Michael Belmont and the Heir of Van Helsing (The Adventures of Michael Belmont) (41 page)

The thunderous sound of shattering glass suddenly rang out across the room.
 
Magda scrambled for a dagger and a vial of holy water before rolling out of the covers and sliding beneath the bed.
 
Carefully she drew the skirting aside, and looked out to see a rope swinging wildly just outside the window, and the crumpled body of Michael Belmont laying on the floor, his pale face lit up by the glowing orange fire.

“MICHAEL,” she yelled as she scurried out and threw her arms around him.
 
He opened his eyes and smiled at her weakly.

“Sorry about that,” he told her.
 
“I meant for things to go a bit differently.”

“I told you,” Abigail scolded him while dropping in from the window.
 
“I said you were in no shape to try that.
 
You should have let me come alone, but do you ever listen to me?”
 
She threw her hands on her hips and glared down at him.
 
“Of course you don’t!”

Magda was speechless.
 
These Belmonts were like no children she’d ever met before, and she still wasn’t entirely sure what to think of them.

“And have Magda put a stake through your heart?” Michael asked, pulling himself to a sitting position.
 
“You nearly scared me to death when you showed up at
my
window, what do you think
she’d
have done to you?”

“Well, I would have been a bit more subtle than you were,” she argued back.
 
“I’ll be surprised if you haven’t notified the whole castle as to where we are.”

“Just stop it you two,” Magda told them.
 
“For mercy’s sake!
 
Michael, what’s going on?
 
You look like you’ve got one foot in the grave, have you been bitten?”
 
She didn’t wait for an answer, but held his head in her hands and jerked it back and forth, looking for fang marks.

“Knock it off,” he told her in a pained voice.
 
“I’m fine, I haven’t been bitten, it’s just been a rough night.
 
Listen, I’ve been able to see more of George’s memories through the sword.”
 
He quickly recounted everything he’d seen, piecing it all together as best he could.
 
“We need to get out of here, and get to the gateway as fast as we can,” he urged them, “before Mihnea figures out what we’re up to.
 
We need to destroy it.”

“Michael, how are we supposed to do that,” Abigail asked him.
 
“I thought we needed Olaf to try and destroy it.”

Magda looked at him in confusion as well, shaking her head.

Michael took a deep breath, trying to calm his frustration.
 
His head was pounding.
 
“Haven’t you two been listening?” he pleaded.
 
“Olaf isn’t the true heir of Van Helsing, Magda is!”

With those words a dark mist blew in from the window, and the laughing form of Mihnea materialized before them.

“Well, I have to say, this has gone even better than I expected,” Mihnea told them with an evil glare.
 
“I was hoping you’d somehow prove useful Michael, and you haven’t disappointed me.”
 
He stepped toward Magda with a threatening twinkle in his blood-red eyes.

“WAIT,” Michael demanded, moving in front of her.
 
“We’ll give you what you want, just leave us alone.”

“Now why should I do that?” Mihnea asked in amusement.
 
“Your little friend there is a Van Helsing.
 
I need her blood for some business.
 
Business that I’m afraid you know something about.
 
Now how is it that three worthless little whelps like you could know about my business?
 
I should like to have an answer to that.”

“You want us to cooperate, don’t you?”
 
Michael asked him.
 
“For this wedding of yours?
 
If you hurt Magda we won’t do it.
 
We’ll fight you every step of the way.”

Much to Michael’s relief, this actually gave Mihnea pause, but he knew he had to move quickly.
 
He pulled the Sword of Van Helsing from its scabbard, and took Magda by the hand.

“Michael, what exactly do you think you’re doing?” she whispered to him nervously.

“Trust me, okay?
 
This is the only way to protect you.”
 
He peered into her eyes, hoping she’d have faith in him.
 
She looked scared and angry, but gave him a confident nod.

“Do whatever you need to.”

“This is going to hurt a bit,” he said, giving her hand a squeeze.

“Just do it,” she said through clenched teeth.

Michael drew the sword gently across her forearm until a stream of blood appeared.
 
He smeared it across the blade, and then handed the weapon to Mihnea.

“You have what you want, now go,” he told him angrily.

“All right,” Mihnea conceded, “but don’t think that this is over.
 
You still have much to answer for.
 
Rest assured, we’ll get to all of it in time.”

“I look forward to it,” Michael said defiantly.

Mihnea just smiled and shook his head.
 
“Enjoy the rest of your night, children.”
 
He took the sword and changed into a swirling black mist while leaping back out the window.

Magda grabbed Michael’s arm and spun him around to look at her.
 
“Have you lost your mind?” she barked.
 
“Why’d you give in to Mihnea like that?
 
Now he can open up the portal!”

“I don’t think he will,” Michael said calmly.

“You don’t
think
he will,” Abigail mocked him.
 
“Just what do you mean by that, huh?”

Michael began to rub his head.
 
“Mihnea is headed to the throne room right now to take control of that portal, but he’s not going to experiment with letting anything out of it, not until after the wedding anyway.
 
He’s not going to risk a disruption.”

“Great,” Magda said, throwing her arms in the air.
 
“What’s the difference, you still gave him control of the portal, now we’re helpless to stop him.”

Michael just shook his head and began to pick up his things, which had scattered across the floor when he’d crashed through the window.
 
“No, we’re not helpless.
 
Far from it.”

“If you don’t get to the point and explain yourself, you’re in for a beating,” Abigail warned him while cracking her knuckles.
 
“I don’t care how sick you’re feeling.”

Michael ignored her.
 
“Alright, calm down and listen.
 
Not only is Magda the true heir of Van Helsing, I believe she’s the true master of this castle.”

The two girls looked at each other and shrugged.

