Chapter Six
Aline opened hideout door to frantic Alucard, hair draped, masking expression, but the hand on the frame next to her was bent, each knuckle white, nails in the wood, the fist at his side was clenched.
"Next door, empty shop. Be easier to talk there."
Aline closed the door, letting the vampire inside adjoining door.
"Want to talk about it?"
"Father isn't recovering as quickly as he should. The second acolyte, he used spells to weaken him, before he entered the building."
Aline kept her voice low, respectful, exacerbating Alucard unacceptable.
"What can I do? I can't leave for long, I promised Victor I would stay. However, your situation, and coming to me speaks volumes. Anything, Alucard."
He sighed, pent up frustration heaved out through nostrils.
"My Mother is with him," he grunted, keeping eyes on the ground, "her spirit is. She's brewing potions, but needs someone to assist her. You mentioned Sofia being somewhat of a white witch. With watching her, I was thinking. We already have books, I need someone to help look for ingredients. I must stay with him. Losing him would be devastating."
Pretence dropped, Alucard bore all on his face, pleading obliterating the woman's apprehension.
She opened herself up, offering not sympathy, but shield, just for a bit, obscure grimness of his return to the castle. Alucard stepped into circle, outside world forgotten.
Aline's head slotted neatly against his pectorals since he shed his armour, his arms encircling her waist, heart beating under his palm formed tears. He blinked them away, chin on crown of auburn locks, scent Summer fruits.
Staying here blossomed seed, deep within the vampire, one he long thought pruned, shrivelled, dried up. It would be easy for his hands to make their way onto her face, holding it, precious life in his hands.
He moved methodically, any sense Aline was uncomfortable, he would cease, move away, respect her space, her body.
She didn't move, pulse increasing steadily, fluid in his embrace, holding breath, moment held.
"Chérie. Didn't you arrive with a request, which I promised to fulfil?"
She, reluctantly moved.
"Let's go. I'm here, right with you. I'll give it all I've got."
She returned to the hideout, coming outside soon after, walking down the street, pace brisk.
"So, meeting the parents, huh?" Giving herself the once over, she deemed herself alright. "At least I look semi-decent."
"If I carry you, this will go faster."
Aline smirked.
"Are you saying I am slow?"
Her joke partially backfired.
"I don't know how much time he has left..."
Aline sprinted, Alucard faster, around two corners before she rounded the first...
"He looks," walking into Dracula's chamber, Aline's heart ached, "burnt?" Viewing such a powerful man rend from strength, mere man startled her. "Alucard." She turned, bolstering her friend. "Tell me what you need and I will get it."
Alucard pointed, room to their right. Aline nodded, facing entrance, wafts of herbs filling nostrils. Speaking was too much for him, emotion welling. He walked off, without explanation. Aline was okay with this, understanding his conflict.
She knocked, a woman turning, white dress making her look like an angel.
"Alucard's Mother, right? Aline," she waved, "pleasure to meet you. Your son is remarkable."
Marie smiled, Aline noting Alucard was her image.
"Trevor told me about you. It is lovely to finally make your acquaintance."
"Good things, I hope. And, Trevor? I hadn't thought to ask, thought it'd be painful to recollect that time."
"I call him the name I gave him. He answers to both, fortunately, or his Father wouldn't be able to get his attention. He refuses to remember the past. Gabriel, that's who he was, still is, I know it. His humanity hasn't entirely vanished."
Aline perused shelves, jars filled with crushed herbs, flowers, smells, colours myriad, pleasant.
"How do you know?"
Marie's smile grew weary.
"Because I reside here still, in-between realms. Dracula has little need for me, Gabriel does. He wouldn't admit it, he is lonely, seeking companionship as much as he seeks to banish it, ties deemed futile."
"Sorry." Aline scanned open book, seeing four herbs circled. "That was personal. I should find these."
"It is fine, Aline. Curiosity is healthy, and yes, my spirit is deficient. Gabriel's influence is impuissant, the second acolyte forced the remaining part of my husband to leave his consciousness. He is Dracula, wholly, I will exist no longer if he is allowed to dissipate. He may argue, though he knows it is true. My husband is still there, and, though I sorely miss him, I wish to rest. I must speak with him first, I owe him that."
Aline nodded, courteously remaining muted.
"Lavender, for the burns, frankincense for scarring, ginseng to induce bleeding. He is poisoned, blood coming out black. It must be freed."
She grabbed a stack of wooden bowls, Alucard entering with towels.
"Need to get a move on then."
"Merci, Aline. The garden is north of here. I tended to it as best I could. Mostly shrubbery, but it will be of use."
Aline simpered, bowing head, leaving the room quickly.
"Kind, intelligent, witty," Marie remarked, her son huffing, partially masking retiring grace, "I like her. You complement one another. Trying times lie ahead, Trevor. Darling, take care of her, take care of each other. Love controls more than we know, and, if Satan is revived, it needs to remain solidified, here," her hand placed itself over his heart, "it is not defunct. It feels beyond, beyond death."
