Chapter Twelve: An Explanation
"Voodoo?" Rawnie whispered slowly against the Counts cold fingers which were still hovering over her lips.
BOOM! The wall beside them was torn apart by the heavy hitting shot of a powerful rifle held along Van Helsings shoulder as he stomped into the room. Dracula twisted his head around to greet the newcomer with a dreadful shriek while the woman slipped out from around his confining arms to stop the building confrontation between the two men. Van Helsing perked up a brow at her quick response, his mind throwing out the her being under his control theory. Before he could snap a word out, Rawnie slapped his weapon aside, eyes dark with determination.
"Enough," she hissed in his face, her quick breaths blowing back a few strands of his dirty hair. Switching her attention once more, she thrust her hand out toward the vampire and the object he still held in his hand. "What about voodoo? What, exactly, is so damn important about THAT?"
"Voodoo?" Gabriel murmured behind her raising the shotgun up so it was positioned in both hands again.
Vladislaus did nothing but give a condescending smirk before shifting his body away from her. Rawnie would have none of that. Coming at him with the same ferocity she showed the Roman, she grabbed his shoulder and shoved him back around, allowing herself to forget who she was pushing on for the time being.
The vampire gnashed his teeth, Helsing cocked the rifle, and Rawnie tightened her jaw.
"I need to know what you know," she spoke evenly though hesitantly, "I imagine you know it's rather important."
"I have been given no incentive to pass my knowledge to you."
"Fine," the man with the weapon spoke and took aim. Rawnie quickly flicked a hand up in irritation at the man, signaling to stop.
"What…incentive, do you need?" she questioned. The protective Van Helsing behind her stiffened and awaited the response.
Dracula tilted his head to the side as the echo of feet pattering along the stone hall reached his keen ears. Several yards away, Red approached, his little pail filled with several rodents he had discovered in the stables he had been sent to check. The smell of the rat blood reached up and bit at the Counts nose several times before he shook his head in disgust. As the boy became alarmed to the scene ahead of him, he stopped and stared at the vampire with widened eyes.
"Incentive," the ebony haired man let the word slither out over his tongue. Able to shake off the scent of the blood, he roamed his right hand up and across the still exposed plain of Rawnies shoulder and neck. "It has been some time…since I was able to consume the liquids from a warm body that were not the vermin I share this putrid existence with."
Van Helsing shoved his way between the two, the twin barrels of the gun looking down into the Counts eyes.
"The only liquid that's coming from her neck is that vile shit you created a pipeline to."
"So defensive, Gabriel. Am I to assume you have not yet been allowed to lay your lips upon her bare skin?" he countered, the grin he possessed making itself known again. The tensed warrior glared down the sights and into the vampires humored eyes.
"Stop it!" the woman in the room ordered before pushing them apart and shrugging away the hand that was still stroking her neck. Van Helsing allowed himself to be shoved into the wall behind him while the opposite member of the conflict simply backed away of his own accord. "Human blood will make you talk?"
"Rawnie!"
"I love it how it takes these instances for you to get my name right," she spat toward Gabriel Van Helsing before darting her eyes over back toward the other man who was easily resting against the wall. "That's what you want?"
"That's what I want," he nodded, again never making a move to brush aside the hair swaying in front of his pale features.
The small room was silent for many long moments while the offer laid out on the table was thought through. Blood. Human blood. Strangely enough it would not be a difficult request to fulfill. A sample from each member of the household would fill a bowl. A cut on the arm would do. It would be nothing that would cause harm to anyone. A small cut, a small sample from everyone. It wasn't totally out of reach.
"It wouldn't be hard," she worded her thoughts out loud to Van Helsing who was staring up at her from the spot on the floor he had taken a seat on. "If everyone were to contribute a small amount…"
"No," Dracula nearly shouted, startling Rawnie back into her uptight stance. "I will drink no mixed blood."
"Then what do you want?" she asked through clenched teeth, her mind already familiar with what his answer would be.
"Only the feeling of breaking your flesh once more, dear Rawnie."
"That was predictable," Van Helsing snorted from the sidelines, the butt of his rifle tapping against the wall behind him.
"Be quiet or go back upstairs," the woman hissed and jabbed her chin upwards.
"Only to come back tomorrow to drag your drained body away?"
