Before the Fire

Disclaimer: Castlevania belongs to Konami, not me. I am making £0.00 out of this fic, it is written purely because I have a burning need to create. Although I would like to own Alucard . . . then he'd be mine.

Rating: PG-13

Part: four of four

Setting: After Adrian's birth, before Lisa's death

Authoress Note: A short collection of drabbles about life in the castle.

Italics = thoughts and flashbacks

Before the Fire

Her husband was moving the castle again.

She could remember the feeling the first time he'd done it with her inside. She'd gone to bed that night in a forest and had woken in a barren field. She hadn't known what to think, hadn't been able to understand. It had taken her weeks to get over the giddy joy of looking out the window and seeing a different land. She woke one day to see a great lake on their doorstep and had spent the day walking along the banks. Another day she'd stepped out into a desert, she'd scorched her bare feet on the blistering sand before retreating back into the castle, always cool despite its location. Another day she'd walked out onto a mountainside and had nearly broken her ankle on the harsh incline.

He'd always moved the castle while she slept, and she hadn't understood his reluctance in showing her how he did it.

"I'd like to see the ocean," she mentioned, off hand at dinner.

"The ocean?" her husband didn't look up from his book.

"Yes, I've never seen it. I'd like to."

"I think mother is asking to move the castle," Adrian said prodding at the meat on his plate and making a face at it. He'd been eating less and less as he'd grown older. The only solid food he showed true enthusiasm for any more was cake and she wasn't going to let him eat cake for dinner.

"Stop playing with it and eat it," she said, her son sighed, and she couldn't help but smile. To any watching she was lecturing a grown man of twenty about eating his dinner, the reality she was lecturing her fourteen-year-old son who had decided to become a moody teenager to the fullest extent.

"If you want the castle moved all you need do is say," her husband interjected, ignoring the sulky looks his son was giving his wife.

"I would like the castle to be moved to the ocean," she said plainly.

"Of course," her husband smiled at her dipping his head.

"Tonight," she pressed, keeping one eye on her son as he continued to not eat his dinner.

"Very well," her husband looked back to his book.

"I want to see how you do it," she stressed. "I want you to show me." her husband said nothing. Lisa frowned and pretended not to notice when Adrian tipped a portion of his dinner off the plate onto the floor to be eaten by the adolescence werewolf waiting under the table.

She watched as her husband took a slow breath through his nose and closed his book. He looked at her, his expression unreadable.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because I'm curious," she said. "You've known me long enough to know that by now."

"True," he nodded. "curious and bold," he grinned at her. "a wonderful combination."

"You cannot distract me with flattery," she said. "You're welcome to try though." Adrian laughed quietly and she glanced at him happy to see he was actually eating at least some of what was on his plate.

"You've always been wonderfully bold," her husband said. "Even our first meeting was because of your boldness." Lisa smiled, he often liked to remember the first time she came to the castle, he'd been alone for a very long time and to suddenly have a forceful but ultimately friendly person invading his life had left him baffled and confused. It was something he had not experienced for a long, long time and he'd missed it.

"You threatened to eat me," she said.

"I did not," her husband laughed.

"You loomed," she said. "The threat was implied."

"Nonsense," he scoffed.

"Then you proceeded to boast about the travelling capabilities of your house."

"Castle," he corrected. "and I did not boast, I merely made you aware of its abilities."

"Boast," she said again.

"You accused me of being a shut-in," he said louder.

"You were a shut-in," she said. "And you were boasting, and you are trying to derail my initial conversation."

"I am not," her husband said quieter.

"You kind of are," Adrian spoke up. "You're failing terribly though."

"Quiet you, you are no help," Dracula grumbled.

"I'm not trying to help." Adrian shrugged. "I will confess though, I am curious as to why you are trying and failing to derail the topic of conversation."

"Exactly," Lisa was smug. "Ha."

"I'm not trying to derail …" Dracula paused and sighed. "I am happy to move the castle anywhere you wish, love." He said softly. "I would put us on the moon if you asked it of me."

