Seraphine jumped out of the box and lunged at me, her face changing to bloodred eyes and large fangs. I dodged out of the way and flicked my wrists, two wooden stakes coming out of my sleeves. Seraphine bared her claws at me and attempted to grab my wrist, but missed. She raked my sleeve with her talons, and pale red blood came out of the wounds.
"Ow!" I said. "You ripped my jacket!"
I morphed my face, my eyes changing to bloodred and my fangs coming out.
Seraphine gasped. "You're a vampire, too."
I seized at the distraction and lunged at her, knocking her down. I put one of the stakes at her throat and the other above her heart.
"Now," I snarled, "I won't necessarily kill you, as you're the princess. However, you'll have to promise to never drink from humans."
Her face changed back to normal. I was struck again by how extraordinarily beautiful she was.
"Why are you threatening to kill your princess, subject?" she snarled at me.
"Hate to break it to you, sweetie, but the vampiric monarchy was toppled in the 1600s. It's 2024."
She looked shocked.
"What? I've been in that infernal coffin for over 420 years?"
"Yeah," I said. "Your father, Count Dracula, was killed by my father, Jonathan Harker."
"What?!" Seraphine said, and she became angry again. "My father's dead?!"
I smiled and pressed down on her throat with a stake. "Beside the point, hon. This could go one of two ways. Either you die, or you promise to not drink from humans. Understood?"
"Understood," she said. "Or I can kill you. I like that better."
Her face changed again and she threw me across the room. I got up, but she ran at me and jumped on me, my head smacking into the cave wall. She straddled my body with her legs and tried to stab me with a wooden stake, which I had dropped when she threw me, but I grabbed her arm and held it off from stabbing me. I invested all of my vampiric strength to keep her from stabbing me. She laughed again.
"You'll tire eventually," she said. "Then you'll die."
I got an idea.
"Not today," I said, then I kissed her.
As I expected, it took her off-guard, and she stopped trying to stab me. I pushed her off and got on her.
This time, I laughed. "We could go at this all day."
She struggled against me, but I was using my strength. Eventually, she stopped struggling and gave up.
"Fine," she said. "What must I do to not die?"
"Promise to never drink from humans," I said. "Ever."
She sighed dejectedly. "Fine. I promise never to drink from humans. Ever."
I got off of Seraphine. I believed her promise. See, the way vampires work is when one makes a promise, they have an inability to break it. When I was a kid, I was known for always keeping my promises. That was because I was a vampire.
"Good," I said.
"But I'm so hungry," she said. Her eyes flashed red, and she looked at me hungrily. "And I've heard that vampire blood tastes just as good as human."
It took me a second too long to figure out what she was talking about. She lunged at me, caught me, and sank her fangs into my neck. I tried to push her off, but my body went limp as she sucked my blood. And it felt really good.
Okay, imagine the greatest pleasure you've ever felt. Now magnify that by a thousand. Then you may come close to how it felt for a vampire to have their blood sucked by another vampire.
"Wha…what are you doing?" I asked weakly.
She came up, her lips stained with blood. My blood.
"Drinking you," she said.
She licked her lips as she drew away. I fell on my knees as she let go. I felt hungry. Hungrier than I'd ever felt. I looked up at Seraphine. Her satisfied expression changed to a expression of confusion and - was that fear?
"S-subject? What are you doing?" she said. Yeah. That was definitely fear.
"Huh. I am really hungry," I said.
I slowly rose to my feet.
"Really, really hungry," I said. "And you look like your blood is delicious."
I lunged at Seraphine, and before she could stop me, I sank my teeth into her neck.
After I was finished, I came up and looked at Seraphine. Something was different. It was as if…I was connected to her somehow. And the answer as to why came to me.
"Seraphine," I said. "I don't think we can drink from anything except each other."
Seraphine looked at me in a weird way. "You are correct, Will."
I stopped. "I never told you my name, Sera."
"I never told you my nickname," Sera said, mystified.
"Well, we may as well work together," I said. "Live together, too. I can teach you about what the Earth is like now."
"I'm sorry, what did you say?" she said. "Who's Earth?"
I let out a breath. "Yeah, I got a lot to teach you. Do you have any idea why we can't drink from anything except each other?"
"None," she said. "Unless…" She swore in Hungarian.
"What?" I said.
"Oh, this is why my father never married!" she ranted.
"What?" I said again.
"I thought it was just tradition!" she said.
"WHAT?" I yelled.
She sighed huffily. "In the 1600s, when vampires married each other, they would never drink from anyone from each other."
It tokk me a second. Then it dawned on me. "You mean…"
"Yes," she said. "They wouldn't drink from anyone except each other because they couldn't drink from anyone except each other. Will, I believe we have done the vampiric equivalent of marrying each other."
