Chapter 7: Darkness

Now! Commanded the voice inside D's head. D was frozen. He felt as if the whole world was crumbling down into Hell all around him.

Not Tasia. Not Tasia! D could no longer hold back his tears. They trickled down his pale, smooth face, looking strangely out of place on his expressionless countenance. The hundred guests were waiting, almost hovering, each one looking like they might pounce on the victim at any moment. Dracula knew that if another second expired, they would begin to question his son's motivation, and all chance of regaining their respect would be destroyed. With gargantuan effort, the vampire king cast a spell over his subjects, stopping time for those who could never be stopped by time. Tasia and D, being alive, were unaffected by this magic, and it required so much effort that, for a second, the spell holding D in obedience failed. D stared at his father in horror. Dracula looked like a cornered animal, his fangs bared and his eyes gleaming murderously. He would regain his power in a moment. D knew there wasn't a second to lose. He scooped Tasia into his arms and ran. As he fled, he heard his father's laughter behind him.

"D?" Tasia said, her voice shaking with fear. When she had first opened her eyes she had been bewildered, but now that she was more awake, she was frightened. "Where are we?"

"My father's castle. Know the truth, Tasia. My father is a vampire, the strongest that ever was. He wants me to kill you but I won't. I would never hurt you. Do you believe me?"

"D what are you talking about? Put me down, you're frightening me!" D was running down the stairs, towards the door to the inner courtyard… beyond that was the entrance hall and then the door, then the stairs down to the stables…

"I've got to get you out of here. You'll die, Tasia, they'll drink your blood!"

"D! You've gone mad! Stop talking like that- Stop it! D, Stop!"

"I beg of you-- if I was ever your friend- please believe that I want to save your life!"

Tasia was stunned into silence. She realized, suddenly, that she did believe him. D was almost to the door on the other side of the courtyard when his father appeared in front of him. Tasia screamed. D put her down and stepped in front of her, shielding her with his body. "You can't have her," he growled at his father.

"I can't believe I didn't know, that for all these years, you've been… associating… with those people," his father said in cruel amusement. "I was a fool. Of course a human child would seek the companionship of other human children. But the child you found has grown up and left you behind, and is now a mother herself. I saw it all in your thoughts as I unveiled her. You went to dinner at her house this very evening- how ironic! I was in the town, looking for the perfect birthday present for you, and as I passed her house I saw her in the window, heard her telling her children that there aren't any such things as vampires, vampires are a silly made up thing. Why, she was so confident, so assuring, that I doubted my own existence. And she is beautiful, isn't she? The prettiest in the village, in my own opinion. Wouldn't you agree, D? It seems we have a little more in common than our good looks after all- it seems we agree in matters of taste. Or at least I'm sure we will, when you finally taste her."

"No. Never."

Dracula laughed again. "Abandon your humanity, D. Free yourself of that weakness!"

"Why?"

"For power! For destiny! There doesn't need to be a reason, you simply MUST do it. You cannot remain in my house as a full-grown dhampir, no one's ever heard of such an absurdity. By now the bloodlust should have awakened by itself. Human food should have lost its flavor; the aroma of blood grown gradually sweeter. The human side of you has already lived far longer than any human ever has- it should be tired of life by now, and the vampire side of you should be screaming for release, for completeness… you are only half of what you ought to be."

"You're right. I ought to be completely human, like my mother!"

His father was silent for a moment. D met his gaze evenly. "Humans are weak," his father said in a low voice. "They suffer. They grieve-"

"So did you, when she died."

"I will always mourn her, D."

"Such a lie offends me. If you loved her, you should have died when she did!"

Dracula stared up into nothingness and almost looked sad. His voice was grave when he spoke. "I wished for that… for oblivion. She wished that I remain here, to care for you. Had you gone back to her family, they would have killed you. They would have hurt the human child in you, instead of allowing it to mature as I did, and ultimately they would have hated you, feared you, and destroyed you like a deformed animal. I gave you a human childhood, D. I did so out of love for your mother, and for whatever part of her lived on in you. But that childhood is over. Accept it!"

