Preamble: Refer to the prologue
War of the Shadows
by: EternalFreedom-BloodFox.
Summons
Part 1
Two line breaks will mean a total change in worlds, settings and time. One linebreak will mean just a general break in the story.
Late 14th Century...
A small manor outside of Transylvania...
"Adrian, can you help me a bit?"
A young female voice called out as the sunlight shined over the countryside and the manor, filling the valley with light. The manor was old but very much in perfect condition and still appeared to be well taken care of.
"Coming."
A tall man walked to the outer court-yard of the back of the manor, moving at a quick pace...nearly gliding on the stone tiles of the manor. He was decked in royal clothes, tunic, boots, pants, coat, and cloak. His platinum blond hair glowing silver-gold in the sun, his ocean blue eyes sparkling in the light, but were deep in thought. His appearance would have been one heck of a sight to many women, appearing more beautiful than handsome, as if God, labored long and hard to create him as the living form of male beauty.
Adrian had been called that before in the past...but he doubted that God would be responsible, though he had no hatred of God at all. His mother taught him that, and his mother's kind and gentle demeanor still was the most dominant in his mind. After all he was not human, at least not entirely...
His father was none other than Dracula, Lord of Vampires and leader of the Realm of Chaos, and for a time he had served in his father's army, years after his mother's unlawful trial and execution, but in the end his pledge to her not to harm humans held firm and he left. Taking the reverse of his father's known name, Adrian became Alucard and battled in secret with his father.
Alucard sighed once more...it had been nearly three months since he finally fought with his father, sending him back into the realm of Chaos...but not before having a chance to speak with the man who gave him life into this world, and telling him the words his mother told him to give to his sire...and for a brief moment before passing into the realm of Chaos...his father showed the man he was once by begging for forgiveness from Lisa, and bidding him a warm farewell as he faded away. It was a difficult time for Alucard, but it granted him the chance to release centuries worth of burden...and he had planned to submerge his powers once more.
However...Someone came into his life and despite his plans, convinced him to live...
As he stepped into the light, he saw her. The young woman was busy taking care of some clothes that she had been cleaning and seemed somewhat content for the time being. Her long blonde hair was held by the same black ribbon she always wore, she also wore the same outfit when they had first met in Castle Dracula months before. No matter whether bathed in sunlight or moonlight, Alucard knew that Maria Renard was a beautiful woman.
"Yes Maria?"
"Can you help set those clothes for me a bit, I'm feeling a bit beat." The young woman asked politely while smiling warmly at the dhampir. Near them was one of Maria's pet cats, a powerful creature with strong magic in it's blood, the same as it's mistress.
"As you wish." Alucard didn't mind this, at least too much anyway. He had grown up in the trappings of his father's nobility so it took him some time of learning how to take care of himself, but he learned...after all Maria was with him.
He had once tried to convince Maria to return to her family instead of following him when the battle was over and his father's castle had been banished from this world...but the young woman insisted, asking him to live with them...with her. He was struck dumb when she professed that she was in love with him...him, the dhampir son of Dracula...the very same being that kidnapped her as a girl and possessed her brother in law, Richter Belmont. The only woman who loved him, apart from his mother, was Sonia...and it had been painful for him to recall her sadness when he submerged his own powers. Long after his battle with Trevor...his son, he secretly came to Sonia's grave and spoke to her for a time, he was saddened that he was not there to help raise their son, but he felt that Trevor's life would be in greater danger had it been known he was his father.
He then saw the pain in Maria's face, reminding him of Sonia...and despite his best intentions, trying to explain that he was immortal and she was not, he decided to at least try to live as a human. The manor was an ancestral home of Maria's family and she knew of it, and it was close to a town where they would be able to buy supplies and what they would need. It had been a trial not just learning how to adjust to living as a human...but being with Maria. Alucard was a man after all and he knew what it meant to fall in love...he did so with Sonia...and he now was in the same boat with Maria.
Maria was busy taking care of her animals for a few minutes, but then smiled at Alucard, loving him for who he was, she knew the stories of him being Dracula's son, but he was not like his sire...more like the kind, loving, and gentle woman who was his mother. She then rose up and hugged Alucard briefly...surprising the dhampir a bit.
