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tampered2006-12-29 09:58 pm
favored-son.livejournal.com) wrote in tampered2006-12-29 09:58 pm
Log: Complete
When: December 27th (evening)
Rating: Teen for a smidgeon of blood and violence.
Characters: Alucard [![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thekingofpain] and D [favored_son]
Summary: Seeing that D is fully recovered, Alucard insists that his son have a proper meal before joining him for a sparring session.
Log:
After two days of rest, D had completely recovered from the effects of his failed execution. He now occupied his time with checking over his supplies and weapons. The dhampir had already seen to his horse, which appeared to have suffered no ill effects from their little trip between worlds. Once he had ascertained that everything else was in order, D settled down to tend to his chief weapon--the longsword he carried sheathed at his back.
Alucard, after waiting a good length of time for D to heal, checking in on him, found this time around the boy to be healed. Shadows gathered in the corner of the room, red eyes opening and then closing. He stepped from that whirling vortex of black and out into the room, behind D, shadows clinging to his cape.
"Good evening, Father," D said softly, without looking up from his blade. "You've been checking on me, haven't you?" He was not surprised. His father had been kind to him in the early part of his life, concerned for his well-being rather than with honing a killing machine. It was good to feel that again, although the dhampir was determined not to grow complacent.
"Of course. I would never turn my back on my son," Alucard replied with a chuckle, moving closer to D, circling him and watching as the boy polished his weapon. "You seem tense. . still upset at your mother? Hn. I doubt little of her stubbornness has changed in your time. So, while it may hurt, you will understand for now. . besides, Daddy's here."
His eyes still on his sword, D corrected his father as tactfully as his nature would allow. "That is not the reason for my unease." With one final swipe of the cloth in his hand, D finished his work and slid the blade home in its sheath. He let the sword rest in his lap as he looked up to meet his father's gaze. "How old do you think I am, Father?" he asked, genuinely curious.
"Hn. I don't know, how old are you, D?" Alucard asked, amused. He wouldn't bother to hazard a guess. Seating himself next to D on the bed, the father glanced over his son. The boy had Integral's features, more and more resemblances were apparent each time he looked. "And you will tell me the reason for your ill ease."
"I am ill at ease because you and I have been enemies for nearly ten thousand years," he stated bluntly, without emotion in his ice blue eyes, "and because I have often wondered what Mother would think of what I have become." D spared a look for his father, to gauge the other's reaction.
"I imagine she would be proud of you," Alucard replied, inclining his head and reaching out, toying with the ends of D's soft hair. "You seem strong enough. Capable." Though, "Why are we enemies?"
A wry, pained smile touched D's lips. "Generally speaking, two people repeatedly attempting to kill each other is sufficient grounds for enmity." He sighed and let his fingers run over the polished black surface of the longsword's sheath. "I think it is what you want, and it is all I can give you in the time I come from, save death."
"Hn. What I want from you, here and now, is simply time, D," Alucard replied. "As much as possible. I know when she dies I will lose my mind, and I imagine that is why we try to kill each other, yes?"
D nodded. "Something like that." Finally, he smiled a genuine smile, free of regret or longing. "I would like time as well. Even a thousand years ago, I would not have admitted this, but I miss you."
"My poor, poor boy," He purred, twining fingers in D's hair, petting him. "Without her we are nothing, are we? Lost and trying. . thousands of years. I cannot begin to imagine. ."
"It might be best that you don't," D commented, though he allowed his father's attentions. It was something of a minor miracle that he did, considering he had developed a preference for avoiding physical contact over the years. "I have accepted what my existence is, but you need not resign yourself to the future I have lived."
"I know what will happen, my boy," Alucard replied. "There is only one way to keep me from madness and that could alter the future in negative favor to you."
D snorted. "It might be worth it to avoid the rather embarrassing incident with Baron Clapham," he said, in a rare show of self-deprecating humor.
"Hn. I shall see what I can do after you are born," Alucard replied, finishing his petting of the boy and instead looking to the blade. "Is that a Hellsing creation or one of your own?"
"A collaborative effort between you and Mother." The hunter offered the sword to Alucard, displaying his trust in the vampire. Even sealed and significantly younger than D was now, the vampire could pose a serious threat to the dhampir if he chose. "You presented it to me after I had been joining you in hunts for a full year."
