Chapter 19
I am finally done with my exams. So happy.
As for the story, I know I said December but refurnishing the apartment got postponed until next year so I have time to spare on my story. I will try to post once a week, the next 3-4 chapters are, mostly done and after that I have some brainstorming to do since I lost one of my notebooks in which I wrote some really good ideas…I have to rethink them, sadly.
Anyways that's mostly it for now and enjoy chapter 19.
p.s The name Cneajna from my last chapter is, in case you were wondering, the name I found to belong to Vlad's mother after some initial research and so I went ahead and used it to make the plot seem more real.
Also I hope I got all the grammar errors out of the way so, hopefully, you won't find any.
Chapter 19
"Eternity was never wasted upon the likes of you." A stake appeared to her right laying next to her body on the soft, crimson matters and sinking in ever so slightly under its own weight. "My beautiful draculina."
Humans truly were so very incomprehensible
The azure blue of his human eyes turned blood red once more…
And then…when he grinned…fangs peered from under his thin, pale lips.
"Make it stop." Seras pleads weakly bringing her other hand over her side and abdomen.
"You will not close your eyes if I do." He demands further enforcing her own admission of 'waking' when the pain would stop and all would be over. Seras inhales deeply, her back arching a few mm of the matters as particular sharp wave washes over her.
"Elena was right." Vlad caresses her left cheek trying to soothe her pain if only a little." I would ask, if only for my own selfish reasons." How bitter irony truly was.
"Master is not selfish."
"So much more than you think." He corrects her turning his attention to the stake resting beside her and by turning his head she follows until her eyes too fall of the accursed object. The wooden stake was completely black in color though the scent of fresh blood emanated for the darker parts of its body. The tip was silver, a thin metal sheet nailed into the wood itself.
"I've used it many times, some just close and others straight through the heart." Telling her this he showed her an image of his older self walking through the same field and heading towards the large, barren, black tree. He wore the same armor as seen in his memories and his long hair and cape fluttered in the night wind, eyes red and ablaze like hellfire, pearl white fangs glistening in the light of the full moon above him. His right arm reached out for one of the thicker branches breaking it off as though it were nothing but an insignificant little twig and thin as a piece of string.
"And a few times more by instigating Abraham against me. He was the one to tip my stake with silver." His tone then grew serious as did the look in his eyes. "Do you remember the cat boy Seras?"
No." she answers looking up into his face once again. "Should I?"
"His power was to exist in all plains at once, to be anywhere, everywhere and nowhere at the same time. But only if he recognized himself could he not lose purpose. And when Millennium came…"
"Who?" she interrupts him with a question most innocently asked, yet one that saddened him causing his eyes to betray him by depicting it if only for a second before he corrected it hardening his gaze anew.
"Do not concern yourself with them, they matter not. Not anymore."
"Master?"
"They matter not." He repeats bringing his right hand to her mouth and tracing her bottom lip softly with the pad of his index finger. "His blood poisoned mine and I lost myself to the many souls I had taken by the blood I drank from my victims, all 3.424.867 of them. In the end though I could recognize myself, but you could not when the same blood had been used against you. It not only broke you as it did me, but tilted the balance I had already made with my own tainted blood when that sword pierced your heart. Though I gave it to you to drink you drowned within its darkness and barely survived. You lost so much that there is perhaps no more than a thimble of your own uncorrupted blood left inside of you while the rest is mine. The very part that is still to this day keeping you alive."
"I'm here." Seras whispers, though she no longer has any strength to move at all. "I still live and…"
"All vampires die when pierced through he head or heart just as I've told in the memories shared. There was never a vampire to…there was always just me." He corrects himself with small chuckle. It was just so ironic.
"And in 600 I had time to look and experiment. And always, time and time again, I found myself alone in a world undead that could not understand me. I experimented though not with you, never with you draculina. You were forever different. No vampire, not ever, refused to drink offered blood." The look in his eyes became somewhat distant as the words echo around them inside the confinement of his black coffin. He then remains silent as if thinking it over while still tracing the shape of her lips and then slowly moving down her chin to the angle of her jaw.
"Master?"
He remains just as silent and distant and his hand moves lower dipping with her Adam's apple as she swallows. He stops only at the base of her throat and the thin black string circling it. He blinks banishing the haze from his eyes while casting his gaze back down meeting her crimson eyes. "So beautiful draculina…" he murmurs leaning down to capture her lips in a small caste kiss. A touch and nothing more….
Seras stands still at first, but as his lips continue to slowly move over hers teasingly caressing and coaxing them to reciprocate. She shuts her tired eyes with a sigh giving in and placing herself entirely within his trust. Strange….Yet no matter what happened, kissing the boy instead of the man never seemed to be odd and out of place. It was strange to never feel the difference or act upon it.
"I will show you…" he tells her breaking the kiss only to say those words. Black slowly tendrils encased her arms and legs without warning softly pinning her to the mattress while the bandages around her chest unraveled and faded with the exception of two: one remaining wrapped around her waist to hold her while the other moved to grab the stake bringing it directly over her heart, the tip pricking her skin and drawing a tiny and barely visible bead of blood despite the large quantity already coating the middle of her chest above her heart. "I will show you more...as promised…."
