Author's Notes: Well, it has been a while since I have updated anything of mine here. I'm glad you have all stuck with me through this inactivity. Again, I'd like to see some reviews for this story soon.
And here is the next chapter.
Chapter 2: Home Sweet Home
It was sunrise on May 20, 2074 when Alucard arrived in the village of Warichylia. He had traveled on foot the whole night, using his superhuman speed and the power the night granted to him to travel across the country in such a short amount of time. He was now wearing his cape and old-fashioned clothing again, since he didn't have to hide his true identity in these parts. Everyone knew who he was and what he was and respected him for the choices he had made in the past to oppose his father. However, there were some actions that Alucard had done in the past that even his good friends in the Belmont Family didn't know about.
I was a different man back then, Alucard reasoned to himself as he entered the village's outskirts, briefcases still in hand, No one needs to know about those actions now. I am not that man anymore.
Indeed, the times had changed greatly since those days. Back then, the Belmont Clan was feared almost as much as Count Dracula was. Yes, they were soldiers for God, no doubt about that. Yes, they were extremely capable warriors and could destroy evil beings that would otherwise wipe out an entire village as if they were nothing. But the presence of a Belmont in the old days often meant one thing: evil beings were going to arrive or, even worse, were already present. And once the Belmonts started showing magical abilities, many started to grab torches whenever they saw a Belmont in town. However, no one dared to actually burn a Belmont at the stake, in part due to their immunity issued by the Orthodox Church.
However, Simon Belmont changed all that in 1691, when he defeated Dracula single-handedly. Part of the reason for the fear most people had of the Belmonts was because they didn't understand the burden they carried. The Dracula Incidents of 1094, 1476, 1479, 1576 and 1591 were all kept under lock and key by both Churches, never to be told to the people for fear of mass hysteria when the people learned that the vampire myths were very true. However, in 1691, there were too many inquisitive people from all across Europe who descended upon Wallachia and Transylvania upon hearing rumors of the living dead and other horrible creatures of the night. Try as the Churches did to keep these people out, some made it through the information blockade and a year later, a few even found the reclusive Simon Belmont himself. He was more than happy to share his story with these people, unaware that the Orthodox Church would rescind their immunity on he and his family members. At the time, vampire hunters were not hard to find, although the Belmonts were the undisputed best of the best, and the Church leadership saw Simon as completely disposable. They tried to brand him a villain, even disclosing that his family lineage included a witch and starting a false rumor that his family even included vampires.
However, this plan backfired as the people of Wallachia rallied around Simon and his family, even going as far to take up their farming instruments to protect a visibly weak Simon Belmont in 1697 from an official Church execution squad, at the risk of their own lives. Even when Simon told the crowd to go back to their homes, the villagers continued to stand between their hero and the Church. The executioners had no orders to kill anyone besides Simon Belmont, so they were forced to leave the village. Ever since then, while some were still wary of the Belmonts, the family was revered across Romania as national heroes. The family's fame achieved its peak in 1792, when Richter Belmont defeated Dracula in a series of incidents that were publicized all over Romania.
However, the more things changed, the more they seemed to stay the same in Warichylia. Yes, there were a few modern buildings around and almost everyone used electricity on a daily basis now. And there were a few solar-powered cars around the village. Aside from these, the people of Warichylia lived in almost the same way their ancestors had hundreds of years ago. Most of these people led simple lives, far away from the modern world. Yes, every now and then someone left for the cities, but they were very much in the minority. There was something about this lifestyle that made one appreciate life more than any life in the city could.
As he approached the village center, Alucard caught sight of a nearby door opening. Out of the doorway walked a middle-aged man with blonde hair that was beginning to bald. His blue eyes scanned the outside world in the morning light and stopped on Alucard. The man smiled upon seeing the dhampir and immediately began walking toward him. "Alucard! Good to see you again!" he greeted.
"Mark Belmont, it is good to see you as well," Alucard replied as he bowed slightly toward his friend, "I have some news to tell you about your son."