"A year of hunts. . hn. Odd that this would be the weapon chosen for you instead of a gun. ." Then chuckled, "Though it makes sense." And added, "How does dinner sound?"
"Guns run out of ammunition," D pointed out, "and I am not quite as immune to injury as you are, Father." He canted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow at Alucard. "Dinner now? You would prefer to spar on a full stomach?"
"More blood, more power," Alucard replied with a purr, leaning in to sniff at the boy before pulling away and rising. "Or perhaps spar and then eat if that is your preference."
D shrugged and stood with his father. "My occupation does not allow me the luxury of choice."
"Your occupation, at the moment, is that of my son, and therefore, choice," he replied with a smirk.
Still infuriating, D reflected fondly. "Dinner then, if you will fight better after a good meal."
"I will fight well either way, though if dinner is your choice, would you prefer someone large or small breasted?" Alucard asked innocuously.
"Father ... " The hunter gave the vampire a warning glare.
He laughed at that, fangs showing for a moment before sobering, then smirked, "And whom would you like to drink?"
D rolled his eyes. "You're impossible. I don't drink human blood." He removed another of the packets and held it up for Alucard to see. "This is more than sufficient."
Upper lip curling back, he sneered, baring fangs, "My boy, you should eat something else. At least for now, hm? Your supplies might run low and all."
"I don't think that's a good idea," the dhampir warned. Bloodlust, for D, was not quite the same as it was for a vampire. He had no desire to invite it.
"Hn. Then what shall you do when your supplies of. . powder. . run out?" He asked leaning in ever so slightly over D.
Unfortunately, his father had a point. "I'm not sure," he admitted. Then, after some hesitation, "It's been a long time since I drank human blood."
"And how would vampire blood affect you?" Alucard asked, curious. It would not turn the dhampir, he supposed, but would it be nourishment or a poison?
That issue had not come up in centuries. D could not think of what to say for several moments. "Whose?" he finally asked.
"My own, of course. Flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood," he replied, tone rather amused.
"The last time I took blood from you, I didn't have much choice in the matter," D admitted, "but it caused me no harm."
"Then drink again," Alucard replied, "Perhaps it will heighten your senses and allow you more range of fighting. I will drink my dinner from a bag."
If there was one thing D knew, it was when to yield to the No Life King. He gave his father a look that said, "Don't let this go to your head," before giving in with a nod.
The cheshire grin said very much that it was going to his head. Alucard was rather used to having his way when it did not concern Integral's will. "Very well, then. . shall you eat here?"
"It is as good a place as any, I suppose." Oh, his partner was never going to let him hear the end of this.
"Hn. ." Alucard purred and rolled up the sleeve of his jacket and shirt, "I intend to give you the wrist, unless you object. I imagine anything else might seem too. . intimate. ." And smirked.
D cast his father an uncertain look, but the willing offer of blood was painfully tempting. A reddish tint crept into his eyes as his fangs lengthened. Still, he hesitated.
"You cannot kill me by draining, my boy," Alucard murmured, pressing his hand to the back of D's head and urging him forward to drink. "Be a good boy."
A memory rose to the fore. D recalled his father's hand supporting his head, his father's wrist, already bleeding, pressed to his lips. It was enough. His fangs broke Alucard's cold skin, and he drank deeply, replenishing the remainder of the stores lost when he was staked to the earth by Clapham's creatures.
Stroking D's hair, Alucard nuzzled the top of his head. "Drink," he murmured. "Drink." And gave freely of his blood to the boy. The fangs piercing his flesh had been an odd sensation, one of prey, not of predator.
At last, D forced himself to pull away, breathing hard as he fought the urge to drain his father dry. His fangs receded, and his eyes regained the blue shade he had inherited from his mother. The parasite stirred, and D clenched his left hand to keep it silent. "Thank you," he said.
Alucard's eyes were half closed and he finally healed his wrist as D pulled away. "You are welcome, my boy." He would need more than just a small meal of blood. Though D had come nowhere near close to harming him, Alucard wished to replenish himself fully to test the boy.
The power D remembered from his youth was not nearly as overwhelming now as it had been when he was younger, but it was still, as some humans would say, a rush. "Will you see to yourself now?"
