Loving A Monster (Van Helsing)

Thirteen || The Cure

Anna and Carl were stood awkwardly to the side, looking up when they too heard the footsteps echoing off the walls. A man appeared before them, carrying equipment of many kinds, dropping it in shock when he saw the group before him. Shade and Van Helsing parted, just as Shade growled, eyes flashing dangerously before she pounced.

The air shimmered as a low growl filled the fire-lit hall, Shade surging forward to grab the small, greasy man that had appeared before the small group of misfits. The young huntress had meant to grip him by the collar of his tattered jacket, yet the wolf inside her had decided on a different approach, making her cringe at the sudden sound. No introductions needed to be made, whether by scent of sight, she could tell this was Igor, a cowardly squib that never had a shred of honour or loyalty.

"How did you find....It's impossible!" He screamed at them, his voice laced with pain as the werewolf's claw pierced him. 

Shade narrowed her eyes, wiggling her fingers to further maul the flesh surrounding her claws. 

"Please don't kill me!" He begged her, trying his best not to struggle against her, fearing the possibility of further injury.

"Why not?" Van Helsing asked as he came up beside her, a flash of silver drawing the mans eyes to the silver blade in the male hunters gloved hand.

"Well, I..." Igor blinked repeatedly for a moment, looking between the hunters, Carl and Anna as he was surrounded by each of them, the fear evident in his eyes once he saw the darkness creep into Shade's eyes.

All heads turned as a chain jingled to their left, Van Helsing, Anna and Carl going over to investigate while Shade kept Igor from running away while the others were preoccupied. Her attention deter for a single moment to watch them, seeing the scene unfolding in the reflections of their eyes. There, frozen in a block of ice was the very creature, very being that they had come to rescue from the evil grasp of the lord of the undead. The block of ice had chains around it, the chains attached to a large cross that balanced the block of ice, chains pulling Frankenstein's' monster up the high tower by a hidden mechanism, chain rattling with every movement. From where she stood, Shade could see Van Helsing take hold of the bars that separated them from Frankenstein's monster, using his new found strength to try and bend the bars enough to get through them, but it was to know avail.

Suddenly, the castle shook with a mighty screech, Shade stumbling back with a cry and covering her ears. Blood matted in her hair, her eyes stinging from how tightly she had squeezed them shut. She felt as if her head was about to explode from the high pitched noise that invaded her ears. 

Carl had moved to help her but the savage noise that escaped her in reply to the screech had scared him into taking a large step back.

"My master has awakened." Igor laughed, making a move to leave, only to have a silver disc blade pin him back to the wall.

"There is a cure." Frankenstein's monster revealed to them, his words pulling Shade from her small painful experience.

"What?" Van Halsing replied, confused on what their friend was talking about. 

"Dracula. He has a cure to remove the curse of the werewolf!" Was the reply as Frankenstein's monster was pulled higher and away from them. "Go, find the cure! Save yourself!"

As he disappeared, Anna pulled Van Helsing away from the bars as Shade shakingly got to her legs and stumbled over to them.

"Come on. You heard him. Let's find it." Anna said, guiding them to igor, only for Van Helsing to pull his hand from her grasp. 

"Wait. Why does Dracula have a cure?" He aimed his question at them all, the new found information was echoing inside his mind.

"I don't care!" Anna snapped, clearly too focused on the task at hand, maybe driven by her revenge and pride more than actually planning an attack.