An hour ago.
Four dead bodies lay on the floor while two vampires drink out of each of them. The floor of scanty grass is stained with their blood as the vampires ravage the livestock given to them.
"You are allowed to pass," one of Elijah's children grants passage to Alex and Carter who watch them nibble at the gifts they provided.
"Let me just make one phone call first," she says.
She zooms off into the road and away from their presence to prevent them from eavesdropping.
She dials a number but no one answers and she dials again, this time it does not take long for Azazel to pick the call, "Do you have news for me, girl?" he asks.
"We are about to enter the Otherworld. We are going to need some help on the other side. He went in with the human and the other girls," she says. "Good. You will have the help you need," he says and cuts the call.
What is it with him? He takes things easy. Doesn't he know these twins are dangerous?
Sure, now it is only half of the duo but there is that other girl. Amanda, daughter of Ra. She is clearly a sphinx and that could be a problem but Azazel hasn't made any extra effort to make sure Samuel goes down.
He just sends me and obliges my requests. I would think he trusts me but working for Dracula has taught me that their types hardly trust anyone.
Is everything going according to his plan? If it is, then what the hell is his plan? She wonders because deep down she knows that they are no match for sphinxes.
When they escaped at Dracula's lair they easily took out most of his men and the only one that gave them any real challenge was Dracula himself.
I will find a chance to test him when he is at a disadvantage. If the human is going to the Otherworld she will be a target.
The most logical thing to do will be to hide her or to mask her scent.
Alex speeds off and returns to the front of the building where Carter is waiting for her.
"Come let us go," she says and one of Elijah's children opens the door for them to enter. To pick their trace from here won't be easy, they must be fast if they want to be of any support to Alucard's agenda.
Alex suddenly chuckles and Carter gets an eerie chill through his body, she now realizes that they were never suppose to stop Samuel only Alucard can do that. Their role is simply to weaken the sphinx before Alucard finishes the job.
Why are they fixated on killing the twins?
She understands why Dracula wanted to kill them and even Alucard she understands his reason but what does Azazel have to gain from their family feud. Why is he interfering?
I guess sooner or later, I will find out.
NOW.
Rachael stares at the two ends of the narrow street and a familiar fear creeps into her heart but this woman has faced these things before and has grown bolder. She pulls out Nightmare and prepares herself much to Samuel's shock.
"What do you think you are doing?" he asks, "After what your friend, Dalot just said, I am certain these guys are here to kill us," she says.
"Kill?" Samuel chuckles, "These things cannot harm me. Come," they turn back and begin to walk towards the darker parts of the street. Only one vampire that way.
They hold each other like lovers as they walk and Rachael hides the dagger behind her hand. The others may see it but she trust their condescending nature to underestimate her as a human.
They get closer and she focuses her mind on the image of Alucard impaling Gabriel to the wall. Her rising heartbeat shies away from fear and steers fully into anger and this somehow makes Samuel smile.
They are only a few feet away from the vampire when Rachael throws the dagger at the vampire and he catches it and immediately he pays for his decision as the blade burns his hand. He tosses it to the ground and screams but his eyes do not catch when the sphinx moves behind him and holds him still allowing Rachael to quickly pick the dagger up and stab him in the face.
He screams as his body burst into flames and Samuel tosses him to the side.
His burning corpses illuminates the dark street briefly before it turns to ash, returning the darkness of the street.
The two vampires dash toward them and Samuel moves fast against them. In a blink of an eye Rachael sees them disappear and reappear up ahead, just close to Dalot's shop.
She runs toward them, clutching Nightmare's hilt with a determination to shun whatever human fear that screams in her heart. All that drives her here is her rage at the supernatural world for taking so much from her.
The street gets silent and her footsteps are the only thing she hears as she makes her way to them, only to see them knocked out.
Samuel breaks their legs and roars deeply into their faces, reviving them from their unconscious state.
"Who sent you?" his voice is deep and hard.
One of them spits and without hesitation Samuel plunges his hand into the vampire's chest and he pulls out his heart.
"I will talk," the other vampire cowers but Samuel grabs his neck and his blue glowing eyes burn with rage.
"Yes you will," he snarls as his gaze pierces through the scared eyes of the vampire.
"Alex and Carter," he says.
Samuel tightens his grip and let's his mind penetrate the vampire's like a nail through wall. The vampire screams in pain as Samuel forces his way through his mind.
He sees the redhead and a chubby looking fellow. He digs deeper into the mind of his victim and sees a hall with pillars on both sides. He sees a giant lantern drawn in the middle of the room but the screams of the vampire grows louder and disrupts him.
He can see a throne room and a man with short hair in it, he tries to see his face but the vampire's mind suddenly goes blank.
"Samuel," Rachael mumbles his name and he looks down at the vampire only to see a black fluid dripping from the vampire's eyes and mouth as he dies.
He is dead.
"Fuck," he grunts, "Let's go," he says.
What is going on? Rachael wonders.
Someone is definitely after them. These could be Alucard's men after all his father did the same thing.
They walk out of the street and back to the open street and the dim lights of the fleeing sun. The market gradually becomes scanty as night comes closer. They reach the shed where they left Asterix and Samuel tosses a silver coin to the creature he left in charge of the stead.
He helps Rachael up before he climbs atop the stead. Asterix doesn't waste time to start his run, making some people scurry to the side at its neigh before his wings flap hard and it takes to the skies.
They fly off into the darker skies behind the sun as if on a chase.
From these heights the view of the sunset is as beautiful as a glowing gem, even more so but the two cannot come to enjoy the view as worry plagues their hearts.