"Of course. . this glut might take a few. . moments," he replied, then smirked. "Shall you come with me, test your mettle to see if you can resist the lure of virgin blood?"
"Go. I will wait here." He had never liked to watch his father feed, not because it disgusted him, but because he did not like to be reminded of his own weakness.
With a laughing glance, the vampire simply disappeared, fading to shadows. He reappeared in the cold storage room and began to glut on the blood, bloating himself like a tick.
D returned his sword to its customary place and put on his hat. Then he leaned back against the wall and waited.
"How did your first decent meal in ... what ... five hundred years feel?" a roughened voice asked from the vicinity of his left hip.
"You should know. You were awake."
"Think you might cut your wrist open, bleed on a bit of dirt so I can have a taste?"
"No. Now go away." D did not wish for the parasite to attract his father's attention.
"Spoilsport," the creature grumbled just before it disappeared.
"Who were you speaking to?" Alucard asked, eyeing the boy. "Yourself? Perhaps you should see someone about that."
Wearing a tiny smirk inherited entirely from his father, D stepped away from the wall. "Wouldn't you like to know. Let's go, if you're ready."
The vampire arched a brow. "You should not be smart to your father." But gave a maddening smile and rose. "Need you walk?"
D gave him a flat look. "I'm half human, Father. I may be able to blend with the shadows and occasionally break through dimensions, but walking through walls is not a talent I inherited."
"Hn. All right," Alucard replied. "Then you shall need meet me there. If you can find me. The spar starts now." And smirked before fading to shadows, moving off to the middle of the woods- a clearing there.
"I hate it when he does that," D muttered to himself, before racing downstairs in a blur of black and silver to his horse. In drinking Alucard's blood, he had become better attuned to the feel of his father's aura, and he used this now to track the vampire to the woods. Though his horse moved at an easy canter, it covered more ground than any mortal beast, cybernetically enhanced or not, had a right to cover in so short a time.
Alucard was waiting in the middle of the clearing for D, sensing the boy's arrival. The blood worked both ways, after all. He could sense D better as well.
D halted the horse some distance outside the clearing, so that the animal would be well out of the way of the fighting. He had no need to tie it or command it to stay. The stallion knew its duty. Shadows seemed to wrap themselves around D as he approached his father, hands at his sides rather than moving for a weapon. "You know that I am here," he said quietly. "Do you wish the honor of the first strike?"
"Come at me, my boy," Alucard replied, "This is a spar, not a chess match. We shall be savage and not polite." And with that, the shadows drew around them, tugging at the edges of Alucard's being.
Silver flashed through the darkness. D had drawn his sword and leapt for his father, cutting a deadly, elegant arc through the night towards the vampire's indistinct form. It was a killing blow, one that the dhampir did not expect to connect with the usual deadly force in light of his opponent's identity.
The sword slashed through shadows as the vampire gracefully disappeared, reappearing behind D and cocking the Casull (no need for the heavy artillery in a spar) at the back of D's head. He knew this would surely not be the end.
D was gone from the sights before Dracula finished squeezing the trigger. The dhampir dropped and spun, letting fly a half dozen lengths of sharpened rowan wood. He moved swiftly, already striking out with his sword before the stakes had a chance to drive into his father.
He took the stakes, feeling the wood drive into his body and melting down around them. The sword passed through nothing but hair as chunks of blood and thicker things congealed on the ground, then shifted to bats and rose upward, reforming into Alucard.
His son straightened and watched Alucard, gauging his next movement. The dhampir reminded himself that this was not a battle to the death. It was simply training. However, that did not mean that one or both of them wouldn't get hurt.
The vampire struck downward, firing three rounds to where he thought D might go, aiming for non consequential places such as arms or legs, nothing that might do permanent damage.
One of the bullets found its mark in D's sword arm. The hunter ducked and rolled to avoid its partners. As he moved, he switched his sword to his other hand, hardly reacting to the burning of the bullet in his body. Another handful of stakes sliced through the air, meant to cause a distraction as he lunged for his father again.
The stakes pinned the vampire to the tree and he asked, "All right, boy?" to ensure that the bullet had not caused permanent harm or damage. Once he got the answer, he would continue on fighting.