Rawnie opened her mouth to retort but controlled the foul language that was attempting to spill forth. Instead, she simply rolled her head back to the dark clad man in front of her and tapped her teeth together in frustration, earning an amused and irritated grunt from each man.
"Information first, blood later," she bargained, sending Gabriel to his feet.
"Good Lord you can't be serious, woman!"
"Oh good, you've thought of something else to call me as you avoid saying my name," she snapped.
"I am beginning to think you have a secret death wish, Ms. Valerious," he taunted purposefully.
"At times. Depends on what I'm drinking," Rawnie replied nonchalantly.
"Fine," Dracula answered quite loudly, interrupting the upcoming verbal fight between the two
"Fine?" they both asked, their eyes holding the same exasperation.
"Information first, blood later…"
Again, the room was quiet, filled to the brim with an unsteady pause.
Van Helsing stared at Rawnie hard, her eyes focused towards the floor near his feet. What the hell was she thinking? With a few blinks to herself, her gaze flew up toward his handsome yet disturbed face, eyes just as harsh. She kept telling herself that it was a good decision, that it would make everything easier in the end. Also, in the back of her mind she reminded herself that the Count was chained, there was nothing keeping her from lying to him and just walking away after she received what she wanted. That would be the smart thing to do. The cheating, lying thing to do. The thing she was use to. However, as she thought these ideas of betrayal and fibbing the throbbing of her shoulder lashed out only once, as if to remind her. Dracula had made it clear, it was temporary. It was time for her to decide if the voice in the back of her head was something she could live with or not.
"She knows your thoughts, your actions, and you existance," the vampires voice shot through her thoughts, "Just as well as she knows…knew my own."
"She?" Rawie whispered hesitantly, tilting her head.
"The being you met at the castle," Dracula answered, his own head tilting along with the woman's.
"She seemed to believe she did," she agreed and signaled back towards Van Helsing, "Him as well. Knew his real name."
"She does not believe, she does," he corrected, "Just as well as she surely knows we are having this conversation. Now that I am in your…possession, dear Rawnie, she does not need this to merely keep note of our interactions."
The pale man spun the silver hair piece he had discovered on her person earlier around his finger.
"How would she-" her words begun but her mind finished for her. Voodoo. He had mentioned it earlier. Her knowledge in such things was limited, but she was not completely oblivious. "Wait…she controlled you with that thing?"
"How the tables have turned," Gabriel quipped from behind, earning another series of grunts and glares from the other too, making him immediately feel like the third wheel in the room.
"She returned me from death with her necromancy, it is to be expected that she would have certain amounts of control over my existence."
Rawnie Valerious blinked her eyes lazily for a few times before backing up against the wall and placing her bottom down on the floor as Van Helsing had done a few minutes past. Flicking her hand about she gave a response.
"Give the damn story flat out if you will. I don't do well with this jarring conversation."
Dracula bowed his head slightly in acknowledgment.
"To say this ordeal was my choosing is a mistake, so do not take it as such, dear Rawnie," he began, but threw his eyes towards the accusing Van Helsing, "Though my home in death was not something to be envied, it held more dignity and respect than this new life has offered. After my rebirth my mind was not my own, my actions were controlled, and will useless. Orders were given and I obeyed. It was the way of the master and servant."
Van Helsing chuckled at the irony, but Dracula paid him no mind.
"I was to attack the village…I did so. You were to be hunted down on your travels to and from Rome; I attempted to stop you. Again, the town was to be raided, and you taken. I had no choice in the matter. You, dear Rawnie," the vampire grinned and pointed a long, elegant finger in her direction, "Have been the center of my bidding for quite some time. You are what she works tirelessly for, what she creates plots and plans for, you are what she drilled into my mind for so, so long."
"She's your master?" Van Helsing asked, his tone humored, but his face solemn. It was difficult to distinguish if he was asking a true question or simply gaining far to much enjoyment from the idea of the once Master of Vampires, being knocked down to the low rung of slave.
"I'm so important?" the woman gave a question as well, hers holding a more sincere backdrop.
"Devastatingly important," Dracula said, allowing his words to flow slowly from his lips.
"Why?" Rawnie asked bluntly.
The vampire paused for a time.
"I do not believe I am able to say."
