purple_shad@hotmail.com
December 1998

After tucking Maria into bed, Alucard sat for a while, thinking. He had just fed, but he was weary. Not just tired, but he was feeling particularly old as well. He was disgusted with himself as he watched Maria sleeping soundly beside him. Here he was, a being centuries old with a mere human who had only lived as long as a fraction of his life. Pedophilia at an extreme, to be sure, but that wasn’t what really bothered him. What haunted him was what he had just done. Richter was right, he was a monster. This was the sort of thing he had put himself to sleep to prevent, the sort of thing Maria had promised to help him prevent. Yet he could have killed her tonight, drained her dry, and this knowledge tormented him far more than any physical torture could have.

 Something broke inside. A single blood-saturated tear escaped his eye. Had he been a normal man, Alucard would have curled into a ball and sobbed like a child, but such liberty was not his to act upon. All that he could manage now was this one tear that began to trickle down his cheek, leaving a pink trail behind it. He could have been a statue, features still hard set with barely a trace of sadness in his expression. He sat, staring without seeing, beside the woman he loved too much for his own good.

 Annette was at the door watching, but Maria’s soft, steady breathing was mesmerizing him. A few more moments passed before he wiped the tear away and looked up, meeting Annette’s gaze squarely. Maria’s sister continued to watch him, but a vampire’s stare is not an easy thing to behold for very long (especially if he doesn’t want you to); she averted her eyes in defeat, and took a step back into the hallway. He stood up and crossed the room in one fluid motion.

 “You have the ointment for her neck?” Alucard stated rather than asked, nodding to the small vial Annette held in her hands.

 “Yes,” said she, but she did not offer it to him immediately. Instead she looked at him with a kind of wonder in her eyes. Then, “Do not feel so badly, Adrian. She may be a love-struck girl, but Maria was no fool when she offered herself to you.”

 He seemed to wrap the shadows of the hallway around himself as she watched him intently.
“She said that she trusted me, that she loved me. I wonder if she would have said the same had I killed her.” He deep tone held no emotion.

 “She knew you would not. She can see beyond your doubting. In fact, she has more confidence in you than you have in yourself.” Annette saw a change flash briefly across his expression. He flinched, she realized.

 “. . . .Thank you,” he said, taking the vial she held before him. Something behind his words hinted that he wasn’t just thanking her for the ointment. He half-turned back into the room and then stopped, eyeing her carefully. “You are becoming very perceptive, Annette,” he said slowly. She reddened under his critical stare, but remained silent. He continued studying her as he spoke, “Maria is much like you, as much as she may dislike to hear it,” he gave her a wry smile. “Perhaps you are both maturing... But. . .” He paused, and cocked an eyebrow at her. “You have conceived?”

 Annette reddened even further “I have,” she said softly.
“Does Richter know?” Alucard turned back to face her fully again.
“Not yet,” she grinned sheepishly, eyes shining with the secret.
“Then I never knew,” said he, shaking his head and looking down kindly at her. Her smile widened, and she nodded.

A couple of weeks later, Alucard woke up suddenly in the middle of the night. His eyes shot open, focusing in the darkness like no day creature’s could. Something was amiss, he could practically smell it. A scent of tension hung in the cool night air. It was building into a crescendo. The muscles in his body contracted and he had to fight down the vampiric rage which had begun to rise in proportion to the mounting feeling of danger.

“Maria!” he hissed, shoving the girl from him and pulling his arm from underneath her head. “Wake up!”
Slowly coming to her senses -Too slowly, he thought- Maria, like a blind pup, groped feebly for him. She latched onto his arm while he snatched up his sword and scabbard from under the bed with his free hand.

 “Come on, girl,” he said almost irritably, not so much because of her but because of imminent trouble. He nearly picked her up and threw her over his shoulder with one arm as he began to move towards the door.

 Alucard was in the doorway when a ball of darkness crashed through the window and into the room taking out part of the wall with it. The creature landed right on the bed with a shower of wood splinters and shards of glass. It shook itself once and coiled, ready to launch itself in attack. For an instant, Alucard glanced back and beheld the creature: something like a cross between a bat and an ape, its eyes and teeth gleaming eerily in the non-light. In a fraction of a second he made a decision while two more of its kind flew in as the first creature leaped from the bed right for the demi-vampire.