There was no warming to the pain or the feel of the stake pushing through her chest crushing bone and tearing flesh as it plowed though her ribcage heading straight for her heart. "Your heart never healed. I will see it done now." The harshness and confidence of his words echoes around the enclosed space of the large coffin. They were the last words she heard before the heavy scent of her blood and darkness surrounded her swallowing her whole. Sound disappeared and her back arched despite the tendril holding her down. "And once it is done…"
Everything went…black….
Then it comes…sharp and brutal and excruciating as though she were engulfed in ice cold water hundreds of degrees below the freezing point. Her eyelids snapped open to her body falling into nothingness, a dark void which gave off the distinct g sensation of drowning and sinking into an endless pool of water. She sank further and further distancing herself from the sole source of crimson light high above. It kept getting small, smaller and smaller, until it became but a fleck on a large wide window. Masses of blood surrounded her leaking from her body. The crimson tendrils swirled around her while also moving upward like blotches of ink purposely released into a glass of clean water. They mixed with her silver hair, mixed with the water and the darkness as she continued to fall further and deeper into the endless abyss distancing herself from the warmth and comfort of the crimson light above…master's coffin...
Was this death?
The first part of the dissent, as her eyes had just opened, took place in a slow and steady pace which allowed her body to fall backwards until it assumed a fully horizontal position. Afterwards, once the blood came, she felt like dropping hard, fast with no purpose whatsoever then to simply fall deeper and deeper into despair and lose herself entirely to the cold and welcoming darkness; darkness she was yet to feel for the first time...
There is but one chance to survive…
Her head tilted back exposing the arch of her throat and her small Adams' apple; her face was lost to the darkness, the blood and the silver strands. Every ounce of life energy was leaving her the more she descended into the unknown void.
A thimble…there is but a thimble left…
Both the words and the voice creating them appeared as a gentle and hesitating whisper that grew along the path of her demise. Hope or false hope, she could not even tell if it was real or not. And still her right arm rose leaving the safety of her body reaching for something her eyes could not see. Hope maybe…the thimble or just the haunting voice so beautifully whispered. Then the small, barely visible crimson dot high above her head disappeared and bright blinding light surrounded her.
"It was fun to watch, you being the only who could relate to my presence being there."
Seras's eyes snapped open to a room and no longer cold and empty space filled with nothing but darkness. A cold floor…she lay upon a cold stone floor, the frail remains of the bandages still tightly wrapped around her bare chest and the black pants covering legs though her feet were bare. Her long silvery hair was pooled all around her shoulders and upper body like a halo marred with streaks of blood. And as the haunting voice continued to speak her head lazily turned to the right were a second body, far larger than hers and cloaked by a white sheet, lay beside her though the sheet was mostly stained in blood.
"No one else saw, though I used to walk right beside them….I would whisper and I would talk…and would forever be damned to the stillness of the shadows…"
To her left lay another body though smaller and much more petite in size, just like her…just like…
Seras's vision cleared a bit more and…it was her…Her hair was short and strawberry blonde, bangs and blood covering her face, and her clothing consisted of a crimson red uniform, shirt and skirt, and black thigh high socks. A crooked sword, a bayonet, was sticking out of her chest as a trickle of blood seeped from the right corner of her mouth.
"Seras…" Her head jerks back into place looking up and into the face of the young blue eyed, raven haired boy hovering over her. The twin bodies remain around her though the emptiness around her changes.
"See that?" he tells her gesturing with his head forward silently urging her to stand up and look for herself. "I used to walk through the halls and no one would see."
Complying Seras pushes herself up on her elbows sitting up with great effort and keeping her back to the boy. And in front of her was a whole other world, images playing out before her eyes.
It was a room in the dungeon, her room to be exact, and she could see herself there sleeping in a bed, covers drawn up to her waist and the thin strip of her top down over her left shoulder as she lay on her right side with her right hand beneath the pillow and the left a bit over it. A dark brown coffin was close by, though not used and without the lid being open. And next to her, sitting on the bed, was…
"I only ever go a reaction from you." He tells her coming closer to stand by her right side and watch the image unfold with her. "No one else could see me or feel me...touch me as you could. I was a ghost to everyone but you. Pale shadow banished to darkness…lost…"
The boy sat on the bed, blue eyes sad yet content to watching her sleep as his right hand slowly moved down her bare shoulder tracing its slender curve with the back of his fingers. Seras hummed softly curling further into the warmth of her pillow and making the boy smile. As his hand moved upward finding her cheek she would lean into his touch whispering a very soft 'master' that could barely be heard and curl her body just a tad more into the warm sheets. A moment later Vlad's left hand slipped beneath her left, fingers curling and entwining with hers while waiting for hers to squeeze back as he allowed himself the simple pleasure of lying down next to her by placing his head on the pillow next to their joined hands. He doesn't say a word. He does nothing but smile softly when his patience is reward a few moments later when she not only squeezes back but pulls their joined hand closer to her chest and head burring them under her chin.
