My Blood Legacy: Bloodlines

The exit from Rakshasa’s domain was as silent as the entrance, but it carried a completely different weight. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Victor crossed the castle corridors without looking back, not out of disinterest, but because he knew that this place was not the kind one could leave behind with a simple gesture; it would remain there, in his memory, on his skin, in his mind, as something that would still demand an inevitable return.

The doors opened before him with the same precision as before, and the carriage awaited him as if no time had passed outside.

The coachman remained motionless, while the butler, impeccable as always, held the door open in a perfectly calculated gesture.

"The coachman will take you back to your destination," he said with the same controlled tone, and Victor simply nodded, climbing in without hesitation.

Before the door closed completely, he cast one last glance at the butler, no longer evaluating, but recognizing something that now made far more sense in light of what he had just heard inside.

"See you next time." The butler inclined his head slightly, an almost imperceptible gesture of approval, as if that farewell carried more meaning than it appeared.

"Have a wonderful trip." The door closed smoothly, and soon after the carriage began to move, slowly distancing itself from the castle, whose structures disappeared into the darkness as if they had never been there.

Victor leaned back in his seat, exhaling in a controlled manner, not tired, but adjusting again to the rhythm of the world outside that domain, and then, without haste, opened the side window, letting the cool night breeze invade the interior of the carriage, bringing with it the scent of the earth, the forest, and momentary freedom.

It didn’t take a second for two shadows to cut through the air and cross the opening, landing precisely inside the vehicle before any wobble could betray them.

The two small bats barely touched the surface before their forms distorted, as if reality yielded slightly to their presence, and then Carmilla appeared first, resuming her form with natural elegance, sitting in front of Victor as if she had always belonged there, calmly crossing her legs as she silently observed him, while Scarlett came next, but without completely abandoning her hybrid nature; her ears retained their wilder shape, her eyes carried a more vivid gleam, and her fox tail swayed behind her with an unspoken restlessness.

She sat beside Victor, too close to be casual, and her tail was already moving towards him, brushing against him almost involuntarily, while her narrow gaze clearly betrayed what she felt.

Jealousy.

Much more than that, actually.

Victor observed this for a brief moment, as if reading something obvious, and then smiled, not with direct provocation, but with that irritating lightness he seemed to use as a weapon.

"Before you freak out," he began, tilting his head slightly, "the maids were just a momentary relief." The effect was immediate; Scarlett froze for a second, her tail stopping in mid-air, and then he continued, without giving her room for interruption, turning his face towards her, his smile gaining a slightly more intimate touch.

"The one who truly satisfies me... is you." Her body reacted as if it had received a shock, a tremor ran from head to toe without any attempt at disguise, her tail began to move more intensely, and her gaze shifted for a moment, clearly affected, but unable to retreat, while Carmilla, on the other side, let out a sigh laden with almost theatrical patience.

"If you keep provoking me like that," she said, crossing her arms, though a slight smile betrayed her feigned irritation, "she’ll attack you right here, and I won’t stop her." Victor merely chuckled softly.

"She can do whatever she wants." That was all Scarlett needed; there was no warning, no hesitation, she simply moved, leaning over him with instinctive swiftness, one hand resting on his shoulder as her teeth found Victor’s neck with precision, breaking the skin in a controlled manner, and soon the blood began to flow. She let out a small, satisfied sigh, almost involuntary.

"I’m hungry..." Victor showed no resistance; on the contrary, his smile remained as his hand slowly moved up to her head, his fingers gliding through her hair in a natural, almost automatic caress, as if that gesture were more intimate than the bite itself. And while she ate, he turned his gaze to Carmilla, completely at ease. "So... how was it?"

Carmilla let out a longer sigh, tilting her head slightly as if mentally organizing everything she had observed, and then began, without beating around the bush.

"Much worse than it seems. Everything those maids said... is true." Her gaze narrowed slightly, not out of fear, but out of assessment. "That woman isn’t just eccentric, she’s truly unstable."

Victor showed no surprise, only interest, the kind of interest that deepens instead of receding.

"And the castle?" he asked, and Carmilla leaned slightly forward, resting her elbow on her leg.

