Awakening The Impaler

PROLOGUE

As Cain disappeared from his former lover Shido\'s sight, Shido breathed in silent relief that at last he would have to look upon the source of his torment and desire no more... at least he hoped so. Now he could be free to love Riho, or whoever he chose - no longer would Cain be able to toy with his heart and mind as he used to do. In time, he hoped to forget his vampiric sire and lover altogether... but there was someone who, in over four hundred years of living as a child of the night, had never forgotten Cain - nor stopped desiring him...


The realm of Transylvania awaits with fear his return
With twenty thousand Crusaders he will drive poles through
Every follower of Danesti ruler Vladislav II....
\'Dreams of Blood and Iron\' ~ Marduk (used with *hopeful* permission ^^;;)


Chapter I - Rise of the Impaler

The sleepy little village of Sighisoara in Transylvania lay in tranquil slumber under a night sky dotted with a multitude of twinkling stars. It had been at least two centuries since the inhabitants had had to worry about the legend of the terrifying tyrant who had lived in his castle high in the Carpathian Mountains as their lord... as far as they were concerned the vampire hunter Abraham van Helsing had done his work and slain the evil undead Prince, who had once been feared and respected as Wallachia\'s greatest leader and military general.

Yet he lived still... and burned with revenge still...

But as he slept in his magnificent ebony-wood coffin deep underground below his castle in Snagov - where he had fled to after narrowly surviving the titanic battle with the perhaps not-so-human Abraham van Helsing - Vladislav Tepes dreamed now not of revenge against the van Helsing family line as such anymore, but of an old friend of bewitching golden beauty instead, long blonde hair sheltering mesmerizing amber-gold eyes. A man he\'d met many centuries ago, at a time when Vlad was only a new vampire himself; a man he\'d never in all his prolonged existence, alive or otherwise, ceased to desire despite the great love he still bore for his long-gone wife Elisabeta...