"If I could be anywhere I wanted, everywhere at the same time just like the cat boy, I experimented and found that it could easily be done as I wished. But when I tried go further, tap deeper into that power, I found myself looking into my own eyes."
The image before them shifted and instead of the neatly decorated room an empty one took its place with hardly any furniture at all except for the throne like chair, the small table and the pitch black coffin. Two figures were in the middle of the room, one tall and standing the other short and in the process of getting up from the floor. Blue eyes starred back at crimson, yet both seemed equally emotionless when faced with each other; both having the exact same expression that…
"We don't really get along you know, him and I." The prince whispers smiling though his words are sarcastic and his smile an ironic one. "I'm still…I still pretend at being human while he pretends being an emotionless t…" there he pauses anew closing his eyes and, with a much softer smile, changes the subject. It would not do to tell her all his secrets just yet. Nevertheless he shows her more even if it meant revealing his words in another fashion.
"We're hurting her." Vlad said as he sat barefoot on the bed with his knees drawn up to his chest and both arms wrapped around his legs. The sleeping form of the stardust haired beauty lay on his left in a semi fetal position: legs drawn up and arm holding tightly to one of the pillows for support. Her sleep was peaceful and she made absolutely no sound at all. Both the creased sheet and dark grey cape were wrapped around her petite frame in protective fashion so that only her calves some of the upper body stuck out from under them. Her arms and the upper portion of her back, the shoulder blades mostly, were left exposed to the touch of the night's air yet even they were somewhat covered by rebel silvery white strands as the majority of those silky locks lay over and under her right side. The thin red ribbon with a golden dragon was tied around her left wrist.
Seras looked down at her wrist in sheer reflex seeing the same small bangle wrapped around it anew. However, as the conversation between the two continued, she didn't have much time to ponder over the fact in question.
"We shouldn't do this anymore." His head dropped so that he could rest his forehead on his knees. His words were met with silence from the elder whose back remained turned towards him shielded by the thick curtain of long, wavy raven hair and the white shirt beneath it. The vampire stood facing the open balcony door of the circular room she remembered waking in back at the castle just two steps from crossing the threshold and stepping out into the night. The sky was getting darker as clouds rapidly covered the full moon blown by the strong wind dominating the uncivilized mountain range.
Alucard's head turned halfway but his crimson eyes remained hidden. The flickering light of the two candles posted on the only bedside table left of the bed accentuated the light scuff of his dark beard. By saying nothing he had already given a more than satisfactory answer.
"The pain's starting again." Vlad continued after that long silence. He turned to glance at the sleeping figure of the young draculina next to him. His eyes held an incredibly soft expression. "She'll sleep for a long time."
"Make sure you take care of her there. That's your priority, when the time comes." Alucard replied and as he spoke he turned from the window and started pacing through the room, his boots making no sound at all as they touched the stone floor.
"Why do this? We shouldn't make her endure this. It is cruel."
"She was happy, it's all that matters."
"Don't say that!" the prince shouted as though enraged by the lack of sentiment from his companion, himself, in spite of the events not moments old. His hands balled into fists. "Don't," he sobbed, shoulders starting to tremble without the slightest control. "Don't say it like that. And she's not happy, she doesn't know happy! She died…"
"You loved it. The utter surrender she showed to us!"
The way in which the vampire spoke 'love' brought on searing pain in the boy's heart. Every word that came from that mouth was devoid of any emotion; they were just facts and events either passed or soon to take place.
"We weren't supposed to. You're the one who promised never again!" Vlad raised his head and uncovered his guild written face. Yes, it was true. He had 'loved it' as it were. How couldn't he have when it shown so beautifully, so sincerely from the young draculina? When he'd never had such 'love' in his lonely life. When every drop of her depleting blood was utterly…
"I'm not the one who gave in." again the words cut in deep. Genuine tears of regret flowed freely like a river from the child's eyes. She would not understand and she would not forgive when 'the time came' as his other self put it. They'd taken advantage of that one moment of weakness on her behalf to pray victim to their own moment of weakness. Nothing would change that. And he knew most of all the 'horror' of being at someone else's mercy and sick desire no matter the circumstances. Finally, not bearing it any longer Vlad shouted whilst crying: "Let me tell her!"
The crystal clear drops fly away from his face in the sudden move his head makes while doing so. It takes less than a heartbeat for the answer to come. A strong, firm hand marred with an ancients seal grabs hold of the front of his black shirt and pulls him violently over the bed frame. His knees retain the contact with the soft mattress but the upper half of his body stays suspended over the edge of the bed and the headboard as the elder's hand holds him tightly.
"Do not!" Alucard threatens in all seriousness while leaning down towards the distraught boy. His crimson eyes bore into his own with incredible malice and anger at the ocean blue orbs committed to the sinful act of 'crying'. "Do not." He repeats much calmer, but just as strongly and imposing. Still, a fresh new wave of crystal clear drops leak from the boy's eyes and trickle down his face in defiance.
