Chapter IV

Garden of the Fates

"Who ees theess 'Broaner' ov whom you speak?" the man with the bizarre accent asked.

"Don't lie, we'd recognize your ugly mug anywhere. Come to think of it, you look uglier than you—wait a minute…" Jonathan cut himself short before he decided to rephrase his statement to a minor degree:

"Okay, who the heck are you?"

"I am Count Orlok, eegnorant childe," the Count in question began walking towards them. He had a wide-eyed, open-mouthed neutral expression that displayed a pair of slightly crooked fangs. Charlotte immediately started flipping through a book. Jonathan took it upon himself to continue the conversation.

"Sorry 'bout that little identity mix up there. You look a lot like an old…friend of ours. Although now that I'm looking at you up close, I can't believe I could have possibly mistook you for him; you're way uglier than he was, and let me tell you, he was tremendously unattractive."

Jonathan didn't even have to try to be offensive. He was just stating a fact, and he was putting it lightly. Very lightly: The man did look vaguely like Brauner, but where the late Vampire Artist had an oval shaped face, the Count's was shaped like an upside down tear. It was a perfect bald dome on top, but his chin coming to a sharp point that had angles that stretched up to his mid cheekbones. Whereas Brauner had an upright and even regal posture, Orlok seemed to be hunched over. He was paler than Brauner as well if that was even possible. It was as though he had passed the borderline of having skin that was completely deprived of color, and had gone on to having skin that was actually grey. His wide-eyed, open-mouthed visage didn't help very much. The trench coat was very heavy, and was an unsightly shade of beige. And unless Jonathan was mistaken, and he was sure he wasn't, the repulsive vampire even seemed to have a trail of rats following him.

"How dare you eensult me! You are nott vorthee of stahndeeng een my presence, human!

"Sorry, but we're actually vampire hunters," Charlotte stated matter-of-factly, "It's not as though you're—"

"Silence, voman! How dare you speak vithout being spoken to! I command you to cease your talking!"

Charlotte was less offended than she was confused. She looked back at Orlok with a squinty gaze and a raised eyebrow.

"What?" she asked incredulously, "You can't really just go around telling me what to do."

"You do nott leesten, voman! You have no right to deesobey my command!"

Now Charlotte's discontentment was beginning to show. She glared at the Count.

"And why would that be, pray tell?"

"I need nott eksplain myself to you, voman."

"Oh, you'd better. I really wouldn't mind taking out my spellbook and turning you into crunchy vampire toast.

"Truly?" Count Orlok chuckled derisively, "You theenk you can cast magics? Vomen cannot even learn magics! Vaht need I fear of a threat from a voman?"

Charlotte glared furiously at the vampire and opened her spellbook to Explosion.

"You know, Count," Jonathan began casually, "I've known this girl for a long time—"

"And you let her act on her own? Vaht kind ov master are you?"

"I'm not her master…I'm her friend…As I was saying, before you so rudely interrupted, I've known this girl for a long time, and I've found that it's very stupid to make her angry. I have the stitches to prove it. I'm telling you this for your own benefit. I mean we're still gonna hunt you down, but even so, if you want to live longer to any extent, you should probably avoid upsetting her."

"Nonsense! She must learn to have a sense of propriety! She must leesten and obey the veeshes of the men. She cannot cast spells, because no voman can use magics. They are nott smart enough."

"I warned you," Jonathan said airily, "You really shouldn't have said that."

"EXPLOSION!" Charlotte howled furiously. Flames spontaneously erupted around the vampire and he was suddenly engulfed in a torrent of fire so powerful that it stretched up into to the sky like a flare fired from a colossal flare gun. Orlok gave a scream that was constantly changing pitch. It was like listening to a song written entirely out of key. This wasn't even taking into account the fact that there were also squealing rats that had haplessly found themselves in the blast area. When the flames went out, Orlock lay on the ground, singed and giving off smoke. His trench coat, now sporting singe marks, looked even tackier than before. At least half of his rat company now only existed as charred skeletons. He managed to lift himself back to his feet, but was still unsteady. If Charlotte's trademark death glare could have actually made someone drop dead, the look she was giving Orlok would have banished him from existence entirely.