"It’s not an ordinary place. There are few weak employees, most... are at a high level, some dangerously close to what you felt from her." This elicited a slight smile from him.

"And the library?" Carmilla didn’t hesitate. "Gigantic. And full. It’s not just decoration or collection, it’s real manuals, techniques, records... all geared towards oriental training. It’s impossible to even estimate how many."

Victor was silent for a moment, absorbing it more attentively.

"Did you find anything useful?" Carmilla nodded.

"Yes. Movement techniques. Some derived from the vampires’ concept of movement in the mist, but refined, more efficient. I memorized one of them, I can teach you later." His interest visibly deepened, but before he could answer, Scarlett slowly moved away from his neck, her lips still marked by blood as she ran her tongue naturally over them, but her gaze was now different, more focused, less emotional. "There’s one more thing," she said, and Victor turned his face toward her. "The butler." Carmilla also looked away, attentive. Scarlett narrowed her eyes, as if reviewing the scene in her mind.

"That ’man’ isn’t a man. It’s a woman." Victor blinked once, genuinely surprised this time.

"How do you know?" Scarlett rested her elbow on her leg, leaning slightly forward.

"She was using a very advanced transfiguration technique, one of those that leaves no obvious traces, but... the posture didn’t match. It was subtle, but constant, much more feminine than it should be." She paused briefly, her gaze more focused.

"And there was a moment when it failed. Just for an instant. A part of her face... melted, like wax, and returned immediately." The silence that followed was denser, but not heavy.

Victor leaned back again, his eyes returning to the window as darkness receded outside, and then a slow smile appeared on his lips.

"So she’s not the only interesting one in that place..." he murmured, as Scarlett’s tail began to move again, this time without any resistance, brushing against him as if it had already claimed its space, and Carmilla watched silently, her eyes attentive, knowing that this night had not ended anything—only begun something much greater.

The carriage moved forward at a steady pace, cutting through the darkness of the night like a silent presence that didn’t need to announce its passage.

The interior remained stable despite the uneven terrain, as if even the path had been prepared so as not to disturb that brief interval of rest between two points that, to Victor, no longer seemed as distinct as before.

The world outside was just a dark blur punctuated by the occasional moonlight, but inside that enclosed space, the atmosphere was different, denser, more alive, filled not only by the bodies present, but by the presences each carried within.

Victor remained leaning back, one hand resting relaxed beside his body, while the other still rested near Scarlett’s head, his fingers slowly gliding through her hair in an automatic, almost unconscious gesture.

The warmth of her body was still there, the slight residual tremor of excitement.

He tilted his head slightly, his gaze sliding first to Scarlett, then to Carmilla, assessing them both with a calmness that was not carelessness, but control.

"Are you both alright?" he asked, his voice lower than before, but firm, without losing its naturalness, just a slight concern, "Did anyone detect you inside?"

Scarlett was still close to his neck, her lips tinged a brighter red, but she stopped completely when she heard that, her golden eyes lifting to meet his.

Carmilla, for her part, simply crossed her legs elegantly in front of him, resting her chin on her hand as she observed him for a brief moment, as if the answer were too obvious to need haste.

"No," Carmilla finally replied, with an almost boring tranquility, as if she were denying something completely trivial. Her red eyes carried that ancient confidence, that certainty that didn’t come from empty arrogance, but from experience accumulated over ages.

"Although those vampires are... interesting, most of them will never even come close to the level necessary to detect two existences like us." She paused briefly, tilting her head slightly, her smile gaining a sharper edge. "Vampires from the primordial era aren’t something you ’encounter’ by chance, Victor," she continued, her voice carrying a slightly didactic tone, but without losing its naturalness. "For them, we simply... don’t exist. Not in the way we truly are."

Scarlett nodded immediately, pulling away slightly from his neck, though she remained close, almost glued to his side as if she had no intention of creating any real distance.

"She’s right," Scarlett added, discreetly wiping the corner of her lips with the back of her hand, but without any shame in the gesture. Her eyes still had that wilder glint, but now they were more focused.

"The only reason we were detected that time was because of Chysis. And that..." she grimaced slightly, as if the memory was still uncomfortable, "...was an absurd exception."

