Castlevania and all of Castlevania's characters mentioned in this story are the legal and intellectual property of Konami. The Playstation game, Castlevania, Symphony of the Night inspired the story below.
There are a few references to D, from Vampire Hunter D. VHD is Mr. Kikuchi's legal and intellectual property.
The 'arrow of slaying' mentioned in this story comes from my Dungeons and Dragons role-play gaming days. D&D was (probably still is) the legal and intellectual property of TSR games.
This story builds on the concept that appeared in a previous story I was inspired to write, Insult of the Right Hand, especially the the final 'omake' chapter of that story. If you haven't read Insult but wish to read this story, that concept in a nutshell is that Alucard's familiar Bat is not only female, but in love with him (evidenced by the little hearts that appear over her head whenever Alucard assumes his bat form in the game). Further, in my story, Alucard bites Bat and drinks her blood, to change her from a mortal, natural animal into an immortal vampire bat. Though Alucard is unaware of it, Dracula, as the Lord of All Vampires, permitted and assisted in Bat's transformation.
Just Once - Chapter One
"Death is a friend. The true final enemy of a vampire is boredom." from The Book of Blood, Teachings of the Ancient God
Dracula was bored.
Bored, bored, bored! Ever attentive, his favorite hench-specter, Death, silently appeared at his side.
"My lord?" Death breathed the unhealthy, loamy funk of the grave out into the room.
"Atmospheric," Dracula commented, "but still boring!"
He vaulted up from his chair and paced aimlessly about the chamber.
"Let's raise Castlevania again. I want something to doooo!"
Death sighed. It wasn't often Lord Dracula wound up in this mood, which was just as well. Death was always up for chaos and destruction, but Dracula, especially when he was bored, tended to throw the universal balance off kilter.
"It's too soon, my lord," Death told him regretfully. A battle of wits with Alucard would settle Dracula's ennui nicely for a decade or two. It really was too bad that the eeD situation had taken Alucard's attention away from Castlevania's rising this century. Death still smarted from where D, the brother Alucard had sent in his place, had handily clobbered him.
"I feel like meting out a little mayhem. Not a full-scale assault anywhere, and darkness knows I don't want to sire yet another child in yet another dimension for eeD to fixate on, but I'm bored!" Dracula flopped gracelessly into his chair and sulked.
"I wanna do something with Alucard!" Dracula almost pouted. "I guess I can take a look in on how Bat's doing. I'm really pleased with how well her situation turned out. I wish I could give Alucard some grief and put her through her paces, now that she's a vampire bat! Are you certain it's too early for Castlevania? I'm soooo bored!"
Death regarded Dracula. In the hierarchy of things, Dracula was indeed his superior, in a position of command over Death, but Death considered that he and Dracula were friends too. He knew Dracula wouldn't go on a killing spree, increasing his already overloaded schedule, but he didn't like to see Dracula depressed either. He knew how fast boredom led to depression in his vampire friend.
Hmmm...vampire, vampire...Dracula WAS the lord of all things vampire...
Somehow, though he had no skin to pull back from his teeth, Death grinned deeply.
********
"What?!" Alucard was horrified.
"Yes. We just found out about it. Is it useful?" Fairy replied.
"No."
"But...couldn't you use it on eeD? Wouldn't it help?" Fairy protested.
"Perhaps not. He isn't really a vampire, or dhampir, but a reflection of one. It might not work on him. But my concern is that such a thing is too powerful to exist. An arrow that can instantly slay any vampire...such an item is too dangerous!" Alucard concluded.
"Oh!" Fairy realized. "It could kill you?!"
Alucard nodded. "Or D or even Dracula. Anything with vampire blood would be instantly destroyed from the slightest scratch," Alucard told her.
"That is bad!"
"So we had better go and destroy it somehow," Alucard concluded.
"My contact in this dimension said it was in a keep not far from here."
"eeD's been quiet. Now is as good a time as any to take care of this thing before too many creatures find out about it," Alucard decided.
********
It had been ridiculously easy to enter the keep and find the central chamber where the arrow of vampire slaying was enshrined. There were almost no monsters to speak of guarding the keep, no hidden door or traps, in fact, almost no challenge at all.
