Beaten
All the beast did was snarl and cause problems. Abraham had starved him, beaten him, locked him in his coffin for a week at a time...and the beast only became more violent. It regularly lunged at the troops whenever one happened to separate from the others, whether going to use the bathroom or simply heading to the kitchen for a snack. Only the tight restraints of the seal had prevented bloodshed so far. At least it had stopped trying to attack him after the last beating he'd administered, though it had taken weeks for the last of the welts from the silver to vanish.
He'd even had to stop taking it on hunts...it wouldn't go far enough from the troops to be remotely successful at destroying the other vampire before it escaped. Instead, Alucard stalked them, staying just out of sight in the dark night, circling the troops, with the random bloody snarl coming from the darkness. Finding it afterwards had been even worse. It had taken two hours of tramping about and circling in on the vampire before its hiding place had been discovered, and then he'd had to drag the snarling beast out from the bushes.
He was going to have to try something different. This was not working...instead of a useful tool, he had a snarling, violent, unpredictable monster. With a sigh, he put up his paper, going down to see his monster. On the way down, he stopped by the kitchen to pick up the bowl of blood from the icebox.
Each night, barring the times when he'd withheld food in an attempt to break the beast, he gave the beast blood he'd collected from patients and bought from donors throughout the day. It was just enough to keep the beast alive; he feared providing it with any more, giving it any extra strength beyond the bare minimum needed to serve him. Cold and clotted from the icebox, it was nonetheless fresh and the vampire had never turned it down once he'd impressed upon him that it was all the food the beast would get.
As always, he opened the door to the beast's cell just enough to place the bowl inside the door, then left. It wasn't yet dark, the vampire wouldn't be awake for another half hour.
It was with a sense of shock that he glimpsed two white hands snatching the bowl out of sight just before the door snicked closed and blocked the view.
Alucard should not be awake yet...
Frowning to himself at what he'd seen, Abraham went upstairs. Had the vampire always been able to function during the day, and simply concealed this from him? And finally made an error to accidentally reveal this ability? He'd ask the vampire later, once it had finished its meal. It then occurred to him that he hadn't seen the beast wandering about the house in more than a week...nor had he had any complaints from the troops barring the times he ordered the vampire to interact with them.
X Later that night X
He opened the door to the cell, striding in with the light held high, ready to get some answers from the vampire. Was it doing its sneaking about during the day, when no one was watching for it or expecting it? A snarl greeted him and a scuffling, and his light reflected off a dim form. Turning towards it, he saw the vampire backed into the corner farthest from him, eyeing him with clear hate and rage.
"Alucard, have you been out of this room during the day?" Red eyes narrowed in hate and the vampire hissed, then nodded.
As he'd thought. "When?"
Alucard shifted, expression changing from rage into something Abraham could no immediately identify. Crouching even farther back into the corner, it stared mutely at him.
"WHEN?" Barking angrily at the beast, he took a few threatening steps towards it.
"Summer!" The vampire snapped the word out at him, shaking and hissing and eyes glowing afterwards.
Summer...yes. He'd tied the vampire out in the light as punishment, chained it outside his office and listened to it scream until it stopped fighting and began begging. It had been so well behaved afterward that any guilt he'd felt he'd ignored. Well-behaved, until recently, that is.
"And since, Alucard? When else have you been out of this room during the day?" Ignoring the angry reactions of the vampire, he took another step towards him.
"Not! Never!" Eyes wide, mouth open with fangs bared threateningly, it hissed at him from the corner...but did not advance, did not attempt to attack. It had learned that much, at least. And it had stayed in its room, though he'd had no idea until tonight that it might have been awake in that time frame.
Content with the answer, he nodded at the vampire and left. It was following his rules, not trying to sneak about. He did wonder how often it was awake during the day. Stooping, he snatched up the bowl as he left. It was when he entered the hallway that he noticed that there were slight gouges on the bowl, all around the rim. Odd, that.
The next day, early afternoon, he opened the door to the vampire's cell, expecting a closed coffin. Instead, he found the coffin lid ajar and the vampire curled in the corner, arms draped limply across its knees, head resting on them. As the light from the lantern reached Alucard, the shaggy gray head lifted, dim red eyes blinking at him. It took a few moments for the vampire's sleepy mind to realize what it was seeing, and then the vampire's head jerked up, eyes watching him carefully and a growl rumbling in the throat. Nodding to himself, he left. The vampire was awake during the day, yes, but clearly not at its best, nor was it leaving the room.
