Michael Belmont and the Heir of Van Helsing (The Adventures of Michael Belmont) (13 page)

Michael was already awake when the sun came up.
 
He, Abigail and Liam had gone to the Dominguez’s house to spend the rest of the night, but none of them had been able to go back to sleep.

It was eight o’clock in the morning when his mother returned to pick them up.
 
She thanked Rose for keeping them, and kindly refused her offers to have the family stay at their house until they figured things out.
 
Rachel appreciated the offer, but knew it would be too intrusive to stay with the Dominguez’s for the long term.

“Where
are
we going to stay?” Abigail asked her.
 
“Are we going to buy another house?”

“I’m not sure right now,” her mother said.
 
“I got us some hotel rooms until we decide what we’re going to do.”

The Cisco kid was being unusually quiet, but when he saw that they were getting ready to leave, he pulled Abigail aside to talk to her.
 
“I’m really sorry about your house, Abby.”
 
He shook his head and gave her a genuinely sad frown.
 
“Do you know who might have done this?
 
Do you know who Hawk-Lady’s nemesis is?”

Abigail opened her mouth to say something snotty when Michael pushed his way in between them.
 
“No, we don’t Cisco, that’s why we need you to keep your eyes open for us.”

Abigail looked stunned.

“We need you, Cisco.
 
Hawk-Lady
needs you.”

Cisco snapped to attention like a soldier, his face dutiful and solemn.

“We need you to keep your eye on things when we aren’t around.
 
But be very careful.
 
Never let yourself be seen, and don’t go out alone after dark.
 
I want you to report anything strange to me or Abigail right away.
 
Do you think you can handle that?”

“Heck yes, I can do that,” he insisted.
 
“I was born for this stuff.”

“Good,” Michael said, slapping him on the back.
 
“I knew we could count on you.
 
Just remember, be
careful
.”

“What was that all about,” Liam asked him as they followed Michael’s mother and Mrs. Dominguez outside.

“Just adding another set of eyes to the watch.
 
He already figured everything about my mother out on his own, the kid’s a natural.”

They all thanked Rose once more and said goodbye.
 
As they drove past the charred ruins of what was once their home, Michael felt sick inside and said a final goodbye to the house as well.

They drove along silently for a while.
 
Michael looked out at the familiar landscapes and buildings as they passed by.
 
Everything looked different somehow.
 
He was noticing things he hadn’t before; the shapes of buildings, the color of houses, details that had never stood out to him until now.
 
He hadn’t appreciated his own house like he should have, and now it was gone.

“We’re still not exactly sure what happened,” his mother explained.
 
“The fire department is going to conduct an investigation.
 
It could be a few days before we hear anything.”

“Well I can tell you one thing,” Michael told her, “those wolves had something to do with it.
 
Whoever they are, or whoever they belong to
must
have burned the house.
 
I’ll bet it was those vampires Mrs. Stoker told us about.”

His mother sat silently for a few moments before speaking.
 
“Maybe, but we don’t know anything yet.
 
Let’s just wait until we have some facts.”

Michael knew better than to press the issue.
 
He was too angry about it and didn’t want to lose his temper.

“Where’s my da and Mr. Belmont?” Liam asked.
 
“Why weren’t they there last night during the fire?”

Her eyes remained fixed on the road.
 
“They had a problem that needed to be dealt with.”

“A problem?”
 
Abigail asked.
 
“What
kind
of problem?”

Michael didn’t like the sound of that.
 
“Was it something to do with the fire?”

“I don’t know yet.
 
Maybe.
 
Probably.”
 
She sounded exhausted.
 
“A young man tried to break in last night, it looks like he was after the sword.
 
Your father and Declan captured him and took him down for questioning.”

Michael and Liam looked at each other.

“Well, where are they NOW?”
 
Michael yelled.

“Like I said young man, your father and Declan are questioning him, and I’m in no mood to be yelled at by a twelve year old.”

“I’m almost
thirteen
,” Michael protested.

Abigail glared at him.
 
“Then stop acting like a three year old.
 
Why don’t you just be quiet for once and leave mom alone!”
 
She stuck out her tongue before turning back to look out her window.
 
Michael curled his hands into fists, and imagined how nice it would be to throw
her
right out that window, but then he felt guilty and turned to his window as well.

Liam, who was sitting between them, suddenly felt his stomach growl.
 
“So, what are we going to do about breakfast?” he asked sheepishly.

The hotel room was stuffy and suffocating.
 
Michael was exhausted, yet the last place in the world he wanted to be was sitting on a hotel bed in front of a television.
 
Michael and Abigail looked at each other in disbelief as Liam sat beside them, entranced by the fishing show he was watching.
 
The fisherman had just reeled in a largemouth bass and was holding it up to the camera.

“Oooh, dat’s a big un,” he said through a full mouth of his sausage muffin.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” Abigail shot at him.
 
“If fact, here’s a better idea- JUST DON’T TALK!”
 
She punched Liam hard on the arm, but he’d seen it coming and lunged out of the way.
 
It grazed him and he humphed in pain.

“Wha’s go’en in ‘o ‘ou la’ly, huh?” he managed to sputter.

She held up her fist right in front of his face.
 
“I’ve had about enough out of you and your stupid fishing show.
 
That’s what.”

“You see what I’ve had to deal with?” Michael told him.
 
“She’s been out of her mind lately.”

She turned her fist to Michael and glared at him.

“Go ahead!” he dared her.
 
“Liam might not hit you back, but if you pull that stuff on me I’ll throw you through the roof.”

