Deep Sky
A/N: First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYBODY! :D Wishing you all a lovely 2009!
Second, I need to warn you that Dracula is being extremely AU in this chapter. It will probably confuse you as to why he acted that way. But hopefully you'll understand in the future chapters! (If you're confused, I'll try to explain in the most un-spoilery way possible! (:
I am TERRIBLY SORRY for the late chapter! I have been stuck with Carl's scene for an ETERNITY! I finally got the scenes out, although it wasn't exactly the same as I imagined them in my head. The next chapter will probably be easier for me, I think! (:
I visited London for a few days last Christmas! XD It was brilliant! I think I got quite a few inspirations from the experience and I really would like to use them here – I am aching to write the memory sequence! XD It'll be coming up soon! Also, lots of lovely thank you's to my fantastic reviewers! :D And to my new wonderful friend Rose from LJ!! XD This chapter is for you! ;D
Thank you everybody for reading my story, I'm really honored that you like it! (: I couldn't have done it without your fantastic encouragements!
WARNING! Slash Included! If you are uncomfortable with these things, you should go elsewhere! I think OC-ness is inevitable! NO FLAMES PLEASE!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything except my imagination! -taps forehead with a wide grin-
Summary: A dark past had torn Dracula and Van Helsing apart, but not for long. He has captured the Hunter, but he did not intend for the Hunter to fall for the Prince instead. In the background, Carl is in search of Van Helsing, and has hidden his true feelings until now... SLASH
Inspirational Music: Stripped – Shiny Toy Guns, Circles – Hollywood Undead, Last Embrace – Northern Room, Fix You – Coldplay, The Vesion – X-Ray Dog, Nicest Thing – Kate Nash, Lighthouse – The Hush Sound, Come Here Boy – Imogen Heap, Paint it Black – Rolling Stones, Closer – Kings of Leon, So Damn Beautiful – Polaroid, Getting Away with Murder – Papa Roach, The Power of Love – Oomph!, Augen Auf – Oomph!, Spotlight (Remix) – Mute Math
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"To have memories of those you've loved and lost is perhaps harder than to have no memories at all..."
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"Don't touch me."
Van Helsing growled with a tone that chilled everything...
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Chapter Twenty One – Time Refuses to Wither
"Come, Gabriel... Do not be so foolish."
Van Helsing glared, his eyes intensified with the glow of a newborn werewolf. His skin prickled with an edge. A feral growl escaped through his clenched jaws. Tears and blood bled from his living body, escaping from his fresh wounds... Truth and lies were imprinting an icy hand over his angered conscious.
Van Helsing turned slowly to look back at where Velkan had been, moments before... The smell of his own drying blood was excruciatingly sharp, adding to his pain. I loved you... I... loved you and you... betrayed me... he thought with agony. Thinking the words alone felt as if his heart was being shredded like frail paper.
He was naive to have thought that things could have changed. That he could have possibly attempted to alter revenge into forgiveness... He should have known, and yet he always managed to disregard his own warning... Van Helsing bit his lips hard. Had everything been a lie? Was the Count telling the truth after all?
The hunter winced terribly. Unlikely... Dracula's words cannot be trusted. Every time he speaks he encloses a secret within his 'sincerity'.
His mind recalled the tormenting image of Velkan's face and eyes... it had been full of regret. Of shame and sadness. He could almost have seen the color of gray guilt in those beautiful orbs. No man without a soul could have left such a whisper of emotion behind for the victim to see. Not unless the man in question was equally hurt by what he had done.
"Gabriel..."
Van Helsing blinked slowly and when he opened his eyes, Dracula was far more closer than he would have liked. As fast as his body was able, he recoiled away.
"I've warned you before, Count... stay AWAY from me!" he snarled, his blood boiling and yet never scorching. Van Helsing glowered at Dracula who in return did not smile. His expression looked torn between perplexity and frustration.
"The Werewolf Prince is gone, my love. He is not going to come back..."
