Note: Firstly, be warned, a lot of violence and blood everywhere. Second, I've done so so much research on vampires…I am obsessed with them. So it was great to be able to use some of that research to create my own little backstory for the Nobility. But it is of course only my own wacky therory.See if you can spot my glaring Harry Potter reference…don't kill me for it, I just thought it would be a nice touch. :) Third: This is a long chapter. Chapter 12 of 14.
Chapter Twelve: Abomination
"You've washed your hands, you've made that all to clear, you just keep on living your lie." –The Cross, Within Temptation
For two days D road mercilessly, following the putrid stench of the werewolf easily with his heightened senses, as the symbiote refused to help him, refused to even speak unless to tell him to turn around. D at last dismounted at the edge of a graveyard about a hundred miles from Cthulhu. It was a crumbling and decrepit place, perhaps the relic of a town that had been swallowed whole by sandworms. Now only the cracked and ivy grown memorials remained of the village, here and there massive holes in the earth had been dug and caskets had been opened, the work of either ghouls or grave robbers.
D tethered his horse to the iron gates and stepped into the graveyard, the scent had grown cold, but there was something far stronger lingering here…a presence that rankled with darkness and intelligence, a presence that would have struck any other man feverish with fear had they sensed this black hole on the Earth.
"Well, he's here alright! This is it D, go home! Just give it up, this is pointless, let it go…ughhh!" the hoarse little voice was muffled as D clinched his hand so hard that blood welled between his fingers.
Silently he moved across the graveyard, his crimson eyes scanning every stone and every shadow. Daylight was full but D knew better than to let that overpower his father. He saw it; a vague shadow seemed to detach itself from the statue of a crumbling angel. A sudden sensation of vertigo assaulted D's senses, as well as a thick and overpowering perfume. It seemed as though the whole world where softer, and cooler, and all trace of sunlight had vanished to a mere flicking pinprick that the shadow was holding in its clawed hand. The shadow condensed, and took physical form.
Hated uncoiled like a serpent through the whole of D's body, mind and soul, consuming all he knew as he gazed upon his fathers pale and refined face, so similar to his own. Indeed they where almost mirror image to one another, the only difference was Vlad Dracula's refined and gold embroidered clothing compared to D's shabby coat, the slickness of his hair, and the blue of his eyes. But lines of age undoubtedly marred his face just as they'd begin to mark D's, Dracula's were deeper and crueler. For all the darkness that clung to Vlad Dracula's soul somehow he appeared mortal, and more human than anything else, while D seemed to shimmer in the singular light of the Time Bewitching Incense, beauty unlike the world had ever seen. Indeed that beauty was to good to be true, for the crimson light in his eyes was piercing, and immense fangs jutted past his lips, the terrible aura that imitated from him was almost visible as a wavering cloud of darkness.
Vlad Dracula only nodded at his son, setting the Time Bewitching Incense aside on the base of the statue. "Dracula, my son, it's been to long, far to long for us to ever settle our differences peacefully. And you, Left Hand, as your calling yourself these days, good to see you again. How are you?"
"Well Dracs…argh!" the symbiote was again harshly muffled as D glared at his father.
A bird flying above the scene dared to swoop lower and investigate the mysterious patch of night swathed over the land, only to thud down to the ground between the two, stone dead, blood trickling from it's beak. It had fallen to D's deadly aura, had a lesser Nobel been standing before him they would have suffered the same fate as the bird.
In a flash D's hand flew, three arcs of fire left and flew toward the Sacred Ancestor, but with a brush of his hand he'd caught the wooden spears and snapped them like twigs, but one of the fragments he momentarily clutched in his hand. D never took notice of Dracula slipping it into the pocket of his coat. There was an eerie hum thought the artificial night, then a flash of silver fell toward the vampire but Dracula merely stepped aside from the path of D's sword. D stood where the Sacred Ancestor had been, the whole of his body tensed with battle and his elegant long sword unwavering in his hand.
