2. Bring your taint
To her immense and distraught surprise, the great doors opened ajar with the motion and the young woman wasted not a beat as she disappeared within.
The empty blackness hit her not unlike a menacing shroud but this was no time to wallow. The place seemed deserted by all accounts, and the young woman sprung forward and up the poorly lit staircase, failing to wonder at the functioning torches lining the walls. Sparse though they were, it was a clear sign of habitation.
This... palace of sorts had a foreboding aura and her blue eyes struggled with direction in the twilight between its walls, though her steps took her ever forward up the staircase, and into the great Hall.
It was not long before the woman heard the beating of whips, the hungry noises of her pursuers, who had apparently renounced their own fears and entered the castle in their own time.
"Here, here, little whore, where are you hiding those fine young bones?" one of them called, the echoes of his voice reaching even her.
"Hold your mangy tongue, Adalbert," one other of the black robed chasers threw. "Have you not heard what they say about this place? Do you want to be the main course of a vampire buffet?"
The other sneered. "Bah, humbug for shit eating peasants," he grumbled, brandishing a long wide knife. "Dracula is dead, and whatever is left is nothing but the shadow of his accursed presence. His blight upon this land is ended. But our work is never done," the man finished gravely as the group of seven climbed the wide staircase, carefully listening for any sound or stir in the dark. The blackness surrounding them appeared to be all encroaching.
"Uh," one of the men asked with a waver in his voice, "did you all notice the burning torches? Does that not mean someone, or something, yet dwells here? I say... I say we all go back-" he muttered fearfully just as the first man who spoke took a fistful of his garb.
"Keep your wits about you Kemeny for heaven's sake, we're here to finish the work of God not tinkle in our underclothes-"
He ceased when the torches were blown out all at once, though no wind nor draught could be felt by any of them.
"Denes," the man stammered, "Denes, let us leave this place, she will find her end either way, I wager," the one called Kemeny insisted towards their leader, losing his composure.
"Onward I say, or God save me I'll submit to have you all excommunicated, living as pariahs on the outskirts of our great and noble society, prey to whatever night terrors'll see fit to feast on your soft heads!" Denes ground out to the increasingly unsettled men, who were now following him with significantly less aplomb than before.
From her hidden place behind a cabinet in one of the side chambers she had retreated to, the young woman listened. She listened, only for their steps to grow louder, their voices hoarser the closer they appeared. Soon they would reach the corridor.
"We check each of these rooms," she heard and froze, her heart a hammering mess behind the cursed box of bones which was her chest. She looked to the small blade she had drawn, her only weapon. She gripped the dagger tighter. "Keep your bearings, Ravenna. If this is to be my end, prey to these bastards or whatever dwells here, so be it," she whispered to herself, and with fateful resignation the woman straightened and rose from her hiding place.
A sudden shadow engulfed the room, and just as swiftly she felt a presence.
"What taint is that which you bring into my home?" a calm, unearthly voice sounded from somewhere to her left. It was close, too, and whatever the source of the hollow words, the woman felt the skin on the back of her neck prickle. It appeared that threat and peril came from places unsought for. Her head swiveled to her left, but there was no one there. The woman stilled, and tendrils of fear shot through her entire body despite her resolve. The voice was soft, almost tender to her ears, were it not for the dispassionate and monotonous quality of the words.
"Who-, who are you?" she dared ask, unable to bring herself to face the speaker.
"I ask the questions," the slithering voice purred, and her mouth clamped shut at the menace she felt lacing it.
"Please, no time-" the woman felt the cold, sharp tip of a sword between her shoulder blades and skipped forward. An innate sort of rebellion surged through her. "I am no threat to you, whoever... whatever you are!" she hissed in a desperate whisper. "I would tell you all about it... but now as you can see, staying alive is my chief concern!"
There was a pause. "How typical," was all she heard of the man - because the tonality had been male, she was sure of it. There was also a strange scent in the air... akin to late summer roses, heavy and suffocating in its sweetness. The shadows in the chamber seemed to grow denser when he spoke, and the young human could not deny the primeval fright this presence awoke in her deepest confines.
"Stay here," she heard the voice utter the curt and low command, and felt no more than a slight gust of air which blew her unkempt hair astray. The presence was no more. Somehow, she felt it had gone.
Not for the first time, the young woman wondered about what on earth she had gotten herself into.
The one called Adalbert searched swiftly inside one of the chambers, the fading torch light falling on the distinctive ruinous state of an abandoned dwelling.
"No sign of the wench, maybe we leave and let this place swallow her in its burrows," he hissed anew towards his leader.
"Keep searching," Denes commanded.
"Do you not find it odd that there is absolutely no sound in this fucking place?"
"Watch your slanderous words, Adalbert," their leader rebutted. "We find her, we take ourselves out of here and that will be the end of it."