"She's everything." The youngling whispers with a broken yet true voice. The hurt in his eyes and heart reflects genuine despair in those three single words. The two stared each other down a while longer before the vampire snarls, releases his collar and pushes the boy backwards on the bed rather forcefully. He watches for a second or so longer then straightens his posture and turns his back to him. The fingers of his hands clench so tight his knuckles turn pure white in comparison to the otherwise ivory white tone of his skin. He then stood in silence and listened as the mattress bobbed with the boy's movement upon it.
After being pushed down Vlad braced his fall with his elbows. His body lay sprawled on the bed next to the draculina's still sleeping form with his knees the only part still bent as they had retained their initial position after being lifted up and pulled forward.
"You may tell her anything but that." Alucard tells the other side of his soul after lastly calming down. His tone no longer sounded so impartial or as emotionless as it had before. Vlad quietly sits up, but holds his head down nonetheless. The new position offered his tears a new path down his thin cheeks and chin; they stained the mattress one round drop after another.
"She stays with us." Vlad said through silent tears whishing his words to come out as a question and not a fact though they never did. The truth of the matter was that it wasn't a question to be asked at all, it was a reality; cruel and selfish just as he'd created it.
"Then why is this day such sin?" the elder countered.
"I don't want her to hate me."
Vlad cried whispering that fateful sentence whereas the vampire merely grimaced sarcastically, the left corner of his upper lip curling upward. "Seras doesn't…"
Just as he said her name the draculina sighed in her sleep and pulled her legs closer to her chest accentuating the fetal position she rested in. Her left hand slipped form beneath the cover of the pillow in the wake of her sweet, innocent sigh coming dangerously close to the young boy. The red of the ribbon leaped into life as soon as it touched the grey and white covers, sheet and cape. Vlad's tears increased tenfold and he gasped out loud pleading.
"Let me…"
"No!" he was cut down by the intensity of the growl before he could do anymore damage. "She has survived without us before. She will again."
"But I need her! I need her!" and that was the truth, nothing but the genuine truth. The young prince's heart was breaking and there wouldn't be anyone to pick up the pieces and put them back together. He wanted one thing to be his and his alone; one thing in the miserable and retched existence of his own failed and unwanted life. One thing…was that so mush to ask for…to pray for….
Even so, Alucard's next words had him looking up in wonder at the man before him.
"You're the one who gets to say goodbye." the tone used was filled with sorrow and acceptance. Alucard's head was turned facing the young vampire and his sorrowful ruby eyes starred down at her roaming slowly and discreetly over her body many times over yet always stopping for a second or two more over her face and over her parted full rosy lips which offered just a glimpse at the pointy fangs resting below the surface. "You know just as I do that to have glory is to bask in its presence till the very end however fleeting it may be. And one day I won't be there, just you." Moving his left hand over the surface of the small table next to the bed he picks up the small black box resting on top of it.
"I don't want to hear it."
"Yet you want to tell her." Alucard replies in a mocking manner. "More so you want t…"
"I want to see something more than darkness and cold each time I close my eyes or open them. Just as you do and have for so long a time a now. You at least live; I just bask in death and the crumbs you throw me." The boy says interrupting him. A moment later though the tone of his voice lowers becoming a tiny whisper filled with sadness. "The world never cared about me. You at least they fear, you they learned to fear, to respect, but I don't even exist. They don't even see me." Raising his head he turns it to watch s sleep. "And you've never let me see her since that night. I must always go before she wakes. I must always be nothing."
"And if she saw you what then? You are nothing…a faded past unworthy of remembering. What is there to see in the likes of you?"
The words were beyond cruel, and cruelty itself was a kind word to be used. And it was at that moment that Seras sighed for a second time, though far lighten then before. The boy's attention was once again drawn to her as he slowly began wiping the moisture from his face and reddened cheeks with the back of his right sleeve. Her hand, her skin…they were so inviting. They were a touch he could he have, hope within the void his world had become. At least he could touch and see her.
"It doesn't matter." The boy replies reaching out for her bare shoulder and tenderly tracing it with the tips of his fingers. "As long as she just…saw me..."
"And you did." He whispers still looking at her face never having taken his eyes off her as she followed the scene with the utmost interest. She only turned to look at him when he softly spoke to her as the image disappeared, fading into nothingness. "And I've always wanted to meet you."
"What must you tell me?" she asks.
"The lie that was once the truth."
"Don't you dare….don't you dare leave me!" Seras screamed from the pit of her lungs before cutting her hand on his sharp teeth. Her entire underarm was bleeding due to three deep cuts she made appear letting the rich crimson fill his mouth and run down his throat as her other hand massaged it to make the liquid go down.
Seras immediately turned to look at the sound of her own voice screaming in desperation. But the scene before her eyes, her and the large black wolf she was feeding some of her blood too, made no sense.
