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Blood Is Chapter 2-7
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: Thank to DraculBelmont for the delightful idea with the Necromancer.
7.
Gabriel eyed the setup on the edge of the clearing that was in front of him. The overlapping branches and fern fronds formed together to form a crude roof wouldn't be comfortable by any means, but it would certainly do. His light sensitive eyes could detect no moonlight leaking through, which meant that sunlight wouldn't be able to get through either to burn him while he slept. His mother would be horrified if she could see it. He supposed being raised in nobility would make her think that this was the worst way to live, but he had roughed it before, and the idea of doing it again didn't bother him any. It helped that he didn't need to worry about dying of exposure anymore.
It had taken him a few hours to find a suitable place, quite distant from the nearest house and farm, as he had wanted to lessen the chance of being seen or heard as much as possible. Once he had found the clearing that he was currently in, he had spent some time setting up his little shelter so he could rest there during the day if needed, and then he had done his best to camouflage it, so it wouldn't be obviously visible to anyone that happened to wander through. Not that he figured anyone would, but it never hurt to be safe.
But now that his shelter was taken care of, and he had a few more hours until sunrise, he could do what he came out here to do. He sat down on the soft grass near his little shelter and began to think.
What had he inherited from Laura? What had he inherited from Carmilla? And what had he taken from the Forgotten One? He sighed and thought about those days he had been in Bernhard Castle before everything had gone horribly wrong.
Laura could summon and control lightning itself. She could float in midair to speak to him face to face. She could teleport around as needed. She could turn into a cloud of mist and bats to pass through obstacles. She seemed to also have some resistance to sun and holy water, though she had refused to enter the castle chapel when searching for what they needed to open the gateway to the Forgotten One's prison.
Carmilla had also been able to levitate, and she had also commanded lightning. She had also seemed to be able to control lesser vampires as though they were puppets on her strings. She had a true form, that of a large humanoid bat with the ability to "breathe" lightning at him.
The Forgotten One's power had been... immense, and if he was honest with himself, only the fact that it had to use most of its power to undo the seal keeping in imprisoned had enabled him to defeat it at all. If it had been at full power, he would have been doomed from the start. It had been able to see into Gabriel's very soul, was stronger and faster than Cornell even, and even after a long battle, it had showed no signs of tiring, while Gabriel had been struggling to keep going. (He wondered if his tiredness had had something to do with being newly turned, or if that was a problem he would have to deal with in the future as well.)
The demon had wielded darkness itself and had summoned multiple weapons seemingly on a whim, and any damage to its body or armor had regenerated very quickly. It had climbed walls like a spider, quickly, easily, and effortlessly, and it had been able to throw debris at him with merely a thought, and make that debris explode. Perhaps that was where his ability to control fire came from?
Gabriel leaned back to lie on the grass and looked up at the starry sky above.
"Why did you have to leave, Laura?" he asked with a soft sigh. She might not be able to help him with what he had taken from that demon, but she would certainly be able to show him how to use and control the power she had given him. He closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before he opened them again and sat up. He had work to do.
Hours later saw the sun peeking above the horizon, while he curled up inside his shelter, growling in frustration. Nothing. Nothing at all! The power was right there; he could feel it simmering under his skin, ready to obey his command, yet he could not make it do anything he wanted! It came easily at his call, but so far all he had managed was to knock a few trees down and set a patch of the grass on fire, which thankfully, he had been able to put out.
The first rays of morning touched the ground just outside the treeline, and Gabriel was relieved to see that they came nowhere near his little hiding spot. A quick check with his ears confirmed that no humans were anywhere near, so he pulled down a few more branches to conceal himself better and laid down to pass the day away. Maybe once night rose, he would have better luck.
******
William allowed himself a small sigh of relief as he and Cecil walked through the door into their mountain safe house. Though it wasn't much larger than the one they had left behind, it would suit them fine while they waited for things to settle down. Then they would be able to make their move and do what needed to be done, whether Gabriel, Liam, and the Cronqvists liked it or not. Fate couldn't be avoided, no matter how hard one tried, so Gabriel's resistance was pointless. He would fulfill his destiny, no matter how hard he tried to do otherwise.
He just needed to be patient. When the time came, Gabriel would be taken care of, Trevor would be back under their control, and Liam... William sighed. Sadly, his old friend would have to be eliminated, as he couldn't be trusted to do what needed to be done. It was a certainty that he would interfere with any attempt to prepare Gabriel for the tasks that lay ahead, which is why he had never been brought into their full confidence before. He was too attached to the boy to allow him to suffer, alone and insane, in Bernhard Castle. So, as much as it pained him, Liam would have to die.
