A/N: *hands you a basket of vampire lemons and runs into the sunset*

25. Kindled

Ravenna remembered little detail from their return journey. She remembered faltering, doing her utmost to carry on but ultimately weakening past a point of her known endurance. There was also great solace, spanning from the words they shared, from seeing his remorse and feeling his strong frame softening against her, enveloping her like a cure. In his eyes she had seen something he craved, seeking it within her. An arrow shot blindly, falling into an endless pool and striking true at its depths. Ravenna had witnessed the true extent of his motives, the fear and longing for once bared with great pains, all for her to see. To believe him. She remembered falling against sustaining strength. Ravenna felt rain, its warm droplets on her face, then the sun's early rays shivering against her closed eyelids. She remembered swaying on her feet from her sleepless nights and the long trek of the past days. And his words, their vibration ripples to rising tides against her shores. His voice, thick and laced with a softness she never heard from him before. One she never heard from anyone before.

"We are not far, Raven. It will not be long..."

Raven.

She liked it.

Her feet left the ground. Ravenna remembered her head resting against his chest as Adrian bore her in his arms. She felt ease and a new lightness of being, as well as peace. Then there was the last glimpse of worry in downcast golden eyes when her own closed and her vision blackened.

These were the thoughts flowing and swirling in streams, intertwining with the image of a great silvermoon cast in a dark velvet sky, shimmering its cold ethereal light upon stone tiles. All this had been days ago. Or perhaps merely yesterday. She had certainly lost track of time, and since they reached the castle all Ravenna could do was sleep. She slept, woke to drink, and then slept again. It was only recently that Ravenna had awoken, and the rush of events and words and feelings hit her with the force of a thousand blows. Presently Ravenna was bundled into a lavish settee which was set on a wide elegant terrace, part of a wing of the castle she had not been in before. It was a chilly night for summer, but the air was humid and heartening to weary minds and bodies.

A sliver of light gold, and an extended hand.

"Well met."

Her eyes smiled, reflecting the moonlight. And Ravenna thought she saw the shadow of that smile on his lips, too. That beautiful, tormented face shed it all, appearing so utterly boyish when even the slightest joy was impressed upon it.

He was offering her a drink, and by the looks of the steam wafting from it, a hot beverage.

"Mulled wine," Adrian supplied as he sat himself beside her. "It may help, in regaining your strength."

Ravenna accepted the offering, her eyes following his as she smelled the tangy contents. She took a sip. It was warm, red and sweet, laced with a spice she did not recognize.

"It is good," Ravenna said into his stare, placing the cup onto a round table next to the settee. She looked back at him, but none spoke for a time. Ravenna saw the same light in his eyes from before, in the woods. When he had come in search of her, and providence had waved a generous hand. They were alive.

A pale finger reached and gently touched the side of her face, where the purple bruises left by the huntress still flared menacingly. Though it hurt, she could not deny the boneless relief she felt when he touched her.

"Thank you," Adrian then murmured, his gaze somewhat subdued. Had Ravenna not foiled the huntress' stance, a silver arrow would have been his end. Once, he may have welcomed it. Now he could not fathom the notion, not with her in his life.

"You would have done the same." She knew he would.

Adrian merely nodded. His hand seemed to have a will of its own as it reached, fingers sliding gently through her hair. Ravenna closed her eyes as bolts of anticipation awoke in her, but opened them when the touch disappeared.

He was looking ahead, his gaze alight with the light of the astral body, his forearms resting on his knees. He appeared saddened, his smile fell replaced by a thoughtful mien. "My parents used to spend their evenings here, in their early years together."

"I can see why," Ravenna said. It was beautiful up here. The stars were drowned by the giant shrouding their figures in its brilliance, layering the endless forests in hues of dark blue and silver. A soft breeze danced in the air.

He was studying the stone tiling, leaning back against the soft backrest of the settee.

"Adrian, " Ravenna began, resting her head against his shoulder. It came naturally, as though they had done this countless times before.

"Yes, Raven," he closed his eyes, and Ravenna felt his arm, warm around her waist.

"You said you would tell me of it all."

