Van Helsing: Where You Are Is Home

Chapter 9

Warning: language, blood, mention of injuries

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It was cold and snowing steadily on the other side. Gabriel had come out of what looked like another ancient mirror encased in a large obelisk, Page's lucky backpack on his back.

When he saw Anna stepping through the mirror next, he reached out and took her hand that had appeared first, bringing her in next to him with another torch in her other palm. They looked up to find a huge medieval fortress that seemed to have been carved straight out of the black rock that made up the icy mountainous landscape around them.

"Castle Dracula," Anna said.

The scale of the castle was enormous, with spires and battlements that dwarfed anything Gabriel had ever seen. The foundations of the fortress appeared to be rooted in living mountain. The fortress's three main towers sprouted from the black rock as if the entire structure had been formed from the stone rather than built. Two bridges that connected the towers high up were the only clear signs that this monstrosity was the work of man and not created by the dark forces of nature.

Carl was nowhere in sight, but no time to wait. Gabriel and Anna started for the castle. A few seconds later, Carl emerged from the mirror with his own torch. He looked up at the fortress, which had been designed to strike fear in anyone who beheld it.

The skeletons resting on the spikes of the pillars made the desired effect work, for he spun around and ran straight back into the mirror. However, he struck it face-first and bounced off, landing on his back. The mirror was a one-way ticket, so there was no turning back. Carl got up frantically and ran to catch up with Gabriel and Anna.

The trio proceeded to the front door. They would meet this battle head-on. The massive entrance was made of iron, rusted shut, and covered in slippery ice for good measure. The transom above the door was thirty feet up, well out of reach.

"Do we have a plan? It doesn't have to be Wellington's at Waterloo, but some sort of plan would be nice," Carl said.

"We're going to go in there, stop Dracula, and save Frankenstein and Page," Gabriel answered.

"And kill anything that gets in our way," Anna added.

"You let me know how that goes," Carl went to turn back, but Gabriel grabbed him by his robes, then Anna by her waist.

Before he had time to think what he was doing, he simply leaped up the sides of the door. It was vertical and covered with slippery ice, it should have been impossible...but he did it anyway. In those few seconds, he relished the sheer power of the werewolf's curse. He carried Anna and Carl right over the transom at the top of the door, then down the other side, controlling their descent so they landed softly on the floor.

"As grateful as I am to be out of the cold, that doesn't seem like a good thing," Carl said.

As he spoke, Gabriel felt it start: the pain, sudden and excruciating. He bent over as if he were being stretched and twisted from the inside out. An odd sensation came over his face, clouding his vision. His eyes were gold yellow as the last time when Carl admitted what the Vatican had told him earlier.

"Dad...help..."

Page's voice, filled with fear and desperation, was all it took to break him out of the fit, and he was himself again...or as close to it as he would ever likely be again. But he couldn't think about the future now—he had a mission, and one last chance to redeem whatever was left of his soul.

Anna and Carl had walked up next to him when the fit came over him. He glanced at them before the resolute expression came up in his eyes again. "We better get moving."