"How dare you try to burn me boy!" the Count shouted furiously. Charlotte's face, already contorted in rage seemed to be reaching a level of pure hatred that Hitler would have wanted to aspire to. This made it all the more fortunate that he had died two years earlier. Jonathan was just looking dumbfounded and astonished at the vampire's apparent stupidity.

"I didn't do that," Jonathan said slowly, "I can't cast magic, I'd go as far as to say that I am magically challenged. I am literally incapable of using any sort of magic without Charlotte's help. Charlotte is the one who lit you up, and judging by the way that you're still not acknowledging her even after she demonstrated her power on you, she'll be doing something twice as painful."

"You continue to lie to me. Vhy?"

"Because I'm not lying, I'm telling you the truth. She's a girl, and she's a powerful sorceress."

"Vhy do you theenk that you can fool me? No voman has the eenteleegence to cast magics. They are not even capable of studying areethmeteec or the sciencees. They can barely compreehend leeterature."

"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT YOU ASSHOLE! THUNDERBOLT!"

Intricate magical symbols appeared in the air high above Orlok, and from each one of them came a jagged arc of lightning, each bolt striking it's target dead on. Orlok howled that ridiculous scream again as he was electrocuted. He was actually lifted off of the ground by the static pressure and when the current ended he was knocked higher into the air and fell back down the ground. Landing hard on his back. Various parts of his body were still twitching uncontrollably. He tried to talk but all that came from his mouth was a severely stuttered 'S.' After nearly five minutes of listening to him go, "S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S," he finally managed to get a few uninterrupted words out:

"Such eensolence! Fervell! Ve shall meet again, and next time, you veell both pereesh!" Orlok seemed to disappear into his coat, and barely a moment later a bat flew out of the ratty piece of clothing. Jonathan barely got a glimpse of the bat's face but he could still tell that even it looked ugly. Not that there was anything cute about vampire bats wit their sharp teeth and upturned noses, but this one was just wrong! The nose, while still upturned and pig-like was actually tilted downwards, and its eyes were deformed. They were large for a vampire bat and were squeezed into tight lines, though they remained open. Jonathan wasn't able to notice anything else beyond that, as Orlok flapped past his face, and disappeared into another part of the garden, followed at a slight distance by his surviving rats.

"What was that about? Who was that guy?"

"I'm not sure, but I've read about a minor vampire called Olrox before. Maybe Olrox is really Orlok? Mistranslation of the name?" Charlotte theorized, "Either way, he is loathsome, I despise him, and I want to chop him up into little pieces and make sure that he stays alive to feel the pain until the very end."

"That might make sense," Jonathan agreed, "but I could do without that little hate speech," Suddenly he jumped as something landed on his head.

"Jonathan! Don't move!" Charlotte exclaimed.

"There's…a garden here?" Maria exclaimed with interest, "It's pretty."

The garden was indeed very pretty: several flowerbeds ran along the ground and framed a small pool of water that was sustained by a waterfall that sparkled in the moonlight.

"Don't get comfortable," Alucard warned, "The gardens of Castlevania are no less dangerous as the rest of it. Vampires tend to like growing Mandragoras. They will pop out of the ground when you approach and they have a piercing scream that will knock anything nearby unconscious if they're not ready for it. And then there are the man-eating plants."

"Well, I guess there are more ways of spoiling a perfectly nice garden than I thought," Maria said with a roll of her eyes.

They entered and were startled momentarily as a particularly hideous bat flew past them and into the castle…and then, oddly enough, they had to dodge out of the way of a swarm of rats that were going in the same direction as the bat. Continuing on, they were being careful not to touch any of the plants, staying on the path at all times. There was a large weed growing out of one of the cracks, a clump of leaves and the occasional vine. Maria had made the mistake of stepping on it. The moment she had so much as touched one of the leaves, the vines had wrapped themselves around her ankle, showing themselves to be covered with thorns and strangely slimy. Maria tripped, cringing as the weed introduced her to a new world of unpleasant tactile senses. She pulled her leg away, and with some effort, managed to escape, though not without taking some of the sickening plant's slime with her.

"Are you alright?" Alucard asked, a hint of concern showing through his usually stoic voice.