Alucard sighed, as though dreading the outcome, but looked resigned. He stole a glance at her. It was only the past. And so he told her. He told her in great detail what happened with his father, and then of the two traveling hunters and how their deceit had been carried out. Ravenna sat with her legs crossed, her head still resting against his shoulder.

When he was done she was weeping. For the unfairness of it all, for the ruthless trials set before those undeserving. For how it nearly ruined them.

"I did not know," Ravenna hitched clutching at his shirt with one hand, her touch desperate to sustain her words, her legs drawn to her chest.

His fingers were light on her chin, and Ravenna drowned in pools of liquid gold. "It is in the past. All of it. One day, it will cease to even be a memory."

Her tears were brushed away from her face. They stood in silence, neither able to speak. Ravenna wore a thin nightgown under her thicker robe, and wrapped it closer around her body. She then wrapped herself closer around him.

"You are yet weakened. I trust you would find rest in the room adjoined to this terrace just as well as any other." He had merely wished to show her this place, and share its meaning with her.

"Yes..." Ravenna said, a whisper on the wind, yet affected by his revelation. "Adrian, please stay..."

His warmth was blissful, and her eyes shut again.

He watched her from the doorway, the slight figure bundled in white blankets. She was fast asleep upon the wide canopy bed.

She had come back with him. One whose vibration he now knew with certainty resonated with his own, and she was still here despite all that had happened, from his fault or otherwise. Alucard thanked both heaven, hell, and every seen and unseen world in between.

He still lingered, a part of him not daring to go much farther, though she had asked him to stay. The memory of her, close and warm, was brought to the fore by their encounter that evening. It felt good to be listened to, and by someone who genuinely cared. He did not recall ever living such truths. As one walking in a dream he stepped into the room, shrugging off his dark coat. He approached the bed, hesitating only briefly. He lay down with feline grace close to where Ravenna was sleeping on her side, careful not to wake her. He coaxed a few threads of black away from her face. Ravenna shuddered in her sleep, and a small unknowing smile greeted him.

His heart fell. But he had made his peace with what this was, and had seen it in her own eyes. There was no need to be afraid. He drew closer into her sleeping form, draping one arm around her middle. The flames kindled simmered, but would not die. Eyes closed and still smiling, he aimed for sleep.

It was midnight when she stirred. Ravenna felt a foreign but welcomed warmth rising against her, wishing the pleasant dream she was having to never end. He was in it, and as her eyes opened she became aware of a lean, warm body nestling hers. Upon impulse and yet enmeshed in her dream Ravenna arched her back, being regaled with a weak sigh. She smiled. Though suddenly alight she could not trust her senses alone, a lesson Ravenna had learned in the hardest of ways.

Her eyes still glazed with restful sleep, the young woman decided to place her mind on trial, and spoke. "Tell me this is you... not an incubus, or some other horror..."

Ravenna stilled when long, very real fingers grasped her thigh, gently commanding her body into his. She mellowed pleasantly, listening to the wind outside as it began to wail against the shuttered windows. Soon there was the soothing cadence of rain to accompany it.

"It is me," Adrian smiled against her cheek. Before he could think he placed a soft, open kiss to her neck. Her pulse raced against his mouth, and his head began to spin with its rhythm.

Ravenna felt the muscles in his forearm tense as he reached lower across her body. Either he somehow knew precisely what she liked, or she liked what he knew because her senses were completely attuned to his every movement. Ravenna turned her head, her eyes half closing, her lips parting as his hand continued to roam over her. The space between her thighs was beginning to ache. "Adrian..." she loved the sound of his name. She loved how warm he was. "I need..." Ravenna loved the way he smelled, the way he tasted. She trailed away in hitched breaths and pressed her thighs together, trapping his fingers between them.

When his lips found hers Ravenna regaled him with a mewl of inarticulate desire. "Say it," Adrian hedged, smiling. "Tell me what you need, Ravenna." It was unbelievable how he could find her so devastatingly desirable, how he could no longer rein himself around her at all. And he did not want to, either. Not anymore. She flowed through his veins.

He was so hungry, she knew it, and all Ravenna wanted was for him to feed on her. She had wanted this and longed for them together, ceaselessly, ever since... she could barely remember. It felt as though he had always been there.

