Michael Belmont and the Heir of Van Helsing (The Adventures of Michael Belmont) (25 page)

Caleb raised an eyebrow at him.
 
“I’ll take that as a compliment, I guess.
 
Hey kid, remember when I told you not to go walking alone down in that graveyard?”

Michael shot the ball and sunk it.
 
Nothing but net.
 
“Yeah.”

“Well, now would be a good time to do just that.
 
Don’t say I never did anything for you.”

Michael grabbed the ball, which had bounced back down toward him and took it in for a layup.
 
“What exactly is that supposed to mean?” he asked, spinning back around.
 
Caleb was nowhere to be seen.
 
Michael chuckled and shook his head.
 
He set the ball down and took off toward the graveyard, curious to see why Caleb would have sent him there.

He jogged through the forest and stopped to take a look before entering the graveyard.
 
He didn’t notice anything unusual, other than the fact that it was starting to smell like rain.
 
He walked along through the graves, scanning around for anything out of the ordinary.
 
Caleb wouldn’t have sent me down here for nothing, he told himself, even if he has a sense of humor, I don’t think a prank like that would be his style.
 
He continued walking through the old graveyard until he reached the far end, and noticed that the cemetery continued around the other side of a small section of dense forest.
 
He turned the corner and two things immediately caught his eye.
 
He was confused and delighted at the same time.

Leaning against a tombstone just in front of him was his bow- the red Celtic bow he’d been given from the armory at McGinty Castle, and a quiver of arrows.
 
His father had agreed to keep it safe for him, as they didn’t think it would be a good plan for him to show up with it at the orphanage.
 
Caleb must have left it here for him, but why here?
 
Why now?
 
He picked it up and slung it over his shoulder.

Sitting on the grass in front of a grave several rows down was Magda.
 
Michael wasn’t sure what to do.
 
She’d spent the last few days trying to evade him, and he wanted to respect her feelings, but what was she doing out here all alone?
 
Caleb must have known something he didn’t when he sent him down here.
 
Michael decided he’d better go and try to speak with her.

As he approached, he looked down and noticed the names on several of the graves- Van Helsing.
 
He walked up and approached Magda from the side so he wouldn’t startle her.
 
She was seated with her legs crossed in front of a grave with a fairly new tombstone.
 
It read
Edda Van Helsing
.
 
Beside it was a stone that bore the name
Daniel Van Helsing
.

“Good afternoon, Michael,” Magda said without lifting her head.
 
“You’re kind of like a bad cold, really hard to get rid of.”

For some reason, he felt like she’d just punched him in the heart.
 
He stood there in silence for a few moments and then turned to leave.

“Wait,” she said wearily after he’d taken a few steps.
 
“That didn’t come out right.
 
I’m sorry.
 
Please don’t go.”

He stopped and turned back to look at her.
 
“This is where your parents are buried?” he asked, already knowing the answer.

She nodded, still refusing to look at him.
 
“And where my brother and I are likely to be buried soon enough.”

“Don’t talk like that,” he told her, a bit more harshly than he’d intended.
 
“It’s not going to happen, not if I have anything to do about it.”

She raised her face to look at him.
 
Tears were running down her cheeks and he saw that her left eye was swollen and bruised.

“Hey, that’s not from your fight with Abby!
 
How’d that happen?”
 
He walked over to her and gently took her face in his hand.
 
She said nothing, just gazed up at him sadly.
 
“Wait, did your brother do this?”

She hung her head back down without denying it.
 
He had his answer.
 
A flood of anger suddenly swept through him.
 
The next time he saw Olaf, he was going to make him sorry for this.

“It happened last night,” she confessed.
 
“He…he drinks, sometimes way too much.
 
We were arguing and he got a little out of control, but I don’t think he meant to hurt me.”

“Has this happened before?” Michael asked, as calmly as he could.

“Not often.
 
Only when I argue with him and make him really angry.
 
I should know better than to do that.”

“You were arguing about
me
weren’t you?
 
You wanted to talk to me and Olaf didn’t want you to?”
 
Again her silence answered his question.
 
“Did you at least give him a black eye too?
 
I’ve seen you fight, you’re a pretty tough girl!”

“No,” she said, shaking her head.
 
“I’d never strike my brother, it would be disrespectful.”

“Well he disrespected
you
,” Michael said in a raised voice.
 
He took a few deep breaths to calm down.
 
“Look, I’m sorry if I’ve caused trouble between you and your brother, but you don’t need to be afraid anymore.
 
My family and I are going to protect you.”

She looked up at him apprehensively.
 
“How do you plan on doing that?
 
Are you even sure your parents made it through that plane crash?”

“I spoke to them a few days ago.
 
They’re coming back to get us tomorrow, and they’re taking you and your brother too.”

“But, how is that possible?
 
They can’t just take us, not unless they want to go to prison for kidnapping.”

“Look, I don’t know all the details, but they said paperwork was being done, it’s all going to be legal.
 
We’re good people, we only want to help you protect yourselves.
 
I know you don’t know me very well, but please…just trust me.”

She looked back down at her mother’s grave for a few long moments before rising up and standing before him.
 
He looked deep into her eyes.
 
Even with a black and blue face, she was the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen; he thought so now even more than before.
 
She reached down and took hold of his arm, raising it up to examine where she’d stabbed him with the silver dagger.

“I’m sorry I hurt you,” she told him guiltily.
 