"I'm fine. Grossed out, but I'm not really hurt except for a few scratches. They're not even bleeding."

"Avoid those as well," Alucard stated, "They're called unes. They are not a great threat, but as you have no doubt noticed, are very unpleasant to step on." He offered her a cloth to wipe the slime off with, "The slime is slightly corrosive. If you leave it for too long it can cause a burn." Maria accepted the cloth gratefully and started cleaning the slime off of her ankle.

"Can I hang on to this? You know, in case we run into any more slime weeds?"

"Go ahead."

"Thanks. I'll just go and clean this off."

Maria walked over to the fountain with the waterfall (sidestepping a pair of unes on the way) and dipped the cloth into it. The fountain was deeper than she had expected. In fact, she couldn't see the bottom. Based on what she had learned about the castle already, she took that as a sign for her to get the cloth clean and get away as soon as possible, because if there was room for something unfriendly to live inside it, that unfriendly something would come to say hello beyond a shadow of a doubt. And that just would just be counterproductive. Not frightening at all! She was about halfway through the un-sliming process when several bubbles broke the water's surface. Maria tensed, but opted to keep cleaning the cloth at risk of losing her hands. The bubbles indicated that whatever was under there would surface in front of her, not stay underwater and bite her. Her guess was proven to be right as a red, scaly fishlike head rose out of the water. It stared at her, giving her an unimpressed look, its outer eyelids halfway closed.

"Um…hello…" Maria said uncertainly. The fish continued looking at her with that unimpressed look in its eyes.

Suddenly it opened its mouth and shot a jet of water at her face, soaking her. She sputtered for a moment before shouting "Hey!" at it. She didn't expect a response, but it still felt good to vent on her aquatic assaulter.

"Go away," the fish said in a bubbly voice, its irritated tone obvious, "You're polluting my clan's front door. Now I'll have to clean all of that slime up."

"Oh! I'm sorry. I didn't realize that anything lived in there when I started, honest," she was partially lying, but if it would get her out of trouble with an unfamiliar life form, she decided that it was the right choice.

The fish then did something she wasn't expecting: It raised two finned arms out of the water, and grabbed the side of the fountain with a pair of webbed hands and pulled itself out of the water. The creature was like a cross between a man and a fish. It was scaly and covered in an assortment of different kinds of fins, but it had a humanoid body; arms, legs and all.

Maria watched in fascination as it went around to the side of the fountain and got what appeared to be a pool cleaner, as well as a bucket. It handed the bucket to her and started using the pool cleaner to get the slime out of the water.

"Don't just sit there," the fish…man…thing said, "Fill the bucket, clean your rag, and dump the water out on the ground. Don't put the slimy water back into our doorway!"

"Sorry, I was just a bit shocked," Maria said, slightly flustered.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm a merman, just drop it."

"Well… I now know that the stories a read as a girl got you guys all wrong."

"Yeah, they usually do. Leave me alone."

"Jeez! Fine, I'm sorry, I was just trying to be polite."

"Do not bother with him," Alucard told her, "Merfolk are reclusive. They do not like contact with those not of their kind."

"I can see that," Maria said, getting the last of the slime off of her new handkerchief.

"Shall we move along?"

"Absolutely."

"Don't come back!" the merman shouted after them.

"No promises!" Maria called back.

The two of them left the alcove to find that it was in fact part of a much bigger garden, divided by open-air corridors. Maria chose one at random and they both began making their way down the hall. They made a few turns and were about to go around another corner when Alucard stopped her.

"Is something wrong"

"Something is casting a spell."

"Jonathan! Don't move!"

Jonathan stiffened. "What's on me?" he hissed.

"Don't worry. It's nothing dangerous…" Charlotte said in an oddly gentle tone.

She reached up onto his head with both hands, carefully scooping up whatever it was that had landed on him. It turned out to be a fruit bat, judging from its big eyes and dog-like snout. And it was hurt. Badly. Its right wing was twisted into a position that should have been impossible for it, and it had a large gash across its left side. Blood was already beginning to stain Charlotte's hands.

"Huh…poor guy," Jonathan muttered sympathetically.

