One of the seven great cities which make up the principality of Transylvania, Sibiu is considered a cultural center. This area is quite a hub of activity, various trades and a lots low level nobility trying to forge themselves into prosperity. It includes one of the largest churches and monstaries that this area has to offer. Church is an important part of daily life here.
Over the city of Sibiu, Transylvania, the full moon let its light cascade from the center of the night sky to illuminate the streets below. Fear of vampires tended to keep most mortals off the streets here at night, but it was bright enough under the full moon's gaze to allow a few more brave souls some confidence. More importantly, Sibiu itself was a more blessed city in the principality known as Transylvania; some locals did not even believe or fear the eventual return of the great Count Dracula. Still, the infamous vampire's castle loomed over the city in a perpetual shroud of darkness.
Little did the common folk of Sibiu know, it was the very castle of the dead Count that would harbor the potential instrument of their untimely demise this night. Many mortals would suffer the fate of a vampire's bite this full moon, but one in particular would be visited by the present lord of Castlevania. A downtrodden, golden-locked woman in her mid-twenties was remiss to find herself roaming too close to a dark alley, only to be coaxed in by an eerie crimson glow upon looking down it. A raggedy pair of heels clattered against the cobblestone walkways as the entranced blonde stepped ever so casually into her fate, but as she approached the small glow ahead of her, the words spoken from its source would not quite resemble those belonging to a creature of the night.
"Bless us, O Lord, and these Thy gifts, which we are about to receive from Thy bounty, through Christ our Lord. Amen." The voice which spoke was masculine, yet gentle as the sun-kissed morning dew. It was so inviting in its own right, that the trance this woman was under suddenly began to fade away. Prior to her sanity's return to normal, the glow vanished entirely, and another set of footsteps took an opposing path to hers. A step into the lighter shadows of the alley revealed the culprit: A vampire of royal blood among the undead. He was young and bathed in absolute visual perfection, which seemed to settle itself within violet eyes that looked of pools reflecting twilight on the surface. Use of cliche would call him devilishly handsome, but such a claim would in fact be a slight against the visage of those silky locks of jet black hair perfectly framing his head, or the perfect lean to his dark-clad physique as he swaggered toward this enthralled woman with intentions of ending her pitiful existence in this world.
His name at present was Sorin Lothaire Phantomhive, and he was the biological son of Count Dracula, and current lord of Castlevania. While still a God-fearing man at heart, as a vampire, he required blood for sustenance. Sure, cattle was kept well and healthy within the confines of the castle, but there was a very particular reason he was out this night. He sought the thrill of the lesser undead lords. When he reached his victim, Sorin brought her directly into a sensual embrace. His arms caressed their way up her back with dancing fingers, his right hand taking the lead. This continued slowly and caused blood to fill the woman's face. Her mouth opened, and her breath swept across Sorin's face as his right hand finally reached a point near the roots of her hair that he could take into his grasp, pulling it to the left side of her head to bare the right side of her neck. Sorin's face sank into her exposed flesh, and with a deep inhale... he was already elated. This was the thrill he'd been looking for; an unsuspecting target accompanied by the fear of discovery of what he was. A wide grin slithered its way onto his mouth, and with it, a razor sharp pair of fangs were revealed. The woman remained dazed enough to be unawares. Sorin waited several seconds. He needed to enjoy this. He managed to restrain himself enough to only make these outings every full moon, taking the addition of its light as a challenge to his superior skills as a night stalker. After sufficient basking in the moment of his own enjoyment, his mouth became agape. This was followed by the swift burrowing of hi fangs into the blonde's nape, and unlike with the bite of the lesser vampires, she did not scream. It even seemed to be the case that she was pleased by the deliverance of this bite. She was.
Sorin took his sweet time draining this pitiful woman of every delectable drop of her life essence. He dared not leave her alive, but his prayer would serve the purpose of saving her soul as she perished. Her life persisted for moments after the full draining; this was long enough for her to experience the vampire removing his fangs and licking up the side of her neck to receive the residue of her blood. Frankly, hers was nothing more than an average feeding... but the thrill factor alone gave Sorin a sort of high that he was able to enjoy the ecstasy of all the way to the moment of the woman's passing. "We give Thee thanks for all Thy benefits, O Almighty God, who livest and reignest world without end. Amen. May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen."
As the moon sat high in the sky, covering the streets in its ethereal light, the light of a candle flickered in the middle of a table in a tavern, surrounded by young worldly boys. The children of Barons and Lords played games in the dark taverns of Sibiu. Gambling away their livelihoods before they were even old enough to claim them. This night, like many others they had their gazes fixed upon the single young woman at the table. She looked up over her hand of cards, with two large eyes in dazzling green. The high collar of her white blouse held together by a tie which had been loosened in the last few moments. Her mind seemed to be furiously working, and in fact she seemed to be quite distressed. As the shadows the candlelight danced across her skin, the young men who also held cards, found themselves dreaming of what they would get to do with her instead. If it were ever made clear by her parents that her hand was something they offered.
