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Blood Is Chapter 1
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Do I really have to mention that I don't own Castlevania? If I did, we would have gotten to see Julius curbstomp Dracula, the storyline would have been neatened up a bit, and Dracula and Alucard would have just fucking HUGGED already after the reveal in Lords of Shadow 2.
Summary: Lords of Shadow Continuity: AU to Mirror of Fate and Lords of Shadow 2: Trevor wasn't the only one that had the truth of his parentage kept from him by the Brotherhood.
A/N: Rhythm and BOOM, Fireworks! Happy Fourth, America!
1.
There were so many of them, he thought. Had God made them all, or had He enlisted the help of the angels to put them all there? Had his namesake assisted as well?
The stars glittered down from the night sky, and to him it almost seemed as though they were laughing at him, like they found his questions amusing.
We're here because the Almighty wants us here, he though he could hear them say.
Did they see everything? Did they hear everything? Did they know the truth of his parents? Were they watching the night that he had been left on the doorstep of the Brotherhood compound as an infant? Did they know why his parents had abandoned him? Had they not wanted him? Had they been unable to care for him and wanted him to have a better life? He'd heard the rumors that he was an unwanted bastard, but he liked to imagine that he'd been stolen, spirited away from his loving parents for some nefarious purpose and then abandoned for whatever reason.
The alternative - that his parents simply hadn't wanted him - was not something that his six year old mind liked to think about.
He knew he should be grateful; his elders told him so. He had been found in time. If it hadn't been for Master Liam's last minute check at the door, he wouldn't have been discovered until morning, and he likely wouldn't have survived the chilly night. He had a roof over his head, a warm place to sleep, regular meals, and he was being educated. Already he could read and write a little, and he knew his numbers and letters.
He was also being schooled in the art of combat, and he had heard his teachers say that he was very tal-lan-ted, whatever that meant. He was pretty certain that it was a good thing. He enjoyed his lessons (Even if the book lessons were kinda boring sometimes.), and he enjoyed running through the fields after his lessons were done for the day. He liked the company of his elders too, because they were nice to him, and because they had saved his life. He enjoyed sitting with them in the large dining hall where they all took their meals together as they told stories of places they had been and battles they had fought. Sometimes he would tell his own stories, and they would laugh and pat him on the head. Sometimes his stories got him into trouble, ("Honest, Master Liam, a great big dragon came out from under my bed! And it swallowed the scroll that I had been practicing my letters on with one gulp!") but normally they just made his elders happy.
He yawned and rubbed at his eyes. He should be in bed, he knew. He'd been sent to be hours ago, and he was tired, but he couldn't stop looking up at the stars. The stories they could tell, if only someone could speak to them...
Too late he heard his door opening, so before he could flop back down onto his feather mattress and pretend to be asleep, one of his teachers stepped in.
"Gabriel," Master Cecil, his combat teacher, said with a disapproving frown. "Why aren't you asleep, young man? You have to be up early tomorrow, so we can go on that training expedition to the mountains."
Gabriel ducked his head. Normally Master Cecil had such a kind face, with his graying hair, and deep set gray eyes that peered out of a face that was aged and weathered from years of being out in the sun, but tonight that kindly look was missing as he stared down at his student. Gabriel had only been to the mountains once or twice, but he loved them, so when he'd been told that he was going with a few others to camp in them for a few days, he'd been too excited to sleep.
"I couldn't sleep, Master Cecil." he said quietly, knowing that he was a hairsbreadth from being forbidden from going. "I was too excited."
"Then why aren't you lying down and trying to sleep instead of staring at the stars?"
To this Gabriel had no answer, and he looked up at his teacher and gave him a meek smile, something that always made the cook melt and give him extra treats whenever he visited the kitchen.
Master Cecil wasn't moved however. He simply pointed to Gabriel's bed. "Bed, Gabriel, and I had better not catch you out of it again tonight, or it will be no expedition for you tomorrow. Am I clear?"