"I'll see if I can heal him…"

They ducked into an open-air corridor, and upon emptying it of its former undead inhabitants, Charlotte began casting her Heal spell. That was when someone charged around the nearby corner, sword drawn, and was in mid swing before he managed to stop himself.

"Charlotte. Jonathan. I see you made it out alright."

"Did you find Stella and Loretta?" Maria asked worriedly, making her presence known.

"No…we found two staircase. One went up, the other went down. We opted to up. Charlotte was getting claustrophobic, or something. We think that something may be down there in those caverns. And whatever it was managed to get to her. If it can do that, then I'm pretty sure it's good at mental assaults."

"I'm not able to think of anything that does that," Alucard mused, "But I admit that my mind is a bit foggy."

"Hey what's that that you've got in your hands Charlotte?" Maria asked.

"It's a fruit bat…but it's…it's dying."

"Aww…I'm sorry. Do you think that this could save it?" Maria asked, pulling out the scroll that Alucard had found earlier on.

Charlotte looked at the worn parchment.

"Hmm."

"What is it? Can it help?"

"It might. But I can't cast this. It transforms an animal into a familiar by infusing it with celestial powers. Since summoned familiars can't be injured, the bat won't die."

"Let me try then."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm positive."

"Okay then here goes."

Author's Note: (Okay, I'm not gonna lie: I can't make up a magic incantation for the life of me. I try and try, but I can never get it to sound right. Anyway readers, just…uh…imagine something here *Hides behind crate as rotten vegetables are hurled at him*)

Become my Bat of Solace!

The effect was instantaneous. The bat's wounds knit themselves back together as a multitude of sparkling lights began to surround its body. The lights flashed once before disappearing before the bat leaped up from its position and began contentedly flapping around Maria's head.

"How do you keep doing this?" Charlotte exclaimed.

"I don't know," Maria answered, holding her hands out for the bat to land on, stroking its soft head with her thumb, "Those words just came to me. I didn't even know what I was supposed to say until the moment I was saying it."

"Okay, that's final then: You have a gift," Charlotte's tone didn't leave room for argument.

"Thanks, I guess." The bat curled up in her hands, and promptly fell asleep, disappearing as it did so.

"Where'd he go?" Maria asked, panicking.

"Don't worry," Charlotte assured her, "He'll reappear when he wakes up. Unless you dismiss him, in which case you'll have to summon him again."

"Oh," Maria said smartly, "Oh, wait, that makes sense."

Charlotte gave Maria a look that was eerily similar to the look that the merman had given her before it had spat in her face. "Let's just keep going," she said. Being met with agreement, they continued down the garden corridor. On the way they were going they found themselves face to face with an entire herd of catoblepas.

"Gwraaaaaaaaaaahhh," one of the metal cows drawled lazily.

"What's with the cows?" Maria asked.

"They're called catoblepas," Jonathan told her.

"So what makes a catoblepa so dangerous? I mean we've stopped in front of them."

"Catoblepas is both singular and plural," Charlotte interjected, "No such thing as a 'catoblepa.' And they breathe a gas that can temporarily encase you in stone."

"Gwraaaahhh," another one of the creatures groaned. It snorted and puff of thick grey smoke came from its nostrils.

"They are not aggressive actually," said Alucard, walking up to one of the beasts, petting it on its metallic carapace, "They're dangerous, but they do not actively attack you. They eat, they breathe, and they knock things over. If that thing is a statue, it will break, and a person encased in stone will be injured. Best not to kill them, they do not want to hurt you."

They followed his lead, and avoided any of the petrifying breath hat was floating around the area. Once they were out of range of the herd, they realized that they could hear someone sobbing. Whoever it was sounded female and was almost certainly in her late teens. Just to make sure they weren't falling into a trap, Charlotte glanced around a corner. Sitting huddled against a wall was a humanoid figure. She had a pair of red bat-like wings curled around its body, and she was sobbing uncontrollably.

"Is that a—" Jonathan began.

"—succubus?" Charlotte finished.

The figure unfurled her wings and looked up at them. She was curled up into a ball, arms around her knees. Makeup ran messily down her face, and her blood-red hair was slightly disheveled. "W-What do you w-want?" She asked miserably, "Y-You guys-s v-vamp-pire hunters? Go ahead and k-kill me. I won't even put up a fight."

