The landscape in front of her was so beautiful it felt unreal.
Despite the early hours of the morning the forest was almost completely bathed in darkness. The trees with their voluptuous foliage covered most of the sun, in addition to the dense fog that covered the ground.
Yes, the Black Forest seemed to be everything and more of what most people said about it. Too bad Seras couldn't continue to enjoy such landscape as she had wished to...
They had started like small cramps, nothing she couldn't stand until she reached her destination. But sadly, those pangs of pain had slowly evolved in a horrible pain that wouldn't let her kept going and that had her lying at the foot of a pine in no time.
The pain was unbearable and she was seriously thinking about going back from where she had came from and leave this stupid quest for a better time.
But even if she had wanted to return to the small room she had rented in the nearest town that was no longer possible. Yes, the pain would not let her move, but the real reason was that she was completely lost.
Three days had gone since she had immersed herself into the Black Forest, heading for the Feldberg Mountain. She had done her homework and knew that this forest was inhabited by various supernatural creatures: mainly witches, werewolves (when they weren't extinct), and 'tooth fairies' among others, but with emphasis on those three, mostly because they were the most dangerous.
What she hadn't been aware of is that the forest itself seemed to be alive and was constantly creating illusions to lose any poor fool who thought could cross the forest and emerge unscathed.
The directions given by the goblin were clear: 'Follow the path until you reach the dead tree, nearby, it shouldn't be difficult to hear the riverbed. Follow it until you reach the foot of the mountain, there is no way to get lost.'
Now she wondered if the damned dwarf had lied or had given her misguided information on purpose.
She had followed the directions exactly as he said. She had followed the path, she had reached the dead tree and had heard the river... but she never found it.
By every step she took, the running of the river could be heard closer, but no matter how much she walked or tried to see past the trees, she just couldn't reach the damn river.
And as much as she tried to phase or turn into a flock of bats, her powers seemed useless in the enchanted forest. That had been two days ago...
A sudden contraction made her hands tighten in the fabric of her cloak and yell, partly in pain and partly out of frustration.
She didn't know how long it took but she guessed there must have been hours since the sun was high in the sky.
She gritted her teeth and held back the tears, shaking her head. She wouldn't think about how long she had in here nor in the horrible pain she felt. It was something horrible and both surprising to Seras.
She had been cut, shot, kicked, stabbed and beaten countless times and still she couldn't remember feeling such an intense pain as the one she felt now.
And she suspected that being a vampire didn't help. She could feel her bones, muscles and organs, all inside her accommodating to give birth...
Another strong contraction attacked, and Seras couldn't hold it back anymore. She burst into tears.
She was alone, in pain and frightened.
Since Alucard had freed her everything seemed to go downhill for her.
As planned from the first day of imprisonment, Seras had immediately began to look for Hans. She returned to the same place where they had last seen each other but found nothing. Not even the little brick house where they had spent so many nights together.
It had been burned down, only the debris remained as a grim reminder of what had happened.
She searched for his body, his essence or his blood... But found nothing.
Long story short, after months of annihilating entire colonies of vampires in seek of information, Seras had found someone who knew a vampire who had heard a friend of a friend bragging about how he had met a very powerful witch. Said witch had paid him a fortune for only a few favors he made for her... One of those favors had been to burn down a small brick house at the foot of a mountain in a remote village in southern Russia.
Seras had located the whereabouts of the vampire, only to discover that apparently he had joined the witch in what she suspected was the beginning of an army...
At first glance the absence of Hans and what seemed to be the plan of a very powerful witch, to get a battalion of supernatural beings didn't seem to be related at all. But Seras pretty much remembered the first time that Hans and she had met each other. A war. He a soldier forced to fight in said battle.
Another strong contraction and Seras clenched her swollen belly hard as she screamed in pain... She could feel that it was almost time.
"Damn it!" She cried, whimpering when another contraction attacked her.
Taking a deep breath she stood up, leaning a hand on her knee and the other on a tree.
Once completely on her feet, Seras took another breath, taking a hesitant step forward. Thankful that it didn't hurt as much as anticipated, she began to walk slowly while she supported herself with the trees.
That instinct as a creature of the night to find a small and dark place to sleep through the day seemed to grow stronger and had led her to the entrance of a small cave.
She quickened the pace but before she could reached it another sharp pain in her uterus stopped her dead in her tracks. She lost her balance and fell to her knees, she clenched her hands, burying her fingers in the dead leaves of the damp ground, her cries of pain echoed all over the place. If she had paid attention she would have realized that in fact her voice was all that was heard in the forest ... everything was in a complete and disturbing silence.