“The Van Helsings are descended from Saint George the Dragonslayer.
 
As his rightful heir,
you’re
the true master of this castle.
 
Even though Dracula was somehow able to take control of it, and warp it into a place of evil, the rightful heir of George will always be its
true
master.”

“But Michael, how can you be sure of that,” Magda pleaded.
 
“You’ve taken an awfully big chance if you’ve based it all on a hunch.”

“Remember that door you opened up down in the crypt?
 
Well, I’ll eat my hat if you can’t open up this one too,” he said, pointing to the bedroom door.

“You don’t wear a hat, bonehead,” Abigail told him.

Magda walked to the heavy wooden door and gave it a yank.
 
Nothing happened.

“Command it to open,” Michael suggested.

Magda frowned at him and sighed.
 
“All right.
 
Hey door,” she said sarcastically, “I command you to open up.”

The door immediately clicked and swung open for her.
 
Magda’s jaw dropped, and Abigail yipped with glee.

“Hey, you were right.
 
Good job, big brother,” Abigail said with a clap of her hands.

“Yeah, thanks” Michael told her as he crossed his arms.
 
“Nice of you to say so.
 
You sure are a fickle little sidekick, aren’t you?”

“Sidekick?” she said with a sour look.
 
“If anything,
you’re my
sidekick.”

“Would you two dial it back for a while, I mean honestly,” Magda begged them.
 
She took in a few deep breaths.
 
“So what are we going to do now?”

“Well, Liam would probably appreciate being rescued, and then we’ve got to head for the throne room so you can shut down that gateway for good,” Michael told her.

“I don’t know how to do that,” she pleaded.

“We’ll figure it out together.
 
It’s going to be dangerous, but I won’t let anything happen to you.”

“You sure are confident, aren’t you?” Abigail sneered.
 
“How can you possibly promise her that you’re going to keep her safe?
 
You’re no match for Mihnea.”

“We’ll all have to keep each other safe,” Magda broke in.
 
“Friends are one thing that we have and Mihnea doesn’t.”

Michael filled Liam in on the nights events as they all crept down the corridor.

“All right,” Liam said with a nod.
 
“So all we have to do now is rescue Elizabeth, find the throne-room, retrieve the sword, kill Mihnea so Abigail won’t completely vamp out, and then destroy an ancient, demonic prison gateway.
 
Sounds easy enough.
 
Oh, and I forgot a few things.
 
We also need to find Caleb and our fathers, and see if we can figure out what happened to Alucard.
 
Does that about sum it up or did I miss something?”

Michael’s stomach tightened as he listened to his friend prattle on.
 
“No, I think you’ve about covered it.”

“Elizabeth’s chambers are just up ahead,” Abigail told them.

“All right,” Michael said.
 
“When we get there just let me do the talking, okay.”

“Whatever,” Abigail retorted, waving him off.

As they slowly crept along, the only signs of life they passed were a few spiders and the occasional scurrying mouse.

“I can’t believe Mihnea doesn’t have any guards in here,” Magda said as they turned a corner.

“I think you spoke too soon,” Liam told her as they nearly stumbled over the bodies of two large men littering the ground.
 
Magda stooped to examine them.
 
“Werewolves.
 
Both dead.
 
We’ll most likely run into more of these, they’re favored servants of vampires.”

Abigail cringed and grabbed Michael by the arm.
 
“Hey, do you think Caleb and our dads were here?”

Michael shrugged.
 
“I don’t know who else would have done this, except for Alucard.
 
Look,” he said while pointing to the door, which was several inches ajar.

Liam crept over and peaked inside.
 
“I don’t see anyone,” he said, pushing it all the way open.
 
They entered the room to find it empty, with no signs of a struggle.
 
“Well, it’d be nice to know what happened, but I guess we can assume Elizabeth is safe for now."

“Yeah, probably,” Michael agreed.
 
“Once whoever came for her saw that she’d been bitten, I’m sure they will have gone for Mihnea.
 
We need to get up to the throne room as fast as we can, maybe we can meet up with them there.”

“Great,” Magda said, “but where’s the throne room?”

After discussing what they all knew about the layout of castles, a general agreement was made about the most likely path.

Michael adjusted his backpack and bow.
 
“All right, remember how huge this place is.
 
If any of us gets separated, do what you can to get to the throne room.
 
That will be our meet up place.”

“Don’t meet up places work a little better when everyone knows how to get there?” Liam pointed out.

Magda waved her hand at them.
 
“Let’s just make sure that none of us gets separated, alright?”

“That sounds like the best plan to me,” Abigail agreed while nodding her head furiously.

Magda gave her a pat and drew her daggers.

Michael handed his lantern to Liam.
 
“Why don’t you take the lead,” he told Magda as he pulled an arrow and notched it on his bow.
 
“I’ll bring up the rear and cover you.”

Magda nodded, but Liam gave him a curious, disapproving smirk.
 
“Putting a girl up front?
 
Wait until I tell your da about this!”

“Trust me on this one,” Michael told him.
 
“She can hold her own, besides, we’ve had a chance to try something like this before, haven’t we Magda?”

She nodded.
 
“Michael’s right, we make a good team this way.”
 
Then she looked at Liam and stuck her tongue at him.
 
“Male chauvinist,” she added.

He rolled his eyes.

They formed up and started out, and soon found themselves exiting the guest quarters.
 
Their surroundings suddenly got a lot dirtier.
 
Large, mangled cobwebs were hanging everywhere, and most of the furniture they passed was broken or rotting.
 
Portraits of long forgotten people and depictions of ancient battles hung from the walls, and Michael found himself distracted by side passageways, which led off to neglected rooms and dark, hidden corners.
 
At any given moment, it seemed that there were a thousand places from which an attack might come.