (36 page)

She sadly turned without saying a word, and Magda and the two boys followed her down the hill.

When they reached the car, Michael unlocked the door and picked up the cell phone he found in the center console.
 
He wanted to call his father to see if they’d made it to the castle yet.
 
He looked at the phone and saw two bars, so he leaned against the car and began to dial.

Before he could finish the number, a black figure dropped from the sky and snatched the phone right out of his hand.
 
Michael gasped and then gritted his teeth angrily as he realized who it was.

Mihnea looked at the phone for a moment before crushing it in his hand as easily as he would a cracker, letting the shattered pieces fall to the ground at Michael’s feet.
 
“You won’t be needing that.
 
You’ll be speaking to your father in person soon enough.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Michael growled as he curled up his fist and took a swing.

Mihnea saw the punch coming and easily stepped out of the way, catching his attacker by the arm.
 
Twirling him around and grabbing his shoulder, he slammed Michael’s face down into the car so hard that a large dent spread across the hood.
 
Pain erupted through his face as Mihnea pulled him back up to his feet and let go.
 
Michael stumbled backward and fell to the ground.

“I didn’t come down here to fight babies,” Mihnea said with a chuckle as he swept Magda’s dagger aside with his hand.
 
He backhanded her, and she crashed against the car, shattering the driver’s side window before collapsing in a heap.

He swept his long, black coat to the side to pull a comb from his pocket, and then he reached down and ripped the side mirror off the car door.

“You haven’t given me a very warm reception, but I’m willing to look past it,” he said while inspecting himself in the mirror and running the comb through his hair.
 
Michael watched helplessly as he stepped over Magda’s body and knelt down beside Abigail.

“Abby, I’ve come to invite you to a wedding.
 
You like weddings don’t you?”

For a moment Abigail glared at him, her heart pounding and her chest heaving, but as she looked in his eyes, she seemed to calm down.

“I’ve come to tell you that Elizabeth wants you to be the bride’s maid at our wedding.
 
We haven’t been able to reach your mother, so she wants you to do it.
 
Doesn’t that sound nice?”

“Leave her alone,” Michael warned him feebly as he checked Magda’s pulse.
 
She was alive, but unconscious.

A broad smile spread across Abigail’s face as she beamed up at Mihnea.

“I love weddings.
 
Elizabeth really wants
me
to be her bride’s maid?
 
Me
?”

“That’s right.
 
And she wants all of you to be there for the wedding,” he said, turning around and offering Michael a hand up.

Michael pushed himself to his feet.
 
“What are you, stupid?
 
Your little mind tricks won’t work on me.
 
I see you for the evil piece of garbage you really are.”

Mihnea’s face flashed with anger, but it was soon replaced with his regular charming smile.
 
“Alright, then I’ll make you a deal.
 
Come to the wedding and afterward I’ll let you and all your friends leave in peace.
 
If not, then you’ll all be leaving in pieces.
 
That is if you leave at all.”

Michael’s head was swimming.
 
What was all this about?
 
Why did Mihnea want them there for his farcical wedding anyway?
 
He was tricking Elizabeth into marrying him; it wasn’t as if he cared about pleasing her.
 
But then Michael realized something.
 
Yes, that had to be it.
 
By having Elizabeth’s friends at the wedding he could maintain his illusion better, it would all seem more real to her.
 
But how did Mihnea plan to control everyone?
 
The vampire’s Jedi mind tricks didn’t work on him, or his father.
 
He had to have something else planned for them.

“There won’t be any wedding,” Michael shot at him.
 
“My dad’s going to kill you before that happens.”

Mihnea chuckled.
 
“We’ll see about that.
 
In the meantime, I have a gift for you.
 
A sign of my goodwill.”
 
He swept his cloak aside, revealing the Sword of Van Helsing hanging at his side.
 
He pulled it from its leather scabbard and drove it up to the hilt through the door of the car, so that it looked like the sword in the stone.
 
“I hope your father insured this car,” he laughed.

Mihnea stood looking at him with his hands on his hips, the same way he’d seen Alucard do it.
 
There was a resemblance, that was for sure.
 
But how was it that two brothers could be so different.
 
Alucard had been cursed by his circumstances as well as his appearance, but he was a better man than this one by far.

“Get away from them,” came Liam’s voice from the other side of the car.
 
He had managed to get the gun from the glove compartment, and was pointing it at Mihnea’s chest, but couldn't get a shot off without endangering his friends.

The vampire looked at Liam seriously for a moment before snorting out a laugh.
 
“I have to hand it to you kids, you’re nothing if not entertaining.
 
What do you think that thing’s going to do to me anyway?”

“Oh, you might be surprised if you really want to find out,” Liam said happily.
 
“You see, these bullets are a special order.
 
Made for creatures just like you.
 
Now get away from my friends and leave us alone.”

“I can do that,” Mihnea told him with an angry grin, “but I’m going to need some assurances first.”
 
With unnatural speed, he swept up Abigail and carried her into the trees, disappearing in a swirl of black mist.

“NO,” Michael and Liam shouted together as he went.

Michael pulled his lantern out and held it up toward the woods.
 
Panic gripped him as he waved it around, searching for any sign of them.
 
Rattling came from the tops of several trees, as if Mihnea were moving around between them, and then things went quiet.

“WHERE ARE THEY?” Michael yelled.
 
He ran furiously along beneath the trees until a very peculiar noise caught his ears.
 
A horrible, growling screech rang out into the night, mingled with a shriek of pain.

“ABIGAIL,” Michael screamed.

The black swirling form came back down and reformed into Mihnea, who glared at them hatefully with his terrible red eyes.
 
