Okay, I admit it. I'm a romantic sap. And romance isn't just the passionate feelings between two people who are interested in each other. Sometimes it's the little things, like just being sympathetic to someone when they need it.
Val is safely out of the story, returned to her shop. D and Alucard are adventuring again. I have no idea why they are tromping around the countryside, except that it's more interesting to write about (and I hope read about!) than navel-gazing as this story, despite my best intentions, has become an angst-fest. >_
Not to worry, though. Alucard's dreams have taken a more dark and decisive turn leading up hopefully toward the final conflict with...
...
Now, that would be telling! ^_~
Chapter Ten - The Voice in the Darkness
"Fairy told me about Val," Alucard admitted.
"Humph," D grunted.
"How long have you known her?"
"Almost a hundred and fifty years," D replied, "Thanks to Fairy, she should have a hundred and fifty more."
"Won't that cause her...problems? With other humans?"
"No. I helped her relocate and start fresh once before. No one will ever need to know how old she really is," D told him.
"I'm glad. Do you think it will really work? Fairy's spice that is?"
"It already has. Reading me didn't give Val a headache," D replied, "I'm sure that's the strengthening of her blood."
"Good."
A loud crack sounded beneath his foot. The forest floor broke apart, dumping D and Alucard into a wide, deep pit. Alucard defensively shifted to his mist form, but D fell all the way down onto the sharpened spikes in the bottom of the pit. Alucard drifted down and carefully resumed his dhampir form avoiding the spikes.
Four bloody points protruded through D, one through his leg, one through his arm and two through his chest.
"Are you okay?!"
"I'll...survive," D admitted painfully, "Nothing vital was hit."
Alucard pondered how best to get D out of the pit. It was too deep for him to lift D out, even if D were strong enough to stand on his shoulders. He couldn't carry anything in his mist form at all, and his bat form was too weak to lift D too. Getting D off the spikes would be bad enough, Alucard didn't want to risk D getting stabbed again by staying in the pit.
Alucard pulled out a rope and tied a quick harness into it. He invoked his Sword card.
"What do you require?" Sword demanded as it floated down into the pit.
"Go up there and deal with anything hostile that might have made this trap. Then return to me," Alucard told him. Sword floated off to do his bidding.
"There's nothing up there," Sword reported as it floated down again.
"Come here," Alucard commanded. He tied the free end of the rope to Sword's hilt, "Go back up there, loop this around a tree a few times, then plant yourself in the ground. I'll be up in a minute."
Alucard looked down into D's eyes, giving D just a moment to prepare before he reached down and bodily lifted D straight up off the spikes that were pinning him. D cried out.
"Can you stand?" Alucard asked after a moment. D nodded, not trusting in his voice. Alucard helped him into the harness, then loosened his hold enough to confirm D could stand indeed on his own. He shifted to bat form and zoomed up out of the pit as fast as he could. A moment later D felt the rope of the harness tighten. Slowly he was pulled out of the pit.
Alucard, his dhampir self again, mutely offered to tend to D's wounds.
"No, they'll regenerate if I rest. That should be sufficient," D told him painfully sitting down on the ground.
Alucard considered D for a moment before summoning Fairy.
"No, that won't work," D told him, as Alucard rummaged in his pack, "Left Hand always intercepts healing spells or items."
"I can't help it!" Left Hand told D petulantly.
"Oh," Alucard stated flatly, "Well then..." he surveyed the area, noting the trap they had sprung and the open vulnerability of the clearing. He exchanged Fairy for Sword.
"Watch D. Keep anything from bothering him," Alucard commanded his militant familiar, "I'll find a suitable campsite."
Later, after forcing D to lean on him and after taking many rests along the way, Alucard lowered D to his bedroll in the camp he'd set up. It was far enough away from the trap that Alucard thought it would be secure enough to let D sleep and recover from his wounds.
D gratefully closed his eyes, knowing he would heal faster if he were asleep. Alucard watched the camp quietly until nightfall, whereupon he set Sword to guard the perimeter. He debated briefly with himself before setting his bedroll next to D's, in case D woke during the night and needed help. Finally, Alucard thankfully went to sleep.
********
The scent of lilies came to him and the feel of a woman nestling in his arms. Her back arched as tight as a bow within his embrace. The waves of her glossy bronzewood hair spilled over his arms as she turned, mutely offering the alabaster column of her neck to him.
Such temptation! He'd pledged his love to this human woman! He'd defied his people and hers to gain her! His noble intentions toward her startled even him, forcing him to wonder if he had perhaps learned the true meaning of love. That true love was indeed sacrifice, denying part of himself for as long as she lived. He'd vowed to deny himself the pleasure of drinking her, for if he did drink, he would abuse the pure love he felt for her. He would betray the utter trust she had in him. Knowing all of that, for he had shared with her all his thoughts and feelings, how could she offer...
The scent of lilies, his favorite, wafting up from her pulse point where she had so carefully placed it... The scent of her sweet blood mingling through that floral scent too forced him to imagine and feel... The urge to drink rose, despite his every intention. For as deeply as he loved this woman, and cherished her very life, it paled, too weak to serve as his bulwark against the dark pleasure promised by his bloodlust.