"I'm assuming he got what Dr. Lobont requested," Mark said gesturing to the two briefcases Alucard was holding.
"Yes, he was successful, but it was not without cost," Alucard continued, "His dealers tried to kill him in a double cross. Justin was shot in the shoulder."
A grave look crossed Mark's face upon hearing this. "He's not dead, is he?" he inquired.
"No, Justin will be fine," Alucard assured, which brought an immediate smile to Mark's face, "He'll be out of the hospital in a week and back to kissing more ass in the office."
Mark sighed at this. "Well to be honest, we vampire hunters are out of a job now, with your old man gone," he admitted, "But it saddens me to see the Belmont Clan reduced to pencil pushing."
"Julia is holding up the family legacy quite well," Alucard replied, a smile now crossing his face, "Speaking of Julia, is she around right now?"
"No, she left half an hour ago to a neighboring village to teach those self-defense classes of hers," Mark answered, "She should be back by nightfall, if you plan on staying long."
Alucard nodded, looking forward to the night. "You usually aren't awake this early, Mark. What's going on?" he inquired.
"Oh, Adelina Petre went into labor last night and Raisha has been in her home helping deliver the baby," Mark explained, "I haven't been able to sleep all night. Raisha told me to join her come sunrise."
"Well, you go on ahead and join your wife," Alucard instructed, "I'll deliver these cases to Dr. Lobont and join you shortly."
Mark nodded as he headed toward the Petre's home to assist his wife with her work. It only took Alucard a short time to reach the house where Dr. Lobont lived and worked. Alucard could smell some strange concoction brewing when he entered the building and knew now was not the time to bother the man, so he left the briefcases just inside the front door of the building and left, shutting the door behind him. Alucard then began to walk toward the building Mark Belmont had entered about five minutes before.
About an hour after dawn on July 11, 1385, the attention of all the inhabitants of Radal Castle was quickly drawn to one sound: the screams of a woman. Most of those who now resided in the castle had heard this sound before, the screams of a woman in excruciating pain. However, very few had experience with the actual cause of this pain. The woman was not undergoing torture, at least not in the usual sense of the word. In fact, this woman was quite excited that this pain had come at last.
When Lisa had joined Count Dracula in marriage on August 25, 1384, no one knew what to expect from the union, not even Dracula or Lisa themselves. Many of Dracula's servants, composed almost entirely of reanimated corpses and Dracula's fellow creatures of the night, doubted that the two could even have children together. Others thought Lisa could conceive, but that the child would be stillborn due to Dracula being undead. The latter was the opinion held by most of the succubi, whose children were always born dead, even when the father was human. However, this made childbirth for them almost completely painless apart from the slight pains from the birth contractions. When it became apparent that Lisa was pregnant, the succubi assumed that what happened with them would happen to Lisa as well.
A third line of thought was that Lisa would not only conceive a child, but that the child would be born alive. In addition, the child would appear to be a human baby to an untrained eye. The most notable denizen of the castle that argued this was the leader of the medical staff, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, who claimed to have dealt with a situation like Lisa's years ago. He argued that it didn't matter that Dracula was undead; it was the vessel that counted. Needless to say, the brash way he said that earned him the ire of most of the castle's female members for a good while.
Lisa was being served breakfast by one of her personal servants, a succubus named Laura. Lisa was particularly fond of Laura, as she showed her mistress nothing but respect while most of the other succubi in the castle always seemed to show some resentment toward their master's wife. Lisa had asked Laura about this once and Laura's explanation was that the others felt that Lisa had, more or less, cut in line in getting Lord Dracula's attentions. Laura didn't feel this way, however. She was one of the more recent additions to the castle's population and still understood the feelings that mortals had. And Lisa herself would have argued that there was nothing she could do about the Count himself calling her up to the castle.
"Here you are, mistress," Laura greeted as she entered Lisa's chambers with a tray of food, "Your breakfast."
"Thank you, Laura," Lisa responded from her bed, which became harder and harder for her to leave as her pregnancy continued. She was still wearing her white nightgown but had removed the blankets that were covering her through the night.