And no longer threatening to attack, either. He left, and as the door closed, he caught the slightest movement from the corner of his eye. Puzzled, Abraham paused, then pushed the door back open. In the moment before the vampire jerked away back into the darkness, he'd seen it, face to the ground, sniffing about the door.
"ALUCARD! What were you doing?" Angry...had it been trying to get out, to startle him?
Red eyes watched him, safely tucked back in the corner.
"Blood." The beast blinked. "The bowl, looking." Not very coherent during the day, Abraham noted idly. And, yes, it was understandable. He'd always brought it the meal when he came downstairs in the afternoon or evening, so that Alucard would wake to find it waiting.
"Not yet. Later." He left, then, door clicking shut behind him, to return to his office.
x x
He had to do something different with the vampire. It was becoming less stable, less predictable each time he saw it. Sighing, he went to collect the daily allotment of blood for the beast.
Finishing the last draw from the man, he poured the blood into the vampire's bowl. Doing so, he noticed, again, the odd gouging. It was when the man saw the bowl and, surprised and somewhat disgusted, said, "Dog been chewing that?" that he realized he was seeing teeth marks.
Was Alucard destroying the bowl out of anger? Boredom?
And then it clicked. Hunger. He wasn't feeding it enough. It was fading, slowly starving. The lack of activity, that it wasn't leaving the room. The unwillingness to leave the troops when hunting...if it was starved, it might not be fast enough to catch the other vampire, and it knew it. And humans were food...yes. The stalking, the abortive attacks that had increased in frequency before suddenly stopping...it was clear, now that he looked at it from that angle.
He was starving it. It was even possible that hunger pangs had kept it awake during the day, a last desperate attempt to find some form of sustenance.
Preoccupied, he responded to the man, mind turning over other people he could contact today for extra donations. Two people a day, a bowl of blood...not enough for that vampire. "No, no dog. Thank you for providing this." Giving the man the coins, he rethought. "If you know of others that would donate today, please send them. I'll need two more samples for my studies." Thinking the doctor was conducting research on blood-borne diseases excused his constant blood-draws from any scrutiny, and it held up well with his colleagues as an acceptable form or research.
"Aye, yes. I've got two in mind, nephew and his wife. I'll send them right over." Nodding in acceptance, Abraham thanked him and saw him out, then tucked the bowl in the icebox. Starving...a twist of guilt in him. He'd meant to keep it weakened, but not starved and desperate.
The two full bowls were placed inside the door shortly before sunset. As before, thin white hands grabbed the first bowl before he'd closed the door. Smiling slightly to himself, he pushed the door open again, placing the second bowl inside. There was a faint gasp, and the bowl disappeared immediately, as though the vampire were afraid it would vanish if not taken quickly. The smile faded, and he pushed the door open the rest of the way, raising the lantern to see his vampire.
Alucard froze, and Abraham was shocked and a bit horrified to realize that both bowls had been emptied in that short amount of time, and the vampire was licking and chewing at the bowl, trying to get every last drop from it. Pushing the horror he felt from his voice, he cleared his throat. "You'll be getting two bowls every night now." The vampire's expression remained, still unreadable...and Abraham, for the first time, wondered if it was fear the beast was hiding?
Mentally kicking himself, he left the vampire to lick its bowls.
The next night, and the next, and the next, two full and brimming bowls were brought to the vampire. Abraham left it alone otherwise, allowing it time to rest and recover. A week passed, then another. It was with a sense of delight, carefully concealed, that he received the news from one of his soldiers that the vampire had finally been sighted again, perched up on the roof.
That had been a favorite place of the beast for the first few months, whenever Abraham rewarded it with permission to leave his sight. It had been a very long time since Alucard had taken himself to the roof, and it was a wonderful sign of his recovery. Not trailing the troops, not stalking them, not staying ground-bound and hidden away in its room...but back to the roof.
He went out himself, looking up to the roof's peak, to see his vampire with legs stretched out on the gentle slope near the top, back against the chimney, watching the stars wheel by. Even at this distance, he could see the color that had returned to Alucard's hair, the way the limbs had filled out again. The beast no longer looked spidery, though still underfed.
x x
The next night, he called the vampire to his office shortly after sunset. To his delight, the vampire entered promptly, though it went quickly to stand by the window, glaring mutely at him. Looking at Alucard with what he'd realized over the last weeks, Abraham noted that it was nearly the farthest point in the room from his desk...and an escape route. Perhaps it was not, perhaps the vampire just wished to look outside, as he'd believed before now. But... perhaps the cool breeze blowing through the window and the yard visible outside, the open window and lack of solid wall keeping him trapped on that side, was what the vampire sought.