"Thank you for staying...with me." Maria said with a smile. "I'll cook something for us to eat, what would you like to have Adrian?" Alucard had learned to trust her a great deal and thus told her his real name and he liked it when she said it to him.
Before he could answer however, his bat familiar flew up to him in a panic. startling his female companion. The dhampir understood the chattering and realized that someone...or something had broken through the manor's outer defenses. To protect Maria, the town, and their home, Alucard had created a ring of mystic sensors to spot any demons, undead, and whatnot that had evil intentions. This worked well and he killed many demons that attempted to bypass them...but his bat familiar told him that the intruder had broken the defenses without him sensing it! Whoever or whatever it was...it had to be of great power to accomplish that.
"Maria...get ready, we may have company."
Alucard said with conviction as he drew his heirloom blade and took out his heirloom shield and looked about to see any possible sign of the intruder. Maria nodded as she too got into fighting position and readied her magic.
"There will be no need for hostilities between us Adrian, nor to you Maria Renard."
The two turned in surprise and spotted a figure before them, dressed in gray robes with silver rune like characters etched in the edges. The two sensed that the figure had immense power that was being submerged and hidden from them.
"That remains to be seen stranger, you know us, so I believe it is common courtesy for you now to reveal YOUR name. Who are you and why are you here?" Alucard asked patiently while maintaining a solid grip of his sword and keeping it drawn.
"I know...my name is Khadeem."
Later...
Alucard and Maria were silent as they looked at Khadeem who informed them of what he was doing here in the manor. To say that he wanted Alucard's help to deal with a Chaos army was saying something. Adrian was a bit skeptical at first until Khadeem opened a portal to show him and Maria an image of one of the Chaos Lord's armies. Khadeem then revealed himself to be a divine being and asked if Adrian could come with him to aid him defeating this horde.
Naturally Maria wasn't going to let Adrian walk into this.
"No!!! I won't let you leave me behind Adrian! I am coming with you!!!"
"Maria...please..."
"Don't...don't you dare say it! I won't lose you to those things!!!" Maria sobbed a bit, she didn't want to be left behind, not to just fight evil as she had done for almost all her life, but to be by her beloved's side. She would not let Adrian face all those evil horrors alone. He may be powerful and had single handedly stopped his father's resurrection when Richter was unable to fight and she had to escort her brother in law to safety, but what she had seen made her blood go cold at the thought of Adrian going there alone.
"He is one of the chosen Maria...he must go..." Khadeem was about to say when Maria glared at him with such anger that he nearly took a step back at the woman's intense gaze.
"I won't let him go...will of heaven or not! I have powers too, I want to help!"
Maria had a death grip on Adrian's shoulder, showing her absolute determination to be not let Alucard go without her. She loved Adrian and didn't want to lose him, she had nearly lost him after the battle with his father in Castle Dracula, and she wasn't going to lose him again. Adrian however knew why Maria was adamant and understood it. He reached out to her and gently made her look at him. Maria was a strong woman, and tried not to cry as she looked at him.
"I have to go alone now...if anything happens to you, I don't know what I'd do...you gave me a chance to be a human being Maria, I won't let you die. And I will not die, I will do everything I can to come back to you, I promise.""
Maria cried a bit more and held Alucard in a hug, and spoke calmly though she was trembling a bit and sobbing as she spoke.
"You...come back alive, Adrian! Don't give up no matter who your enemy is...come back home, come back to me, I love you."
"I love you." Adrian replied as he hugged Maria.
Khadeem looked on, and disliked what he had to do, but to prevent the destruction of all life, this was what had to be done. However...
"I will bring him back alive to you Maria Renard, you have my word."
It didn't take long for Alucard to gather his full armory but made extra weapons to help Maria protect their home while he was away, His armor, weapons, relics, and familiars were now ready to be with him.
Both dhampir and human kissed one another for the last time as the dhampir followed the God into the portal. As the portal faded, Maria prayed that her beloved would come back to her, as some of her pets also vowed to protect their mistress until her beloved will return.
AN: I have a VERY special plan for Alucard and Maria Rictor, so don't worry, I am a guy who's a sucker for happy endings anyway! ;)
Middle 20th Century...
Kentwood, Louisiana U.S.A...