What his father said made sense. D saw the ugly truth. The human part of him had lived beyond its term. The vampire part of him was supposed to take over now. That was only natural. He felt a twinge in his left palm. Suddenly he felt a surge of hope- he remembered that day in the forest when the parasitic demon had first spoken to him, and told him that he could choose whether to be good or evil. He could choose!

"Never," D said, his voice like steel. "I refuse the power and the destiny you offer. I've made my choice, and I choose to remain a dhampir. I will never kill a human."

Dracula sneered, and his accent, reminiscent of an ancient tongue, grew more pronounced. "You don't have a choice, my son. There are a hundred of our kind waiting for you in the banquet hall. I will not be humiliated in front my guests. You will cooperate, or else this young woman will not be the only one who dies this night. Her children will watch their father shamed and tortured. Her old mother will watch as I drain the blood of the children. And finally, D, you will watch as her old mother dies, you will be right there, and she will think it was you who betrayed them all."

"No!" Tasia shrieked, clutching D's arm. "Oh God, save them!"

D felt the dark energy coiling inside him. He had felt it in the woods years ago when he had killed those wolves, and he had repressed and avoided it ever since. But now he let it fill him, flood him, welcoming the hatred it represented. The weight of it made him crumble to his knees. He glared at his father, his fists trembling at his sides. And suddenly, he couldn't contain the raging forces any longer. It happened in an instant- the dark power surged outward, sending Tasia sprawling, knocking the vampire king to the ground, almost disrupting his control over the time-stopping spell in the banquet hall. D felt dizzy. He couldn't see, he couldn't breathe, and as soon as the incredible destructive tide receded, D collapsed, unconscious.

Dracula thought quickly. He recognized the dark power that D had unleashed, and it amazed him. For an instant he almost felt proud that his son had inherited so much of his father's ability, despite being born from a lowly human. But Dracula realized that D's power presented a huge problem. If he could generate such a fierce storm again, and especially if he figured out how to focus it, he might actually be able to disrupt the time-stopping spell. And with so much of his own mental power devoted to that crucial spell, Dracula wasn't sure if he'd be able to beat D if it came to a fight. He doubted that his now-unconscious son would last more than a few seconds in a real battle, but based on the intensity of what he had just felt, he didn't want to take the chance. Tasia moaned and staggered to her feet. Of course the energy wouldn't have damaged her too badly- she was human, and immune to most raw magic. Magic had to be delicately refined before it would work on humans. Looking at her, the vampire king suddenly realized what he had to do. In the blink of an eye, he was beside her, his arms wrapped around her. "What happened?" she said fearfully.

"Hush now," Dracula said soothingly. "My son has overexerted himself." She stiffened as she realized who held her. "Listen, my dear, your life is over. If you die, I can salvage the mess my son has made. If he had only killed you it would have been so much simpler, but he wants to cling to his human façade a little longer. You were the one who taught him to love being human, weren't you?" She heard his voice but hardly understood his words. Her mind was filled with dread for the fate of her children… but his voice was tranquilizing, rich and smooth like velvet. She felt herself relaxing despite her fears. She gazed up at him with wide searching eyes. Dracula went on, smoothing her hair away from her face with one graceful hand. "If I kill you now, your family will come to no harm. They'll be safe."

"Promise it," Tasia begged. "Swear to me you won't hurt them."

He looked into her eyes. "Child, I swear it."

She felt she could trust him. Everything seemed unreal. She listened to his voice as it rolled on like the waves of a calm sea. "Shut your eyes, and look on into the darkness. You will feel a rush of warmth, and then, soon after, you will feel a growing cold, and it will make you sleepy. Slowly, you'll feel your body grow heavy. Sounds will grow faint and muffled. You'll feel yourself drifting onwards, drifting into death. Let yourself go willingly; melt into the darkness. Embrace it, and travel quickly to whatever lies beyond. Perhaps… a light? …a door?…a forest filled with sunshine? Look for it… begin to dream of it even now."