"You look much better." He rose, watching the red eyes flick his way, though Alucard remained silent. Pacing up to the vampire, he gave him a careful looking-over, circling it, observing what he saw with pleasure. Until he noticed the slight trembling of the hands... Mentally clamping down on his feelings of guilt, for the beast had been evil and cruel and earned what it experienced, he gently grasped the chin, tilting the head back and observing that the neck had lost its stringy appearance, tendons no longer standing out sharply...and suspicious, watchful red eyes no longer sunken. A growl vibrated the throat under his hand, but remained inaudible. Alucard was not happy, but was cooperating.
He pulled out an arm from the unresisting beast, gripping it along its length, noting with pleasure the firmness he found. Yes, the vampire was nearly back to full health. Lifting the shirt, he noted the belly was still slightly concave, the bottom ribs prominent...but muscle filling back in over the ribcage. The legs were still too thin and lanky, but...better. Solid, stone-hard muscle was under those pants, not bone and tendons.
Pleased, he released the vampire. "You may go now." Alucard didn't dart out the door, quite...but he wasted no time in exiting, either. Abraham followed him to the door, waiting a moment to open it and look. Alucard should have been a dozen feet down the hallway, but instead, Abraham saw a heel vanishing around the corner at the end. He frowned...as soon as Alucard was out of sight, he'd fled.
x x
Johnathan Seward had been happy to answer Abraham's request. The vampire's behavior should be interpreted by one skilled in understanding the workings of a mind, especially a damaged or violent one. After a long day of discussion, Seward leaned back in his chair, thinking.
"Have you given him any choices, any options, any control over his life?"
Surprised, Abraham responded, "Well, yes. He's allowed the run of the grounds as long as he causes no problems, and must spend the days in his own room."
"His own room...is this the first room you placed him in?"
"Yes, I've had no cause to move him."
Seward nodded, realizing a possible way to begin, and grinned at him. "Let him choose a different room and move. I doubt that room has any pleasant memories for him."
Abraham was surprised, but realized the truth of what John had said. Yes, Alucard wouldn't have any pleasant memories there; he'd been locked into it far too often. Nodding, he grinned back. This could be interesting. "Let's see what he picks, eh?"
Alucard had come to his office that night when called, though still unwilling to approach closely, a faint growl vibrating from his throat. Abraham no longer viewed this as a deliberate lack of cooperation, designed to irritate and demonstrate the least amount of obedience possible, but the fear and caution of an animal that had been trapped and beaten and the anger of a person at the abuse. Keeping his face calm, Abraham gave the vampire permission to move his coffin.
"I selected your current room as a matter of convenience. There is no longer any reason to keep you there. Choose a room in the basement that you'd prefer, or stay there if you'd rather. Show it to me, and if I agree, you may move your coffin and soil there. The entire basement has been consecrated, any place should be capable of allowing you rest." Dropping his eyes, he returned to his work, though he had nothing really left to do, but wanted to appear uninterested. Alucard didn't move, and Abraham lifted his eyes to see the vampire watching him in apparent confusion and surprise. "Well, go on. I have no need of you tonight. Select a room that you would like to stay in. If I'm awake, come tell me tonight. Otherwise, tell me tomorrow."
Alucard startled, nodded, and left with alacrity. Abraham grinned to himself. He suspected there wasn't much he could have done that would have surprised the vampire more!
Within the hour, the vampire was standing quietly in front of his desk, waiting to be noticed. When he showed Abraham the room he'd selected, near the very back of the basement, Abraham wondered. Yes, it was larger, but rougher, dirtier.
"Alucard, why THIS room?"
Red eyes shifted to watch him, but the vampire answered clearly, no anger or aggression in its tone or stance. "It is more private. It is cooler than most of the other rooms, and drier. I worry that my coffin will begin to rot in the damp. This...this is dry."
Reasonable, definitely. Abraham quickly granted the vampire the right to use the room, and as he left up the stairs, he noticed that Alucard was already beginning to shift the crates of soil!
x x
"He was delighted with the change, though he tried to hide it from me." Abraham's eyes were lit with pleasure that he'd managed to trigger a real response and reaction from the vampire, including a short discussion that also demonstrated that the beast had retained its ability to think rationally.
"Wonderful!" John, less damaged than any of the others by Dracula's cruelty, was not inclined to be vindictive. He saw Alucard as another damaged mind that, as a doctor, it was his job and calling to help fix. A damaged mind that has its own peculiar non-human quirks, however!