Adrian had drawn back his hand and was running a tender trace up her leg, lifting her light nightgown above her hip. Cold air danced on her skin.

Uncertainly at first, he reached to feel more of her under the material. "Ravenna..." he rasped, barely able to utter words at what he felt, his mind full of her. He was unable to cease touching her, and knew what she would say.

"I need you," the ache between her legs pulsated when Adrian sighed smiling against her shoulder, and at his silent entreaty Ravenna let him explore further. Heat pooled from his gentle hand into her in waves, rising higher and higher. If he was hungry, Ravenna was so very thirsty for him. "I need you, everywhere," she repeated weakly. As she said the words Ravenna felt the hardness against her lower body swelling further. She was pressed against him, and he hedged their hips together. Ravenna felt the world turning and spinning only briefly and then she was lying flat on her back, his pale blond hair feathering over her face.

"Your scent... reminds me of roses," she slurred teasingly. This was no dream, no.

"Does it?..." Adrian grinned, his thumb brushing over her lips as he allowed his body to sink onto hers.

Without replying she captured his lower lip and nibbled, instinctively locking her legs around his hips. He was so hard against her now Ravenna could barely hold to her composure, seeing the same written on his face. She felt so hollow, demanding all of him.

Adrian smoothed long strands away from her face, gazing down at her with a look of complete adoration. He placed his forehead to hers. "You have not done this before."

It took a few moments to consider his words, and the blush across her nose and cheeks deepened. "How... do you know?"

His hips were pressing against hers. "Your blood," Adrian kissed her again, tugging on her lower lip, "I could sense it."

"I... see," Ravenna cooed, and could not help but ask, "...does it affect you?"

Adrian hissed between his teeth, and Ravenna yelped as he rolled over with them, finding herself atop him. The curtain of her black hair shielded their faces from the world, and Adrian reached and brought it over her shoulder. "I could... eat you alive," he said raptly, his fingers sifting through her long mane, watching it fall in flowing waves.

If possible Ravenna burned all the brighter. She wrapped her arms around his neck, placing brief kisses over his face wherever they would land. "Eat me alive, then," she whispered mindlessly as Adrian reached for her chin and melded his mouth to hers. His kiss was raw, tender and weakening, but it was his tongue, shyly parting her lips and seeking hers, which became her final undoing. Her fingers were playful in his hair and Ravenna grasped tightly. Unknowing but certain, she hastily reached between them to undo his trousers and they both fumbled until Ravenna finally released him, rolling his garment down his legs. She propped her forearms on either side of his head, and kissed him again. She kissed him just as she had always wanted to: deeply and languidly, enjoying him, swallowing his sighs. Then she was eagerly pulling at the fastenings of his shirt, revealing his bare shoulders and chest. Ravenna drew away, and froze. He was perfection, but her gaze saddened briefly. "Oh, Adrian...," her eyes were taken with the various winding scars marring his shoulders, torso and legs. Ravenna had seen only glimpses of them before, and knew his tale now, but did not imagine this.

"It is no matter," Alucard half rose to meet her and then his mouth was gliding along her shoulder, his hand caught in her disheveled hair. "They do not hurt," he then whispered against her neck. "I have you now."

Ravenna opened to him like dawn to the sun. Her fingers followed the reddened scar across his chest. She would never let anything hurt him again, not if she could help it.

As under a spell Alucard reached for the flimsy hem of her nightgown and pulled down, causing it to pool to her elbows. With one fluid motion Ravenna brought the garment over her head casting it aside, leaving her bare before him. Lightning flashed through the window, briefly bathing their figures in its blinding white light.

His golden eyes were drawn with magnetic power to her rounded shoulders, her perky heaving chest, down to the way her waist flared into rounded hips. His splayed palms were running over her with increasing insistence, the skin soft, like moonlight under his fingers. Adrian drew her back down with him.

"You lead," he told her, and Ravenna adjusted her hips at his behest. There was a vulnerability to his words which made her need him all the more. "I do not want to...-" Alucard tensed despite himself when he felt her, hot and dripping over him, "-to hurt you..."