Raven locks were cut in even bangs across her forehead, hiding brows lightly furrowed, while the rest of her hair was kept neat up in a lace bonnet. Pink lips were lightly reddened by a gentle gnawing at their skin as she peeked over. The voice of one brutish Baron's son came to her mind as she furiously calculated her odds. "You seem stressed Kas, perhaps... you should fold, while you still have your dignity?" the boy teased, causing a great guffaw among his playmates. The girl's eyes shifted towards him, as her long fingers held close the cards in her hands. A deep breath came out of her as her heart skipped a gentle beat. It seemed everything was on the line in this moment and they believed they had her beaten, but... "Hendryk, there is nothing in me this night but elation, knowing I'll own the summer home you never even got to visit..." she said a flare of confidence coming to her as she twisted her single most favored worldly possession, a silver ring on her finger, before she said the words they all feared. "I'm calling, love. Show me?" she asked this caused the other two players on either side to drop their cards, both had hands which didn't show anything worth looking at, and both had lost bank notes of only a meager amount. Their shame was gentle a light reddening of the cheeks as they pushed their lost items forward. The man named Hendryk smirked as if he won, showing his hand which included a pair of threes and a pair of fives. "Two pair deary, if you actually manage to beat that, I'll also give you the deed to my personal stables, I heard you recently lost a mare," the boy chuckled, raising the stakes in light of his own arrogance. It seemed he didn't think himself capable of losing. And the girl's eyes widened as she looked down at the cards. "Oh? I suppose there is something to be said about two pair, but... I am fairly certain a straight flush wins," she said showing in her hand cards in sequence from eight to four in the hearts suit.
The color drained from the blond man's face, the light blue of his eyes drained their color until they were but a pale misty impersonation of their previous selves. He bit his lip, in the corner as his entire face gained a reddened hue, starting at his neck and moving up to the very tips of his ears. In this moment, his defeat was assured. The entire table erupted the tavern itself seemed to be alight with mirth as she held out her hand and waited for her winnings. "You're some kind of witch. I swear, I've given you half my inheritance already," the boy said as he handed over the signed documentation in front of witnesses. "And yet you still bet, Hendryk," a sigh escaped her as she collected her belongings packing them away, in a beat up old briefcase. This night had been fruitful, more so than usual given the addition of stables to her already claimed summer home. As she put these items into the small case she intended to carry out, she turned down offers of continuing to play. "Another hand, at least give me the opportunity to win back what I've lost..." said the boy and his friends whom she'd already milked quite a bit. "Where would all the thrill go if you could simply gain it back~" the girl said laughing.
She'd soon find herself out of the door. Case in hand, held firmly within her grasp, as she navigated the streets back towards her parents modest estate. If she had her way, one day, it'd be larger, even if it didn't include her. As she moved about the streets, her face was given a gentler glow by the full moon. And the sound of her little red heels tapping against the cobblestones could be heard as she moved about. There was a smile on her face and a light in her eyes, the likes of which could only be found like this. In the dead of night, after taking from some bratty male a portion of his inheritance. Somehow in the taverns, surrounded by the smell of ale and the light of candles with the smoke of the blazing hearth fires filling her lungs, she felt alive. All the the moment before the final call, before she decided that she could win. It felt in that moment, like she held a tiny piece of a man's life in her hands, and as she took it away, as she watched the color drain from their faces... in that moment she truly won. It wasn't simply about her goals. It wasn't enough that their loss would secede her victory... they should suffer in that moment, a defeat which was humiliating, with no way to retaliate. And this is why she kept her love of gambling, regardless of the penitence required for the activity by her own god fearing religious beliefs. Even as she thought over the Hail Marys she'd have to perform, she enjoyed taking hold of her own life, with her own two hands, and there was nothing quite like it.
And as she had this thought she took a left turn down a dark alley and as she moved upwards she came upon a shadowed figure. She heard a voice lower than normal not that such a thing was unusual. Lovers often found themselves, incapable of waiting for a more appropriate venue to deal with the necessities of their lusts. But what she was seeing now wasn't simply a lustful young couple's night gone awry. Her emerald green eyes caught sight of something else entirely, a man, drinking the blood of a woman. 'Vampire?!' the mind shouted the word as she watch this face buried in her neck clearly by the light of the moon. He was drinking this poor woman dry, but the woman's voice wouldn't come out. She watched transfixed, paralyzed by fear and unable to speak by virtue of what she was witnessing. There was nothing she could do about what was happening here. Perhaps... she could simply take a step backwards. Several even, until she cleared this alley and hoped that none would notice what she'd seen here.