"He can't hurt you, correct?" John's question turned Abraham's thought process down another trail entirely.
"Not without permission, no."
"And, in the time you've had him, he's had only harvested blood? Has never bitten a human or animal?"
"No, though he tried to bite the first vampire he hunted. I had restricted him to the blood I provided, and he wasn't successful. He tried to bite a soldier more than once, but never successfully. Other than those attempts, ...no. He's had nothing but the blood I gave him, and that was in a bowl."
John thought on this a bit more, then fixed his gaze on Abraham. "So much has changed for him. Consider allowing him blood from you, although I would not permit him to bite! See how he responds after so long deprived of the means of eating he'd had for, well, centuries. The change would have been like taking you, used to eating steak and meats and pies, and giving you milk out of a bottle! You are providing him the nutrients he needs, but in a far different fashion. It might make no difference to him...or it might be something very desireable. And he's frightened of you, we both agree on that. He might not take it from you, even with permission, but it might also encourage him to be less fearful."
As Abraham thought this over, John continued. "He doesn't speak to you, to anyone, unless forced to. He lives like an animal. He's a beast...but an intelligent one. What you describe is the behavior of a dumb beast. His response to being able to choose a room and escape the one he'd been essentially trapped in is encouraging. Return to him something familiar; fresh blood. Try and reduce his fear of you. That is what I recommend."
"Tonight." Abraham didn't even have to think this over. It matched so well with what he had thought of the beast, though he'd not considered giving the beast blood from himself, only more. But...it would be warm. Perhaps he should begin warming the blood? "I'll feed him...warm the blood first...then call him here. Stay away at first, let him meet me in private. Then come in and we'll see how he's reacting together."
x x
WARM? Alucard paused in shock as he picked up the bowl. Abraham had begun feeding him two bowls, and that alone had shocked him. He'd begun to recover; though the cold and clotted blood was disgusting to eat, there was finally enough of it. But it had been cold. Tonight's meal was still clotted, but the bowl radiated warmth into his cold hands, rather than pulling away what warmth he had.
Warmth wasn't necessary. Why had Abraham allowed this? He wasn't about to quibble, and in the first time in a very long time, ate his dinner with something approaching pleasure. He wasn't sure what had caused this change in Abraham, and it made him nervous and uncertain as much as it pleased him. Pondering and worrying, he felt the pull as Abraham demanded his presence again that night.
Obedient, he moved towards the office. For the first time, he felt more than just fear and dread and frustrated anger. Hope.
x x
Abraham was not at his desk, causing Alucard to halt in surprise at the door. Instead, he'd seated himself at one end of the sofa, and motioned for Alucard to come and sit at the other. On the low table in front of him was a scalpel and bottle of alcohol.
The hope changed to ice. Again. Abraham wished to experiment on him, again. He'd already cut his arms, his legs, his belly, with the scalpel and other tools, relying on the vampire's rapid healing to keep the wounds from causing any permanent damage.
That hadn't prevented them from hurting any less, and though Alucard moved obediently to the couch, his legs had stiffened in fear and his walk had turned into a stiff lurch. Even the constant, simmering anger had vanished in the chill of dread.
x
Abraham was concerned as he saw the vampire's behavior change so abruptly. Was it so worrying that he'd changed the routine by sitting away from the desk? Alucard stumbled over to sit obediently on the couch, and Abraham reached for the bottle and scalpel. A small cut on his arm, that's what he planned, but to his shock he saw Alucard's eyes close and the vampire sway slightly as he picked it up. The vampire was trembling...was he forcing Alucard to sit too close? Was it too great a change in the routine? What else could be affecting the vampire so badly? This was a positive change from the snarling and snapping and fighting that had been the routine for so many months, but...what was wrong now?
And then he realized.
He'd forgotten how he'd tried to break the vampire. Every night for two weeks he'd cut into the beast in the guise of "research", punishing it for its resistance and aggression during the previous days. While this wasn't the research room, he couldn't blame the vampire for reacting as it had to the sight of a scalpel.
x x
BLOOD! Eyes flew open, mouth flooding with saliva, and Alucard had to exert massive control to keep himself from springing upon his master. Oh, blood...it was welling up from a tiny cut, but...it was BLOOD.
Master had put down the scalpel and was motioning to him. What? What did he want? So focused on the blood, it took a moment to realize what Master was saying, what was wanted, what was ALLOWED.
