Hellmouth Ascendant Trilogy Book 1 Dusk: Chapter 4 Dracula
by Deacon Rayne
Chapter 4
Dracula

The minutes stretched on into uncomfortable silence. Dusk had heard of him of course, but from what Buffy had told him, she had staked him...twice. Dracula, for his part, stood waiting patiently for Dusk to reply. The young man cleared his throat.
“I’ve…heard of you, Count. Forgive my surprise, but last I had heard, you had died…at least twice, by my friends hand,” Dracula laughed, a low rolling laugh.
“Indeed, the Slayer, Buffy. I had gravely underestimated her and paid the price for it,” he smiled slightly, “She is fierce and lives up every bit to her reputation. I daresay that I should prefer not to engage her in mortal combat again. I doubt I would be so fortunate twice in a row,” Dusk scoffed.
“Yeah, no kidding, she’s downright lethal,” Dracula smiled appreciatively.
“Yes. This is so. But then, so are you, my young friend,” Dracula pulled his lips back into an expression of predatory delight. Dracula slowly advanced on Dusk. Dusk winced as he felt pressure begin to build in his head, like someone trying to pry their fingers into his brain and open it like an oyster. Dusk snarled and focused, fighting off the invasion. The pain doubled and without warning, Dusks’ demonic half launched a full out assault against the intruder. With a snarl, Dusks’ eyes flashed as inky darkness filled the pupils and spilled over into the whites, soon his eyes were nothing more than two pools of swirling darkness.
“Cut…it OUT!” Dusk roared as he lashed out with his hands towards the count, tendrils of darkness erupted from his arms and fingers and before the surprised vampire could blink, they wrapped themselves around him, hoisted him high into the air, and slammed him down into the concrete with punishing force. The pressure in Dusks’ head ceased and the darkness hurled the vampire away from him like a rag doll. The Count sailed through the air and slammed into a metal dumpster. Dusk stalked over to him, the his long black jacket billowing outwards, no longer cloth, but rolling darkness like a tidal wave splayed out against his back. Shadows from the dark streets began to collect and swirl around him, dark veins of energy crackled around him.
“You wanna try that again, Count?” Dusk growled. The Count slowly rose to his feet, looking livid.
“Never think, for one moment, that I could not incinerate you, with but a thought, half-breed!” the Count's eyes flashed with icy rage countered by Dusks’ swirling pools of midnight. Then suddenly, it was all over, once again the Count was the cordial stranger.
“But that is not my desire, it is not in my-“ he got halfway through this speech before one of the countless tendrils of darkness that surrounded Dusk shot out and wrapped itself around the Count's throat. The Count gagged and kicked as the tendril lifted him up into the air before bringing him to eye level with Dusk.
“You have four seconds to tell me what you want,” Dusk informed the choking Count, “and you’ve just used up three of them,” the thick oily tendril tightened around Dracula’s throat.
“Destroy me…and you doom all that you love and hold dear,” he choked out. In surprise, Dusk released him to tumble unceremoniously onto the concrete. The multitude tentacles of darkness evaporated as Dusk’s eyes drained from all black to their normal shade
“What do you mean?” Dusk demanded. The Count rubbed his throat gingerly and got to his feet.
“I came to Sunnydale, because I had felt a deep disturbance emanating from this area.”
Dusk shrugged, “The pull of the Hellmouth, it’s been here for years. Why would you suddenly be concerned with it?” Dracula looked him dead in the eye,
“Because, it is afraid-”
Dusk froze, “What do you mean ‘IT’S’ afraid? How can ‘it’ be afraid? It isn’t sentient.” Dracula held up a finger,
“You are mistaken, my young friend. Have you never wondered how such a place came about? How so much dark power became focused? There is something under the ground in Sunnydale. Something…deathless, greater than vampire, man or demon. And it is afraid. It is afraid of the Summers' women.” Dracula concluded. Dusk eyed him warily.
“Not that I put an ounce of stock into what you’re saying, but why is the Hellmouth afraid of Buffy?”
Dracula gave him a condescending look before explaining. “Buffy has proven herself the champion of right and light far beyond any who came before her. She has grown powerful. Her body, her blood, her very soul, all these thing surge and roll with this power. She herself has already utilized it once, using it to defeat the abomination you called ‘Adam’, I learned of this when I supped from her veins,” Dracula’s eyes gleamed with avarice. “She stands on the threshold of a massive metamorphosis. She stands ready to transcend all death and become immortal. The Hellmouth fears this greatly, for it too stands on the threshold of transformation. Only one of them, however, shall live to see it through to its conclusion” His eyes shifted from avarice to calculating.
