eiahmon | Blood Is Chapter 17

Title: Blood Is
Rating: PG-13
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 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: Sorry for the delay here. My imagination went on vacation for a while, and when it returned, I was suffering from computer issues – a hardware problem that was thankfully easy to fix once it was diagnosed. Of course, once that was done, I was too busy playing Tomb Raider to write. And then I was writing on my other Castlevania fics, followed by putting my Christmas tree up. XD

17.

Trevor chatted away to his grandparents as they sat at the small table in his nursery, having breakfast together. His sweet voice was music to Wolfram's ears, even though he could only understand about half of what the child was saying. Across from him, Edeline smiled as Trevor turned to her and showed her his fork, like she had never seen such an amazing object before. Before they had sat down, Wolfram had checked on Gabriel, to see if he was up to joining them, but he had slept right through his name being called, so he had opted to let the boy sleep. Later on they could see about introducing him to Trevor.

"That's very nice, Trevor." Edeline said, and Wolfram smiled. "It's called a fork, Trevor, now use it to eat your breakfast."

"Fok!"

"Fork."

"Fowk!"

Edeline shrugged and lightly tucked a few strands of the child's hair behind his ear. "I suppose that will do."

Wolfram laughed quietly, and she looked at him and smiled.

"What's got you so happy?" she asked.

"Everything." he said. "I have my lovely wife, a darling grandson, and my long missing son is sleeping safely down the hall after deciding to come home. And of course there is Adelar."

"Adelar? What about him? And why would you be happy about him?"

"Ah yes, well, you know how he left to go court Lord Rosier's daughter?"

"Supposedly. It would surprise me one bit to learn that he had something to do with Volpe finding us on the road."

"Volpe found you on the road!"

"Relax, my husband. He was dealt with, and Gabriel and I made it home safely. It it something that I need to tell you about here shortly, but first, tell me what you find so good about your nephew."

Wolfram gave her a long look, but she calmly met his gaze, so he continued with what he had been saying. "If you recall, he was going to be inquiring about the younger daughter, because -"

"Because the older daughter is a shrew of a woman that no man would touch even if she was the last female in God's Kingdom?" Edeline said as one corner of her mouth started to curl upward.

"Indeed." Wolfram smirked. "I may have neglected to let him know that the younger daughter was recently engaged."

Edeline laughed. "Oh dear me. So he arrived at Lord Rosier's home and asked about courting his daughter, so Rosier assumed he meant the older daughter."

"Yes, they had a delightful visit if the haunted look in Adelar's eyes when he returned home was anything to go by. Oh and Lord Rosier has already asked me about a betrothal agreement." Wolfram smirked again as Edeline threw back her head and laughed. He leaned down to Trevor's level, who was looking at his grandmother in confusion, which caused the child to look at him.

"Gamma's being silly." he whispered with a grin, and Trevor giggled.

"Gam-ma silly!"

"That's right."

Trevor grinned happily and returned his attention to his breakfast.

"I swear, Wolfram Cronqivst," Edeline said as she brought her laughter under control, "If you were a cat you'd have one paw on a fish and the other in a pitcher of cream."

He knew his smile was a bit smug, but he couldn't help it. "Yes, dear."

"Though if you're going to be smug about it, I suppose I can wait to tell you what happened over the past few days..?"

The smug smile vanished like it had never been there. "Um, no dear. I'm not smug, not at all. So what happened?"

Edeline gave him a serene smile, and then she began to tell him of finding Gabriel in his old home, of talking to him, of him agreeing to return with her.

"He was never clear on it, and I never asked him, but he said he overheard 'them' talking about him. He knows that he was taken from us, which is a large part of whey he agreed to return with me, I'm certain."

"We will have to ask him later, once he's awake."

"He also believed me about Trevor being kept hidden from him. He did put up a token protest about his wife not doing such a thing, but he seemed to accept it very quickly. That leave me very curious as to what exactly he overheard."

"So he agreed to come back with you, and then what happened? You said you encountered Volpe on the road?"

"That didn't happen until a few hours before we reached home." She smiled faintly, and Wolfram wished suddenly that he had gone with her. He had barely been able to see Gabriel, yet she had gotten nearly nine entire days with him. He was a little envious of that, he had to admit.

"So what happened before that then?"

"Gabriel asked for stories. He wanted to know about you, about Trevor, about the rest of the family. He wanted to know everything, and I can't wait to see your face when you hear some of the things that Sir Pershan told him."

"Oh no, what did he say?"

"Oh nothing important really. He might have mentioned the time you tried to climb the tree by the stables and got stuck halfway up -"

Wolfram winced.

"- and hollered for help for hours until someone came to get you down. He also may have told the time when you and I were supposed to be getting to know each other and instead you kept catching and throwing earthworms at me."

"It was funny when you shrieked."

"He also mentioned what your father did when he found out."

"I still say he overreacted."

"And I still say that he was more concerned about the large dowry my parents were going to pay than anything else, but that's beside the point."

"Yes, what other horror stories did my old friend tell our son?"

