Blood Relations:
Chapter 3


purple_shad@hotmail.com
March 1999


Maria slid into consciousness slowly, carefully. She kept her eyes shut, the rest of her senses falling into place, one by one. She could hear nothing, yet there was another presence nearby, not necessarily making any noise, but she could feel it nonetheless. Her bare arms felt some soft cushiony material pressed up against them and something smooth, hard, and curved. A chair, she realized. She felt the rest of her body was in an awkward position in the chair, as if she had fallen asleep in it. The air around her was warm and sweet smelling. All this disconcerted her. She had expected a cold stone floor in a cell maybe- or even a demon's roost- but this, this was too. . .

 "Comfortable, my dear?"

 Her head snapped up, her eyes wide open now. That voice, so smooth and deep, she would have thought it was Adrian's at first.
It wasn't.

Alucard strained through the thinning air of the Transylvanian Alps. His breath became ragged with the lack of oxygen, but it did not bother him too much. However, he heard the faint, complaining whine of his bat familiar behind him; the owl remained silent, for it would not complain when Maria was in danger. The bat didn't know any better, but she was right, they had been flying almost all night now. It would be dawn soon.

 Surely, he began to wonder himself, he would need to stop soon and continue on foot. How much time could he afford to lose traveling slower. It would be much easier to find what he was looking for in the air, too. However, he could only go on for so long, so he began descending into a mountain valley.

As soon as he alighted on a mountain precipice overlooking several smaller hills and forest, he felt it. It was that same feeling of tension he had felt before the demons had attacked earlier that night. The tainted atmosphere haunted the chill mountain air, tangible as the wind.
It felt. . . familiar.
That did not surprise Alucard; he knew what he was looking for and he was very close.

He transformed. It took a bit longer than usual and was more painful. His face contorted first into a flinch of pain, then into a voiceless cry - his mouth wide open, fangs protruding-- and finally, into a deep frown. He cracked his neck from side to side and stretched, joints making horrible popping sounds. He had little time to mind his sore body though as he sped down the mountain side with uncanny surety.
Perhaps he would not need to fly again after all, for he was nearly at his destination. He just hoped that Maria would be treated extraordinarily well by her host.

Maria gaped at the man who sat leisurely across the room from her. Not a man, she thought quickly, but a vampire.
As if reading heer mind, the vampire smiled, displaying his obscenely long incisors for her. He sat with his legs crossed, dressed all in black and a finely tailored long coat. He had no cape; it wouldn't have suited him. His eyes mirrored her own green irises, but his contained an almost feline quality, his glare disdainful and malevolent. The vampire's black shoulder length hair curled about his ears in soft waves. His countenance was fair to look upon, beautiful even, but marred by a demonic air.

 His smile grew even wider as he spoke, "I must apologize for the manner in which you were brought here, but I trust you enjoyed the flight?"
Indeed, his voice and manner were very much like Alucard's as she had first thought. He continued without waiting for a reply, "Alucard should be rushing to the rescue this very moment."

 "Adrian. . ." Maria found her voice. "What do you want with him?" she asked, unable to stop the tremor in her voice.

 The vampire looked amused. "What do I want with him, you ask? Aren't you even the least bit concerned about your own safety?"
She gulped. "If you. . ." she faltered. "He'll kill you!"
"I think not," he said smoothly, the unsettling smile still playing upon his lips. "As for you. . ." He stood up from his seat and moved slowly towards her.

Although she was not bound to the chair in any way, Maria could not move any part of her body except her head. He stood directly in front to her now as she squirmed. She stopped moving and glared up at him when she realized he was admiring the flimsiness of her nightgown. Rage and fear burned in her. She was about to spit on him when he locked eyes with her and bent closer to her head.

"My, but he does have good taste," he mused to himself. She found no words on her tongue as he tilted her chin up and sideways. He stopped. "Very interesting! I didn't think Adrian had it left in him." The vampire laughed aloud as he noticed the two healing scars on Maria's jugular. He stepped back then suddenly, a smug, knowing look on his handsome face. "This will prove very interesting indeed, but I'll not harm you, don't worry. You are after all his whore, are you not?"

 "Wh--!" Maria reacted as if she had been slapped. Then her resolution came back. "Bastard! What do you know!? You will pay for this!" she spat through gritted teeth at him, struggling against whatever invisible bonds that held her.

 He frowned slightly. "Will I? And of course, I know a lot of things about Adrian, probably more than you do."
Maria was puzzled. "How? Who are you?"
The smile returned. "I am his brother."

Disclaimer: Castlevania and all associated characters are not mine.... except the vamp introduced in this chapter =)