Their journey is quiet and the scene gets darker until the sun disappears out of sight and is replaced by dark skies and scanty stars.
Asterix flies toward a hill which can barely be seen by Rachael's human eyes until they get really close. Rachael can see a compound come into view with torches of fire lit around.
Rachael can see some men in strange clothes gathering as if awaiting their arrival.
"Is that where we are going?" she asks but Samuel doesn't answer. She feels his hands heat up and his body begins to jerk like a bad generator.
Samuel suddenly slips off Asterix's back and almost pulling Rachael along as he falls off the horse. Rachael screams as Samuel slumps toward the ground landing head first into the stony floor.
It doesn't take long before the pegasus lands and she jumps down to the ground and runs to his side where he is circled by the strange faces. "Samuel," she calls out and she covers her mouth as his body comes to view.
His shoulder blade sticks out of his suit and his neck looks twisted in a way that it shouldn't and tears quickly fill her eyes as he lies unconscious.
Amanda and Elma quickly join her, "Take him inside and prepare a bath for her," Amanda says as she puts her hand around Rachael's shoulder.
"Don't worry. He will be okay, come with me" she pulls her away from the scene, fighting the reluctance the human displays. "Come on," she urges Rachael who finally succumbs.
Tears rolls down her cheeks as she walks into the big house in the middle of the compound while some of the men carry Asterix away.
Why is this happpening?
Amanda hears her thoughts and glances back at Samuel as the men lift him up and walk behind them.
His connection with Gabriel is killing him. We need to find Gabriel's body as soon as possible or they could both die.
They enter a big living room and they let Rachael relax on one of the chairs. A lantern is lit on one end of the room, hanging onto a nail on the wall and there are several candles on different sides of the room.
There is a fire place with wood burning, sending a strange and pleasant fragrance around the room.
"Hey, you shouldn't be crying so often. You are stronger than that. And don't get so worked up about Samuel, he isn't going to die that easily," Elma says as she sits beside Rachael.
"She is right, he will survive." Amanda supports.
***********************************************
A dream, a memory or a nightmare; to him all three are the same. He remembers the kicking of his feet as Dracula's men smacked him around, dragging him to a small cottage where they tied his hands to a wooden pillar.
It was strange what a cottage would be doing out there but from the corpses he saw outside the house he knew that they probably killed the owner and his family.
They drank and laughed as they waited for his brother to walk into their trap. They took turns in hitting him to see who could inflict the most pain and he screamed in agony and torment but still he lashed out at them with the little strength his exuded.
His bones broke but somehow he felt them rejoin and his aching pain faded. His assailants always came back for more torture and they rejoiced, singing about the praise and gifts their master would bestow on them for their discovery.
Samuel's body ached at every movement he made. His feet wobbled on the hard wooden floor and his blood dripped from his wound before they closed up. He was dizzy and weak but he refused to die.
"This lad is tougher than a bear's skin. Why don't we do real damage to him. Something that he will never forget," one of the men stood up and said with his cup in hand. A bit of it spilled to the floor and the little boy's stomach squeezed at the sight of the blood.
The man kicked him on the sides of his ribs before he emptied his cup into his mouth. He wiped the sides of his mouth and went on to undo his belt.
"What do you plan on doing?" one of his comrades asked, "He is going to be dead anyway once Dracula has him. I just want to have some fun," he answered as he pulled his pants down and glared at the little boy.
The sight shocked the boy, making his heart beat in a frenzy as the man closed the distance between them.
Samuel screamed and kicked at him, pulling his tied arms with all the strength in his body but nothing was going his way. The man's strong arms pressed his neck against the floor and he ripped apart the boy's clothing.
Samuel's eyes shone a blue glow as he screamed for help but no one came, at least not in time. His comrades joined to help him hold down the boy's legs and he was weak against their inhuman strength.
A thunderclap was heard in the skies and the air was filled with the smell of rain and sand.
The little boy's cries were voiceless under the voice of the heavy rain that fell as the man penetrated him, roughly with all the malicious intent he could find in his being.
The men would take turns and watch as the boy's soul would break faster than his body.
The rain became heavier and its cry louder, the sound of the thunder grew as if a storm was at their doorstep and indeed, it was.
The door shattered as one of their guarding vampires broke through with his back. A lion jumped into the room and tore out his neck before turning its glowing blue eyes at the rest of the men.
Lightning struck the outsides of the cottage and its light briefly gave them the picture of the beast in their midst.
It glanced at the little boy lying like a lifeless object, breathing but broken, and the beast let out a roar the same time the thunder spoke. It charged at the men, matching their speed like nothing they had ever seen; slashing, snarling and biting.
They drew their swords and fought back but their attacks had little effect on the creature as it jumped around the cottage, killing them one by one until there was only one. He staggered backwards as the lion walked closer. Its mane still little like a cub's.
Only now did the vampire look closer, it was in fact a cub but not like any he had ever seen before. It was the size of a full grown lion and had the speed of the wind behind its feet.
Its eyes shone like precious gems but they carried only rage.
The blood of his comrades soaked its mouth and he walked closer and the vampire whimpered in fear; what was this beast?
The last man let out a battle cry as he readied himself but he was not prepared for the blade that chopped off his head.
Samuel stood over his body, stamping his head until it had become smashed in, under his foot.
He glanced at the lion and they held each other's gaze and their hearts connected. The little boy fell to his knees, crying and sniffling as the lion went closer to him and rubbed his head against Samuel's in comfort.
"Gabriel," he whimpered.