Aria of the Ascending Soul

Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix

Beta: Lady Lunar Phoenix

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Chaos was suddenly unleashed in that single moment. The mother's head snapped towards the door on maternal instinct, her voice a dismayed cry of 'oh no'. As her long golden hair fanned out it caught the quick eyes of the Werewolf and the worry for his grandcub triggered in the werewolf. The woman never got a chance to turn around and see when the Werewolf came at her.

Alucard grabbed the werewolfs' arm as he charged forward, but pulling back wasn't good enough, the woman was just too close. Even as Alucard pulled the werewolf towards him, the werewolf reached out with his wicked long claws and ripped into the mother. Arcs of blood were flung as the hand finished making its cut short curve.

And the damage was done.

The mother's self control was lost as she screamed in terror, falling back blindly as her eye was sliced open. Her face had deep gouged wounds just by that move alone, and her panic was giving her blood the flavor of panic that encouraged the blood lust of the Vampire in Alucard and the animalistic hunting instinct in the werewolf. She tripped as she fell back and her husband rushed to her in alarm as panic made him forget about his grandfather for a moment.

And at that point it was near impossible to fathom what the werewolf was thinking, there was just so much going on at the same time. He could smell the terror and fresh blood, he had blood kin in the house including a very young child. The werewolf had already eaten his wife prior hence why he now lived here. It had been the source reason why Alucard kept an eye on the family like he did. Stand to reason that the older man would go and live with his son and his family now that he was alone.

But did he recall eating his wife?

If so he may have developed a taste for human flesh.

The werewolf turned to glare at the Dhampire holding him, his teeth barred before he opened his fanged mouth and attempted to take a bite. The house was too small for Alucard to use his swords, his daggers and pugilist weapons were all he had access to. But they were really only good if the werewolf came after him. He disdained having to use the pugilist weapons, the elegance of the sword or magic was his style. But expectancy demanded that he, once he could free his hands of holding the werewolf back, would have to put them on.

The only other option was to 'be' a wolf himself. Shifting into wolf form would remove the scent of a dhampire from the werewolfs' senses. The scent of a fellow could calm the werewolf down and hopefully, key word 'hopefully', Alucard could get the Werewolf to obey. Even with the scent of fresh blood from a scared victim, if the man in the wolf still retained a sliver of his own mind...

Get the werewolf under control, hopefully the family would stay quiet out of terror and once the moon began to slip down past the horizon. Well then Alucard could transform back into himself and roll their minds. It would give him time to figure out what narrative he would install in the humans to explain the destroyed furniture and the noises. A potion for the woman who now was sporting a facial injury of some significance. It was never good to make a neighbor out to be crazy or have them treated as dishonest.

Calling the innate energy that allowed him to transform from a man to a beast, what had once been an interesting experience was now route. Bat involved feeling flesh being stretched to form the wings, wolf was the development of a tail. The feeling as clothes faded into the fur, and his vision adjusted from eye level of a bipedal being to a quadlegged beast. Before bounding up on his hide legs to regain his grip on the werewolfs' arm. Pulling the beast further to the ground, and into a more manageable state of mind. Closer to a fellow wolf who still had more of his dhampire mind than a werewolf.

Of course he was also centuries older than even the oldest Werewolf.

The eyes of the Werewolf was becoming pure animal, whatever was a man was getting lost to the scent of blood, sweat and panic. While not as large as some of the Werewolves who were engorged with the dark, chaotic powers of the Castle. This was still a sizable werewolf, as the human slipped further and further away the size of the were kept growing until the hulking mass was just big enough to bite the head off a person.

The werewolf flung its arm to free it from Alucards' grip, causing the dhampire to bite harder, digging his sharp wolf fangs into the arm. Filling his mouth with the sweet taste of fresh blood while his own large wolf body was flung about. Alucard growled through the bite, his cold eyes shifted into the heated red of blood as he locked eyes with the werewolf. Forcing a stare down with the Werewolf so he could assert his own dominance.

Even in the form of a wolf his half blood showed through, not fully timber nor fully gray. The mixture of his Vampire and Human blood was translated into Timber and Gray wolf. His strength augmented with his inhumane power was felt in the tug of war between the pair as the Werewolf attempted to reclaim his arm and couldn't break the hold of the wolf before him. Alucard pulling the werewolf down to the ground with him.

The wolf in the man became cowed as Alucard shook the arm in his mouth, a savage shake pulling the Werewolf back towards the far wall of the room. With his fangs red with fresh werewolf blood, Alucard stalked the center of the room. Herding the Were to stay back where he was, while the humans backed away to the door out of the room. But dominance had been asserted, the Wolf in the man acknowledged this new strange wolf as a leader. Instincts demanded respect, if this leader was claiming the humans as his prey then it must be respected.