Several bands of individuals were running towards a large complex near the swamps. The people running however had good reason to be afraid as several of them were now turned into ash as they screamed, the only sounds was a whirling whistle as a spinning glint of metal was seen. Out from the shadows came a man decked in black, armed like a commando, armored like heavy assault trooper, and amazingly enough wore shades even if it was in the middle of the night, while the building the beings were heading to were armed with lights.
The beings looked back to see their dead and ashed comrades and ran faster as they saw the hunter after them. They spoke in a very much unknown language, but it appeared that the ma pursuing them knew what they were saying, the indication was the smirk on his face, revealing larger than normal human canines, the smirk faded as he pursed the beings before him...and there was no doubt what they were now...
Vampires.
One tried to reach for an auto-pistol. but was beaten to the draw as he fell to the ground, ashed, but not before it was shown that he had an arrow half way through his head.
Another tried to attack the vampire hunter before him, but was shot with several bullets, and apparently, those were anti-vampire rounds. The vampires ran away, as the first vampire hunter was now accompanied by two other individuals, one was a male wearing a short sleeved shirt, leather pants, boots, and a reinforced combat vest, in his hand was his gun. The other was a woman with red-brown hair, tied in a pony tail, wearing the same armor and clothes, but had on a quiver for her arrows, an arm guard for her arm holding her custom made long-bow along with several pouches and holsters for weapons. The man slapped his neck and complained.
"Bad enough these suck-heads are out here in the god-forsaken swamp! Now we have to deal with insect versions of the bastards!!!"
Hannibal King was NOT in a good mood, which was obvious to his fellow NightStalker Abigail Whistler, and their ally, Blade, the Daywalker. Abby merely sighed, while Blade merely went on.
"That's why you should have worn the lotion or spray." Abby replied.
"You have it?"
"Nope, Blade does."
Before Hannibal could venture a request, Blade took the anti-bug spray can from his trench-coat and tossed the former vampire the canister. And just when Hannibal was about to say thank you in his normal fashion, Blade already answered for him.
"Use it and shut the hell up!"
"Man, talk about grouchy...has any of those flying hypodermic needles been biting you again?" Hannibal asked in his usual sarcastic and humorous tone...not helping Blade's mood.
The one thing that did was when one vampire attacked Blade in desperation, and got his ass beaten to next morning and then got a mouth full of liquefied silver nitrate capsules, mixed with liquid garlic essence. The vampire choked and gagged until Blade tossed him aside as his head exploded into ash.
Several more of the vampires attacked to try and stop Blade and the two NightStalkers, but were being turned into ash by either Hannibal's gun, Abigail's arrows, or Blade's weapons and hand to hand combat skills.
It had been two months since his battle with Dracula 'Drake' and Blade was feeling a lot more confident after his battle...he realized that not only had he defeated La Magra, The Reapers/Jared Nomak, and now Dracula, the vampire nation was now reeling from the losses in a way. He tempered the confidence with the fact that he was getting older...sure he had the abilities of vampires, but he didn't have the immortality, he knew that he would die someday due to him aging as a human, but he hoped that the war with the vampires would not end with his death...the NightStalkers, were now in his opinion better than any novelty vampire hunting outfit he knew of...but they were human after all. The Daystar virus would take time to make and the only thing he hoped for was to be alive long enough to end their vile race forever. But if he died, then the war would be harder for the human side...for now as long as he was alive, he would not stop until the war was over.
Abby and King knew what was going through the Daywalker's mind, at least a part of it, they knew that he had a lot on his mind...but they knew better than to interfere with Blade when he was like this.
"Time to clean house." Hannibal said with confidence as they arrived at the compound. The compound was a den for more of the vampires and was rumored to be a staging area for another vampire blood harvesting plant. Blade and the others were able to locate the facility after Blade tortured a band of officials who were familiars. Blade had now killed by total at least 1100 familiars and another bunch of suck heads to the innumerable numbers of vampires who were now ash because of him.
"Ready?" Blade asked as he readied his MAC pistol.
Both nodded as he aimed his weapon at the lock and shredded it. The vampires thought that sealing the place would work...boy were they wrong.
The vampire security force all trooped in to finish them off. Armed head to foot with weapons and protective armor, the vampires were an impressive sight...unfortunately for them...Blade was prepared, instead of dashing and shooting...they spotted a strange orb landing front of them, then began to glow and expand, and to the horror of the vampires...it was a UV grenade...they all had time to scream when the weapons fired off the radiation, turning them all into piles of ash, burned clothing, ruined armor, and discarded weapons...disorganizing the ranks of the remaining vampires as they were barely able to escape, those that did survive were only able to look to see Blade and his posse walk in and began to ash them.
