If you recognise it from somewhere else, it isn't mine.

Chapter 1: One Month

Wallachia

Alucard returned to the castle. As he passed the half-rebuilt Belmont Manorhouse, he was joined by the other dhampir. That, Reudi had explained, was the proper way to refer to one who was half-human and half-vampire. It also had better connotations than just calling oneself a half-human vampire.

The small dog, that'd been in the castle when they arrived, trotted at his heels. Most of the dog's flesh grown back. Reudi knew some remedies. He was quite correct in regards to the dog. Just because he'd been reanimated via necromancy, it didn't mean he should be treated any differently. He was actually a rather affectionate little fellow.

'It's looking good,' Reudi said, nodding to the Belmont homestead. 'I imagine in a short time, the Belmonts can move back in.'

Alucard smiled. 'Do you think they'll be able to?'

'Papa's working on something to...encourage the Pope to lift the excommunication.' Reudi smirked. 'He's tossing around a few ideas, but he thinks the climate in Italy is looking very favourable.'

'Oh? What's going on in Italy?'

'There's some massive social changes going on. People are branching out and looking at different ideas from different perspectives. Art, politics, religion. All these ideas. Papa thinks he can use the issues in Wallachia, and Trevor's continued demon hunting to sway religious opinion on the Belmonts.'

'So,' Alucard smirked back, 'he's going to bribe the Pope.'

'Blackmail him, if he has to.'

The two of them laughed and walked up to the kitchen. As they cooked the food Alucard had gotten, he asked.

'Your father doesn't seem to get the same ire from Trevor as any other vampire.'

Reudi chuckled. 'I thought this might come up.'

'Well, you certainly don't look as vampiric as I do,' Alucard pointed out.

The two of them filled their plates and took them across to sit at the table.

'That's because, unlike yours, my father does not sustain himself on blood and therefore does not require fangs.' Reudi took a bite of his fish. 'It leaves him looking more like a pale-skinned human and, as a result, I look like a pale-skinned human. It's easily explained away though.'

'How?'

'My mother's from a village around the Ural Mountains.' Reudi chuckled. 'I spent a good chunk of my childhood there. Just tell them the region you're from and most people assume you just don't get a lot of sunlight.'

'I wouldn't assume you would, coming from there,' Alucard remarked.

Reudi chuckled. 'And that's a mistake a lot of Europeans make.'

Alucard had his own little chuckle. 'Have you heard from the others?'

'Yes, I have.' Reudi frowned. 'Mama and Yvette managed to slow Carmilla down, by sending some friends ahead to intercept them. They got word that she has what appears to be a brutalised human as a prisoner. I presume it's the forgemaster.'

Alucard nodded. 'And they've asked you to go to Styria to look into it ahead of them.'

Reudi nodded. 'Papa's still waiting for Trevor and Sypha in Braila. I can sneak around them a lot more easily. Our kind is rare, but they don't know my scent. Mama thinks I can use that to my advantage.'

Alucard nodded. 'I only ask that you be careful. If she catches you, Carmilla and her sisters won't be merciful.'

'And it wouldn't do me much good even if they were.' Reudi smirked.

Serbia

Two horses moved across the Serbian countryside. On their backs sat a woman – a blonde and a redhead.

Yvette heaved a sigh. 'You contacted Reudi?'

Eliza nodded. 'He'll head to Styria and look into the situation.'

'I was happy with us just going and intercepting this other man,' Yvette remarked. 'I didn't need to hear that she'd slapped the other one in chains.'

'It worries you?'

'It worries you too.'

'True.' Eliza pulled a face. 'What's taking Trevor and Sypha so long anyway? I'd expect them to have reached Braila by now.'

Yvette shook her head. 'Dracula is dead. He left his hoards behind. They've been hunting them en route.'

Wallachia

'I think it might actually be a nice night for once,' Sypha remarked.

'I hope so,' Trevor said. 'Your feet get so bloody cold at night.'

Sypha chuckled and gave him a side-long look. 'Don't they, though?' He didn't really seem to mind in the...moment. She suddenly heard something.

Trevor heard it too. Then again, he was trained to hear it. 'Supernatural,' he said softly. 'Like death, running up and down my leg.'

'Even I don't want to be near them, and they're attached to me,' Sypha said. 'Do you think we'll make the next town before we lose the last of the light?'

'With a bit of luck. If this doesn't take too long.'

Sypha looked over at him. 'Do we need to make more noise?'

'No,' Trevor said calmly. 'They can hear us.'

Sypha sighed. 'They need to hurry up. I'm hungry.'

'I could use a drink,' Trevor stated. 'Should start any minute now. Let them get close. Let them get confident.'

'I know,' Sypha drawled. There was a growl in the woods around them. 'Here they come.'

Moments later, the Night Creatures emerged from the woods. Trevor could have done without the dramatics though. One thing he'd learned very quickly: Sypha was a terrible actress. And she didn't even seem to realise it. He rolled his eyes at her and grumbled about it, but she still did it every time.

He was actually kind of relieved when she stopped. 'Four.'

'Yup,' he said.

'Doomed,' she sing-songed.

'Really are.'

Sypha sighed, almost happily, and went, 'Poor beasties,' before launching herself off of the cart. He sat back and watched as she used her fire to propel herself up into the air before firing the flames at the demons and lighting them both on fire. Both demons recoiled.