“And her sister, the one called Dawn, is the key,” A low growl emanated from Dusk, as a surge of overwhelming protectiveness for Dawn flooded his mind and nearly robbed him from his reason. Dracula’s eyes widened as power began to crackle around Dusk again, He raised a hand imploringly.
“Hear me out! I swear that I seek no harm upon either woman! I swear it on the clan Dracul!” Dusk calmed down slightly at the Count's vehemence and the already-coalescing darkness fell away.
“Keep talking,” Dusk bit out. Dracula, much relieved, lowered a hand.
“I think it better if we spoke with Buffy as well as her watcher, your father, Rupert Giles, present. He will be able to validate my claims,” Dracula reached out handing Dusk a card. “Meet me at this address, with Buffy and Mr. Giles,” a small mocking smile graced his lips, “I trust you will have no reason to fear for your safety. Between you and the Slayer, I do not believe my destruction would be difficult,” Dusk took the card tentatively as Dracula turned to leave.
“Give me one good reason why I should believe any of this,” Dusk bit out. Dracula stopped and turned, favoring him with another condescending smile.
“Because, my young friend, you know it is true. You have felt a connection to the girl Dawn that you cannot explain, yet cannot control or deny. It haunts you, granting you no peace, rebelling against all sense.” Dusk paled, his eyes wide.
“How do you know?” he asked whispering warily. Dracula laughed.
“Come tomorrow, and you will have answers,” then with a great bound, Dracula’s body lifted high into the air and flew from sight. Dusk looked high into the sky, before looking back down at the card.
THE BRONZE ROOFTOP
MIDNIGHT
-D

Buffy woke up suddenly, unsure what had awakened her. She sat up ramrod straight in her bed and scanned the darkness of her room. Her eyes seeing nothing, but her slayer sense screaming at her that she was not alone anymore.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” a voice rasped from the darkest corner of her room. Buffy’s hand dove for the bedside lamp; it clicked on flooding the room in light, revealing Dusk sitting in a chair in the corner, looking at her with those dark eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me the truth?” Buffy’s first impulse was to be furious.
“Where do you get off-” she stopped dead. Something in his eyes warned her that this was not a joke or a game. Dusk continued.
“Dawn isn’t human, is she?” his eyes bored into her face. Buffy’s mouth sagged open. ( He knows! ) She closed and opened her mouth again to deny it. But the words wouldn’t come, and she sighed defeated.
“How did you know?” she whispered quietly, not meeting his gaze. Dusk stood and paced across the bedroom floor.
“I met an old friend of yours. Dracula,” Buffy’s head shot up like a rocket, her eyes wide in a mixture of fear and disbelief.
“That’s not possible, I staked him…TWICE” she cried out. Dusk just looked at her and she immediately fell silent.
“Get dressed and meet me at my father's, we have a lot to discuss,” without looking back at her Dusk stepped into the shadowy corner of her room and disappeared.

“…So Dracula wants us to meet him there tomorrow night,” Dusk finished his recanting his story to his father and Buffy. They were in Giles’ living room. Both of them wore very troubled expressions, as if they couldn’t, or didn’t want, to believe the Count's words. Giles was the first to speak.
“He’s not lying,” he said simply. Two pairs of shocked eyes turned to meet the Watchers look. Giles sighed and rubbed his eyes. “I’ve often theorized about the Hellmouth possibly being a sentient entity. And looking back on the past four and a half years, I’m inclined to believe that this is so,” he turned his eyes to Buffy, “and if the Hellmouth is sentient, then you will have to fight it, Buffy, when the times comes.”
Buffy looked pale. Fighting vampires was one thing, fighting demons another, but attempting to fight an evil as old as man itself seemed impossible. Giles continued.
“We did something, Buffy, something was…unleashed within you, when we invoked the enjoining spell and contacted the first slayer. I’m not sure what but you are changing or soon will be. Can you tell me what it was like, that final confrontation with Adam?” Buffy did her best to shake off the fear she felt and replied,
“I don’t remember very much, it was…overpowering. Like my body wasn’t mine anymore but a whole army. It was like my body didn’t stop at my skin but stretched out far past myself. And everything was under my control. I was aware of all that I was and everything that was around me, because it was a part of me,” she looked up into Giles’ face. “Giles, what does this mean? What’s going to happen to me? How can I fight the Hellmouth?” she felt panic rising up in her throat to choke her.
“I don’t know, Buffy, but I think we should meet with Count Dracula and learn what we may from him,” Dusk cleared his throat and their attention shifted to him.