The sounds of gun-fire filled the area as the vampire hunters struck in full force...the surviving vampires fought back and many charged to attack Blade, since he was the most powerful of the trio...armed with hooks, butcher knives, swords, and other razor sharp implements, the vampires attacked Blade, who fought back...
He killed many of them with his pistol, then holstered the gun and used the silver stakes throwing them into the faces and bodies of his attackers with the skill of a master knife thrower...vampires continued to charge at him, until he took out his sword. Blocking, slashing, and thrusting, Blade moved with the same skill and precision that had seen him through the toughest fights of his life as a vampire hunter, relying on his training, experience, and his vampiric talents to send the suck heads back to hell. Vampires fell sliced in chunks, lost limbs, or heads, before becoming nothing but piles of ash.
As they reached the back of the complex, they were able to pen the door and come face to face with...someone.
"Well...I am happy to see that you made it...Blade."
Blade sensed something...different about this one, he was decked in robes and had his hood up, with strange markings that were not vampire glyphs, plus...his scent was not that of a vampire but something else. The fact that piles of vampire remains were everywhere spoke books worth on the fact that this is no ordinary person before him and the others.
"Who are you?" Abby asked as she notched an arrow into her bow.
"There will be no need for that Abigail Whistler, I am not here to fight you, or that sarcastic friend of yours, the one named Hannibal King."
Abby still held the arrow in her bow, while Hannibal aimed his gun.
"If you're not here to fight us, then what are you here for?" Blade asked.
"I came here...for you, Blade."
"Are you some assassin sent to kill me by the Vampire nations? What exactly are you?"
"That I am afraid is one thing I cannot tell you...yet. Suffice to say I came here to find you, I am here to ask for your help."
"Either tell me or get out of my way." Balde replied as he drew his sword and walked over to the man in the robes, and much to his surprise...a massive fog appeared before the man, and thanks to his trained and honed reflexes he moved away as a sword came out of nowhere...and the mist formed into a man, wielding a sword and shield, dressed in strange clothes. The man then placed down his sword, showing that he had no intention of fighting with Blade...the Daywalker looked at this new arrival with surprise, the same with Hannibal and Abby.
"WHO are you?" Blade asked as he kept his sword pointed at the new arrival.
"Alucard."
Later...
"Let me get this right...you want me to hunt all these monsters for Heaven?!"
Khadeem had to chuckle a bit as he, Alucard, Blade, Abby, and King were in the safe-house owned by their NightStalker contacts in Louisiana. The Younger God knew that time would be short, but decided to humor the Daywalker instead, after showing him and his allies the images of what he came there to enlist Blade's help.
"In one word...yes."
"I know you've given me your reasons, but why the hell did you look for me? You're...first pick here seems more than capable of dealing with it." Blade said with some dislike and distrust to Alucard.
The Transylvanian born dhampir noted the look of distrust leveled at him by the black skinned vampire slayer...but put it to no mind. He had been given worse...
"You have as much to lose as he does...if the Chaos Lords succeed, then all reality is threatened...yours and his, so you have just as much to lose as well."
"I got screwed by..."
"By Overlord Eli Damaskinos? I am aware of that part of your life Blade. And unlike the Machiavellian vampire you speak of...I have not lied to you...as a Younger God...why should I lie?"
Blade still didn't trust Khadeem, nor the one dressed in old European clothes, but something in the back of his mind told him that there was no doubt that this guy in the robes was something far more powerful than either La Magra, Jared, and Drake. He thought it over and wondered of his options.
1. Say no and if true, watch his world torn apart by demons.
2. Agree and fight the demons, possibly die, or not, come back and face the vampires that took his humanity from him.
It didn't take long for him to decide.
"I'm in."
Later still...
Blade finished the arrangements with Abigail and Hannibal, both of them were the most difficult to convince of the mission Blade was about to undergo...Blade also told them that they still had their world's vampires of deal with and they had to remain until he would come back to finish his war.
He only had one question...
"I use technological weapons, I don't dabble in magic or whatnot. How am I supposed to reload my arsenals?"