Laura brought the tray over to Lisa and set it down over her chest, its vertical legs elevating the tray above Lisa's body. Most of the castle's residents had no need for the food Lisa required, so growing her food wasn't that great a problem. On the tray were two small, warm loaves of bread, a glass of milk and an apple, which was Lisa's favorite food. It didn't seem like much, but it seemed to provide Lisa with what she needed before lunchtime, at least before she became pregnant.
"Is my husband asleep now?" Lisa inquired.
"Probably," Laura answered as she flapped her wings when she felt them falling asleep on her again, "That's Carmilla's area of knowledge, though, not mine. Lord Dracula has always been fond of her."
"Fond?" Lisa inquired pointedly, "Are you telling me that he's been sleeping with her?"
"Not since he met you, mistress," Laura clarified, "The master is extremely loyal to you. But Carmilla has been his servant for almost two centuries. As for the past, well, when you know you have an eternity to wander the Earth, it can get very lonely. You have to take whatever relationships you can find and keep them going for as long as you can."
Lisa had never thought of her husband in that way, but what Laura had just said made her tear up a little. She knew her husband had been wandering the Earth for about 300 years from when his first wife died until he found her. It was no wonder he cherished Lisa so much, for man wasn't meant to live alone. Indeed, immortality was a curse, not a blessing. Before now, Lisa had heard stories of vampires who committed suicide by exposure to sunlight and thought of them as weak beings. She now understood that an eternity alone was the ultimate punishment God could give to a human being.
Lisa was so numb from all this that she never noticed what Laura saw a few moments later. Laura turned to look at Lisa again and saw her eyes staring off into space, getting heavy with tears. But before she could ask about this, she then saw that part of the white nightgown her mistress was wearing had turned dark, as if suddenly filled with water. Her immediate reaction was that Lisa had lost control of her bodily functions, and she was right. Just not in the way she initially thought. "Um, mistress, your clothes are getting wet," she pointed out with a little hesitance.
Lisa broke out of her trance and looked at Laura. "What do you mean?" she inquired immediately, knowing that she hadn't lost that much control over herself.
"Well, just look at yourself, mistress," Laura answered with a gesture. She wasn't normally one to beat about the bush, but she was always this way with Lisa.
Lisa glanced down at herself and saw her dampening clothes. She knew what she saw was one of two things. And she would have felt one of them happening before this point. She suddenly gasped.
"Mistress, are you okay?" Laura inquired with concern as she hurried to Lisa's bedside.
"My water broke!" Lisa explained, "The baby is coming now!"
"What should I do?" Laura asked quickly, having never encountered this situation before.
"Go get the doctor, and please hurry!" Lisa ordered, "Then go and have Carmilla wake my husband and bring him here."
"Yes mistress! I'll be right back!" Laura answered as she rushed out of Lisa's chambers and began to rush through the corridors of the castle toward a nearby tower which had been called the "Machine Tower" because of all the strange devices there, mostly created by Dr. Frankenstein himself in his experiments or in order to serve him. It would have been faster for Laura to fly outside of the castle to the tower, but the daylight prohibited her from doing that.
It took Laura about five minute to reach the doctor's laboratory. She quickly burst through the wooden door and found Victor bent over another one of his experiments. He glanced her way briefly and then returned to his work. "Laura, you have five seconds to either get the hell out my lab or give me one hell of a good reason why you are here," he threatened.
Normally, Laura would have engaged in some witty banter with Victor, but she didn't have time for that now. "Doctor, the mistress is going to give birth!" she exclaimed.
This caught Victor's undivided attention. He stood up and gave his full attention to Laura. "Did her water break yet?" he inquired.
"Yes, it just did!" Laura answered.
"Then lead the way! We must hurry!" Victor replied quickly as he grabbed a package he had prepared for this day, "And go get the Master once we get to her."
"Yes, I was going to anyway," Laura replied as she led the way back to Lisa's chambers.