Unable to stand alone again, Seras crawled into the cave.
Once inside the small cave she noticed that it was more of a burrow or tunnel than a cave. It stretched to about 4 feet straight, at the end there was a slope and then a hole. The ceiling was low and she had to crouch or crawl to fit.
If she could describe the pain it would be something like if someone had tuck its hand on her belly and then squeezed hard while at the same time stabbed her with a silver knife.
She also felt too hot, a heat that she never recalled having felt; or maybe it was that she no longer remembered what it was to have body heat after so many years and now having a small raise in her usually cold body was something completely unbearable. She wanted to get rid of her own body and resented the rubbing of her skin against her own skin.
Luckily, the damp soil of the cave offered her some kind of relief to the high temperatures in her body.
Seras didn't venture further into the depths of the small cave for fear that she might be invading the territory of an animal... or in the worst case, a supernatural creature. She noticed at her right what it looked like a tunnel under construction with a dead end, forming a small hole that looked perfect to sit back and give birth.
Nevertheless, she noticed something different… they were small blue pale lumps coming out of the dirt, that if not for her vampire eyes she would have mistaken them for small rocks…
Another pain in her lower regions got her, surprised by the increase of pain and the time it lasted she cried in pain. It first started as a low moan that evolved to a long, piercing scream. Her face was contorted in pain and her eyes were tightly shut.
She began to take short, quick breaths through the mouth, remembering all those movies and TV shows where they told the expectant mothers how to breathe.
For a moment her mind drifted back to Hans... or rather the absence of him.
When she died that night in Cheddar, her hopes of having children died too. But when she was still a human girl dreaming of creating her own family, Seras used to idealize that in the day of her giving birth the father of her children would be with her, giving her his unconditional support and caring for her... She would have never imagined her actual plight.
The physical pain gradually faded and Seras opened her eyes.
The small blue pale lumps had disappeared and in their place stood four small creatures with completely black and round eyes, looking back at her curiously.
Seras took on their strange appearance. They had four legs, thin and thick at the end. Very similar to those of a crab. Their torsos were thin and the protruding ribs gave them a sick and malnourished appearance. An oval head, two wings that seemed decayed and useless and two hands that ended in four long, thin fingers.
They were strangely... cute?
Another sharp pain began to form in her womb and Seras bit her lip so hard that it started bleeding.
And that was more than enough for the group of small creatures to pounce over her.
They all went for her face, the smell of blood awakening their insatiable appetite. Two of them attacked her neck and chest area. One took her lower lip while another went straight to her mouth and took one of her fangs in between his small hands, trying to tear it off her.
Immediately her mind recognized what she had stumbled with: Tooth Fairies.
She took the one that was in her lip and pulled hard, screaming again when the little monster took a good piece of her lip in between its tiny jaws. She squeezed him in between her hands and throw its body behind her.
Busy getting rid of the remaining creatures, Seras didn't notice the hundreds of pairs of wings and eyes that opened around the cave, watching her hungrily.
Just when she had finished crushing the last bastard -who had managed to rip one fang out of her mouth- Seras turned just in time to see more tooth fairies, showing her their sharp little teeth to then pounce on her.
Seras screamed and tried to punch them away. But they were too many and flew in all directions, easily escaping her. She tried to cover her face with both hands but the little fairies were persistent and quite strong for their small size.
Her shadows flared to life and impaled a few, sadly, this wasn't enough when from the corner of her eye she spotted more and more of those small carnivorous fairies arriving at the entrance of the cave.
Seeing no other way out Seras tried to protect her swollen belly as much as she could by curling up and quickly crawling on all fours into the tunnel which she had decided to avoid at first out of fear of encountering something dangerous.
She decided that if she didn't act fast, at any time she could give birth and these infernal creatures would end up eating her and her baby.
The fairies flooded her form, some had already managed to make holes in her clothes and were beginning to eat her skin, trying to get to her bones and organs, the most delicious and nutritious part for them.
When she finally arrived Seras was surprised when she fell several feet down.
Luckily she landed on her butt, although that didn't make it less painful.
Immediately her shadows came to life; burying themselves deeply into the walls of the tunnel they started to move violently to the sides, successfully making the entrance of the tunnel to collapse over the tooth fairies.
For a few minutes Seras remained lying on the ground, regaining her breath and letting her wounds heal. Now not only she was lost and about to give birth, but also buried many feet underground with hundreds of Tooth Fairies born in hell itself waiting outside the only way out of this hole to eat her alive.
