Numen Chronicles | Nosferatu [Volume One]

Chapter Eight | Servitude

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| Alucard |

Alucard and Elvin reached the castle. Once they dismounted their horses, the beasts wandered over to the grass by the white marble fountain.

"These vampires aren't gonna try to eat me, are they?" Elvin asked, walking beside Alucard as he led the way to the castle's door.

"No."

The bard frowned. "Okay...and we're just here to see how they settled in?"

"Da."

He nodded as Alucard opened the door. "Okay...."

Alucard stepped into his castle expecting to find the entrance hall empty, but despite the room being filled with sunlight, Ben was standing by the table.

Ben smiled at him and said, "Good afternoon."

Perturbed, Alucard slowly walked over. "The sunlight? You are...fine?" he asked, looking at the windows. No vampire other than himself and those turned with his blood could walk in the sunlight.

Ben took and shook Alucard's hand. "Oh, we would have told you last night, but you seemed pretty tired, so I thought I'd save it for today. We can all walk in the sunlight—all us from Eltaria...uh...my world."

Letting go of Ben's hand, Alucard nodded and frowned. "Hmm...Janus did take off with my blood a long time ago; he created many vampires with it, so it doesn't surprise me that he made some with the ability to walk in the sunlight."

Ben's face flickered with intrigue. "Well, we're all linked to you one way or another."

"Who is this?" Elvin then asked with a curious look as he tapped his notebook with his pencil, having just written down details of Ben's appearance: 'Scruffy big man, a lot of muscle'....

Alucard shook his head slowly, stifling a facepalm.

"Ben," the new vampire said, holding out his hand.

Elvin noted down his name before shaking his hand. "Elvin—I'm Aleksei's friend," he said proudly as though it was an honourable title.

"Familiar," Alucard corrected.

Elvin pouted sadly.

"Oh, well, I, too, hope to call myself Aleksei's friend," Ben said, looking at Alucard.

Alucard ignored him as he looked around the hall. "Where are the other two?"

"Upstairs," Ben answered. "I need to ask, how do we feed? You told us the humans here are off-limits, correct?"

"Until the treaty is in place. For now, you can drink what we have here. I'll show you where we keep the blood," he invited but then looked back at Elvin. "You stay here."

"Aw, why?" the bard complained.

"Because I said so."

Pouting, Elvin pulled out one of the chairs tucked under the large table and slumped down.

"This way," Alucard said, leading the way to the kitchen door. "I have it kept where the newer vampires can't get to it; otherwise, I'm sure they would tear through the entire supply in a few hours."

"Do we have to ask for it?"

"No," he said, leading Ben through the deserted kitchen and towards a wine cellar. "It just needs to be kept away from the younger vampires until they can control themselves. I have sentries to guard this part of the castle at night—to protect the human workers and the supply on the off-chance that a vampire disobeys me," he explained, heading down into the wine cellar.