It took another five minutes for the two to rush back to Lisa's bed. Once there, it was clear to Victor that Lisa's child wanted to get into the world very quickly. The mistress was already in a state of physical distress that normally takes several hours to get to for humans.
"Mistress, just try to relax," the doctor ordered as he moved toward Lisa's legs and opened his package and pulled out a few surgical instruments and placed them on the bed, "Everything is going to be fine."
"My husband," Lisa said between her deep breaths, "Please get him."
"I'm on my way," Laura answered as she left the room again.
"Alright mistress, what I need you to do now is..." Victor began.
"Doctor, I have helped others with this," Lisa interrupted, "I know what to do."
Victor nodded. "Alright, that should make things easier for us," he said as he adjusted Lisa's nightgown slightly to facilitate the process, "But from the looks of it, your baby wants to see you very soon. You are already at an advanced stage of childbirth."
Lisa nodded. "I prayed that this would be quick," she explained.
"Well, it seems that God still listens to your prayers," Frankenstein replied with a smile. It was rare to see God's help around here.
Meanwhile, Laura hurried up a nearby tower of the castle where the master slept during most days. The spiral staircase she had to go up prohibited her from using her wings to fly up the tower. She knew Dracula was at the top of the tower she was trying to scale, but she was hoping to run into Carmilla before that. And after a few minutes, she finally found Count Dracula's favorite servant, the succubus Carmilla. Her red corset and wings made her stand out from the others. Laura didn't like dealing with Carmilla, as she had a rather arrogant attitude that just rubbed her the wrong way.
"Laura, what are you doing here? I did not call for you," Carmilla commented.
"Carmilla, is the master asleep?" Laura inquired quickly.
"He has been sleeping for the past hour," Carmilla answered, "Tell the mistress that she must wait until sundown for him."
"Carmilla, she's giving birth!" Laura exclaimed, "The master must be roused now! I must go back to the mistress now. Send the master as soon as you can!"
This revelation shocked Carmilla into a temporary paralysis as Laura rushed back down the staircase. She knew this event would come, but she was still caught unprepared for it. Knowing that her master would want to witness this, she turned and entered the master's chambers, where a wooden coffin lay on a stone platform so that a grown adult didn't have to bend over to open the lid. The coffin was seven feet long and had the classic hexagonal shape. It was wide and tall enough to allow one inside to roll over without opening the top at all. This was a key to the coffin's design. Carmilla knew this as she grasped the lid and threw it open.
Count Dracula was sleeping inside the coffin, but this rest was designed to end the moment the lid of the coffin was opened. It was a safety device which would allow him to defend himself in the case of an enemy opening the coffin. Dracula opened his eyes and saw Carmilla looking at him.
"Why have you disturbed my sleep, Carmilla?" he inquired as he sat up.
"A thousand pardons, my lord, but according to Laura, your wife is giving birth," she answered blandly.
Dracula's response was anything but bland. Upon hearing the news, he practically jumped out of his resting place and hit the floor running out of the room, nearly breaking the metal hinges that attached the wooden door to the stone wall. As he rushed down the stairs, Carmilla was once again left temporarily paralyzed at this power that seemed to bind her master to his wife. Of course, Carmilla knew what love was, but she had never truly experienced it in her past life. As many put it, she had a heart of stone, taking what she wanted and not giving thought to the well-being of others. Dracula was the only person who she actually was loyal to, having been saved from certain death by him over 200 years prior. Although she had long ago paid off her life debt, Carmilla had developed a certain connection with Dracula that seemed to be mutual, at least until Lisa arrived. Although Carmilla would never admit it to anyone, she was jealous of Lisa and hated her for how she connected so well with her master.
Carmilla broke out of her trance after a few minutes of deep thought and began to make her way to Lisa's chambers.
Meanwhile, Dracula had arrived in his wife's chambers to find his beloved Lisa breathing hard and quickly, preparing herself for the pain she knew was about to come. She turned toward the source of the sound she heard and found her husband looking back at her, his gray eyes filled with a need to be close to his wife in her time of need.
