A/N: AU, not based on any specific VHD anime or novel.
The Night in Distant Stars. Once it was a human science colony drifting through the darkness, hovering over the distant Earth. It was, in our days long past, that the first of our race ascended to that auspicious locale. It was Markkus, one of the ancients, old before my birth; he came here to understand the actions of the humans and the intentions of their research.
It was here he finally understood just how important their research was. The humans had developed a cloned blood supply, one that could save every life, mortal and vampire, upon the Earth. The humans on the planet, however, felt the cloned blood supply was a threat possibly inducing mutations or sickness into their population. The colonies offered truly miraculous medical treatments for those who could afford it.
After his discovery the nobles, then only called the "pure-bloods" truly funded the advent of private space travel and the building of additional colonies within the same geo-stationary orbit. It was here that our ancestors discovered the salvation of our race. With advancing technology and more value placed on each human life by their members the vampires' hunting grounds were severely restricted. More and more humans kept track of their members hunting down and detaining or killing those who would take their lives.
This cloned blood supply offered our survival, blood to quench our thirst, blood to sustain our bodies, it was the chance we needed. It allowed us to live quietly within the human ranks, undetected and free of persecution, for centuries.
In the height of the human reign it was a young Agrindia Carmilla, consumed with her vanity, jealous of all females who could pull the appreciative glances of males from her who summoned, with her loyal following of female sacrifices, the red moon. It was this that turned the tide of humanity and changed the course of history forever.
The red moon weakened the human psyche, making the humans little more than chattle. World war was now the path humanity trod. Entire nations consumed and destroyed each other, the overflowing sea of humanity becoming a massive cairn of the dead. The humans were reduced to near animal status, those in select areas closing themselves off from the outside world. One was the city of the Barbarois.
The wars, finally ending and peace falling upon humans once more was ushered in by the appearance of the vampire pure-bloods taking on the title of Noble. Stepping into the light from their eternal shadows, they each took up a section of the devastated world to guide the humans as they saw fit. Some bred their humans like cattle choosing the sweetest and purest of blood as their victims and toys. Others merely kept to the shadows and claimed the lives as desire and hunger dictated. And some, like my early attempts at being a noble, led the humans with a kind and just hand taking all blood from the still thriving cloned supply shipped to the planet from the colony. It was here that I trained my beloved son in the ways of our honorable people.
It was then that the Schism occurred. The separation of the nobles along the clearly defined battle lines based upon their desires and their codes of noble honor. Those who chose to hunt humans in favor of the cloned blood and those who chose to take their blood entirely from that cloned supply. There was no love in the hearts of the hunters and no desire to linger by the pacifists.
At first it was a trickle of nobles choosing the stars over the earth. They ascended with their entire courts of humans to continue their lives and reigns within the ever expanding colonies. Many traveled to and from the Earth, torn between their homes upon the world and those within the stars. Then there were the ones, mostly vampires added to our ranks from the deserving human population that acted as our guards and peacekeepers. They weeded from our starry population those who would hunt humans within the colonies and transported them down to the Earth believing that the slowly recovering technology of the humans would allow them to protect themselves from the banished vampire population.
I stayed behind, believing the humans were strong enough to survive our kind's existance as their new masters. I was so very wrong. Sickened with the ever growing bloodlust and gluttony I went upon a rampage of my fellows. By silencing those who refused to abide by my laws, and those who slaughtered for fun and not hunger nor need. I tied their souls to their castles after their fleshy demise, believing in my naive ignorance that this would preserve human survival from their predications. It was however merely a weak levy before a terrible flood of destruction.
Many, refusing my laws and ignoring my reign as vampire king turned against me, attacking me and my loyal followers with vicious assaults. The vampire battle lasted but a single night the results, however were telling. Most fled my presence to take up nervous court hoping to escape my notice, like Wagnard Lee. Others remained neutral like Marcella and Marcus Link. And others like Drecialle before her demise chose to pretend to defy me while knowing in their souls that they could never truly escape my notice.
Despite the violence, I found my love, the lovely maiden, Leilia. My beloved bride, and the mother of my first son in many centuries. She was beautiful and stood at my side, the human princess in a vampire court. When others of her race cowered and hid, she learned to lead and trained our son in the arts of being a lord.