And that without mention that she was tired and very hungry.
This was too much for her.
Every day she told herself that nothing worse could happen, but everyday life proved her otherwise.
Another contraction and another cry of pain. It was time.
Her body may be ready but she certainly was not. She wasn't ready for the pain, to see the dead body of her baby, to live alone for the rest of her damned life, and in the worst case, she wasn't ready to be a parent all by herself.
She tore her jeans with her claws in one blow and leaned against a thick tree root that adorned the walls of the tunnel.
'No.' Seras berated to herself. 'I can't think that way, not now.'
And even if Seras had wanted to deepen further into her pessimistic thoughts, the pain in her belly came back again with such a crushing force, that it made her double back in pain and scream her lungs out.
Her mind was so at odds with her body that there was a moment where Seras lost all track of time. They could have been minutes, hours or even days but to her all mingled in a strange and surreal dream. All her senses were numb her body seemed to work automatically until everything ended abruptly. The screams for the past hours ceased.
Silence. It passed one second, two seconds, three seconds... nothing but a haunting and disturbing silence surrounded her.
She kept her eyes looking straight ahead, she didn't move, she made no sound, she wasn't even breathing. She didn't have the courage to look down…
Seras covered her face with both hands and sobbed quietly, defeated and tired.
Wanting to turn around and go back the way she came to never look back ever again... But she just couldn't anymore. She did not want and could not. She would spend the rest of her miserable existence buried beside the body of her stillborn baby.
Her eyes would never see the day or the night, she no longer wanted to live in such a cruel and sadistic world as the one it was out there.
'I give up…'
In the midst of her grieving Seras didn't notice a small hand twitching and a pair of uneven eyes opening; a tiny chest rising with air and a small toothless mouth opening.
It wasn't until the small child started to cry when Seras opened her eyes and from between her fingers watched completely shocked that her little one was indeed alive.
"Uh?" Her hands fell to her sides and a dumbstruck expression reigned on her face.
It took her a few minutes to finally come out of her shock. A foreign feeling spreading through her chest, making her feel warm and alive.
A wide warm smile appeared on her lips, all thoughts of dead and despair vanished like they were never there in the first place.
This time the tears that fell from her eyes were ones of joy and the shaking in her hands were of excitement.
She slowly and so carefully took the baby in her arms, as if afraid it would break or fall from her grasp.
Cradling the small child in her arms she cooed and shooed at the baby.
"His eyes and my nose…" Her smile widened. "A girl."
Hearing the voice of her mother the baby girl immediately lessened her cries and watched intently at Seras.
Cutting the umbilical cord with her shadows, Seras cradled her daughter closely and yawned.
"You must be hungry, I am." Frowning when she realized that she ignored if the baby needed blood or normal food. After all, she was half vampire and half werewolf.
Tentatively, Seras pulled her shirt up, baring one of her breasts and guiding the baby to her chest. By mere instinct, the girl latched her small mouth to her mother's chest and started to suck, to both their disappointment no milk came out.
Seras started to worry. There was no way she could continue in her search for Hans in this forest when she needed to protect their newborn daughter. As she had already proven, this forest hosted dangerous creatures luring around, ready to kill at sight and at every turn there was some kind of danger… she needed to leave the forest.
Her thoughts halted, Seras gasped in surprise when the newborn grew two tiny yet sharp fangs and bite with amazing strength into her breast.
She was in awe. Such small and special creature, a hybrid between a werewolf and a vampire, the first of her kind. The moment she looked into those mismatched eyes she fell in love, a love so big and so deep that it couldn't be compared with anything else… not even the love she felt for her father.
The thought of Hans saddened her. Where was he? Would she ever see him again? She sighed profoundly and looked at her daughter.
"I promise you that you'll meet him." A small smile lifted her lips. "But we'll have to wait. Then, we can search for him together."
While the baby fed, Seras took a piece of her ripped jeans and started to clean her from all the fluids she was covered in. She could see that under the red skin –something normal in a newborn baby- she had that sun kissed skin that Seras loved so much on Hans; she also noticed the small strands of blonde-white hair in her small head.
In no time both the mother's and the baby's eyes started to fell. It was still day and Seras was tired, and the baby, well, it was a baby and half of her time would be spent eating and sleeping… and she had already done the first.
The girl unlatched her small fangs and rested her head in between her mother's breasts. Seras laid down on the ground, her baby nestled securely between her arms and chest, using her large red cloak as both bed and blanket.
A content yet tired smile appeared in Seras lips before she fell into a deep sleep.