"I will be," D confirmed. He was fortunate that the bullets were designed for use on humans. The wound would heal completely once he had an opportunity to remove the bullet. Until then, he was more than able to compensate for the temporary loss of motion. "You?"
"Practically perfect," he purred, then leapt forward, firing again at the punk. His own body was more than all right, pain was never a hindrance.
The hunter staggered, another bullet finding its mark in his thigh. Teeth gritted, he leapt again, meeting his father in the air and foregoing his weapon in favor of using his free hand to grasp his father by the throat and drive him to the ground.
Alucard laughed around D's hand, a terrible gasping and choking sound, though he needed no air, in truth. And then in a blink he was melding to shadows again, hellhounds peering from all round, their multiple eyes fixating on D's blood.
D was still bleeding from the gunshot wound in his arm, but the one in his leg was already half-healed. That bullet had passed cleanly through. Not even winded, he remained perfectly still in the center of the clearing, watching the hellhounds. Those he could not see he could sense. They were, after all, a part of his father.
It might be time to call on his friend.
The hounds lunged forward, but did not bite, instead they coalesced into a giant wall of shadow, giving enough distraction for Alucard to slip the grip and reform in a flurry of batwings at the other side of the clearing. "Good good. . now come at me again!"
"As you wish, Father." D sheathed his sword and pulled the glove from his left hand. When he raised it, a face had formed in the palm, barely visible in the darkness, and it opened its jaws. Air rushed into the maw, pulling at Alucard with hurricane force.
Alucard frowned at the face opening up and starting to inhale. He gave a little ground, but for the most part, was rather fascinated by the look of it, if nothing else. "What is. . "
Then D's sword left its sheath, hurled straight at Alucard so that it would strike him just left of his heart with enough force to split the trunk of an oak tree.
Alucard caught the sword, stepping aside so it went just so past, hand grasping the hilt. "Well met, my son."
D lowered his hand. Now that Alucard had his sword, his options were few and far between. The only solution he could see was to call on the dark magic he had inherited from his father, but that was a power he never tapped into by choice. It was too raw for his human half to willingly call upon, and usually only came with the visceral need to survive at any cost.
"What now, son? Will you forfeit or will you draw upon the dark power I can sense building inside of you?" Alucard asked, holding the sword at his side, not intending to use it.
"It would be in both our interests if the power remains where it is ... inside of me." The dhampir's eyes were glowing red again, his fangs elongated just a fraction.
Alucard held the blade and offered D the hilt, "Then we shall press no further. I would be hard-pressed to see you come into any permanent harm."
The power banked and then faded, leaving D as he had been. He accepted the blade and returned it to its place, his arm's movement stiff from the bullet still embedded in muscle and bone. "It's not me I'm worried about. Once I release that power, I have no control over it."
"Then we shall take care not to push you thus far," Alucard replied, tilting his head and reaching. "Give me your arm. We need take out the bullet so you can heal properly."
D did as he was asked, and held his arm out for his father to deal with. "It's been quite awhile since anyone was able to aim well enough to hit me while I'm moving," he remarked.
"You are quick, but I have had much practice," the vampire replied and reached in with claws, delicately removing the bullet, but not without taking a bit of flesh as well.
His son hardly even flinched. Blood welled up from the wound, but soon slowed to a trickle. "You didn't use the Jackal."
"Jackal is loaded for vampire. You might have been permanently injured if hunted with that," he replied.
"Perhaps," D allowed. He pulled his glove back onto his left hand and called his horse. The animal stepped into the clearing as if two supernatural creatures had not just had a bloody battle there. "Was the match to your satisfaction, Father?" D asked, a smile in his eyes. He had, for the first time in many years, actually enjoyed the conflict.
"It was enjoyable," Alucard replied with a Cheshire grin. "Especially knowing that you are able to take care of yourself."
"I would make a poor Hunter if I could not." D laid his hand over his horse's withers as he regarded his father. "Does your work continue here? Or is it unnecessary?"
"My work?" Alucard asked, tilting his head. "I do as Integral says. You should know that at this point." Then smirked, inclining his head. "And there is no point to killing anything here. It will come back. However, it will not be able to leave this world if it dies here."
"Then I suppose we shall have to indulge in more of these outings to keep you occupied," the dhampir stated as he gathered his horse's reins and swung into the saddle.
