Emma instructed them to take the left tunnel and follow it straight until they reached the surface. "Just trust me. I know." Emma insisted when Richter doubted her. Vance believed her by the certainty in her voice.
The ascent was slow and steady. Though they journeyed in darkness, they felt the elevation the rise in beneath their feet. "Just keep going, we will get there."Emma struggled to keep pace. Her limbs ached to the point it spread from her fractures to her entire body, and she was utterly exhausted. She knew if she stopped to rest she wouldn't get up until her strength returned, and her muscles healed with her bones.
"We'll take our time." Richter assured. "As long as we know for sure this leads to the surface."
Vance didn't answer, or make a concern. He stopped, flickering his eyes in the orb light. "Emma. In the corner to your left." Emma levitated the orb to the dark spot Vance indicated. A small still shape curled up against a hidden rock shelf. Emma and Richter hurried over to the form, the light cast its glow on a boy huddled against the stone on his side, his limbs tucked against his body.
He was alive, Emma heard his heartbeat, but he was bruised and perhaps very dehydrated. He stirred when Emma gently nudged him. "Francis. Francis, can you hear me?"
The boy groaned, slowly opening his eyes. He had to be at least nine or ten years old. No older than Richter when he was orphaned. Maternal instincts swelled within Emma's heart. " You're going to be okay, we're here to bring you home."
"Are you....?" He murmured half consciously. "An angel? Am I dead?"
"You're alive, kid." Richter said. "And lucky. Your mother is worried sick about you."
The boy sniffled. "I didn't mean to fall. We were playing a game about how far we could go before turning back. But vampires chased us and...I fell. The other boys ran out, but I couldn't see and I stayed still so they couldn't find me. I covered myself with dirt and didn't move."
""Have you been laying here hiding all this time?"
The boy nodded.
Emma checked him over and asked if he could move his arms and legs. "My foot hurts."
"Can you stand?"
"A little." He struggled to get up, favoring his right leg.
"Must be a sprain." Emma murmured. She knew better than to carry him in her weakened injured state.
The Belmont and Nephilim tensed at the stirring of wind within the cavern, the familiar sound of vampires on the move. "Emma.Richter." Vance bared his teeth. "Take the child and go!"
"We can't outrun vampires!" Richter exclaimed. "Especially with them as weakened as they are!"
"But I can give you time." Vance reassured.
Emma gripped her sword hilt. "What are you planning Vance?"
"Just a little diversion." He winked. "Now go!"
Emma knew vampires well enough to understand they would track them down before they ever reached the entrance. Especially with the dried blood on her clothes and hair. She needed to trust Vance to give them whatever time to make their escape.
At the fluttering of wings, Emma huddled the two humans and herself in a concealed nook in the wall, muttering a spell that would at least conceal their scent and sound. Her glyphs itched and Richter made a small gasp. From outside they heard the fleet footsteps of two unfamiliar vampires.
"Good evening gentlemen." Vance greeted them politely. "Didn't expect to see any of my folk active at this time of day. What brings you out of your roost?"
"Where the hell did you come from?" Rasped one vampire.
"From the outside of course." Vance answered truthfully. "I came seeking shelter from the day and found this nice dark little cave system to roost in here until moonlight. Didn't know it was occupied. Forgive me for the intrusion."
"Oh it is." Another vampire hissed in a thin voice. "Thanks to the grace of the local lordship."
"Lordship?" Vance wondered.
"The Marquis." The thin voiced vampire answered. "The one in the local chateau. Him. He lets us roost here as long as we don't make too much noise. You ain't from around here are you?"
Richter gripped into the leather of the vampire whip and stared harshly at Emma. She responded with the same sharp look. 'Later.' She mouthed. She'd tell her mother later.
"No, I was just passing through." Vance telepathically nudged Emma to move. Slowly and cautiously she got Richter and the boy out, keeping the concealment spell over her despite the drain on her already taxed body.
"Well if you're just passing through care to join us on a hunt?" Asked the gruff voiced vampire. "A pack of humans disturbed us in our roost and had the balls to attack us. And a child . We ambushed the pack but they ended up killing a couple of us and escaped. Most of them escaped outside where we couldn't get 'em, two of them are scrounging around in the caves."
