“Bless me father, for I have sinned.”
“Yes, I think we’ve already established that.” The priest said grumpily as he snapped the confessional shutter up and opened the concealed door on his left.
Quickly descending, the priest continued to speak as he wove expertly through the intricate core of the Order, the dark figure of Gabriel Van Helsing following closely behind him.
“I’ll be frank and to the point, Gabriel, for time is precious.” The priest began, worry seeping into his voice. “Dracula has returned, and it’s up to you, the Left hand of God, to stop him again.”
Van Helsing’s arm shot out and grabbed the priest’s crimson shoulder, forcing him to turn and face Van Helsing’s calculating stare.
“What do you mean, he’s back?” He questioned, his voice a deadly calm. “I thought I destroyed him. How is this possible?”
“Well,” The priest began as he walked over to a table and began flipping through a leather-bound book. “You did kill him, again, effectively sending Dracula and the vampires he’d fathered back to hell with him. Aah, here…” The priest turned the page to one filled with Latin writing and Van Helsing looked quizzically over his shoulder, wondering what it said. “Dracula was unable to renew his contract with the Lucifer, as normal circumstances would allow other vampires, because Dracula was the first vampire; he had no sire nor offspring left whose blood he shared to bind himself to until he could drink another vampire’s blood and regain his power.”
“Then how was he able to return?” Van Helsing growled, wincing at the side affect to his experience as a werewolf.
“I was getting there.” The priest said huffily, picking up a note book and scanning it. “It seems, however, that Dracula found a loophole in the form of a half-breed.”
“Half-breed? How is that possible?” Van Helsing asked, his eyes narrowing at the thought. “And why wasn’t it destroyed along with Dracula like the others?”
“You are aware of how a human is turned into a vampire, are you not?” The priest asked as Van Helsing nodded.
“Yes,” He stated gruffly. “A vampire forces a human to drink its blood.”
“Well,” The priest said, hesitating for a moment. “A half-vampire is created when the one turned is a pregnant woman. This is actually the only occurrence of this kind that we know of. In this case, the mother was a woman named Marishka.”
“Marishka?” Van Helsing repeated, recognizing the former vampire queen’s name.
“Yes,” The priest nodded. “She kept the child, a girl, and left her in the care of her village when she was only a few months old before leaving for Dracula’ castle. The child was cared for by the village as a normal orphan until her thirteenth year. When she suddenly sprouted great black wings and drained the blood of the woman who had been caring for her.”
“Where is she now?” Van Helsing asked after an uncomfortable pause.
“After that night, she fled Transylvania. For the past seven years, however, we have brushed aside minor reports in Ireland of weakened livestock with strange puncture marks on their necks, as well as the strange coincidence of the peaceful death of those who were known through the church to be suffering and sure to die the night after it was announced.”
“Through the church?” Van Helsing asked. “It seems that God refuses to hold this child accountable for her mother’s sins. Perhaps that is why she survived Dracula’s death.”
“Perhaps.” The priest agreed. “Se’s been living a relatively peaceful life up in northern Ireland, thank God. Dracula is in Transylvania and, thankfully, unable to cross the distance due to his weakened state. As a consequence, he’s been viciously attacking the surrounding towns. He will not regain his full powers until he drinks the blood of 500 humans or that of this girl. We cannot allow either of those to happen. You must find another way to vanquish Dracula. In the meantime, you and Carl will track down and eliminate this girl. She should be around the age of twenty now and we’re unsure as to whether she is susceptible to the same elements as other vampires. You must find Carl and Leave as soon as possible. The longer it takes, the more people Dracula will kill and the more powerful he will become.”
Van Helsing nodded and briskly made his way over towards Carl’s area, barely catching the priest’s whispered words.
“Godspeed Gabriel.”