Apollosarcher said
Praetor sighed looking at his old friend. "Maria is free to come with us, I am simply doing as I've been told to wait for you, I am worried though that the Blackmoore's will break my hold on my rage. Much like it seems you've broken yours, let us not forget the battle against Dracula, surely you do not wish to see me repeat that sickening display of my powers." He referred to when he had summon thousands of un-dead soldiers in a gambit to kill Dracula, of course he survived but only just and it took a century before he had returned to full strength. "Now if you draw that blade you will have put us both on a path we wish not embark on. So for the sake of family, love, and brotherhood ask Maria if she wishes to go with us or tell me you shall not return and let us leave still brothers."
Myst said
She could hardly believe it. He was... actually asking her... no, begging her to come with him?Her smile was slow and warm, her eyes full of a feeling that could only be described as light, the bright and glowing light of joy.But, as it always is, the feeling was short lived. The light disappeared when she heard the voice of Lucian's sire. Her face fell as he talked about them leaving. It made her sad, but at least his sire was willing to let him come back the next-Maria's eyes widened and she gasped at the rage that came from Lucian. She took a step back reflexively roar that shook the building. The rage... it was something she had never felt from another being before."Lucian..." she murmured but stopped as he spoke of murders. Murders that he had commited that he had only recently began remembering?Maria gasped in fear and stumbled back. Van Helsing?! The Vampire Killer?!The scent of her fear blanketed the area. "Lucian, please stop," she said, taking his arm, tears prickling her eyes. "Both of you. You're scaring me," she looked at his sire and hid paritally behind Lucian's arm. Lucian's rage scared her, but his sire terrified her.If her sire felt anything for her at all she knew he would sense her fear and come to see what was wrong. She needed to calm down before Alistair arrived and a slaughter began."Lucian," she said, cupping his face and turning it to her. "Look at me. Please don't be so angry. Be at peace... my love," she added. "Calm yourself... be at peace..." she spoke the soothing words as she gently stroked his arm before moving both of her hands to his face. She wanted to see the gentle loving eyes of the vampire she had fallen in love with at first sight.
McHaggis said
“Well, the vamp 'fell in love' with a human lass – told her all about us – but he just need a good thwack over the head–“ Alistair's good cheer was returning, evidenced by the tentative smile spreading across his face... or at least it was, until his ears twitched in agony. Whatever that noise was, the feral roar, it was nothing good.Quickly he broke away from Beatrix, trusting her to follow at her leisure, and re-entered the Tortuga, noting that the few humans who frequented the place had been knocked unconscious. He wasn't half-surprised, after all, his head was still ringing with the sound. “Maria?” he called worriedly. “Maaaaaria?”It wasn't long until he discovered the source of the problem, slowing his steps to a more human-like pace and calming his nerves once he discovered the singer unharmed. Good. “Surely disturbing such a budding young romance is beneath you... Van Helsing?” he said to Praetor, shuddering internally at having to deal with him a third time in one night.Although he had a gut feeling that Maria was on the brink of choosing beneath the family she was born into and her new beau's, he stepped between her and Praetor as she tried to frantically calm her young lover. Ever the opportunist, Alistair wondered whether it would be possible to convince both of them to stay – become Blackmoores. One who appeared to be trained by a Van Helsing would be useful in dealing with exposures, which was the clan's forte... and it would keep his lovely Maria around...“Let it be known that those of my own blood will always be welcome in Clan Blackmoore territory, as well as those they choose as their mates,” he continued suavely, nodding to both Maria and Praetor as he chose his next words carefully. “And believe it or not, drinking from humans is only a – suggestion. We have a small sect of your kind, too, Lucian - if that even is your name - and the worst we do is tease them.”