Alucard held his Mother's arms, noting key similarity he hadn't prior.
"Aline has your eyes..." Marie agreed, finding fact cordial. "She will pass, she is ready, I cannot fathom it. I've become self-centred, wishing for her to live. Why do I want what I cannot have?"
Marie's form shifted, sifted through her son's hands like sand. He swallowed.
"There is always a way. I must tend to your Father..."
She left the chamber, Alucard heartbroken with it...
After giving Marie the ingredients necessary for her beloved, exasperated Aline sat, cross legged, table for a seat. Alucard lent against the wall in front of her. They'd been warned to stay away, that they wouldn't wish to see, hear Dracula being purged of venom, Satan's influence ingrained within.
They heard him bellowing, harsh, until raw throat turned those into yelps, mortal in nature, stoically tempered vampire replaced by terrified mortal man.
Aline went with humour, apathy rude, sympathy equally so.
"I take it this isn't your typical 'meet the parents' experience..."
Frosted hair swept to the side, Alucard managed chuckle.
Aline found that, whilst Alucard was more affectionate than her, she held more intent than he, mind twisting where this could end up. Of course, she refrained from physical forms of fondness, unless he initiated it. His fragile mind was on cliff edge, and she felt her heart would give out, there and then if she were the one to push him over it, by getting too close.
Hearing Dracula would recover changed his demeanour, more than the woman thought possible. He sprung off the wall, hands opposite ends of her body. Eagerly, too eagerly, Aline signalled she was very much willing to give, receive tenderness. Holding Alucard was precious, he was precious. Aline hadn't met someone as earnest, diligent, altruistic, impassioned, yet solemn as he. The vampire kept himself to himself, as did she.
It was after their two forces collided into one another, after he saved her decades ago did they find being alone chore, virtue no longer.
Burying loneliness, blunt shovel taking an age to shift soil was tough, when one chose to be alone, detached from the world.
It would complicate things, Aline would, she wanted to, complicate his and her situation, kiss him, have him turn her, her mind taken from imminent doom, now searching for life, seeking change, and change it would be.
Far too grave.
She couldn't ask this of him. Alucard may have been her knight, but his armour was bathed in generations of blood, heavily stained, waterfall cascading, pooled iron at his feet.
She wouldn't be surprised if nought but ash came from veins, arteries, if elderly, brown clots from wounds were anything to go by.
Aline would be content holding him, until time came when she'd have to make a choice, whether to die, or die, then be reborn, wilt, then bud, petals forming, plant tinged scarlet.
"You shouldn't be up."
Marie whispered, as she peeked into the library, grin widening at the scene.
"And you shouldn't be watching our son in such an intimate moment."
Dracula, too observed, keenly watching Aline, how she interacted with his first born, only child. If she so much as looked at him funny, he wouldn't be best pleased. His son had been beside him all along, explaining why, what Zobek intended to do. The spineless bastard would get what was coming to him, he would make sure of that.
As if sensing uncertainty, Marie chuckled, the Prince gobsmacked, mouth ajar.
"Aline wouldn't harm a fly. She lets me read her willingly. I see nought but light, hope, drive, wearing her heart on her sleeve, as does Trevor. He seeks her light."
Chuckling stopped, Marie dared look into rusted ore eyes.
"You said 'our.'"
"Gabriel is still in there, he is losing the battle."
"Stubborn," Marie left the doorway, gliding effortlessly, "would I be here were it not for you wishing it? I do not expect you to embrace the past. I seek two things."
Dracula, denying himself the opportunity of diving into headstrong tendency, nodded, Gabriel forthcoming, melting frozen soul.
"Trevor, Aline, yourself, mindfulness, look out for each other. Keep what you have close to you. Many don't, losing grip, contact. Please, promise me you'll try."
Dracula agreed, throat closing inadvertently, pulled into reality he refused to endorse, the idea lance in his gut. Being a Father meant everything, if Alucard held Aline close, she'd gained his trust, the Prince saw little reason to question it.
He wanted to question this. He knew what was coming.
"Let me go. You knew I would say that. I've waited here for hundreds of years, Trevor was only here so often. Memory held me in flux. I've grown weary, Gabriel." She shushed him, her husband looking back making her cry. "Argue all you wish, you know it to be true."
Moving away further shoved needles under the Dragon's skin.
"I shall be in the garden, take one last look around, before I fade. Whatever awaits me on the other side, I'll be okay, safe. Fearing death is silly, I'm already dead."
Fading into the ether, mist snaking down corridor, through garden window, Dracula ran, bursting through, shattering stained glass, following the woman who held his heart, soul, mind in her hands.
Cursing existence, wanting to go with his wife, knowing he'd burn in Hellfire, whilst she bathed in Heaven's glow?
He'd take that chance, if he ever had one...