Those who continued to defy my rule began to plot against me. Their minions hunted my people, ravaged my lands and targeted my love. She had fought by my side becoming one of the first human bounty hunters to slay a rogue vampire. Her reputation and skill could not save her and so she was laid low. That was when Draculito turned his back upon his biological race and became a bounty hunter in his mother's shoes. He cast aside his name becoming known only as D.
I was torn asunder. I took my beloved bride to the stars and fled the earth never to return. After that, life in the stars promised to be peaceful, and it was here that my miracle occurred. The humans within the stars had maintained their technology and discovered what my heightened senses, clouded with grief could not. Leilia maintained yet a trace of life in her veins and my bride was revived. Here we lived in the city of distant night with many other humans, vampires and dhampiels in peace. The humans' had, in the early days of their last great war, transferred many of their race from the war torn earth to find their own peace, ignorant of the vampires, mutants and werewolves that stalked the night, to live upon the moon, mars and vampire free colonies.
Life continued with Leilia finally succumbing to Morphius's charm. She passed peacefully as one of the longest lived humans in history. She was mourned by many, but none so greatly as I and our five children. To none of those born here upon the peaceful colonies did I speak of their eldest brother. D must have passed on since my flight to the stars. It was however several millennia later that the first of the fleeing Nobles sick of being hunted and determined to turn form their ancestor's darker natures who alerted me, once more, to my misjudgment.
"The dhampeal hunter remains un-aged over the passing time. He hunts our kind with a vicious single-mindedness that is terrifying in its intensity. I heard the rumors of the humans who dwelt within my shadow that my presence was no longer tolerated. The villagers were saving up; pooling their money before any of us within the castle could take more of their families from them. Only Rami, Charistiani and I fled. The others content with their delusions of being capable of defeating the bounty hunter remained. The Dhampiel was on his way, news of his passing in our direction giving us an urgency never before felt.
"I have never feared another so greatly in my life. The hunter is immortal; rumored to be the son of the legendary God King. He possesses vampire strength tempered with human pride and stubbornness. He never fails and rarely has assistance. I pity any vampires who anger the humans now. Since the demise of the House of Lee, and the destruction of the Castle of Chaith, none speak lightly of the vampire hunter known only as D." The newly arrived travelers from earth were pale from hunger and weak from space sickness we vampire are quite susceptible to. Every one within the council listened intently to their tale with mixed revulsion and dread.
The dhampiel pursued a near fanatical hunting of our people left behind. Yet he had never drunk from nor killed a human to anyone's knowledge. He only hunted the nobles he was hired to by humans who had lost friends or family. He showed no mercy to vampires yet endured in silent stoicism the taunting and cruelty that humans could mete out to a dhampeal.
"The legendary God-King?" Marrkus IV asked with curious humor lighting his . The title had rarely been spoken in City of Night in Distant Stars. Few knew who it referred to and I prayed fervently that these vagabond nobles would be ignorant of its bearer. I had escaped notice for the past twenty-thousand years; I did not relish the thought of returning to the lime light.
"It is our illustrious ancestor Drakkula, he who revived the vampire race from the edge of extinction before the days of the great wars." Ramis replied with reverence filling her voice with a worshipful edge.
Markkus chuckled deep within his chest. "It is true that Drakkula did indeed save us from extinction. He sent my own illustrious ancestor, Markkus I, here to this very colony to find a way to save our people. He persevered through the wars to save both our people along with our servants and the humans from annihilation. He remained at great peril to usher an age of peace into the lives of the humans he ruled and cut down those of our kind who would destroy that peace with their overwhelming gluttony. Yes he is great, however he is no God." Markkus replied. The three travelers stared at him with awe that he spoke so knowingly of their worshipped ancestor.
"How can you know this?" Charistiani asked warily. The three stared intently at Markkus while I absented myself from the hall, or at least attempted to.
"He is, as we speak fleeing his much hated lime light behind you." I froze at Markkus' taunted words. The three turned and stared in awe.
"I should have seen it, you are unchanged from the portrait all keep within their palaces to remind themselves of our God King. If the rumors are correct, the dhampiel hunter looks just like you." Vhlad, the first speaker of the three travelers, replied cautiously, voice filled with reverence.
"Father?" Christobalt asked as he stood along with his four siblings. The travelers stepped back with surprise. All of my children, except for my youngest Allera, more resembled me than their mother, a trait they shared with their eldest brother. "We must talk privately." I nodded silently grateful for the respite from the awed travelers and yet afraid of the discussion that must take place.