The silver bullets were pushed out of his body, bones resetting, flesh healing and wounds closing up. His spine fusing, nerves connecting with each other and making him his own body once more. His chest quickly moved up and down inhaling her intoxicating scent, a growl like moan leaving his opened mouth as he registered her body so very close to him as she'd fallen over him, right on his chest, her head resting on his throat just next to his right shoulder as she lay on her left side. Her skin still glowed in the light of the moon, a thin lair of crimson sweat covering it as the last of her shadows retracted into her soul and left her flesh exposed to his hungry gaze.
Turning on his side he moved the arm she was resting on so his hand could take hold of her slender waist as he supported himself on that elbow. The other one he place on the right side of her face and throat. Motionless she laid there within his strong arms, her head tilted back as he began to lick the blood from under her chin and then her shoulder.
"Seras…" His deep voice purred in pure lust and pleasure. "…..sweet, beautiful Seras…."
"I don't understand. What is this…"
"Just look." Vlad tells her keeping his eyes focused on the yet again shifting scene urging her to do the same. A cave appeared next. And in it…
"What did I do to you?" She asks the pitch black wolf.
"You connected your soul to mine and sent me a piece of it. Like I did to you four years ago when Iscariot hurt you badly and you then followed me around like a lost puppy for nearly a month. We were connected."
"Can I do it again?"
The question wasn't offered adequate reply as the image faded before any could be given.
"That is the lie, all of it and yet just part of it." He says with an audible sigh. "We did connect, but not then and not like that. That is the first lie. Whereas the second one is the very scene you saw. Everything, from that moment mentioned, 'four years ago when Iscariot hurt you' was the lie I let you live with in utter ignorance of what truly happened. The truth was you in that bed while we argued, the truth was…" He pauses allowing the darkness in front of them to begin shifting in preparation for what was to come. "It was a year not a month that you lost and in that time I…"
"I don't want to see."
She interrupts him shutting her eyes lowering and turning her head to the left at the same time. Her long bangs fall forward over her shoulders covering her face. Yet regardless of her actions new images formed begging to be looked at.
Figures were beginning to appear out of the dark mist: Seras running down the halls of the dungeon towards her master's chamber wearing an emerald green Victorian styled dress and golden pendant hanging from her throat. The sound of her boots slowly growing in intensity the clearer the image became.
"You must." He calmly requests while reaching for her right shoulder with his right hand. He's almost close enough to touch the ball of her shoulder, a few mm more, when he stops seeing them shake. He could barely notice it at first, but when the sound of her voice calling 'master' and the squeak of the large metal door reaches them both he would have been a fool to further ignore her silent plea. She jerked form his touch whispering…
"Please…" so softly…so sadly…
His head lowers eyes saddening at the notion. The shadows stop parting and the image comes to a halt just as the door is opened and Seras steps in wearing than damned green Victorian dress.
"You have to see." He whispers in return in the same pleading manner. "Please."
"I don't want to." She tells him a second time raising her head and straightening her shoulders.
"You won't understand if I don't show yo…."
"No!" she shouts turning to face him and her crimson eyes blaze red with anger as a newly born fire startling him. Vlad gasps in surprise remaining silent, yet as soon as he does the fire in her tone and eyes dies out with remorse taking over. Her gaze drops lips parting as she speaks anew. "I…" she sighs and her eyes close. "I don't want to see anymore."
"Seras…"
"I don't hate you."
Her words render him silent and it's quite the sight for her, as she reopens her eyes, to see the way his features change right in front of her: they go from sadness over her refusal, to surprise and disbelief the next and then, finally, wonder and…
"I don't need to see. You don't have to show me. It's enough…it doesn't matter…I…" Her smile is soft and genuine as her right hand reaches for his cheek brushing a few loose raven strands behind his ear. "I won't hate you."
"Why?" he can't help but ask, yet again amazed by her words. She 'stays', she doesn't hate, she trusts all so easily. Why? Why? Why? There it was again, that god damned word he was beginning to despise from the bottom of his cursed soul 'WHY?' Was there any other form of torture worse than that god forsaken word and its answer? There must be, there has to be. He's seen hell, he's lived through it and the flames it spewed…death was a helpless child compared to the things he's done, suffered and seen. So why? Why?
His eyes search her face, but it doesn't betray the smallest of emotion. She just keeps smiling and caressing his cheek…in silence….bitter, agonizing silence. Yet soothing and comfortable silence at the same time while the shadows moved to cover whatever image from the past he would have still needed to show her. "Why can't you…" he begins to ask with a genuine hint of desperation as to why she keeps refusing to answer. Why? It was such a simple question, so simple. I don't' hate because….because…Why? Why couldn't she just tell him why? Was it so much to ask for? Was it…was so hard to hate him as he rightfully deserved?
She leans her resting her forehead against his never stopping to caress his cheek or smile. He doesn't even notice the tears running down his face until her thumb softly wipes them away.
"I can see you…" her lips brush against his forehead whispering soft and tender words into his ears. "I'll always see you my master." She pauses. "Don't cry."