"Yes, we would not wish for my idle hands to find a devil's tool. ." Then smirked and began shifting into the shadows. "Race you home."
Rating: Teen for a smidgeon of blood and violence.
Characters: Alucard [
thekingofpain] and D [favored_son]Summary: Seeing that D is fully recovered, Alucard insists that his son have a proper meal before joining him for a sparring session.
Log:
After two days of rest, D had completely recovered from the effects of his failed execution. He now occupied his time with checking over his supplies and weapons. The dhampir had already seen to his horse, which appeared to have suffered no ill effects from their little trip between worlds. Once he had ascertained that everything else was in order, D settled down to tend to his chief weapon--the longsword he carried sheathed at his back.
Alucard, after waiting a good length of time for D to heal, checking in on him, found this time around the boy to be healed. Shadows gathered in the corner of the room, red eyes opening and then closing. He stepped from that whirling vortex of black and out into the room, behind D, shadows clinging to his cape.
"Good evening, Father," D said softly, without looking up from his blade. "You've been checking on me, haven't you?" He was not surprised. His father had been kind to him in the early part of his life, concerned for his well-being rather than with honing a killing machine. It was good to feel that again, although the dhampir was determined not to grow complacent.
"Of course. I would never turn my back on my son," Alucard replied with a chuckle, moving closer to D, circling him and watching as the boy polished his weapon. "You seem tense. . still upset at your mother? Hn. I doubt little of her stubbornness has changed in your time. So, while it may hurt, you will understand for now. . besides, Daddy's here."
His eyes still on his sword, D corrected his father as tactfully as his nature would allow. "That is not the reason for my unease." With one final swipe of the cloth in his hand, D finished his work and slid the blade home in its sheath. He let the sword rest in his lap as he looked up to meet his father's gaze. "How old do you think I am, Father?" he asked, genuinely curious.
"Hn. I don't know, how old are you, D?" Alucard asked, amused. He wouldn't bother to hazard a guess. Seating himself next to D on the bed, the father glanced over his son. The boy had Integral's features, more and more resemblances were apparent each time he looked. "And you will tell me the reason for your ill ease."
"I am ill at ease because you and I have been enemies for nearly ten thousand years," he stated bluntly, without emotion in his ice blue eyes, "and because I have often wondered what Mother would think of what I have become." D spared a look for his father, to gauge the other's reaction.
"I imagine she would be proud of you," Alucard replied, inclining his head and reaching out, toying with the ends of D's soft hair. "You seem strong enough. Capable." Though, "Why are we enemies?"
A wry, pained smile touched D's lips. "Generally speaking, two people repeatedly attempting to kill each other is sufficient grounds for enmity." He sighed and let his fingers run over the polished black surface of the longsword's sheath. "I think it is what you want, and it is all I can give you in the time I come from, save death."
"Hn. What I want from you, here and now, is simply time, D," Alucard replied. "As much as possible. I know when she dies I will lose my mind, and I imagine that is why we try to kill each other, yes?"
D nodded. "Something like that." Finally, he smiled a genuine smile, free of regret or longing. "I would like time as well. Even a thousand years ago, I would not have admitted this, but I miss you."
"My poor, poor boy," He purred, twining fingers in D's hair, petting him. "Without her we are nothing, are we? Lost and trying. . thousands of years. I cannot begin to imagine. ."
"It might be best that you don't," D commented, though he allowed his father's attentions. It was something of a minor miracle that he did, considering he had developed a preference for avoiding physical contact over the years. "I have accepted what my existence is, but you need not resign yourself to the future I have lived."
"I know what will happen, my boy," Alucard replied. "There is only one way to keep me from madness and that could alter the future in negative favor to you."
D snorted. "It might be worth it to avoid the rather embarrassing incident with Baron Clapham," he said, in a rare show of self-deprecating humor.
"Hn. I shall see what I can do after you are born," Alucard replied, finishing his petting of the boy and instead looking to the blade. "Is that a Hellsing creation or one of your own?"
"A collaborative effort between you and Mother." The hunter offered the sword to Alucard, displaying his trust in the vampire. Even sealed and significantly younger than D was now, the vampire could pose a serious threat to the dhampir if he chose. "You presented it to me after I had been joining you in hunts for a full year."