Dracula was still unarmed, "I do not want for it to be like this." Dracula sighed as through utterly weary, " Vengeance is not something I delight in taking no matter how delicious it tastes, so why not just surrender? Submit to me, and to the throne that you were born for. Forget that menial little village and the Nymph…"
D flew toward Dracula again, leaping high into the air with his sword pointing downward, the hem of his cloak spread wide like mythic bird. A shower of golden sparks rose from the scene as Dracula pulled free his jeweled broadsword from his belt and rose to meet D's blade, his body stumbled upon impact. Even Dracula was to weak to match against D's amazing force, but as their blades locked and their eyes bore into each others their strengths where almost evenly matched. Almost a minute passed before D shifted and another arrow of light flew from his hand. Dracula twisted away, but a second later fell to the ground with a grunt of pain. The wooden needle still smoldered as it seem to grow from his breast, barley an inch from his heart. The thin candlelight could hardly shed light on the scene before D's sword again flew, and this time found it's mark, ripping deep into Dracula's heart and blood flew from the wound and past his fanged mouth. D's vermillion gaze bore down on him and with an armored boot he kicked him in face and forced him down into the dirt, sinking the blade deeper into his flesh so that the sword pinioned his father to the ground. "Die." D growled like fiend.
A weak smile formed on Dracula's lips, his own eyes were now burning ruby and he licked the blood from his lips. " Did you really believe that it would be that easy? That I, the father and scientist that made you immortal would submit to such a mortal flaw myself? You cannot kill me, not unless I tell you how."
"I'll kill you. You'll die a million deaths before you ever know peace…and I will slay you even in the otherworld." D answered back, as calm and frigid as could be.
A pained laugh rose from the vampire, "I don't deny it…well why don't I make it a bit easier on you. Why fight karma…I have killed millions in my life, I suppose I should have foreseen that I would meet death at the hands of my own son. Now decapitation…that would have slowed me down a bit. Yes, even if you were to stuff my lifeless mouth with garlic, brand a cross on my forehead and toss me into the sea as I am certain your wanting to do, I would live. Now,that would be agony…but I would eventually return. It would not kill me. Now do listen, D. Death would a terrible inconvenience to our meeting. I had hoped that I might convince you otherwise, one last time, that you ought to abandon this sham of a life and rise to be the savior you were fated to be, but you've made it quite clear you've chose the path of denial."
"There is no fate, not for me or for you." D murmured coolly.
"Really…than it was not fate that I was meant to love the most gorgeous innocent woman in all the world and create you? Was it no fate that you found the Nymph and fell in love, a trait that Mina claimed to have forced from your heart? Will you not give that Nymph a chance?"
Again Dracula howled in a torrent of agony as D twisted the blade against his still beating heart, "Don't you dare mention Luna!" D's voice rose ever so slightly in passionate hate.
"Luna…" Dracula rasped through his pallid lips, "So then you do care for the Nymph. Strange…I've watched you these long millena…so many have offered you their love, their devotion and comfort. What makes the Nymph any different?"
"You know nothing of love!" D growled, leaning ever closer to his eyes.
"If you love her so much, that why are you here, attempting to destroy me? Why not protect her, because I can assure you D…you know how unwise it is to rouse my anger. Unless we battle here in this graveyard until the end of time, than when I defeat you I will destroy her. Her and every pitiful illusion that you've clung to these past three years, denying all that you where meant to be. You had better listen to me…I do grant mercy, I will tell you how to kill me."
"TALK!" D raged, pressing his blade deeper.
"Release me…"
"TALK!" The aura of black hatred that emanated from D was strong enough to kill every living plant life within 12 feet of the warring immortals, strong enough to cause knives of pain to rocket through even Dracula's skull. He quite regretted giving his son the power to manipulate his aura so perfectly…regretted everything about his gorgeous creation.
"I will…I did not intend for it to be this way, but I know that somehow…someday you will kill me. I've gone and created a God that wants me dead. I will make it a bit easier for you then, I know you'll hear the truth in my voice. You have that handy little symbiote to tell you that."
"Are you finished? Start talking." Sighed D, infinitely impatient.
