A Strange Waking

Rolling over, the sounds of sheets moving reached her ears along with the creaking of the bed. Other sounds, off in the distance, started to reach her ears along with smells that were different from what she usually woke up to.

She pushed herself up, rubbing her eyes and blinking a few times before reaching for her glasses. But... there was no nightstand next to her. Well..., there was but the problem was the bed she was in was far bigger, easily twice the size of what she used to sleep in. It was also fancier than what she had and more... run down at the same time somehow?

It was a massive canopy bed as opposed to her queen sized she had. The frame looked to be made from... well high quality wood that had aged decently. And the curtains were damaged too but showed signs of repair, with patches sewed into them. The blankets and sheets also showed signs of someone attempting to fix them with limited tools and success but how old was this stuff.... and who had fixed them? Related question, how was she seeing all this without her glasses?

She rolled out of bed..., a bit faster than she thought she would and ended up on the floor. Getting up she saw that she was not in her flannel PJs but something a bit more refined. A thin white nightdress with embroidery around the chest, hem and shoulders, shaped like roses and colored red. This too showed signs of repair but more care was given to this than the bedding. And well..., she also didn't remember being this... endowed. Or this pale.

"The hell? Mirror...., is there a mirr..., wait where am I anyway?" she thought as she looked around.

A sound caught her attention which made her whip around.

The door had opened and a woman with short wavy chestnut hair entered. She was wearing a dark long skirt dress with long sleeves as well. A simple white apron hung on the front of her dress. But her dress, much like everything else, seemed... mismatched. The apron was a little longer and thus had to be folded in and pinned, and more signs of repair were on the dress. The maid ignored the woman and started to work, a little clumsily, at some of the blankets, rolling them up.

"Um... excuse me."

The maid paused for a moment before slowly turning to face her. She could see the uncertainty in the woman's eyes as she paled and... she could hear the maid's heartbeat quicken.

"Hello? Can you...., tell me where I am?" she asked as she took a step towards the maid.

"AWAKE!"

"What?" but the maid was gone before she could even reach out a hand to stop her.

"AWAKE SHE'S AWAKE SHE'S AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!!!!"

She could hear the maid's cries echo as the poor girl ran down the hallway. Just... what had made her run off like that? Well..., better to go find out what was up.

She creaked the door open and almost had a heart attack. A glowing suit of armor seemed to turn it's head to look at her. But it didn't move or stop her from moving out into the hallway. She saw a few other faces behind doors that were cracked open but those were shut before she could ask anything. But she could hear some sort of commotion coming from further down the hall.

Walking slowly and carefully, she was able to make her way towards the end of the hall and peak around the corner. Then she walked out onto the landing just before a large stair case. A few people were gathered in what looked to be an entrance foyer. The maid from before was there babbling to others, mostly maids but she saw a few guards, 'butlers', and workers mixed in. All had the same patchwork clothing or ill suited gear.

It was then the maid pointed up towards the landing and everyone looked up, each one also having a pale look on their face. However... one woman, wearing a bit of padded armor with short black hair, seemed to be in a mix of fear... and something else. Like she was happy to see, HER for some reason. The strange guard woman took a few steps up the staircase before quickly running up the rest of the way, until she was on the landing with her.

"You are... awake right?"

"....I guess? What's..., " the woman started to fidget, "What's going on? Where am I and... just who are you people."

"...Oh were to... begin I guess." the guard sighed before reaching out a hand, "First I should introduce myself, My Lady. My name is Mira."

"Glad... to meet you Mir... MY LADY?!?!!?!"

"So let me get this straight." She took a deep breath as she sat up straight in her chair.

She had found herself pulled into... what looked to be an office, even if it was make shift. She was sitting at a table which seemed to have some replaced legs so the table was at a small angle. She took one seat while the guards-woman Mira, sitting on the other side of the table. A few others were listening from the doorway but none had walked in with the duo. A maid had come by to give them water in some glasses(repurposed from wine glasses it seemed), before she fled back to safety.

Sadly, the strange woman drank several cups which meant the maid had to keep coming in to refill it. It took the edge off the thirst she had but didn't get rid of it entirely.

"You took shelter here from some bandits. And in a hidden storeroom, you woke me up without meaning to. After which I, a Vampire, slaughtered the bandits, made some guards, and then went to sleep for...."

"It's been two weeks My Lady." Mira reminded her.

"Thank you... two weeks. During this time, more of those armors started to appear which while they ignored you, started to fence you in. But you figured out that so long as you were wearing 'servant clothes' they would leave you alone so long as you were 'doing your tasks' which let you have more access to the Keep. So you started to do some repairs and upkeep to better settle in."

"While this has been going on, I've apparently been sleep walking and feeding about once a day before giving some orders to the armors, making a few more, and then just going back to bed." She finished with a sigh.

"It was a bit of a... fright when you walked out of your room, stumbling about like you were drunk but..., you just started bumping into people. Kinda like a dog wanting attention." Mira chuckled.

"There's an image. Mighty Vampire bumping into people like a small animal." She dragged her hands over her face with a groan, "So... um how many people have I killed?"

"Well the bandits had..."

"Not the bandits!" She slammed a hand on the table, which left an imprint in the wood, and stood pacing back and forth, "How many people have I killed in my feeding?!? God their family must hate me even if they're living here... what am I gonna do fo..."

