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Part 1 – Trevor
His parents weren’t concerned when Trevor grew up lacking any blossoming flowers. He was still young and maybe his soulmate was careful or lived a sheltered life. Trevor himself wasn’t worried either, not being a huge fan of the idea that he’d been fated to people he didn’t even know.
Alexandra Belmont knew that her son would change his mind once he met his fated but until then, she would enjoy his childhood and blissful ignorance. Marcus Belmont hoped that his son’s fated would be happy with the lifestyle of the Belmont family, knowing that Trevor loved their family’s history and culture. Not to mention he thrived in all things monster hunting, even from a young age.
Trevor was 10 years old when the first rounded patch of red roses bloomed across the inside of his left arm and a few weeks following, another bunch on the right side of his lower back. Alexandra was overjoyed at the first bloom, claiming it was a means for celebration with the Belmont brood gathering for a large dinner and a good drink. Trevor loved that his mother was happy and kept a smile on his face, determined to keep her grinning. He also loved the pride that he clearly saw in his parent’s eyes.
Even if he didn’t really understand the source of pride. It wasn’t like he’d done anything, it was just his clumsy soulmate that had given him his flowers. Red roses at that, hardly a manly flower to be proud of. It was a girly flower which his brothers loved to tease him about.
Trevor was aware that his soulmate was probably a little frustrated with him on the other hand. Training to be a monster hunter wasn’t exactly a safe job, resulting in many injuries from combat and weapon training. He had small nicks and grazes on his hands and up his arms, the worst being a deep gouge from his cousin pouncing on him causing him to then fall back into the worktable where his uncle had left some daggers for sharpening. It spanned his upper back, from shoulder to shoulder and only happened when he was 9. His soulmate surely was littered in his flower, if only he could know what his flower was.
His mother assured him that one day he would know what his flowers were, he just had to meet his soulmate first. It didn’t help that flowers weren’t hereditary so anything that his family had didn’t necessarily mean he would have the same. His father’s flower was Borago and it bloomed across his mother’s chest and up the left side of her neck, the result of a large burn given to his father by a Chimera. Marcus had purple Gladiolus’ blooming all the way up to his right arm, from wrist to over the shoulder, which showed as long, deep gouge marks spanning up Alexandra’s arm. This was a vampire attack and the reason why Trevor’s mother was so respected. The highest vampire kills in the Belmont family belonged to her and she and Marcus wore the markings on their arms with pride.
The night the church came was the worst nightmare that Trevor could have imagined and he was too young to do anything about it. His mother bundled him into her arms, pressed hard kisses into his plump cheeks and wrapping him in a fierce hug. She wanted him to go and hide in his tree, the special one that he loved to play in so much. His father pressed a rucksack into his arms, explaining that it had food, a full waterskin, some medical equipment and a blanket. There was also a large Belmont shirt inside, one of his fathers.
There was one thing that his mother gave him though, her whip. The Vampire Killer as it had been affectionately named by the family. It was old but strong and powerful, thick flexible brown leather. It was long and naturally curled into position on the hook that Alexandra had also attached to his hip.
With a final kiss from them both and a teary goodbye, they pushed him towards the forest and turned to face the wrath of the church.
Trevor wouldn’t see his parents again or their beautiful flowers that bloomed on their tanned skin. Meanwhile, he continued to collect his own mass of scars. Small ones littered his body but the worst was the result of the first monster attack without his family around.
A young, blood-starved vampire that he had more stumbled upon rather than hunted. It wasn’t an easy kill, but he managed to use Vampire Killer to yank the head from the neck mere moments after the monster had lashed out, a long talon carving across his left eye. From above his eyebrow to just below his cheekbone. It was painful and a bitch to heal and Trevor couldn’t help to feel guilty knowing his soulmate now had to live with such a mark.
It wasn’t until he was 22 that Trevor received his next flower and it was a very large one. Not only that but a different flower. It was not unheard of for someone to have 2 soulmates although it was rare. A stalk of Foxglove spanned from his left shoulder, over his clavicle, chest and stomach before stopping at the point of his right hip.