"Very well. I'll start from the beginning; I was born in 1431 A.D as Vlad Dracul, or Dracula, the Son of the Dragon, in the land of Wallachia. I rose to be the greatest terror that the world had then seen, I killed without mercy, without conscious, andon the slightest whim. I reveled in it, I devised the most atrocious torments possible for my enemies, my civilians, and even the ones I loved, anyone I found unfit in the eyes of God,I am sure you know this, just as you know what my favorite weapon of torture was. Impalement. They called me Vlad Tepes, Vlad the Impaler. Yes…I killed well over 500,000 in only 45 years of mortal life. "
"I know this." Answered D intolerantly, his hand never leaving the hilt of his sword. "Now get to the point."
"Patience son! You never had any of that, and you most certainly could use it. Every world I say is relevant." Dracula was no longer biting back against the pain, he merely lay beneath D's blade as though uncomfortable, but he did not struggle. "What I didn't understand was why I craved blood so. I had no desire to consume it as I do now and forever more, but I longed for the sight of it, the scent of it, the feel of it on my skin. There where timee where I was driven to drink it, but it was a taste savored like an occasional fine wine. All I really knew was that true reason I killed so mercilessly was for the blood. Even when imprisoned I impaled and killed rats just to watch their blood pour from their bodies.
"I later learned that it was a disease that caused my blood lust, I am certain you know it, porphyria as the mortal scientists termed it. You know its symptoms well, it caused its victims to become pale, sensitive to the sunlight, occasionally to hallucinate and to crave blood because their body doesn't produce enough. There is it was, my first clue for the genes of light and darkness, the idea that to crave the night was actually a genetic predisposition. But of course then I had no understanding of such things, I thought that my lust was punishment by God for not pleasing him, not killing his enemies. But when I did all that he and his priests asked, followed all his scripture and his teachings I grew frustrated, and angry and in desperation I turned to Satan. The old mortal Gods indeed have a strange way of interacting with the mortal…the God of the Christians turned a deaf ear to my cries and my sacrifices in his name, but the Dragon responded to me in only moments, stalking me in dreams, in sigils, in shadows, and in the eyes of those I killed. I was both terrified, and awed by the great power I'd chosen to honor. Perhaps the God of the Christians isn't as bloodthirsty as so many wars done in his name have turned out to be, or perhaps I was merely genetically predispositioned to communicate with his rival, but no matter what the reason I was at last heard.
"About a week or so before my mortal death I found myself crying to the night sky, "I need release! I cannot beat much more of this crippling lust, Dragon, do you hear me!"
"He heard me, "Vlad…" spoke a strange, gravely voice, and whipped around to see that a rotting corpse hung high on one of my spears seemed to have sprung to life, the burning red light within the rotting sockets was almost blinding, but I did not shrink away not matter how wildly my mortal heart beat at the sound. "I hear you. I can give you release…or rather power. You can have power beyond mortal imagination, but the blood lust I cannot cure. It is my own fate to shamble though shadows and to drink the blood of the damned, but I can help you. Forever you will crave the blood, but so long as you have it you shall be rewarded with an immortal body. I wish to have you as one of my children Vlad Tepes, you would be greater and wiser and more terrible than any before. Will you accept?"
"Immortality…I'll pay any price!" I pleaded, trying not to look to hard at the corpse, at its terrible eyes and the rotting ligaments of its vocal cords.
"All I ask if your mortal life. You can keep your soul, I have no use for a soulless, and therefore mindless fiend. It's life I thrive on." The corpse rasped, moving feebly on it's spear.
"I nodded. "Take it."
"The corpse however fell silent.
"It was a few days later that I meet my end, slain by the arrow of one of my own men…a pathetic way for Vlad Tepes to meet his end honestly, but my mortal death was more a transition. For the first time I saw it, as I am sure you have my son, that veiled gateway between the land of the living and the realm of the dead, but that door was closed to me. I felt a hand clamp down on my shoulder and I turned around to see the still rotting corpse that had spoken to me before, now free of its stake but decayed even worse. That light was once again shining in its eyes. The horror rose, then died in my ethereal body as the corpse vessel of the Dragon placed its festering hands on my face, and moved forward. Fangs jutted from the yellowed teeth, and paralyzed I let Satan bend down over my neck and drive those fangs into my throat. I was then consumed by a rapturous rush of power, strength and vitality that no mortal can hope to understand. The misty veil faded before my eyes, and I next found myself back on Earth, but I had no mortal body. I was little more than a wraith like spirit indestructible, invisable and thrumming with power. I needed a mortal body to house me. Naturally I searched the world until I settled upon the fresh corpse of the most gorgeous youth that I could find. That is the body that you see now, it changed to suit my powers and had been evolving ever since."