'Go!' 'Go'! Emma mouthed hurrying Richter and Francis. The boy could move no faster than Emma. We're never gonna get out of here! The Belmont thought, gripping the handle of his weapon.
"Really?" Vance didn't bother to hide his shock. "Do tell?"
"A human." The gruff vampire answered. "A scrappy young adolescent male and......something else."
"Something else?" Vance acted curious. " What do you mean by that?"
"We don't know what it is. Only that it's a female and it's injured. We're trailing the scent of her blood." He growled. "We've never smelled anything like her before, definitely not human, and a breeder. Her scent tells us she's whelped a few times."
" And she's got more than a drop of vampire in her. Her scent is sweet and we want to taste her." The thin voiced vampire hissed eagerly. "Her blood, whatever it is must taste delicious."
"I wouldn't advise that." Vance stated.
"Why not!?"
"Well, if you don't know exactly what this female is, how can you be sure her blood is not dangerous for consumption? That's like a human eating wild berries without questioning if they're poisonous."
"We're vampires." Thin voice. "No blood is poisonous to us."
"Except someone who's eaten garlic." Growled gruff.
"Garlic only gives me minor indigestion."
"Garlic gives me the shits!"
Emma heard a third shuffling of feet. A third vampire entered the conversation with a ragged snarl. "You traitorous fuck!!"
The two other vampires hissed. "Ey what do you mean?"
"Are you both blind!?" Emma recognized the voice as one of the attackers from the beginning. "He's part of the group of intruders that killed half our brood!" Emma collapsed, the strain of the spell wore her thin, and she hunched over. "Leave." She whispered to Richter and the child, who hurried on.
The vampire didn't go to attack Vance, instead, flash stepping forward and dragging Emma to their clutches, pinning her arm so she couldn't grab her sword, with another hand clenched on her throat. The more she struggled the deeper his claws dug into her skin making her bleed.
"I've never scented blood so sweet." The ambush vampire licked his fangs. "Let's have a taste of this novelty, shall we?"
"Let her go!" Vance lunged but the other two forced him down."Do what you want with me but let her go!"Vance wrangled and snarled bearing his fangs. "You don't know who she is! If you kill her, her father will hunt every one of you down in merciless vengeance!"
"Why should we believe you, traitor?"
"Because her father entrusted me to protect her!" Vance bellowed.
"You failed." Snarled Gruff. "Take a bite outta her, Boss. Tell me if her blood is as sweet as her scent."
"We should've known you was a turncoat!" Hissed Thin. "Now you'll watch us feed!"
Emma bled trying to wrangle herself free. "Good. Struggle." The vampire restrained her with a sinister laugh. "Makes the blood flow faster."
The only blood he ended up tasting was gush in his own throat when his neck snapped and cracked from the Vampire Killer's lash.He crashed to the floor bleeding from his severed head.
"You really need to stop gloating if you're gonna kill someone." Richter stepped before them, bearing the family's trademark weapon.
"A Belmont!!!" Gruff exclaimed panicked.
"We thought you was all dead!" Spat Thin.
"Lucky for her, we're not." Richter smirked, standing steadfast when the two vampires lunged for him. Emma could only watch what appeared like a dance. Richter Belmont stepping two and fro, dodging with the grace and finesse of an angel . The whip flailed in the air coiling around Gruff's neck as he dove at his prey. With a sharp yank, Richter cracked his neck and sent him crashing.
Thin lunged at him, but Richter remembered Emma's crucial advice of never letting a vampire get in close. He darted back on his feet from the vampire's swipes, lashing the whip several times through the chest sharp enough to reveal the beating heart within its ribs. With a final strike, the heart exploded and the vampire collapsed dead in a blood-soaked puddle.
Emma crouched on her knees stunned out of her mind, her eyes locked on the vampire slayer standing before her as her protector. Richter turned around and smiled at her, helping her up. "You okay Em?"
She nodded, touching the wounds already healing up. "Well done, Belmont." Vance growled in approval.
Richter didn't let go of Emma, supporting her weight. "Let's go home." He turned to the child hiding behind the rock shelf as instructed. "All of us."