"A year of hunts. . hn. Odd that this would be the weapon chosen for you instead of a gun. ." Then chuckled, "Though it makes sense." And added, "How does dinner sound?"
"Guns run out of ammunition," D pointed out, "and I am not quite as immune to injury as you are, Father." He canted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow at Alucard. "Dinner now? You would prefer to spar on a full stomach?"
"More blood, more power," Alucard replied with a purr, leaning in to sniff at the boy before pulling away and rising. "Or perhaps spar and then eat if that is your preference."
D shrugged and stood with his father. "My occupation does not allow me the luxury of choice."
"Your occupation, at the moment, is that of my son, and therefore, choice," he replied with a smirk.
Still infuriating, D reflected fondly. "Dinner then, if you will fight better after a good meal."
"I will fight well either way, though if dinner is your choice, would you prefer someone large or small breasted?" Alucard asked innocuously.
"Father ... " The hunter gave the vampire a warning glare.
He laughed at that, fangs showing for a moment before sobering, then smirked, "And whom would you like to drink?"
D rolled his eyes. "You're impossible. I don't drink human blood." He removed another of the packets and held it up for Alucard to see. "This is more than sufficient."
Upper lip curling back, he sneered, baring fangs, "My boy, you should eat something else. At least for now, hm? Your supplies might run low and all."
"I don't think that's a good idea," the dhampir warned. Bloodlust, for D, was not quite the same as it was for a vampire. He had no desire to invite it.
"Hn. Then what shall you do when your supplies of. . powder. . run out?" He asked leaning in ever so slightly over D.
Unfortunately, his father had a point. "I'm not sure," he admitted. Then, after some hesitation, "It's been a long time since I drank human blood."
"And how would vampire blood affect you?" Alucard asked, curious. It would not turn the dhampir, he supposed, but would it be nourishment or a poison?
That issue had not come up in centuries. D could not think of what to say for several moments. "Whose?" he finally asked.
"My own, of course. Flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood," he replied, tone rather amused.
"The last time I took blood from you, I didn't have much choice in the matter," D admitted, "but it caused me no harm."
"Then drink again," Alucard replied, "Perhaps it will heighten your senses and allow you more range of fighting. I will drink my dinner from a bag."
If there was one thing D knew, it was when to yield to the No Life King. He gave his father a look that said, "Don't let this go to your head," before giving in with a nod.
The cheshire grin said very much that it was going to his head. Alucard was rather used to having his way when it did not concern Integral's will. "Very well, then. . shall you eat here?"
"It is as good a place as any, I suppose." Oh, his partner was never going to let him hear the end of this.
"Hn. ." Alucard purred and rolled up the sleeve of his jacket and shirt, "I intend to give you the wrist, unless you object. I imagine anything else might seem too. . intimate. ." And smirked.
D cast his father an uncertain look, but the willing offer of blood was painfully tempting. A reddish tint crept into his eyes as his fangs lengthened. Still, he hesitated.
"You cannot kill me by draining, my boy," Alucard murmured, pressing his hand to the back of D's head and urging him forward to drink. "Be a good boy."
A memory rose to the fore. D recalled his father's hand supporting his head, his father's wrist, already bleeding, pressed to his lips. It was enough. His fangs broke Alucard's cold skin, and he drank deeply, replenishing the remainder of the stores lost when he was staked to the earth by Clapham's creatures.
Stroking D's hair, Alucard nuzzled the top of his head. "Drink," he murmured. "Drink." And gave freely of his blood to the boy. The fangs piercing his flesh had been an odd sensation, one of prey, not of predator.
At last, D forced himself to pull away, breathing hard as he fought the urge to drain his father dry. His fangs receded, and his eyes regained the blue shade he had inherited from his mother. The parasite stirred, and D clenched his left hand to keep it silent. "Thank you," he said.
Alucard's eyes were half closed and he finally healed his wrist as D pulled away. "You are welcome, my boy." He would need more than just a small meal of blood. Though D had come nowhere near close to harming him, Alucard wished to replenish himself fully to test the boy.
The power D remembered from his youth was not nearly as overwhelming now as it had been when he was younger, but it was still, as some humans would say, a rush. "Will you see to yourself now?"
"Of course. . this glut might take a few. . moments," he replied, then smirked. "Shall you come with me, test your mettle to see if you can resist the lure of virgin blood?"