"Is he safe?"
Van Helsing's demanding eyes pierced Dracula's gaze. The Count did not hide his jealousy. Dracula drew a breath that let the hunter see a flash of white that was unmistakably the gleam of growing fangs. But this did not daunt him.
"Is he safe?"
Dracula raised his face just a little, but his eyes never left Van Helsing's. With a hiss, he whispered the word reluctantly. "Yes."
Van Helsing looked at him closely, as if to try to figure out if Dracula was lying. After a moment he broke eye contact. Dracula could see the hunter's trembling hands. The bitterness on his face loosened but lingered just a fraction on his face.
"This was destined to happen, Gabriel. You have always belonged to no one except I. No other man can ever be an equal to you nor care for you as much as I have."
Dracula stretched out one hand as if to try and grab ahold of him, but what he took in was merely empty air. Van Helsing had moved farther away from the Count, adding as much distance between the immortal as possible. Each hair in his body rose with a tense electrifying vigilance.
"You made him disappear, Count. Just because Velkan is not here, does not make me yours..." Van Helsing snarled, "Let me make this clear to you... I do not love you."
The vampire flinched but there was no hurt... or at least, not that Van Helsing could have seen. Perhaps disappointment, maybe.
Dracula smirked daringly. "We shall see about that, Gabriel."
Van Helsing's lips twitched in displeasure.
He could have said more on the matter but a sudden rush of stolen heat made his body waver unwillingly. He realized with a dread that he had lost a lot of blood. All of a sudden it was hard to breath. Silver was stiffening his bones, chapping his lips dry and drawing his strength away with ease.
In horror, he was aware that he was once again crumpling away...
Stop! No! His mind screamed in protest, trying to resist the overwhelming sleep that followed with the fall. But he couldn't fight it off. It drove every inch of his body to freeze. His vision was a shivering blur, with one single black figure that was moving forward.
Stay away... Van Helsing thought with loathe. It did nothing to grant his wish... nor stop his eyes from closing.
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Dracula caught the hunter from behind as the wind swept between them, faintly caressing both their skin.
He had an expectant smile on his face... a deceiving facade. But it vanished swiftly as his grip on Van Helsing tightened hard... and then loosened as the smell of wolf made his whole body tense in crippling affliction. The pounding blood flooded through his veins, yet it passed by so hastily that it took away the last warmth from his recent kill.
He should have known and expected what could have happened next. Usually he was good at seeing farther than the normal eye could foresee. Still... He never thought that the Prince had the strength of will to hurt his Gabriel. He had underestimated the werewolf, and for that he may forever feel rue for what he had let occur. However the contentment of finally being able to have the hunter without any other interference was a blessing... or so he had thought. It was another flaw he had miscalculated. He had thought that by ridding the Prince without him interfering, Van Helsing will realize how much he, not Velkan Valerious, cared for him. Unfortunately the filth and lies that the werewolf had fed his beloved hunter still remained.
Dracula fell to his knees, holding his Gabriel carefully like a man may hold a fragile feather. With a mournful and incandescent sound emanating deep from his throat, he pulled the hunter as close to him as possible, ignoring the changing scent. He wanted to be as near to this man, far more closer than they were now. And if he could not have the hunter's soul, then perhaps he could at least have the body that he loved with him to comfort his damaged heart. He craved the proximity far more than his blood.
"Gabriel, why can you not see? How can you not remember?" Dracula lowered his face in Van Helsing's hair. The old tranquility of sensation came back to him for just a mere second. His eyes widened in that moment. For an instant he was human. And then the emotions that made him whole scattered into misfit puzzles, fading into the distance. He was hollow again. Eternally immortal.