The Cronqvists would also likely have to go, as they would never stop searching for their son, and William knew with a certainty that the Brotherhood would not survive if Wolfram Cronqvist brought his full power down to bear on them. With Wolfram and his wife dead, however, the family would be in the hands of Adelar Cronqvist and his father, both of whom would be very unlikely to bother them once Gabriel and Trevor were out of the house. If they did, well, something could be arranged for them. Nothing could be allowed to stand between Gabriel and his fate.
William had waited this long; he could wait a few more years. The remote mountain village that they were about a day's travel from was unlikely to have heard of their wanted status, so as long as he and Cecil were careful, they would be safe while they waited for the right time. With that, he turned to unpacking and helping Cecil with readying their evening meal.
Enjoy your peace while you can, Gabriel. he thought as he worked. I will be coming for you in time.
******
Liam turned a page in the roll book, the large book that listed every member of the Brotherhood, their names, the date they joined, the compound they lived at or near, and their deaths for those that were gone. The large tome was filled with hundreds of names going back to the Brotherhood's founding three centuries previous, including its founding members: Zobek, Cornell, and Carmilla. He found Gabriel's name quickly, and he quickly noticed something in the months after Gabriel's arrival.
There was a slew of deaths starting just after Gabriel's arrival and lasting until he was nearly a year old. There was no pattern that he could see in all of them, the 25 men and one woman were from various compounds and had died for a various reasons. Some had died in battle, some of illness, and at least one, the woman, had died after a fall that had cracked her skull open.
Liam paused then. He remembered the woman, Sara, the nursery assistant, who had died the day after Gabriel had been found on the doorstep. She had been outside doing who knows what and had apparently fallen and dashed her head against a rock. No one had had any idea what she had been doing out there to begin with. She had been gone for several days, visiting her sick mother she had claimed, and had been found by a few of the boys while out playing in the woods. What had she been doing in the woods? Why not travel by the road?
Well, Liam's own teachers had taught him that the simplest solution was often the correct one, and Sara had left just before William and Cecil had departed, to steal Gabriel from his family he now knew. They would have needed someone to care for the infant during their return journey, and who better than a nursery assistant that was capable of nursing a two week old infant? William and Cecil had returned the day before Sara's body had been found, and when she was found, she was still warm, showing that she hadn't been dead long. So what happened? Did Cecil and William take her along to care for Gabriel and then kill her to keep her quiet? What about the others? Were they part of the group that attacked the Cronqvist house? Did William arrange their deaths as well?
Dear Lord, how deep did this go? And was that all of them? Likely so, as William was certainly canny enough to cover his tracks well to ensure that no one would be able to speak of Gabriel's true origins.
Liam wondered for a moment if this was how Gabriel felt with the plots within plots that he was finding.
Over the past few weeks, he had been carefully vetting the men under his command and trying to weed out those he could trust. Those he felt that could be trusted not to go running to William and Cecil were sent in pairs on scouting missions to the various safe houses the Brotherhood had scattered about. The men were under orders not to get too close, to not be seen, and to just see if the house appeared to be occupied. So far the reports were coming back negative on the last note, and not for the first time, Liam wondered if he was wasting his time, if William and Cecil had a bolt hole that no one else knew about and if they were laughing at his attempts to be a leader.
The sound of a bell ringing marked the hour, and Liam closed the book and stood up from William's – his – desk. Though he was in charge of the Brotherhood and he had much to do in regards to tracking down William and Cecil, he still went to the library every day to give the children their book lessons. It was the only bit of normalcy he could grasp, and he did so with both hands.
As he walked from the study, he mentally began to write the letter that he would later put to paper to send to Gabriel and his father, detailing his attempts to find William and Cecil, and the failures he had been met with so far. Hopefully it would be enough to placate the powerful lord while they waited for results.
******
Another fruitless night, Gabriel grumbled to himself as he walked back into his parents' house and wandered in the direction of their rooms. The house was quiet, but a few servants took note of his presence and rushed off to do who knew what, and he raked back his tangled hair as he walked straight into his parents' bedroom without knocking.
As expected, both of them were still in bed, but they seemed to have been waiting for him regardless, as Father sat up as soon as he walked into the room.