Vlad closes his eyes leaning into her touch a little more. "I am not your master." He hisses as though spewing venom from his lips whishing now with all his might that she would just hate him. Tears fall and he's helpless to stop them. "The stake went though your heart and..." His voice drops almost breaking at the feel of her lips brushing the corner of his mouth in a feather like touch barely noticed. Seras only hums in reply acknowledging his words in a gesture that tears at his soul worse than the sharpest weapon. She then moves her hand from his cheek over to the back of his head and her fingers play with a few charcoal strands as they treaded through them at a slow and soothing pace.
The prince is left unable to raise his head and look her in the eyes. How can he? In that one gesture she's condemned him to hell. His head drops lower till his black bangs hide his face away.
For the love and glory of God just hate me! Why can't you hate me? Why? Why? Why? He can't help but scream over and over…is mind so utterly numb that everything around them crumbles. Hate me…hate me…scream, shout, insult or just hit me. Anything…anything but the retched blissful hung she was giving him. Love…
God he was beginning to hate that word, hate it with every fiber of his being.
Just hate me!
He screams with everything he's got, every ounce of self loathing he can find.
Just…hate m…why?...why?...why?...
He never finishes that train of though despite the urgency and rapid flow of his words as a last resort to have her listen to him, to have her acknowledge the utter disgrace that he was. His shoulders tremble and his voice is lost and broken. He's so useless…such nothing. The dirt she tramples upon has more worth than him. He can't even look at her.
He can't feel the touch as her mouth covers his drowning up the sound of his voice, his mind and his suffering in a matter of seconds; soft, moist and fleeting.
Bliss…
Then it all goes black and he's pushed out of her mind…for good.
The silence that follows is unbearable.
Why can't you just hate me?
.
.
.
Why can't you just hate me?
The sound of the boy's broken voice echoes in the dark, dust filled room of the underground mausoleum from within the pitch black coffin hidden inside the broken sarcophagus.
A prince does not cry…
.
Why…do you love me?
.
.
Silence was all that God left him with.
.
.
.
The hall was quite and empty when Elena reemerged from Integra's room having left her and the small infant safely asleep under the power of her spell, a spell that would not break until the early hours of the next day and the first rays of sun rising up from behind the distant horizon.
"Master!" she wasn't even half way down the hall when the sudden screech stopped her in her tracks making her turn to look over her right shoulder. A black portal formed on the wall next to her, her fledgling falling out of his and dropping to her knees utterly exhausted, clothes tattered and stained with her own blood.
"Madalene." Elena whispers keeping the tone of her voice, a quality her the younger vampire lacks entirely when calling master urgently a second time, her expression one of utter joy and happiness a seeing her creator.
"I…I was attacked…the hound h…"
"Not so loud young one." Elena softly interrupts her placing her right hand on top of her head soothingly before helping her to her feet. "Now calm yourself and explain what has happened."
"I was attacked by a pack my master." Madalene tells her after taking a calming deep breath and pushing her now wild hair out of her face. "The…that demon hound leaning it. I have not seen a familiar act in such a way. Its master wasn't even there."
"You sound certain." Elena replies, lips curling in a knowing smile. "Perhaps not the one you were expecting."
"The castle crumbled beneath me!" she suddenly shouts a little upset at her master impersonal answer. Had she not send her there knowingly of the danger? Shouldn't she be a little more concerned? "Everything fell. Everything and fucking wolves chased me all over it trying to get to my throat that monster inclu…"
"I warned precaution for a reason Madalene." She is interrupted once more, yet her master remains calm and assertive in her reply. "That is not to say, however, that I do not value or understand the risk I have placed upon you by sending you there alone. That he would protect her was to be expected, I merely misjudged the degree to which he would go to achieve it. Still," she pauses for a moment before asking. "What do you mean the castle fell? There was never anything wrong with that structure except for its age. It could never crumble."
"It did my master. I have seen and lived it. There is almost nothing there any longer. The deep ravine was the only thing that kept those creatures from tearing me apart. I know what I saw."
"Was she there?"
"I don't know." Madalene tells her after an initial moment to ponder the correct answer. "The only thing I saw were the creatures, but there was one thing that I…that I found disturbing so to speak. The entire castle reeked of blood my master. It was faint and not easily noticed but when I was pushed to the ground by one of the wolves the scent became clear and from that moment on I could find it everywhere I turned. They chased me for a while but as more and more of the structure gave way the scent became more potent, dominant."
"Did you recognize it?"
"No." she shakes her head in denial. "I couldn't even place it master. It wasn't fresh blood, but it didn't reek of proper aging either. I don't know for sure, but it…it seemed as though fresh…as though the entire building had been bathed red."
"Perhaps…it was…" Elena whispers lost in thought before turning her attention back to her fledgling with a soft smile. "Come, I will she you cleaned and fed. We'll talk more later and see what the night yet holds for us".
The cards may prove themselves useful, if not only time would unfold its secrets at the proper moment. They could but wait, wait as it once had been asked of her while binding that poor soul to bricks made of blood.
And perhaps, one of these days, her intuition just might prove itself wrong since for now it seemed to be far to right and accurate.
