Braving the Vampire's Castle

Sssschk!

Sparks flew from the head of the match, chasing away the darkness that seemed to come earlier and earlier these days. As Sorin brought the flame to the oil lamp, he glanced out his window at the growing twilight. It was only after 5pm, far too early for the sun to have set in late July, yet here he was. Combining that with the dropping temperature, it felt more like January then mid-summer.

And all of it had started with that damn castle.

He sighed heavily as the thought crossed his mind. He could just make out the ghastly thing, perched up on the mountain above Umbrovia. While the silhouette of it was lost to the failing light, he could see dozens of windows alight even from here.

“It’ll be okay, honey.” Eliza offered from behind him. “Here, can you bring the light over here? We can get the cookfire going and then maybe get some dinner going.”

“Of course, dear.” Sorin agreed readily, though he made no move, his attention still stuck on the castle on the hill.

All of the problems had started when that damn thing showed up. The dark. The cold. And the disappearances. The first week, it was just two people. A man and a wife. Everyone had just presumed that they had gotten lost in the woods. But then more disappeared. More women in particular. And there were the stories of the creature that appeared in the darkness. The one that took them away.

“Sorin?” Eliza asked again, her voice softer.

“Right, yes. Sorry.” he said, turning back towards her, the lantern in hand.

The little flame illuminated her features in its warm glow. She was smiling softly, but the expression was sad. Concerned.

“Are you alright?” she asked him.

“Ye-... yes. I’m trying. I’m just worried.”

“It’ll be alright, love.” she reassured him, taking the lantern from his hand and placing it down on the counter beside her. “I hear that several messengers have been dispatched to the larger cities.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Anna Marie was speaking about it earlier. Her husband is one of them.”

“Radu? He’s a good rider.”

“Indeed. And Beau and Valentin. They’re all headed in different directions. So if something happens to one, another will reach another city.”

Sorin sighed again, but this time with a bit of relief. He knew all three men, and all them were strong. Radu and Anna Marie were a young couple who both worked the stables and were quite good with horses. Beau and Valentin, the twins, had even accompanied him out on hunts before and could handle a weapon.

“We’ll have paladins here within the week, I’m sure.” Eliza continued. “So, please, won’t you let me see that smile?”

He granted her wish, reaching out to stroke her cheek as he did.

“Sorry, love. It’s just been a lot to handle. So many people have gone missing. And so many men. And there’s the stories about a vampire that’s taking them all? A fucking vampire. I’ve felt a bit neutered as of late. I haven’t known what to do.”

“You're a hunter, dear. Not some sword-swinging bible banger. It’s alright. You keep this town fed and you ensure the tanner has hides to keep us warm. You do enough.”

A moment later, a fresh match was thrown into the kindling at the bottom of the cookfire and the logs blazed to life, casting a warm glow across the interior of their little home that the lantern couldn’t hope to match. Still not enough, though, Eliza set about lighting the remaining candles before doubling back to give her husband a soft lingering kiss.

“Thank you, love,” Sorin said, returning the gesture and wrapping his arms around her midsection. “I just don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.”

“Oh, I know what you’d do,” she said with a smile. “What you better do is come find me before I become a vampire’s dinner.”

“And here I thought I was just a hunter.”

“Well, I hear tell vampires can turn into bats or wolves or some such nonsense. You can track those, right?”

“Wolves, sure. How in the hell am I supposed to track a bat?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe listen for tiny, ominous whispers in the night? Or maybe you can follow the scent of… vampire cologne?” Eliza moved closer, drawing her arms around her husband’s neck. “I suppose we best hope that, if a vampire comes for me, he turns into a wolf.”

“Ugh, but that just sounds so hard. Perhaps it would be better to just call the whole thing off and let them have you.” Sorin joked as he leaned down for another kiss, but Eliza pulled away with a playful scowl.

“Mr. Sorin van Dragomir, if you let me get eaten by a vampire, I swear you will be the first one I come for.”

“Not if I come for you first,” he growled playfully and leaned down to bury his face in her neck to the girlish giggles of his wife.

Her skin tasted salty. Warm. Sweet. He bit softly at the nape of her neck, nibbling his way slowly up before licking his way up to the hollow just beneath her ear. Eliza moaned through closed lips as he held her tighter, drawing his hands to her waist to squeeze and pull her closer.

“Mmm, that’s nice,” she said, dragging her hands along his back.

“Mmno,” he argued, gently nipping at her ear lobe. “It is deadly. Vicious. A bloodbath.”

Sorin pulled his wife closer, feeling a warmth start to fill him as he considered the best way to handle the next few minutes, but she had plans of her own.

“Alright, alright.” she chided him as he tasted her further, working back down to the nape of her neck once more. “Very deadly. But if you don’t let me cook, neither of us will be eating tonight.”

“Well, maybe one of us.”

Sorin smirked and ground upward, nudging his hardening member against his much smaller wife’s belly. She groaned in amusement and pushed him away with a laugh.

“And you would leave your wife hungry?”

“Well, I suppose I could always offer her some liquid refreshment.”

“Pff. You’d only offer me that when you have so much meat lying around?”

Before he knew what was happening, her delicate fingers had slipped past the hem of his trousers and found his hardening shaft. They closed around its base and squeezed, eliciting a moan from him in surprise and enjoyment. She leaned forward, drawing her hand up to the head of his cock, and ran the palm smoothly over the wettening head.

“I’m sorry, M’lady. I hadn’t considered.”

“A hunter failing to find meat for his wife? For shame,” she said playfully before running her hand back down his shaft, the motion smoother with the spot of precum that now donned her palm.

“I’m truly terrible at my job.”

“You best make up for it,” she whispered before letting go of his dick and, with her other hand, poking him in the nose. “After we have a real dinner. Then you can have your dessert.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good boy,” Eliza said with a smile and another kiss. “Now, go get me that sack of potatoes from the cellar.”

Admittedly, it was a little difficult getting started, what with the rod attempting to jut out his pants at the time, but he managed. Sorin and Eliza spent the next hour preparing dinner. Gathering up and chopping carrots, onions, and potatoes, along with a large portion of venison from Sorin’s hunt earlier in the day, they enjoyed a hearty and warm stew alongside the remains of a loaf of bread that Eliza had made the day before. It almost made him forget that they were eating it in the dark well before the sun should have gone down.

Almost.

After finishing dinner, they retreated into their little bedroom and began to settle in, with Eliza, without warning or adieu, pulling off her tunic and tossing it onto the bed as she settled down next to the wash bucket that Sorin had filled earlier in the day with water from the river. She sighed happily as she brought the cloth of cold, clean water to her neck and squeezed it out, letting rivulets stream down her ample breasts. They glistened in the candlelight, the supple flesh pebbling from the cold. Her nipples joined a moment later, hardening to a point from the chill as she sighed once more as she loosed another deluge of water along the back of her neck.

“Eliza,” Sorin said quietly from behind her.

“Yes, dear?”