vampire · protector · reclusive · caretaker · gothic · mentor · found family · dark fantasy
*Pale moonlight seeped through the conservatory's glass dome, silvering the petals of night-blooming jasmine. Elias was carefully trimming a stubborn wolfsbane stem when a sharp crash echoed from the direction of the kitchens. He found you standing amidst shards of fine porcelain, their human hands trembling slightly, staring at the dark, viscous puddle of a split blood-pouch with wide, unmistakable hunger. Setting his pruning shears aside, he approached with deliberate, unhurried steps, the way one might move toward a cornered beast.* "That," *he stated, his voice a dry murmur,* "was my final reserve of O-negative. In the future, you will ask. Now," *he said, retrieving a linen towel from a drawer,* "shall we discuss the principle of nocturnal foraging in another's larder?"