Dracula held onto the hunter out of necessity. His human self refused to leave nor forget his one purpose for still existing so long. However the vampire in him had not an ounce of care for this broken human. This drastic contrast of conflicting sides inside of the Count was just another reason why nobody but Gabriel understood him. Even without his memories, Dracula could see that Van Helsing still held a huge resemblance to the man he remembered. In spite of the antipathy the hunter had for the Count, the man was, at times, able to see Dracula with a faint, clement clarity. Gabriel had always been that way, and so was Van Helsing...
But I cannot live without having every part of you... I want... I yearn... for the Gabriel I had known. The man that needs releasing... The one that loved me.
The only person that really knew who I was.
Dracula close his eyes quietly. Almost immediately after opening them, a creeping red swam through his eyes like the wind might blow through one's hair. He realized now that something was amiss, and he knew it as soon as he felt the stab of interlinking feelings shoot into him without warning.
He had become the master over his beloved. An unwilling connection forged by his enemy.
Van Helsing was no longer just a human being.
He was an immortal.
A slave to his Master's will...
"NOOOOOOOO!" Dracula snarled with a yell that resonated through every inch of his fortress.
No! He cannot become a thrall to my orders... he CANNOT! After so long, I can never imprison him. He has already been forced to serve a lie his entire life. He is my lover, a man of his own thoughts and rights... I can rule him but I will not dominate him fully... No...
In an instant, he caught the cure that appeared in his hands with a curl of flurrying black smoke. His fingers closed over its clear rim, causing his pale hand to burn and sizzle from the lingering acid still streaked over the silver syringe. The vampire did not even blink in pain.
The Valerious DARED to imprint over Gabriel and make him a part of his possession... Dracula struggled hard through the turmoil causing each barrier and restraint in himself to be stretched thinly. He raised the syringe... if he directed it correctly it would puncture the hunter's bloodied neck, expelling him of the venom.
Van Helsing slept without notice, although his groans and fading color showed signs of weakness. Dracula knew he could end Van Helsing's suffering by turning him human again. Then it would be as if nothing had ever happened. The curse would be gone and his Gabriel would be mortal again. Without the fear of being hunted as a wolf, of silver, hunger and the urge to kill.
And of course, the different link that attached him to the hunter.
The denial of freedom.
He should not feel anything. He was the Son of the Devil... Demons don't feel concerned over anyone but themselves.
A lusty voice countered him with a surprisingly, reasonable thought. Have you really thought of the advantages you hold over this man, Dracula? He is fully yours now. And he will belong to you. Eventually. After all, you do remember that you always get what you want in the end. The voice snickered with a mocking laugh at the last words it spoke. Perhaps the Valerious had left you something to heal.
But Gabriel is marked by the foul, loathsome werewolf! Not by me! Dracula shivered angrily.
Well, now, that's something you let happen. You'll have to 'live' with that. But can't you see the positive side to this whole ordeal?
And what in Devil's name would that be? The Count growled to himself.
Trust... The voice spat the word with distaste. You can heal him. Gabriel is wounded by the werewolf. Use it. Make him understand that you are his, likewise he is yours.
Dracula thought about this for a silent moment. His anger still fumed but it quickly crackled away into nothingness. A smile spread like wildfire on his face, glittering his ebony eyes with purpose and elation. Yes... he would turn the tables on Velkan Valerious. He will soothe Gabriel into his calming hands... all the while dispelling anything that would take the hunter away from his side.
And... it was a good stratagem indeed.
He threw the syringe from his hand and it vanished with a shimmer, returning back to its designated place atop the fortress. Dracula caught a glimpse of his palm and saw the burns healing rapidly.
The Count leaned towards Van Helsing's neck and licked the crimson clean. His body reacted by trying to deny the red fluid that clung to his tongue and slithered down his throat. But the Count ignored it. He just kissed the wound softly and without rushing, cradling the hunter's body to him without a hint of letting go. The intense taste of Van Helsing's cursed blood paralyzed his senses for a moment, causing a smoldering heat to crawl through his skin. The new and foreign sensation made Dracula release an astonished gasp, his whole body shaken violently from the experience. The smell of Van Helsing's hair and the taste of him wrung his subconscious and made him mesmeric to anything else.
