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Disclaimer: I don’t own Castlevania
Trevor and Sypha were leaving the Judge’s house when the sight of a naked woman taking clothes left out to dry by now dead residents stopped them. The woman hadn’t noticed them and the two were too stunned to say anything. The woman grabbed her bundle and ran back towards the remains of the church. “Did that just happen?” Trevor asked, scratching his head. A thought suddenly occurred to him; that woman looked familiar. He turned to Sypha, alarmed. “You don’t think…” He trailed off.
Sypha nodded, having reached the same conclusion. “We better investigate this.” The two followed to woman at a distance and peered in one of the broken windows. The scene in front of them stunned the shaken duo further.
Inside of the ruins was an equally naked Dracula hiding from the early morning sun. His wife approached him with the bundle of clothes and handed him some. “This is what I could find. You’re too tall,” she complained.
Dracula hmmed and lifted the pants and held them against himself and frowned. “It will have to do,” he sighed and pulled them on.
“So pleased you approve,” Lisa deadpanned and pulled on her dress. Dracula ignored the barb and pulled on the shirt and boots. “What are we going to do? We should find where Adrian is at the very least.” He paused in lacing the boots and refused to look up from the floor. Lisa gave her husband a sympathetic look and wrapped her arms around him. “I know what you told me. I know you are ashamed of what you did to him but he is still your son. This won’t get better if you avoid it.”
Dracula finally looked up from the floor and wiped the blood tears from his eyes. “You are right. He deserves to know.”
Lisa kissed him on the cheek and returned to putting on her own shoes. “We’ll have to make out way to the castle to try and find him. Where is it?”
The vampire pulled on the cloak and shook his head. “I don’t know. It had been pulled somewhere against my wishes. I did not have a chance to find out where it was moved to.”
Lisa stared at her husband in shock. “That is impressive and unfortunate. Maybe the next town will have heard something.”
“That won’t be necessary,” he replied and looked directly at Trevor and Sypha.
“Well, shit,” Trevor cursed and unravelled the Morning Star. Sypha readied herself to cast fire magic.
Lisa stared at them in stunned silence before movement beside her caught her attention. Dracula was approaching the two. “Vlad, no!” She grabbed his arm and pulled him back. Trevor was dumbfounded as he watched Dracula allowing himself to be held back. “Who are you?”
“They helped Adrian kill me,” Dracula answered.
Lisa looked at them hopefully. “Is Adrian with you?”
The Magician shook her head. “No, Alucard isn’t with us.”
“Oh,” she sighed sadly.
The Speaker glanced at Trevor who had yet to put the Morning Star away or take his eyes off Dracula. The Vampire had also yet to take his eyes off Trevor but didn’t move towards them. “We know where he is though.”
That caught the Hunter’s attention. “What? Don’t tell me you’re thinking what I think you’re thinking,” he growled.
“They’re his parents,” Sypha argued.
“And one of them not only tried to kill Alucard but all of humanity!” Trevor disagreed. Dracula flinched at his actions against his son and Lisa petted his arm.
“He still deserved to know his parents are alive.” Sypha frowned and folded her arms across her chest.
Trevor sighed. “There’s no talking you out of this, is there?” He asked. Sypha smiled and shook her head. The Hunter let out an irritated sigh and wrapped the Morning Star back up. “I’ll go get the wagon for the genocidal maniac and his wife.” The Speaker smiled triumphantly.
It was weeks of awkward silence or even more awkward conversations with Trevor never missing an opportunity to remind everyone that Dracula tried to end humanity and take any other opportunity he could to proverbially poke the bear. Sypha and Lisa were busy keeping the two men from trying to kill each other.
It was a relief when the castle came into view but the relief was short lived. As they approached the sealed doors, Dracula frowned. “I smell death.”
“You would know the smell well,” Trevor commented and shoved at the doors to try to get them to budge.
“Trevor!” Sypha hissed.
“Is it Adrian?” Lisa asked worriedly.
Dracula shook his head. “I can’t tell from out here.” He walked up to the doors and knocked twice and the doors groaned open. The smell of death became more powerful to the vampire. It was old though but there was the newer scent of blood. He frowned and started following the scent. The trio of humans followed silently, unnerved that there was no sign of the dhampir.
The stench grew powerful enough for the humans to smell. They stopped in front of a room swarming with flies. A flick of Dracula’s hand and all of the flies to burn to a crisp. With the flies out of the way, the two rotten, fly eaten bodies could easily be seen along with the man bound to the bed.
