Wolves

Disclaimer: Castlevania belongs to konami not me. I am making £0.00 out of this fic, it is written purely because I have a burning need to create. Although I would like to own Alucard . . . then he’d be mine.

Rating: PG-13

Part: one of one

Authoress note: just another little ditty I thought up to kill my writers block but I was ordered to put it up by a friend. I suppose this also sort of ties in with my fic ‘Life’ but you do not need to read ‘Life’ to understand this.

Italics = thoughts and flashbacks

~

If he stared hard enough he could make him out.

His father was midnight black in this form, completely invisible to the human eye when he hid in the darkness, but Adrian was not human and nor were his eyes. He watched from his vantage point of one of the tower roofs; watched the movement of his father as he bolted towards home. When he saw the great wolf leap across the moat the dunpeal leaned forwards and allowed himself to tumble gracelessly from the rooftop. He fell at amazing speeds, wind rushing and roaring around him; feeling his cape billow out behind him made him think of the wings he may some day possess. With a mental jolt he twisted in the air like a feline would when falling, and then also like a feline he landed on booted feet. He felt the ground beneath him take the force of his fall, felt it vibrate up his legs and watched as the paving cracked slightly. These controlled falls were the closest that the dunpeal could come to flying at the moment and it frustrated him, he longed for the feeling of the wind in his wings.

His father had explained to him one night a long time passed that over time his power would grow inside of him and one day it would be strong enough to change his very form, give him wings, give him paws and fur and even dissolve his form to a fine mist. Since he had first witnessed his father change his shape that first time he had yearned strongly for the ability to perform such change in himself. He had driven his father close to madness with his incessant nagging, when would he be strong enough? Would he ever be able to become more than wolf, bat or mist? When would it happen? Why was he not strong enough now? The previous night his father had broken under his words.

“Very well Adrian,” Vladimir sighed turning to look at his child from the tome he was reading, “tomorrow night when I return from the hunt I will teach you; now if you would kindly shut up.”

He had woken in the late afternoon, and cloaked from the sunlight by black cloth he had taken up his sentry, he had watched as his father fled the castle at sun down and now he had watched his return a few hours later. He turned on the spot looking around rapidly for the form of the wolf; it differed from the form of a werewolf, a were was always ridiculously sized, it was always large or strangely built, there were werewolves in the castle who walked like men but were wolves. His father however was no different to look at than any wild wolf a man would come across. He spotted his father shaking himself dry under a balcony; he called out and walked over to him. The ebony furred wolf seemed to sigh and it’s form became fuzzy for a second in his vision before it was replaced by that of a man.

Adrian had heard many of the descriptions of his father and to be honest none of them were correct, his father was not eight feet high and strongly muscled, with cruel red eyes that shone at night. Nor was he hideously deformed and part daemon. Vampires have no need for muscle; their strength is magic and comes from age. Nearly all vampires in existence are slim built and the vampire king is no different. Adrian distinctly remembers his mothers maid whispering about his father, comments that he needed a good wife to ‘fatten him up’ obviously this maid did not know the truth and her comments would usually stir a laugh from Lisa. Vladimir was also most defiantly not eight feet high, Adrian wasn’t sure about his true height, he’d never really found the urge to measure his father, but against other men Vladimir was usually very similar in height. He was also not hideous; Adrian smirked remembering a hunt of his own that had taken place a few nights ago,

“You!” the mortal man shrieked “you are the child of that hideous monster,”

“Good sir,” Adrian dipped his head slightly “my father is not hideous . . . can you not tell this by looking at me?”

Yet there was some truth to this exaggeration, vampire’s eyes are the window to the soul and to the emotions, the colour of a vampires eyes would reflect how said vampire was feeling and when Vladimir was hungry or angry his eyes were a reddish colour but not the glowing tinsel red the peasants described.

“You do realise waiting on the tower did not make me return faster,” Vladimir muttered as his child approached, Adrian smiled and nodded “can I sit down first?” Adrian shock his head “you would deny me a chair in my own house?” a nod in answer. Vladimir sighed, ever since Adrian was born he had know that this creature that was his son would be able to bend him around its little finger as easily as he broke mortal necks.

Sighing in defeat Vladimir motioned for his child to lead them to one of the halls and he followed, wondering briefly why he was doing this.

“What if I’m not . . . not strong enough?” Adrian spoke at last as they neared a hall.

“Really I should make you wait,” Vladimir rolled his eyes “but the prospect of another decade listening to you whine is not attractive so last night I sent for this to be made,” he handed his child a silver finger band. The ring was of a ruby set in silver and suited the dunpeal’s complexion; Adrian frowned at the trinket.

“What is this?” he asked looking at the ring as it sat comfortable on his long fingered hand.