His eyes were ashine with gold.
However quickly the effects subsided. The color in his eyes faded back to blue. Dracula looked down at Van Helsing's neck and he could see the ripped flesh repairing itself, closing up the last of where the blood had come from. Dracula licked his lips with a smug grin.
They were a poison and a cure to each other – one could not be without the other...
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Miles away, a small friar smiled for another reason...
He had made it!
Carl looked up at the ancient, faded mansion covered with jade poison ivy in relief and triumph. After trekking through the forest which he had miraculously made through alive, he now stood in front of the wooden door that led into the building that once stood as one of many headquarters for the Holy Order. These were the very steps and lands where the Gypsy King and the Holy Knights, one including the significant youth, Vladislaus Dragulia, had once stepped into. It was an entrance that led to another unsolved mystery and a trail of misplaced truths.
Years of abandonment had left the residence in a devastating state. The wind had let the protective walls of the building crumble away in time. Clearly no one had set foot inside for a while. And it was no wonder. In these surrounding wilderness, no one with the right mind would have come all this way knowing that they may be savagely killed by the dark beasts living in these forests.
With a deep breath, the friar took a step forward. He took a firm grip of the doorknob and turned it to the left. And to his surprise, it opened without a fuss. A peculiar rush of wind blew out to greet him, causing his face to screw up just a little. Dust wasn't exactly a friendly companion of his.
His eyes stretched out to the relatively small hallway that led to several rooms and large hallways. A stairway spiraled upwards just a few steps away. It smelt of history, of fading tobacco smoke that still clung to the walls. He walked in slowly, looking at each section of the rooms on the first floor. Many of the objects owned by the Valerious family were left as they were.
That's strange... No one would have left all their belongings behind without good reason... Carl thought with a perplexed look on his face. His feet quickly carried him to the lounge where at least three tall bookshelves stood connected to the walls, along with a few richly embellished chairs and one big canape that sat in the middle.
The Friar's curiosity peaked, he walked over to the bookshelves. He brushed off the ashes of age from the spines of the books that had also been deserted like the Manor. He blew the smear of dust off his hands with his brown rob. His eyes grew wide with fascination at the titles of the books. Quite a few included the rules of the Order, and others of history. Another included a biography of one Knight's account in his life. Sometimes he found ancient novels written about folklore and legends. He took one black covered book in his hand and opened the page where the ribbon bookmark had been last left, causing a puff of dust to blow into his face.
Carl coughed for a few seconds before his eyes caught the visual picture of the devil staring right up at him, its coal black eyes staring upwards with a hideous grin that shook his whole body into a mighty shiver. With a frightened squeak, Carl dropped the book.
Oh lord, Carl thought, his heart pounding hard in his chest. I thought I was about to suffer from immobility looking at that picture!
The friar decided that it was better to leave the book where it was. And he was, in all truths, too timid to approach the book. Perhaps it was time for him to move around the rooms and explore a little bit more. Carl could guess quite perfectly why the Valerious had left bookmark in that particular page.
He moved away from the lounge and rushed up the spiraling stairs. He had a feeling that this floor was where Dracula had stayed when he was a young Valerious.
For a few minutes he took the time to search each room, look under the beds, open the drawers, investigate the closet and the small bookshelves.. None of which led him to a significant clue until he entered the last room left on the second floor.
"I hope I find something here, because if I don't, there's nothing else I can do but..." Carl spoke to himself, but couldn't continue with his trailing sentence. He knew he'd have to go back to the Vatican if he couldn't find any more clues that led him to Van Helsing. The Order will send someone else to find the hunter. But Carl also knew that if he failed to find Van Helsing, then it was highly possible that no one after him will be able to either. But he wasn't about to lose hope yet.
Come on, Carl, you have one more room to look! a voice in his mind urged him and he nodded with a tingle of aspiration running down his back.