“Adrian!” Dracula rushed over and tried to pull the bonds off even after the silver began to burn his hands but the bonds refused to budge. Lisa gasped when she saw the state of her son.
The half-vampire was paler than usual and significantly thinner than the last time Trevor and Sypha had seen him. The silver had dug into his body and had burned the surrounding flesh black. By the fortune of his heritage, the flies and maggots had left him alone. Vampire flesh was apparently unappetizing to the pests. His lips were cracked and too dry to cover his fangs, making them appear larger than they actually were. His eyes were half open but it was clear that he wasn’t looking at anything.
Trevor cursed when he saw and pulled the bracelets off. The bonds immediately retracted, tearing the necrotic wounds further and fresh blood to stain the mattress beneath him. Lisa gently took a wrist and tried to find a pulse. She looked alarmed at Dracula. “I can’t find a pulse.”
The vampire was quiet as he listened for a sound from his son. Everyone held their breath as he listened. Finally, he nodded. “He’s alive. He’s in torpor.”
Trevor nodded. “Like he was after the first time you tried to kill him.”
Sypha smacked him. “Now is not the time!” She scolded.
Lisa nodded and stroked her son’s hand but kept away from the terrible burns on his wrist. She gave herself a moment to let her fear for her son to paralyze her before pushing it down and becoming a doctor. She turned to her husband. “Would blood help him?” She asked.
Dracula nodded. “It should help him heal and buy time for food and water. There should be bottles of blood in the cellar. I doubt Adrian would have been interested in them.”
His wife nodded. “Get one of the bottles and three pairs of scissors. We’ll have to cut the dead flesh off before the wounds can start healing. Trevor, come with me, we have to find bandages and you’re going to help me carry healing poultices. Sypha, stay here and watch Adrian in case he wakes up or gets worse.” Everyone nodded and moved to follow the doctor’s orders.
Sypha pulled a chair over and let tears fall freely for her injured friend, wishing she knew more healing magic and regretting leaving him behind. “Ph, Alucard, I’m so sorry.” She squeezed his hand and nearly jumped when the hand weakly twitched. The Magician looked at Alucard’s face in time to see him blink. Pain glazed eyes slid over to her and a tired wheeze escaped him. Sypha shushed him. “Easy, Alucard, help is coming. Save your strength,” she comforted. The dhampir’s eyes closed and the hand went limp. Everyone returned with the needed supplies. “He woke up briefly,” Sypha informed.
Lisa nodded. “Trevor, deal with the bodies, please. Vlad, Sypha, help me cut the dead flesh off. After we’ll clean him and move him to a different room.”
The Hunter wrapped the bodies in a blanket and lugged them out; grumbling all the way.
Lisa picked up a bottle of medicine. “Vlad, lift Adrian so I can give him some pain medicine. He’s asleep now but may not be when we start.” The vampire gently lifted his son and supported his head while his wife slowly poured the pain medicine into his mouth and whispering encouraging words when he swallowed. Once it was all gone, Dracula tenderly laid him back down and all three of them began cutting.
Lisa was right in her worries that her son might wake up. The moment they started moving his arms and legs, he woke up and on pure adrenaline started to fight. He let out a hoarse yell and half understood pleas that broke their hearts. Sypha set her scissors down and got into Alucard’s field of vision to try and calm him. “It’s okay, you’re safe,” she tried to soothe.
“Didn’t lie!” He rasped and tried to kick his mother away but her husband caught the leg before it connected. He was rapidly losing strength.
“Of course, you didn’t,” she consoled, “you’ve never lied to us.” This seemed to cause the dhampir pause.
He stared at her with glassy, glazed eyes. “I never lied,” he repeated but it was weaker, less desperate. Vlad shifted his leg to get at more dead flesh and panic returned. “No! Don’t touch me!” He tried to struggle again but lacked the strength to do more than weakly pull.
“It’s okay, we’re helping you. You’re injured. I’m your friend. You can trust me,” Sypha spoke calmly.
Alucard shook his head. “No! Going to hurt me! Don’t touch me!”
“No one will hurt you.” She stroked his hair to try to comfort him. Whatever he was seeing kept him fighting until he was too exhausted to fight and fell unconscious once more. The three finished in silence.
Trevor returned shortly after they finished and saw the haunted faces. “What happened?”
“Alucard woke up and started fighting and begging us not to touch him,” Sypha explained, “he didn’t stop until he couldn’t stay awake any more.”