"He told of how you were so nervous during our wedding that you stumbled over your vows."

Wolfram dropped his head to the table with a quiet thud! as he groaned. "Did he have to tell him that?"

"Gampapa's being silly." he heard Edeline whisper to Trevor.

"Gampapa silly!" Trevor echoed.

"That's right."

Wolfram raised his head to see his grandson grinning at him as his wife smirked from her side of the table. "By all means, laugh at the old man's embarrassment."

"Oh I intend to, just as Gabriel laughed at the stories. Hearing him laugh was the most beautiful sound I had heard since hearing his first cry."

"He laughed? He actually laughed?"

Edeline smiled. "He did. It was wonderful to listen to it."

Wolfram smiled wishfully as he imagined what Gabriel's laugh sounded like. Hopefully though, there would be plenty of opportunities in the future for him to hear it for himself. He shook his head. "What happened last night? Volpe met you on the road?"

Edeline looked down at the table. "I don't know how he managed to find us in that exact spot. Were were spotted by someone that reported us to him? Did he have someone watching us? I don't know. He and his men were hiding in the trees along the side of the road, waiting for us, and once we were close enough, they came out in front of us.

"Volpe mentioned that they were searching for once of their own that was not well and needed to be returned to them to they could care for him, and he admitted quickly that it was Gabriel they were searching for. They wanted to check the carriage, and when Sir Pershan refused to let them, Volpe insinuated that they would check by using their better numbers, whether we agreed or not."

"He did what? How dare he!"

"Gabriel stopped them before they could."

"Gabriel... Why?"

Wolfram listened with a mixture of horror and pride as his wife told him of their son's confrontation with the one responsible for causing so much hurt, and he felt his heart ache at her description of Gabriel's tears.

"He wouldn't let go of me after that." Edeline said in a soft voice. "He held onto me right up until we pulled up in the drive. You know what happened after that."

"And you ordered Volpe to make himself available to us?"

"Yes, within the next ten days, nine days now actually. Do you think he'll show?"

"I wouldn't plan on it. If he was so determined to get his hands on Gabriel again, he's either going to show up here with his entire army to try and take him by force, or he won't show at all while he plans his next move."

"If he does appear, I really don't know if we should allow him to see Gabriel at all."

"Gabriel deserves his answers, Edeline, just as much as we deserve ours."

"I know, and I'm not begrudging him that. I just worry... Wolfram, if you had heard the sound that he had made when Volpe mocked him. It was like what I had always imagined an enraged dragon to sound like. We found out as we were leaving that he had scared every wild animal for quite a distance around us away with that roar. Part of me keeps thinking that Volpe said that on purpose, to make Gabriel lose his temper. Why he wanted that to happen, I can't hope to guess, but..."

"You fear he will do the same here."

"Yes," Edeline gnawed worriedly on her lip for a second. "Can you see it? He makes Gabriel lose control while here. He attacks Volpe in front of witnesses, and those witnesses are frightened by what they see."

Wolfram sighed as he saw her point. "And they tell everyone they can about the dangerous creature the Cronqvists are hiding. I understand. We'll have to explain to him that he cannot lose his temper, no matter what Volpe says or does. I'm not going to tell him that he can't see him; he needs his answers, and he'll get them, one way or another."

"But you really don't expect Volpe to show at all."

"No, I don't."

There was a knock at the nursery door, and one of the guards assigned to protect Trevor stepped in.

"Lord Gabriel is awake, my lady." he said. "And he's asking for you."

Wolfram looked at Trevor and lightly patted the boy on the head. "We're going to see your papa now, Trevor -"

"Papa!"

"- and later on, I'll take you to see him. But for now your Grandmother and I are going, and we'll come back later."

Trevor nodded with a wide toothy smile, and Wolfram saw Miss Sophia smile out of the corner of his eye as he stood up from the table and offered his hand to Edeline.

"Shall we, my lady?"

She smiled at him, took his offered hand, and stood up. "We shall, my lord."

******

Gabriel sat huddled on his bed in the dark room. His senses were telling him that the sun still on it's way towards its peak, that he needed to sleep and be safe, but he couldn't go back to sleep yet. He wanted, no he needed, to see his mother again. To make sure that she was still there, to see that it all hadn't been a dream, to be certain that that years old wish really had come true. Childish of him, yes he knew that, but he couldn't help it. He had to see her!

He raised his head when the door opened, and bright light from the rest of the house spilled into the room. A welcome scent touched his nose, and he finally understood why it was so familiar to him.

"Gabriel?" She stepped into the room, and the door closed behind her as she walked up to the bed and sat down beside him. "Are you all right? Why aren't you asleep?"

He turned his head to face the wall as he felt his cheeks heat up. He didn't know vampires could blush... "I just needed to see that everything was real. I didn't mean to bother you."

"Gabriel," Her voice scolded him lightly as her hand ran through his hair. "you will never be a bother, so don't ever think that."

He slowly turned to look at her, and she smiled at him. He tentatively returned it. Is this what he had been missing as a boy?

