Tomb Raider: The Golden Seal

Chapter 5: Karolis

Romania had plenty of castles, but only one was considered to be Dracula's home. It was Bran's castle, in the city of Brasov, near where the Carpathians and Transylvanian Alps met.

Lara and Kurtis had discussed how to get there. A journey across the continent was immediately rejected: it would've taken too long to cross Bulgaria and better to avoid the police if somebody recognized Lara. By plane there were scales and they didn't trust the airline's security, so finally they decided to go by ship, which took them from Istanbul to Constanța, from where they would travel to Bucharest before making their way to the Alps.

In order to go unnoticed, they dressed as a pair of tourist guides working at the Balkans. While they were walking along the deck, Lara was explaining to her partner: "The so-called Count Dracula is, in fact, just a myth. The writer Bram Stoker was inspired by a real, historic person: The Transylvanian prince Vlad III Tepes, also known as Vlad the Impaler for executing his enemies in this manner. Another name he's earned is Vlad Drakul, 'the Devil'."

"And that turned into Dracula." Kurtis said.

"Exactly. He's been known to drink human blood, to enjoy watching torture and executions as if they were a spectacle, and to even invite his enemies to dinner and then afterwards kill them."

"Sounds like a perfect Nephilim."

At night, Lara locked herself in her cabin with all the papers she had brought from Selma's apartment and spent the whole night sketching maps and diagrams, to help herself clarify the data. Her friends used to say it was the boring side of her lifestyle, but she enjoyed wracking her brain as much as shooting or jumping over booby traps.

"This doesn't make sense." Lara whispered to the deaf pile of papers. "What on earth does an Amazon have to do with all this?" She took another page and started writing all she knew about this legendary figure.

Suddenly, she heard a cracking sound. She got up and retrieved her shotgun from under her pillow. She approached the bathroom -where the noise had come from- and kicked the door open. But she only saw her face in the mirror. "I'm paranoid." She said. "I hear noises everywhere." She was about to go back when, suddenly, she looked in the mirror again.

There was somebody behind her. She screamed and turned, but then she felt an Uzi's barrel at her temple. "Silence!" She heard a male voice, speaking in Greek. "Drop your weapon. Your time is up."

(...)

Kurtis was at his cabin sharpening the Chirugai's razors when he heard the gunfire. The short burst of a submachine gun. And after that...only silence. The noise had come of Lara's cabin, and he doubted she would shoot without a reason.

He jumped to his door and opened it in a pull, and after having run over a poor steward, he started banging on her door. "Lara! What's up? Lara!!"

Silence.

People were coming out of their cabins, attracted by the fuss. Without paying the others any mind, Kurtis rushed toward the door and knocked it down.

He was very lucky, since as he fell down he also avoided the bullets that were aimed directly where his head had been. He stood and rushed the man and threw him to the floor, wrenching the arm back that held the Uzi. The gunman screamed in pain when his arm broke with a cracking sound.

"Call the ship's police!" Screamed a lady who was watching the scene.

Kurtis quickly dropped the magazine from the well into his hand and threw it into the gangway, racked the slide to eject the last round and dropped the weapon to the floor. "You won't be needing that anymore, asshole!"