Michael Belmont and the Heir of Van Helsing (The Adventures of Michael Belmont) (50 page)

He leapt onto the throne just as Mark Belmont and Declan MacDonald sprinted into the room.
 
They quickly scanned the place, trying to take in everything that was going on around them.

“I think Michael’s been bitten,” Caleb told them.
 
“Have you two got Mihnea?”

“We’ve got him,” Mark said, as Abigail ran to his side.
 
“Abby, what happened to Michael?
 
Was he bitten?”

She nodded.
 
“Mihnea made Raymond bite him, so now he’s a werewolf,” she wept.
 
“And…and—”

“What is it?” he asked, catching her up into his arms.
 
“And he bit me himself, but I’m not a real vampire yet, I promise.
 
I haven’t hurt anybody.
 
He bit Elizabeth too!”

“Is that so?” her father asked rhetorically, pulling a sharp wooden stake from his belt and glaring at Mihnea.
 
“Well, he ought not to have done those things, sweetie.
 
Now he’s going to have to pay for it.”

The vampire laughed.
 
“You are all weaklings and fools.
 
Do you really think you two are any match for me?”

“I don’t know,” shrugged Mark.
 
“Maybe, maybe not.
 
But I know
he
is.”

Mihnea looked over his shoulder, but before he could turn, his body jerked violently.
 
He fell to the ground with a thud, and standing there behind him was Link, still in his wolf-man form, holding Mihnea’s heart up in a clawed hand.
 
Mark plunged the stake through, and within seconds both the heart and the body of the vampire lord were burning away into ash.

Caleb threw himself down to the floor beside Michael.

He slapped him several times lightly on the face.
 
“Michael, how long ago were you bitten?”

“It was a werewolf,” Michael told him weakly.

“Yes, but how long ago?
 
How long?”

“Raymond,” Michael mumbled, “But he…wasn’t his fault.”

Magda knelt down beside them.
 
“It was about ten minutes ago, I think, but everything has been happening so fast.
 
I can’t say exactly.”

“Close enough,” Caleb told her, taking a large syringe out of his pack.
 
It was filled with some kind of silver liquid.
 
“This ought to do the trick, but he isn’t going to like it.
 
It’s a good thing he’s tied up, but you might want to hold him.”

Magda took Michael’s hand and squeezed as Caleb plunged the syringe into his chest.
 
Immediately he began writhing in agony, screaming and thrashing uncontrollably.
 
His friends struggled to hold him down as the werewolf virus burned out of his veins.

Elizabeth stood in the balcony and surveyed everything that was going on below her.

“Link?” she muttered feebly, and gasped as he turned his hairy face to meet her gaze.

Then she fainted.

Michael’s vision began to clear, and he opened his eyes to find Caleb, his father and sister, and Declan MacDonald hovering over him.
 
He had a pounding headache and felt sick to his stomach.
 
His father helped him to his feet, but he was so weak he nearly fell right over again, and had to prop himself up against the wall.

“We need to get out of here quickly,” his father told him.
 
“Alucard’s going to attempt to charge the gateway up with energy until it explodes, just like Anubis destroyed the other one.”

Michael looked up toward the throne where Alucard was seated.
 
Magda stood beside him.
 
A wall of green mist stretched between the two obelisks, and it was growing brighter by the second.
 
The sound of a gusty wind began to fill the chamber.

“But that’s going to kill him.
 
I need to speak with him,” Michael called through the noise, pointing to the throne.

“All right, can you walk?” he asked, watching his son sway back and forth.

Michael nodded.
 
“I’ll be all right, just need a few seconds.”
 
After taking some deep breaths to get his bearings, he staggered to the throne.
 
When he got there, he saw that the sword of Van Helsing had been inserted into the right palm of the dragon throne, and Alucard’s white hands gripped it tightly.
 
He was straining to keep it locked in place.

“Alucard, you don’t need to do this,” Magda told him.
 
“Mihnea’s dead!
 
We can come back and destroy this thing later, figure out a way to do it safely.”

“There is no way to do this safely.
 
Besides, I won’t allow anyone else to be harmed by my father’s evil.
 
The gateway is too dangerous to be allowed to exist any longer.
 
You all need to get out now, as quickly as you can.
 
I’ve already shown Caleb the most direct route.”

The sound of wind grew heavier, and Michael felt his hair and clothing being tugged toward the portal.
 
He could hear screams and other blood curdling sounds emanating from the mist, and had to fight the urge to plug his ears.

He pulled and tugged on his ring, struggling to get it off.
 
Anubis had given it to him for protection when the first gateway was destroyed.
 
If he’d kept it on himself, he’d still be alive today.
 
If only he could get the ring off, he could give it to Alucard, but it wouldn’t budge, and he felt that if he pulled any harder he might dislocate his finger.

“We’re not going to leave without you,” Michael urged him.
 
“I’ll stay, help you destroy this thing.”

“Thank you, Michael.
 
You’re a good friend.
 
But that won’t be necessary.
 
You and Magda have your entire lives ahead of you, enjoy them.
 
Don’t worry about me, I’ll get out if I can, but you need to go
now
.”

Michael felt his father’s hand on his shoulder.
 
“Come on, son,” he said gently.
 
“He’s doing this so Magda doesn’t have to.
 
It’s time to leave, we need to get the girls to safety.”

Michael hesitated, looking up at Alucard’s pained face for a few moments before conceding with a nod.

“Thank you,” Michael told him.
 
“For everything.”

“Take care, all of you.
 
Now go, quickly.”

Michael grabbed Magda’s hand, and began to pull her away, but she resisted, pointing back into the portal.

“MICHAEL, LOOK!”

Deep in the mist, a terrible gray face began to take form.
 
