The fire was extinguished and whatever little light there was disappeared. As the four assumed their battle stances, Trevor turned to Alucard and the rest. 

"Which is the nearest town? Is it still Gresit?" 

"Arges is closer to us," Sypha answered. She sounded as worried as Audrey felt. 

Even though they weren't surrounded yet, Audrey could still feel the presence of the night creatures in the distance. They exuded pure darkness and evil and if you weren't able to detect that, they would swallow you whole. 

Trevor suddenly ran towards a tree, swung from one of the branches and climbed up. Sypha stared at him, frustrated. Audrey looked at Alucard, who walked the other way, with a hand on his longsword. 

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. There were a lot more night creatures than she had anticipated, each looking fearsome and dangerous. 

As Alucard pulled out his sword, Audrey summoned the brightest and the hottest flames she could. The creatures in front of her growled and hissed. Barely a second passed before they attacked. Audrey ducked, before burning two of the creatures with her flames. She slammed her fist into another one that resembled a wolf, ripping it apart with pure heat. 

She heard the crack of a whip and the screech of the night creatures and turned, only to see Trevor swinging down from the trees and taking down another two of them. 

But battles do not pause for any reason.

As balls of fire shot from the throats of the winged night creatures, Audrey rushed to the front. Summoning the biggest wave of fire she could muster, she attacked the creatures. Sypha joined in, stopping the creatures attacks from hitting them and at the same time, attacking the creatures in return. 

The blast of fire hit the creatures, burning them instantly. Only one creature was left standing. It was taller and bigger than the other ones. Its fire burned bright and even without launching its attack, looked massive. But before it could even shoot its fire, Sypha took control of it and slowly increased the heat and the strength of the flames.

Soon enough, the creature exploded in a flash of bright light. All that remained was it's still burning and broken body. The fight seemed to be over and yet...

The night creature somehow got up and with its wings burning, flew off into the night. The four of them just stared. And though Audrey could have gone after him, it would be far too dangerous if she did it alone. 

The remnants of the fire crackled behind them, looking ominous against the darkness of the forest. 

"Nobody's going to Arges tonight," Alucard said plainly.

*

Audrey was tired of dark forests and journeys under the night skies. It seemed like her whole life had been spent in forests, running and hiding from those who want to harm her and the people around her. After cleaning up the other forest area, they were journeying through another forest, going towards the Belmont hold. She stared out of the wagon's back, looking down the beaten old path. Things were changing so quickly. 

But then again, that was the nature of war.  Nothing remained fixed and everything could be different in the blink of an eye. 

Soon the wagon exited the forest. They stopped in front of a massive but ruined mansion. It looked like it had once been glorious, but now it was dilapidated, ransacked and destroyed. So this had once been the house of the Belmonts. All four of them climbed off the wagon, their supplies in hand. 

As they trudged through the ruins of the broken home, Audrey closed her eyes. As a creature of balance, she could feel a lot. What happened to the Belmonts had been indiscriminate, and unnatural. She felt the slightest chill go through her. This place would be sure to have many ghosts. 

They passed through a broken doorway. Sypha walked next to Trevor and Audrey next to Alucard. 

Gently, Sypha said, "This was your home?"

"Yeah," Trevor replied in a soft voice.

"You grew up here?" Audrey asked.

"Yeah," Trevor answered. 

"I can't imagine what it is like to grow up in a single place," Sypha said as she touched the railing of a broken staircase. 

"It was...it was fine," Trevor said after a moment's hesitation. He walked a bit further than them, brushing away the dirt and dust from the stony ground. "Wasn't the worst way to grow up."

"How old were you when your family home was taken?" Alucard inquired. 

"Thirteen, fourteen, something like that," Trevor replied.

"You've been on your own since you were thirteen?" Audrey murmured. Then again...the being on your own part...that she understood all too well.

"Maybe twelve. Who remembers that sort of thing?" He said with a laugh.

"Twelve," Alucard simply said. 

"Is there a point to these questions?" Trevor looked a little annoyed as he dusted off his hands. 

"I'm disturbed to find that I had more of a childhood than you did," Alucard said. 

Ha. You have had more of a childhood than me as well. Audrey thought, looking at the half-vampire. 

"And your dad's fucking Dracula," Trevor stated. 

Alucard looked down for a second before he suddenly started to laugh. Trevor even joined in. Considering where they were and what they were doing, it seemed out of place for them to just laugh like this, Audrey thought. But she wouldn't stop them from doing it.