They kissed again, Ravenna mad with anticipation when she felt him at her entrance. This was new. This was all new, but oh how she wanted, needed to be with him completely. She would go insane otherwise.

There was a foreign pressure at first, and then a modicum of pain. Ravenna closed her eyes, whimpering as she let her forehead fall against his shoulder. When he slowly slipped deeper inside of her a soft sigh left his throat, and Ravenna needed to hear more of it. She pushed down further wincing slightly, unused to it all. "Like this?..." she asked, biting down hard on her lip at the foreign sensation.

His heartbeat was wild against her chest, a shiver and a nod her only response. They did this for some time, the now furious rain outside and their mingled sighs the only sounds audible in the mild night. And after a while the pain dispersed, leaving slow building pleasure and a delightful sense of ease. Her hips found a rhythm. She never ceased her motions, and Adrian was moaning so helplessly under her slow inexperienced moves that Ravenna was close to losing her mind. There was little else she cared about in the moment save for his slick mouth, his enveloping skin, and the way he rocked her against him.

Ravenna lifted her head and their eyes locked, finding his own were now glazed and flaring red, watching her from under long black lashes. She had seen him like this before but in completely different circumstances, and her breath caught at the sight. Anyone else may have been unsettled, but there was a primeval sort of beauty to his features in this unleashed state; watching her so ravenously with that flaming ruby gaze, holding her so painfully close.

They followed their dance with his hands always steadying her, meeting her halfway. Alucard gripped her narrow waist tightly, attempting to still the rising need to thrust wildly into her. He wanted her to enjoy this, he wanted her to feel safe with him in every way.

"Hurt me, please," Ravenna then pleaded into his ear, needing more.

As she said the words she felt him shudder and unable to resist Alucard rose, tilting a gasping Ravenna over on her back. He began a trail of kisses leading from her jaw to her neck and breasts and Ravenna nearly lost herself, staring back into his flaring gaze as he slowly crawled up to her. Her eyes widened then rolled back when he dove into her again, deeper than the first time. She would break soon. Ravenna was unsure why or how, but knew she would. Her thighs tightened around him, her chest flattening against his, both urgently grasping each other's hair, both breathless.

There was something incredibly healing about sharing himself with her, and in those moments Alucard felt the shackles fall.

Freedom.

His fears, the old scarring pains, everything was slowly dispersing and receding as he kneaded and drove into Ravenna with reckless abandon, his being unwinding and wrapping around hers. He could no longer boast any sort of control though a part of him was yet wary of harming her. Alucard was about to slow his pace and attempt to ask amid his haze, when Ravenna suddenly arched into him. All reasoning failed as he felt the convulsions she was having and good God everything was so tight around him, and so he never ceased; not even when he felt her overflowing with fulfillment, not even when her nails dug into his back and Ravenna bit on his lip to draw blood.

And then, as he claimed her over and over, in one split of time there was nothing but blinding light, and a bolt of pleasure sheared through him. Alucard barely kept from biting into her flesh as his own release wracked him in uncontrollable primal shivers. With a muffled groan he desperately clung to the body writhing against him, burying his face against her neck, feeling himself spilling into her. The wild beating of her heart was all he heard for a good while after.

And neither of them needed to rest. Not yet. Some time, a drink and a few warm kisses later, they resumed their game. At first Ravenna was sighing beneath him, then he turned her on her belly, then they were rolling over together onto the wide bed. Dawn found her flat on her back again, trembling, her hair fanned messily about her; his hands hooked beneath her knees as Adrian kept her legs pinned to her chest, still making love to her. When she reached completion one last time they fell over each other, panting and laughing in weary contentment. Even he, with all his strength and endurance looked happily exhausted as he brought a smiling Ravenna to his chest.

There was such relief beyond reason, the kind she had never known before.

"How do you feel?" Adrian asked into the silence, his hand smoothing her hair away from her face.

Panting, Ravenna quirked her lip. "Happy," her fingers ran lightly over him. "Sore," she added smiling impishly, curling into his side like a cat. She relished how his chest shook with soft breathy laughter. Ravenna loved hearing it.

The entire night had passed them by and as daybreak hit, they both fell into a deep and much needed sleep, still tangled together.