"We had a deal-"
"There is much difference between not being able, and choosing not to," Vladislaus explained before wrapping his fingers around the silver hair piece still in his hand. "Though the control the creatures voodoo placed upon has gone, I am still slave to her will somewhat. Necromancy is a powerful thing." Before anyone could give a question pertaining to the necromancy, he explained. "An object belonging to the deceased and a sample of the body is all a skilled practitioner needs to bring the dead back among the living. It is not so complicated, is it?"
"Then why did the 'creature' bring you back?" Van Helsing asked.
"He's the son of the devil, Gabriel," Rawnie answered, "Don't you think he would be a good candidate for such a thing?"
"What in the world would be the purpose of bringing a thing like that back?" the man spoke again, tilting his head down towards the woman.
"Why the hell else would someone want to bring back one of the most powerful creatures?"
"She wants power," Dracula continued.
"That still doesn't tell me what she could profit from it. You're not the master of anything anymore. The vampires died with you," Van Helsing went on.
"But he's Dracula. I can't imagine that it would be a trial to create more vampires."
"It is impossible," the vampire added, bringing the others to look at him quizzically, "Though some of the less…charming features of my gift are intact, the ability that made me so indomitable in my past life have been extinguished with my death."
"Like I said, what could she profit?" Gabriel repeated.
As he thought, Rawnie sat in her corner, worrying. Being so important to such a disturbing figure was not something to be proud of. Her mind was buzzing with her own voice, thinking up reasons as to why she could serve a purpose to such a person, why Vladislaus Dragulia was recovered, and what those two reasons had to do with each other. She had been getting nothing but dead-ends since she came to the small town. Dead-ends and questions. Questions and dead-ends. It was never ending and was slowly eating at her nerves. Rubbing her forehead roughly, her body nearly jumped when the cool voice of the Count was heard again.
"That scar connects us," he whispered, almost as if he were being choked, "You and I, dear Rawnie. It is what allows me to cool you when you sweat, sooth you when you are nervous, and calm you when you feel anger," his booted feet slid across the floor closer to her sitting form. "It is what makes you see my face in your dreams…to feel my touch when you sleep…"
"What are you talking about?" Gabriel Van Helsing inquired in an equally quiet voice as he too covered the ground between Rawnie and him. The approached woman was slowly rising from her uncomfortable seat as the vampire spoke to her, head rewinding back to the velvet and lace dreams she had been pleasurable plagued with.
"It is what brings her voice and her face to your nightmares. It chases your memories of her and locks them in place."
"The…the woman in the castle?" Rawnie mumbled already getting a firm shake of the head from the Count.
"She whispers to you," he went on, voice holding a harsher edge, "Telling you, ordering you what to do, what to say. She weighs you down with her thoughts and feelings, with her bitter emotions. She is what brings you closer to me, dear Rawnie."
She stared at him for a long while, suddenly feeling like the little girl she was back when she was sprinting through the woods all those years ago.
"You know…" Rawnie started and drifted slowly.
"I can smell her in you," Dracula hummed, brushing passed a dumbfounded Van Helsing and closer to the unreadable woman.
"What is it?" she quizzed quickly and rubbed her shoulder where the scar in question was slashed, "Why is she…there, in my head?"
"She rests in you now, as you rested in her as she lived. She felt your love, your hate, your anger. Your emotions ran through her veins as hers do through yours. As are the conditions of the mark." From his distance away, the dark haired man reached out and again brushed his fingertips over the raised line of the scarring, "No matter how unintentional."
"The mark?" she breathed out.
"Verona," Van Helsing added, finally catching up to the conversation, his strong jaw tightening.
"The mark," Rawnie mimicked herself, "It's what makes me so important, isn't it?"
Dracula continued on as far as the restrains would allow him before coming to a halt before the gypsy. "It makes you the key to the power she lusts for. It is the reason you are here, the reason I was released from my hell, it is at blame for why you were sent away from this place long ago. It is what has molded your life, dear Rawnie."
Nearly the moment the former vampire master uttered her name she had turned from him and started a beeline through the door and down the long passageway, knocking over the bucket of rodents Red had left by the room before he disappeared some time ago. Van Helsing started after her, leaving Dracula standing in the room with a blank expression on his darkened features.
"Where are you going?" Van Helsing yelled after the retreating queen.
"To get a fucking, goddamn drink!"
Shorter chapter, I know. I apologize for taking so long to write up another chapter. The next will hopefully be sooner and longer. REVVVVVIIIIIEEEEWWW!