She smiled at him evilly.
 
“My kung fu is powerful,” she warned, snapping her long blonde ponytail to the side and going into a defensive stance.

“That’s it,” Michael told her.
 
“I can’t take any more of you right now.
 
Come on Liam, let’s take a walk.”

“Mom didn’t say we could leave,” Abigail spat at him, lowering her arms.

“She didn’t say we couldn’t.”

“But where are you going?” she pouted.

“Away from YOU!”

She suddenly looked hurt and flustered.
 
“Well go on then, see if I care.”

Michael shot out of the room and knocked on the next door over.
 
He could hear a loud snore coming from inside, and began knocking louder.
 
The snoring stopped and after a moment a starry-eyed old woman opened the door.

“Mrs. Stoker, Liam and I have some business to take care of,” he told her sweetly.
 
“My baby sister insists on staying here with you, says she wants you to tell her everything you know about history.
 
I hope you don’t mind.”

She looked at him suspiciously for a moment, and then smiled.
 
“All right, dear.
 
You two be careful now.”

Liam followed as Michael stormed down the hall.
 
“Hey, where
are
we going?”

“To look for clues.
 
If we run we can be back to my house in twenty minutes.
 
I’m not about to sit around and wait while someone tries to attack my family.”

“So, young lady, your brother tells me you’re a history buff.”
 
Mrs. Stoker rung her hands together and made a gleeful smile.
 
“That’s one thing we have in common.”

Abigail stared at her unenthusiastically from across the hotel room table.

“I think I have a story you might find interesting.
 
Would you like to hear it?”

Abigail shrugged and sighed.
 
“I suppose,” she said cheerlessly.

This didn’t curtail the old woman’s enthusiasm.
 
“Many years ago, before I looked like a dried up old raisin, I was actually quite a beautiful young woman.
 
Many a gentleman came calling upon me, let me tell you, but I never gave many of them the time of day.
 
I was too interested in my studies you see, and it took me a while before I had any desire to marry and start a family.
 
I did end up settling down with a wonderful man,” she reminisced, “but we were never able to have any children of our own.”
 
She smiled at Abigail, who had her head resting on her wrists upon the table.
 
The girl smiled back with her mouth, but not with her eyes.

“Well, years before I got married, I met one of the first men who really caught my eye.
 
He was a fine gentleman- tall and handsome, and wealthy to boot, although that part of it honestly didn’t mean much to me at the time.
 
I still don’t know exactly what it was about him that caught my interest.
 
He was humble and charming, and somehow seemed more real than other men I’d met.
 
He became a regular customer at the bookstore where I worked, and eventually started coming in every day to buy another book.
 
Before long the reason for his frequent visits became obvious.
 
He was there to see me, not the books.

“He began to court me, and we went on a few walks, and trips to the theater together, and I must say I was beginning to fall in love with him.
 
But it was a few weeks after we began dating, during our visit to a masquerade ball when things got really interesting.
 
I won’t burden you with the fine details, except to say that it was during that dance that my beloved Henry tried to sink his large, sharp teeth into me.”

Abigail was now sitting straight up with a captivated and pained expression.
 
“He was a…a werewolf?”

“Oh, heavens no, dear.
 
Henry was a vampire.
 
In fact, a good half the people at that ball were vampires.
 
It was a little party they all got together and threw every year, you see.
 
Each would bring a human victim with them, and…well you can probably guess the rest.”

“How did you get away?
 
Did he bite you?”
 
Abigail looked afraid.
 
Visions of her own encounter with the MacFarlane clan swirled through her head.

“Are you alright, dear?
 
You look a wee bit pale.”

Abigail insisted she was fine, but Mrs. Stoker made her take some long, deep breaths before she continued.

“Henry threw my head back and went for my neck, but he hissed and drew away when he saw the cross hanging around my neck.
 
It wasn’t something I usually wore.
 
I didn’t believe in religion at the time, but the trinket had been my mother’s and I sometimes wore it on special occasions.
 
A few moments later, some men crashed through the windows in the ceiling and began to slay the vampires.
 
I’d never seen anything like it.
 
There were only about a dozen of them, and they were outnumbered five to one.
 
It was the bravest, most extraordinary thing I’d ever witnessed.
 
One of the men turned to see my distress and flung a sharp wooden stake through the air.
 
‘His heart,’ he shouted to me, ‘put it through his heart.’
 
I don’t know what sort of strength came over me to do just that, but I plunged the stake right into Henry’s heart and he…well let’s just say that that’s the last we saw of him.”

Abigail’s chest was pounding.
 
A cold sweat appeared on her brow as she imagined the horrible scene, and relived memories of her own.

“For a long time after that encounter I was scared and angry.
 
In fact, I was very angry.
 
I’m still not sure whom I was angry at.
 
I didn’t want to believe that things like that could happen, that creatures so vile existed.
 
Everyone hears about tragic and horrible things happening to
other
people, but it’s different when it happens to you, isn’t it?”

Abigail nodded.
 
Tears streamed down her face to moisten the collar of her t-shirt.

“I saw that man later- the one who’d thrown me the stake, the one who’d saved my life.
 
He introduced himself to me only as the Dragon.
 
He said he’d known my grandfather, and he taught me how to protect myself from the undead.
 
For two years he came from time to time to check up on me, but then he stopped coming, and I never heard from him again.
 
To this day I wonder what happened to him.
 
I’d like to think he lived the rest of his life happily and in peace, though I doubt that was his fate.”