The room was richly furnished, with a small bookshelf, a large mirror that glittered despite the grime that clung to its surface, a huge bed graced with delicate designs of gold, red, orange and black. There was also a window that looked out towards the green slope that fell downwards to the overgrowth of trees. Outside, the sky, which had usually consisted of the color gray, now showed a hint of blue from under its frowning clouds.
Carl walked up to the bookshelf and quickly skimmed through them, opening and flipping them in a flurry before shutting them with a soft, gentle 'dun'. He did this to all the books, carefully taking them into his hands like a real librarian and yet enveloping them in a gentle cradle like a new father. The smell of musty books surrounded him but he didn't mind. He was used to it, and it actually comforted him, giving him a small moment of relaxation flowing through his body. It was familiar and nostalgic. It made him wish he was once again away from the cold, unknown room and back in his favorite seat beneath the Order's weaponry. The smell also heightened his senses.
He had just taken the seventh book in his grip when something white slipped out of it. Carl's eyebrows furrowed with interest. He leaned down and took what looked to be an envelope into his hand. He settled himself onto a chair that had been sitting beside the desk across the bed.
Carl flipped the envelope around, and his breath caught in his throat. In black, cursive ink the words, "Vladislaus" was written in handsome penmanship. For a moment he couldn't tear his eyes off of the name. Then he noticed something in the way it was written that made him feel as if he knew who might have written it. Carl couldn't exactly figure out whose handwriting it was... But he had seen it somewhere before.
But it is impossible! It has to be! Carl thought to himself, pursuing his lips. He pushed the thought aside from his mind.
Quickly, he opened the envelope (which had previously been opened before by a letter opener) and took out the neatly folded envelope. Within seconds he had pulled the letter out and unfurled it into his anxious hands, reading it with a fervor.
Dear Vladislaus,
How are you, my dear friend? Hope you are well? I have missed your company tremendously over the passing days. The Jews and the Romans still have not gotten along with each other as well as one should. It is tiring to think of all the vain deaths that surround this battle between the two similar men with different beliefs.
Your father is readying us all to be prepared for a possible war. He seems quite sure that something ominous is about to happen.
How is the Holy Order faring without me? I dare say there have been some unresolved cases without my insight into the matter, but I shall straighten them correctly when I return. Hopefully everything will become peaceful here in these foreign lands as well.
I miss the cold winter... the sun seems to have no effect in warming me here. I long for your smile that melted the ice of my heart.
I look forward to hearing back from you, brother.
Take care of yourself for me.
I shall be with you soon.
Yours truly,
Gabriel
GABRIEL. Carl thought his whole heart stop a second before it beat again. He understood it now. The handwriting... it had been Van Helsing's. The little friar had rarely seen the hunter actually write anything often, but when he did, he had seen the man flick his 'r's and smudge his 'i's at some point. He was seeing the exact same replica of the hunter's writing in this very letter that was far more older than him.
He looked up from the letter with a smile of hope... but his eyes shadowed disquiet.
Dracula knew Van Helsing in the past...
Van Helsing had known Dracula...
Carl felt his heart grow heavy. He didn't understand why... but he did not like it. The thought of Van Helsing and Dracula as friends and as brothers-in-arms made him sick with disgust. But there was now a chance that Van Helsing had survived his encounter from the Count because of this reason.
The possible affirmation of Van Helsing alive made him incredibly happy and optimistic... but it failed to surround him with relief. On the other hand, it made him fret and quickly his euphoria burned away with dread.
There was a reason why Van Helsing was left without his memories, for Dracula to die and be brought back as a vampire and for this undead man to abduct the very man he had once known in his past a long time ago. There was still the mystery of Dracula's unknown sinner who he had sacrificed his mortal life to. And there was the Order and Cardinal Jinette's order to seize Van Helsing with any means possible. The old man would not have written this in the telegram without a good motive. Something about all these holes in the puzzle Carl now felt obligated to uncover was suspicious and disturbing.