For the first time in a long time, Trevor couldn’t help but wonder who the hell his soulmates were.
Part 2 – Sypha
Sypha never got to see the flowers that bloomed over her mother’s body. She had still been a babe when her mother passed away, an illness related to birthing issues they said. Her father told her though, of the Old English Ivy that wrapped around her ankle from a childhood injury of his and the small Ivy leaves that decorated the back of her left hand.
The sunflowers that decorated her father's chest were still present when he told her of this but they were withered, just as they had been when his wife passed.
It wasn’t more than a few months after he first spoke of the flower to his daughter that he himself passed away, a tragic travelling accident they said. He never got to see Sypha’s first flowers.
With no words of wisdom or care from her parents, Sypha turned to her Grandfather, the eldest in their group of Speakers.
Sypha had gained tiny sprouts of dandelions when she was around 6, only small ones that made her family smile. She was 8 when she got her first large flowers and her grandfathers reaction was one of pure joy. It was a small bouquet of dandelions on the back of her shoulders, a delicate-looking flower but oddly represented so much strength and resilience. The joy lasted all of a day before her grandfather also became worried. Why had her soulmate had such a large wound? It mattered not to Sypha, as long as the flowers were living and thriving then she was happy.
A year after, Sypha attempted magic for the first time. She started with fire incantations first which probably wasn’t the smartest idea. On her first attempt, a burst of flames went up the inside of her left arm and Sypha screamed as she felt uncontrolled flames lick at her skin. Sure enough, a burn mark healed over. The only saving grace in Sypha’s mind was that it would now mean her soulmate had her flowers. A few weeks later, she got kicked by one of the horses in the travelling caravan and it also scarred. This one didn’t hurt as much but still indicated there would be more flowers blooming on her soulmates skin.
The worst scar though came when she was 11 years old. Her family and gathered together for dinner and to speak of the stories of old. Halfway through the meal, Sypha felt a tingle and looked up to her grandfather. He gasped in shock and dropped his drink. Sypha used a small blunted mirror shard to look at her reflection, she watched a dandelion grow up and up until it spanned from cheekbone to above her eyebrow. It seeds just starting to float away and leaves decorating the base. Her soulmate had been hurt, across their eye no less. She hoped whoever they were, they were okay.
Sypha had the same concern come back to her when she was 21 and a large Foxglove and bloomed across her chest, shoulder to the opposite hip. It was wide as well, in full and thriving bloom. She was shocked to see something other than a dandelion on her but her grandfather simply told her she had an extra person to love and an extra person to love her. Again, she hoped that her soulmate would recover from the wound and one day she could meet them both.
Part 3 - Adrian
Adrian knew his father had flowers, they came from small chemical burns and scratches from medical equipment that his mother had gotten when learning to be a doctor. They were beautiful strands and bouquets of white lilies and his father adored them. Adrian would sometimes catch his father in his study, stroking along the stems and petals with a peaceful smile on his face.
Adrian knew that many people feared and hated his father but seeing him like this, he couldn’t understand why. The only times he’d personally see his father with an unhappy expression was when members of his court referred to Adrian as Alucard. His father hated the name, claiming that Adrian was more than just a reflection of his sire. It didn’t make sense to Adrian when he was younger, the hatred for the name. It was only when asking his mother why he understood. Alucard was his father's name in reverse. Or well, his father's middle name.
Dracula.
The other times that Dracula was unhappy was when people referred to Adrian as a result of his ‘pet breeder’. Adrian had heard a rumour that his father had dismissed court members for that term. His father loved his mother deeply, more than anything in the world. Adrian knew his father was a vampire, a powerful one at that. But his mother was human and she was a doctor, a caretaker. As opposed to his father's collection, Lisa’s skin was clear, not a petal in sight. It was only because her husband could not be harmed, the immortal vampire he was. She claimed it didn’t bother her but Vlad and Adrian knew otherwise. It was why on the third anniversary of their wedding day, Vlad used his own talon to carve around his ring finger, just under his wedding band. Lisa was giddy as she watched stems of Honeysuckle grow out from under her gold wedding band until they filled the skin from the first knuckle to the base of the finger.
