Protectors and Hunters

William van Helsing lay in his bed, a respirator wheezing beside him. Around him were several members of the Helsing Organization, along with his beloved wife, Maria, and his son Nickolas. Everyone wore black, the color of mourning. Obviously, they could all see that his time on this earth was drawing to a close. "Nickolas, come here my son." he rasped, gasping for his next breath. "Yes, father?" The handsome seventeen year old with shoulder length black hair and his father's eyes came to his bedside and clutched his hand. "You have grown into a good man, Nickolas. You are the only one out of all of my children who has stayed with us to the end. I thank you for that, Nick. Nickolas smiled slightly and squeezed his father's hand. "Though you are still young, I will be leaving the leadership of the Helsing Organization to you. I know that you will make a good leader." Nickolas bowed his head in respect, "Thank you. I will make you proud, I promise." William reached up and pat his son on his head as he had done many times when he was a little boy, "I know you will." He croaked and his hand fell lifeless to the bed.

I stared out at the fluffy clouds, as our private plane zoomed through the sky towards Anna and Hannibal's house in the Catskills. "Do you mind if I sit here?" asked Hannibal, snapping me out of day dream land. "Sure, where's Anna?" I asked as I moved some magazines from the seat next to me. "She's sleeping in the bedroom. Apparently I've given her a migraine from all my pestering." He sat down and propped his long legs up on the seat in front of him. I still thought it was weird that Anna would marry a guy like him. He didn't seem like her type. "So, how did you and Anna meet?" I asked, attempting to break the ice for a real conversation. " I met her um…twenty years ago when she came to live with the Valintegra clan." "Are you a member of her clan?" He ran his big hand through his hair, a little smirk quirking the corner of his lips. "Not by birth, no. I was sort of adopted, I guess. I'm originally from the Kain Clan. I grew up in the mountains of the Catskills. My dad was the alpha of our pack. When I was eight, some hunters found our settlement, Helsings. They killed everybody…but me. After that I traveled a bit, looking for a new pack that would except me. Our kind don't like being alone. We have this weird need to be apart of a pack, so I couldn't stay on my one even if I tried. I found the Valintegra when I was twenty and I've been with them ever since." "That's cool. Um…by the way, how many kids do you have?" I took a sip of my coke. "Five." And abruptly spit it out when the number registered in my brain. "Huh?! Did you say you have five kids?!" He nodded, looking at me like, what's the big deal? "How long have you been married?" "Five years." "How did that happen?" I started doing math inside my head. "Well, our oldest was born before we were married and two of our sons are identical twins." "I…see." That makes a little more sense. "What are their names?" Hannibal got a warm and fuzzy look on his face as he talked about his children, his pups, as he called them. "Gabriella is almost six, the twins, Michael and Jordan (Ha!) are four, Lilith is two, and the baby, Zachery is two months." "You named your twins, Michael and Jordan?" I chuckled. "It was meant to be a joke, but she liked the names. I don't think she knows who Michael Jordan is. If you can believe that?" He laughed. Believe me I could. This was Anna we were talking about. "Let me get this straight, that woman in there had a baby two months ago? She sure doesn't look it." Hannibal grinned, "The werewolf body is a wonderful thing. Take me for instance, how old do you think I am?" "Uh…early thirties?" He howled with laughter, "Try forty eight." I spent the next half our gawking at him.

Nickolas flinched as the royal guard fired another shot of salute for his father, William van Helsing. He looked around at the dismal faces of the people, friends, family, associates, and Organization members, that were gathered there to morn the loss of the great man. How will I ever fill his shoes? Nickolas thought to himself, as a soldier folded the English flag that lay on his father's coffin and handed it to his mother. Maria clutched the flag in her hands and for the first time in his entire life he saw tears fall from his stone hearted mother's eyes.

