Liking the situation less and less, Dracul and Arianna proceeded to the front gate of the castle, Aria keeping mute about the voice that beckoned to her and her alone, and no sooner had they entered the courtyard of the other-worldly castle than the cool night air was torn asunder by the unmistakable howls of a mongrel breed. Irritated but untroubled by this new development, the duo pressed on, keeping a sharp eye as they passed the half ripped-away metal of a once-mighty fence now twisted into gruesome snarls and menacing curls, hands tight on their weapons as they walked.

"You wouldn't have any more gadgets to clear them up quickly, would you?" Eyes sweeping through the rubble, he caught sight of pitch black fur gleaming as it streaked across the darkness, slipping through a section of broken rails. Unmistakably werewolf, it seemed as if it was a different species of the same creature.

Seeing the same, she shook her head, "Just one, but I'm saving that for a real situation..."

Annoying and condescending as she could be, Little Aria was not without her moments of amusement. Or should he say that she was not without her moments of intentional wit? Being who and what he was, it took a considerable amount to concern him, and being who and what she was... Well, it was amusing for him to see that they had this one thing in common: they were both underwhelmed by this onslaught of gathering fur.

Surrounded fairly fast, they both nodded briefly in the others direction, silently communicating that it was fair game to go all out at this juncture and give themselves a bit of a warm-up for the real fight to come, so long as they didn't over do it, which mostly meant the warrioress. Slashing and hacking in a flash of silver and evil, the hunters tore through the ravenous pack like a greedy child would wrapping paper.

Nothing but small fry, a sweat was barely broken as they swept through the horde, decimating numbers that would make an ordinary soul swoon, but they were not normal, nor had they ever been... No, not the man that once held such promise within the Brotherhood before succumbing to the darkness nor the girl that taught herself to see the magic behind the mundane. A bit disappointed in this challenge, Dracul sprung up into the sky, leaping from decimated wall to tilting tower as if it were nothing, leaving his partner behind as he scouted the area and dealt with any stragglers. Affronted by the rude manner in which he just vanished, although not shocked in any way, Arianna took the chance to listen more closely for the voice that called to her earlier.

"What are you, what do you want?" The mortal declared firmly as she kicked aside a stray bramble, walking ever closer to the cracking mortar, careful not to be too loud lest she rouse suspicion, "Answer me!"

Chuckling, the voice replied, clearer now that they were closer to the heart of the castle, Little one, you can relax... I don't intend to play games with you, not when i have more important matters to see to.

Wondering if she should address the bodiless one out loud or in her own head, Arianna spoke softly, almost whispering, "Why can't my partn - " she stopped, realizing that it would be almost a compliment to put that creature on her own level, "why can't he hear you too?"

At this, the voice sounded almost bored, Oh, you mean that beastly man accompanying you? Hmph! He's of no immediate interest to me...

"But I am?" Being a huntress, the only interest she was used to being was of the dinner variety, not that that sat very well with her.

It's not every day one sees a human escorting a demon, let alone through this place. Tell me little girl, are you his concubine? Or perhaps a slave to be traded for sacrifice?

What was it with everyone calling her that? Arianna wasn't a little girl, so why was she constantly getting addressed in that manner?! The Vampire Gabriel, she understood that he liked to get under her skin, and fair is fair, but she didn't even know if this voice had a corporeal form or not!

But believe it or not, that was not what had just affected her, "Con..." She sputtered angrily, sounding not unlike a cat, "...Concubine?! Why I never! How dare you think I could serve a thing like that! Just thinking about touching that monster makes my skin crawl! Disgusting! How you could ever think such a thing when we clearly despise each other?!"

Whatever the voice was, it seemed to have as much fun tormenting her as the vampire did, You do get upset so easily - you must really like 'that monster' to get so flustered at almost no prodding... After all, so many of the most passionate love stories come from the roots of hatred...

"That is it!" Shaking all over, Arianna pointed at the direction-less sky, unable to keep her voice down, "I don't love that treacherous spawn vampire!"

"Let us hope not," Returning more silent than the void of space and more discreetly than the shadows of a forbidding moon, Dracula stood just behind Arianna, his arms crossed against his massively bare chest and an unimpressed look on his face, "Besides betraying everything you claim to stand for, falling in love with me will bring you only into a new world full of unimaginable suffering."

At that moment, the living jungle could have come to life and unleashed its full force upon the world, but as it was, she decided that her best response would be a short sarcastic one, "Spending an eternity with you could only be matched by the endless ailments inflicted by the highest choir of fallen seraphim. In other words, I would rather burn in hell than be your bride. Thanks though!"

She put on a cheerful grin as if she actually meant it, but he knew that he could save her from certain death and it would be unlikely that she would ever properly thank him, so even if the emotion was still within his grasp, he still probably wouldn't have felt bad for saying, "You think that I would ever make someone like you immortal?" He thought about it for a moment, "The agony you would go through in just your first moments alone would be something truly fantastic to behold, but you, Little Aria, would no doubt find some way to pay me back, so I can promise you now that under no circumstance shall I change you into what I am."

He had meant to add in only one more point, that he had already given his heart away, and even should he find his mortality once more, not that he was expecting to, there was not a woman alive that could stand a chance. He had found his soul mate in life, and he had lost all desire to love with her death...

"Good, because there is no way that I'm going to change my mind about killing you!" She stormed off before another word could be uttered, although she had no idea where she was going.

I never said anything about loving him... The voice rubbed it in, getting the last word.

Beyond screaming at the heavens and swearing her tongue raw, the dark-haired girl punched the wall with all of her might. Naturally nothing happened to the individually cut stone, but when her fist collided with the vertical surface, a ripple went through her entire body and tears sprang up in the corner of her eyes - her hand had been broken, or at the very least sprained. To test this hypothesis, she attempted to move every specific digit in her arsenal and was dismayed to find that only her thumb and pinky could dance at her command.

Yelping from the pain, far too gone into her emotions to bother pretending anymore, Arianna looked around hopelessly, not expecting either of her banes to assist her, so taking a deep breath and holding it in, she grabbed her hand with the working one and popped each respective finger back into place with a series of sounds almost sickening even to her companion. Almost, were that not that sort of sound that brought him great whiffs of sadistic pleasure. It was a good thing that only three of her tactile members were offset, because she was almost certain that she could not endure having to fix another at that moment.

Regardless of the obvious pain she had put herself through, Dracul was immensely impressed that she could suck it up like that and do what needed to be done. True, as a mortal man he would have done the same, and he probably had at some point or another, but to see a woman act so audaciously was not only out of the norm for him, it was just not what he had come to expect from them. True, there was once a girl that might have done the same, that pretty mute one, but it would have been different, because they were just two opposing kinds. What was her name again? Time stole a great deal, and to ease the pain, he had almost given it all up at once. Or, he had tried...

Looking down at the gauntlet he wore, Dracul could clearly envision her youthful face, so sweet and full of hope, but still her name eluded him. But how? He had spoken it earlier when recounting Gabriel's tale, so why now was it lost to him?

Alrighty, I'm back! For now...

Nope, still working on that same idea I left you all for, but I came back to deliver the next chapter, courtesy of inspiration from 'Mirror of Fate'! I don't have a DS, 3DS, or whatever the latest Nintendo handheld is called, but I was watching some videos of it, not that that's really relevant. Maybe I didn't, but I'm pretty sure I've said that this is just a possibility of events, and now with that game, this story is truly an alternate universe of an alternate universe now. Anyways, I didn't mean to make this chapter a comical one, but what happens in... Castlevania stays in Castlevania...? Is that right? Oh well, it is now!