Gabriel nodded silently as he took his arms off the windowsill and dropped lightly to his bed. The ropes that supported the mattress creaked under his weight as he crawled under his fur blanket and laid down. Master Cecil gave him an approving nod and turned to walk out of the room.
"Master Cecil?" The man paused and turned to look at him, and Gabriel licked his lips nervously before he soldiered on. "Do you think that.. before we leave... I'll be able to visit the friend I made today?"
For a second he thought his teacher was going to smile. "No, Gabriel, we'll be leaving far too early for that. You'll be able to see her when we get back. Now go to sleep. We have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow."
His teacher walked out of the room then, and Gabriel snuggled down under his blanket and closed his eyes. He couldn't wait for tomorrow to come, and, even though he really loved being in the mountains, he also couldn't wait until he got back, because then he would see his friend again! He'd never had a friend before, but he'd met her while running through the meadow behind the stable. She'd been picking flowers, and he, not watching where he was going, had run right into her, knocking them both down. He'd helped her up, because that's what his teachers told him he should do if he ever encountered a girl on the ground or floor (Though he didn't know until he'd knocked her down why they would be on the ground of floor to begin with.) and apologized, (Because again, that's what his teachers told him he should do if he ever bumped into a lady.) and she had smiled at him.
One of his minders had come to get him hours later, because he had not returned home at his usual time, and had found him happily playing with his new friend. As was proper, they saw his new friend safely to her parents, and then they had gone home, with Gabriel chattering all the while about his friend and all the fun they had had playing together. What had she said her name was? Oh that's right, it was...
******
"Marie!" the vampire wailed as he woke up from his tortured sleep. He sat up and held his head in his hands, as if he was trying to hold himself together. Why, why, why WHY? After everything he had done, after all he had sacrificed, why must he be forced to dream of things before they went so wrong?
"Why!" he howled in grief and rage as he slammed his fist to the stone floor, cracking it. "You take everything from me, and now you make me think of it! When will it stop!" He raised himself up on his knees and raised his head to look at the ceiling as his anger drained way, leaving on the grief in its place. "Why?" His immortal body shook with sobs as tears made his way down his face, and he swayed to the side and collapsed onto the floor, and like they had every night since the start of the winter, the voices came.
We will never leave you.
We will always be with you.
You belong with us.
This is your home now.
They whispered to him, and he imagined that he could feel hands caressing his skin and hair, but in no way could the touches be considered comforting. They made his skin crawl, and he shivered and tried to ignore them, but they refused to go away. He shuddered and pushed himself up off the floor. He needed to feed, and as long as he was moving, the touches stopped.
He didn't need to go far; blood was everywhere he looked: in vases, in jars, in basins, tubs, cups, bowls, everywhere. He didn't know where it came from, but it slaked his thirst and allowed him to stay within the dark confines of the castle. After becoming a vampire and absorbing the power of the Forgotten One, he did not wish to venture out among the living.
We will take care of you.
Thirst sated for the moment, he wandered through the silent halls of the castle, with only his footfalls and the occasional whisper for company. There was nothing for him to do, and he found nothing to distract himself with. The shadows played against the walls as he walked, and the flames on the candles danced at his approach and dimmed as he passed by. Part of his newfound power he supposed. The statues seemed almost alive to his eyes, and they seemed to move as his gaze passed over them. He quickly turned his head and averted his eyes. It was unnerving.
Gabriel...
He shook his head. "No, leave me alone."
Gabriel...
"Leave me be."
Gabriel... You can't ignore us forever, Gabriel.
He stopped and wrapped his arms around himself as he shivered. "Go away," he said roughly. He didn't know where the voices were coming from; at times they seemed to be coming from the very walls that sheltered him from the outside world, and he hated them in a way that rivaled his hatred of Zobek. Was this God's reward for his work?
An invisible had ran through his hair. My lord...
"Stop!" he yelled, and his voice echoed off the stone walls and rattled the chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.
We only want to care for you, my lord.