It shrieked as Alucard sidestepped it and, with lightning reflexes, batted its head with his still-sheathed blade. The hit had little effect on the demon while it got back up to attack again, but by now the dhampire had managed to unsheathe his sword, Maria still slung over his shoulder. She was pretty much awake now, trying to get a better grip on her lover while the second demon’s head rolled on the floor leaving a streak of greenish-oozing blood behind it. There was little time to admire his handiwork though, as the two remaining demons were working together attaking Alucard. Demon limbs and blood flew as he tried slashing his way through them, but they were quicker than he had expected. They managed to slash his sword arm and back, missing Maria by inches. He staggered for a moment.

 Maria thought quickly. She yanked the cross from around her neck and threw it to the floor with a blinding flash of light. The demons screeched and halted their attack briefly. Alucard, also blinded by the light, shut his eyes and let the rest of his senses guide his sword to kill the creatures in two quick hits.

 The room darkened and was silent again. Alucard exhaled a tremulous breath.
“You’re hurt,” said Maria, sliding down to stand on her own feet on the slimy floor boards.
“It is nothing. . .” He ran his hand absently down her back, more to calm himself than to comfort her.
“That’s definitely more than ‘nothing’.”
In the moonlight filtering in though the broken wall she could see torn shreds of his sleeve and skin soaking into the blood of two horrendous tears on his forearm. The gaping wounds looked even odder because of his pale flesh. However, his blood was a deep red, like any human’s, and it ran down over his hand flecked with green ooze from the demons. A trickle made its way down the edge of the sword, which seemed to glow a cold blue.

 “No, don’t touch it,” Alucard said, moving between Maria and his injured arm. “Let’s go.” Giving her no chance to protest, he swept her up with his good arm and dashed out the door and down the hall.

 “What are they doing here?” Maria asked as he made his way outside.
“I don’t know, but this is not --”
A high-pitched scream of terror cut him off. He looked at Maria.
“Annette!” The name was pulled from her lips by the speed at which Alucard moved. Around the side of the Belmont house he sped. Annette’s scream had only lasted a moment, but now they could hear Richter’s battle cries.

 Rounding the corner they could see the slayer cracking his whip at more of the ape-bats. There were at least a dozen or so; very poor odds, yet Richter didn’t seem the least bit disturbed by the number. Annette cowered in the doorway of the house. Maria let go of Alucard and ran to her sister.

 Alucard was about to say something when a demon detached itself from the throng and rushed at him. He drove his sword right through the monster’s mid-section, but the thing kept flailing at him, making an even bigger mess of his arm which had only begun to heal itself. Forcing down a cry of pain, the dhampire pulled his sword back out and slid back a step to kneel and hack at the creature’s legs. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Maria and Annette squeeze back into the house. None of the demons seemed to notice them.

Leaving behind a pile of black monkey-bat and green slime, Alucard charged at the demons that surrounded Richter. He dived into the fray, scattering the monsters just long enough for him to reach the Belmont. He received a somewhat relieved look from the slayer as he began fighting. As they stood back to back, the demons converged on the two heroes, took a couple of swipes then bounded back again only to renew their attack.

 “What are they doing here?” Richter managed to yell over his shoulder in between lashing out with his whip.
Alucard just shook his head. “These things certainly did not show up randomly, so they must be after something.” The demi-vampire assumed it was him they were after so why attack the Belmont in greater numbers? It didn't really matter, maybe they weren't after the dhampire after all. But something was wrong. They weren’t attacking in full force all at once; they weren‘t attacking to kill... They’re distracting us! he realized too late. To confirm his thought, a loud crash followed by Maria’s piercing scream ripped through the air. Alucard turned to see a massive gargoyle tearing down the back wall of the house and lifting Maria up with its claws. This inattentive moment landed the dhampire a stinging gash on his side. In his rage to reach the gargoyle, Alucard gave his sword one last swing, taking off a demon’s head in a spurt of blood, and transformed into poisonous mist, killing the majority of those that were left. Even Richter started coughing.

