The Grim Truth Of The Matter
Aline went on her nightly hunt. Tonight however, it had been for nothing. It seemed that the creatures had either gone somewhere else, were not hunting for food or been killed perhaps? She knew Dracula killed the creatures too.
She spotted the Prince reentering his castle, but he left the door open after him.
She thought about what happened the last time she met him.
He had held back, but he had still tried to bite her. She did not want to end up like him.
A demon, a monster, a barbarian, a fiend.
Dracula, with his incessant prattle of how he is suffering, and he hates being what he is, is if barely, or perhaps not at all considering that anyone else has ever suffered.
Aline had suffered terribly, but you did not see her complaining. She just took life as it was, no point in hating it. If she had another day, woke up to a new dawn, then she was incredibly lucky.
The world would be better off without the Prince of Darkness.
And the population of the world and it's animals would be safer from a menace, far beyond comprehension.
Aline began to follow the Dragon. She needed to speak with him.
Dracula sat on his throne, and smelt a familiar smell.
Aline.
"Stupid wretch. Why follow a demon?"
Aline walked into his throne room and stood by the door, seemingly afraid to approach him. And no wonder, he had only tried to bite her a few days ago.
"You are no less a demon then anyone in jail, any murderer, rapist, pedophile. All you are is a weak, pathetic excuse of a vampire. The first vampire, the one who reign down chaos. Ha! All you did was bring your misery and throw it in everyone's face. Are we supposed to feel sorry for you? I sure as hell don't. No one does. No one cares, and no one ever will".
She walked over to the Vampire Killer and glared at it.
"This is a cross, but mere crosses cannot kill you. Wait, no, it is more than that. Think Aline, you read about this".
Dracula stayed on his throne, but the compulsion to tear Aline limb from limb was clawing at his brain. All he had to do was stand up, appear next to her and splatter her blood, shatter her bones and hear her scream.
Just stand up...
Aline had picked up the Vampire Killer and held it in front of her.
"Behind the violence, beyond that evil smirk lies someone who should have died centuries ago. Can this kill you? No one needs you".
Dracula humored her by letting her speak. But his old ways before he learned to contain most of his rage were returned to him, and his eyes betrayed his nature.
They were now bright red, burning, the fires in them raged, an inferno of indignation surged throughout his body.
His fangs grew, his claws made bloody crescent moon cuts in his palms.
Constantine be damned, Marie be damned, God be damned!
Aline would die, a pitiful human death.
Aline then said the one thing that stung the Prince, and he could no longer hold back.
"What happened to you, in your past? I hear you have a son, which means you have a wife. So where is she? Shouldn't she be protecting you from me? Bitch slapping me, or something? Or did she realise that being with a vampire wasn't the best thing to do and run off?"
Dracula stood. He walked over to her slowly, and then gripped one of her arms. The Vampire Killer hit the tattered red carpet on the floor with a dull thud, seconds before a chilling scream, and a sickening crack was heard. The sounds echoed throughout the old castle.
Dracula had torn off Aline's left arm. She screeched, but Dracula would not listen. He grabbed onto her right arm and tore that off as well. Aline begged him to stop but he wouldn't. She fell down onto her knees and sobbed out loud.
"Marie is dead, my wife is dead, you contemptuous bitch! Shut up, just shut up!"
Aline shuffled backwards, and blinked away more tears that fell freely from her eyes.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know! I thought you would have turned her".
Dracula turned away from her, no longer wanting to see her piteous moaning.
"You know nothing, and you never will. You should never have been born, you should have died".
He turned and was next to his victim in milliseconds.
He bit Aline, but she did not scream, or panic. She accepted her fate willingly.
When he was done feeding, Dracula threw her body out of a broken window and returned to his throne.
He had finally silenced insipid, obnoxious little girl.
He sat, in contemplative silence, and internally gloated at his victory.
No one would dare mess with him ever again.