...
The sun lowered over the western skies when they stepped into its light. Emma shielded her eyes, letting her sight adjust while stepping along with Richter and her group. The caves had another entrance, and the boy was right there. If only we knew..
Yet, she felt things happened the way they were meant to happen. She met her guardian angel. Her brother.
She wondered how her mother would react.
They found Amalie, Terra, and Maria at the bottom of the hill. Amalie ran to her daughter, crushing her in a crying hug before Emma yelped sharply in pain. "Sorry, I'm a little hurt." Emma blushed.
They returned to Amalie's house without trouble, albeit slow due to the injuries of the rescued. Emma babbled excitedly about the cave paintings, saying how she wished her mother could have seen it. (She'd tell her about the Hall of Angels, and her brother when they were alone).
Amalie set Emma and Francis in nurse beds. The boy, thankfully wasn't badly injured; A sprained ankle, multiple bruises, and dehydrated. Nothing that a couple of days of rest couldn't heal.
"Dear lord above Emmaline." Amalie sighed after examining Emma behind the curtains of her bed. "You'd still be laying at the bottom of the cave if it weren't for your healing abilities. Two fractured femurs, a broken radius, and a cracked rib. Do you have any idea how lucky you are, being what you are?"
"I am Mom." Emma smiled laying down on her pillow.
"No more hunts with Richter until you've fully recovered , you hear? I'm putting you on bed-rest!"
"Yes Mother." She nudged.
Tera lifted aside the curtain. "Emmaline." The former Speaker has gone into town to find Francis's mother. Emma sat up, drawing the hospital robe over her. The woman stepped into the room with her husband. Once they saw their son, they rushed to him crying.
"Mother!Father!" The boy wept in his parents' embrace.
Emma watched the heartfelt reunion with tears in her eyes. Her mother sat with her, rubbing her shoulder.
"Bless you Emmaline." The woman kissed her cheeks afterwards,still crying. "Bless you."
"Think nothing of it." Emma said humbly. "And it wasn't just me. Richter and my family helped find him."
"You are an angel." His father told her.
Emma only blushed.
Francis' parents brought him home on a cart, with casks full of water and medicine meant for antibiotics, pain, and re-hydration. Even in the dark times, they would forever be thankful for Emma.
Emma relocated to her own bedroom, where she would spend the majority of her upcoming time resting in bed. She felt a burst of overwhelming relief and love pour into her heart. Her father knew she was safe.
"Come in." She answered the knock.
Richter entered the room, sitting in a chair by her bedside. "How are you feeling Em?"
"Like shit and sore all over." Emma grunted. "Can't move much, but at least I can get up so I won't have to piss in my bed."
Richter laughed. "You're really something Em."
"So are you, Belmont." Emma remarked, sitting up against the headboard. "That was incredible. The way you dispatched those vampires? Amazing."
"Thanks. I've learned from the best." His smile faded. "And my mother too. I think she would have been proud."
"She would have." Emma reached her good arm and rubbed his shoulder. "You're really a Belmont now. I mean...you always were, but this was your moment to show what you're truly made of."
"Thanks Em....I couldn't have gotten this far without you...and I still have alot to go. Will you stand by me until then?
"More than that Richter. I will always stand by you."
Richter leaned over and kissed Emma on the forehead, surprising her. He never showed that level of affection around her. "Thank you Emma."
"You're welcome." Emma thrummed. "I'm sorry about yelling at you before. You were right, I was being reckless and not using my head. I let my emotions take over and put everyone in danger."
"Don't beat yourself up." Richter said. "We needed to find that child and we did. It was worth the risk. Now he's safe and home."
"He is." Emma whispered, unable to speak further before swallowing the lump in her throat. "She knows he's safe in her arms. And she doesn't have to spend the rest of her life tortured by the uncertainty of what happened to her child." She shuddered, tears dripping on her blanket. "Like I still do."
Richter took her hand, and Emma held it dearly.
"My son went missing a long time ago. His name was Lyudmil."
Richter spoke gently to her. "You don't need to tell me if it still hurts. Some things even I don't talk about."