"Gabriel," he said warmly as he threw the covers back and stood up, which woke Mother as well.
"Gabriel, you're home!"
He gave them a tired smile as he found himself wrapped in their arms for a moment. "Did you have any luck?" Father asked.
He shook his head wordlessly in answer. "No, not this time."
Mother looked disappointed. "I'm sorry to hear that, Gabriel."
He nodded. "I'll try again later. For now, I just want to sleep."
She wrinkled her nose. "Bath first, I think."
He couldn't help but smile at that. "Yes, Mother."
"Now go on with you." She stretched up to kiss him on the cheek. "Go get cleaned up, visit with Trevor for a little while, and go to bed. We'll see you tonight."
Gabriel laughed quietly as he was shooed out of the room, and he walked to his own rooms with a faint smile on his face.
A hot bath was waiting for him, and he dismissed the servants that were standing by to bathe him, as he didn't need their help, and he didn't want them touching his cold skin. No need to risk scaring someone and causing a panic or some such. Once they were gone, he stripped out of his dirty clothing, stepped into the tub, and sank into the steaming water with a happy sigh. The heat seeped into the chill of his body, banishing it, and he leaned back against the end of the tub with a groan. This almost made those two frustrating nights worth it. Almost.
He soaked as the sun began to climb above the horizon, and only then, as the water began to cool down, did he turn to the task of actually bathing himself. Once that was sorted, he climbed out, dried himself, and dressed himself in the clothes that had been laid out for him. He quickly combed the tangles out of his hair, and left the room in search of his son. He paid scant attention to the servants that scurried in after him to pick up his dirty clothes and take care of the bath water.
Sunlight was filling the house, and he had to dodge a few sunbeams on his way to the nursery, but he found Trevor and Anna having breakfast, and he joined them without having to be asked.
"Papa here!" Trevor squealed happily as he sat down, and he reached up for a hug. Gabriel gave the boy a light squeeze and then pointed to his partially eaten breakfast.
"Eat your breakfast, Trevor." he said as another plate was set down in front of him.
"So you can grow up big and strong like your papa." Anna added, and he smiled a the girl as he picked up his fork and started on his own meal.
Trevor grinned and giggled, but he did as he was told, and the meal passed quickly in a comfortable silence. Once they had eaten Gabriel could no longer ignore the sleep tugging at his eyelids, so he gave Trevor a hug and kiss, and to his surprise, Anna asked for a hug as well. He obliged her, and she gave him a bright smile before she skipped off to go to her lessons. Trevor was then led away by the nursemaid, which allowed Gabriel to slip out the door without being seen.
He wasn't surprised to see his guards waiting for him on the other side of the door, and they followed him as he walked back to his rooms, where they took up their normal positions as he went into the bedroom, stripped down to his linen under tunic, and climbed into bed. The fireplace was going, and the curtains were shut tight over the windows, and he sighed as he relaxed into the feather mattress. He was asleep within seconds.
******
That night, as the sun waned in the sky, Gabriel dragged himself out of bed early. He went to the butcher's to feed, and then he found his parents in the informal family room along with Peter and Sonja. He spent a pleasant hour with them, visiting, as he waited for the sun to go down.
"Looking forward to the wedding, Wolfram?" Peter asked with a grin, and Gabriel blinked in confusion as Father laughed quietly.
"Which one?" Father said in response, which made Peter, Sonja, and Mother laugh.
"Well I was referring to Ida's, but I suppose Adelar's is worth mentioning as well."
"Wait," Gabriel said, Adelar's getting married?"
"Indeed he is." Mother replied with an amused smile. "Much to his horror, I'm sure."
"Horror?"
Father chuckled. "When you ran away, Cordrin sent Adelar to Joseph Rosier's home, to inquire about courting his daughter. At least, that was what he told us. I'm absolutely certain that Adelar was carrying a letter to Volpe about you as well, even though I can't prove it. He was going to ask about Rosier's younger daughter, but no one mentioned to him that the younger daughter had become recently betrothed, leaving only the older daughter free."
"And this is horrifying how?"
"Because Julia Rosier is a controlling shrew that no man on earth wants anything to do with."
Gabriel nodded slowly. "I wouldn't laugh too much, since a marriage between her and Adelar will result in her living here, am I right?"
The laughter abruptly stopped, and there was a few seconds of silence before Father groaned. "Damn it, you're right."