"My love, are you alright?" Dracula asked as he walked to her side.
"Now that you are here, I feel much better," Lisa replied as she gave Dracula her left hand to hold, "Though your hand is cold to touch, it fills me with warmth to know you are here with me."
Dracula nodded as he stared into his wife's eyes. "Are you ready to welcome our child into the world?" he asked.
Lisa nodded. "As ready as I'll ever be," she answered, "This child wants to get out of me very quickly."
"Indeed, we're ready to begin the painful part of all this," Doctor Frankenstein added, "Mistress, whenever you are ready, please tell me."
Lisa took a few deep breaths before she said, "I'm ready doctor. Please start."
"Okay, when I tell you, start pushing the child out of you," Victor instructed, "One, two, three, push."
Lisa did as she was told, and the pain started shortly after. It wasn't great at first, causing Lisa to simply breathe a bit faster. But then the pain became excruciating. Lisa began to scream. To the residents of the castle, it sounded as if a prisoner were being tortured. As the pain continued, Lisa began to squeeze Dracula's hand extremely hard, eventually becoming a vice grip. He withstood the pain rather easily, but the strength of Lisa's grip surprised him greatly. He never thought she could be this physically strong.
This continued on for a little over an hour before, while Lisa was pushing and in great pain from doing so, Doctor Frankenstein shouted, "Wait, stop for a moment!"
Lisa did as she was asked, but the pain lingered. "What's wrong?" she asked between her quick breaths.
"Nothing is wrong," Victor corrected, "I see the top of the baby's head now. We're almost there. We just need to be a bit more careful now."
"Is the child alive?" Dracula inquired with a degree of concern.
"I can't be certain at this point, but from the speed this process has had, I would say that the child will be fine," the doctor replied, "Mistress, when I tell you to, start pushing again, but slowly. I just need to make sure that everything is going the right way. Alright, push."
Lisa did as she was told, and the pain came back in full force again, causing her to scream in pain as she felt her child move through her in the final stages of birth.
"And stop," Victor called and Lisa obeyed, "Things have gone perfectly, from what I can tell. Your child is just about ready to come out. Whenever you are ready, mistress, continue."
Lisa nodded, took a deep breath and immediately began pushing again, not wanting to waste anymore time with the pain of this process. As she continued pushing, she felt her child's every movement through her, approaching the point where he would enter the world. And finally, that moment came.
"I have its head!" Victor called as he supported the baby's delicate head, "You're almost done, Mistress! Just a little bit more!"
Finally, a minute later, Lisa felt her child leave her body completely. The pain lingered, but it was nowhere near what it had been before. Lisa signed with relief as she rolled over on her left side and took her husband's hand with both of hers. "Thank you, my Lord," she said.
"It is I who should be thanking you, my beloved Lisa," Dracula responded as he brought his face down to hers and shared a brief kiss. He then turned toward Doctor Frankenstein.
On cue, the small being in the doctor's arms began to cry out, declaring itself to be very much alive. The sound was much louder than Lisa had ever heard a newborn cry before. And she sighed in relief once again, knowing that her child would be fine.
"It's a boy," Victor said simply.
"Bring him to me," Dracula requested as he stretched his arms out toward the doctor.
Victor walked over to Dracula and laid the boy, now covered with a clean, white cloth except for his face, carefully into his father's arms. The child kept crying as Dracula stared at his son and a feeling of contentment spread through his body. However, he was curious about this child whose father and mother were so different from each other.
"Victor, what kinds of traits does my son have?" Dracula asked Frankenstein, who was having Laura help him pack up his things, "Or can you not be sure yet?"
"It is too early to tell for sure on most things," the doctor answered truthfully, then looked at the window of the room through which sunlight was now streaming into, "But there is one thing you can test if you want to risk it."
Dracula turned around and saw the light streaming into the room through the open window and knew what Victor was hinting at. Dracula had seen what prolonged exposure to sunlight would do to his kind. He had even contemplated letting himself burn to ashes on more than one occasion. Shifting the bundle he carried into his right arm, he walked toward the window and placed his exposed left hand in the path of the sunlight.
