Van Helsing

"Sometimes I'm sure you are brilliant." Jinx smiled. "Sometimes..."

 

Lestat walked along the streets of the little town, too lazy to even stay materialized in the nearest shadow of the evening. He saw a crowd gathered, and decided it would be best to drift into the nearest shade of dark as he walked near. They were all gathered around the body of a young girl, shot through the head and the chest, her blood dried on the ground.

"Who would do something like this?" one of the villagers muttered. "Her family mysteriously gone, and now poor Claire is murdered?"

"Van Helsing," someone else in the ground muttered. Lestat realized now: Ah, Edward's little sister. Pity...

He walked away, toward the nearest alley, where he usually found some sport.

 

"Well, I just hope those sometimes are around you; just so I can impress you, of course," Van Helsing laughed to himself.

 

"What?" Hannah asked, pulled back from her thoughts. "Oh... um, I was just going to say... that... that I'm glad that you're here."

 

"Sometimes." Jinx laughed lightly. "But you don't try too hard... you'll hurt yourself."

 

Van Helsing grunted. "Hurt myself," he repeated, trying not to scoff. "You really do underestimate me, dear."

 

"Me too," Edward smiled. "Though you are forgetting one thing, love."

 

"Only to your face." Jinx said, unabashed.

 

"Well, I'm glad you at least have some faith in me," Van Helsing muttered, frowning.

 

Jinx smiled at him, patting his shoulder lightly to try and get him to not frown. "I have a lot of faith in you." she said, earnestly. "I'm only teasing you."

 

"Thank you, then," Van Helsing sighed, smiling a little. "I appreciate that."

 

Lestat froze in the shadow of the nearest alley, some voices down the narrow, dark walls drifting toward him. He listened, careful not get too close even though he was invisible to the human eye.

"I don't know what you are so worried about!" came a woman's voice, worried, a little upset. Lestat focused more on the sound: young, maybe twenty at the most. He analyzed the next tone that spoke, and flinched back slightly: enraged, almost insane, a loud male presence.

"Like hell you don't! What am I supposed to expect, night after night when you're gone? Don't like to me where you've been."

Lestat could feel the girl's fear in the air, as if he could grab it if he reached out his shadow of a hand, or taste it on the tip of his tongue if he opened his mouth. He heard her whispered reply: "I cannot lie to you. I've been working late at the tavern. There are many travelers to clean up after-"

"Enough!" the man snapped, and Lestat heard the distinct click of gun's hammer, almost as if the man's sanity disappeared as he leveled a bullet into place inside the weapon.

 

Jinx's hand fell into her lap and she smiled, looking ahead. "I'm glad you do." she sighed.

 

"I miss her," Van Helsing began suddenly, looking down at Lexie. "I'm not used to being above her like this..."

 

Jinx looked down at Lexie, biting the inside of her cheek. "I'll bet she misses you too." she nodded. "Maybe you should take her for a ride before we find Dracula. She could probably use the run, right?"

 

Van Helsing looked at Jinx, catching her eye. "Good idea," he sighed quietly. "Although she and Sorin seem to be getting along well enough, at least."

 

"Maybe they like each other." Jinx grinned. "wouldn't that be sweet? Or do horses even think that way?" she looked back down at the two horses, tapping her finger on her cheek in thought.

 

"Maybe," Van Helsing mused. "It's very possible, though; I mean, Beatrice and Carl, Hannah and Edward... you and I are all good examples of unusual things people don't expect to happen."

 

"Yeah... weird." Jinx said, absently. "We'll it'd be cute if they did like each other. But maybe Lexie is too in love with you." she looked at him, grinning impishly.

 

"I doubt it," Van Helsing replied. "I think I like her more than she cares for me."