"But you don't want me to watch?" Lisa said.

"Can't you do it when someone's watching?" Adrian said.

"Don't be crude," Lisa snapped at her son. "It's unbecoming."

"Fuck," Adrian grinned.

"And don't swear." She said. "That's your fault." She accused her husband. "He only does it because you laugh."

"I'm not laughing," her husband said, managing not to smile. She had no idea why it amused him so.

"So, the ocean?" she said. Her husband nodded resignedly and stood. She followed his lead and her son fell into step behind them as they walked out of the dining room and down to the engine room of the castle.

She had never been in here before, though she knew where it was. She couldn't help the bubble of giddy excitement that burst in her stomach when she stepped over the threshold. The room was immense, the walkway narrow and direct, surrounded on all sides by colossal gears.

"It's clockwork?" she said.

"In a way," her husband nodded. "It's also magic, stronger magic than you've seen me use before."

"Is that why you are reluctant to show me?" she asked reaching out, putting her hand on her husband's arm.

"I've never minded when people see me as something other when they are afraid of me, but I would dislike it greatly if you ever experience that, even for a moment," he admitted.

"You're a fool," she said leaning into him. "I would never have married you if I was afraid of you. You should have learned a long time ago that you don't have to hide yourself from me." he didn't say anything to her, but his hold on her tightened, she could feel him shaking ever so slightly. She smiled, she really had married an absolute prat, if he truly believed she would ever be afraid of him.

"What's this?" Adrian called having moved past them to the window, he was prodding a large object that hovered over a pedestal. The castle shook as he jabbed at it.

"Something you shouldn't be poking," Dracula sighed. Adrian poked it again, the castle rumbled, complaining. "It's the device used to activate and control the mechanism. It's a magic focus for want of a better word."

"You use it to focus your energy?" Lisa said.

"Partly, it's also used to hold my intent. Magic is a reflection of will, sometimes it's easier to harness and focus your will using a device like this."

"It feels strange," Adrian had placed his open hand on the device, it was still under his fingers.

"It will do," his father said approaching and lifting his hand off the device which resumed its turning. "Leave it be boy," he said firmly.

"How does it focus?" Lisa asked.

"Without it, I would have to concentrate on all the variables involved in moving this entire castle, every single stone would have to be thought of and considered. I would have to take into account weight, texture, consistency and mathematically calculate all of that in order to move us even an inch."

"It boggles the mind," Adrian muttered leaning round his father to stare at the spinning device.

"It does, so I built this to do it for me, now I only have to consider and visualise where I want to go, this takes care of the rest." Dracula smiled proudly.

"You made it to do the maths?" Lisa said softly, her husband nodded.

"That way I can focus on the important stuff, like where the master bedroom should face."

"Clearly important," Adrian said.

"Without this, I'd lose control of the castle if I was distracted," Dracula said.

"You sound like you've experienced this?" Lisa said.

"I might have sneezed during a teleport once and lost the east wing."

"We had an east wing?" Adrian said.

"Not anymore," Dracula muttered. "But the night is wasting, which ocean would you like, love?"

"Which one?" she repeated, she had no idea she'd just wanted to see the castle move.

"Somewhere cool," Adrian said. "I'd rather stay away from the desert again is we could."

"Deserts don't have oceans," Vlad said.

"Heat and sand," Adrian muttered.

"To the north then?" Vlad said softly, Lisa nodded and watched in awe as her husband lifted his hand, the device responding to him. The gears around her started to turn, the sound was almost deafening. She laughed aloud at the wonder of it all, seeing her husband grin at her sheer enjoyment of the magnificent machine.

The sound grew, the gears turning faster, the air started to smell of magic and ozone and when she thought the sound would deafen her the outside world disappeared. The windows were dark for a moment and then she could see the ocean. She ran to the window before she realised, she was moving.

"You did it!" she laughed.

"For you, yes," Vlad said standing behind her, his arm over her shoulders.

End Chapter Four

Authoress Note: Thank you for reading, please review, I'd love to hear what you think of the chapter.

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