105Disclaimer: I do not own nor claim to own the collective works of Van Helsing, Game of Thrones, A Song of Ice and Fire or anything that may come into the following Fan made piece of fiction. This is meant for enjoyment alone.
"By the words of my house know that I am Never Alone." speech.
'wow, I didn't think stupidity could come in such a small package as that Joffrey cunt.' thought/flashback monologuing.
"█▄▄██▄▄▄██▄▄█" Wolf howl/roar/etc.
A/N:
this is just the prologue to one of our new stories that is in the works along a few others. As a result of working on a number of different ideas at the same time this is going to be a slow burn fic. Enjoy the tease that this chapter is and hopefully it is well received for more future updates.
FYI: good reception is judged based on review numbers. More reviews means more focus goes toward pumping out chapters sooner than the others.
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Do you know the last time I felt the warmth of the sun on my face? The breeze through my hair? I cannot. Too long have I been trapped here, in the light-less bowels of a castle I have never seen in a land I do not know. My tormentor told me of his amusement in that you have lost your memories of the life you once shared with us long ago. I almost envy you; to be free of the knowledge of your long life while I am forced to endure my own existence with an ever growing memory of this cursed cell.
We were all young men once before. You Gabriel Van Helsing, my good friend Vlad Tepes and myself; Lucian of Romania a simple lowborn Knight. We shared such incredible adventures as we served the Holy Order of Knights in our fight against the forces of Evil. We travelled far across Europe from exotic Constantinople to beautiful France; slaying monsters and exposing witches to the fires of The Lord. But when my mentor, my friend Vlad found love and had that love ripped from him, I did not abandon him as our fellows did. As you did.
I helped my friend. Against the Will of God, against our Order and against what was good I helped him try to bring back the woman he loved to the living.
I knew it to be wrong, it was a blasphemous act to even consider playing with such hellish magic. But for my dear friend; my mentor, for the loyalty and trust he had placed in me, how could I not return it in kind.
All for nothing in the end. Failure was our result. Hindered and ultimately stopped by you and the other Knights of the Holy Order. And monstrous was our punishment. I remember that moment clear as I see you now before me Gabriel; the sight of your sword thrust through his heart. The betrayed anguish in Vlad's eyes as the life left him.
And I remember the monster that returned to wear his skin. After that, I can remember only rage.
My punishment from God Himself it seems. I was not put to death by the Order. The terrible arrival of the fearsome Dracula stopped such a thing. Instead; my fate was decided by the Lord of Heaven Himself.
And what a cruel punishment it has proven to be.
The only thing that may truly kill this Vampire King; this Count Dracula. Is the bite of his most loyal friend. The bite of a Werewolf. I remember only the agony of my bones breaking, flesh tearing and skin sloughing away as the beast of my curse tore its way out of the man I once was. And then my mind went dark. Buried beneath the raging fires of a monsters instincts. The hunger. The savagery. The blood-lust.
When I finally awoke, I woke to find myself crucified to a cliff-side; thick iron spikes impaled through my arms, legs and chest. And the great and fearsome monster Count Dracula standing before me, wings stretched out like the very cloak of the Devil himself and blood dripping from his a savage grin.
This was not my friend. Vlad truly did die that day four hundred years ago. You did your duty well Gabriel. My friend truly died and a demon has since taken his place.
Do you know what it is like? To be trapped within Hell, locked away like an animal to be brought out at the amusement of a monster. To be forced to fight and kill; monster and man alike simply because this Overlord is bored. To force upon other men my terrible curse who in turn must serve this devil as nothing more than an attack dog? I have witnessed men beyond my ability and tolerance to count; beg and plead to their God for mercy and salvation only to feel the damnation of my bite. I have heard the screams and suffering of that first frightening transformation and the hungry howls that followed.
When I heard of your presence in Transylvania; that a hunter by the name of Van Helsing had arrived to destroy this spawn of Satan I dared not to hope. When I learned that this Van Helsing was truly my old comrade and fellow Knight Gabriel I feared that even you would fail. How could you beat this monster when you lacked the vital weapon determined by God to truly overcome such evil?
But now, I see you. I smell you. I feel my curse upon you. It will not be as powerful as it would had I been the one to bite you, but strong enough to possibly stand against Dracula's power. But please, I beg you; heed my warning Gabriel. The first time man becomes beast; you will face more than the Vampire Lord of this keep. The very mind of the monster you have become will fight against you. Do not fight it. Accept it. You are he and he is you. Do not resist the change nor fear its power. Focus your mind instead on what lay before you. What you wish do destroy. Focus on Dracula.
It is true that a cure to this curse resides within these halls. A contingency should one of my cursed should prove to wilful for his control. It will purge the wolf and leave the man. But only so long as you administer it within minutes of the transformation. Wait too long and it will be too late; the curse will have taken root.