Blood streaked from a row of scratch marks that ran down the left side of his face, from his temple to his chin.

Liam raised the gun threateningly.

“You’ll
have
to come now,” Mihnea told them.
 
“If you care about that thing you call your sister.”

Liam pulled the trigger, but Mihnea anticipated the bullet and leapt away, changing into a wolf and bounding off as Liam shot after him.

“STOP,” Michael yelled after he fired several rounds.
 
“He’s too far away now, you’re just wasting ammo.”

Liam’s whole body was shaking in anger as he lowered the gun.

“ABBY,” Michael shouted again.

“Wait,” Liam told him, putting his hand across his friend’s chest.
 
“Listen.”

They stood silently for a moment.
 
Michael did hear something; a scratching sound coming from the top of one of the tallest trees.

Liam raised the gun up again as they watched a small cougar come staggering down the trunk.
 
When it neared the bottom, it leapt to the ground, stumbling and falling over.
 
It got up and tottered a few more steps toward them before face planting into the ground and collapsing on its side.

They walked to the cat, and Michael looked down in awe as it changed back into the familiar form of his little sister.
 
He stooped down and rolled her onto her back.

“Oh NO!”

“What is it?” Liam asked, kneeling beside him.

“She’s been bit.”
 
He pointed to the marks on her neck.
 

She strained to open her eyes, and looked at them in confusion.
 
Blood was smeared around her mouth.

“Well it looks like she bit him back.
 
Good for you, Abby,” Liam told her.

“No, it’s not good,” Michael said.
 
“It’s not good at all.”

“Oh no, you’re right.”
 
Anger flooded over Liam’s face.
 
“Now we
have
to go and kill him don’t we, or she’ll change into one of them.”

Michael and Liam returned to the car carrying Abigail.

“We need to get that sword out of the door,” Michael told Liam.
 
“But I don’t want to touch it, not until we’re someplace safe and private.
 
It might give me another vision.”

They wrapped the handle with a shirt and yanked on the thing as it slowly worked its way free.
 
After finally managing to pull it from the door, Michael wrapped it up and placed it safely with his gear.
 
He and Liam gently placed Magda in the back seat and helped Abigail into the front passenger seat, and then they took turns guarding the car while the girls slept.
 
Michael went first, and occasionally he could hear rustling and walking out in the trees, or catch a pair of yellow eyes glistening back at him in the moonlight.

“Mihnea has no intention of letting us out of here,” Michael told Liam as he woke him up to take his shift.
 
“Something or someone is out there in the trees keeping an eye on us.”

Liam frowned and nodded as Michael handed over the pistol.

Michael was able to get a few hours sleep, and when he woke was relieved to see that the sun had come up, even though it woke him.
 
He was exhausted, but knew he’d never be able to get back to sleep, so he got up and helped Liam gather up some things for a quick breakfast.
 
His father had left a stash of snack food in the trunk, so they ate and repacked their supplies for the hike back to the castle.

Both girls woke up as Michael closed the trunk, which was quite a relief to him considering everything they’d gone through that night.

“How are you guys doing?” he asked them.

“Got quite a headache,” Magda said softly, rubbing the back of her neck.

“Me too,” said Abigail.
 
“And these stupid bite marks burn.”

Michael nodded.
 
“Mine did too when I got bit.”

Magda sat up and gently moved Abigail’s head to examine her neck.
 
“Oh no, he bit you?
 
He didn’t feed you his own blood, did he?”

“He didn’t get the chance to.
 
I bit the jerk back.”

“You did WHAT?”

“Yeah,” Michael chuckled nervously.
 
“She scratched him across the face too.
 
He didn’t look to happy when he came down out of that tree, blood streaming down his face.”

“You’re really something else, Abigail,” Magda said weakly, but with a grin.
 
“But why didn’t the wounds heal right away?
 
Those wounds should have closed within seconds.”

“Well the bite did, but my claws, uhm, I mean fingernails were painted with silver nail-polish.
 
It was something Mrs. Stoker showed me.
 
Works great for werewolves, and vampires too.”

“Are you having any unusual cravings?” Michael asked her, holding his lantern up to her eyes.
 
“I mean, you don’t want to drink any of us do you?”

“Well, I am a bit thirsty now that you mention it.
 
Can I have some of that water?” she said to Liam, who was guzzling from a bottle he’d just pulled from the trunk.

Liam nodded and held it out to her, but Magda smacked it out of his hand before she could take it.

“HEY,” Liam spat at her, “Why’d you—”

“That’s holy-water.
 
For all we know it could kill her.”

“Oh,” Liam said, giving Abby a guilty grin.
 
“Sorry about that.
 
I think I saw some sodas in there too.
 
I’ll go get one for you.
 
You don’t think they’re holy-sodas do you?” he asked Magda, sticking his tongue at her while getting out of the car.

“Liam has a way with women,” Michael told her.

“Oh really?” Abigail asked.
 
“You think so, huh?”

“I didn’t say it was a good way,” Michael told them.
 
“I just said it was a way.”

The girls both laughed.
 
That was a good sign, thought Michael.

They gathered their things and headed back up the mountain.

“Are we even going to be able to get back in there?” Liam asked.

“What do you mean?” Michael retorted.

Liam explained how the castle had been hidden, and what they had gone through to find it.

“So you lost your lantern?
 
That’s too bad,” Abigail told him.

“Nah,” Liam said.
 
“It was worth it to find you guys.”

Liam flinched as Abigail threw her arms around him and kissed him on the cheek.
 
Most of the time when Abigail touched him there was quite a lot of pain involved, so a kiss was a welcome change.
 
He gave her a pat on the head.