"Damn it!" Davion roared as he threw Ark's mirror across the room. It still did not shatter. This mirror had been passed down throughout the ages from king to king since the beginning of time. It had the power to track anyone, vampire, werewolf, human, it didn't matter. Nothing escaped the Vampire King's Eye. No one except Dawn and her unborn child, that is. "I don't understand! Why won't it work!" The current vampire king, Davion, raged. "Did you really think it would be that easy?" Isabella chimed in. Davion glared at her still, angelic form. She was wearing a gown of white silk and her hair was twisted into a long raven braid. "The child knows you're looking for them and the threat that you pose. He has blinded you and you will stay blind until he is born. After that, there will be no stopping him and you will no longer worry him." Davion's teeth clinched, "You're telling me that he's already aware." Isabella's full lisps curved slightly in a smug smirk, "He was probably aware from the moment he was conceived. You're not going to destroy him." "Like hell I won't!" Davion hissed. "Please, you and I both know you won't be able to kill Dawn. You still love her." Davion shrugged on his skeleton print hoodie. "Yea, well I don't have a choice now do I? It's the only way I can stop him." Isabella shook her head, "He's not going to let you hurt her. You know that right? You'll be lucky if you even find her." Davion pulled his hood over his head and looked back over his shoulder at the old vampire queen. His bright crimson eyes glowed viciously at her from beneath the hood. "I have a plan. I'll just have to hire someone else to do my dirty work. Someone he won't be expecting. Farewell, Isabella. This might be the last time you will ever see me. What I'm about to do, may be suicide." He unfurled his bat wings and stretched them as far as he could. It had been such a long time since he'd used them. "Good bye, Davion. I would beg you not to go, but I'd just be wasting my breath. A bit of warning before you go, I have a good idea of who you're going to see and if he doesn't kill you then your son most definitely will. I fear that this will, in fact, be the last time I see you." Davion walked out on the terrace and his wings began to flap, lifting his feet up off the floor. "I know." He said and with that flew up towards the moon.

We pulled up into the driveway of a very large cabin. There was another, smaller cabin just behind it with a dock that extended over a crystal blue lake. "Home sweet home." Hannibal announced as he parked the cream colored Escalade. "Maybe for you." Anna huffed, "I'll be so happy when your teaching contract runs out and we can go back to England." Hannibal just laughed. As soon as we got out the car, the door opened and three little kids came running out, followed closely by a beautiful Spanish woman holding a tiny girl's hand and a baby against her chest. I recognized this woman from the night we attacked the Valintegra. She had been on the stage with Maria's father and brothers. She had to be Maria's sister. She looked just like her. All of the children looked similar, the same wavy black hair and their father's warm golden brown eyes instead of their mother's cold ones, that is all except for the oldest daughter, Gabriella. She didn't even look like she belonged to this family. She had silver hair, startling blue/silver eyes, and porcelain skin. This made me uneasy. Hannibal lifted the different looking girl onto his shoulders and the twins pounced on each of his legs. He walked with them clinging to him with ease, as if he had done it a thousand times. He probably had. Anna took the infant from her aunt and whispered something to her, most likely telling her about me. We all went inside and Hannibal introduced me to each of the kids. The twins and little Lilith took to me immediately, but Gabriella was a bit standoffish. I figured she just needed to get to know me more before she warmed up to me, so I tried to break the ice. I knelt down in front of her, so that we were eye to eye, and spoke in a warm friendly voice, "Hi Gabriella, my name's Dawn. I know you don't know me, but I'm your mother's step-sister. I'll be staying here with you guys for a while." Gabriella backed away from me and hid behind her father's leg. "What's wrong? It's okay. Don't be shy." She wrinkled her nose and pointed at my belly, "Bad" she said, her eyes shining with fright. I looked up at Hannibal, who gave me a sympathetic smile. Am I the only one who doesn't think my baby is evil? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe he is and my motherly attachment is keeping me from seeing it. Or…maybe he's making me feel that way.

After the funeral, Nickolas went to his room. He yanked off his jacket, tie and dress shirt and threw himself onto his bed with a heavy sigh. He put the ear buds of his iPod into his hears and turned on the loud rock music. It pounded against his ear drums, drowning out every other thought. That was exactly what he wanted. He lay there a while with his eyes closed, letting his mind slip away into a void where he could no longer feel the agony of loss. Then, a frigid chill swept through the room. He yanked out his ear buds and sat up. There, standing at the foot of his bed was a man in a hooded skeleton jacket.

