“So my dear, what have you been up to in the past two hundred years?”
Vlad questioned his ever-stoic wife; the two were seated at a dinner table, Vlad was eating a blood-dressed steak that was perfectly prepared by Dominic, and Valerie ate a blood-red strawberry cake with blood-mixed wine as a drink.
The two were sat across from each other rather than side by side. The dining area of the castle, much like Vlad's bedroom, was painted blood red, and the black tablecloth contrasted well with the room's colour.
“Hmm”
She hummed at his question, contemplating on what to tell him. Elizabeth was the one who was most likely to brag about her little misadventures.
“Well I did kill the head of the Theed family, but your awakening caused me to rush the process”
She informed her husband and quickly felt annoyed about the fact that she didn't get her satisfaction from it.
He responded to her words with an eyebrow raised before responding with a question.
“You have a process now?”
“Of course, just killing them got boring, so I had to be creative”
She said, and Vlad hummed while nodding his head. He supposed she was right, After all, doing the same thing over and over again eventually becomes boring.
“I would have thought you'd have had enough of the whole thing”
He said as he remembered her hatred for the Theed family goes far back, about as far back as when he was the Impaler
“I can never have enough, plus there are still a few generations left”
She said, and the venom in her words was clearly conveyed despite the lack of emotion on her face.
“I suppose that is fair, but I forgot why you don't just end the whole family line. It would certainly be easier”
He said, killing the heads of the family, rather than just ending the whole line, was a tedious endeavour, but he did admire her dedication. She's certainly driven, that's for sure.
“I don't want things to be easy, love. Especially not for that family”
Vlad gave her a nod of understanding. He certainly wasn't going to convince her of anything she didn't want to be convinced of.
“So I take it you left the son alive?”
“Yes, in the past, I killed the patriarch secretly. However, now I want to see what will happen if the son has what it takes to kill me”
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With a shake of his head and a smile, he cut the steak and put it in his mouth, chewed and savoured the flavour before he swallowed.
“I look forward to your battle with him, I am quite curious about how powerful humans can get. By the way, Nosferatu didn't give you trouble in my absence, did he?”
He asked, Nosferatu was one of the first he turned, but the little prick was too proud to obey, so he rebelled against his master.
“His conflict is with you, so ever since you slept, he's been quiet, although he has been growing the number of his underlings, there's even some who call him the king of Vampires”
She told, and Vlad found himself bursting out in laughter, his laugh echoing throughout the mansion. The two were alone as Valerie had dismissed Dominic after he finished cooking.
After a full minute, Vlad was able to finally calm himself down. However, the joyful look on his face told Valerie he was still tickled by the information she gave him.
“I am happy, I can make you laugh so loudly, dear.”
She giggled; however, her giggle would be unsettling to the average person as her mouth didn't curve into a smile or show any facial expression associated with a giggle, so instead, it remained stoic, showing zero sign of emotion.
“I'm comatose for a few centuries, and the little upstart starts thinking he's the king of Vampire, how hilarious”
Vlad said as he cut another piece from his steak and shoved it in his mouth, Valerie waited for him to finish chewing and swallow before she spoke.
“You speak as if that title is something you still want”
“Hardly, my dear. King of Vampires is an utterly useless title”
He said with a shrug, and Valerie let out a snort.
“You speak like you didn't utterly destroy anyone who came to challenge you and your title, what happened to my dear Vlad Dracula Tepes”
“You can't possibly tell me you like that …less than an appealing version of me more than my current self”
His question hung in the air as Valerie thought in silent contemplation, Vlad the impaler was certainly an interesting phase of his. The ruthlessness he displayed was quite a sight to see.
“You're right, I do prefer this version of you, although Alcina probably misses that side of you”
“Obviously, she always misses the old me, but I think she too saw the benefit in my change”
Vlad said, and Valerie hummed, agreeing to his statement. The silence descended into the room as the topic of conversation died, allowing the clinking of cutlery hitting the plate to be heard loud and clear.
“After this, we'll be watching television, I know you'll absolutely love period dramas and maybe soap operas”
“I'm sure I will, I haven't had the time to experience this era’s form of entertainment, so I'm looking forward to it”
“Excellent”
…
The light from the television illuminated the dark room as both Valerie and Vlad sat comfortably on the couch, snuggling together with a blanket covering them as their eyes were glued to the TV screen.
“Do you take me for a fool? Am I a joke to you?”
The TV showed a man and his wife inside the living room of their mansion. The man carried a look of hurt as he spoke
“No, no, it's not like that I–”
The woman tried to defend herself, trying to think of a quick lie to save her marriage and cover up the infidelity, but she was cut off.
“How many times did you sleep with him?”
He asked, and the woman could only stutter in incoherent words, unable to confirm or deny; no, she didn't want to confirm or deny his question.
“Was it once?”
He paused as he asked, the silence dragged on, the silence of his wife refusing to tell him she did not cheat on him with his twin brother once, so he asked again.
“Twice?”
Finally, with no excuses, she decided to rip the bandaid right off.
“It was 3 times”
The man exploded in anger, screaming as he cleared the coffee table of its decorative glass vases, and Vlad couldn't help but let out an “Ooo” as the wife revealed that she cheated three times with her husband's look alike.
The episode ended there, rolling the credits and Vlad spoke.
“That was… intense”
“Right, it's over dramatic but not too much and maintains its realism”
Valerie concurred and earned a nod from her husband, when they began watching, Vlad hadn't been convinced, but after a couple of episodes, he was invested.
“But I have to wonder, is she really at fault? They look exactly alike, even dress similarly so essentially she's attracted to her husband”
He presented his argument.
“It's more than that, she's been married to him for 20 years, she's supposed to be able to know her husband better than anyone, the first time she did could be forgiven because she didn't know but she found out after and still had sex with him two times”
Valerie countered.
“True but her going back to the brother twice should tell you she's still attracted to her husband, but the brother has something her husband has stopped giving her”
“Exactly, her husband doesn't give her what she needs, and she didn't want to hurt his ego by telling him”
“Yes but would that not have been better? Him finding out this way doubles the pain and ruins their successful marriage”
The two continued to discuss, arguing back and forth about the episode. Both give their thoughts on how things could have been done better and how the characters should have behaved.
“It's nice that I don't have to worry about having a twin brother. There's only one me you have to worry about”
He said as he groped her breasts underneath the blankets, and Valerie hummed in pleasure.
“That's certainly a good thing”
She said, repositioning herself and began to kiss him, inserting her tongue in his mouth and sharing their saliva, their tongues danced together, passionately coiling around each other.
