Aurgh! It's getting too angsty! >_ And it's getting tricky to keep D and Alucard in character. (FYI - I spent the weekend replaying Castlevania because I was pretty sure I had D's personality bleeding *ha, ha!* into Alucard's. With any luck, and my memory jogged, Alucard will not be just a pale copy of D.)
I wasn't trying to torture you with finally getting D and Alucard on the same page in the story, but it seems to me that each of them would not be willing to trust the other simply on the basis of shared blood. I'd expect they'd be rather wary with each other, especially since neither of them would actually talk openly about anything as mushy as trust or feelings!
I apologize too...there are chapters I
need to write after this one but before the next one gelling in my mind
and they just aren't coming to me! I feel like I'm reaching for mist
that I can't hold. Oh, and the fairy tale titles for the chapters
didn't pan out!
Alucard waited,
in the half-dead, mostly unaware sleep in which he spent the majority of
his life. He waited for the glow, the spark of presence that let
him know Dracula had returned. He wondered what it would be like
if he were free of the duty to protect the mostly helpless humans from
his father's plans. What would it be like to be free to choose his
destiny?
Such ponderings had troubled him in past sleeps, but now...knowing there was another like him, a son of Dracula, who felt no responsibility at all toward humans... Could he just...wake and live? Would it be so wrong for him to let the humans fend for themselves? There was Richter Belmont, or his son now, more than three hundred years ago there had been Trevor Belmont. Some humans were capable of dealing with his father. Would it be so selfish of him to let humans care for themselves so that he, Alucard, could actually live his life and not sleep it away? What would he do if he were indeed to rise and live?
His..."brother" seemed to enjoy life, traveling worlds, seeking pleasure and endeavoring to sow his seed as widely as Dracula had. Alucard never suspected he had a brother. Evidently, when Castlevania was not present in Alucard's world, Dracula was active in another. Alucard wondered how many worlds had been touched by the shadow of Dracula and how many siblings he had.
He'd met one. The rude person waking him untimely from his sleep, taunting him for the choices he made, making him second-guess his destiny. That was his brother.
He recalled the moment he first laid eyes on him. The veil of sleep had been so hard to part until pain woke him. That first vague memory...a face...leering down into his. White...a white face...
But his brother didn't have a white face, Alucard realized. Pale, yes, but stark, dead white? No... There hadn't been anyone else in his sanctuary though. And even though he'd never seen the white face before, it seemed familiar...
Alucard's sleeping mind delved further into his memories. Familiar...the white face waking him had been familiar...
No! It was the other face that was familiar to the white one! A grotesque face, opening its mouth wide and...capturing him! His mist form which had always been a strength for him had been turned against him. It was too weak to resist the oblivion behind the face. He was fading, dissolving, dying...
"Aurgh!" Alucard sat up suddenly, vaulting upright in a physical echo of wresting himself from his memory-laden sleep. He wasn't alone.
"You are awake, good," the person who looked like his taunting brother commented as he added more wood to the fire. Alucard didn't recognized the camp he found himself in.
"Uhhh...!" Alucard touched his head gingerly as pain seemed to split his skull. The man came over and knelt at his side.
"Drink," he commanded, holding a cup of water to his lips. Alucard drank, then his suddenly heavy eyelids closed and the pain eased a little.
"You will sleep again," Alucard heard as soft blackness rushed up to claim him again, "I will keep watch until you are recovered."
"He's pretty strong to have waken so soon," this comment was in a grating voice. Alucard struggled against the drug he'd been given enough to open his eyes again. That hideous little face ogled him curiously.
He couldn't help it, his confused dreams were too close to the surface of his mind. He recoiled in horror and would have toppled except for the arm that came swiftly around his shoulders to steady him. He looked up into an impassive face and muted understanding in piercing blue eyes.
"I'll give you something to stare at!" While supporting Alucard with his right arm, the man ground his own left hand, and that weird little face, against the dirt.
"Will you behave?" he asked, pinning his hand to the ground.
"Yemmph!" the response was muffled.
"Okay then. See that you do!"
"Left Hand won't try to harm you while you recover," the promise came in a lightly disinterested voice, but Alucard trusted it anyway.
"Left Hand..." Alucard repeated slowly, the blackness rushing to claim his consciousness again, "And you? Your...name...?" Against his will, his eyes closed.
D laid the dhampir down on the ground and covered him against the chill night air with a fine black cloak.