Vlad would also stroke a finger over Adrian’s flowers as well when he thought his son had passed out in his arms. When he was born, there were already tiny dandelions decorating Adrian's arms and hands. It was the reason Adrian loved to draw dandelions so often, in varying sizes and positions. Some not yet bloomed, others with their seeds floating away.
Adrian was 5 when he felt a warm sensation on the back of his shoulders and quickly ran to his mother in her lab. Lisa was worried at first, no one knew what kind of health or resilience a dhampir would have. The same as a human or impenetrable like his fathers. Once the shirt was off of Adrian though, she simply laughed and smiled before taking her son to a mirror. A large group of dandelions had bloomed on his back, from shoulder to shoulder. The biggest ones yet and Adrian could help an overjoyed grin on his face, small fangs pressing into his bottom lip.
Hearing the sounds of laughter from his study, Vlad wondered what was happening. He followed the delightful sounds until he arrived at his wife’s medical room. Once seeing the dandelions in the mirror, a grin spread across the old vampire's face and he strode over to his family. He collected his son into his arms and lifted him high in the air, making the blonde boy laugh. Lisa laughed as well as she wrapped an arm around her husband’s.
The strangest thing happened when just over a year later, a bouquet of roses bloomed on the inside of Adrian’s right arm and then was followed by a similar patch on his right lower back. Again, Vlad and Lisa laughed, overjoyed that their son had not just one soulmate but two! Two soulmates! Soon Adrian was drawing just as many red roses as he was dandelions.
A couple years later, Lisa woke to the sound of her son crying and a hand pulling on her bedsheets. Vlad woke not long after her and together they coddle Adrian in between themselves. Another flower had grown, a long dandelion that covered Adrians left eyebrow and stopped under his cheek. Although he loved his flowers, he was scared. Something bad must have happened to his soulmate, what if he lost them before he even knew them? The parents comforted their son as much as they could with their own growing concerns. But as weeks passed, the dandelions never withered and so the concern passed. It must have been a terrible accident, nothing more.
Just like his father though, Adrian never scared from any wounds he received and it saddened him. What if his soulmates never knew they had a third whilst he would be stuck knowing they were together and he was alone? His mother comforted him though and the best Adrian could do was hope that when he met them, flowers or not, they would just know.
Sadly, Adrians opinions of the soulmate flowers changed after his mother’s death when he was just seventeen. While he and his father were away, a bishop had gone to see Lisa and accused her of witchcraft. With them being so far away, neither Adrian or Vlad knew of what had happened until the following morning. Hours too late, his mother already burned at the stake.
Adrian watched as the lilies on his father's body withered and died but didn’t disappear. A heart wrenching, immortal reminder of what they had lost. The pain of losing his mother was only worsened by watching the fall of his father. Vlad Dracula fell into a downward spiral of anger and grief, which clearly turned to rage and hatred. He was angrier than Adrian had ever seen and bloodthirsty as well. Not the kind that could be sated by animal blood, the kind that would result in war.
Adrian tried to reason with his father, that it was something Lisa wouldn’t have wanted. She would have hated the idea of her husband waging war on humanity but no amount of reasoning could stop the vampire lord. Dracula had become the monster everyone feared him to be, the one Adrian never believed existed. In one final attempt to stop his father from raising the night hordes from Hell, they fought. It ended, of course, with Dracula winning and dealing a devastating blow to Adrian.
A long deep gouge mark from left shoulder to right hip, spanning his chest. As Adrian retreated to a safe haven under Gresit, he thought about the flowers and the scars that caused them. He knew the wound would scar unlike any other wound he’d had before, but he would also need a vast amount of time for it to heal unless he wanted to hunt a human. Determined not to do that, Adrian chose to sleep in a coffin sealed away from Dracula’s reach. Just until he had healed, just until he was ready to try fighting his father again. As he went into slumber, he couldn’t help the bitter thought that he hated soulmate flowers and what they could do to a happy person. But a small part of him also wondered, what flowers bloomed upon his soulmate’s chests?
The sleeping soldier will be met by a hunter and a scholar