"Vampires pride themselves on their strength," he reminded himself.
He laughed mentally. "Why then, is it so very easy to seduce us?"
He bit through the lily scent, and the supple softness of her neck, into the sweetness of her blood. Accepting, rejecting, denying, craving his vampire's kiss, she filled his arms, instinctively behaving as any human does, when the death of a vampire takes them. He knew somehow, that her love for him would accept even this, either death in his arms or the deathlike birth into an unnatural life like his.
"So in the end, the weak human loves more strongly than the strong vampire," he laughed at the irony.
But her blood!
It ran from him as if horrified at his betrayal of their love! It flowed AWAY from him as fast as it could, denying him even the bitter-sweet pleasure gained from taking her life. Her blood became a red tide he was unable to claim for himself, and unable to return to her, to bolster her life as it trickled through his fingers...
"Oh, love! What have I done?! What have I done?!"
"No...no..." Alucard moaned.
Left Hand opened his eyes. Nightmare, he diagnosed, having seen D suffering from nightmares before.
"...no...!"
After his many years with D, Left Hand knew that Alucard's moaning wasn't enough to wake D while he was regenerating. He considered waking D himself, to let D deal with Alucard, but reasoned D still needed his healing sleep. Sighing mentally, he flipped himself over and 'walked' to Alucard's side. Forcing his features into as kindly and concerned an aspect as he could manage, since Alucard shouting in fear would definitely wake D, Left Hand jumped up to Alucard's shoulder and shook it.
"Wake up. Wake up, Alucard," Left Hand whispered urgently.
"What...?!"
"You were dreaming. A bad dream from the sound of it," Left Hand whispered to him, "Do you want to..." Left Hand almost choked, "...talk about it?"
Alucard almost laughed, "Telling my dreams would take the entire night!"
"I don't need to sleep while D's regenerating," Left Hand noted, "I can listen."
"And give you ammunition to torment me with? I think not!" Alucard stated flatly.
Left Hand sighed, "Look, Lambchop," Alucard bristled at the nickname, "I only do that to get a rise out of you!" Left Hand admitted before he sighed again.
"It would be a very weird circumstance where I'd act against what D wants. He doesn't control me. I don't control him. But we do have to live together. It's taken years for us to learn how. D's endured a week where I refused to work at all so he basically had only one hand and I..." Left Hand stopped and acted like he wouldn't continue.
"You?" Alucard asked despite himself.
"I pissed D off enough once that he...he encased me in a cast. I wasn't able to see, or talk, or move..."
"Buried alive. I know what that feels like," Alucard said softly, "With nothing but dreams to keep you sane. I spend most of my life in dreams."
"Why?"
"Castlevania, Dracula's castle. It rises every one hundred years, inhabited by monsters. Human lives are so short, Castlevania's risings become just a memory and the monsters run free to terrorize them. The Belmont clan does what they can, but each rising of Castlevania is deadlier than the last. My mother was human. Kind and gentle. She told me to watch over humans, and protect them. So I do. But, in my dreams..."
"You are still half-vampire. That part of you that you try to deny makes itself known in your dreams," Left Hand surmised.
"I've never bitten...for blood. But the way of it, how to do it and the desire...it's in me," Alucard admitted, "When there are monsters to fight and labyrinths to solve, it doesn't trouble me. But when things are quiet, and I'm alone...I start to think about it...and want it."
"So you sleep, when you aren't needed," Left Hand realized.
"A sleep like death where I can't act on my dreams," Alucard agreed.
"A terrible life."
"In a way, I suppose. But I don't hurt people and I'm there to stop my father when he would hurt them. I envy D. He knew Dracula, his father, as more than just an adversary. I can tell he admires Father, so once there was something admirable in Father. I can't bring myself to kill Dracula. I know Castlevania will rise again. But this life I lead...I fear one day I will break my bonds of dreams and become...that which I despise the most."
"It'd never happen," Left Hand offered almost flippantly.
"How could you know?!" Alucard demanded.
"You're too strong and noble. Just like D. Yeah, I admit I like teasin' you. I'm still gonna do it, too. But I will tell you, just this once, that I kinda like you too. The fact that you worry you might act on your vampire desires, prevents you from ever weakening to that point," Left Hand told him, "Trust me, I've been with D long enough to see how it works. D's life (and mine!) would be one heck of a lot easier if he'd just weaken...but it ain't gonna happen. You an' D are like two peas in a pod. You won't give in. The humans of your world have no idea how lucky they are!"
Alucard was silent, pondering Left Hand's words, for a very long time.
"Go back to sleep," Left Hand suggested, "You are trying to solve a mystery so your bloodlust dreams shouldn't be troubling you anyway!" Left Hand patted Alucard's shoulder awkwardly a couple of times before jumping down and returning to D's side.
"Good night, Alucard," Left Hand whispered.
"Good night, Left Hand," Alucard replied. He turned over and went back to sleep.
"You're getting soft in your old age," D told Left Hand softly out of the blue.
"Shut up," Left Hand advised. D smiled.
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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 - Chapter Eleven - Familiar Territory