"It's all right. It feels better when I do, and you deserve to know." Emma sighed. "Many years ago, I married a Whisperer alchemist. His name was Cyrus, and we had three children together. Lyudmil was our youngest, and he was brilliant. Even as a little boy, he had an unquenched thirst for knowledge and a drive to understand the world around him. He was a scientist at heart, always asking questions about nature and the things making up our world."
Emma chuckled from the warmth of the memories. "He loved searching the woods for bugs to record in his journal, and collecting stones by the river's edge to categorize them by shape and how they skimmed across the water. Sometimes he'd bring things back from the outside that shouldn't have been in our house. Like a nest of mice, or an injured polecat, or owl pellets to dissect for bones. One time our entire house was beset on by a murder of angry crows because he smuggled in a baby that fell out of a nest. He wanted to help it, and I ended up placating the crows and putting the little one back where it belonged. His sisters were angry at him for weeks!"
"Sounds like he was quite a handful."Richter smirked.
"Oh he was." Emma smiled reminiscing. "But he was a good kid. He was just so smart and inquisitive he needed a bigger outlet than most, and neither Cyrus and I were surprised our child was brainy; His father was a Whisperer, his maternal grandfather was a man of science, and both of my grandparents were very intelligent people."
"Guess it runs in the family." Richter complimented.
"Yeah, big time. Even the ' occasionally being forgetful because there's so much on your mind' part."Emma winked before settling in. "When he was old enough, about thirteen as I remember it, we sent him to my father, his grandfather, to learn under him. Like I said before, my father was a man of science, and he took Lyudmil under his wing as an apprentice. From him he learned everything from science to math to how to read ancient scripts most have forgotten. Lyudmil loved his grandfather, and he always said the years under his tutelage were the best he ever had."
The lump in her throat returned. "When he was a man grown, he got word of a village about thirty miles from his grandfather's place where a clan of Whisperers had settled. Lyudmil wanted to help them help the people living there by sharing all that he had learned, and he did. He spent a couple of years with his father's people, learning from them too, and using the knowledge he gained over the years to improve lives. He always wrote to us and communicated through distance mirrors."
Emma's smile faded. " When the time came for him to return home, Lyudmil sent word to us and his grandparents that he was coming home, and he had so many stories to tell about the people of the village and everything new he learned under the Whisperers. He was excited to see us again, and that he loved us all."
She shuddered, and tears dripped on her gown. "That was the last we ever heard of him. After several weeks of no contact from him, my husband and I along with my parents journeyed to the village.....and found it razed to the ground. All its people were dead, killed by an army of vampires. My son's body wasn't among them and for the first few months there was hope he might have escaped. We searched..but we never found him.....dead or alive."
"My God I'm so sorry Emma." Richter hugged her tightly as she wept into him. "No parent should ever have to go through losing their child, especially not knowing what happened to them."
"That's the worst part." Emma quietly sobbed. "I don't know what happened to him, whether he escaped, or he was killed. Where his body lies. I guess it doesn't matter now because it's been so long he's dead anyway. My boy, my Lyudmil...." Richter rubbed her back as he hugged her.
"You have to cherish the people in your life, Richter, because you never know what will happen."
"I understand." Richter murmured, thinking of his own lost loved one. "I'm sure your son knew that you loved him."
"Oh he did." Emma chuckled weakly. "He knew. That's what gives me peace after all this time."
Richter got Emma a handkerchief to wipe her eyes. "Something doesn't add up." He realized. "Lyudmil was a grown man, how could he have been your son? You don't look old enough to be the mother of a grown man."
Emma sighed. She had a long day and didn't have the energy to reveal further family secrets. "I'm much older than I look, Richter." She pulled up her right sleeve, revealing glyphs. "There are beings out there that are like vampires, immortal, but they are more benevolent. Vampires aren't the only supernatural creatures of this world."
"And you are one of them?" Richter's eyes widened.
"Partly." Emma settled into her pillow. "I need to rest. You can stay with me, but I don't have it in me to explain everything just yet."
"Whatever you say Em." Richter understood. He remained with Emma as she rested, watching over her in her sleep as she had done with him on a ship across the sea, years ago.