She was in a trance-like sleep, still standing but leaning heavily against him, her head tilted and resting gently upon his breast, her eyes half open and her hands limp. Dracula couldn't help but admire the moonlight caught in her hair, and the greatest magic of all, the slow steady beating of her heart, which seemed to echo throughout his entire body. How he loved to feel a heartbeat, even though it filled him with terrible thirst. He imagined that was the closest any vampire could ever feel to being alive. He hated and loved the feeling- no matter how many heartbeats he silenced, the thrill and the rush of passion never dulled. Now he was old enough to savor it. He was no longer a slave to his nature. He had mastered the art of being what he was.

D stirred and moaned, and with a slight twinge of annoyance Dracula knew he had to hurry. Despite what he told the girl, he wasn't going to kill her. He was going to keep his promise about sparing her family. But D didn't have to know that.

The vampire king bent his head forward and softly bit into the girl's throat. It was a clean, perfect wound, and he didn't spill a drop of blood. He took just enough from her to ensure that she was just barely beyond saving. Then he scooped her into his arms, walked over to where D was still curled on the ground, and gave the crumpled prince a swift kick.

"Wake up," he said imperiously. "I need you. Wake up."

D sat up and saw the girl sleeping in his father's arms. "No!" he gasped, reaching for her. His father knocked his hand away.

"Listen to me carefully. If you don't cooperate I'll kill those children and look like you while I'm doing it. It's too late for this woman. You don't have to kill her- I've taken care of that bit for you. She's still slightly alive and we're taking her back to the banquet hall. I will put her on the table, you will press your lips to the wound in her neck, and at that instant I'll release our guests from the spell they're under. To them, the past ten minutes were a mere speck of a second. None of them will be any the wiser. Once the deception is complete, you will depart, immediately, without saying a word to anyone. I don't care where you go, but if you ever come back here, you had better have a little more self-control. Or perhaps a different weapon altogether- a sword, perhaps? They're far more reliable than storms of dark magic." Dracula smiled faintly.

"What about Tasia?"

"Tell yourself she is already dead. She will feel no pain; her mind is already drifting through peaceful nothingness." D gazed at her angelic face for a long, sad moment. He didn't want to go along with any plan of his father's, but he was powerless to oppose him. He couldn't challenge the vampire king. He wasn't strong enough. And then his mind filled with thoughts of Tasia- his friend, his beautiful, living friend, with her dancing laughter and ribbons in her hair, an image of happiness now reflected in her beautiful children… children who, like D, had lost their mother. Suddenly burdened by grief, D couldn't think of resisting his father. Tasia, oh, Tasia… he couldn't let those children come to harm. Tasia loved them more than her own life. D would protect them now, no matter what the cost.

Dracula studied his son carefully. He was seeing the boy in a new light. He had grown up after all, found a purpose, and was now acting with maturity. It wasn't what Dracula had expected, but he found he could respect this strange, tormented creature, this dhampir clinging to morality in defiance of destiny. Something about the situation appealed to the old king's sense of humor. He smiled slightly. "Are you ready?"

D nodded grimly in response. He followed his father back up to the banquet hall. When Tasia was laid out again on the table, exactly as she had been, D put his hands on her shoulders and bent down to her neck. Goodbye, he said silently. May you find heaven quickly, and forget you ever knew me. He spotted the small bloody marks and, trying not to think about it, he carefully pressed his lips to either side. He could smell her hair and her skin- hear her faint heartbeat and shallow breathing- and worst of all, he could smell her blood, sweet and strong. The odor was heavy and oppressing and sharp and tantalizing all at once. It filled his mind with red. In that instant, Dracula released the time-stopping spell. Ignoring the ecstatic approval of the guests, D straightened, looked down at Tasia one last time, and then walked away from the table. He didn't stop walking until he reached the stables. And then he rode off into the darkness.

A/N: I loved writing Dracula's part in chapter 7- he's such an awesome character! And of course this chapter was a major turning point for D. I managed to creep myself out writing it, so by my standards that means it was a good one.