As the bout of laughter ended, they continued walking through the broken ruins of the Belmont home. Audrey stared at the ground. She did not have enhanced senses, but something told her the Belmont Hold was close by.

Call it a magical hunch, actually.

Audrey's guess came true just seconds later as they came to a stop in an area where three-fourths of the wall had caved in. Massive stones were scattered on the ground, hiding what looked to be a...

"Your hidden entrance looks like a hearthstone," Alucard said, as he stared down at the faded gold rock. 

"I was going to say that," Audrey added. "Smart move to use one of those."

Trevor groaned as he started pushing aside one of the rocks covering the entrance. "Just help me clear it."  

"Leave it to me. I can do it," Audrey said, half-smirking. While she just had the Phoenix's magic, there were some other spells that she could use. Those, she had picked up from an old druid spell book. Well, pages of a torn spellbook which contained knowledge of powerful magic creatures. 

She handed her torch to Sypha, who only glanced at her curiously. She raised her hands over the rocks covering the entrance and in the softest intonation, murmured the spell. "Deleo." Erase.

Audrey's hands glowed a reddish gold. The rocks glowed the same color before they shattered into tiny pieces. And then they further broke down, turning into dust that simply fell over the sides of the intricately designed golden rock. 

"Well, that's a fancy rock your family got going, Belmont," Audrey said, glancing at Trevor. He looked shocked and Sypha had a similar expression. Only Alucard looked a bit amused. 

"It's the door," Trevor replied back after a moment had passed. 

"Do we lift it or..?" Sypha looked at the others before looking back at the golden entrance door.

Alucard crouched down and grabbed the corners of the stone, trying to shift it in some way. "That's odd," he suddenly remarked. "I don't seem to be able to get any purchase on it."

Sypha leaned down as well, tracing her fingers across the carvings on the stone. Realisation crossed her face. "Ahh, I see now. You won't be able to lift it."

"Why?" Audrey asked. "What kind of enchantment does it have?" She couldn't tell if there even was any, at least out of the ones that she knew. 

"Well, my family got it up somehow," Trevor explained. "I was taken down there as a child."

"Did you see them lift it?" Sypha asked.

"No," He replied. "They brought me through it once it was open. They told me they'd teach me how to do it one day. I supposed there was a special trick."

"Your parents weren't magicians or anything, were they?" Audrey asked.

"Not as such," Trevor replied. "I mean, they knew a lot, but this door was put in by one of our ancestors."

"Well, I guess the special trick was passed down the generations, the way we Speakers transmit knowledge," Sypha started to explain. "Your parents knew the trick, but didn't know where it came from or what it really was."

"Stand back," She suddenly said, her voice sounding rather firm. Audrey immediately moved. If Sypha was going to cast one of her spells, she would rather not be caught in the crossfire of it. 

Sypha touched the carvings once more, muttering words in a language that sounded familiar but at the same time too complicated. She stood back up as she continued speaking the spell. The golden rock started to glow as a bright, white light surrounding it. Feathers of light started to fall from it, slowly transforming into massive wings. 

Audrey watched as the shining wings spread themselves, growing in size with every passing second. 

Finally, they reached their peak and burst into bright light. Once they faded, the golden entrance stone had disappeared. In their place was a stairwell that led to a passage of endless darkness.

"Open sesame," Sypha said gleefully. 

As she took her torch back from Alucard, he asked. "Was that an Enochian ward?"

'Oh, so that was the language!' Audrey thought.

"Yes," Sypha immediately answered. "I know that language."

"Well, well," Alucard turned towards Trevor and started smirking. "Naughty Belmonts hunting the terrible things of the forest, but sitting on a magic door opened by occult language."

"I didn't know it was a fucking magic door," Trevor answered, frowning. "Doesn't make us black magicians."

"But you know the word Teloch means of death, right?" Alucard said.

"Shut up."

"It's the magic door of death, Belmont."

"Are you coming or what?" Trevor asked as he started descending down the stairs. The other three started to follow him down the passage. 

'Let's just hope there are no booby traps.' Audrey thought to herself. 'I hate the feeling of being trapped or accidentally having myself stabbed because of a stray arrow.'

As I was writing this chapter, I just suddenly realised how hard it can be to write an OC into a TV show. I know it can be difficult especially if your fic is set in canon events, but with Castlevania, it just seems freakishly hard to write Audrey in. 

But with the next few chapters, I have got a lot of moments planned between Audrey and Alucard that I am excited to share. They (hopefully) fit right into the canon of the TV series as well. Till then, I hope you enjoy reading this chapter!

Comments and votes are super appreciated <3