Its ears were pointed, as was its nose, and its fanged mouth grinned out at them with a hunger that sent chills down Michael’s spine.
 
With great effort the beast drove itself toward them, as if it were trying to push its way through the winds of a mighty hurricane.

“It’s Dracula,” Magda said to him.
 
She glared at the creature with a fury that Michael had never seen in her eyes before, not even when she’d looked at Mihnea.

The vampire stretched out his long, clawed fingers toward Alucard, and growled something at him in a language Michael couldn’t understand.
 
Alucard’s face flushed with fear, but he continued to stand firm, clutching the sword with all his strength.

Before he had time to stop her, Magda charged the beast, holding the lance, which had grown three times its normal size, up at her waist.
 
She struck out with all her might, landed her blow square in the monster’s chest with a thunderous crack and blinding flash of light.

Ethereal blue bonds appeared and began to wrap tightly around the monstrous creature as he was sucked back into the portal.
 
It stared at Magda in shock before fading away back into the mists.

The light from the portal was growing brighter every moment, and the sounds coming from within had become so loud that Michael couldn’t hear his father, who was tugging on him and shouting for them to leave.
 
Michael nodded and turned back to grab Magda, but stopped cold when he noticed that something else was now coming through the gateway.
 
Dozens of tall forms were trying to push their way out.
 
As they began to get closer, Michael expected to see some horrific kind of beasts, and was surprised when they all appeared to be normal men.

Michael took Magda by the arm, urging her to follow, but she shook free, lifting her lance into the air and throwing it like a javelin into the gateway.
 
Immediately there was a chain reaction of electrical cracks and flashes, like a lightning storm had just been unleashed between the obelisks.

Without thinking, Michael threw himself on top of Magda.
 
They fell to the ground, and as he shielded her with his body, he saw that his ring was glowing.
 
He held his curled fist up toward the portal, and watched as a dome of blue light spread out and encompassed him and his companions.

Michael looked to Alucard, who was still straining to hold the sword in place.
 
His teeth were gritted and his muscles bulged, and he didn’t look like he’d be able to hold it much longer.

As the storm within the gateway continued, the obelisks began to crack and crumble, and loose objects around the room were getting sucked into the portal, but his shield of protection held firm.
 
The hideous drapery of Dracula and the impaled masses was pulled off the wall and electrified as it shot away into nothingness.
 
The energy and the storm intensified, until chunks of the obelisks themselves disappeared, and the portal, with another ear piercing crack, imploded upon itself.

The blue dome of light collapsed.
 
Michael didn’t know how he’d managed to generate it, but it had managed to keep them all safe.
 
He leaned against the throne and took in a long, deep breath.

For the next few moments things remained calm, and everyone stood looking in amazement at where the obelisks had stood just seconds before, enjoying the silence and peace.

And then the room began to rumble and shake.

“This castle was built to guard the gateway,” Michael told them.
 
“Now that it’s destroyed, this whole place is going to cave in on us.”

“Michael, your nose is bleeding again,” Magda said, taking his face in her hands.

His father yanked them up and threw Michael over his shoulder.

“Come on, we need to get out of here, now.” He took Magda’s hand and they ran toward the door along with the others.

Alucard pulled the sword from the throne to find that the blade had been shattered.
 
He ran up and took the lead as they abandoned the quaking throne room.
 
Michael heard the sounds of the fortress demolishing itself around them as they fled, but even among the cracking of walls and falling of stones he was unable to keep his eyes open.
 
The ring had drained him once again.

Liam held the canteen up so the old man could take another drink.

“Thank you, lad,” he said gratefully.
 
“I can already feel some of my strength returning.
 
I just wish I could be fighting alongside our friends in that castle.
 
Alucard is a skilled warrior, but so is Mihnea, and the latter has no great love for his brother.
 
Alucard’s compassion will be his greatest weakness when dealing with Mihnea.”

Liam felt a knot in his stomach as he saw the castle’s reflection on the surface of the lake.
 
Its towers waved gently back and forth on the calm waters, and only a few stars remained to ornament its dark form.
 
His eyes shot up to look at the actual castle, which stretched into the night sky above them.
 
The horizon was getting brighter, and the sun would be coming up at any moment.
 
He watched as a few early morning hikers strode through the snow to their destination at the top of the hill, and anxiously searched for any sign of his loved ones coming out.

“Do you feel that?” the old man asked him, scanning the landscape curiously.

“Yeah, actually I do,” Liam agreed nervously.
 
The ground beneath them had begun to vibrate gently.
 
“Feels like we’re having a bit of an earthquake.
 
I’ve never been through one before, have you?”

The old man cracked a smile.
 
“It’s no earthquake, lad.
 
Look up there!”

Liam turned to look back at the castle.
 
It was now shaking as if Atlas himself had seized the foundation, attempting to beat the citadel back into the stone and sand from which it had come.

“They did it,” Liam whispered.
 
“HEY, YEAH, THEY DID IT!
 
THEY DESTROYED THAT GATEWAY!”
 
He began to jump up and down and clap his hands furiously.
 
The Dragon grinned and laughed to see the boy’s excitement.

“Now they just need to get out of there before the place comes down on top of them,” Liam said, a bit more seriously.

“That should be the easy part,” the Dragon told him, pushing himself up to sit on a large flat rock.
 
“Let’s pray that they all made it through the battle safely.”

The highest tower of the castle crashed down into rubble, taking one of the shorter towers and part of the western wall along with it.
 
Dust shot into the morning air, and a horrible racket echoed off the mountains around them, yet the hikers seemed to take little notice.
 
As he watched them, Liam thought that a few might be suspecting something.
 
One man put his hand on his companion’s shoulder, stopping him to ask if he’d just felt something- at least that’s what it looked like to Liam.