"Go. I will wait here." He had never liked to watch his father feed, not because it disgusted him, but because he did not like to be reminded of his own weakness.
With a laughing glance, the vampire simply disappeared, fading to shadows. He reappeared in the cold storage room and began to glut on the blood, bloating himself like a tick.
D returned his sword to its customary place and put on his hat. Then he leaned back against the wall and waited.
"How did your first decent meal in ... what ... five hundred years feel?" a roughened voice asked from the vicinity of his left hip.
"You should know. You were awake."
"Think you might cut your wrist open, bleed on a bit of dirt so I can have a taste?"
"No. Now go away." D did not wish for the parasite to attract his father's attention.
"Spoilsport," the creature grumbled just before it disappeared.
"Who were you speaking to?" Alucard asked, eyeing the boy. "Yourself? Perhaps you should see someone about that."
Wearing a tiny smirk inherited entirely from his father, D stepped away from the wall. "Wouldn't you like to know. Let's go, if you're ready."
The vampire arched a brow. "You should not be smart to your father." But gave a maddening smile and rose. "Need you walk?"
D gave him a flat look. "I'm half human, Father. I may be able to blend with the shadows and occasionally break through dimensions, but walking through walls is not a talent I inherited."
"Hn. All right," Alucard replied. "Then you shall need meet me there. If you can find me. The spar starts now." And smirked before fading to shadows, moving off to the middle of the woods- a clearing there.
"I hate it when he does that," D muttered to himself, before racing downstairs in a blur of black and silver to his horse. In drinking Alucard's blood, he had become better attuned to the feel of his father's aura, and he used this now to track the vampire to the woods. Though his horse moved at an easy canter, it covered more ground than any mortal beast, cybernetically enhanced or not, had a right to cover in so short a time.
Alucard was waiting in the middle of the clearing for D, sensing the boy's arrival. The blood worked both ways, after all. He could sense D better as well.
D halted the horse some distance outside the clearing, so that the animal would be well out of the way of the fighting. He had no need to tie it or command it to stay. The stallion knew its duty. Shadows seemed to wrap themselves around D as he approached his father, hands at his sides rather than moving for a weapon. "You know that I am here," he said quietly. "Do you wish the honor of the first strike?"
"Come at me, my boy," Alucard replied, "This is a spar, not a chess match. We shall be savage and not polite." And with that, the shadows drew around them, tugging at the edges of Alucard's being.
Silver flashed through the darkness. D had drawn his sword and leapt for his father, cutting a deadly, elegant arc through the night towards the vampire's indistinct form. It was a killing blow, one that the dhampir did not expect to connect with the usual deadly force in light of his opponent's identity.
The sword slashed through shadows as the vampire gracefully disappeared, reappearing behind D and cocking the Casull (no need for the heavy artillery in a spar) at the back of D's head. He knew this would surely not be the end.
D was gone from the sights before Dracula finished squeezing the trigger. The dhampir dropped and spun, letting fly a half dozen lengths of sharpened rowan wood. He moved swiftly, already striking out with his sword before the stakes had a chance to drive into his father.
He took the stakes, feeling the wood drive into his body and melting down around them. The sword passed through nothing but hair as chunks of blood and thicker things congealed on the ground, then shifted to bats and rose upward, reforming into Alucard.
His son straightened and watched Alucard, gauging his next movement. The dhampir reminded himself that this was not a battle to the death. It was simply training. However, that did not mean that one or both of them wouldn't get hurt.
The vampire struck downward, firing three rounds to where he thought D might go, aiming for non consequential places such as arms or legs, nothing that might do permanent damage.
One of the bullets found its mark in D's sword arm. The hunter ducked and rolled to avoid its partners. As he moved, he switched his sword to his other hand, hardly reacting to the burning of the bullet in his body. Another handful of stakes sliced through the air, meant to cause a distraction as he lunged for his father again.
The stakes pinned the vampire to the tree and he asked, "All right, boy?" to ensure that the bullet had not caused permanent harm or damage. Once he got the answer, he would continue on fighting.
"I will be," D confirmed. He was fortunate that the bullets were designed for use on humans. The wound would heal completely once he had an opportunity to remove the bullet. Until then, he was more than able to compensate for the temporary loss of motion. "You?"
