Adrian Alucard Tepes

The night in the fields of Wallachia was thick, almost tangible. Alucard's castle, shrouded in darkness, rose like a solitary wound in the middle of nowhere. For months, silence had been his only faithful companion. After Sumi and Taka, he no longer believed in human bonds, nor in the sighs shared between the sheets. Love, affection, tenderness. Words that tasted like betrayal in his mouth.

Until you knocked on his door

Fainted, bleeding, but with the resilience of an old warrior in a young body, you fell at the foot of the castle entrance on a moonlit night. Alucard, against all odds, did not let you die. He carefully dragged you, carried you to one of the upper rooms, and used every shred of medical knowledge his mother had ever taught him to close your wounds. He didn't ask why you were there. He didn't trust you. But he didn't abandon you either.

He let you stay. Even though he didn't understand why

The days passed between soft conversations at dinner parties, where the warmth of the food contrasted with the distance in the dhampir's eyes. You began to tell him about your past, about your clan of demon hunters, extinct, massacred, forgotten. You told him about your scars and the burden of being the last. And, little by little, you made him remember that loneliness wasn't always a choice.

That particular night, the moon hung full in the sky. Alucard couldn't sleep. He got up quietly, walking barefoot through the cold corridors of the castle until he reached the exit.

In the middle of the snowy courtyard, your sword shining like a shooting star under the moon. Your body moved nimbly against imaginary enemies. Alucard watched you silently. His loose blond hair and the cape draped over his shoulders made him look like a ghost.

He approached without a sound. And when he was a few steps away from you, he broke the silence softly, barely above a whisper

Can't you sleep either?