And then he launched himself across the short distance to latch onto the arm. A momentary struggle, instinctive, to bite...and then he tasted the blood, and the sheer bliss...
x x
The vampire had moved faster than he'd ever seen, going from frightened to mindless starvation to desperation in a blink. A faint whimper as it had tried to bite; Abraham had felt the touch of those fangs, but nothing penetrated. Instead, Alucard curled around his arm, gently sucking at the wound, eyes closed and an expression of deepest pleasure on his face.
It was incredible. The vampire, so fierce and so angry for so long, was curled quietly against him, oblivious, drinking so gently at the tiny cut he'd made. Loathe to disturb the beast, he gently reached over, touching the vampire's head. There was no jerking away, no growling, no snapping...the vampire was oblivious. Running fingers gently through the silky hair, he marveled at the beast's sudden complacency. Time passed on, but all good things must come to an end. He could only feed the vampire so much blood before being weakened and he had no intention of being weakened around a predator.
"Stop, now. No more." Voice gentle and low, he was met with the faintest of whines of resistance. "No more, not tonight." With a sigh, the vampire pulled his lips away, giving the cut one last swipe with his tongue, then releasing the arm to simply slump against Abraham.
x x
Warm. Warm, for the first time in so long. Full...with warm blood...and the taste of fresh blood filling his mouth. Stop, had to stop...one last taste...done. Warm, so warm, heat baking into his side. Soft under him, soft behind him...comfortable. Nearly asleep, drowsy, so pleasant. So very long without this, so very nice now. Who was she? How was he here?
Nuzzling into the lady beside him, confused but content, feeling her fingers running through his hair, he had to purr. Oh, it was wonderful.
Taking a deep breath of her feminine scent, it was a jarring shock to smell someone so clearly male, to have the sharp scent of a masculine body slam into his nose, and his eyes flew open from the surprise.
He was curled up...against Abraham. Wrapped under an arm, and he saw the thin line of the cut in the arm the was draped over his shoulder. The fingers gently petting his head were not the fine fingers of a lady, but the blunt and powerful ones of his former foe and present Master.
He wanted to pull away in fear, but his body was still so tired, so content, it wouldn't respond. Confused, trapped, he stayed as still as he could, fearful of inspiring anger again, being beaten again. A shiver as he remembered a furious Abraham and the silver-tipped poker that he'd been beaten with to unconciousness after attacking a soldier. He'd been so angry, so hungry, so frantic, so mindless...
Was this the same man?
Staying as still as possible, he tried to think past the daze and the fear. Food, more food. The odd inspection, but not hurt, not at all. Inspected, then released. Permission to move his room, move out of that cell filled with memories of fear and pain and rage, into a dark and quiet one that seemed more like his old home. Warmed blood, not the cold plasma that had disgusted and angered him. No anger, no abuse from his Master, not for days. For weeks. No damage. And tonight...blood, fresh, hot, freely given. Comfort. Warmth.
This would change at some point. Abraham would return to the beatings and abuse. But for tonight...tonight, he would take what was offered, for he had no idea when or if it would be offered again.
x
The tight, trembling form under his arm suddenly relaxed, as though all strings had been cut. A cold sigh gusted across his chest as the beast slumped against him, and he ran fingers through the black mop again, trying to soothe it farther. The head pressed up and into him more, the vampire seeking a more comfortable position, then settling again. Alucard had nearly melted into the couch, into him, slumping bonelessly.
Wondering, he moved his hand down past the head, scratching gently at the neck. With the slightest of whines, Alucard rolled his head slightly, encouraging the contact, moaning slightly in pleasure as Abraham obliged and scratched gently at the neck and under the chin. The vampire melted entirely at that point, sliding down his chest to drape across his lap, legs tucked loosely against its chest, head falling half-off his lap on the opposite side.
Amazed, Abraham continued. Alucard had never, ever willingly allowed him to touch the vampire. Then again...he'd never tried to touch the vampire in any way it might possibly welcome, either. He'd beaten it, jerked it around, poked it and prodded it, never once even given it a pat. His other hand moved to rub on the beast's back, and the eyes revealed the pleasure of the contact, blindly gazing out through barely-cracked lids.
And then Alucard began to purr.
The door opened carefully and John Seward crept in quietly, checking on the response of the vampire to the fresh blood. The doctor stopped in shock, staring from the sleepy, purring vampire to the equally shocked doctor whose lap it sprawled across.
Quietly, voice barely audible, Seward spoke in the barest of whispers. "What did you DO?"
Abraham looked at the limp, relaxed, purring, contented beast, devoid of any anger, fear, and aggression, and then looked back up. His stunned gaze met Seward's eyes.
"I fed him. And I quit beating on him."