The horses began to kick up too, though, frightened by the fire. The sound of a bipedal hooved creature behind him told Trevor all he needed to know though. He stood up and unfastened his travelling cloak. This one was far better than the last one he'd had, on account of the fact that it fully obscured the Belmont crest no matter which angle he was on.

It wasn't so much he minded getting into fights, as it was that he minded Sypha's reaction to peoples' reactions to encountering a Belmont.

Trevor took the Morning Star in hand and then leapt up onto the covered wagon. Sure enough, there was a Minotaur with an axe coming up the road behind the wagon. With a flick of his wrist, Trevor sent the end of the Morning Star at the Minotaur. The end of it glowed bright as it sailed through the air. It buried itself in the creature's head. Trevor ripped it back, tearing brain out of the skull.

The Minotaur collapsed before it exploded.

Sypha landed before the two flaming demons. One of them managed to extinguish itself and then came charging at her. She dodged all three swipes from the beast. She continued dodging even as the other demon, still on fire, ran into the woods, lighting ablaze all the greenery it ran through. Not good.

Sypha moved in for the kill. She put two fingers out to its face and the fire exploded out of her fingertips. The head was completely burned away. The rest of the body fell back. Sypha immediately ran after the other demon, following the burning trail it'd left behind. She extinguished the flames as she ran past them, but the demon clearly wasn't slowing down.

Creating ice stepping stones, Sypha climbed up and up and up. Soon she was running over her self-made stones. The demon was running below. Still, it showed no sign of stopping. Leaping off the last ice step, Sypha aimed. She brought her hands together and produced an icicle spear. Wrapping her hands around it, she came down and threw the spear, just like Trevor had taught her.

Sypha landed, again, like Trevor had taught her. Turned out being with a Belmont meant you picked up a lot of neat tricks. Speaker life was hardly that physically taxing and you didn't learn to do things like that there. Trevor, on the other hand, had been taught to use every weapon and every tactic under the sun.

And he'd taught her.

With a wave of her hand, Sypha quickly melted all of the ice.

The flames extinguished.

Trevor had landed back in the wagon. The horses spooked again. He leaned forward to pet them. 'Easy there, boys.' He heard a sound and looked over. 'This'll all be over in a minute.'

Werewolf. It was charging. Trevor lifted his arm defensively just as the beast leapt at him. The Morning Star was knocked from his hand. Trevor pushed against the werewolf as it tried to bite through his arm guard. Bloody stupid, honestly. The things were designed so that nothing could bite through them.

Trevor rammed his knee up into the werewolf's solar-plexus. The creature let go of his arm and growled. But then it grabbed him by his face and hoisted him up. He reflexively grabbed the arm. 'What if I said I was sorry?' he quipped, voice muffled by the giant furry hand.

The werewolf threw him through the trees. Trevor managed to recover in time to catch himself against the tree and swing his bodyweight around it, just in time to avoid getting punched by the charging werewolf. It swung at him again and Trevor dodged again, only to find his back hitting another tree.

He dodged that one too and delivered two punches too it. May have seemed a pointless exercise on the outside, but there was method in his madness. The werewolf snarled and swung at him. Trevor ducked and rolled. The werewolf came at him again. Each swing, Trevor dodged. It did substantial damage to the trees around them.

Trevor dived between two trees. The werewolf, predictably, followed him and pushed them aside. That was the opening he'd been waiting for. Trevor shot back and punched the werewolf right in the throat. The werewolf recoiled and roared hoarsely, gripping its throat. Trevor braced himself against the tree behind him and kicked the creature's kneecap – hard.

He then punched the werewolf's throat again before delivering a second kick to the knee, shattering it and forcing the bone out the back. The werewolf went down. Trevor punched it in the throat a final time before grabbing the bottom of its snout and pushing back, forcing his whole body weight into the thing.

It resisted.

But the neck snapped.

Blood sprayed.

Trevor took a moment to catch his breath.

'Sorry I took so long,' Sypha said, walking over to him, 'but I couldn't let the forest catch fire.'

'It's fine.' Trevor waved it off, still a bit breathless. 'I wasn't waiting long, really.'

Sypha grinned. 'That was pretty fast, though, right?'

'Yeah. Easy.' He half wondered how much longer her high was going to go on for.

'They weren't expecting Belnades and Belmont!' she crowed.

Trevor just moved around to move the werewolf. 'So, I've been promoted from "brain-damaged servant" then?'

Sypha walked over and grabbed the Morning Star from where it'd fallen. 'Did you know that the original meaning of Belmont is brain-damaged servant?'

Trevor snorted at her joke. 'It is not.'

'I am a Speaker,' Sypha stated. 'I know many things.'

Trevor grinned at her. 'That why it took you so long to realise it wasn't a Wallachian name?'

Sypha stuck her tongue out at him playfully as he got ready to harness the werewolf up. She seemed to realise he was up to something a moment later. '...What are you doing?'

'Buying some insurance.' Trevor picked up the rope. 'Between the wandering packs of Night Creatures, and the brigands of opportunistic criminals, and that one guy with the horse-drawn sailboat on wheels that called himself "the Pirate of the Roads".'

From the look on Sypha's face, she remembered that idiot as well as he did. But she brushed it off. 'It's best to look like useful friends when we arrive at new towns.'

'You're catching on.' Trevor then proceeded to harness the werewolf to the wagon.

Sypha smiled and pressed the Morning Star to her shoulder. 'Well, it's been quite a month.'