"Awwww," Mother said with a glint of mischief in her eyes, "Is Lord Cronqvist scared of Julia Rosier?" Peter and Sonja howled with laughter as Father groaned again. "Don't worry, darling, I'll protect you from her shrieking voice."
"Can't you just tell her to shut up?" Gabriel asked, and Father noticeably brightened.
"Indeed, I can! Phew! I feel so much better now. Thank you for the reminder, son."
Gabriel smiled a pleased smile as warmth bloomed in his chest from his father's words. "I assume the wedding will be held here?"
"It will, yes." Mother said with a nod. "Why do you ask?"
"It wouldn't be safe for me to attend if the Rosier family is going to be here, but I just might have to find a shadowed space to hide and watch, if only for my own amusement."
The others in the room chuckled. "I'm sure we'll be able to figure out something in time." Father said with a smile, and then he glanced out the window as the last part of the sun vanished below the horizon. "Oh my, it's later than I thought."
A quick check on his senses told Gabriel what his father had noticed. He stood up. "I should go then."
"Go?" Sonja said in confusion. "Go where?"
Gabriel didn't answer. He accepted hugs and kisses from his parents, along with admonishments to be careful and come home safe, and then he walked out of the room without a backwards glance, though he heard his father begin to explain as he went.
At the speed he could move, it was a quick trip back to his little clearing, but as he approached, his run slowed into a jog, and then down into a walk. Something... something was not right. He walked silently through the trees and noted that the sounds of the night around him had stopped like he expected, but the area ahead of him had also gone quiet. Nature itself seemed to be holding its breath, but for what?
He walked into the clearing as he looked to his left and then his right. He could hear no heartbeats, but then.. there! There came the sound of a blade slicing through air, and Gabriel leapt backward to avoid the blade of a scythe that buried itself in the ground where he had been standing.
"How disappointing." came a voice from above, and he growled as a robed skeletal figure descended down to hover in front of him. "I had hoped to report to my master that I had disposed of you."
Gabriel didn't say anything; he only stared through his eyebrows at the Necromaner, one that appeared to be stronger than the ones he had faced in the Land of the Dead the previous year. Those had not spoken and had seemed fairly mindless, but this one. Though the eyes were empty sockets, he could still intelligence in the thing's gaze.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded, and the thing laughed.
"My master's business is none of your concern." it said as it hefted its scythe. "Now, it is time to be rid of you. My master will be most pleased with me if I can deliver your corpse to him."
Gabriel had just enough time to wonder if young vampires like him even left corpses to deliver before the Necromancer brought its scythe down towards him. He jumped to the side to avoid it and had to scramble backwards as it streaked towards him, swinging that wickedly curved blade as though it intended to decapitate him. Damn it, he needed a weapon! He should have taken a sword or something from the armory before he had left, but he hadn't been expecting an attack so soon. He skipped backwards to avoid another swing as he tried to think of something to do, and the Necromancer laughed.
"Pathetic." it sneered at him. "I do not see why my master was concerned about you."
Gabriel's thoughts ran in panicked circles, and his right hand felt so empty. He shouldn't have destroyed the Vamprie Killer; he needed a whip in the worst way. The blade of the scythe embedded itself into the dirt in front of him, and he extended his right hand out of pure instinct, to get in a few hits while the creature was overextended. No weapon lashed out of course, but he felt... something from his hand, and he looked down at it to see covered with a faint reddish-orange glow. The scent of blood, his own blood, touched his nose, but he was forced to look up and jump back to avoid another swing before he could think on it.
"You can't even attack me!" the Necromancer sneered. "What do you hope to do, Gabriel? How are you going to protect others when you can't even protect yourself! I wonder if Lord Zobek will allow me the pleasure of killing your child after I have delivered you to him!"
Gabriel froze at the thing's words, and he snarled as something dark, powerful, and enraged surged up within him. The snarl turned into a roar, and he didn't even feel himself move as he closed the distance between him and the Necromancer faster than the eye could track. The surge within him extended down his arm, and he commanded it to do as he willed and give him a weapon to use. He faintly saw the glow around his right hand and wrist, and he felt something tug against his veins. He swung his arm around like he was swinging the Vampire Killer, and a long, glowing rope of blood extended out from his hand and lashed out in a wide arc in front of him.