Khadeem took out a small sphere the size of a large marble from his robe and with a few words, the sphere glowed and out of nowhere came tools, portable blow torches, foundry equipment, storage lockers, materials, components, crates, and enough material to maintain a small militia for a year or so.
"This is a pocket universe sphere..." Khadeem explained as the sphere absorbed back the materials and equipment. "...you can store as much weaponry, spare armor, materials, and tools as you need. It's similar to Alucard's ability to store his full arsenals without weighing him down. Think of this as your personal armory, work-shop, and lab at the same time...all in a marble."
He then handed the sphere to Blade, who couldn't help but grin wickedly as he looked at the sphere.
"Nice."
"Now why can't we have cool stuff like that?!" Hannibal groaned as he reloaded his pistol.
Khadeem sighed and then opened the portal.
"Ready to face hell?" He asked Blade, hoping from what he learned of the dhampir that he would come up with something...nice to say.
Blade didn't disappoint the Younger God...
"I was born ready."
Late 20th Century...
Los Angeles California...
If there was one thing people knew about L.A...it was there are places worth going to and people meeting...and that there were places and people that were the exact polar opposite. The city right now was in the swing of the night life it was famous and infamous for. However, the people and beings who lived in the city weren't ALWAYS that of the human persuasion...as one unlucky person was about to find out...
In an alleyway on the more seedy side of the city, away from the lights...
"HELP ME!!!!"
A young, brown haired woman dressed in a shirt and pants with shoes was moving like she was being tracked by a band of crazed deviants...and in this case, she was.
"Oh come on, get back here!" A whooping voice shouted as a pack of street punks with tattoos were chasing the young woman. Regular looking bunch of street thugs...except for two things.
They were moving at speeds that were above human... and they had two distinctive features...blood red eyes...and elongated fangs.
The leader was a tall, muscled out man with a facial tattoo of a demon, with piercing and bleached white hair. He ran the fastest and was only slowing down along with the rest of his gang so they could savor the kill.
"LEAVE ME ALONE!!! I ALREADY GAVE YOU ALL MY MONEY!!!" the woman shouted in fear and terror as she tried to escape her pursuers who laughed cruelly back at her and merely taunted her.
"We know...now we want more!!!"
Unknown to the street gang and their intended victim...someone else was watching them. That someone seemed rather disappointed that the punk vampires were the ones that were there.
Hmph! Bunch of newbies...ah well, I guess we can't be choosy tonight now can we?
The stranger who turned out to be female then ran to a few nearby buildings...with amazing skill and agility for someone as slim, and quite frankly...built the way she was, along with the fact that there was a good eight to eleven feet gap between buildings but she moved over them with such skill, elegance and lack of effort that it was inhuman! To really add to it was the fact that she was on buildings that were a good ten to twelve stories high. She then began sliding down steel beams, wooden ones and wires on her boots that appeared to be high heeled pumps, which would have been pure murder on any woman's feet, but they hardly bothered their owner...and to really spike that fact was the fact that the stiletto heels had or rather...WERE metal spikes.
A few minutes later...
"Huh! She fainted!" The leader of the gang of punk vampires smirked as they reached their prey. The woman had merely reached a dead end and his posse were closing in, slowly so they could enjoy their kill, and the woman fainted before they could close in.
"Shame eh boss? I was hoping she'd put up a fight and struggle, would have made the blood flow faster and be hotter, then we could..." One of the vampires said with a chilling smile, showing his own fangs and his blood thirsty, lust filled leer made it very obvious what he wanted to do with the woman they had...the same look was on his mates...along with their boss.
"I know...she's not too bad...though I was hoping we'd catch someone with...more form. She's a bit too much on the skinny side for me." The vampire leader said as they surrounded their target.
That was when they heard a noise, all turned and saw a figure that appeared female...and very sexy from what they could see.
"Really now, tell you guys what, why don't you little boys leave the girl alone and just go back home to where you came from? I'm sure you can find something else more important with you're time."
The figure came out...to be a drop dead sexy redhead with green eyes and a face that would have made her look like a goddess come to life, the woman had the body female models would kill for! And although she was a bit pale...she certainly looked delicious to the vampire punks...namely in her black cocktail dress, and the high heels, there were a pair of small rings on her hair and some cloth tied to them...all in all...she was more than HOT, she was burning!!!