"Your father is outside in the hallway." she said quietly. "Do you want to see him?"

He hesitated for a brief second, and then he nodded. "Yes, I would like that." She turned her head and called out her husband's name, and Gabriel looked up at the door as it opened again, and Wolfram Cronqvist stepped in. He tracked the man as he walked across the room, and only then did he notice the resemblance between them. The other's hair had gone gray, the faded eyes were brown instead of green, and the skin was wrinkled and spotted, but the relation between them was clear. Was this why Volpe and the other elders had never sent him onto the Cronqvists' land? Did they know that someone would notice how much he, Gabriel, resembled Lord Cronqvist?

His mother scooted over so his... father (That was going to take some getting used to.) could sit down next to him He smiled a small, trembling smile, and then he closed his eyes and leaned into the embrace as the older man's arms came around him. He heard a sniffle, and the arms tightened as the man's heartbeat sounded in his ears.

Now he knew why their scents were so familiar to him. The two of them had combined to make his own; his blood smelled like theirs. He took a shaky breath and felt his mother scoot closer to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"You're home, Gabriel." she whispered to him. "You're home."

"I'm... I'm... home." he said, though the words were muffled by the fabric of his father's overtunic. "I'm home."

"Yes," his father said softly, "you're home. Welcome home, Gabriel."

He made a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a sob, and he raised his head and looked back and forth between his parents. "Where is Trevor?" he asked. "He is here?"

His mother smiled and stood up. "I'll go get him. I'll be right back." She ran her hand over his hair and then turned and walked out of the room. Gabriel smiled faintly and laid his head back down. He closed his eyes and settled into the warmth of his father's embrace. He heard his mother's heartbeat walking a short distance away, where she met up with a smaller, faster heartbeat, and then that beat began to accompany her back. They walked to the door, which then opened, and Gabriel detected a scent that sent a wave of emotion crashing over him.

He sat up and felt his father's arms let go of him as thoughts of Marie, as memories of her, ran through his mind. The small boy that walked into the room, holding onto his grandmother's hand, smelled so strongly of Marie's scent, hers and Gabriel's own. Even in the dim light, his sight allowed him to easily see the child's nose and cheekbones, both of which had come from Marie, and the bright green eyes that had come from him. The boy's dark blond hair was a mass of cowlicks that perfectly matched how his own hair had been as a small boy, but that smile... That beautiful smile mirrored Marie's perfectly.

Gabriel barely noticed his father stepping away as Trevor smiled at him -

"Papa!"

- and he moved to sit on the edge of the bed and held his arms out as his son ran up to him, and he scooped the now giggling child up into his arms and held him against his chest. Trevor tucked his head under his chin and giggled. "Papa,"

Gabriel laughed as tears began to trickle down his face. "Hello, Trevor."

Trevor looked up at him, and he reached up with one tiny hand and patted a damp cheek. "Papa sad?"

"No," Gabriel smiled at his son's adorable face. "Papa's not sad. Papa's very happy to see you."

Trevor giggled again and snuggled in, and Gabriel closed his eyes and rested his cheek on the top of his son's head. "You're real, and you're really here." he whispered. "Why didn't Marie tell me? Why did they keep you from me?" He took a shuddering breath as more tears ran down his face, and he felt his parents sit down on either side of him.

"You'll get your answers, Gabriel." his father told him. "I promise you that. No matter what I have to do, Volpe will explain his actions."

"And no one will take Trevor away from you ever again." his mother added. "He belongs here with you, and he's not going anywhere."

Gabriel nodded, but he really wasn't listening. His senses were focused on the child in his arms: on Trevor's scent, the sound of his heartbeat, the warmth of his small body. The moment however was interrupted when Trevor began to squirm to be put down.

"Why don't you go back to sleep, Gabriel." his mother said gently. "It's still very early in the day. Get some rest, and we'll talk more tonight." She smiled at him when he tightened his grip on Trevor. "I swear that he will still be here tonight when you wake."

He paused for a long moment, and then he nodded and relaxed his grip. He felt Trevor being taken out of his arms.

"I'll take Trevor back to the nursery." his father said. "I'll see you tonight, Gabriel."

Gabriel raised his head and watched them leave the room, and he smiled when Trevor smiled and waved at him as he was carried through the open door.

"Let's get you tucked back in." his mother said, and he turned his head to the right to see his pillow and quilt, and the bed suddenly looked so inviting. His mother stood up as he laid down on his side, and he sighed as she pulled the quilt over him and tucked it around his shoulders. He'd been tucked in by his nurse as a small boy, but it was somehow.. different when it was an actual parent doing it. He'd been one of six children in the nursery, and the older one was, the less attention they received. Being tucked in had always been a hurried process, but now...

He smiled sleepily as his hair was brushed out of his face and a kiss was placed on his cheek.

"Sleep well, Gabriel. I love you."

This was so much better. He closed his eyes, and he fell asleep with his mother watching over him.

Family: 16 -- Power: 1
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Blood Is Chapter 17

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