(Quick Note): So this hasn't been completely checked over yet, so beware of possibly glaring mistakes, I'm working on it...

I know, I know, it took so long to update...BUT I have a good reason for why it took so long. Read at end of chapter or in my bio as for why people HATE me!!

Chapter 10 Vampire's Blush, Vampire's Envy

Van Helsing woke to the smell of cooking meat. Probably leftovers but he wasn't about to complain, he was starving.

He breathed the scent in deeply and opened his eyes to the sight of treetops framing the night sky. Attempting to sit up, pain flared up his spine, coursing through his body. He slowly lowered himself back to the ground with a groan and closed his eyes. Faintly he became aware of a dull throbbing in his neck.

Someone shifted over to him.

"Hey, no sudden movements, you'll regret it..."

A hand was placed on his chest lightly to stop him from trying to move again.

"It wasn't sudden," he ground out.

Chuckling, "Then don't move at all."

"I'd prefer to be sitting up," Van Helsing realized that it wasn't a voice he recognized.

"Well, alright. But let me help you."

He opened his eyes a blinked. A man was helping him prop up against a tree. Once there, he got a better look at him.

He looked very young, maybe late teens or early twenties, and seemed to be constantly grinning. His black hair was spiked forward, letting you have the full affect of his bright, blue, jewel-like eyes.

A single glance could leave you entranced.

The pale skin didn't help much either, it just made them look brighter.

"Hi! I'm Cobalt!" Still grinning.

He had a fancy look about him, too, and Van Helsing decided he looked like a nice guy.

Until one more thing registered in his mind.

He had fangs.

He was a vampire.

Van Helsing flinched away, "Vampire," he growled. He regretted it though, both from the pain shooting up his back from the sudden movement and from the look on the guy's face. Even though one had just bit him yesterday, it wasn't that he had a serious problem with vampires, hell, he just defended them the other day, but still, he didn't like them so near him.

But he really did regret it.

Cobalt looked crestfallen.

He had jumped back slightly and landed on his butt, his head hung slightly.

"I know...You hate me, right?" He looked like an abused child that had just been slapped by his mother as he retreated over to Wolffé.

"Should I leave?" He asked quietly.

She said nothing and continued to prod at the meat.

"Wolffé?"

Prod.

"Wolffé?" He crouched down and shook her slightly.

"Huh?"

"Should I leave?"

"Why?" She sounded tired.

"He saw my fangs and kinda freaked out..."

"What, didya forget he was jus' bitten yesterday?"

"With the smell of blood everywhere? It's hard to forget."

She snorted, "Besides, that's what you get for smilin' all the time."

"You should try it sometime..." He muttered.

She caught that, "Ass." Was all she said before she shoved him playfully making him lose his balance and fall over...Again.

He yelped as he fell, "That's mean."

"I know."

Cobalt nudged, "So about me leaving..."

"No, stay here, I need help finding the town."

"You're a wanderer, you know the area, why can't you do it?" He said incredulously.

"I can't," she said bluntly, "I lost where we were goin' when we ran from that vamp."

Cobalt went wide-eyed, started giggling like a little kid, and then stood up eccentrically, hands on his hips. "The Great Wolffé, Legendary Tracker, needs my lowly help to get through the forest of her own childhood?" He feigned a look of surprise.

Wolffé gave him a good kick in the shin. "I barely lived here a year, thank you very much!"

"Oof," he fell with a grunt but gave another childish giggle, "It's the end of the world!"

"Hush!" She glared at him.

"But I don't want to," he whined, "Hey are you embarrassed?!"

"No. Now shut up."

He continued his giggling.

Suddenly, he flipped over backwards, landing in a crouch position.

Before him, a knife stuck out of the soft dirt.

"Hey that's dangerous!" He cried out.

"Oh, whatever! Yer a vampire, it ain't gonna kill ya-," She picked up another knife, "Now, start runnin'!"

And he did. "Hey, hey, hey, come on, not fair-not fair!"

Yet he was still giggling, fueling Wolffé's annoyance.

Van Helsing sat off to the side choking down laughter. It was just funny! Cobalt merely leaped around- laughing guy-like for once- Dodging Wolffé's knife swings, and then giggling as she missed.

The bystander may have held laughter, but he could not suppress a smile. And letting just that small action occur helped ease the pain that threatened to escape in his chest if he were to break out in a fit of laughter.

Cobalt continued to run around glancing over his shoulder every now and then, watching Wolffé run after him.

She was in hot pursuit, the cooking meat completely forgotten. But suddenly she stopped swiftly and took aim.

Van Helsing's eyes widened in surprise, he hadn't expected her to be that drastic, and it was quite dangerous considering she had a very good aim.

Shit.

Cobalt hadn't looked back to see her, so Van Helsing set his jaw and yelled out to him.

"Cobalt! Watch it!"

"Huh?" The vampire said, turning slightly around before throwing himself to the ground with his hands on his head.

A dull thud echoed behind him.

Lifting his head slowly, the young vampire made sure that she was unarmed and then glanced behind him.

To be greeted to the sight of a dull kitchen knife sticking a good three or so inches into the hard bark of the tree.

He looked back and met Van Helsing's eyes.

"Hehe, uh thanks Gabriel. That would've been painful..."

Did he just call me Gabriel? What's with all of these vampires?

"Too bad it wasn't" Wolffé muttered darkly as she leapt straight at him.

Cobalt hit the ground, flat on his back, with enough force to have knocked a human unconscious, not that he was human. He blinked; he had been completely unprepared for such direct measures. They began to wrestle on the ground, dirt clung to their clothes as they rolled in it. Yelps and whimpers could be heard, most likely from Cobalt, as growls and evil laughs rang out, courtesy of Wolffé.

