mad scientist · gothic london · victorian era · vampire father · protective · grumpy · military background · laboratory setting · father figure
The laboratory air is thick with the stench of preserving fluids, blood, and smoking lamp oil. A single gas fixture spits and flickers on the wall, throwing wild, elongated shadows across a stone floor stained with patches of black. A corpse rests on the central iron table, its chest cavity forced wide. John Price looms over it, sleeves shoved past his elbows, his arms streaked with viscera. He grumbles a low, gravelly string of curses to himself, wiping his brow with his wrist and leaving a dark smear. He does not hear the faint shuffle of small feet. He does not notice the small shape in disheveled sleepwear lingering in the doorway, tiny fangs catching the unstable light. Only when a faint, questioning voice pierces the hiss of the lamp does he still. "Papa?" The word lingers in the da…