I wonder if Van Helsing knew... Carl thought softly to himself with a sad frown embarking a trail over his face. He had always considered himself a true friend that stood by Van Helsing no matter what happened. Though he was not exactly one to put a foot out to join Van Helsing's assignments outside, he had tried to supply more than just weapons. Everything that had happened between the hunter had now led him to this. From the very beginning when he was no more than a young Friar-in-training, he had loved Van Helsing. While many averted their gazes away from the darkly clad, cynical monster hunter, he drew closer to this man from the fascination and beauty that he seemed to represent in young Carl's eyes...
FLASHBACK
"Mr. Van Helsing?"
Carl watched as the man in front of him, this creature dressed completely in black, slowly turn his head to look up at him. He, a freshly recruited Friar - a scientist and man of God, captivated with the mechanism of weapons, engineering and chemical substance, stood in front of this hunter who had killed the creatures from hell single-handedly for the good of mankind.
Van Helsing raised an eyebrow at the friar, his lips turned downwards on the right edge in annoyance. His dark brown hair cascaded carelessly down his shoulder and the tips were still wet from being subjected to riding in the rain with a wide-rimmed hat that matched the colors of his clothes.
"Yes?"
Carl smiled unflinchingly in spite of the overwhelming gaze Van Helsing was directing at him.
He had heard whispered rumors of this man's deeds and reputation. Everybody warned him to stay out of Van Helsing's way, because he was 'without a heart' as many seemed to put it. It was as if they tolerated his presence only because he was needed. He was not liked and nobody with the right mind would have come any closer if they cared for their dear souls.
And Carl could see that the hunter knew he was only here out of necessity as well.
"I thought I would introduce myself to you, seeing as I would be making all your weapons for your future assignments" Carl started, which made Van Helsing's cold demeanor loosen just a little. "My name is Carl." He stretched out his hand warmly and without a fear.
Van Helsing seemed taken aback by the sudden welcome this young man seemed to want to share with him, but instead of pushing Carl away with a snide remark, he took the Friar's hand in a firm grip.
"Pleasure," He answered gruffly, which earned the hunter a exhilarated grin from the Friar.
Carl released Van Helsing's hand, which was far bigger than his own. It made his own look small and fragile compared to the hunter's, which were edged with more palm lines. He seemed to have been standing there for a few passing seconds, absorbed in his thoughts because when he came to again, he was looking right into Van Helsing's eyes.
His lips let out a soft gasp of shock from the pulchrtide view of the hunter's deep orbs that glimmered with an exquisiteness that could have matched God's own.
"Why aren't you afraid of me, friar?" Van Helsing asked bluntly. He seemed slightly deterred, as if the magic he had cast had suddenly stopped working, which led him to seeking the reason for its inactivity.
Carl thought about it for a moment, but it took only a second to find the reason.
"Because there's nothing to be afraid of."
For the first time since their strange meeting, a smile slowly emerged on Van Helsing's lips. And Carl knew that this time, this man wasn't feeling all that alone anymore.
END OF FLASHBACK
Carl felt a hot tear roll down his cheek and he realized that he was crying. He hadn't done that since he found out that Van Helsing might be dead. His reminiscing had brought about a wave of sorrow and loneliness that he hadn't known was growing inside of him. He moaned. He missed him.
"I miss you, Van Helsing... Far more than you ever realized..." The friar spoke into the empty room, clutching the letter with a tightening fist.
Then bring him back! The same voice that always brought him out of his depression shouted at him with a vigor of determination. Save him from the Count.
"But how...?" Carl said with a trailing voice.
Find out everything about Dracula.
Anything you can...
Find out how to Kill Him.
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A/N: So what do you think? Sorry I know it's a bit short! I'll be uploading as soon as possible cause I can't wait to write the next bit which will be Velkan! XD Stay tuned! :P
My life would be full of fluff and inspiration if you leave me a review! :3 Thanks so much for reading!