Van Helsing

Edward swallowed a laugh. "What?" he asked. "Don't cut yourself off; you should able to talk to me... even if you blush redder than someone like you should be able to!" He couldn't stop his grin now.

 

"Sorry, but why did you ask?" Van Helsing inquired. "Curious," he added.

 

Lestat grinned, his teeth stained a pleasant shade of pink. "Nowadays I don't have too much to travel for or... live, as it were, for. I have only explored Rome in its heyday, and knew that it inspired Paris, which inspired New Orleans, the birthplace of the most exciting part of my life, but..."

He sighed, shaking a spot of blood and dirt off the tip of his boot. "My appetite has never stopped at one per night... I'd ask you if you're hunting later, but I already know the answer. And I'm not much of a sharer," he added under his breath, his sharp grin still in place.

 

Beatrice fiddled with the reigns. "Hannah seems to think I... smell good...."

Hannah shook her head stubbornly, her cheeks growing warmer than the rest of her. "It's embarrassing."

"Neither am I." John amended. "I've only come to claim what is mine. I take my eyes off her for a second and she goes with a... a dog." His jaw tightened.

 

"Well, I'm not like Hannah, silly," Van Helsing smirked. "I do love that sword," he added suddenly, looking to Beatrice's side. "I don't I've said that before."

 

"Do I have to persuade you to speak your mind?" Edward asked, putting his palm to her face, bringing her lips close to his. "Or should I say 'speak your heart,' because your thoughts are wild enough right now."

 

Lestat laughed, the harsh, bittersweet, attractive sound reverberating off the trees, and, likely, into the city not far off. He shook his hair once more, his grin now as wide as possible.

"I do apologize," he started through his laughted, putting a hand to his heart. "My God, though!" He spun in a circle, the tails of his black, flower-trimmed coat catching up with the rest of him as he faced John. "That is just... perfect! Perfect!" He swallowed the rest of his laughter, managing to just smirk.

A moment later, he paused, and took a step toward John, lowering his voice to a soft, yet rattling, precise tone of danger: "What do you plan to do to the boy?"

 

John was a bit confused by Lestat's reaction at first. "Kill him of course." He answered.

Hannah searched Edward's eyes in an attempt to see if he really wanted to know. "You..." She started, unsure how to phrase what she wanted to say. "You make me feel safe. I feel like I can relax a bit when I'm with you. Never fully though... I can't ever drop my guard fully.... But when I'm with you, I have trouble worrying about anything."

"It was my father's." Beatrice said, placing a hand on the intricate hilt. "He gave it to me for some reason."

 

"Ah," Van Helsing said. "I've never seen you use it, though. You're not just for show, are you?"

 

Edward swallowed, and then brought her lips to his, kissing her as hard as he could. He wrapped his arms around her tighter, pulling her back onto the bed and laughing against her mouth, unable to stop himself from grinning.

"You don't know how... happy that makes me feel," he whispered on her cheek. "Seriously."

 

Lestat snorted with laughter, straightening the lace on his sleeves once more. "You've always had that problem, John," he announced, turning dramatically once more, holding his arms out away from his body in a gesture that suggested impatience and obviousness.

"You don't plan things out," Lestat hissed, dropping his arms and stalking up to John's face again. "You are just angry that this boy, and that's quite an understatement of a word you know... that this boy is more intruiging to her than you are! I don't blame her," he added, stepping back again and laughing his signature laugh. "You're not around, you're probably not as charming, and let's face it: where's the fun in her liking a vampire like herself?"

He sighed, stepping around the tree that the dead woman slumped against, casually smacking her torn wrists out of his pathway with the heel of his boot. "Think of something more than just 'killing him, of course!' You'll never get her back because you're underestimating him with your anger and lack of a good... partner."

 

John raised an eyebrow. "You know too much to be new at this. Have you been following me?"

Hannah froze, not sure what she should feel. What if, by some obscure chance, she did hurt Edward? If she allowed herself to be too relaxed with him, she would. But the biggest question playing on her mind was whether or not she should try to be with Edward. Whether or not she should let herself be happy. But it was impossible to decide at the moment. She liked the way it had felt, yet she didn't think she deserved it.

"I've had to teach myself. But I doubt it will be any use against what we'll be fighting." Beatirce said.

 

Van Helsing snorted. "You know Edward uses a silver bulleted gun on vampires knowing it will do nothing but hinder them under he can ch-" he stopped himself. "Until he can have me help him out," he recovered, ignoring Jinx's nervous sideglance. "So I'm sure a sword is better than nothing; Edward has no idea how to use any weapon, the innocent little Roman boy!"

 

"You okay?" Edward whispered, shifting himself more to the side in case he'd landed on her back. "You look puzzled."

 

Lestat turned his laugh into a cough lightly, pulling a handkerchief out of his vestpocket and grinning.

"I am everywhere, my friend!" he expounded twirling the handkerchief around airlessly. "You shouldn't be surprised... travel is my life now, and I was bound to see what my fellow... men were up to. You see..." he began, unable to pass the opportunity to show off. "Vampires like us two are hard to come by nowadays. In the beginning, they only made a few classics like me. I garuntee you that you'll find plenty of Mericful Death's out in Rome, Paris, London, New York, New Orleans... they have all started to... to soften!"

He pronounced the last word loudly and angrily, as if it were a mouthful of venom that he had just spat into the muddy ground. "There were days when European vampires were the most bloody, vile, heartless b.astards of our kind in the entire world! They... are nostalgic; they long for the mortality they lost! This..." he gestured around to everything in the woods, the dead girl, the city beyond them. "This is all a gift! The world, all in it! And the only way..." he stepped back up to John's chest again, inches from him, "... the only way to enjoy the giftest to the fullest, most perfect, most adventurous, most wonderful, most... exciting way is through being what we are."

He went over to the edge of the forest now, the trees thinning out into a clearing and a sloping hill down into the city. The light of the sun was just inches from his boots, and Lestat swung his foot by it dangerously, his brilliant grin shining on his face again.

"Do you not agree?" he whispered, not turning around.

 

"It seems I have no need of introduction then." John muttered. "It has been merely a century and a half for me, but I agree." He remembered when he'd gotten to sink his teeth into Hannah. "Fully."

"Fine." Hannah answered, smiling for Edward. "That was unexpected."

Beatrice half-smiled. "I guess I'll just do what I can."

 

"No one would expect less of you," Van Helsing said politely. "When was the last time you used that thing anyway?"

 

"I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm not," Edward smiled. "Just tell me something..." He reached up to run the back of his hand over her cheek. "What are you going to do when this is all over?"

 

"A century and a half," Lestat waved off with his white hand, as if the phrase were a nasty, useless bug. " 'Tis nothing to me... you'll feel the same way soon." He leaned against the nearest tree now, still not turning to look at John. "What has she been up to?" he asked, wanting the other man to speak something as the sun took it's time setting.

 

"Eating deer." John couldn't contain a laugh. "She doesn't like what she is, frankly put. But of course, she forgets that when she's near me. The trouble is getting her to stay that way."

"I have no idea." Hannah murmured, enjoying the warmth of Edward's hand. "John will probably have me by then...."

"I've never used it in a real fight." Beatrice said. "I practiced with one of my..." She blushed. "Friends when I wasn't working. Our last practice round was three days before all this started."