"My name is D," he replied, though he knew the dhampir was unconscious again. D decided to wait here until the dhampir was fully recovered from Left Hand's attack. Mainly because it was the right thing to do, as it was Left Hand who had so weakened him, but also...
There was that feeling, almost like a buzzing in the back of D's mind. Whenever this dhampir was near, somehow D sensed it. It wasn't the same, but it reminded him strongly of the feeling he had whenever his father, Dracula, was near. D suspected he knew what this feeling meant, but his curiosity was such that he wanted to confirm it.
-----
"'Ware," Left Hand said in a low tone. D woke completely at the warning. Through slitted eyes he could see that the 'guest' in his camp was awake and more, up and wandering about. It was true D had tended to him after Left Hand's attack, so logically there should be a respite from further attacks from the dhampir, but he had learned many times to take nothing for granted. Especially from those of vampire blood. So he waited, feigning sleep, to see what the dhampir would do.
The dhampir moved soundlessly about the camp, seemingly scoping it out as he ran straightening fingers through his long silver hair. Finally he took up the bucket and wandered off through the trees. The sound of flowing water was barely audible, just as D liked it, so he suspected the dhampir was heading toward the stream to wash up, as he left his sword and cloak behind.
It seemed a good time to rouse himself, so that they would be on equal terms. Perhaps D could finally sort out why the dhampir was attacking him.
If not for the familiar tingling in his spine, D would never have known that he had returned, he moved that quietly. D turned and looked at the dhampir assessingly under the brim of his hat.
He could see Dracula in his features. The stamp of D's sire was there in the brow as well as the angles of the cheekbone and jaw line. There was a softer influence as well, probably from the dhampir's human mother. Despite the fact that he was newly recovered from Left Hand's attack, the dhampir held himself composed, assessing D with level, dark grey eyes.
"Name?" D asked.
"Alucard. You?"
"D."
They regarded each other warily for a long moment.
"You've been tracking me and attacking me. Why?" D asked simply.
That grey-eyed gaze assessed D again.
"I mistook you for someone else. I am sorry."
This Alucard was proud. His apology was sincere, but not groveling or begging forgiveness. It was up to D to accept it or reject it.
"No harm done."
Alucard's gaze flicked to Left Hand before returning to D's face.
"True. No harm done."
And that was that. Honor had been satisfied on both sides, they could each go their separate ways. But...D was curious. Was there someone else who so closely resembled him that Alucard would mistakenly attack him again and again? And that feeling, that sense...D didn't even know how to bring that up...
"Maybe you can help me," Alucard asked suddenly. D lifted a brow noncommittally.
"I have a gem that looks like one of yours. It was left..." Alucard actually blushed slightly. D hadn't been sure one of vampire blood could do that!
"It resembles your gem. The one in your hat," Alucard finished uncomfortably.
"May I see it?"
-----------------
D turned the gem over in his hand as he pondered Alucard's story. Some person, resembling D, had waken Alucard from his sleep, taunted him and left, leaving behind this gem as something of a calling card. Perhaps there was magic involved, making an illusion of D to entice Alucard into attacking him. Alucard claimed the gem had brought him here, where he sensed D's presence just as D sensed his. Wishing to not only protect the humans of his world, but also to gain a measure of satisfaction for the premature awakening, Alucard had attacked D. It seemed obvious that is what the person wanted. The purpose behind such a plot was still unknown.
"The person who woke me," Alucard was very uncomfortable for some reason, "He was rude. Obnoxious even. He claimed to be traveling all the worlds Dracula did for the sole purpose of begetting young in each one."
"What?!"
"That is what he said," Alucard confirmed.
"That is..." D stopped.
"Human/vampire hybrids..." Alucard likewise couldn't complete the statement.
"He must be stopped. Whoever he is. Whatever it takes," D finally declared.
Alucard nodded.
"I don't wake easily from my long sleep," Alucard told him, "So I'm not certain if I can trust my memory. But I think...the bite I received...was from an entity living in his right hand."
"Right hand?"
Alucard nodded, "You weren't born with that...thing, were you?"
"Hey!" Left Hand complained about being referred to as a thing. D shoved his left hand into his provision pouch. Muffled munching noises followed.
"No." D declined to elaborate.
Alucard shrugged, "So maybe this person acquired...whatever that thing is the same way you did. For whatever reason."
"Perhaps."
-------------
Reviews, comments and constructive criticisms are always welcome! Please feel free to email me also if you see something awkward that needs to be clarified or fixed. I need all the help I can get!
stargarde@stargarde.com
Next Chapter teaser - Your face is familiar, I just can't place the name!