Just then movement caught their eye.
"Draw your weapons," Denes ordered.
The sight which greeted them was that of an animal. A wolf, to be more precise, and a large one at that, staring down at them with its deep golden eyes.
"What the-" one of the men frowned just as the beast disappeared from their sight into one of the side chambers.
"I tell ya, this place is riddled with fucking devil magic-" one of them threw, taking steps back towards the direction they came from.
"Hold your stance damn you!" Denes ground out before a gurgled sound stopped his tirade. Looking to his right, he saw the body of one of their companions sliding down against the walls, his neck a bloodied mess.
The men all formed a protective circle covering each other, anguished eyes darting to and fro. The silence became overbearing, pressing down on their minds and twisted spirits.
"You come into my dwelling..." a cold voice caught their attention, "Uninvited... with your pettiness, your insults..."
"Who goes there?" the man called Denes gritted. "Show yourself, coward!"
But the speaker had no intention of heeding him, it seemed. "... and your fear of God."
Another of their companions was struck down so fast the movement was lost in the blink of a human eye.
"...But your fear is misplaced. Your fear..." the soft words continued among the now screaming throats and thrashing limbs.
Denes turned and ran, both he and the men left alive, only to be barred by a maelstrom of gold and black.
"...should be better spent here," were the last words Denes heard before golden eyes filled his line of sight, and a silver sheen was the last he saw on the lands of the living.
Some time after complete silence reigned outside the chamber, the woman breathed in, breathed out, and with slow steps approached the door. She opened it, and slid through into the corridor. The young human looked to her surroundings, and her frantic searching eyes fell on the bodies of her pursuers. She yelped a stifled cry, before recalling she was not alone.
The thought struck her then, that whatever had spoken to her and ended these men so swiftly and brutally, was the same being who had impaled bodies at the entrance of the castle. Dread and terror filled her to the brim and led her will, and soon the young woman was darting down the hall and over the flight of stairs as if the world depended on it. The monster, the one who had so sinuously trapped her in her own body with the aid of nothing but his deceptively soft voice, that was an enemy more dangerous than ten scores of these men. She had to escape, to flee-...
A flash of red movement dashed before her. Again, that scent, heavy in its sweetness.
Her own eyes widened.
Well.
This was certainly not what she had expected to see.
The young human found herself staring into strangely lit orbs of light amber. The rest of him was just as arresting, and her mouth went slack as she gaped at the fairest creature the woman had ever laid eyes upon. Light golden-yellow hair fell freely about his face, down over his shoulders. He was taller than any man she had ever seen. He wore the simple cut and garb of nobility - black trousers with high boots, a white shirt with a low neckline and a long black overcoat hemmed with faded gold.
All was well and good, save for the reddened sword he gripped pointing downward, and the droplets of blood adorning his youthful face, neck and chest.
She took one step back. Then another.
The figure only watched her. He watched her, until the woman began to squirm uncomfortably, wondering whether he would pounce to kill or speak. In the end humanity won. "I thank you... for your aid," she tried.
The figure narrowed his eyes on her. "I have no use for your gratitude," he regarded her suspiciously from head to toe. "But since you are here, having trespassed my domain with not even a by your leave, having ruined my peace and brought this mess to clean upon my floors... well, I do believe that calls for some manner of restitution," he finished with a smile she did not like at all.
"Please... lord," the woman braved as the deceptively angelic figure drew closer, eyes never leaving hers. "I cannot run back into the woods, there may be more of them... My name is Ravenna, I am a scholar-" but his following action made her swallow her words.
A fair eyebrow was raised skeptically as the blond knelt and lifted a torn arm from his killings, sighing thoughtfully. "Give them a finger, and they will take the whole hand..." he dropped the severed limb under the appalled gaze of the young woman. Her distress seemed to please him, and it irked her. Show no fear... for all the good it has done me.
And still, the woman smothered her fright. After all, she was yet standing. "Listen, if we could come to some sort of an arrangement for this, I was actually seeking for something in the area,-"
"Oh... oh my dear," he watched her not unlike a hawk would a wounded rabbit, "...but you are in no position to negotiate..." and with that he bared his teeth.
The last image the young woman ever saw before her sight grew dim and hazy and her limbs melted beneath her, was that of sharp, even fangs and golden eyes freezing her beating heart.
For mere moments he watched the lithe body now fallen to the floor. "...not at all," came the last spoken words, before all fell into silence again.
A/N:
Greetings,
Thank you for your attention and reviews so far. It's what keeps me going. Want more? Liked/disliked something in particular? Let me hear it!
Note: this is a darkened Alucard we're dealing with. In my head the most recent events in the series left him scarred, ruthless and fended off from much of his former self.
Stay safe,
R