Putting more pieces together, Trevor paled at his theory. Sypha was about to ask him but he shook his head. “Not now.” He looked over at Lisa. “What’s next?”
“We need to get him clean. Vlad, carry him to the bathroom and we’ll wash him and then dress his wounds,” Lisa instructed. Dracula picked up his son like he was made of glass.
He was carried to the nearest bathroom and Sypha and Trevor marvelled at the running water. His father held Adrian near the tub while Lisa and the Speaker cleaned him with rapidly dirtying cloths. Trevor stood awkwardly by the door holding the bottle of blood, bandages, and healing poultices.
A cleaner room had been found and a dried Adrian was laid on the bed and the poultice was rubbed over the now cleaned burns and wrapped them. Once the half vampire was bandaged, his father propped him up again and the blood was eased into his mouth. Adrian drank it greedily until the bottle was pulled away. He was placed back in the bed and finally looked like he was more than a desiccated corpse.
“They’re…well made,” Sypha offered once the dolls in the dining room were discovered.
“They’re creepy,” the Hunter added. Trevor was getting an even clearer picture of what happened. Contrary to popular belief, he wasn’t stupid.
“Let’s…leave them be for now. We have other issues to discuss,” Lisa suggested.
Sypha nodded and sat at the table. “What were you thinking about earlier?” She asked Trevor.
Trevor plopped himself in a seat and sighed tiredly. “I’m not drunk enough for this,” he complained.
“Unfortunately, you’ll live,” Dracula commented and took a seat at the head of the table, pointedly ignoring the dolls.
“Not now, Vlad,” Lisa admonished and sat down as well. “Now, please, Trevor. What’s on your mind?”
“I have an idea on what happened to Alucard,” the Hutner started. “Those two bodies had their throats slashed. It was hard to tell but the blade cut through the bone.” He pulled the bracelets out and threw them onto the table. “These are from the Belmont Hold. They were for interrogating vampires. They’re put on the vampire and the bonds bind the vampire. As we saw. Problem with them is that vampires don’t hold still while you’re trying to put them on. The vampire has to already be subdued or distracted to be useful. Those bodies and Alucard were naked.”
“The clothes could have rotted off,” Sypha offered weakly, not liking where this was going.
“They were crumpled on the floor by the bed. No one was wearing clothes,” the Hunter answered.
Lisa reached the same conclusion as Trevor first. “Oh, God. They assaulted Adrian and while he was distracted, they used those on him.”
Vlad glared harshly at the bracelets. “Then Adrian killed them in self defense.”
“Why didn’t the bracelets let go after the two were killed?” Sypha asked.
The Hunter shook his head. “They only let go when they’re being taken off by a human.”
“Then he was stuck there until someone came along to free him,” Sypha wiped her eyes. A thought struck her. “Wait, how could they assault Alucard? Two, I’m assuming, humans can’t hold him down.”
Trevor nodded towards the dolls. “He was lonely and something tells me they came saying they were friends.”
Dracula was silent as his hatred for the two bodies grew. He wanted to hate all humans but that would mean hating his wife and half of his son and he would never go back down that path. He stood up abruptly, excused himself, and left the room. No one stopped him.
He returned to the room his son was resting in and pulled a chair over to the bed. He sat and rested his chin in his hands, watching his chest rise and fall. He angrily wiped his eyes but didn’t look away from his son. As some point Lisa joined him and sat with her husband in shared miserable silence.
Trevor and Spyha still sat at the table and stared at the grain of the table. Finally, the Speaker spoke up. “We made a mistake leaving, didn’t we?”
The Hunter nodded. “Yeah.”
“We didn’t do anything to save that town or stop Dracula from coming back and we let out friend get tricked and nearly killed.”
“Yeah.”
Trevor woke up late the next afternoon. Beside him Sypha was still asleep. Unsurprisingly so. No one had fallen asleep easily the day before. The Hunter had only been asleep since the sun had started to rise. Unsure what had roused him, he slid from Sypha’s embrace and walked the halls. He stopped outside Alucard’s room when he heard a voice inside. He opened the door to see Dracula sitting in the darkened room with a book open in his lap. “In or out, Belmont, but pick one,” he commanded.
The Hunter entered the room and stood at the foot of the bed. “What are you doing up?” He folded his arms across his chest.
“Reading. It seems to help calm Adrian,” Vlad answered and turned his attention back to the ancient pages and began speaking in a foreign language.