"Little of this is new to me.' Said D in utter annoyance, "that was how vampires were born in the days of old, by making a pact with Satan or a powerful magican, they were little more than malicious sprits that possessed the dead back in the Dark Ages. It wasn't until science began to grip the world that the vampires learned how to evolve to reproduce sexually. I know the story, for the next few millennia you roamed to world, banding together with the vampires and forming underground cults everywhere you lingered. When the holocaust destroyed much of humanity you lead the vampires to greatness, rose again to the throne, but all this is useless. I want to know why you cannot die…although there is nothing wrong with your ability to feel pain, tell me now before I must resort to it."
Calmly Vlad Dracula nodded, "Alright then. All these cenetries I've been trying to perfect our kind, by more over, perfecting myself. I am not content to remain bound by whatever happens to this mortal body that can be easily destroyed, and when science provided few answers to prevent that from happening I turned once more to magic. They are not that different as I am sure you've learned, science and magic…I've watched the way that your able to wield weapons, armor and horses in way that no human can hope to match, all by using a bit of science, knowledge and magic. You can even spring from the dead with the help of that useful carbuncle."
"Oh thank you Dracs! I never really get any credit…ugghff!" the little voice piped up then died. D's eyes remained locked on Dracula.
"My attempts to join a sentient symbiote with myself failed, so I began to delve deep into the mysteries of human and vampire alike to search for immortality, and at last craved upon the walls of the temple R'lyeh not far from your charming little village, I found the spell I needed. The theory is that every time a man kills in cold blood his soul is split in two with the horror that has occurred of the act. The emotions and the energy that is released from such an occurrence can tear a normal man apart, or it can fuel a man to kill further, or in the case of a learned magician it can be used to his advantage. When the magician killed one only needed to have an object nearby, anything at all living or inanimate and one only needed to whisper the right incantation and then a portion of the wizards split soul would be housed forever in that vessel. So long as that vessel remains intact than the wizard could suffer a mortal death, but still survive although they would need a new body.
Naturally I tried it, and perfected it, but I had my reservations. I'd killed well over a million, and I was a vampire, how much soul have I left to split and house? I changed the incantations and experimented with the properties of it's magic until I was certain, until I could suffer a mortal death, but not require a new body afterwards…I am quite fond of the one I have now. I made 19 vessels and sure enough when I was killed 2000 years after becoming a vampire I survived easily. Like you, I've never truly died, and as you know it's all too easy for the damned to feign death. So long as my vessels remain intact than even if you razed this body to dust I would still regenerate. I have hidden them in temples and landmarks close to my heart all over the world, and I have little doubt that now that I have told you of them that you will find and destroy them. It's shall be easily enough with Left Hand."
D's face remained impassive as ever, although there was a slight twinge of emotion in his eyes, surely the hint of the impossibility of the task of searching every temple, every possible landmark for 19 unknown objects.. "Is that all?" he said coldly.
"No." answered Dracula, "I do want to tell you one more thing, if you'll listen, why I must destroy the Nymph."
D jolted then, made to twist the hilt of his sword again in Dracula's heart but Dracula had bolted upward, clasped his hands on the blade and pulled it swiftly upward, swift enough so that the hilt struck D in face and he stumbled backward. Dracula let his son's sword clatter to his feet, and rose with no apparent pain even as blood flowed down his shirt and he clutched his own jeweled sword. "I have to do it D. You killed Mina, my true love. I am only returning the favor."
D retrieved his sword so quickly even Dracula failed to see it, and then D was flying at him almost literally, the fabric of his cape was spread out and it's edges seemed to become razor sharp and spread before him like an immense bird. Dracula's sword rose to perry the blows, but not before the fabric had managed to slice into his wrist, and his torso. D moved like the wind, his hands fastening around Dracula's throat and nails driving deep into his flesh, so deeply blood spurted from the vampires neck. "YOU killed her! You'll never touch her, not Luna!"