Aline shot up, dizzy and confused. She tried to stand, but shaky legs would not let her. She slumped back down and tried to calm her breathing.
Nightmares were something that Aline experienced frequently, but this one had shaken her to the core.
She looked at her alarm clock and sighed. It was almost 1am. The bar down the street was still open, her mind told her. But she had no money.
After a while, she realise that she wasn't going to fall asleep again for some time, so she got up and decided to have a bath. Whilst the water was running, Aline heard some growls and screams outside. She saw several lycans fighting with Dracula. She wondered if she should help.
Then again, she did not possess long claws, fangs, a desire to murder and a lust for blood, so that would be a silly idea. Dracula could handle it himself anyway.
When the lycans were dead, Aline opened her window and said the Prince's name. He looked up, and nodded.
He needed to speak with her.
Aline let Dracula into her apartment and rubbed her hands together, a nervous habit of hers. When he grunted, she sat down.
"I had a nightmare about you".
The Prince groaned.
"Why am I not surprised? You virtually asked me to kill you, then you stop me, then kiss me, twice".
Aline felt her nerves lift, and a wry smile quirked her mouth.
"To be fair, yes I did, and no, that wasn't my attempt at flirting with you. I had to stop you from biting me, so I did. In an unorthodox manner I will admit, but it worked didn't it? Anyway, I seemed to know more about you in the nightmare. I knew about your wife, son, the Vampire Killer...sorry, I'm not sure how to say this without coming across as being insensitive".
Dracula did not speak, he just gestured for her to continue speaking. She nodded and continued.
"You killed me after I ranted on at you, about no one caring, and that your wife should protect you, and, well, you tore both my arms off, called me a bitch and then bit me. I deserved it, but, I, I felt it. When I woke up, my neck hurt. It's from the cut you made, I know, but it felt so real".
Dracula smirked and Aline knew what he was thinking.
She should NOT have let him into her apartment.
Now he had her, alone.
Dracula sat beside Aline, and placed his fangs within an inch of the flesh of her neck. Aline whimpered and shifted away from him.
"Look, I don't want that. I know how I want to go, in my sleep. Not by a bite, never by that. I don't know why I said those evil things in my nightmare. I know I can speak out of turn sometimes, but I would never say that no one cares about you. That is plain nasty".
The Prince moved away.
"No, it is true. I only learned how to let my wife's spirit finally rest not long ago. You are right, no one cares, no one would care if I died".
Aline shook her head.
"Surely someone does, your son? I know some men will never admit it, but they do care. I do. I hate you with a passion, and want to hit you, and swear at you but I care. If you died, then I died, who would help the citizens of Castlevania City hmm? Unless someone stepped up, the people would be eradicated".
Dracula said nothing, he did not know what to say. What Aline said was true, she was going to die, and if he died, then everyone else would die too.
Self sacrifice for the good of others?
No, it wouldn't be for the good of others. It would simply be selfish.
The Prince sighed and stood up, Aline did too, and headed into her bathroom, to turn off the hot tap.
Before he left, he smelt blood, and felt his fangs grow. He turned to see that the bathroom door was slightly ajar. He shouldn't have, but he peeked in and saw Aline cleaning her neck wound. Before she managed that however, the Prince was right behind her, and was moving the hand containing the clean bandage away.
Aline went to protest but any want too vanished when she felt a cold tongue moving across her cut. She gripped the sink in front of her and looked into the small, mirrored cabinet. She felt herself sag against him, and hissed when she felt a fang graze across her neck. The cut reopened and she knew that the Prince wasn't going to stop, and pulling away would only make him bite her.
Dracula could not explain his behavior, all he knew was that he needed her blood. It almost felt like without her life essence, he would surely perish.
But he wouldn't.
He would just go and bite someone or something else if he were hungry.
He came to one conclusion...
...He needed Aline's blood, he had to have some.
Like a drug addict needing their fix.