Not even minutes after she closed her eyes; the roots behind her started to move. They silently crept closer to the small cocoon she had created with her cloak. They encased their forms and slowly brought them closer until they had swallowed both the child and the mother.
Neither woke up to see how the roots took them to a far away and foreign place, located deep into the woods.
It was exactly midnight when she woke up again.
The first thing she did was to look for the little bundle nestled against her. The little girl was deeply asleep, a thin trail of saliva fell from her half open mouth as she snored softly. Seras smiled warmly, running her thumb through her daughter's cheek, cleaning the saliva and feeling completely enthralled by the rise and fall of her small chest.
As she decided to go back to sleep again, she noticed something different. The air was thicker and it carried an essence of humidity and mud. For a moment she remained completely still, hearing and sniffing around her….
Her eyes widened. She took her small child with one hand and hugged her protectively against her chest, while with her free hand she threw the cloak off of them.
They no longer found themselves in the small burrow –where she needed to crawl around- but inside a tree. A very tall and spacious tree at that. She looked around confused and weary. How the hell did she end up in here?
Seras looked down at her daughter who was totally unfazed and still asleep.
Her eyes scanned the place. She was literally inside of a tree. The floor was the trunk and the walls were -what she guessed- the bark. It made her think of a squirrel's home. She caught a small fissure at her left, it wasn't big enough to even fit her hand and yet there was no other visibly way of entrance.
She wrapped the cloak around the baby and carefully laid her on the floor. If she needed to make a way out with her own hands then so be it. But then, just as her hands were mere inches away from the wood, the tree creaked. The small crack grew bigger, from the lower region of the hole they were in to the high part of the tree, and then, like a curtain or a pair of doors the walls of wood opened.
She stared for a whole minute, until she realized what was outside of her hiding place.
Not even 10 feet away there was a river. And it wasn't just any river, it was the river. That damned river she had heard but never found. She peeked her head out of the tree looking for any creature, when she saw no one she shyly ventured outside. She tried to cover her lower regions with her shirt, since she had ripped her jeans and panties off back at the cave she was now half naked.
She really didn't want to leave her newborn alone but if she was going to explore around there was no safer place than the tree. Also, she felt very uncomfortable wandering around an enchanted forest without pants. Thankfully her shirt was long enough and it passed as a very short dress.
She made her way to the river and took the opportunity to wash herself from the blood and any other body fluids in her thighs. The water was surprisingly warm and it soothed a little her aching muscles and the growing headache.
She also took the time to think on what to do next. She had decided to go back until her little girl was old enough to understand and then maybe start searching for Hans again… but now she was just a few miles away from the Feldberg Mountain and she was starting to contemplate the idea of continuing.
But what was more important? The little girl was just a few hours old, and Seras didn't know if she needed any special cares of if she even had inherited her regenerating skills. What if they encountered another flock of tooth fairies? What if this time she wasn't able to protect her-
Footsteps and a group of voices had Seras out of the water in an instant, looking around for a place to hide. The voices were so close and she berated herself for not paying attention, she could hear them, the tree was straight ahead but the voices were coming from her right, they would surely see her if she tried to go back to her child!
They were three people… no, not people, vampires. She could smell the blood in them and feel their power. They weren't artificial vampires. They were real.
Seras pupils were mere slits in the sea of red that were her eyes, watching the small group chatting casually as if they were having a walk in the park…
"…So they are producing more of this bullets?" A tall red-haired man with green shirt asked a girl with short brown hair and a pierced nose.
"Ya. They are pretty neat you know? A little bit of mercury, a little bit of belladonna, and some secret ingredient and voila!" Her hand reached for her left breast pocket and she produced a box of cigarettes, grabbing one and lighting it with expert hands. "But the boss told me they have other prototypes that they are still testing."
"Wow, it does sounds like we are going for world domination…" This time a blonde boy with brown boots and a sweater tied around his waist commented.
"No Jeremy, this is something worse than fighting against the whole human race, trust me, our enemy is greater than that." The girl blew smoke from her nose while she wisely, yet cryptically, corrected the teen.
"Pff! I just wish they weren't so secretive about their plans. It's really frustrating and it makes me think I left home for nothing." The red-haired commented, sounding quite annoyed.
"Hey, I'm just as lost as you two… but helping the great Romani witch! I don't care what she ask me for, I'll do it in a blink." The girl commented enthusiastically and turned around. "Hey! Nina! Have you found something?" The girl seemingly asked to the nothingness, until someone responded.
"I smell something… something different…" A voice resonated through the forest but there was no one beside the three young vampires at the riverside.