For only a second Dracula choked, but his own cape flew upward and seized D as though it had a will of it's own and hurled him away. "She's an abomination!" Dracula spat, the crimson now rising to his eyes. "That whole village, and everything you call your life now! Is that what you really want to be a pitiful husband and mayor to a useless hick town, how long are you going to live that lie! Hunting I could tolerate, at least you where destroying the Nobility that needed destroying and paving the way for humans torise againbut this is an affront to nature! You're a prince of Death, Dracula! You were designed only to rule, to kill and to herald a new golden age! You can keep on living in this illusion, or you chose to believe that death is your only purpose!"
D rose silently to his feet, his sword shimmering in the dim light, and again he raced toward Dracula, his cape outstretched and razor sharp. Their swords clashed, and for the next thirty minutes the eerie song of steel clashing against steel and the enraged cries of the other where all that could be heard of the scene. Each of the immortals was nimble on their feet, swifter than the sound of their ringing swords. Each of their blood red eyes matched hue of blood that was soon pouring in rivulets from various wounds on there bodies, both pairs of fangs were present. Dracula had at last begun to pant with the effort of keeping up the relentless combat. He spied D's cape flying out toward where the Time Bewitching Incense burned, a wise move on D's part that he'd attempted several times now but Dracula was swift and slammed the whole of his body into D's. D had braced himself against the impact and hardly moved at all, it was Dracula that stumbled from the hit. D still showed no hint of exhaustion, indeed he was still like the lightening as he slammed his sword through his fathers heart again, a frozen smile playing on his thin lips and Dracula shrieked out in agony. He fell in a limp heap onto the ground. "You will pay D, for what you did to Mina." He rasped like a man at the brink of utter exhaustion.
"What I did? You violated her, and possessed her, you destroyed her the way you've destroyed everyone you've ever looked upon." D whisper coldly, removing his sword from Dracula's body, and placing his iron shod foot down upon his face.
"Well, we've got that much in common at least." Dracula answered with a wry and weary smile benith his boot, "but it was you that drove her to madness with your whoring and your bloodlust. You did it to spite her."
"All she ever wanted was a normal life, a husband and a child…a son that didn't talk perfectly at one year old, who didn't drink blood and played happily in the sunlight. Instead she gets ME!" there was actually a falter to D's steely voice, and a waiver to his eyes as though tears might actually be forming behind the hatred. D's blade came screaming down toward Dracula's neck, but with speed faster than even D was capable Dracula twisted around and caught the blade in the palms of his hands. D didn't even have time to try to pull it free before Dracula had snapped the steel in two, then was reaching inside of the his coat, then sprang upward and D staggered and gave a short roar of agony as long stake of wood Dracula had concealed slammed down into his heart. He'd underestimated the Sacred Ancestor…all this time he'd been holding back on his true power, he'd deceived him…D thudded limply down onto the ground.
Slowly Dracula rose to his feet, and sneered down at the heap of his son, rolling the body over with the toe of his boot. He was slightly shocked to see that in D's tormented face a sliver of life still remained, but then again he'd designed his dhampir to live through just about anything. "Don't…" D gasped in desperation, "Don't take her…", the light then faded from his black eyes that suddenly seemed as dull as marbles set in stone.
A smile crossed Dracula's fanged mouth, "It's no good D. I gave you a choice, it was unwise to anger me, and you know this."
He seized D's arms and began to drag his corpse across the ground, over to one of the opened graves. The disturbed earth that was churned about the opened lid of the oak casket was fresh, and the skeletal remains of one that had lain in the casket had been tossed carelessly to the side, it was as if this grave had been meant for this purpose.
"Woah! Woah come on there Dracs, hey mistakes were made!" a familiar little voice rose from D's left hand. He shifted D's limp palm and frowned down at the wizened little face that rose there, " Pretty Boy was young, and rebellious but he never meant to hurt her! He never told you about the riverside! Look, Mina was just fragile, you know this! But come on, don't hurt Luna!"
"I like to think of myself a merciful man Left Hand, but I do not forgive, not now and not ever. My son is not immune to vengeance, this must be done!"
"No! No please don't, come on, she's innocent!"