"Huh?" Charlotte was dumbstruck, she actually felt really bad for the demon in front of her, "Is something wrong?" she asked cautiously.

"Non-ne of your busi-ness!"

"We…are vampire hunters, but…you know, I'm actually having serious second thoughts about killing you. I mean, demon of not, you look like a wreck, Jonathan assessed her.

The succubus let her head fall back onto her knees. "Go'way…"

"I'm not actually sure that's a good idea…can't we help?" Maria asked softly.

Alucard was the only one of them giving the demon a suspicious glare.

However, at maria's statement, The demon-girl's head shot back up, a look of rage written across her face.

"Vampire hunters. Asking to help a demon, yeah right! There's nothing you'd ever do to help me! Get away!" she leapt up to her feet in a flash, her stiletto heeled boots clicking against the floor as she did so. She flapped her wings and slowly rose off the ground. She blew a kiss, though she didn't stop glaring at any of them for a second. She suddenly rushed at them, trying to take a swipe at Maria with her slightly claw-like fingernails. Alucard jumped to her defence, and the succubus swerved away, making a move to grab Charlotte. Picking her up off the ground, the demon threw Charlotte into a wall. To her disappointment, the witch managed to get back up.

Jonathan pulled out his Undead Killer whip and lunged at the demon. Dodging out of the way she leaped out of the corridor and flipped into the adjacent part of the garden, a somewhat empty area with only a few trees and bushes. Alucard followed her immediately and began a relentless assault on her with the Alucard Sword. She dodged a few of the lightning quick slashes but was hit by most of them, dark blood seeping from the cuts. She managed to acrobatically flip herself onto the top of a tree. Jonathan jumped and slung his whip around her ankle, pulling her from her floating perch. Quickly untangling herself in midair, she grabbed the whip and pulled it out of Jonathan's hands.

"A whip…kinky," she said. It would have seemed like the typically playful taunts of a succubus except that she was still glaring, "Now dance!" She hollered viciously, swinging the whip expertly at Jonathan, who simply pulled out his Agni's flame. Even so, he was still on the run from the assault she was making on him with the Undead Killer. He may not have been the whip's enemy, but getting hit would still hurt. He never got the chance to take a swing at her with Agni's Flame before she wrapped the Undead Killer around his legs and swung him into a wall.

"Piercing Beam," Charlotte cried. A huge beam of light hit the succubus dead on, making her collapse. Not for long enough though, as she managed to get right back to her feet. Making a dash towards Jonathan, she stopped right in front of him, lifted his chin up with her free hand and firmly planted her lips on his.

And then she did something that none of them were expecting:

She stumbled back, rubbing her tongue and lips off as though they were dirty. She fell to her knees and crawled up against the wall, readopting her former curled-up position.

Coming out of the daze induced by the succubus' kiss, Jonathan looked at her in total confusion.

"You…stopped?"

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" she shrieked.

"Charlotte, something's seriously wrong with her."

"Yeah, I can tell. She's a sex demon who's not able to kiss someone. What happened to you that could do this to you?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Try me," Charlotte said confidently.

"Fine," the demon sighed miserably, "But there's no way you'd have any experience with this. There's no chance that you've ever met anyone as freakish as him."

"Who?"

"That Vampiric creeper, Orlok."

"Oh my God, what did he do?"

"You've met him?"

"Uglier than a rat and followed by a swarm of them?" Charlotte asked, "Treats women like property? Disgusting, sickening, vomitous, and every other vile adjective in the dictionary?"

"That's him. He…he…" she didn't finish her sentence.

"What did he do? I'd love another reason to kill him."

"He kissed me and cursed me with what he thought was a love charm! Now I can't even think of anything involving sex anymore without his face forming in my mind. That's why I couldn't kiss your boyfriend to death."

"Wow, I can see how that'd ruin your sex-life," Jonathan said, ignoring the last part of her statement with a slight effort, "It'd ruin mine if I were a girl. Not that I'd know. I just knew that he was hideous and was seriously offensive towards Charlotte."

"Well, we're already planning on killing him before we get out of here so— Wait, boyfriend? No! You've got it all wrong! We're not like that!" Charlotte stumbled.