As the Wolf retreated, the Man reasserted his own presence, taking in the room around him with care and caution. The scent of his own blood filled his nostrils, and he covered the wound with one large sharp clawed hand. He looked down upon himself, in some bestial state of awe at what he had become. No longer purely man, but not fully a beast, straddling the line between like from those movies and stories of old.

The power must have been intoxicating to him.

After all, the strength, speed, stamina, senses of an apex like predator? Had the Man ever reclaimed full control of his body while he was shifted? Or was it a perpetual state of confusion as information didn't match what was normal for a human man? Did he understand the night he ate his wife? Or did he mistake her for some other beast of the forest?

Alucard recalled the stories from the LeCarde and Morris Clans regarding the Were's, that one girl had been traumatized. When her full human awareness came face to face with her new Were form she had retreated cowering in a corner. Scared out of her mind of the assertive people who stood before her, Spear and Whip in hand.

"I never heard such a heartrending sound, the whimpering, screaming cries of a terrified dog sounding so human. No battle rage or anything just terror of herself and us, which I suppose is why we couldn't kill her." Alexis had reported in the absolute last case she handled with her brother and the other two before this case.

But that particular Were had been a civilian, a shy, introverted one, this one was a trained solider who had faced life or death situations. Lupine eyes fell upon the two humans across from him, and found seeing his son and daughter in law in such a different style was exciting. His lips pulled back into a large sharp tooth grin like some pleasant dog, and he began to make a lumbering swaying steps to the door.

Alucard began barking, displeased with the situation that was slowly deteriorating in front of him. The Man was in control which, in theory, was a good thing, he could process and understand spoken words. But he had fought in the Demon Castle Wars so there was no telling how he would react to seeing the wolf in front of him change back into a man. He had also struck his daughter in law and drawn blood. She would be harder to soothe into trusting this Werewolf, and yet there was no way to explain to anyone while he was in wolf form.

They could both hear the softest of clicks a door in the hallway suddenly began turning, and sliding open. "Mommy? Daddy?"

It was in that moment that even being a Child of the Night showed its limitations. It was a moment that reminded one that they were not a God and regardless of how hard they may have tried to accomplish something. It may not turn out for the best. Truly a humbling moment for one who had become comfortable at moving at speeds beyond a human.

The Man charged forward, the scent was welcoming, playful, the scent of a human grandfather, rushing forward with legs far stronger than any pair of normal human legs.

Alucard snapped at the Man's ankle, feeling only the lightest of touches as the claw escaped him.

The Man grabbed at his son and daughter in law, pulling them into a fierce hug as he moved ever forward from that one lunge.

Alucard felt the wood under his padded paws give way as he dug his feet in to propel himself forward. All the while the sharp snap of bone, the tearing of flesh and splash of blood crashed down like a wave over the sound of his claws. Chasing the Werewolf he sank his fangs into the Werewolf's ankle and began dragging the Man back as quickly as he could. Jerking his head to the left and right in an effort to make the Werewolf look at him. His amethyst shaded fur and gray lower shade became splattered in blood as his fangs sank into a major artery.

And a very young voice rose up in a terror filled shriek causing the Werewolf to stop fighting Alucards' efforts to drag him back. Not that Alucard couldn't see enough amid his movements to get a gist of what had happened. The child was frozen in terror and blood was flecked on his face and his Big Bird one piece night clothes. Pulling the Werewolf back revealed twin blood red stains on the hard wood floor.

By then it was over, no point to try and pull the Werewolf back any further. Alucard saw the Werewolf lift up one hand then the other, as blood dripped from the newly ripped off heads of his son and daughter in law. He didn't comprehend his full strength or speed, the instant the man had grabbed his family in a gesture of affection, he had ripped off their heads.

And now he stood, hunched over, his hands red with blood, his lips having been pulled back in a lupine grin and frame so huge he filled up the hallway compared to his tiny grandson. The child was in shock, his eyes were locked on the heads of his parents discarded on the floor. Right before he looked back up at the large looming Werewolf.

The courage and strength that allowed his Grandfather to survive the Demon Castle Wars bred true in his son. For the mere fact he didn't run screaming in terror at the sight of the shift, and was bred true again in the man's grandson. But this was a mere babe, unable to comprehend what he beheld he began screaming before sinking to the floor in terror.

The child was scarred and the excitement that Alucard had scented from the Werewolf, the jubilation at this change shifted. The head was swaying back and forth as though the Werewolf was examining what he had done. The scent shifted, tilted into directions that were alarming even before the babe had even hit the ground. The Werewolf needed to be subdued, forced down and back into the room, but Elmo couldn't be left in the hallway after such a shock either.

