Epilogue

It was an ironic view of beauty that the brothers behold when the landscape of Romania bloomed with life from the rising sun. The land reflected their own beauty and both felt more alive, more human by witnessing what their vampiric family could not, the dawn. Both stood on Castlevania Heights and what was left of the ancient castle, admiring the new day. They accomplished something today, which made the world seem brighter. But once the birds began to sing, D was done sharing the moment and turned and walked away from the cliff.

"So… where will you go now?" the prince asked gently as he continued to gaze at the beautiful land.

The vampire hunter stopped but would not regard his brother's question. D didn't think it would matter, so he kept silent. Alucard was a dunpeal that he respected but that didn't make him family and since they would part, they most likely would never see the other again. As time passed the vampire hunter slowly turned his head slightly so he could see Alucard out of the corner of his eye.

"You?" D asked.

Alucard turned to his brother whose privacy he knew he couldn't hope to break. Seeing D in the light, the prince knew he was holding onto false hopes, that maybe he found someone who could bring him peace. But since D would not answer his question he would not answer the vampire hunter's. As D moved again the prince dashed to get ahead of him, blocking his path.

"Wait. There is something I wish to give you," the prince said with eagerness in his features.

D halted, raising his head so to see the prince but other than that, the vampire hunter made no other move, nothing to indicate to the prince that he neither wants nor doesn't want anything from him. Taking out his dagger, Alucard reached out for his brother. Though D was more than skeptical about his brother's motives as the prince indicated to his stub, he decided to place his left wrist into Alucard's hand.

In a flash, a searing pain burst through the vampire hunter's wrist. With a wince, D withdrew his arm from his brother with a look of hurt and betrayal. That quickly faded, however, when the dunpeal saw Alucard measuring his own wrist. D was now curious and watched as the prince slid his dagger into his own flesh, tearing through joints and bone alike.

Picking up the limb, Alucard moved over to his brother, relieved the cut and length was perfect. Pushing D's wrist and his severed hand together, the prince lifted his stub, pouring with his life essences to D's face. After a long moment, Alucard looked up to his brother and notices his head was turned to the side in disgust.

"What I need you to do—"

"I shall not drink blood," D passively said but Alucard heard a touch of anger in his voice.

"So you plan on letting me sever my hand for nothing, brother?"

It wasn't the disappointment in Alucard's voice that unnerved the vampire hunter but that one word. Neither of them even acknowledged the other and now, that simple word shook him to the core. Taking his free hand, the dunpeal slid his thumb across Alucard's stub before bringing it to his lips. As the blood oozed down his throat, a long forgotten hunger seemed satisfied and the wrist's skin snapped a hold of the hand, stitching together. In a heartbeat, D began moving the new hand with ease.

Alucard knew the answer to his question the moment he asked it to his brother. There were still vampires out there and having only one hand crippled D's success in battle. A smile crossed the prince's face while sealing his wound with a ball of fire. He didn't have to look up; he already knew D was gone. Taking a look at his left wrist, he figured he just needed to find a new way to hold his shield, if ever, again.

Taking out one of the five relics from his bag, Alucard admired his father's wedding band. It was a token of Lisa's love to Vlad and those were the only memories Alucard had when Dracula was truly happy. Being a token of love between his parents and for convenient purposes, the prince fumbled to put the ring onto his finger. Once having the ring in his possession, Alucard began his last journey to Transylvania.

D continued his march as fast as he could, leaving both his distance and now short-term memories behind him. It was quiet, too quiet. The vampire hunter paused and gazed around his surroundings, taking a hold of his sword by the handle. Many, many heartbeats passed before D realized that he was alone for the first time in his long life. He couldn't stop a soft smile creeping onto his gentle features. About this time his old left hand would make some wise crack like, "aw, you were in trouble, so it was a good thing your brother gave you a hand."

Bringing his new hand to his eyes, D flexed the fingers of those of its previous owner. A chuckle escaped his lips as he felt foolish for thinking he could run from the past and now, with his brother's hand as his own, the past will always be with him. Looking over his shoulder, he thought of Alucard and figured the question he asked was quite foolish as well. D knew Alucard's character, for the vampire hunter knew someone like him before. Alucard would deliver the artifacts to the guardians of the Renard family and return back to sleep for, hopefully, the last time.

The vampire hunter returned to his trek, getting lost in his new found silence and freedom. Hunts might get harder for the dunpeal without the parasite but he was sure he would manage. So lost was he in his new peace, he completely forgot about his payment. Though it didn't matter, for his freedom and privacy was his own now and that was payment enough.

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Author Note: I would like to take this time to thank those who read and reviewed this piece that took me so long to create. Thanks: Daryl Falchion, Kitala, Female Heero Yuy, and FireSenshi2 for taking the time to read my work and giving me some needed input. And I thank anyone else reading this and finished reading "Brothers Unknown." Please leave me a review before leaving. Thanks again.