"So was Mina." The vampire snapped as he pulled D over to the foot of the grave, and paused for a moment, pulling the immense hat from his sons dark head and chuckling a bit as he touched it, then placed it on his own head. "Your such a waste D…you actually used magic to keep this ridiculous thing on your head!", he stripped D's scabbard from his back as well then he grabbed hold of D's corpse and tossed him clumsily down into the casket, his body fell as limp as rag doll down into the hole and crumpled pitifully on it's side.
"No! No wait, STOP!" the horsed voice cried out uselessly.
"I am sparing you Left Hand, to give him a chance. If love truly conquers all than he will rise on time to stop me." And with that he bent down and snapped the heavy lid of the casket shut, closing off what little light remained of the world above that was reflected in D's lifeless eyes. A moment later there was the unmistakable, thunderous roar of earth tumbling down over the grave.
The moonlight was beaming unhindered down upon Cthulhu that night causing the sea to sparkle as though it were forged of jewels, the fresh wood of the newly built buildings to glow palely, and the Luna's silver hair to shimmer beneath it's light. She kneeled upon the ground with her head bowed low, and listlessly picked the rue that grew in abundance on the edge of the forest not far from their house. She did nothing to stop the steady stream of green tears that rolled down her cheeks, and ignored the questions from the villages that asked her where the mayor had gone.
I can't believe that only three nights ago I thought of leaving him…I wondered whether or not I could do it, if it would be safer for Wilhelmina in the long run. Now I know, I can't bear that he's gone…I can't do this much longer, I need him…oh D… her morose thoughts rambled on without stop.
When she heard the soft patter of metal hooves upon cobblestone her head snapped up, and her mouth fell open, there just within her line of sight was a familiar black figure mounted upon a cybernetic horse that was galloping full speed toward her house. All she needed to see was the horse, and the immense hat perched on his head before Luna's heart leap in her breast and she abandoned her herbs and rushed toward him. "D! D, damn it don't do this again, don't!" she cried when the horse at last slowed at her side and desperately she grasped his hand. Silently D dismounted, and reached out to slide his hands into the Nymph's hair, and pulled her into a heated kiss. But it was an invasive kiss, one in which he'd merely clamped his hungry lips upon hers and assaulted her with his tongue. Taken aback Luna pulled away; D had never kissed her that insistently, not even at his most amorous. And she'd felt the cruel points of his fangs; normally it took him a few minutes before his vampiric visage would surface. In the thin light that poured from the windows of the house she could see that the eyes that grinned lecherously at here were not black, but a brilliant vivid blue, eyes that sparkled with maliciousness and startling genius, but other than those eyes and the lines of age across his face the visage that peered at her was that of D's…the same narrow face, thin, cruel lips and smooth brow, the same long black hair that fell to his shoulders, albeit a bit straighter and more elegant. Massive fangs were visible just past his lips. It was a face she'd seen before, in decrepit paintings inNobel ruins, in quick flashes she'd seen of D's past before he'd closed that door.
'You!" she gasped, clutching the little dagger the used for cutting herbs tightly in her hands.
Vlad Dracula petted the snout of D's mount, and then laughed lowly at the Nymph. "Come now, none of this you business Mrs. Dracula -Lunerahnefer Murray, I am your father in law. Please call me Vlad Tepes, or even Dracula.
Pathetically she held her cutting knife out before her, "What do you want! Where is D!" she cried in wild desperation.
Dracula burst with laughter, 'Well isn't that obvious? I am riding his horse and wearing his ridiculous hat…need you more proof?" he pulled D broken sword from it's scabbard and tossed it down to the Nymphs feet, "it seems that love does not conquer all. Poor D…he was always so useless at family gatherings he'll even use death to get out of introducing his wife to his own father."
Luna trembled with horror, and then broke her fear to turn and run wildly into the house. Slowly Dracula followed her, Nymphs were not built for speed or true combat, they were created for nothing more that seduction and caring for the earth, he could have caught her if he wanted to, he could have torn her limb for limb but he made no haste. Let her run.