The six vampires strode down the titanium lined halls through the many winding corridors of the residential colony to their private tower that more resembled the earth castles. The father hardly looking any older than his five dhampiel offspring followed his children silently in the cold aloofness that was unique to pureblood vampires. Through the main entry hall, past many curious servants and into the family's private quarters where few trusted servants ever ventured the six finally closed all doors and settled themselves in for their much needed talk.
"Who exactly is this D?" Leiliath asked taking her oft used position as family speaker though Aldrich and Christobalt were older.
"My children, our history has been highly edited, much of it by my own hand. In all of the accessible records all dates have been removed. It was for my own protection that this was done. My fellows neither appreciate nor understand just how old I am. And if they ever knew, all of our lives would be in jeopardy."
"What does this have to do with D?" Aldrich demanded.
"Everything." Drakkula looked each of his children in the eyes asking and receiving their silent agreement to neither interrupt nor tell of their findings outside of the family. "I was born to pure blood parents on August fifteenth in the year of our Lord one-thousand eleven in the current era. I grew up to respect and treasure all life per their teachings and that of the slowly failing druidic cults that worshipped our people as deities. In 1197 I traveled to a distant land across a narrow sea to see the slow ascent of a man named Temujin to power. He later became a great military leader know as Gengis Khan. From then I traveled on, following the humans who rose to great power. Napoleon, Hitler, bin Laden, Bledsoe, Karnekchiev, Chang, Quinn. So many great leaders and their counterparts who created discord and challenges that made them great, I followed each and marked their traits that made them best to lead and be admired.
"During my travels I met and married Leilia Whitmore in 2012. She was beautiful, but frail. She bore our son, Draculito three years later and succumbed to a bleeding sickness. I sent her to the then fledgling research station for treatment. They said they had no known cure, and so I raised Draculito alone for the next two hundred years while my beloved lie in stasis.
"It was in 2235 that my father was killed by a human hunting raid that I became the new Vampire King. I utilized all my knowledge gleaned from the humans of history to aid my people in surviving. The next hundred years brought the Revolution to our people. The City of Night in Distant Stars was purchased by our human servants from a disinterested government to make our own home. The governments had better, more advanced science research stations that provided more money to them and they no longer cared for our home. We now had our own blood supply, one that was not based within human lives. It led us to peace, but only for a short while. Agrandia Carmilla summoned the red moon from a demonic realm and soon after perished by the hands of the humans she had stolen their loved ones from, while her many daughters and granddaughters continued her bloody reign.
"The next hundred years were filled with bloodshed and fighting, the great human war. In the aftermath most vampires ascended to the stars. Draculito and I joined them to find a surprise waiting for us. Human technology had advanced, Leilia was in treatment and would soon be released. Draculito was shy, he kept his distance from his mother not seen since his early childhood. We lived peacefully in the stars for the next millennium with Leilia going in and out of statis as her condition continued to elude doctors.
"2567 saw Draculito and I descend to the Earth, leading our fellows to guide the now forever changed humans to greater prosperity. We aided them in rebuilding their technology, advancing their towns and developing a new technology with the remnants of the old. Draculito seemed so happy. In 2577 Leilia descended to Earth to join us, now completely cured of her blood disease she thrived in the fledgling villages at the base of my palace. We were happy, in love and constantly teased about our immaturity by our beloved son in his own soft spoken humor.
"Life continued on in disquiet peace for seven hundred years, when the uprising began. It was at first a few nobles who grew tired of the rather bland cloned blood and longed for the sweet taste of a virgin girl. I pretended not to notice their predatory acts, believing that their consciences would weigh on them soon enough ending the blood shed, but I was wrong. They did not stop, instead their lust only grew. Nobles began siring dhampiels in great numbers, raising them as nobles to hunt and prey upon humans. Soon whole generations of our people were indoctrinated to this ideal and their ancestors were either killed by jealous descendants or fled to the safety of the stars.
"It was then that Leilia took on the title of Vampire Bounty hunter. I attempted to forbid her to do such a thing. To kill my own people with her hands was unthinkable. She was only human and so delicate. She proved me wrong, repeatedly. She hunted the worst of the transgressors, her total jobs numbering only five. It was enough, however, to win the eternal awe of Draculito. He trained with her, becoming a great swordsman and highly skilled at all combat. Then, on her sixth attempt Leilia lost.
