They had been traveling for some time now, almost two weeks. Things were fine, as pleasant as they could be with a feuding drunk and dhampir with only a stubborn Speaker to keep them from ripping each other's throats out. It was nice. It was peaceful. There were minimal injuries throughout their journey, and that made it all the better.

But, all good things must come to an end. Alucard just didn't think it would be so soon.

They were excited to be finally close to the village after so long. All they could think about were the real beds they would be able to sleep on. That, and Trevor wanted his alcohol. It was going to be a night of celebration. Of happiness in this glooming quest.

Yet when they got to their destination, they instead found the ruins of a once alive village. Houses were in shambles, holes split the ground, blood stained the street red, and half-eaten bodies were lying around like macabre decorations.

Sypha had felt bile rise up her throat, but she swallowed it down.

Trevor had felt the strongest wave of disgust in his life as he eyed a silently screaming dead child. Much like Sypha, he couldn't understand how someone could do this, let alone for many centuries.

Alucard just looked past the bodies, knowing that there was someone watching them from the shadows. Friend or foe, Alucard could not say, yet he did not sense any hostility towards him and his teammates. But you could never be sure until the blade was drawn.

Knowing that his...friends [the word still felt strange on his tongue] were off in their own world of trying to make sense of this chaos, he walked ahead, not telling them where he was going, knowing that he would be back in a matter of seconds. They wouldn't know that he was gone.

His high boots hardly made any sound on the bloody, cobblestone streets as he walked toward his goal, which was behind the ruined wall of an even more ruined house.

Looking back on it, it was an unwise dicision on his part. He should have at least told them he was going, or maybe had not gone at all.

His lips parted in a look of surprise as his amber eyes fell on a young girl, soaked in blood and caked in dirt. Her hair was matted and black, soot stained her cheeks, thin limbs curled into her body, ratty clothes held her frame. All what you would expect from an poor, orphaned girl that just survived a slaughter. Yet there was one thing that threw the dhampir off. And that was her eyes.

They were a dull red, like the color of bricks, and slitted like a cat's. A wild fire burned behind them.

Honing his senses, Alucard searched for more things to add to his suspicion. And everything stacked against his favors.

Cold blood, no heartbeat, red, cat eyes, sharp nails...Fangs.

There was no denying it. This was a young, vampire girl.

Alucard had just stood still for a moment, unsure of how he should go about this. Should he kill her? No. She was most likely an innocent bystander in this. Should he pretend that he never saw her? No. The guilt would tear his mind apart. Should he take her with them? No. Trevor and Sypha would most likely be angry at him. Should he take her with them, but hide her from the hunter and Speaker? That was the only choice he had. There was no way around it.

Having made up his mind, Alucard had leaned down to the young girl, who looked at him with defiant, fear filled eyes.

He held out his hand, as both a greeting and to show her he meant no harm.

"My lady, are you alright?"

The dhampir allowed his fangs to show as he spoke, so that the girl could see that he, too, was of vampire blood.

She had seemed to relax a bit and as she took Alucard's semi-warm hand, she spoke in a voice only audible to them.

"You are a vampire, as well..."

"Yes. Now, let us go."

"Where are we going?" The young girl asked.

"To the forest. My friends will not be very happy with me bringing back a vampire. One is a hunter, you see," came Alucard's smooth reply.

"Oh."

"You will stay hidden in the forest until I can come get you without running the risk of my friends finding you, and thinking me a traitor."

"Okay." A moment of silence.

"You're friends sound mean, Mister."

A small quirk of his lips had betrayed the small amount of amusement he felt at the heroic Trevor and kind Sypha being called mean.

"No, they are not. They are just cautious and protective. They really are nice people."

"And mortal," the little girl replied. "They must not want to die and are taking steps to unsure them that they will live."

That struck a chord within the dhampir. They would die. Die well before him. Why? Why did-

No. You will not think of such things right now when you have company.

"Don't forget, young one, that we, too, die one day."

"I know."

Alucard had taken the girl, now known as Celia, to the thick brunch of trees called a forest, where he stuck her in a tall tree and told her to wait til he came back at dusk, leaving her with a dead squirrel to keep her fed.

Besides for a few worried questions of his whereabouts that were answered with a few easy lies, and a slight scolding to never go anywhere without one of them knowing, Trevor and Sypha were none the wiser. Night fell and the two humans fell alseep along with it.

Soon enough, Alucard had journeyed back through the forest and found the tree where he placed Celia. Yet he could not find her. A dull panic started to set in. What happened to her? Was she all right? Alucard had no way of knowing.

He was just about to turn to head deeper into the forest when he heard a familiar shriek coming from back at camp.

It was Sypha.

"Oh, no..."

Hello! This took a bit longer to make. I know this sounds stupid, but I had only a vague idea of where this would go, getting the idea in the middle of watching the Disney movie Coco. So it took a full night of dream planning and a few hours of Castlevania music to get the idea of how this story was going to start. This first chapter is set in the past. Roughly half an hour after this chapter. Celia will not show up more later on in this story, given that I am not a fan of OCs. She is just here to help the story start rolling. And that is what will start happening in the next chapter. So stay tuned!

-Majesty