"I'm not your lord!" he yelled as he felt a lump forming in his throat. "I'm nothing." He slumped to the floor as his knees gave out. "Nothing at.. all."
But you are. More hands touched him, on his face, his neck, his shoulders. You are everything. We need you. We want you to stay with us.
"No!" he screamed. "Leave me alone!"
He pushed himself to his feet, and he stumbled for a moment before he began to run, away from the touches, away from the voices, away from everything.
You cannot run away, my lord.
He ran, faster than a human ever could, through the halls and rooms of the castle, not paying any attention to where he was going. Rooms were a blur as he streaked through, hallways were just swatches of color as he ran down them.
Please stay with us.
"Stay away from me!" he sobbed as he realized he was crying again "Go away!"
A door slammed as he ran past it, and the loud noise echoed through the empty space as he darted down an hallway lined with them. They slammed closed as he approached them, as though they were trying to prevent him from going into those rooms. At the end of the hallway was a staircase, and he tripped as he ran down it, which sent him tumbling down to land in a heap at the bottom. He curled up on his side and hid his face in his arms as the tears flowed freely. The voices, thankfully, had stopped for the moment.
******
Edeline stared silently out of the window in her sitting room as he absently stirred her tea. Outside the mullioned window, the snow was melting, she could see new buds on the trees, and here and there bird song drifted through the air. She sighed; it was just like the day... the day that Mathias had been born.
She felt her husband's presence behind her just before his arms around around her. "What are you thinking, love?" he asked her, his voice soft.
"It's been 25 years." she whispered, and Wolfram's arms tightened for a moment before they let go.
"Yes," he said quietly. "It has." He moved to stand beside her, and she turned her head away from the window to look at him. His brown eyes, once the same color as chestnuts, had faded with time, and his hair, which had only been a few shades darker than his eyes, had gone completely gray. His face was lined with wrinkles, and though he was still very hale and hearty, he preferred sitting quietly by the fire to riding out with the hunting parties.
Edeline knew that the same could be said of her. Her blond hair had faded to nearly white, and her eyes were being obscured by a milky white cloud forming in their centers. She could still see well enough to get around without assistance, but reading and needlework were becoming impossible. She reached up with one wrinkled hand that was covered in spots and lines and gently cupped his cheek. They weren't young anymore, and their time on the mortal plane was quickly running out.
Wolfram smiled gently at her, and he reached up with own hand and lightly grasped hers for a moment. He then kissed the back of it and let it go. Edeline let her drop to her side as she turned back to look out the window. With no hint of who had taken him or why, and with no ransom demands they had long ago given up their son as dead, but that didn't stop her from thinking of him, especially on early spring days like the one he had been born on.
"If Mathias had lived..." she said and then hesitated for a moment. Wolfram had also turned to look out the window, but he looked back at her when she spoke. "If Mathias had lived," she continued "what do you think he would have looked like?" She liked to think she already knew, because she had often imagined him at various ages, and in her mind he looked very much like his father: tall, broad across the shoulders, with a strong angular jaw and intense, deep eyes. Those eyes though, would be green like hers, though perhaps he would have followed his father's lead and grown a full goatee.
Wolfram looked at her for a long moment, and then he turned to look out the window again. "I think..." he began in a soft voice. " I think that he would be as handsome as his mother is beautiful, with her green eyes that sparkled when he laughed and flashed when he was angry. I think he would be tanned from hours out in the sun with the hunting parties, and it would have bleached streaks of gold into his brown hair. I think he would be tall and strong and so very brave, able to handle whatever threat came his way, but still be willing to relax by the fire and recite the classics to his children." He turned his entire body to face her. "I think he would have been everything we could have dreamed."
Edeline looked up at her husband of 36 years and tried to smile, but her mouth trembled as a few tears spilled forth. Wolfram's arms came around her, and she leaned into the embrace and laid her head on his strong chest. She heard a few quiet sniffles from him and closed her eyes as they both remembered the child that they had lost.