"Practically perfect," he purred, then leapt forward, firing again at the punk. His own body was more than all right, pain was never a hindrance.
The hunter staggered, another bullet finding its mark in his thigh. Teeth gritted, he leapt again, meeting his father in the air and foregoing his weapon in favor of using his free hand to grasp his father by the throat and drive him to the ground.
Alucard laughed around D's hand, a terrible gasping and choking sound, though he needed no air, in truth. And then in a blink he was melding to shadows again, hellhounds peering from all round, their multiple eyes fixating on D's blood.
D was still bleeding from the gunshot wound in his arm, but the one in his leg was already half-healed. That bullet had passed cleanly through. Not even winded, he remained perfectly still in the center of the clearing, watching the hellhounds. Those he could not see he could sense. They were, after all, a part of his father.
It might be time to call on his friend.
The hounds lunged forward, but did not bite, instead they coalesced into a giant wall of shadow, giving enough distraction for Alucard to slip the grip and reform in a flurry of batwings at the other side of the clearing. "Good good. . now come at me again!"
"As you wish, Father." D sheathed his sword and pulled the glove from his left hand. When he raised it, a face had formed in the palm, barely visible in the darkness, and it opened its jaws. Air rushed into the maw, pulling at Alucard with hurricane force.
Alucard frowned at the face opening up and starting to inhale. He gave a little ground, but for the most part, was rather fascinated by the look of it, if nothing else. "What is. . "
Then D's sword left its sheath, hurled straight at Alucard so that it would strike him just left of his heart with enough force to split the trunk of an oak tree.
Alucard caught the sword, stepping aside so it went just so past, hand grasping the hilt. "Well met, my son."
D lowered his hand. Now that Alucard had his sword, his options were few and far between. The only solution he could see was to call on the dark magic he had inherited from his father, but that was a power he never tapped into by choice. It was too raw for his human half to willingly call upon, and usually only came with the visceral need to survive at any cost.
"What now, son? Will you forfeit or will you draw upon the dark power I can sense building inside of you?" Alucard asked, holding the sword at his side, not intending to use it.
"It would be in both our interests if the power remains where it is ... inside of me." The dhampir's eyes were glowing red again, his fangs elongated just a fraction.
Alucard held the blade and offered D the hilt, "Then we shall press no further. I would be hard-pressed to see you come into any permanent harm."
The power banked and then faded, leaving D as he had been. He accepted the blade and returned it to its place, his arm's movement stiff from the bullet still embedded in muscle and bone. "It's not me I'm worried about. Once I release that power, I have no control over it."
"Then we shall take care not to push you thus far," Alucard replied, tilting his head and reaching. "Give me your arm. We need take out the bullet so you can heal properly."
D did as he was asked, and held his arm out for his father to deal with. "It's been quite awhile since anyone was able to aim well enough to hit me while I'm moving," he remarked.
"You are quick, but I have had much practice," the vampire replied and reached in with claws, delicately removing the bullet, but not without taking a bit of flesh as well.
His son hardly even flinched. Blood welled up from the wound, but soon slowed to a trickle. "You didn't use the Jackal."
"Jackal is loaded for vampire. You might have been permanently injured if hunted with that," he replied.
"Perhaps," D allowed. He pulled his glove back onto his left hand and called his horse. The animal stepped into the clearing as if two supernatural creatures had not just had a bloody battle there. "Was the match to your satisfaction, Father?" D asked, a smile in his eyes. He had, for the first time in many years, actually enjoyed the conflict.
"It was enjoyable," Alucard replied with a Cheshire grin. "Especially knowing that you are able to take care of yourself."
"I would make a poor Hunter if I could not." D laid his hand over his horse's withers as he regarded his father. "Does your work continue here? Or is it unnecessary?"
"My work?" Alucard asked, tilting his head. "I do as Integral says. You should know that at this point." Then smirked, inclining his head. "And there is no point to killing anything here. It will come back. However, it will not be able to leave this world if it dies here."
"Then I suppose we shall have to indulge in more of these outings to keep you occupied," the dhampir stated as he gathered his horse's reins and swung into the saddle.
"Yes, we would not wish for my idle hands to find a devil's tool. ." Then smirked and began shifting into the shadows. "Race you home."