Lisa had never seen what happened before to a vampire when exposed to sunlight. At first, nothing appeared to be wrong. That only lasted a few seconds, then she gasped as she saw her husband's hand begin to release black smoke. Dracula pulled his hand back into the shadows once this began, but Lisa still saw the sores that began to appear on his hand. Though she knew they would heal quickly, the sight scared her for the well-being of her newborn son. And yet, she needed to know the answer as well.
"My love, this is your decision to make," Dracula stated, "We don't have to find out now."
But Lisa's mind was already made. "I need to know," she answered, "And so do you. We need to know who will raise him."
"We both will, but I won't let him be hurt, I swear it," Dracula replied as he removed the cloth covering his son's head, revealing his hair color to be a very pale shade of blonde, closer to white than even his mother's blonde colored hair. However, Dracula could already see the boy's teeth pointing out through his gums as he cried, showing that he had vampire teeth and, most likely, the ability to feed on blood. As he raised his son's head into the sunlight, he feared that the worst was about to happen.
However, even after a minute of sustained exposure, the only thing that changed was how loudly the boy was crying, which was going down slightly over time. Both Dracula and Lisa gave sighs of relief. "It seems the light has accepted him," Dracula stated as he lowered his son from the light and began to walk back toward his wife.
"Yes, but he will still have the ability to suck the blood of others as you do, my Lord," Victor stated, "However, he will also need a diet of normal foods to develop normally. He need not feast on blood at all, though I'm sure he won't be able to stay away from the stuff once he gets a taste of it. Blood is like a sugar-coated sweet to hybrids. Oh, and Mistress, be careful of his teeth when feeding him."
"His teeth?" Lisa asked as she took her son into her arms for the first time and looked at him. Instantly, his crying seemed to subside quickly. However, she did catch sight of the canines which had already punched through his gums. Lisa made a mental note to be careful about those.
"Send for me if you need anything, but you should be fine now," Victor said as he left the room. Laura left with him, sensing that the master wanted time alone with his new family.
Dracula was silent for a few moments as Lisa prepared to feed her newborn son, adjusting her gown to do so. Finally the words came to him as his son began to suckle, a smile crossing Lisa's face as he did for the first time.
"Lisa, this is so much more than I deserve to have," he began as he knelt down to be at eye level with his beloved, "When I lost Elizabetha, I thought that I would never love another ever again. For centuries, I lived alone, contemplating my own existence and how meaningless it had become. But now I look back on those times and I wonder how I could have ever thought such things. Lisa, you saved me. And now, you have given me a family. Truly, you have blessed me with all I do not deserve. There is no way I could ever thank you for all you have done."
Lisa was on the verge of tears from these words. "Vlad, all I can ask of you is this," she began as she looked into her husband's eyes, "Never abandon me, no matter what."
"I could never do that, Lisa," Dracula answered, "I'd rather die first."
Lisa smiled, but the next part would surely upset him. She took a deep breath before continuing. "And I also ask that you take care of our son when I am no longer around," she continued, "That's all I ask."
"Please don't speak in that manner," Dracula replied as he placed his hand on Lisa's forehead, which actually felt refreshing to Lisa as she was definitely feeling way too warm from her exertions earlier.
"Vlad, the day will come when I will leave this world," she said, "And when that day comes, I want to make sure that.... that... my goodness, we haven't even named our son yet!"
Dracula chuckled at this realization. "I think I'll let you name him, my love," he responded.
Lisa thought about this for a few moments, then came up with the answer. "Adrian," she said, "His name is Adrian."
"Adrian? Why that?" Dracula inquired.
"Is something wrong with Adrian?" she asked.
"No, I'm just curious," Dracula explained.
"It was my father's name," Lisa stated, "He died in a fire with my mother years ago, before you took me here."
Dracula nodded at this. "Fine then, Adrian Farenheights Tepes shall be his name," he declared.