Aline willed her body to move, or at least, her brain to formulate sufficient words for her vocal chords to utter, but no. She was preoccupied with getting nibbled on, and her body was certainly not complaining. Her body was doing the opposite of fighting, it was enjoying it.
How long had it been since she had been with a man? It had been so long that she could not pinpoint it exactly.
But Dracula was not the type of man that you be with, fall in love with, have babies and have rainbows sprout forth wherever you walk. He was the type that you run from, and keep on running till your lungs threaten to burst and it hurts to breathe.
When she moaned, Dracula stopped his ministrations and backed away slowly. Aline regained some brain cells and shooed him to her front door.
"I don't know what that was about, but, but. Oh fuck...you have me at a loss here. Come here, and stop making me bleed. I'll get an infection at this rate".
Dracula let himself be pulled towards the now livid Aline, who went to slap him, and then stopped. She simply gazed into his eyes, trying to gauge what he was thinking. And truth be told, the Dragon was only thinking about her. Nothing else mattered.
"You're an odd one, you know that?"
The Prince laughed quietly.
"You are one to talk, irritable woman".
Aline feigned shock.
"I'M IRRITABLE? Look who's talking? God, you are one annoying, son of a, okay I shouldn't say that. But you are grating on me".
Dracula was amused.
"So why, pray tell, did you invite me here?"
Aline growled.
"Because we needed to talk. But if you are just going to be judgmental, well I can be too, but there is a reason. Don't hate me, but you need to start caring about yourself".
The Prince wanted to walk away, he did not like where this conversation was heading.
"And why should I do that?"
"Because if you do, then others may do as well. And I already told you, I care".
She mumbled the next few words, but Dracula knew what she said.
"Even if you seem to only need me for the occasional nibble or some blood".
Dracula turned his back on her.
"Go, I won't come back here again. I cannot".
Aline half-smiled.
"Cannot? Or don't want too? It seems like the latter to me. Just please listen. I may be a weak human being, but, well, humor a dying woman?"
Dracula felt a twinge of pain in his chest. Aline was dying, the least he could do would be to listen. Even if she did annoy him, and make him want to kill her.
He turned back around and looked down at Aline, who was twiddling her thumbs. She looked up and smiled.
"Deal?"
She held out her hand, but the Prince stalked her, and backed her up against her couch.
"I need your blood Aline, I cannot fathom why, but I do. But I will not kill you. If I need blood, you give it to me. In exchange, I will not harm you, much, and I will help you fight off the creatures in the city".
Aline crossed her arms.
"What is this? You mean a partnership?"
Dracula closed the gap and growled, baring his sharp canines.
"No! I will not be someone's dog again. It is simple, you do what I want, you get to live".
Aline moved up so she her nose was touching his.
"Dog? Well then. I agree to those terms. I have no real say anyway, it's not like I can stop you. I will be at work during the week, and when I get home, I eat, shower then go straight to bed, so the weekends are the only free time I really have".
Dracula surprised Aline by smiling, but there was no malice in it. He surprised her even more by pressing his lips against hers. Her body went limp, again, and she was engrossed in it. She vaguely registered something prodding her bottom lip. She focused on it, and opened her mouth.
The Prince's tongue wrestled hers into submission and her body was enjoying this, far too much. She felt that buzz in her stomach, the warmth that filled her body and made her giddy. She held back her sounds, with poor effort, but she managed.
When Dracula stopped kissing her. all she did was fall sideways, onto the couch and sigh. Dracula sighed in reply and walked away. He shut her door and laughed when Aline cursed him.
"Fuck, the water is stone cold! Dracula, you bastard!"
He smirked and left the building.
Dracula had gotten hooked on Aline, she was his own, personal drug.
And the Prince knew, he had to get it under control, or he would give in too often.
Too often would mean he would drink too much of her blood. And she would die.
Somehow the Prince would have to limit his access to her. Make excuses and the like.
But he was fighting a losing battle.
But who would lose?...