The vampires liked what they saw and licked their fangs widely, already planning to do some very pleasant and unpleasant things to the babe in the dress. The leader was the most affected as he leered at the woman before him.
"Hah! Looks like our luck is changing right now guys!"
"Yeah!" The other vampires said in unison.
The leader leered once more and spoke. "Tell you what pretty lady...why don't we tell you what we are going to do now. We're going to finish our little game with this one..." he pointed the still out-cold woman. "...and then why don't you come with us and we all can have some fun in our pad! What do you say to that?"
"Is that you're final answer?" The redhead smiled coyly as she walked a bit more into the light...revealing her full form in her seductive dress...while secretly hiding the back of her hands in the shadows.
"Hell yeah!" The leader and his goons said while still leering at her.
The redhead smiled mysteriously and then before the vampires could know what was going on she spoke once more.
"Very well then, if you won't go home, I'll drop you all off there...and I am not referring to whatever cess-pit you little men live in here."
That was when the vampires noticed her large steel bracers...and in her hands were the handles...to two large curved sword-like blades that glinted in the lights...they all were stunned as the woman leaped towards them with vampiric speed as she smiled warmly...revealing her own fangs.
"But you're true home...IN HELL!!!"
Later...
The young woman woke up and found herself in a bus-stop, apparently unharmed, fully clothed, and when she frantically checked her neck and where else for puncture marks or wounds...she was relieved not to find any and amazingly enough, she found all her money back in her pockets...wondering if it was just a dream, she managed to flag a cab to take her home.
On a nearby roof-top, the Brimstone Society's Special Agent BloodRayne, or merely Rayne deactivated her Extruded Vision as the nearly killed vampire victim went home. The thought of that woman being...raped and bitten brought unhealthy memories to the young dhampire, as she recalled what her vampire father had done to her mother all those decades before.
Rayne gave a dark stare into the night sky at the memories...she had spent a good seventy years tracking Kagan and killing him, she had to deal with Wulf, and the crazed demon worshipping Nazi leader and his goons and finally Beliar before she got the chance to kill her father, after he killed her mother and all of her family. She nearly felt cheated of that in the grenade explosion the supposedly killed him, so she went on to kill his children...her vampire family, and finally finding him alive...and after a long battle...decapitated him.
After that, with the death of Kagan, there were no new maniacs of human and supernatural persuasion for her to take out, thus she was relegated to hunting any supernatural threats in various cities, until any new threats like the Vampire Overlords her father mentioned before he died came out into the open...and she was BORED out of her mind!!! All she killed nowadays were mere vermin!!!
She wished Severine was around, despite being a bit of a wuss, she liked him, a bit since he was the one she rescued from her demented vampire sister. He was a dhampir...just like her, but for now he was too badly wounded after their last mission and was still healing. Until those who were like her father came out to fight, she was merely doing clean-up for now.
She looked at the faraway alley where she had her fun and now used her Extruded Vision to see the corpses of the punks now decomposing at a rapid rate. That brought a smile to the dhampir's face.
At least I made sure those punks died with smiles on their faces. I just wish something would happen...I am bored.
"Then maybe my offer will get you out of your boredom Miss Blood Rayne?"
The dhampir turned and prepped her blades...she saw a robed figure who somehow avoided her vampire senses...which was a surprise to her.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Khadeem, and my...allies and I have an offer to you, please show yourselves to Miss Rayne gentlemen."
Two men came out, one was African American and dressed like a commando in a trench coat, and no doubt armed like one. The other was...hell he was dressed like a 14th Century playboy noble...and he had the looks to go for that description! He also seemed armed as much, though in a mystical fashion, if she read him right. Rayne liked what she saw in both men, and they looked...very nice!
Very nice indeed...
"And you guys are?" Rayne asked a bit slyly.
The European one merely bowed in respect and spoke. "Alucard."
The other merely shrugged his shoulders and spoke one word. "Blade."
Not very talkative these two...I like that. Rayne said with a smile as she retracted her blades and winked at them. Both men didn't outwardly act, but her vampire senses could tell that despite them being somewhat different from humans, they were affected by her actions...and no doubt her choice of dress.
"What's this offer of yours Khadeem?"
To be continued...
Hope you enjoyed the first part of Summons! Join us again in the next chapter.