The succubus perked up the moment that she heard their plans for Orlok. Maria on the other hand was looking at Charlotte questioningly.

"Huh?" Maria licked her lips, "Really? I always thought…I mean the two of you live together…You told me that you cheated him through high-school, and from what I've learned about you since we first met, you're generally a goody-two-shoes. You could have gone to Harvard but you went to Cornell to stay with him. And what about—"

"Shut up!" Charlotte yelped, her face turning a shade that would have made a pomegranate jealous, "We wanted to stay together as a team! That's all!"

"Maria giggled, scratching the back of her head, "Suuuurrrre, you just keep telling yourself that."

Meanwhile, their present demonic company was making note of the entire conversation with great interest. She was also a bit irritated.

"I'm kinda offended that you don't seem to perceive me as a threat anymore.

"Oh, sorry, Maria apologized, "We have kind of been ignoring you. It's just that I couldn't miss that kind of opportunity to make Charlotte squirm like that."

"Just reminding you that you're chatting casually with a demon there Maria," Charlotte said uncomfortably, "and don't do that! It's so annoying!"

"If you're going to be killing Orlok, would you mind if I tagged along? I promise I won't suck out your souls."

"I don't think you can do that," Charlotte said quizzically, "And even if you could, I'm confident that we could still beat you to a pulp. So you know what, sure. As Jonathan would say, 'no problem.' But if you hurt anyone here, just remember that I can turn you into toast in any given three seconds."

"Deal! My name's Scarlet."

"Well, it's surprisingly nice to meet you, Scarlet."

"Hey, can I have my whip back?" Jonathan asked.

"Huh?" Scarlet responded uncertainly before realizing that she was still holding the Undead Killer, "Oh, sure, here you go." She looked at Jonathan for a moment before noticing the multitude of weapons he was carrying. "Wait a minute, why do you even need it? By my count, you're carrying three other whips, and I can see two large swords strapped to your back, not to mention the four hanging from your belt."

Jonathan just looked at the demon with raised eyebrows as he took the Undead Killer back, "Let's just say that I've come extremely well prepared."

"Really? That's an understatement! You're concealing three knives, a pair of throwing axes, a pair of cross-shaped boomerangs, a double-barreled ricochet rock rifle, a hand crossbow, a pair of piercing shurikens, darts, and… a cream pie? That's even kinkier than the whip! And they're all enchanted so that they either always reappear in their holder, or never run out of ammo."

"Jonathan," Maria smirked at him, "Are you compensating for something?"

"No, and if you say that again I'll use the boomerangs on you."

"My Lord," Slogra hissed, "Our spies have reported seeing the vampire Count Orlok on the castle grounds."

"Orlok!" Death roared, "I banished him personally! How dare he show his face here again!"

"Oddly enough, My Lord, they said that he uses that very phrase quite often. Three times in a single hour in fact. He's less mentally acute now than ever before. It seems that he was extended a personal invitation to reside here by Camilla herself. No doubt she has plans for him, anyone as smart as she is would never allow a buffoon such as he onto castle grounds without a reason. She at least knows what she is doing."

"I should take that pathetic mongrel now, but that would deny us the opportunity to observe how this plays out. What is your opinion Slogra?"

"I believe that we should let him do as he wishes until he is either killed by the vampire hunters or Camilla disposes of him. It would make little sense not to watch his death. In any case, I believe his end will be most entertaining."

"Very well my servant. I agree with you. We should see how these events play out. I shall be watching with great interest."

Author's Note: So, after having so much action in the past couple chapters I decided to tone it down just a bit. The monsters that we met this week weren't aggressive, except for Scarlet, who I guess has to count as an OC too. I'll try to keep her out of the picture as often as possible. Also, Orlok/Olrox has been introduced! I may have made him a bit over-the-top, but I actually wanted him to be comically unlikable. He's ugly (perhaps more hideous than in his theatrical appearance), he's sexist, and worst of all; he talks with a stereotypical vampire accent! Good God! Meanwhile, the Lecarde sisters are still lost in the catacombs and were not even featured in this chapter, Alucard is being at least a tiny bit social, and I think that Death may be getting his powerful presence back, which is essential to his character. Anyway, tell me what you think. I hope you liked my latest installment.