Van Helsing's Sister, Dracula's Bride

I can see Van Helsing has a small smile on his lips. I snuggle closer to him; stupid Vampire and his stupid choice of clothing! I can't feel anything! Warmth, my kingdom for warmth, I'll even throw the Princess in as a bonus!After she calms down from her little outburst she looks at us sadly. "Do you both have any family?" Van Helsing rubs my arm in a familiar, comforting motion and to also give me some extra heat.

"Marishka is the only person that I know of," he answers," and I plan to do all in my power to protect her; she's my baby sister." Anna is trying hard not to cry, it's easy to tell; I wonder why.

"Where's Carl," I ask, looking around us like he was going to pop out at any moment.

"He's doing research at Anna's castle." I nod, stamping my feet to get the circulation going again. Van Helsing pulls out a bottle, taking a long drink from it; Anna takes it from him, sniffing it.

"Absinthe," she says, surprised.

"Strong stuff," he smirks as she takes a drink.

"Don't let it touch your tongue," Anna says when I take it," it'll knock you on you're a—"She's cut off when the floor beneath us gives away. "Ah!" The fall is quick and the ground is hard—I land on my back, the air knocked out of my lungs; it's made worse when boards and other pieces of the windmill fall down around me.

The end of a piece of wood barely connects with my head, but it hit me just hard enough to knock me out for a few seconds. I can hear Anna groaning and Van Helsing pushing the charred wood around. "Mari, are you okay," he whispers. I raise one pale arm in and wave it around in the air, unable to speak yet. He runs over and helps me to my feet. "You're bleeding."

"It'll heal in a few minutes," I mouth to him. It's true, as a Dhampir my wounds heal faster, just not as fast as a Vampire's. Van Helsing rolls his eyes, taking one of my hands gently in one of his. He leads Anna and me past a pile of small bones; a bible is lying on top of them.

"There's something down here," he informs us quietly," it's human, it's carnivorous." No crap, look at those bones! He stops and points to a huge, muddy footprint. "I'd say he's a size seventeen wide, three hundred and sixty pounds, almost nine feet tall."

"And a bad gimp," I notice; I look behind the Princess, grimacing at the sight of a tall...Something," and three copper teeth."

"How do you know he has copper teeth," she asks, standing up. Van Helsing slowly reaches for his pistol saying," Because he's standing right behind you; move!" He pushes Anna out of the way. The monster throws Van Helsing backwards into a shallow pool filled with murky water.

I charge at the monster, but he picks me up and throws me into the pool. Anna is knocked to the ground and begins to crawl backwards as the monster advances towards her. "The Frankenstein monster," she gasps.

"Monster," the thing growls," who's the monster here?" It takes another big step closer to the Princess, steam hissing from under the ragged cloak it wore. "I have done no wrong, yet you and your kind all wish me dead!" Van Helsing slams into the monster, knocking him into the wall before, once again, being thrown into the pool; this time he lands on top of me. The top and left hand sides of the monster's face pops open, only being held together by stitches; he pushes them back into place.

"What do you want," Anna asks, panicked.

"To exist," it answers sadly. Aw, poor thing!Taking advantage of the situation, Van Helsing shoots six small darts into the creature's back; they should put it to sleep.

"You had to be thrown twice to think of that," I half ask, half yell. He shoots me a look.

"Did you think of it," he counters. I glare at him and punch him in the face. That's what he gets for being so cocky!