After a successful feeding, the vampire looked into the face of his victim with that deep violet gaze of his. He watched the life escape her face over the course of a few seconds. It was such a waste, but the woman he'd chosen as his target this night was not long for this harsh world even before his intervention. Sorin could sense these things. Her emotional state had been weak, and the embrace of mortality was loosening its hold on her with each passing day. He'd done her a kindness. She'd now been spared the cruel fate of continued existence in this world, and what's more, his blessing - he believed - would lead her to the gates of Heaven still. Such was not normally the case for those drained to death by a vampire; humans in this situation would normally be bound in limbo so long as the vampire drew breath.
Soon, that golden veil of hair billowed one final time as the late woman fell to the cobble street. Sorin was fed, and he'd managed to relieve himself of the lackluster existence he led for just a few moments. The lord of Castlevania would not see this thrill again until the full moon adorned the night sky once more. But lo... there was more to this night yet. White lace kissed by the moon's light shifted at the end of the alleyway. It was upon the head of a womanly figure, and a fine one at that. Sorin's gaze became fixed on this fleeting form, but only a second passed before she was gone. 'I've been careless,' he thought. In all his years of public feeding only on the night of the full moon, he'd never been seen by a mortal before now. Had she truly seen him, though? Perhaps he was lucky. Perhaps there was a chance she'd not seen the actual feeding, and thought nothing more of the scene than one would of a pair of humans feeding their more carnal desires...
No. He had to be sure. Taking only a few steps forward, the vampire swept his left arm against the inside of the wild black cloak he wore, forcing it to billow around him as he vanished from the alleyway. His reappearance would see him in the girl's path, yet many paces ahead of her. He wished to stay out of sight during the arrival, only to step out into the light as she came closer to his location. Those glowing eyes of his would shift until they fell upon this female in a way that would allow him to view her face this time.
The young woman's grasp on her dusty old case remained the same as she moved. She took tiny steps as she gracefully navigated down the different cobblestone street. Her only goal would be to forget that which she'd seen, and confer a prayer for the fallen blonde woman who'd so recently gotten herself ensnared in the grasp of the undead. Of course, until she'd seen it with her own eyes, she hadn't even believed in vampires. It seemed like the sort of thing that parents told their children to keep them in line. 'One can only wonder about such things... I pray she find peace, but her soul is none of my concern. I can only hope I went unnoticed,' still she was relatively safe for now, but as she crossed the light of a street lamp a man stepped out before her, and she hadn't seen him there before this moment.
Those emerald eyes framed by thick dark lashes widened just a tad. As she took a step back a tiny gasp escaped her, as the man's gaze assessed her visage. Those layers of light and dark seemed to play across her skin in the moonlight. The tie around her neck still gently loosed from the time she'd spent in the tavern, the bangs framing her small angular face all that were visible as the rest of her raven locks were lost beneath the lace bonnet which had given her away. Her breath would almost seem to be caught in her throat but as she exhaled, she found herself speaking. "Ah! You gave me a bit of a fright, sir," she said seeming to easily overcome her previously startled nature. The case she held in her hand rested gently against her knees as a soft breeze blew at her dress causing various ripples of fabric to sound off against the night. At this hour there were few about and even fewer dared travel as she did. Still she'd intended to keep on her way, only this gentle speech was necessary. If she recognized him at all, she didn't speak upon it, given the things she'd witnessed this night, she had no intention of revealing her hand just yet. As if this was the only thing in mind, her fingers absently twisted the ring present on her index finger. This was quite the living gamble on the girl's part, but she couldn't just let go of all she was working towards, because she'd seen a woman die this day. People died everyday, and so long as this man had nothing to fear from her, this number wouldn't include her.
She was taken aback by his appearance. This much was to be expected, given the frantic state of her leave, but what was the exact reason for this surprise? Was it because she'd simply not been paying attention, and would have been surprised by anything she didn't expect in front of her? Or perhaps... she reacted this way because she knew she'd been seen, and knew Sorin was the vampire who'd seen her running away from his feeding. Either conclusion would be a reasonable place to arrive, but Sorin had to be sure which thing it was.
"My apologies, my lady," he said. "In no way did I mean to alarm you. You seemed to be plagued by something as it were, which left me wondering why a maiden such as yourself would be wandering the streets alone so late. These are very dangerous times we live in, and there is even talk of vampires. Surely you could use an escort." Sorin spoke with confidence abundant, finding that he could prod this woman for a reaction of any sort to receive his answer. If he remained unseen, all would be well. If she did see him preying on mortals, he would have to come up with a plan to keep his identity hidden in future, though his immunity to most conventional vampire weaknesses was likely enough. He did not suffer death by daylight or holy relics, and he could even enter a church in broad daylight. In fact, he visited church regularly.
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