Lisa smiled as she looked down at her son, who quietly fed from his mother. "He is so beautiful," she remarked as Dracula knelt by his wife again, "He has your eyes."
"But he has your looks," Dracula countered, "He'll look just like his mother."
"I love you so much, Vladimir," Lisa declared, "You've given me everything I could have ever wanted."
And with that, Dracula and Lisa shared a loving kiss. And it was at this moment that the couple felt the happiest together. And for the first time in centuries, Mathias Cronqvist found himself completely content with his lot in life. It was a feeling that would not last long less than a century later, he would become humanity's biggest threat.
"Congratulations Adelina," Raisha Belmont declared to the woman who had just given birth, "It's a girl."
Raisha handed the baby girl over to the new mother, who began to cry as she held her child in her arms and looked as she wailed for the first time. "I can't thank you enough, Raisha," she began, "I just wish Anthony were here right now."
"You did deliver a bit earlier than we expected, so it's understandable that he wasn't able to make it," Raisha admitted, "I'm so sorry for that."
"You have nothing to be sorry for," Adelina replied, "These things happen nowadays. I'm sure Anthony will be delighted when he returns later today."
Raisha nodded as she began to grab her things. It was at that point that her husband walked into the room. "You're late," Raisha said with a smirk.
"Oh, I missed it?" Mark answered as he wrapped his arms around his wife and planted a brief kiss on her lips, "Sorry I wasn't here earlier, but I ran into a friend."
"What friend of yours is awake at this time of day?" Raisha inquired with a chuckle.
As if on cue, the door to the room opened again. This time, it was Alucard who walked through the door. Raisha had seen the hybrid vampire-human before multiple times, but he had a presence that she knew she would never get used to. And as she felt that presence, she knew who had just walked into the room without even having to look.
"I should have known it was you Mark was speaking of, Alucard," she greeted as she broke away from her husband, "You never seem to sleep at all."
"No, I do," Alucard assured, "I just don't have to sleep."
"You don't know how jealous I am of you, Alucard," Raisha admitted, "I mean, look at you. You must be nearly 700 years old and you don't look a day over 30. My God, no wonder my daughter has the hots for you."
The three of them shared a laugh at that. Indeed, Alucard knew that Julia Belmont was rather fond of him, but he didn't think of their relationship as anything serious. In Alucard's mind, Julia was simply trying to associate herself with everything that the Belmonts were about, namely vampires and hunting them down. She was an expert in almost every type of combat, armed and unarmed, obviously including the whip. And she loved to read the stories of her ancestors who had battled with Dracula. To Alucard's delight, she found Trevor to be her favorite ancestor.
"Adelina, will you need anything more," Raisha inquired.
"No, I should be fine now," Adelina replied, "But I'll call your house if I need anything."
Raisha nodded as she, her husband and Alucard left the new mother's house and began to walk back toward the Belmont house. "You must have important business to attend to here, Alucard," Raisha stated, "You don't come back here often now that your father is gone."
Alucard nodded. "I got the opium that Doctor Lobont requested," he replied, "Your son did a good job acquiring it and keeping his hands on it."
"Why do you say it that way?" Raisha asked warily.
"The dealers Justin contacted pulled tried to pull a double cross on him," Alucard explained, "Justin was shot, but the doctors tell me he will be fine."
Raisha took the news quite well, Alucard thought. She didn't make a noise, just nodded slowly as her eyes wandered slightly, coming to rest on her husband. What Alucard didn't know was that this news was nothing new to Raisha, who lost all three of her older brothers to violence before she had even turned 14. All three had been convinced to join Islamic Fundamentalist groups. Two died as suicide bombers. The third was killed during a failed raid on the Golan Heights, slayed by Israeli soldiers. It was this incident that convinced Raisha that she needed to escape from this life of violence and endless revenge. She got into nursing, which turned out to be her key to a better life in Europe. She had never returned to the Middle East since she left Syria at age 17.
"Come, my dear, lets go home and talk about this," Mark offered to his wife.