"You..., have not killed anyone My Lady."

"WHAT!?!?!" she stopped dead in her tracks before looking Mira dead in her eyes, "But I thought I..."

"You fed from the bandits yes... but thus far you haven't killed any of us with your feeding." Mira fidgeted in place as a slight blush came over her face, "In fact... you've only... fed on one person this whole time."

Before she could ask what Mira meant, the guards-woman reached her hands up to her own neck and undid a scarf she had been wearing. The Vampire licked her lips at the bared neck in front of her, without meaning to, but also took notice of the scars on said neck, a set of four round bite like wounds.

"Ever since your first 'walk', you've refused to bite anyone. We weren't sure what to do till I got close and you..., rubbed up against me before moving your mouth to my neck. It hurt... but you never drained me dry..., in fact. After the act you'd always heal me." Mira smiled at the thought but the blush was still there, "After a repeat the next day, we figured out in your 'Sleep walk' state you had to feed but..., you'd only feed from me."

Memories of the voices of Dark and Light came back to her, along with the abilities granted to her. The Vampire sank back into her chair with a sigh, trying to process her thoughts.

"I am.... bound so to say to certain rules. Even when in such a... primal state it seems." she began, a hand to her temple to steady herself, "Whether or not you believe me; I cannot randomly attack humans and it seems 'feeding' counts as an attack. Now there are probably ways I can get around this rule; You Mira are one such instance."

"You said you were... bleeding heavily on the crate... or I suppose it was a casket, that held me." Mira nodded and the Vampire continued, "Said blood must have fell into my mouth or was absorbed in some way. By giving me your blood, even it wasn't on purpose, I believe that was a work around to this rule. As such you are..., well not bound to me. But of the people living here, you seem to be the only one that I am 'allowed' to feed from."

"Unless, someone else wants to volunteer." She gave a wide grin towards the group by the door who quickly shrank back. The Vampire gave a weak laugh as she sank into her seat more, "That's what I thought."

"It does hurt a bit My Lady but it starts to become.... well..., enjoyable?" Mira shifted in her seat a bit, "But I've heard stories that Vampires do that so their prey doesn't freak out..., but I don't mind doing this for you..."

"There you go calling me 'My Lady' again. Why?" The Vampire sat up more, "Why?"

"Well...., you saved us and allowed us to stay at your estate. You could have had your armors attack us, throw us into the dungeons and bleed us dry but... you haven't. Everything you've done thus far has been to help us."

"Your Armors have been standing guard both inside and outside, along with clearing rubble to make room for us or moving what materials still remain. A few even dug up a chamber that leads out into an underground lake, which we've been using for fishing. And well after your... third or fourth feeding, you didn't just go back to bed after healing me. You just... stood there, waving your hand out weakly for a bit before going back to bed."

"After you did it again, we err, presented Isabel to you.., she's one of the older women. She had a bad wound on her arm that was infected but even in your half asleep state, you laid your hand on her and healed her wound. Not fully mind you, she was still at risk of losing her arm but when you did the same thing the next day, we started letting anyone who was wounded come be treated. Isabel's arm still hurts a bit but she's grateful that she won't have to lose that limb."

Mira got up and walked over to the Vampire, kneeling down and taking her hand in hers.

"You are... a Vampire yes. But when you were reduced to such a state you simply moved on instinct, you've only acted to help us. You've protected us, helped us, and healed us. I do not believe you mean us any short term harm and honestly, I feel if you had succeeded your father we would have been in a far better state Lady Von Rosen. So for now, so long as you keep us safe, I would be willing to assist you as best I can My Lady."

Damn. She hadn't even done anything and already had at least one admirer willing to be her servant. What did those boosts of hers do again? Maybe it was something to do with her "Vampire" abilities more so than the gifts she'd been given. She'd have to try and look things over but wait... what did she say?

"Von... Rosen?"

"Yes..., well, I suppose? The Lady Von Rosen went missing..., but given everything, I believe you to be the lost Lady..., why else would you be hidden away here and seem to know the layout of this place while half awake. Do you... remember anything?"

"Bits and pieces..., it's hard to describe..., but I guess I am this Lady? I can't remember my name well right now.., or much else. Even if I'm not I suppose I'm strong enough to claim this keep as my own anyway. So I suppose..., I need to figure out what to do with you all. How many of you are there?"

"There's..., maybe 50 of us? 53?" The Lady Rosen gave her a look, "We started at about 23, but at least one part of the original group was taken away before you woke up, and more people started to make their way into the keep since we settled here."

"That explains it..., I remember killing, maybe eight bandits and seeing... maybe 15 people before? That fight is slowly drifting back into my head and... everything's just a red tinge..., wait." The Vampire looked down, "I was a bloody mess after that. Why am I...."

"We er..., changed your clothes while you were sleeping." Mira offered with a blush on her face, "We have a few women here trained as maids for one reason or another..., I hope you don't mind."

"Ugh...., I guess it's better than spending two weeks in bloody rags." The Vampire took her hand back and stood up, "Thank you Mira..., I suppose I should address everyone."

"In.... that My Lady?"

She looked down at herself. It was cleaner than the rags she had been in so what was the problem? Then her mind finally caught up to her and she started to cover up. A blush started to appear on her cheeks, impressive given she didn't have blood needed to do that.

"Ummm.... yes, I should... probably get some clothes first."