Preator, his sire, his friend was still as wise as ever calming the situation with a grim reminder of a day Lucian wished he could forget. in the months before their taking of Dracula's castle, Lucian had been out hunting, feeding from the wicked, thieves and murderers, feeling no sympathy for them as he hunted them down and fed to his hearts content, it was on a cold winters night in a small village farther south of Dracula's kingdom, that Lucian first laid eyes on him. Lucian had been lurking in the dark eyeing a man he suspected to be behind these gruesome killings, all the victims hand been young boys, orphans, all had been slaughtered in the cold of night without a sign of any fight. Lucian tailed the man closely and watched from the rooftops as he approached a young boy, Hair as black as death's cloak and eyes as green as the ever shifting sea, the boy was something Lucian would only later come to understand, this boy was a creature of true beauty. Not as one might look upon a woman, no this was the kind of beauty one saw in the statues of the angels set in marble on the insides of the church. Lucian watched the two of them, he had to be sure the man was his killer, thats when he spotted the knife in the mans hand and then Lucian hesitated. this boy was starving. freezing and orphaned...Would letting the man end his suffering be a mercy to him? The man was quick and was upon the boy in seconds, but Lucian...The Second Horseman...War...was much faster. He grabbed the man by his coat and with one hand threw him backwards with such force that his ribs shattered against the building he had crashed into. Needless to say Lucian slaughtered the man.
After the deed was done Lucian approached the boy kneeling down next to him and feeling his head, he was dying of the frost and leaving him there would have been a slow and cold death. Lucian asked him simply, "What is thy name?" the boy reached up to touch the face of the blonde vampire, "S-Sebastian...My lord..." Lucian looked down into the boys eyes and spoke softly, "Do you so wish to live that you might run with demons to do so?" The boy seemed to ponder this a moment and then he nodded softly, "Yes...But you sir are no demon...I know an angel when I see one my lord." Lucian smiled, "Come Sebastian...It's time to get warm."
Preator of course was against taking on a child but after seeing the resolve in both their eyes he relented saying the boy was Lucian's responsibility. In the months that followed Lucian and Sebastian grew very close and Lucian took to calling him son and Sebastian had no problem calling him father, the two were like a real father and son, happy just to be in the presence of the other, Sebastian proved to be cunning and resourceful for a boy of only ten years often attempting to best his father in swordplay by using his environment, Kicking sand or stepping into tall grass, and if he had been a mortal man these tricks might have worked. The boy knew of the nature of his father and Mister Van Helsing, as he often referred to Preator, but he cared little because for the first time in his life he had family. Thing might have gone on this way until the boy was of age to join his father in immortality if it hadn't been for that fateful night.
They were close now to the darkest of castles. In the mighty forest near there the group was resting when Lucian woke, knowing something was very wrong he went straight to his sons tent tearing open the door to find nothing. Sebastian was gone and upon his bedroll lay a black feather, General Castvera, Dracula's right hand as twisted as she was crafty, Lucian let out a roar knowing of the vampires sick taste in feeding. Castvera only fed on children and now she had Lucian's only son. Lucian and Preator stormed the castle. Preator taking the west wing belonging to lord Dracula. And Lucian with no army of his own and only his war spells to see him through the east wing. The pair were unstoppable. Lucian fought like a wild beast tearing through the enemies that lay before him marching up the tower into the top room where the demon Castvera lived, he shattered the door to pieces. Once the dust cleared he looked into the room and with cold terror realized just what his eyes lay upon, there in the center of the room she stood next to 10 or twenty dead children, holding a shriveled corpse, A corpse With hair as black as deaths cloak and eyes once as green as the ever changing sea. Those eyes looking into Lucian's soul in terror and fear as the life drained from them forever, Lucian was faster than anything and slew the vampire with one strike using all his magic to propell him forward and cutting off her head. Lucian knealt next to the body of his son and sobbed, sobbing which turned into a roar, a roar only a father who had lost his son could utter. The battle was won Dracula had fallen and his castle lay in ruin. but Lucian had changed deep inside something had broken and the only way he could manage was to seal all these memories away and pretend he was alright.
Lucian might have become lost in his sorrow forever but the soft touch on his arm and the scent of fear brought him back to the world of the living, Maria had released him from the bonds he had crafted for himself that day, she had given him back his memory even if it was sorrow, if she was there he wouldn't need to forget. He would have her to rest his head against. Lucian sank to his knees and whispered, "Sebastian...Forgive me..." Preator would know now exactly what Lucian had just seen, Lucian wrapped his fingers around Maria's, tears now flowing freely from his eyes, the coldness and anger from before erased from them completely replaced by sorrow and a begging for forgivness, "Please...Don't fear me..." He stood slowly and wrapped his arms around her, "I would rather die than have your eyes look at me like that...Please don't fear me..." He sobbed openly not caring what anyone thought, "I can't be him again...I can't be War...Please forgive me Maria...I...I need you..." He could hear Alistair Blackmoore and he might have answered the man had tears not been streaming his face as held Maria.