It was here that Van Helsing got over the man calling him Gabriel and finally broke into the fore mentioned suppressed laughter. He grabbed at his chest as pain racked through his lungs with the effort.

Wolffé and Cobalt halted all current activities, and stayed absolutely still. Wolffé was pinned to the ground by Cobalt, who was straddling her hips with his hands on her shoulders effectively holding her down, Wolffé's hands were about his neck. They watched him blankly,

Slowly, but surely, he calmed down.

Unfortunately another glance at the position they had slipped into now, started him back up again.

The other two looked back at each other in confusion, before suddenly realizing the problem.

Cobalt had tried to sit up more straight, which allowed his hands to slide down, directly,onto the boobage...

And most girls, like Wolffé, don't like random hands on their boobs.

He gave the closest thing to a vampire's blush, while Wolffé gave him Death's own glare.

"PERVERT!!" She yelled as she shot up and shoved him off.

He skidded a couple of feet on his arse, "Ow... Hey if I didn't have pants on, that would have shredded my-"

"Oh don't even-In the position you were just in, yer lucky to have yer hands, let alone yer life!"

He looked up in disbelief, "I'm sorry, but it's not like I was trying to-."

But she had already walked away from him to retrieve the two knives. "Don't care," was all she said.

Van Helsing saw the trouble brewing and tried to change the subject, "Uh, Wolffé? The food..."

She ran quickly over, "Oh, right," just in time to salvage the nearly burning meat, and place some on two different plates. Deciding to ignore the vampire, she grabbed them and plopped down next to him, "Good eye, Helsing, or eyes in your case." She joked.

"Van Helsing," he smiled lightly at their game and chuckled at the joke. When she handed him a plate he took it gratefully, "Thanks."

"Sure."

"Hey wait," Cobalt tried to edge over to them, still fearful of Wolffé's temper, "Isn't it Gabriel?"

'Gabriel' narrowed his eyes in suspicion, "Where did you hear that?"

"A-a friend of mine," came the nervous reply.

"...Well it's right, I just go by Van Helsing most of the time now."

"Oh," the vampire tried to move closer to them.

But Wolffé threatened with the knives. "Whoa, over there ya lil' pervert. I'm still pissed off."

He dropped his head but obeyed her order.

She just rolled his eyes at him, "Seriously..."

They ate in silence, noticing Cobalt and his puppy-like eyes, practically begging them to let him back over. He had tried to inch inconspicuously over-but to no avail. Wolffé threw a knife right into the dirt before him, stopping him immediately. He sadly plucked the knife out and began to twirl it between slender fingers, giving them the 'eyes' again.

Van Helsing found himself to be a main target to the tearful eyes and the sad sniffing. Eventually he sighed and gave a gesture with a jerk of his head (much to his neck's displeasure) for him to come over. Then he patted the ground next to him, letting the vampire know that it was probably best that he stayed away from the 'nice' lady currently giving him an evil glare.

Cobalt perked up and a smile lit his face as he bounded over to Van Helsing, laying the knife at the man's feet as if an offering. Then he took a seat next to him.

Van Helsing found something odd about the way he sat, it was just so...so-

Pet-like...Very odd.

He kept his knees up near his shoulders as he leaned forward with his hands on the ground near his feet, still smiling his endless smile.

He was too caught up in the odd sight that he didn't feel the hand pawing at his leg. Pawing was the only word to describe it...

"Thanks," still grinning, "You know, for warning me of the incoming projectile, and I'm sorry for scaring you earlier, I guess I wasn't really thinking..."

"It's ok," It was just unnerving how the vampire could keep smiling all the time, and it wasn't even a big smile. Just a small slight upturn of the corners of his mouth. But still...

Van Helsing tried to break the awkwardness that had settled on them, not to mention the unnerving smile. At least when the vampire was talking it was as evident that he was smiling.

"So... Why did you call Wolffé the 'Legendary Tracker' earlier?"

Wolffé could be heard groaning as she lade back and rolled over so that her back faced them, "No, not this again..."

Cobalt gave a laugh before launching into a story about Wolffé's past life...

Laughing at all the right parts and even giving the vampire a nudge every now and then ("No way, she didn't!"), Van Helsing felt glad he had met this guy, he was kind and funny. Not your typical 'evil' vampire. And the deeper they got into conversation about themselves, the more he felt like he had always known him, and even odder, the more he thought-

It's so easy to talk to him...

--

Meanwhile...

A lonely onlooker sat perched on a branch, hidden safely in the shadow of the leaves. He watched silently as the young vampire came happily over to Gabriel's side, chatting animatedly with him.

The sudden surge of jealously took over his mind. How he envied the vampire's ability to be so close to his Gabriel, to be able to see Gabriel's face as he laughed.

His cold unbeating heart panged with sorrow...

He gave a quiet yet heavy sigh.

And the girl's-

No, Seryba, he corrected himself, Seryba...

Seyba's head lifted suddenly off the ground. Her eye stared relentlessly into his, as she propped herself up on an arm.

She smirked and he grimaced, damn her, but even so he peered closely- she was saying something.

He hesitated slightly, but nodded his head in acknowledgment.

Thank you Vladislaus, She had mouthed silently, Thank you for your help yesterday...

A/N: No Cobalt!! Get away from Gabriel! Hehe, bad Cobalt. Anyways, this isn't a filler chapter or anything, Cobalt has his purpose if you haven't already noticed...

Ok so the whole explanation on why this took so long (If you haven't read my profile update) is, well, to put it bluntly- someone STOLE!! Two chapters of my fic. This one and next chapter! So I was totally turned off from writing and only just finished writing it maybe 5 days ago. But I still have to write next chapter... Don't hate me.

W.S.K.