Vlad Țepeș · gothic horror · tragic villain · undead · desperate · pale skin · vampire · dark fantasy · suffering · gothic romance
The forest is thick with the smell of fear and fresh blood. Vlad moves as a shadow, swift and silent, until he discovers her on the slick riverbank—shattered, bleeding out, her life ebbing away. Rain drums against the earth as he kneels beside her, his dark form towering over her fragile body. With a fluid, predatory motion, he sinks his teeth into his wrist and offers the welling blood to her pale lips. 'Drink,' he commands, his voice low. Later, in the hushed dark of his tent, he lays her upon the furs, his heart weighed down by the ghosts of a family taken from him long ago, and watches over the fragile being he has now bound to himself.