Nickolas leapt from his bed and crouched into a feral fighting stance his mother had taught him. He bared his wolf's fangs and snarled. His golden eyes flared with a predatory gleam. He could tell just by the smell that the shadowy man in front of him was a vampire. They always smelled of death. He sprang at the vampire, his wolf's claws drawn and fangs ready to snap at it's frozen flesh. Suddenly, a dark wave slammed him against the wall. The world spiraled before his eyes. When his vision cleared, he looked up at the vampire to see what had hit him. Oozing from the vampire was a shadow creature with razor sharp claws and teeth. Burning red eyes glared dangerously at him. Nickolas knew then what exactly he was dealing with. His father had lectured him on it many times. As a vampire ages and grows stronger, it gains abilities, like mind reading, transformation, flight, teleportation, psychic shielding, etc. One of the rarest abilities of all is shadow wielding. Only the strongest of vampires, with a pure bloodline and who have spent years, centuries even, draining humans of their blood every single night, have this ability. He felt a chill run up his spine as he stared at the deadly shadow.

The vampire stepped forward, his shadow in toe. He laughed at the teenaged vampire hunter, "Foolish boy, I'm way out of your league." His teeth gleamed as he grinned. Nickolas pulled himself up. He winced at the pain. His entire body was screaming in protest. Oh man, I think I broke a few ribs. Nickolas thought to himself as he held his side. "Who are you? What do you want?" He asked, grimacing in pain. How he wished there was a gun or crossbow nearby. The vampire lowered his hood and brushed his hair out of his face. Red eyes glowed from it's skull and his fangs were very pronounced when he smiled. Nickolas was sure he'd seen his face before, but he couldn't place where. "My name is Davion, I'm sure your father has told you about me." Oh yea, he had told him alright. "You're the one who stole Dawn." Davion grinned, "Stole? That's not exactly how I remember it, but whatever. I've come to ask for your aid." Nickolas eyed the powerful vampire suspiciously, "You're asking me for help? Why would a vampire come to a vampire hunter for help?" Davion crossed his arms and the shadow creature returned to it's neutral state within his bloody eyes. "Because I want you to hunt a specific vampire for me. I would do it myself, but he's particularly powerful and he has a psychic shield around him that is making it impossible for me to find him myself. He will not be expecting me to send Helsing's human and werewolf cross son after him." Something about this was fishy. "What's the catch?" Nickolas asked. There had to be a catch. There always was with vampires. Davion sighed, "He hasn't been born yet. To destroy him, you will have to kill Dawn." Nickolas' eyes widened, "You mean he's…" Davion nodded, "my son."

None of this was making any sense to Nickolas. "Why do you want to kill him? He's your son! And what about Dawn?!" Davion shook his head sadly, "Believe me, if he isn't destroyed then it will be game over for us all." "I don't get it. You took Dawn away from her family, broke my dad's heart, turned her into a monster, got her pregnant and now you want her dead! Why? What kind of sick, twisted pleasure do you get from bringing people so much misery?!" He yelled. "I don't get any pleasure from it! I didn't mean for any of this to happen! It's just the way it played out! I love Dawn. I don't want to hurt her. I really don't, but I have no other choice. It's either I kill her or my son does. I can give her a quick, painless death or let die in agony. Saving her from that is the only thing I can do for her now." Nickolas rolled his eyes at Davion's touching speech. "Whatever, all you vamps do is lie. You're words don't' mean a thing. "I understand if you don't want to help me find her." Davion turned and walked towards the terrace. It was strange being in Dawn's old bed room again. Especially now that all her drawings and paintings were gone, replaced with rock bands and video game posters. Even though the room had changed, he could still smell her human sent all around him, after all these years, it was still there. It made him miss her all the more. "I'm sorry for what I've done to her and your family. I truly am. If I could do it all again, well…I wouldn't. I wish I had never gotten involved with her. Maybe then she could have had a normal, happy life with someone better than me. Forgive me for intruding. I'll go now."