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Cain heard a voice call to him through the darkness... it seemed strangely familiar, yet because it was so faint he was uncertain if he was hearing anything at all. The blond master vampire lifted his head, and strained his ears to catch the faint sound once again. This time he heard a soft, accented male\'s voice calling, \"Cain... I can feel you near to me... come, my friend... come and find me...\"
\"Surely that cannot be... Vlad?\" Cain said, frowning as though wrestling with some great problem. \"I thought he was dead, destroyed by van Helsing - yet I hear him calling to me, as though he were only some distance away.\" Concentrating, Cain used his vampire’s telepathy to seek out the source of the voice, and transport himself there.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Vlad smiled in the dark, close confines of his coffin as he sensed Cain materialize in the Impaler\'s underground dungeons, just outside the room he rested in. \"At last my friend... you have come,\" he whispered in anticipation.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Looking around the torch-lit dungeon corridors, Cain nearly gasped as he recognized the location he\'d arrived in. \"Why, this is Vlad\'s castle in Tirgoviste,\" he said in disbelief. \"Whatever can I be doing here?\"
He turned his head as a whisper brushed at his mind like a silken caress, \"Cain... I am in here. Enter with my blessing.\"
The whisper had come from the room just down the hallway on the right side, the blond vampire was certain; so he headed in that direction, ending up in front of a solid oak door about four feet from where he\'d been standing before. Pushing at the door lightly, Cain was surprised to see the door swing in easily, without so much as a rusty creak. The cobwebs at the top of the door broke like a fragile lace curtain as the door opened, and Cain stepped into the elaborate bedchamber/torture chamber. He chuckled quietly to himself as he took in the contents of the room, all the many deadly instruments of pain and death distributed in a sadistic display of Vlad\'s personal pleasure (one of them, anyway). \"My friend, you have always had a penchant for showing off how violent and bloodthirsty you are. What better place for you to rest than in a room such as this?\"
He moved to the great black coffin standing in the middle of the room, and shifted the lid easily with his vampiric strength. Setting it down on the stone floor quietly, he bent over and studied the figure lying in state within. Even though he\'d not long left Shido and missed him with an intensity that Cain was certain would stay with him for many centuries more, the blond master vampire had to admit that his old friend the Impaler was a vision to behold - strong, defined features with a thin, aristocratic nose; long glossy blue-black hair that even after all this time still shone as lustrously as it must have when he was still the terror of Transylvania; a lithe and athletic though powerfully-muscled frame, clad in fourteenth-century black-and-gold embroidered robes - yes, Vlad was still as pale and handsome as Cain remembered him.
He blinked in surprise as the long-lashed eyes opened, and Vlad looked on his long-lost friend once more. \"So you have come at last,\" he whispered, in a soft bass voice only slightly rusty from long years of torporic silence. It was a voice that used to send a frisson of pleasure down Cain\'s spine just hearing it, and it seemed that nothing had changed. Fire and then ice lanced through him as he listened to that divine voice once again. \"It has been far too long since our last meeting, my dear Cain.\"
The blond vampire would have opened his mouth then to attempt a reply, but Vlad had already sat up and fastened his lips passionately to those of Cain\'s as he slid a long-fingered hand to the back of Cain\'s neck. The kiss lasted for several seconds, Cain mostly letting it continue due to plain shock at the suddenness of the movement. Then Vlad took his mouth away, letting his hand rest on Cain\'s neck as his beautiful green eyes locked onto his friend\'s amber ones. \"You look as though someone has run a spear through your chest,\" he joked.
\"Vlad... it was you calling to me, was it not?\" the younger vampire managed to get out after a few stunned seconds.
Vlad nodded. \"It was,\" he confirmed. \"I have slept overlong, and been without company - I could sense your presence as you departed Japan, and I wished to see you once more. So, I drew you to me by calling your name, hoping you would hear me.\"
\"Why did you kiss me just now?\" Cain asked of him, slightly puzzled. He knew his friend well enough to remember that Vlad, being an ancient vampire himself, preferred both men and women - but he\'d never had any idea that Vlad might have desired him as well.
Vlad chuckled, and Cain had to close his eyes to prevent Vlad from seeing how his own eyes darkened somewhat in involuntary lust at that sound. \"Even back then, my dear friend, did you truly not know the depths of my desire for you? No other individual but you had it within their power to make me burn for them the way I did for Elisabeta, no one else was able to so completely invade my thoughts and dreams while I slept here these long centuries past - only you, my Golden One.\"
Cain was not one to be surprised often, or for very long, and had recovered his composure completely before Vlad had finished speaking. A faint smirk crossed his lovely face as he took in this new revelation that his old friend had so recently made. \"If that is true, then what would your lovely wife had thought of you for harbouring such adulterous desires? Surely that would have been in severe violation of your vows as a devout Christian, hmm?\"
Vlad\'s features darkened, and a low hiss issued from between his slightly-bared canines. \"No longer do I answer to God, for I renounced his traitorous and unfounded faith centuries ago. He did not spare my poor Elisabeta her terrible fate, nor did He hear my prayers when I needed Him most. So now, as the legends proclaim, I swear I shall spare not a single one of His children in my all-consuming flames of revenge! They shall all return to the earth from which they came by my hands alone; all will suffer, as my precious Elisabeta suffered, and be lost to the darkness forever as I am!\"
His beautiful deep voice rose to a harsh cry as his emotions got the better of him, and for a moment Cain was taken aback by the force of Vlad\'s sudden display of ancient fury. Then he remembered that Vlad had lived his entire life surrounded by blood, steel and death, his existence having played out in one endless scene of pain and violence. Truly, God had meted out to Vlad no small punishment for his cruel and bloody reign as ruler of Wallachia - He had not even spared the Prince from paying the ultimate price for his many sins... damnation of the soul. Now Vladislav Tepes was a Child of the Night, the original Nosferatu... a vampire.
Cain nodded. \"I understand,\" he said quietly. \"But that may not matter so much after you hear what I have to say to you.\"
Vlad managed to calm himself immediately. \"I gather this is rather important?\"
\"It is,\" the blond vampire confirmed. He glanced at the stone floor for a moment, then drew in a breath and continued. \"I have chosen to pursue Shido no longer. Many times have I appeared to him and pleaded with him to come back to me, but he will not hear me. He has eyes only for that foolish young female I placed in his care some time ago.\"
\"Ah, the young girl whose parents were killed by Nightbreeds about a few years back,\" Vlad surmised. \"Even in torpor, I sensed many changes in the Nightbreed world; those particular individuals violated our ancient daemonic code by killing innocent humans out of pleasure alone and not hunger. And I was none too happy about that, as anyone can imagine.\" He cocked his head to one side curiously. \"So Shido has fallen for the young woman, and you feel you have lost him for good this time, is that right?\"
Cain nodded once.
Vlad\'s face took on a puzzled expression. \"But you are his master and sire,\" he added. \"How is it that he was able to resist you and lose his heart to an inferior vampire like Riho?\" (Here the author must remind the reader that it was child\'s play for vampires of Vlad and Cain\'s calibre to reach into even one another\'s minds and pluck forth pieces of information such as places and names.) He frowned. \"It seems a rare and strange thing to occur among our kind.\"
\"Nevertheless, it has happened - though, I vow that my feelings for him shall never change,\" Cain replied adamantly. \"As you said, I am his master and his one true love; and I shall forever hope for his return.\"
\"Then if this is truly how you feel, why did you wish to tell me about it?\" Vlad asked of him curiously, trying hard to conceal his own great disappointment. \"Now that I have revealed my own feelings for you, should it matter that Shido no longer wants you as he once did? Can you not put this spurious love aside and accept mine, dear Cain?\"
Cain\'s golden eyes flared suddenly. \"Spurious?\" he growled. \"Do not speak so of my emotions! I made Shido, and I have loved him since the very first time I saw him - do not dare to dismiss such things so callously!\"
The Impaler was amused at how he had managed to raise Cain\'s hackles so. \"You look so very beautiful when you\'re angry, my Golden One,\" he smiled. \"I apologize, I did not mean to insult your relationship with your lover in such a vulgar manner. You must understand even a logical being like myself can get quite jealous at times.\"
His only answer was a \'Hmph\' and the turning of Cain\'s back to him. Vlad rose to his feet and stepped lightly out of the great coffin, slipping his arms about Cain\'s waist from behind. \"It may take some time,\" he leaned down to whisper seductively in Cain\'s ear, \"even years or centuries, but one day I shall possess you completely and utterly. Your body, your mind and your soul… they will all eventually belong to me.\"
Cain\'s body was like that of a statue and his warm honeyed voice turned to amber ice as he said only one word: \"Never.\"
The Prince tightened his grip on Cain briefly. \"We shall see, my beautiful Cain, we shall see. Now - go if you wish, I will not bar your way should you want to leave. Grant me one final thing, though, if you would...\" He turned Cain\'s head a little by taking the blond master vampire\'s chin in his fingers again, and captured Cain\'s mouth in a last ravishing kiss. This time Cain could not resist Vlad\'s passion as well as before, despite himself - soon, he had turned to face Vlad properly and was kissing him back. Then, as Vlad slid a hand through Cain\'s thick golden hair to cup the back of his head, Cain vanished instantly... and the Impaler was alone once more.
He smiled knowingly. \"That was a most insolent trick you pulled there, my beautiful one,\" he chuckled. \"But it will not save you from me... nothing on this earth or in the Underworld has the power to shield you from my eternal passion and enduring love for you, my one and only Golden Dawn.\"