“All right, now which one of you is going to explain to me about Dawn?” he demanded quietly. Buffy and Giles exchanged looks and began to tell him what they knew. About the monks and her not really being her sister, but some great force of light called The Key and how Dawn didn’t have a clue about any of it. Dusk took it all in impassively. After a while, Dusk spoke.
“Dracula said that she was the Key, and that the Hellmouth was afraid of both of you, not just you, Buffy. If Dawn has no idea who or what she is, she couldn’t possibly tap the power that she carries. If that’s the case, why would the Hellmouth fear her?”
Giles shook his head, “I truly don’t know, Alec, but perhaps Dracula does,” sighing he got to his feet. “However, I don’t understand why he would be telling us all this unless he stands to gain from it.”
Buffy shrugged, “He knows either one of us can kick his ass, my guess is that he’s more afraid of the Hellmouth more than the both of us,” Dusk shook his head.
“No. No, Dracula doesn’t fear us -” he looked up at the two of them and added, “or the Hellmouth for that matter, but he is concerned about how this plays out. I think he may have something to gain by seeing the Hellmouth destroyed, but I think it more likely he has something to lose if it isn’t.” Giles nodded thoughtfully.
“That sounds logical, we’ll have to see come tomorrow night,” Giles paced the room.
“Question,” Buffy chimed in, “Should Dawn be present at this meeting? If it’s this important and it concerns her so much, she may need to be in on it.” Giles considered before shaking his head.
“No, at this point we know so little about what’s happening. The less she knows, the safer she’ll be,” Dusk snorted quietly at this but didn’t disagree,
“What about the others?” he chimed in, “Willow, Xander, Anya and Spike?” Giles nodded slowly.
“We’ve already seen what happens when secrets are kept within the group,” he gave Buffy a long look, Buffy returned it unwaveringly, Dusk decided not to ask, “We should alert everyone, Dawn being the only exception,” Giles turned his head to regard them both, “We’ve kept them in the dark this long, because we did not want them treating Dawn any differently than if she actually were Buffy’s younger sister. However, given the direness of the situation, I think the time for such sensibilities has passed,” Giles rested his eyes on the Slayer. Buffy exhaled hard. This wasn’t going to be easy to break to the rest of the gang.
“What about me?” Dusk asked, “Is it necessary for me to come clean as well?” Buffy jumped in.
“No. No it’s not, Alec, this isn’t about you, it’s about me and it’s about Dawn. You should tell the others when you’re ready, not because you’ve been forced into it,” Buffy took his hand in hers. He gave it a long squeeze in gratitude.
“Thank you,” he replied quietly. She smiled slightly at him before releasing his hand and turning her attention back to Giles.
“Okay, Round Robin tomorrow night, before we meet with Dracula. I’ll give everyone a call to let them know,” Buffy got to her feet, “We’ll all meet here before the meeting at the bronze tomorrow night.” Giles nodded
“All right,” Buffy and Dusk turned to leave, suddenly Buffy froze, a confused and distant look on her face. Dusk stopped to peer at her concerned.
“Buffy? You all right?” Buffy snapped out of it.
“Yeah I’m fine, just…for a second there I felt,” she laughed a little embarrassed, “Forget it, I just need a nap,” Giles looked worried.
“You’re sure, Buffy?” Giles asked gravely. Buffy hesitated for a moment, frowning before replying.
“Yeah sure, really I’m fine. See you tomorrow Giles,” Giles relented.
“Yes. See you then,” Before leaving, Dusk turned to regard his father questioningly.
“ ‘Round robin?’ ” He inquired. Giles smiled slightly.
“It’s a long story, I’ll regale it to you some other time,” Dusk chuckled quietly and after him giving an affectionate pat on the back, he turned and followed Buffy out of the house. Giles, casting a worried look at the quickly retreating pair, before he slowly closed the door.
“So what do we do now?” a voice called from behind him. Resting his head on the door, Giles didn’t turn as he addressed the speaker.
“If Dracula is here, then things truly have become dire. I cannot believe that Dawn's and my sons arrival now Dracula returning, so quickly after Buffy’s experience with the First Slayer is a coincidence,” he turned to examine the other man, “ I believe something is coming, something terrible. Something we’ve never faced before.” The other man nodded, folding his hands into his long dark coat.
“Between Cordelia’s visions and this, I’d say you’re right. But that doesn’t answer my question. What do we do about now?”
“We wait, Angel,” he quietly addressed the vampire before him, “and pray.”



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