"Wait!" Davion stopped at the sound of the boy's voice. He looked back at him. He was obviously in great amounts of pain, but he still stood his ground. A lesser man would have been writhing on the ground. He was definitely William van Helsing's son. "I'll help you find her, but I won't kill her. You can do that on your own if you really want to go through with it." He said. Davion was caught off guard, he hadn't really expected him to agree to it. In all honesty, he had planned on forcing him to help, but could not do it once he was in Dawn's old room with her sent flooding his senses. "May I ask why you changed your mind?" He asked. "I promised my dad that I would protect the human race from monsters like you. I mean to keep it, even if it means helping you kill my sister. Just know this, there's no guarantee that I'll spare you once this mission is through." Davion smiled, "If you draw your crossbow on me, then I will do nothing to sway your aim. I will accept my death, happily, and die with a smile on my face. Thank you, young Helsing."

Did I mention that my sister's a heartless harpy? She wouldn't let me eat with the rest of the family, because apparently I would get vampire cooties on the food and make everybody sick. I sat at the breakfast nook in the kitchen while everybody ate in the dining room, musing on ways I could insult next time she snapped at me. Hannibal came into the kitchen, carrying an armload of plates. "How's it going? Sorry about what Anna said." I shrugged, "It's okay, I lived with her mom, remember. I swear she's just like her. I think hating me might be hereditary." He laughed, "I wouldn't tell her that if I were you. She hates her mom." I took a bite of the lasagna, savoring the sweet deliciousness of it. If I wasn't careful I was never going to lose all this baby weight. "Noted." I said once I swallowed. "Say, I've noticed that Gabriella looks….um…different from your other kids. Why is that? Is she adopted?" Hannibal's smile vanished. He sat down the plate he had been scrubbing and turned towards me with a sad look on his face. Perhaps I shouldn't have asked. Touchy subject? "Gabriella is…not mine…biologically speaking." I gasped and dropped my fork. "Anna cheated on you?!" He looked down at his sneakers and his jaw clenched. That bitch! "What happened?" I asked, leaning forward in interest. "Right before we were supposed to be married, a rival pack moved into our territory. The Heiken Clan from Russia. The alpha, Hector took a…interest in Anna. Anna has always been ambitious. She wants nothing more than to be an alpha female, but here she has her uncles in the way and I would never oppose her grandfather. I have no interest in being alpha. It was an opportunity she couldn't pass up. Stay here and be a underling for the rest of your life or leave with Hector and become an alpha. Needless to say, she took it. She left with him. I went back to America after she left me, I came here to the very cabin I built for her as a wedding present. Three months later, I get a knock on my door and there she is standing in the doorway, pregnant with the white wolf's pup. She begged for my forgiveness and I took her back. We got married two weeks after she was born." He looked into the dining room at the silver haired girl. "She's my daughter, not his." "What happened to Hector?" I asked, dabbing my eyes with my napkin. "He's dead. He had the nerve to attack us on our wedding day. I fought with him and …I won." I sat straight up in my chair as the horrible realization dawned on me, "you killed him?" His eyes glazed over and he seemed to drift into a far away place. He lifted his hands and stared at them as if they were covered in dirt, "I snapped his neck with my jaws. His bones are still lying at the bottom of a ravine twenty miles north of here. His pack never even bothered to go pick up his remains. I dread the day Gabriella asks me about her real father. What am I going to tell her? That I murdered him?" "No, you were just protecting your family." I said, trying to comfort my new friend. He shook his head and looked at me with wild eyes, "No, I wasn't. I was still angry. I hated him for taking Anna from me. I wanted to kill him and…I liked it when I felt his bones snap in my teeth." He dropped his hands and looked down at his feet. "It still sickens me when I think about it. How I killed Gabriella's father. How she'll never know about him. I hope and prey that she never asks about him. I don't want her to know what I did." I went silent after that. There was nothing I could say to that. I knew all too well of the sickening pleasure you get from a kill after the animalistic, savage side of you takes over. I often felt it when I attacked humans. I guess the same goes for werewolves too. Even humans experience it. I know of several serial killers who have described such feelings of release when they killed. It's scary but true, we're all monsters deep down. Even good guys like Hannibal.