The Necromancer was not able to dodge it, and it was caught on its left side and sent flying across the clearing to slam into a tree. Gabriel streaked after it, snarling, and he noticed that the moonlight seemed to dim around him as he closed in on his target. The Necromancer regained its bearings as he closed in on it, and he saw it trying to dodge out of the way. He felt his lips peel back from his teeth to form a smile as his newly created blood whip cracked against the thing's bony shoulder. There was a shriek that no human voice could have made, a small explosion of rotted fabric and bone chips, and the thing's arm fell off to drop to the ground. Gabriel let out a satisfied huff through his smile and bared fangs as it scrambled to get away from him and chased after it.
A downward swing sent the whip flying down, and the end of it collided with the Necromancer's hand, and the appendage exploded into bone chips. The shaft of its weapon that was held in that hand suffered the same fate. It howled in agony and dropped to the ground, and it looked up at him as he strode up to it.
"Please, my lord!" it babbled. "Mercy, my lord! Mercy!"
Gabriel said nothing, and the sight of the creature's fear made his heart beat faster in his chest as he called forth the blood whip again. It arced out in front of him from right to left, and it caught the Necromancer in the side and sent it flying off to the left. It landed in a heap on the ground and began to try and crawl away. The urge to laugh bubbled up, and Gabriel's smiled widened further at the pitiful sight in front of him. He cracked the whip down again, this time against what was left of the thing's legs, and it let out a scream as the bone disintegrated.
"Do not ever." Gabriel said in a low voice that he had never heard himself use before. "Threaten my son again." He brought the whip down again, this time aiming for its skull, and the bone exploded into hundreds of small chips and slivers. There was one last scream that slowly faded into a sigh, and then the forest went silent, as what was left of the Necromancer, its clothing, and its weapon, dissolved into dust and golden embers that rose into the air and vanished.
Gabriel felt his blood return to his body, and the glow from his hand and arm faded as his heartbeat slowed down to normal. He spent a moment slowing his breathing as he stared at the spot where the Necromancer had died, and then he turned away from it and walked across the clearing back to his little shelter. He sat down on the grass, and flung his hand out in front of him and called for the whip. Reddish orange lines that glowed with power erupted from the palm of his hand and wound themselves around his hand and wrist before they wound themselves around each other to form a solid rope and extended out several feet in front of him. He called it back, and it seemed to vanish immediately, but he felt it return to him.
He stared thoughtfully at his hand for a moment. What if...?
He felt down within himself, for the source of the surge he had felt earlier, and he called upon it, ordered it to obey him. It seemed respond almost eagerly to his command, and when he called the whip again, it was a darker color, streaked with black, and though his nose and the tug on his veins told him it was blood, it seemed almost solid as he sent it whipping down to strike the ground. He felt the ground shake beneath him, and he knew that anything that had been standing nearby would have been at the least knocked off their feet. He smiled as he called it back, and then he summoned it quickly and sent it streaking across the grass in front of him. The tall blades were cut off neatly, and he called it back and stood up.
It was so easy. The power was there, and it was his. His to command, and it had no choice but to obey him. Before he'd been asking it to do as he wanted, when what he needed to do was order it to do what he needed. With the order given, it was all too eager to follow his will. He moved into the center of the clearing, and years of training and using the Vampire Killer came back to him easily as he sent the whip out and around in all directions. The whip was long, sinuous, and it seemed to be almost alive as he tested out some of his old attacks with it. The Chain Barrier, Circular Chain, Chain Saw, and the Rising Strike were executed flawlessly with no difficulty. Gabriel felt the smile stretch across his face as he fought an invisible army with his new weapon, and he quickly realized that he could make the whip extend far enough from him to take out the trees on the edge of the clearing. He felt his blood sing with power as he moved in his deadly dance, and his laugh sent the birds fleeing from the trees. They flew in front of the moon, and their shadows moved over him as a young deer foolishly tried to cross the clearing to get away from him. A snapping of his wrist sent the whip flying towards it, and it looped around its neck and dragged the frantically struggling animal over to him. He seized the buck by its antlers, bit deeply into the muscle of its neck, and it struggles quickly ceased as he drained it dry. Another crack of the whip then sent the corpse flying away from him and tore it to shreds and shattered the bones.
He called the whip back to him and laughed again as he allowed himself to flop down to the grass on his back. It was all so clear now. His laughter subsided as he stared up at the stars. He was finally moving in the right direction; he knew what he needed to do.
The approaching sunrise forced him to get up and move towards the treeline, and as the sky lightened on the eastern horizon, he curled up in his little shelter with a smile. The smile remained until he fell asleep as the sun broke over the treeline.
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