Michael Belmont and the Heir of Van Helsing (The Adventures of Michael Belmont) Read Online Free Page A

if she was replaying the past in her mind.   Michael just waited for her patiently.
    She turned to him, snapping back into the present.   “As for what we were after,” she said, reaching into her jacket pocket, “we came to find this.”   She pulled out an old tarnished amulet.   It wasn’t a very pretty thing, but it did look interesting.   It looked to be made of iron, and was fixed to a heavy chain.   In its center was a gray stone.
    “This belonged to your great-grandmother, Aileen Stewart.   She was an Irish immigrant, and brought this to America when she came.”
    Michael stared at the amulet as though he were missing something.   “That’s, ah, very nice,” he said clumsily, not quite understanding why his parents had put themselves in danger to obtain such a thing.
    His mother seemed to know what he was thinking.   “When I was a very young girl, about six years old, my grandmother gave this to me.   She said it was a very important artifact.   She said it was invaluable, and told me that I needed to protect it, and never tell anyone I had it.”
    Michael looked confused.   He was about to say something, but his mother went on.
    “I decided to bury this amulet to keep it safe.   One of my friends had given me a time capsule for my birthday, so I put it in, and started digging a hole in the forest behind our house.   Then my father found out what I was doing.   He was infuriated that I had hidden the amulet from him.   He told me that my grandmother was an insane old woman and I shouldn’t be concerned with anything she had to say.   He took the amulet away from me and… punished me, for what I’d done.”   Tears began running down her soft, red cheeks once again.
    “But you didn’t do anything wrong,” Michael protested angrily.
    “Well, as you’ve seen from what happened to your dad, my father is not what you would call a reasonable person.”
    “But why did you go back for it, what’s so special about this thing.   I mean, no offense or anything, but it kind of just looks like an old piece of junk.”
    “That’s possible,” she told him with a smile.   “Then again, what if my grandmother was right?   You know that we’ve been searching for answers about our family.   What if this amulet has something to do with where we come from?”
    Michael shrugged, considering what she’d said, but he still felt doubtful.
    “Can I take a look at it?” he asked her.   She nodded and handed it to him.
    Michael looked the trinket over.   The iron was pitted, and a bit rusty.   The unimpressive gray stone was held in place by an iron bird’s talon, and was about the size of a golf ball.   All things considered, he didn’t see anything special about it.
    “Michael,” his mother said softly, “what’s that?”   He thought she was looking at the amulet, but as he followed her eyes, realized she was actually gazing at the ring upon his left hand, the ring that Anubis had given him down in the necropolis, which was now glowing softly.   He hadn’t seen it do this since the day of Anubis’s death, and as he looked into the ring’s blue stone, he saw something like brilliant clouds swirling around inside.   A soft blue light began to drift out of the ring, only to be absorbed by the amulet’s stone, causing it to glow as well.
    Michael’s mother looked on in amazement.   She grinned cautiously, but then noticed that her son was beginning to sag in his chair.   His head had gone limp and he looked as though he were fainting.   She jumped up and whipped the amulet out of his hand, casting it off onto the carpet near the bathroom.   Then she bent down on one knee to examine him.
    “Hey, are you alright?” she said frantically, giving him a gentle shake.
    He shot his eyes back open and gawked at her.   “Yeah, I’m fine.   I’m okay.”
    She pulled her chair up close and sat down next to him, looking him over carefully just to make sure.   “What was that all