Allow me to offer you this: remember yourself. Remember who you are, what you are, why you fight, why you live and who you love. Do not lose yourself to the instincts of the wolf. Remember you are Gabriel Van Helsing and not a simple animal. And it is my hope that you will return to not mourn the lives of your friends by your side.
Go.
I can feel the power of Dracula's experiment growing. Whatever it is he plots; it is nearing its peak and soon you may find yourself out of time. Go my friend, do as you have always done and what I had not the courage to do. Save them all. And avenge those of us you could not.
Remember. The Wolf is nothing without the Man.
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It was like the earth was tearing itself apart so great was the shaking of the castle walls. Stone masonry fell from walls and ceilings ad sections of flooring gave way around him as he ran.
Lucian; former Knight of the Holy Order, First of the Werewolves and prisoner of Castle Dracula had been surprised when the shade of his comrade Van Helsing had released him from his cell. The hunter had warned him; run as far from this place as he could and do not give him cause to hunt another Werewolf. Lucian had not expected it. Gabriel never would have opened the cell to let him go free. No the old Gabriel would have either left him there to die or opened the cell door just so he could execute him personally.
Van Helsing's friar friend had cautioned against it; nervous at the idea of releasing such an old and potentially powerful monster out into the world but the man and his lady companion had not accepted it. His heartfelt words and plea had reached them both.
It was an almost muted sense of relief and satisfaction when he heard and felt the shrieks and howls of the transformed Gabriel fighting Dracula overhead. The heavy screeches of tearing metal and crack of breaking stone sounding almost musical to him when coupled with the pained screeching of the Vampire.
He had used the distraction to explore deeper in the heart of Castle Dracula; searching for supplies and resources to take with him when he returned to Transylvania. The halls were void of life; the many servants of the Count all tending to their master whims in the higher levels where the fighting was taking place. This permitted him easy access to and freedom to raid Dracula's personal library.
Dracula had collected a great deal of knowledge over the centuries since his 'birth' four hundred years ago. The world had advanced a great deal and while from the look of some of the tomes and books in his collection hinted at a far more advanced civilisation than Lucian was familiar with; he took only what he could understand and find familiarity with. A closely located storehouse supplied a sturdy trunk to store his acquisitions within along with some basic supplies and, mercifully, a change of clothes.
There was no time to rip away the rags he had been wearing for the past four hundred years to change into something, well, cleaner, as the castle had started violently shaking by that point.
The silence before hinted that Van Helsing may have succeeded and it seemed that with the death of its master; the castle was no longer capable of holding itself together.
Gabriel, his friends and the anomaly that had joined them up at the top of the castle had since departed. Their scent was growing steadily weaker. But it was still strong enough to follow so as to allow Lucian to track and discover how they had escaped.
With the heavy trunk resting up on hist shoulder and supporting it with one arm, the man loped back down to the ground level of the castle and found his way to the entrance hall. Its great doors had been knocked free; dislodged and shattered by two floors above. Only a small gap of white light and drifting snow showed the way to freedom through the rubble. Only a part of the man acknowledged the emotion of seeing the light and feeling snow against his bare chest after squeezing through the gap and stepping out into the fresh air for the first time in centuries.
The scent he was following was swept away by the gale force winds but thankfully the path Gabriel and his party had carved through the snow had not quite yet filled in.
the thunderous sounds of collapsing stonework and shattering rock filled the air behind him as the castle continued to collapse, towers and wings breaking free from the structure to crush lower sections or even break free entirely to crash deep into the snow and ice and shatter the solid rock beneath.
It took only a few minutes for the Werewolf to reach the end of the path where he found a large gleaming mirror of ice and steel. Shimmering almost like a pool of water instead of a solid object. Whatever powerful magic fuelled its function was failing just as Castle Dracula had as Lucian saw a steadily growing flicker to its form; the dull grey of stone appearing with growing frequency. He could not wait nor take the time to permit caution in this.
With the resolve that had come to him over the course of centuries of the desire to endure and live in spite of his imprisonment, Lucian threw himself through the portal. Into the mirror-door that failed a instant later to show nothing but the solid rock of the cliff it had been carved into.
On the other side of this doorway, in a matching mirror deep within Transylvania at Valarious Castle; nothing emerged. Van Helsing, his close friend Friar Carl, new found friend in Frankenstein's monster and realized love Anna Valarious only watched as the mirror shifted back into a large detailed map of the country.
Lucian was never seen again.
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A/N:
this is just the prologue to one of our new stories that is in the works along a few others. As a result of working on a number of different ideas at the same time this is going to be a slow burn fic. Enjoy the tease that this chapter is and hopefully it is well received for more future updates.
FYI: good reception is judged based on review numbers. More reviews means more focus goes toward pumping out chapters sooner than the others.