"Interesting." Elena whispered to herself rearranging the cards a third time that half hour. The same ones kept coming up: strength, the chariot and…death, always death. Several hours had passed since her talk with her young fledgling and now, as she sat in her chair by the glow of a warm fire, the cards became her newest occupation.
"Is something wrong master?" her fledgling Madalene asks looking up from the book she had been reading on the windowsill. A new snow storm had broken out with flakes upon flakes of frozen water falling one after another as the sky wept during the cold night. They were in a large study, the walls lined with bookcases and paintings, a warm fire going in the corner, frost decorating the windows in intricate patters. A round mahogany table was in the center of the room, various cards spread on its surface and the auburn haired vampire sitting at on a chair behind it.
"The cards still link us, yet I've broken the ties." Elena replied placing two more cards in front of her. "We are tied by death but then the empress overlaps in a dark secret. Death comes twice."
"What does that mean?" the brown haired fledgling asked as she placed her book down and walked over to her master. Having changed her clothes from her prior ordeal that night she now wore a dark purple sweater, black pants and shoes and had her short hair tied back in a very small ponytail. She looked at the cards over her master's left shoulder.
"It is strange. The empress does not belong in either group any longer, but the seed she carries continues to hang in the balance. I have only one fool, infinite possibility, and he will come. Yet at the same time it's all a possibility leading into death itself. Death and burning despair and this night, like the last, will not end well."
"Why?"
Elena still had cards in need of turning, but her hand stopped on top of one of them; anxiety suddenly washing over her. Anxiety and fear….a dark shadow descending…
"She's here." Elena then says in a hushed tone just before a powerful gust of wind struck the side of the house rattling the windows almost shattering them. At the same time all the light inside the villa shut down and the fire burned out as if blown out by a storm. Haunting stillness, silence took control over the room; the calm before the storm. A terrifying neigh resounding throughout the very halls of the villa as a powerful blow struck the front door one level below forcing it open. The temperature within the room dropped drastically, the lights failed to come back and the shadows flickered to life. They moved up the walls slowly and silently and curled up along the structures towards the ceiling. Deep and ragged breath reached the vampire's ears; a darkness lurking in the shadows touched their senses revealing itself to their third eye.
The elder of the two sat up. She waited a moment, just one, and then took the card in question in her hand and left the room. The double doors of the study opened on their own allowing her passage as white mist lined the wooden floor and carpet of the hallway. The window on the farthest end by the staircase was open, the cold winter wind blowing through it moving both the thin cream curtains and the mist flowing inside.
"Master?" Madalene asked uneasy as the two walked across the hall and finally reached the top of the stairs.
"You will wait here until I call for you."
"No!" she refused to let go of her sire's arm. Distress lined her voice. It was a dread she could not explain and it coursed through her entire body at a frightening intensity. It was more than simple fear, it was something else. And it was a sensation she grew to know intimately well only a few hours ago.
"Madalene." Elena spoke with calm. "A child of darkness must no fear the dark. Wait until I call."
Her footsteps were light and without a sound were it not for the hum generated by the fabric of her long dress. Each step bought her closer and closer to the front door and the source the cold and the darkness. The ragged breath intensified and the front doors stood open before her. The sky roared with thunder, snow continued to fall and darkness continued to spread up her house drowning it all. Elena reached the edge the porch. Her crimson eyes locked onto the mysterious figure shrouded in darkness and lurching in the distance several feet away.
"You've come."
The dark silhouette began to move forward and the sound of metal horseshoes clanged loudly against the clean stone pavement leading up to the house. The large black stallion held his head down and long wavy mane hid his face while the breath from his lungs passed from his parted lips and nose in a cloud like fashion. His neigh was deep, a deep throated sound reverberating from his large chest. The cloaked figure on his back was silent and continued to remain so as the stallion slowly continued to advance along the stone slabs leading up to the porch. His front right foot struck the ground four times repeatedly before he raised his head snorting, the sound low and long. His left crimson eyes met the vampire's as the other continued to remain hidden behind the long midnight black bangs covering the right side of his face. "Seras Victoria."
The wind howled violently playing with the horse's mane and tail as well as the long black cloak the figure wore. The stallion rose on his hind legs neighing from the pit of his lung before his hooves came crushing down cracking the stone beneath them. The hidden card in Elena's left hand was blown away, the bloody sight of mangled temperance swaying in the wind before touching the virgin snow.
Flashback
Why can't you just hate me?
The sound of the boy's broken voice echoes in the dark, dust filled room of the underground mausoleum from within the pitch black coffin hidden inside the broken sarcophagus.
A prince does not cry…
.
Why…do you love me?
.
.
Silence was all that God left him with.
As is the sound of the boy's broken voice echoes in the dark and dust filled room of the mausoleum from within the pitch black coffin hidden inside the broken sarcophagus. Silence is all that greats him in return.
