Chapter Text
Julia Belmont was about to die.
On her back in the hard cobblestone street, her left arm trapped beneath Olrox’s tail, she understood it clearly. Her ice shield wouldn't hold, and Olrox was just waiting for his revenge, and when it broke…
This was her mistake. Really. She believed she’d have more time before Olrox would find her, that she could at least get Richter on the ship before…
Yet, like too many other things in Julia’s life, she had been wrong.
Wrong in believing her father was invincible… wrong in believing her mother would always come home… wrong in believing that love was something she could have and hold, and that Richter's father would not be cruelly ripped away by fate, that which seemed to get to all the Belmonts in the end…
Wrong to murder a Mohican freedom fighter turned vampire, who had certainly been a better man than his lover. And wrong to believe that she’d have enough time…
In the end, Richter wasn’t just going to lose his mother, like she had. He was going to see her die. Here. Now.
She just wanted Richter to understand that it wasn't his fault. That by trying to help, he hadn't doomed her. That it was her burden to carry, her blow to take. Her own fault, her own blame…
“Richter,” Julia breathed out, gasping, her breath coming hard from the pain in her arm and the dizzying effort of maintaining her shield of ice against Olrox’s power. “I'm so sorry.”
Her shield shattered against the force of Olrox's lightning. She saw the golden spear of the dragon’s tail arc down towards her heart, a golden blur, and then…
Something like a whip's crack -- but bigger, faster, without the faint ozone smell of consecrated leather -- swept Olrox from the air, and the vampire's serpent form smashed into the nearby building.
Even injured and exhausted, Julia moved quickly, scrambling to protect Richter, stumbling upright from pure adrenaline and pushing him behind the few nearby crates. He gave a little cry of surprise, perhaps half fear, but not because she'd been too rough. Because across the street, the figure fighting Olrox was…
A figure in a gold and black coat, wielding a longsword with flowing white hair. Having recovered from the initial blow, the dragon righted itself, staring at the interloper. Though she had never met this particular dhampir… She knew the legend. All Belmonts did.
It was really… him?
“Olrox!” Alucard exclaimed, his voice deep and commanding and the kind that would make even the most powerful vampire take a step back. “Enough. Leave now, and perhaps I won't kill you where you stand.”
In a plume of dark smoke, Olrox returned to his humanoid form, looking almost… amused? Or perhaps just hiding his irritation, at this turn of events.
“Alucard.” He hissed, fangs glinting in the moonlight. “You have no cause to be here.”
“They are Belmonts. I have every cause.” Alucard stood his ground… Olrox, at least, did not continue to fight. He merely gave a quiet, bitter chuckle.
“If Julia Belmont was worthy of your protection, I wouldn't need to be here.”
That day, again. Julia with a bloodied dagger in the growing daylight. Olrox with his lover’s body in his arms. Glowing serpentine eyes like she’d never seen from any vampire.
(“Mark my words now, Julia Belmont. You will die for this.”)
“Perhaps.” The sword floating by the dhampir’s hand snapped up, pointing to the other vampire's heart. “But you. Will not. Touch her. Nor the boy. Not tonight.”
“It would take more than an enchanted blade to kill me.” Olrox regarded the blade with little interest. Much like he did with everything else. “It would take more than Julia Belmont has in her. Maybe even more than the son of Dracula could bring to bear.”
Olrox gave something almost akin to a fanged smirk, before stepping around to stare directly at Julia with those same cold, slitted green eyes that had prompted her to pack everything, pen a letter to Tera and then go. To know that Richter could no longer be safe with her…
“You have been saved tonight, Julia Belmont. But someday…” He turned to smoke, and as his voice disappeared into the dark, she heard him still, “Someday I will take your life. And maybe even the boy’s.”
Then the night fell once again quiet, save for the chaos of fireworks at the harbor.
“...M…Mama?” Richter mumbled nervously from behind her. How close she had brought them both to death… how foolish was she, to… to die like her own mother… to leave her child bereft…
“It's alright, my darling.” Julia replied, keeping Richter safely behind her as she swept a hunter's eyes over the street. “You’re safe.”