Luna pressed herself against the door, as though somehow able to hold back the terrible monster at the threshold and sobbed openly, tears pouring freely down her face, "D! Oh Goddess D…" she'd seen the broken sword…what else could it mean? Who was more capable of destroying D than the man that created him? Already her heart was rent with despair. It took only a single pound for the door to go flying into a mass of splinters around Luna's shoulder, and wildly she turned and slashed with her small knife, managing to catch Dracula's face with the poor blade. A small line of blood run down across his cheeks and he smiled, "Well I see now that you have the same regard as family as my son did.", the Vampire King forced himself inside of the house and looked curiously about that the home that D and her had made together.
"What do you want from me!" she cried out, her face was strangely composed, and steely, and her voice was now high and operatic.
Dracula stilled, held fast by the sudden wave of desire that gripped the whole of his body and lightly clouded his senses. It was desire akin to only a glance from Mina's gorgeous eyes could fill him with. He should have known the Nymph would try this, it allowed her enough time to bolt toward the weapons chest beside the door and to retrieve a short board sword and a strange unmarked jar, she fell into a battle stance, one that D had doubtlessly taught her. "Leave! Leave me alone NOW and NEVER come back!" she cried out, her song now wild, undulating almost like a banshee cry that had been given harmony.
The force of her song was so powerful that the walls shivered and glass shattered. Dracula's face went rigid, and slowly he took a step backward, compelled to obey that strange, seductive voice. But his will was ultimately stronger, and he only faced the Nymph with unyielding resolve. "Never you silly girl. Do not fight me."
The unseen aura that seemed to radiate Dracula's elegant frame was suddenly crushing with it's power, it's darkness…it was identical to the same awesome power she'd seen D manipulate with his own aura, crushing his enemies with fear. As a result her hands trembled and the broadsword and the mysterious jar she held clattered to the ground.
As the jar shattered revealing the tiny white powdered herb inside and a rank odor assaulted the room and Dracula gagged and reeled backward with the vile scent of it, "G…Garlic! Ha…is that all these years fucking a Hunter has taught you!" he mocked but would not move any closer, indeed he seemed rooted to the spot. Luna blinked as the terror swept past her, and in the heat of freedom she bent down to gathered the powder and threw it right into the Sacred Ancestors face. He screamed then, clawing at his eyes. Fueled again Luna retrieved her fallen sword and shutting her eyes she hurled herself forward and slammed the sword into the vampires chest. She opened her eyes only when she felt the blood flowing past her hands, and expected that she would see Dracula falling limply to the ground but he remained standing, and he smiled. It was a horrific sight, the garlic has bored holes into his flesh and he'd begun to cry bloody tears at the rank scent of it but the worst was the sight of his immense fangs. It seemed millennia ago that the sight of fangs such as those had been a tender sight to Luna. "You missed the heart sweetie, not that it matters much." His fist flashed across her face, hard enough to send the Nymph flying across the room and into a wall.
Dracula pulled the sword easily from his chest, only a hint of pain crossing his features before he turned it in his hand and bore down on Luna. Now she only cowered fearfully against the wall, all her fearlessness had failed now and only desperation shone in her green eyes.
"Please don't hurt me!" she breathed like a frightened child, "I am carrying his child! Isn't that what you wanted? A new race of perfection? She's going to be gorgeous, perfect…the child of Nymph and dhampir, you have to let her live!"
No emotion was betrayed in Dracula's blood red eyes, he hefted his sword in his hands.
As a list ditch effort Luna raised her eyes to Dracula's glowing ones and did not look away no matter how his terrible aura screamed for her to submit. Her singing voice rose again, almost as sure and confident as before. "Spare us! Leave and never dare to come back. GO AW…"
For a wild moment the look upon Dracula's face was confused, and lust shimmered in eyes, right along with hatred, and thirst for vengeance. He slipped his hand inside of his coat, there was a fiery flash and the in next instant Luna had fallen to the floor, a horrible and gagged cry was all that moved past her lips, before that to died away into mute silence. One of D's shattered wooden needles had pierced her throat, clear through the larynx and a wild spray of blood escaped the wound, spilled past the Nymph's lips. She clawed uselessly at the needle, but the fear had paralyzed her fingers, the whole of her body.
Dracula grinned down at the now helpless Nymph. "A shame to destroy a creature as beautiful as you, but the sins of the son must be repaid.".
He grabbed the Nymph up by her now blood red hair.