Unwilling to leave but unwilling to stay in silence either, Trevor asked the powerful vampire a question. “What are you reading?”
Vlad gave an irritated sigh and glared at the Hunter. “Aesop’s Fables. It was Adrian’s favourite growing up,” he answered shortly.
“Never heard of it,” he replied, ignoring the irritation the vampire was radiating.
“They’re stories with morals written centuries ago,” the vampire replied agitated. They were spared further conversation by the dhampir shifting and muttering. “Adrian?” Vlad stood up and watched his son.
Everything hurt. Which was nothing new. Every time he woke was filled with pain. This pain was different. It didn’t burn, it was more of a sting. There was no stench of rotting bodies. This confused the half vampire further. Finally deciding to open his eyes, he was greeted by the sight of his father standing over him. Past overlapped with present and the elder no longer had a face of concern but one of vicious anger. He let out a hoarse shout and leapt from the bed. He landed on his feet, ready to dodge his father, but collapsed in a heap instead. Trevor reached Alucard first and reached out to help the man up. He didn’t see his friend coming to help him but Taka reaching for him with murderous intent. “No!” He yelled and pushed himself back. The Hunter paused but knew his friend needed help.
“Alucard, it’s me, Trevor. I’m not going to hurt you,” he soothed.
The half vampire was clearly not listening and panic in his eyes grew. The two had little warning as Adrian gathered his strength and transformed into a swarm of bats and fled out the door. Vlad cursed, transformed into bats as well, and gave chase. Trevor swore and ran after the two, trying to keep up. Along the way he encountered an alarmed Lisa and Sypha. “What’s going on?” Lisa asked.
“Alucard woke up and flew off,” Trevor explained as he ran past. The two women joined him and eventually caught up with Adrian and Vlad.
Adrian was back in his usual form, panting heavily from the exertion. At some point he had summoned his sword and it hovered in front of him. Vlad had shifted back as well and had his hands up and was talking lowly to his son. Wild eyes flew from his father to the three humans approaching. The Speaker stopped a way away and kept Lisa and the Hutner from getting close when it was clear the dhampir was getting more agitated. Vlad continued to talk low and eventually the sword clattered to the ground. Lisa stepped forward slowly and stopped beside her husband. Adrian shook his head. “No, you’re not here. You’re not real.” His body shook from physical and emotional stress.
“We won’t hurt you. You need to rest. We will explain everything when you’re better,” Lisa tried, “your father and I are here. Your friends, Trevor and Sypha, are here. Let us help you.”
“I don’t want to be alone,” Adrian pled.
“You’re not.” Spyha approached slowly and stopped when he tensed. “We’re all here to help you. You are not alone.”
Adrian started drooping and Vlad shot forward and caught him before the half vampire hit the ground. Dracula scooped his son up and Adrian buried his face in his father’s shirt, letting tears fall. “I killed you.”
Vlad’s undead heart shattered and held his son closer. “Rest, my son.” He sounded suspiciously close to begging.
Adrian didn’t fall asleep like his father wished but didn’t struggle any more. No one knew if it was from exhaustion or acceptance to what would happen. He was taken back to the room and the bandages were changed since the wounds had been torn open. Sypha kept up a string of one-sided conversation to help keep her friend calm. Adrian as laid back down and no one was willing to leave right away.
Adrian woke up late in the night and was surprised to find himself in a different bed and unbound. He lifted his hand to his face to prove this to himself. The bandages were a further surprise. He heard someone snuffle and looked over the side of the bed to see Trevor and Sypha asleep on the floor next to him. “They’re actually here,” he murmured, “or I’m still dreaming.” He thought for a second. “No, I’m too sore to be sleeping.” The dhampir heard someone snort softly and looked over to the other side and saw his parents sleeping in a chair beside the bed. “No, I’m dreaming,” he concluded and sat up fully. He grunted with the effort which woke the dozing vampire.
“Do not undo your mother’s work again,” his father advised.
Adrian blinked owlishly at him. His mouth opened and closed several times before words worked. “Am I dreaming?”
His father shook his head. “No, my son, you’re awake. It’s a long story but your mother and I have returned from the dead.”
“That must be quite the story,” Adrian commented awkwardly.
Vlad’s expression fell. “I’m sorry for what you were forced to do and I am so proud of you.” Adrian teared up and took his father’s offered hand. “With you and your mother’s help, I will get better.”