“For the moment.” Alucard replied.
She had, somehow, expected him -- the son of Dracula, the mythical dhampir who was said to aid Belmonts, on occasion, throughout the generations -- to vanish into the night, in turn. But he was still there when she blinked; in another moment, he was in front of them, looking at Julia's twisted left arm with no small amount of worry.
“How bad is it?” He asked, and he at least sounded genuine. She hadn't thought… he would seem so human. Except for the white hair, he could, perhaps, pass entirely for a human. Perhaps her father's ramblings hadn't all been nonsense, after all.
“It's broken.” Olrox’s tail had twisted her arm and likely cracked it around the middle of the humerus. Though it was too early to tell if it was a clean break or shattered. “Thank you for your assistance, but… Richter is due on a ship to France. I must…” Julia picked up the fallen Vampire Killer whip from the cobblestones and winced as she jostled her arm. Foolish of her to lose the whip, but it wouldn’t have mattered. Richter’s safety had been more important, and the Killer wouldn’t have done her much good with how she was pinned, anyway.
“You surely know that Olrox is a dangerous opponent. If you remain in America… even if you heal, you may not win.” Julia fought the desire to glare at Alucard’s entirely valid point.
“All that matters is that Richter is safe.”
“No! I'm not letting you… send me away when you're in danger!” Richter exclaimed, tugging at her uninjured arm.
“Richter -- “ Her son, so brave and bold and…
“If I may offer my opinion?” Alucard spoke up, looking at them both. “You would both be much safer with me in Romania. In Belmont.”
The fabled village of Belmont, named after, of course, Trevor Belmont… Julia almost couldn't believe it. But perhaps the shock was just the pain going to her head.
“...why? We've never even met. Why should you -- “
“I know your father fairly well. Perhaps as a favor to him…” He sighed. That was clearly not the true reason. “I'm tired of Belmonts dying. Please. Allow me to help.”
Allow me, his golden eyes seemed to plead, to save you.
Well. Julia had never needed to be saved. She’d made that well and clear to her parents, to her father so many times over, even to Tera. But…
As long as Richter was safe... and the safest thing for Richter was probably to go with Alucard.
And the best thing for Richter?
The best thing for her son was to have his mother safe and alive.
“Alucard himself coming to save me…” Julia muttered. “Ridiculous.”
“Utterly.” Alucard quipped, with an actual smile. Though only a small one.
“I'm… we'll go. But my arm needs…” She gestured vaguely to her arm. Alucard nodded understandingly.
“I can treat that for you. Come.” He gestured for mother and son to follow. Of course, in so many centuries, he would be a trained medic… So, with Richter holding tightly to her uninjured hand, and her left arm pressed over her torso in the only position that wasn't unbearably painful… they followed.
Was she so certain Richter wouldn't be safer with Tera? Enough to take this risk? Romania… her family's ancestral land, of which she knew nothing.
Yet, France meant vampires. She knew from growing up that even the countryside was plagued with them... And Juste Belmont.
Besides, once Olrox had killed her, he could very well just find Richter there. Tera, as strong as she was, would be no match… And she doubted Juste would even try. A terrible thought that she pushes away -- of course he would try, Richter was his grandson -- but Julia still remembered how she cried and screamed for him to do anything, to just say anything, after that night when her mother and her uncle died, and how he looked back at her with cold, empty eyes, and…
No. She isn’t sure any Belmont would be enough.
At least not while Richter is young.
However… Alucard would be a sufficient deterrent. From any vampire, not just Olrox. Perhaps even a teacher.
"But what Belmont boy has ever grown up in safety?" Her father used to say.
Hmm.
Perhaps Richter could be the first.
Or, at the very least, he'd have his mother to instruct him... And even the great son of Dracula.
Julia allows herself to think, for the first time since her dagger found the heart of the very first vampire she had slain that did not deserve it, that everything might be alright.
If only for a little while.
This work was heavily inspired by soldier and prince by nevermore_evermore! their story is SO much better than mine lol, please go read it it's actually amazing