From mist to unusually large bat, Alucard transformed but the gargoyle already had its prize, a yelling blonde maiden. It launched itself into the air and flew up with amazing strength sending down gushing currents of air that the Alucard-bat could barely stay aloft against.

 “Adrian!!” Maria’s dwindling cry could be heard from the clutches of the speeding gargoyle. Alucard in bat form screamed horribly, but for all his vampiric abilities he could not catch up to the winged demon. The distance between them rapidly became greater and soon all sight of Maria was lost.

Silence reigned as Alucard glided heavily toward ground again. He circled dizzyingly back towards the Belmont home, unfit to fly so hard while injured and weakened. A few metres above ground he dropped.

 He lay there a while in human form again, writhing in agony. He clutched his sides and curled on his side in a fetal position, biting back an inhuman shriek. Gods, it hurt! It was like pulling all the muscles in his body at once, because he was out of shape. Rather that he hadn’t been in any other shape for at least a month, so now his physical form was reacting violently to the transformations. He was also sorely injured.

 “Adrian!” It was Annette. She ran up to him, Richter following slowly with a slight limp. She called his name again, but he could barely focus on her voice, his eyes glowing dangerously.

 “Annette,” it was Richter now, “don’t touch him!” She looked at her husband. “His epilepsy will subside, but for now, leave him be,” Richter said softly.

 Subside it did, for Alucard was now motionless, his eyes losing their frightening glow. They remained open though, and blank was his stare. Annette knelt in the grass beside him slowly, and waited. The dhampire looked like a rag-doll, a very bloody one. However, she could not find the source of the blood except for a dribble on his chin where he had bitten his own lip.

 He got up then without warning, startling her to sit back on the ground. He flexed his right arm, examining his forearm. All trace of his wound was now gone except for two faint long pink scars on his albino flesh. Even that seemed to be disappearing before Annette’s eyes.

 “Are you all right?” she asked somewhat stunned.
“Quite,” he said brusquely. Reaching for his naked blade, shich lay closeby, he stood up and dashed back to the Belmont house.

 By the time Annette and Richter reached the house again, Alucard had already re-emerged and was prepared to give chase. He now wore his traditional long coat and flowing black and red cape. The only difference in his old outfit was the lack of a vest under his overcoat. Now, he simply wore a clean white shirt, having shed the dirty and torn one while gathering his things. Alucard’s sword hung at his side snugly fit back into its scabbard by his belt.

 The dhampire could see a question forming upon Richter’s face, and he shook his head.
“I must leave tonight, there is not time to explain,” he said quickly.

 “Who...?” the Belmont asked as Alucard brushed past him. The vampire bastard stopped, a frown etching into his hard expression, but he remained silent. “I’ll go with you,” Richter declared.

 “No!” Alucard replied sharply, turning to face the Belmont. “You must stay here with your wife and child.”
Richter was quite taken aback. “Child. . .?” He looked at Annette, so did Alucard.
“You didn’t tell him yet?”
Annette looked sheepish. Alucard gave a slight nod in her direction then turned on his heel and disappeared into the night, leaving the couple to embrace each other.

Alucard ran; he never ran. He transformed now, with barely a thought. There was pain still, but he could ignore it, changing into a large bat again. A faint screech reached him from behind, he slowed his ridiculous pace as his bat familiar flew up beside him. The bat’s cluttered thoughts managed to reach him through his barrier of concentration. She was happy to be flying with him again; one month had seemed a very long time to be out of action. He had expected as much from his overprotective companion, but he soon heard another screech which was not a bat’s. He was surprised as Maria’s snow owl came gliding up beside him, hooting its fear. Alucard gave a slight snarl.

This is ridiculous, he thought, I’m leading a menagerie into battle. Then his mood lightened a bit, at least the little owl was loyal enough to trust him, a natural enemy in any form. All right, he thought, Let’s go.
The owl, who had seen the direction Maria had been taken, hooted hopefully as she flapped her wings a little faster, taking the lead.