"It's alright, Mark, I'm fine," Raisha replied as she embraced her husband, "The doctors said Justin will be okay. But I do need something to eat. Please join us, Alucard. Julia will certainly want to see you once she returns."
Alucard followed the Belmonts into their home and he shared a few of his stories with them.
Like Warichylia and the ghost village of Tranlya, the village of Francia was located in Brasov County in central Romania, lying on the boundary between Wallachia to the south and Transylvania to the north. To call Francia a village was a bit misleading; over 5,000 people called it home. However, Francia definitely looked more like a medieval village than an modern suburb, all less than an hour's walk from the city of Brasov.
And it was in this village that 24-year-old Julia Belmont was about to wrap up a self defense class she gave once a week to the young people of the village. There was no doubt around the village of Julia's prowess in how to fight. Her heritage as a Belmont was well-known in these parts of the country. And she had proven her skills on multiple occasions before. Despite the fact that Dracula's Castle had been gone from Romania for 75 years, the creatures of the castle continued to exist in the nearby forests and threatened the villages every now and then. Julia had taken down her fair share of these creatures, including one 12-foot-tall troll whose skull was now her wall decoration. She was particularly proud of that achievement, as that troll had been wreaking havoc for a month before she finally tracked it down and killed it.
"Alright everyone, that's enough for today," Julia announced as she brought today's session to an end and began to put her equipment back in her large, white cloth bag, "I'll see you next week at the same time."
Everyone nodded as they broke up into various groups. It only took a few minutes for Julia to finish packing her things and then she began the two hour walk back to her home. It was a long walk, but she didn't really mind it. Julia kept herself in peak physical condition, so the long walk was nothing she couldn't handle. She knew that her ancestors lived in these forests, protected only by the clothes on their backs and whatever natural cover they could find, for months at a time and still managed to defeat all manner of evil beings wherever they went. In her mind, Julia had no right to complain about her life of comparative luxury to how her predecessors lived, though she certainly wouldn't want to live like they did.
Except for one thing.
About an hour and a half into her walk home, Julia stopped as she reached the peak of a small hill. There were no trees growing up here, so she caught sight of a wonderful view of the central Romanian countryside from this place. Indeed, this hill was something of a spiritual place for Julia. Sometimes, she would come here to contemplate things or just to be alone for a while. More than once, she had fallen asleep under the night sky here. In this place, Julia felt at peace with herself and the world.
As she looked around at the world around her, she finally turned to gaze to the north. And in that direction, her eyes fell upon a clearing of trees in the distance atop another small peak. And though it was barely visible from this distance, Julia knew exactly what sat at the center of this clearing. It was the remains of Dracula's fortress, Castlevania. The clearing around the castle's ruins had actually shrank over the past 75 years as the trees were allowed to grow again in soil that was once tainted by evil.
And it was at this point that Julia Belmont was jealous of her ancestors. She knew that she would never have the chance to see Castlevania in its foreboding magnificence. She would never have the chance to prove her strength against Dracula's evil minions. And she would never have the chance to prove herself as a Belmont by defeating the evil Count Dracula. Julia knew it was for the best that Dracula was destroyed and his power broken by sealing his castle away where it could never rise on Earth again. However, she was a vampire hunter through and through. And without a vampire to hunt, Julia felt rather out of place in this new world.
Julia sighed as she turned away from the sight and started walking toward home again. What she didn't know was that fate would soon send her on the journey she had always dreamed of taking, but would also lead to a great tragedy that would cripple her for the rest of her life.
Author's Notes: Well, I know this chapter's flow is a bit odd, but I found this to be a hard chapter to write, with a lot of "Where do I go from here?" moments. Hopefully, future chapters won't be as awkward to write.
Speaking of the future, I think it would be best if I go back to focus on my Harry Potter story for now and finish that one off before returning to this one. So this may be the last update for a while. While I do intend to finish this story, I have a lot of other things on my mind that I need to get straight, such as finding a real job despite this economy continuing to drift toward self-destruction.
Well, that's about all for now, I guess. Until next time, read, review and enjoy.