And he continued to call and shout and shake her shoulders for what seemed the umpteenth time without any sort of reply on her behalf whatsoever. Her head continued to rest on his lap, blood trickling from her parted lips, while the rest of her body gave no sign of life. She was as still and quite as the literal dead. The bloody stake lay by her right side staining the crimson bedding in her blood as the dark colored liquid dripped from its tip. Blood also trickled down her bare torso and abdomen from the large, dark, circular wound located directly over her heart in the form of small rivulets instead of a strong and fluent torrent. Fingertip marks were also marring her chest as he'd tried to stop the blood from flowing.
"Draculina…" the prince calls searching her face and caressing her right cheek without obtaining adequate answer from her. His hands were bloodstained and smearing her cheeks, her shoulders, her mouth…nothing was working. "Wake up…" he beseeches cupping both sides of her face once more and tilting her head back a little. Despair creped into his blue eyes, hurt anger and loathing …yet so much despair. He leans over her wrapping both arms around her throat and burying his face into the crook of her neck on the left side. She had no temperature, no heartbeat or breath to pass from her slightly parted pale, bluish lips. So utterly cold...so utterly dead…DEAD.
Warm tears dripped down his face touching her skin as he silently weeps unable to deal with the sudden and indescribable feeling of hurt and inadequacy washing over him. The situation was forever out his hands and the silence was unbearable.
No one would ever see him…no one…he'd let her burn in the wake of his selfish and arrogant desire. And now that very craving and egotism stripped him bare of the last genuine speck of pride left within his broken down soul.
But then…
Don't cry…
The words come simultaneously with the tender, tiny touch upon the side of his head making him gasp in surprise. His eyes snap open with a loud gasp while the rest of his body jerks upward at the sudden and unexpected touch. And as his head hovers over hers, back hunched over and messy raven hair framing his face on either side, the same soft touch came up to his left cheek in a feather like caress that brushed his cheekbone with the pads of her index and middle finger. Clear tears trickle in the form of thin rivulets from the corners of his eyes before successfully joining under his chin and dipping and on her left cheek close to the corner of her mouth. He watched in wander as the twin pools of freshly spilled blood slowly, weakly opened looking up into his face and rosy lips curled in a tiny, beautiful smile. Her hand continued to brush the tears from the left side of his face.
She hadn't the strength to whisper not one word and her voice lacked the necessary vigor to push the slightest amount of air passed her vocal cords.
A thimble was enough.
A thimble was more than enough…
And when strength leaves her completely her limb drops from his face onto her left shoulder with a tired sigh and her eyelids closed, body succumbing to the sweet allure of sleep it so badly craved.
"No don't'!" he shouts long before his mind perceives the words as spoken out loud and puts an end to the somewhat loud pitched tone and the concern and uneasiness poisoning his voice. It was nothing more than a fear induced reflex and reaction to the possibility of those beautiful crimson eyes never opening again. Yet Seras weakly opens her eyes once more taking in a deep breath as one would when waking from a deep sleep, the very one he was denying her. The sheer panic in his voice overrides her base instinct to sleep and heal. Her eyelids remain half closed and the response has an immediate calming effect on the violent storm raging inside the boy's ocean colored eyes.
I'm tired…
A simpler statement couldn't possibly exist from gazing into those tired eyes. His head lowers anew seeking the crook of her neck and the warm and genuine comfort it brought.
"Sleep." His lips softly brush against her pulse point, his embrace tightening ever so slowly around her throat. She was warm…so warm…alive…
He did not stop her this time.
Flashback end
The vampire raised her head and her eyes shone from the shadow of the black hood. Elena stepped aside gesturing towards the opened front door with her right hand.
"Please." She patiently offered waiting for her to make her decision. The draculina however, hesitated and instead continued to keep her eyes firmly locked on the woman in front of her; her gaze appeared distrusting and analytical. She urged the horse forward, just a few more steps, and it was only then that Elena noticed the second cloak swaying in the wind beneath that of the white haired vampire's. And with it came the unmistakable scent of blood….an unnatural fragrance…
Elena stepped forward without a word instantly recognizing the unique scent hidden beneath the stench of death. She then pulled the hem of her dress up to walk down the front stairs of her home and released it when done taking four more steps to stop about a foot's distance from the large black stallion.
"What have you done?" her tone is nothing but a faded whisper deeply seeded in disbelieve as her eyes fall on the second figure riding behind the draculina and desperately clinging to her form, crimson staining the limbs peering out from under the dark cloak. Her question isn't even directed at the vampire in front of her, but the pair of hazy blue eyes clearing suffering behind her.
Seras let go of the horse's reins gently caressing the left side of the stallion's throat before carefully dismounting as not to harm the boy. The latter merely looked on in silence turning his gaze form the red headed vampire to the white haired one and watching as she took one extra second to place her right hand over the horse's muzzle and affectionately pet him. The horse nickered warmly in return stomping on the ground next to her feet once as though saying he understood her silent request. When done she let him go and turned to face Elena taking that one step that separated them.
"I need help." She whispers pushing the hood of her head.
To be continued…
Till next time and please leave a teeny, tiny review. Some feedback would be really appreciated.
Shadow out.