"I went to her rescue to find her broken and bleeding, cold upon the newest Carmilla's floor. Enraged I killed Carmilla embedding my sword within her brest, gathered up Leilia and left. Draculito was distraught. He no longer spoke, no longer drank of our stored cloned blood and rejected the fancy clothing of the nobles he had fancied before. He now acted as a human, wearing black and bearing his massive sword. He stayed only long enough to bid his mother farewell and then he rode off upon a black horse and became the Vampire Hunter D. At that time vampires covered the surface of the planet constantly threatening to decimate the human population to extinction.
"With nothing left to tie me to the Earth, I left clutching my beloved close to me. We ascended to the stars for the last time, her once more in a stasis unit until I could properly interr her in our home among the stars. Once I returned a medical crew checked me over for space sickness and scanned Leilia for contagious pathogens present upon her corpse. That was when they discovered that she still had vital signs, ones I had missed in my grief.
"Once more she was treated, this time to be released in days. She returned to me with a surprise. She carried Chrisobalt and Aldrich in her womb. Leiliath, Regina and Allera followed within ten years. Each of you were born with a strange human condition lost to history know as jaundice. Unaware of how to treat it the doctors put each of you into stasis for what became a hundred years. Finally they discovered the treatment and incubated you, held you within their care for two more weeks before we could claim you from them. Leilia and I raised you with the somber joy of morning parents trying to forget the death of a beloved child.
"We assumed D had ventured upon a suicide quest. For the next hundred years until your mother passed away and the next fifteen thousand years that followed I had heard no news of D until today.
"However, Vlahd's words are all hearsay, much like the boogey man and the tooth-fairy who steals the fangs of naughty little vampires during their day sleep. I believe that D is dead, lost long ago, and that this man is but a human garbed in a legend's clothes."
"We had an elder brother?" Allera asked softly. "I had seen the name Drakkulito listed beneath Mother's name in one of the old records, but I assumed he to be a human child of a previous relationship. He was dhampiel like us." Drakkula embraced his youngest, who's soft blue eyes filled with sorrow minus the tears that no Dhampiel could shed.
"Yes my child, you once had an older brother, but no Dhampiel lives for over twenty-six thousand years. That is why I have hidden this from you for so long. To vampires the passing of the years is meaningless, however, my illustrious ancestor Akkhacia, the first vampire, was born of a human necromancer overpowered by the demon Samael who altered her body to become the first vampire.
"Because of her blood-lust and violence, her killing not for the blood but just for the sake of the killing and her five thousand year long reign of terror no vampire may outlive her. She was killed when she was fifteen-thousand years old from her mortal birth. I have dwelt upon this land for far longer. For twenty-seven thousand years I have lived, Even if he lived Draculito would be slated to death by our people's hands as well."
His children all looked at each other and knew with the soft hammering of their hearts that their father was wrong. For they had all felt a distant presence eminating from the earth. They now knew who was down there and now all they needed was a way to go down without violating the council's law banning earth-bound travel.
"Father thinks we will merely stay here while our own flesh and blood continues on in the belief that he is alone. We have a duty to our family to find our eldest brother and tell him that this path does not need to be trod!" Christobald continued to pace, gesticulating wildly as he continued his thoughts.
"Lord Markkus was mentioning that new plants must have developed since the migration. Surely we five cover a wide enough spectrum of the sciences to be allowed down there. Besides we can ask Cynthia and Christina to help make us look more human." Allera interrupted. "Their family has been serving our for centuries, and they know all too well the very traits we find commonplace that would make us stand out in a purely human population."
"Then it is settled, the agitation from Vlahd's arriaval has died down, so today would be best. If we can get off within the day we can get a head start on Father. Then we can prove to him that his son still lives." Regina crowed ecstatically the five shared a conspiratorial grin and began the preparations to descend to the Earth as a climate research group. They had been planning such a feat since they were kids growing up with their mother's stories of the Earth and its lush life. They craved to free themselves from the metallic confines of the station to finally see what wind felt like and if sun light really was warm.
Note: Historically, long before Bram Stoker, vampires were demons summoned into the bodies of mortals by necromancers. References of early vampire legends dating from the middle ages repeat this early belief. Akkhacia is from Anne Rice's 'Queen of the Damned', and in that novel is the first vampire.