The blonde teen, Jeremy, looked around while sniffing deeply. He caught something and turned towards the water. Crunching down, he submerged his index finger in the water and then tasted it.
"There's fresh blood in the water! Someone's near!"
Alarmed, everyone took a defensive position.
Seras kept still, crouched in a branch in the highest part of a tree. Their conversation making her question if it would be a good idea leave the forest at such critic time. This vampires were obviously working for the witch, they knew where to find her!
The three vampires scattered around, senses searching for any sound or foreign smell.
Seras never took her eyes off of them, waiting for the moment she could go back to her little one… so intently in keeping them in sight that she didn't notice the presence behind her, watching her with cold eyes.
"What are you doing here?"
Seras couldn't hold back the yell of surprise that left her mouth; losing her balance she fell from her hiding spot, catching only a glimpse of dark blonde hair.
They were literally on her in an instant. The red-haired man grabbed her by the throat, hissing in her face. The girl with the pierced nose was the first one to talk.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Her voice was calm and collected, but still demanding.
Seras growled, squirming around. "I am looking for someone." Her feet were high above the ground, she tried to kick the man who was suffocating her but he was quicker and restrained her legs with a single hand.
"How did you found this place? You are not supposed to be in here vampire!"
"We should take her to the boss." The blonde teen commented. "If she was able to get this far then she must be powerful… maybe she is even working with him!" The boy looked alarmed as he glanced over Seras.
The girl with the pierced nose gasped at his suggestion. "But he couldn't-" She stopped herself and observed the squirming blonde. "…Does that mean that he already knows?" Her worried eyes traveled back to Jeremy, a frown both on their faces.
"I don't know but we shouldn't risk-"
"Hey!" Seras interrupted, "I don't know what are you talking about but I suggest you to free me…or you'll regret it."
"You are in no position to threaten us." The one holding her hissed.
"Guys, you have to see this." That voice again. Everyone turned at the same time, a skinny girl with straight dark blonde hair and a white summer dress was holding a red bundle in her arms.
"It's a baby."
Everyone gasped.
A loud and thunderous growl was heard from Seras before she pushed the red-haired man off of her.
The other two vampires immediately teleported back to where their friend had landed, not only to assist him but to flee from the overwhelming aura that the intruder suddenly was giving off.
"Get your hands off my child!" The night was suddenly darker, black clouds appeared from out of nowhere and a violent wind picked up. Seras no longer appeared weak and small in their eyes. She looked hungry and a possessive gleam appeared in her eyes, that primal instinct of a mother awakening with violence, treating whoever dared to go near her offspring uninvited.
"Oh god, look at her eyes." The girl who was holding the child exclaimed with growing worry. "She had done something to her." Everyone else, driven by curiosity, came closer to the child despite the furious vampire that claimed ownership of the child a few feet away from them.
And indeed, the eyes of the child were something that neither of them had ever seen. One eye was a deep azure, while the other was a deep red.
"What have you done to her? You monster!" The brunette demanded.
Seras gritted her teeth, her blood boiling with rage. She just wanted her child back, she couldn't stand watching them touching her. They would spoil her, they would taint her with their filthy hands.
"That's none of your business! She is mine!" She warned one last time before rationality flew out of the window and she killed them.
"I won't give her back you crazy bitch!" She turned to the one holding the baby. "Take her to the base, I'll handle the madwoman." With a nod, the blonde girl took a step back and faded away.
"NO!"
The shadows, they were everywhere. Moving around, creeping to them. And the moans and the wails, and those eyes, hundreds of them. They were so shocked not only by the surreal nature of the scene but by how quick she had transformed the whole place into hell.
The first one to suffer her wrath was the girl. Seras was behind her in a second, her hand going directly into her back, aiming to the heart.
Seeing the plea of help in the eyes of his partner, Jeremy was the first to react. Taking a strange looking gun out of his back pocket, he aimed at Seras and shoot.
The force send Seras flying back, a single bullet embedded on her forehead. From her skin came black smoke as she cried and cursed, squirming around violently. Her veins no longer plumped blood but acid, her skin and throat felt dry, almost to the point of not being able to move.
The torture lasted a few more seconds until she blacked out.
-0-0-000-0-0-
*The tooth fairies are the ones from Hellboy 2
I know this was going to be the last chapter, but i thought 'wth let's break the final chapter in two parts! just like in harry potter!'
So, who are this vampires? what is the witch planning to do with this bullets? who is she going to fight that is worst than humanity itself? How Hans fits in all of this?