Alucard even had some relatively quiet time on the way to the chamber to ponder things. eeD was playing a game of hide and seek through the dimensions. Fairy and Demon either had, or could quickly cultivate, contacts in most dimensions they traveled and through these contacts gather information about eeD's activities. Sword was usually able to find martial training in each dimension for himself and Alucard. Alucard himself tried to find any children of Dracula, brothers or sisters, to see if they could help discern what eeD's master plan was. He could tell there was a master plan. He just didn't know what its nefarious purpose was.
Since three of his familiars were busy on his behalf in each dimension they traveled to, Alucard found himself with Ghost and Bat at his side most often. The lack of any ability to really communicate with Ghost, coupled with the fact that Ghost usually wandered off if Alucard assumed his useful and stealthy bat form, made Bat his most constant companion.
Alucard didn't mind. Somehow, in each dimension they went to, Bat was still able to summon local bats to fly and fight with them whenever Alucard was in his bat form. She'd become a formidable guard, not allowing anything near her "Master Bat" in any aspect. Ever since he'd transformed her, Bat had been becoming more and more intelligent and more skilled in the bat powers Alucard was able to share with her.
He especially liked that she retained her sweet nature despite the changes in her. She never got in his way, but she flew as close as possible to him whenever he was her "Master Bat". He was touched and amused to notice she flew closer to him while he was in his dhampir form too. He'd been shocked when he learned that Bat thought of him as a bat who could assume human form, rather than the way he really was. Her innocent, but fundamental, misperception about his nature was rather adorable actually.
He wondered sometimes if his other familiars were upset that he spent more time with her than any of them. But, he told himself, most of the time they were unavailable anyway, busy with finding things out for him.
"Bat, when you are with the others in the dimension where you go to wait for a summons, do you...well, what do you do? Do you, all of you, talk with each other?" Alucard asked as they flew down an empty corridor.
"Of course, Master Bat. You are the most important person in our lives, so we usually discuss how best to help you!" Alucard would have smiled at her ardent answer, if he were able to smile in his bat form.
"The others...do they ever get upset or say anything about how I summon you more than any of them?"
"Are you asking if they are jealous?" Bat asked with a giggle.
Alucard was glad that as a bat he couldn't blush. Bat's intelligence had been increasing. He kept forgetting that! Maybe it was because he got thrown off by her calling him "Master Bat". Of all his familiars, she was the only one who didn't truly understand his nature.
"I guess I am. I enjoy your company so much that I call on you most often, but I am friends with Fairy, Sword, Demon and Ghost too. I don't want them to feel unappreciated."
"They don't. Of course they like it when you summon them too, but Demon usually finds gremlins, imps or other demons to do things with, Fairy is always talking with others eldritch beings about magic, Sword has lots of living weapon friends to fight with and Ghost tends to disappear for days at a time. They have all kinds of things to do! Oh! Though of course they would stop everything and respond instantly if you summoned them!" Bat rushed to tell him.
Alucard found he would have smiled again if he were in his dhampir form. Funny how he found himself either smiling or wanting to smile so much more than he used to.
As it was, his Force of Echo 'voice' let Bat know he was amused at her quick defense of her friends.
"What do you do? When you are there?" Alucard asked.
"Oh, I can feed there. There are insects and such for me to eat. Sometimes Fairy will spend time talking with me, if she's not with you or off learning things about magic. Mostly I just sleep. And wait," Bat admitted.
"There aren't any bats for you to spend time with there?" Alucard asked.
"There are...but well...there's not much to talk about with them. They are concerned with food and finding caves to live in and things like that," Bat told him.
"And such mundane things don't interest you much anymore," Alucard realized.
"Not much," Bat admitted shyly.
Alucard stopped, hovered and turned toward her. "Are you lonely?"
"Sometimes. Never when I'm with you though!" she declared.
Her truthful answer made Alucard realize that her entire existence was wrapped up around him. From what she had said, Fairy, Demon and Sword had activities and lives separate from their duty to him as his familiars. Because of what he had done to her, Bat no longer did.
"I'm sorry," Alucard said quietly.
"For what?"
"Changing you so that you really can't be anything except my familiar. Making it so other bats are too simple for you," Alucard wasn't sure he could explain what he was sorry for to Bat. She might not understand.
"It's okay," she replied softly. "As long as I can still help you, I don't mind."
"If you get lonely, and one of the other familiars isn't with me, you can just come if you want."
"Really? I wouldn't be a bother to you?"
"No, Bat. You are never a bother to me!"
"I'd like that," she admitted shyly.
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