He was about to respond when she placed her index finger over his lips.
 
“And I believe…” she said, turning red, “I believe I owe you a kiss.”

They looked at each other for a moment before she closed her eyes and moved her head toward his.
 
Michael had never kissed a girl before, and he was terrified that he was going to do it wrong.
 
He suddenly understood the meaning of ‘having butterflies in your stomach’.
 
He watched Magda nervously the whole time as he moved in and gently pecked her on the lips.

After a moment she opened her eyes and grinned at him.
 
“Well, that wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it might be.”

At that moment a freezing rain started pouring down on top of them.
 
Michael wasn’t sure if it was a good sign or a bad one.

The dense trees of the forest offered little shelter from the downpour, but it was better than standing out in the open.
 
Michael crouched beneath the trunk of a large, fallen tree.

“It’s dry under here,” he said to Magda, offering her his hand.
 
She took it and allowed him to help her under the trunk.
 
“We can wait out the storm, or at least until the rain calms down a bit.”

She brushed the wet hair out of her eyes and smiled.

“Where’d you get that?” she asked through chattering teeth, gesturing to his bow.
 
“It looks really old.”

“It is, but I don’t really know that much about it.
 
It was given to me from the armory of McGinty Castle in Scotland.”

Magda looked impressed, and Michael grinned back at her proudly.

“Are you any good with it?”

“Not too bad,” he said as he handed her the bow.
 
“I’ve been practicing a lot lately.
 
If I let myself get rusty I have my uncle and his two best friends to answer to.
 
They love to lecture me about practicing.”
 
He watched as she ran her fingers along the Celtic engravings.
 
“How about you?
 
Ever done any archery?”

“A long time ago.
 
I remember my father showing me a bit when I was very young,” she said with a sad smile.

“Is he the one who taught you how to fight?
 
You’re pretty good.”

“He began to, but after he died my brother continued my training.
 
Most of my fighting skills come from having to defend myself though.
 
When you have the minions of darkness on your tail, you either learn to fight well or you die.”

Michael chuckled nervously.
 
“I guess you’re right.
 
I was pretty worried when you and Abby got into it the other day.
 
I thought one of you might really get hurt.”

“I would never hurt your sister…not permanently anyway.”

“That’s good to know, but you’ll have to show me how you pinned her like that.
 
That would really come in useful when she gets in one of her bad moods.”

“Maybe if you play your cards right I’ll show you sometime,” she said with a coy smile.
 
Then, as she turned her attention to the distance behind him, her smile contorted into an angry stare.

“What is it?” he asked her, glancing over his shoulder through the heavy rain.
 
He could barely make out the forms of three people walking through the graveyard and heading toward them.

“I can’t say for sure,” Magda whispered, “but my guess is that the two in back are ghouls.
 
The one in front is certainly a lycan; see how he seems to be sniffing out our trail?”

The hairy biker-type guy in the front did seem to be sniffing at the air.
 
The two men behind him were large, pale, and had very unfriendly looks on their faces.

“Wow,” Michael whispered.
 
“You really have been through a lot, haven’t you?
 
They just look like three regular scumbags to me.
 
So what do you think we should do, run for it?”

She shook her head.
 
“We’d never outrun the werewolf, not if he has the ability—”

“To change at will?” Michael finished for her.
 
“I’ve had some experience with werewolves myself, remember?”

She nodded.
 
“We stand our ground.
 
If I focus on the wolf, can you take out those two ghouls with your bow?”

Michael didn’t answer her, instead he slowly moved out from beneath the tree trunk, positioning himself out of the enemies sight and strung up an arrow.
 
Then he stood up straight, aimed, and let the arrow fly.
 
It landed true to its mark and buried itself up to the fletching in the neck of the ghoul on the left.

“ALL RIGHT,” Magda yelled excitedly.
 
Michael hadn’t yet seen her that happy.
 
“I guess that answers my question!”

The body of the ghoul thudded to the ground, as the two remaining men screeched out in anger.
 
Magda was proven right as the man in front transformed himself into a wolf and charged at them.
 
Apparently disheartened at the death of his friend, the remaining ghoul dodged behind a nearby tree.

Michael strung another arrow and sent it flying at the wolf, who saw it coming and dodged out of the way a bit too late.
 
It grazed one of his back legs, and the creature snarled out angrily in pain.

“HA!” Magda laughed defiantly at the wolf.
 
“Good work, Michael, but unless those are silver tipped arrows, see if you can take down that other ghoul while I confront the lycan.”

He winked at her and she smiled back at him with a light in her eyes that made his heart jump.
 
He strung another arrow and scanned the trees for the other ghoul.

“He’s there somewhere,” Magda told him assuringly.
 
“He wouldn’t dare retreat back to his master.
 
To do so would mean his execution.”

A few moments later the wolf was upon them.
 
It lunged over the tree trunk for Michael, perceiving him as the greater threat.
 
A smell of decay and wet dog suddenly filled the air.

“YOU’RE MINE,” Magda shouted at him as she caught the large wolf in the air.
 
It was very much like the way she’d dealt with Abigail, but this time her opponent’s momentum sent her flying through the air along with him.

That girl is insane
, Michael thought as he fought the urge to turn around and help her.
 
He couldn’t let the ghoul get the jump on them though.
 
He saw the thing run from one tree to another.
 
It had uncanny speed.
 
These things might be human
, he thought to himself,
but there sure is something inhuman about them too, something evil
.