The Werewolf's head snapped to the side so he could see Alucard, the blood red eyes purely feral and dangerous. The Man had retreated, tragically understandable as he lifted his chomped on right ankle and kicked the foot back to get Alucard to let go. No longer the man, or willing to acknowledge an authority of wolf stock. The Wolf was now fully in control and descending into a berserk battle lust with a soft young morsel of food right in front of him.

Gone was the chance to keep the Werewolf calm until dawn. No longer was there any hope of saving or salvaging the family even at the sacrifice of Grandfather. Before the Werewolf was a messy black haired child with eyes so wide that the new leaf green showed like an emerald on pure white snow. So scared he couldn't move, or speak and so tiny that a single bite would cut him clean in half.

And there just wasn't any time.

Alucard had no moment where he could shift back into his human form, arm himself with Were Bane and deal with this horror. And that 'he' the crowned prince of Vampires, a master Vampire Hunter, was too 'slow' was a sharp insult to his being. But he had to keep the Werewolf off Elmo, and lunged in charging up the rippled spine work of the Werewolf to grab for the neck.

It wasn't easy, his claws were digging into the skin while the Werewolf tried to shake him off like a flea. Leaving Alucard unable to really shimmy his way up the large Werewolf's back before the Werewolf grabbed him with one large sharp clawed hand. With a hard toss of the hand, Alucard was thrown across the hallway into a bookshelf that stopped him short in his flight. In the real world he would have slammed through the bookshelf and kept going until he hit a solid wall. While the Dhampire twisted himself mid flight so that he precariously brace his feet on the shelf and propel himself forward against the Werewolf.

Until he got the Werewolf away from the child. He couldn't afford the time to change back.

The Werewolfs' attention returned immediately back to the child who sat there wailing with a high pitch cry. Causing the Werewolf to fold back its ears in annoyance before letting out a harsh aggressive series of barks that drowned out the child. The sound was enough to silence the child, and causing the boy to open his eyes, taking in the furious Werewolf in front of him as though it was the whole world.

Alucards' claws snapped along the floor like strikes of lightning, as he rushed his way back into the hallway. Driving himself between the two his own snarling wolf face right in the Werewolfs and shoving Elmo further into his room again. If the child could just stop seeing the terrible things in front of him, he 'possibly' would go hide on his own.

But for now all that mattered was forcing the Werewolf back so he could properly kill the beast and get Yoko to send out the clean up crew. The Werewolf lashed out with his claws and Alucard stood his ground, no reason to back down. Once the Werewolf was dead, Alucard would feed and the length of the Werewolf's limbs meant he could reach Elmo still.

The Dhampire lunged forward going straight for the eyes turning his head so the left side of his head was parallel with the ground. The Werewolf growled and shoved Alucard away from his head to protect his eyes from the sharped fanged mouth of the challenging wolf coming straight at him. Yet the aggressive behavior was now fixated onto Alucard, the Werewolf recognizing that there was a stronger threat in the wolf. The fawn could wait, the opposing male needed to be eliminated.

Ear splitting wails of police sirens could be heard off in the distance, further than even what humans could ear. Alucard was running out of time to subdue and remove the Werewolf from the house. Once more humans and their cameras arrived there would be video footage that would endanger the Dark Children.

The Werewolf finally seemed to weigh the meal as less important than the threatening wolf before him and turned to back the way he came. His powerful legs brought him back into the room in a single bound. The rush of air that followed him tossed back up the tattered curtains showing the wide expanse of the outside world. As an out from the annoying wolf behind him, the Werewolf charged forward shattering out of the window and into the night. Splitting the air with the shatter of glass and the counter delicate sound of tinkling broken shards.

Unwilling to let the Werewolf endanger the Children of the Night, Alucard pulled at his own domain and opened the portal in the front of the house. Once the Werewolf lunged forward he was sent to Alucards' personal grounds. But while it got the Werewolf out of the immediate area the Estate was not enclosed. There was no telling where the Werewolf would send himself if he took off into the woods around the estate.

Alucard chased the Werewolf out of the window and joined the werewolf on the grounds below and on his estate like he willed. Free from mortal eyes he was allowed to shift back into his proper form, and called forth Were Bane to his naked hand all in a single smoothly done move. He stared down the Werewolf who took in the change with confused eyes as it tried to fathom how a wolf could now be a man...

He never got to process another thought for in that instant the Werewolf was dispatched, with the same practical ease as other werewolves that Alucard had dealt with in his life. Driving the Bane into the Were's heart and watching with dispassionate eyes as the Were became a man again. Amid the soft sound of blood dripping from Bane and the shift as flesh crumpled into ash Alucard glanced up at the moon far above him.

This was not his mothers' death, or the child like version of his Father's castle, so why was he still here, now repeating events of the past?

"Why? Why can I not wake from my slumber?"