“It is a ring Adrian,” Vladimir opened the door, “I have poured part of myself into it and its power will boost your own,” Adrian’s eyes became wide then slightly annoyed

“Why did you not give this to me before?” he snapped, but the anger fell away at his fathers glare,

“Because tools and trinkets are a curse as well as a blessing, if you rely to much on the rings I give you or the amulet around your throat what will happen to you if they are some day taken from you?” Adrian paused at his father’s words, the mental image of facing down a hunter without any help flashed in his mind ending with his destruction.

“But . . .” he tried to speak

“Use this ring now but try in future to disguarded it, lose it, destroy it, rely on your own power, that is something that is very difficult to take away,”

“But not impossible?” Adrian questioned, his father had said it was difficult but possible,

“It is possible to nullify certain powers of ours but it is very difficult for those who try,” Vladimir laughed at the worried expression on his Childs face, “but forget these fears for now . . . come I will have you on paws by morning and never have to hear you whine again,”

“I wasn’t whining,” Adrian breathed almost silently,

“Yes you were,” Vladimir laughed louder “like an aged mortal, little old woman,”

Adrian mumbled something unintelligible, but undeniably insulting; fortunately Vladimir chose to ignore it.

“Alright this is simple,” Vladimir began “I’ve taught you to reach into your power,” Adrian nodded and mentally reached inside of himself feeling for the raw unmistakable power that flowed in his veins, he touched it and shivered at the sensation. “Simply pull your power out and around you, shape it to fit the wolf, your body will change with it,” with that said Vladimir sat down, back against a column and closed his eyes.

Adrian sighed at his fathers gesture and closed his eyes, trying to mentally invasion the change, he reached out to the ring on his finger and pulled the power from the trinket adding it to his own, he pulled yet more power from the amulet around his throat and concentrated.

Nothing happened.

“This is ridiculous,” Adrian laughed after a few moments,

“If your not going to take it seriously I’ll leave,” Vladimir threatened but Adrian ignored it knowing that their was no weight to the threat. His father would rather spend the night with him than listen to him complain for the rest of his life.

Two more hours passed and no change occurred in the dunpeal who was now fast loosing patience with himself and his father.

“It’s not going to happen,” he snapped eventually.

“I could force the change,” Vladimir yawned from his sprawled position on the marble floor

“Force?” Adrian asked, he’d witnessed this before and was not to keen on the idea.

A few months ago a daemon had rebelled, it had locked itself in the northern wing of the castle and killed all who came near, it had ranted for days about taking the castle for its own. At first Dracula had done nothing but after a week it became apparent that the daemon was not about to repent any time soon so the vampire had approached it. Adrian had watched as his father spoke to the daemon for a few moments before reaching out and touching it. at first nothing happened, Adrian had frowned then the screaming began.

The fledgling’s skin had flowed, like thick lumpy water or like milk that has been left to long in heat; rippling and moving. Adrian had watched as the daemon began to fold in on itself. Bones sliding to the surface of skin along with muscles. Blood poured out from the daemon as it’s insides became its outsides; he swallowed when he saw the still beating heart of the fledgling rise to the surface. Stomach and intestines followed, wrapping themselves around the outside of the fledgling. The fledgling lost all body shape and became a writhing ball of flesh and still it screamed. The smell had hit him like a living force and nearly knocked him down; it had reminded him of dead mortals found in the woods in the summer. When he’d asked his father what he had done, his father had answered

“I made his shift his form; I forced a change when his body was not ready to accept one,”

The idea of a forced change did not make him happy.

“I think I’ll manage alone,” Adrian muttered his father frowned and Adrian felt warmth in his mind which signalled his father was reading his thoughts.

“You think I would turn my own child inside out?” Vladimir asked appalled, Adrian blinked at him “you fool Adrian; sometimes I really believe the humanity in you is a poison for your mind, either that or you were born simple.”

“Then what would you do?” Adrian asked angry at the insult

“Slip into your mind and trigger the change, I would not pull your skin off, what do you think I am?” Vladimir rolled his eyes and stared at his child for a few more moments. Eventually Adrian nodded and Vladimir reached into his child’s mind. He searched for a few seconds finding the trigger and flicked it.

Adrian felt the change instantly. It lasted seconds but it was seconds of hell. The first change is always hard he had heard from a wolf but this was impossible. His skin was bubbling, his bones reforming; his entire molecular structure was pulling itself apart only to pull itself together again. After a few seconds of searing agony, everything stopped, the lack of pain was almost worse than the pain itself.

Then the newly formed wolf that was Adrian shook its moonlit fur and padded out the door; followed by and ebony furred father.

The End

Authoress note: as said before this was wrote to kill my writers block, but I was told by a friend to put it up. I hope her judgement was right and I hope you all liked it. I apologise if it was OOC in anyway.

Please review.