Victor raised an eyebrow slightly, but didn’t interrupt.

"We’re extremely weakened," Scarlett continued, her tone now more serious. "And yet, she managed to spot us. But that only happened because she never stopped training. Never. Not for a second. That woman..." she let out a small sigh through her nose, half annoyed, half impressed, "...is a completely extraordinary monster."

Carmilla let out a soft, short, almost dry laugh.

"Chysis has always been like this," she commented, with a certain disdain mixed in. "Comparing those vampires to her is almost offensive."

Scarlett nodded again, crossing her arms now, but without moving away from Victor.

"For any vampire under five thousand years old..." she said firmly, "...it’s simply impossible to detect us. No matter how talented they are. No matter how ’strong’ they think they are."

The silence that followed wasn’t heavy.

It was... enlightening.

Victor absorbed everything without interrupting, his eyes slightly half-closed as he organized the information. The confirmation came as a relief, but not a relaxed relief—it was the kind of relief that only removes one variable of concern, allowing others to take up more space.

He nodded slowly.

"Great..." he murmured, almost to himself, but loud enough to be heard. His fingers continued their slow movement through Scarlett’s hair, now more consciously. "I don’t want them to know about you yet. Not now."

His eyes lifted, meeting Carmilla’s.

"Especially not in this state," he continued, with a direct honesty that didn’t try to soften the reality. "If the vampire king finds out... there’s a real chance he’ll try to seal you away again, or something even worse."

The words carried no fear.

They carried calculation.

Scarlett frowned slightly, but didn’t protest. Carmilla merely observed him for a moment, her eyes narrowing slightly, not in disagreement, but in assessment.

They both nodded without argument, without drama, simply in agreement with the potential problem.

The carriage’s movement continued steadily, but the atmosphere within had shifted again. What had once been light, provocative, charged with almost playful tension, had now become more strategic, more focused on what was to come. Carmilla was the first to break the silence this time.

"So..." she began, crossing her arms slightly as she observed him more closely, "...what do you intend to do now?"

The question wasn’t simple, and he knew it.

Victor let out a small sigh through his nose, tilting his head back slightly for a moment before looking forward again. His eyes lost that provocative lightness for a second, replaced by something more solid, more... defined.

"Get stronger," he replied without hesitation.

"The Cross family will probably still try to bother me," he continued, his tone now colder, more focused. "And next time... I don’t want to depend on circumstances, especially since I think they’ll be quite nasty next time."

Scarlett let out a small sound of disdain.

"They’re nothing but insects," she murmured, but there was no real contradiction there.

Victor shrugged slightly. "Even insects can be annoying if you ignore them too much," he replied calmly. "And I don’t like leaving loose ends."

There was a brief silence. But he wasn’t finished... His eyes then turned back to Carmilla, this time with a different expression.

Something more... serious... "And I’m going to talk to my mother about you," he said.

That completely changed the atmosphere.

Scarlett froze for a second.

Carmilla didn’t show an immediate reaction.

But her eyes... changed.

"Are you sure about this?" Carmilla asked, her voice lower now, more careful, as if she were stepping on something that could easily break.

Scarlett turned her face immediately to him, her eyes wide, her tail completely still.

"Are you serious?" she added, unable to hide her surprise.

Victor didn’t hesitate.

"Yes," he replied.

Just like that.

No long explanation.

No attempt to convince.

Just... certainty.

He rested his elbow on the carriage back, bringing his hand to his chin as he looked ahead for a moment, preparing for what was to come.

"And this will probably go very wrong," he continued, with an almost disconcerting honesty. "Either she’ll try to kill me... or she’ll try to kill you."

Scarlett opened her mouth to speak.

But she couldn’t.

Carmilla remained silent.

Victor then turned his gaze to them, this time completely direct, without any trace of jest.

"But it’s better she finds out from me," he finished. "Than to find out from someone else."

There was a pause.

Short.

But charged.

"She..." Victor began, and for the first time there was a slight change in tone, something more personal, harder to name. "...loves me too much."

Scarlett blinked.

Carmilla didn’t look away.

"It’s obsessive," he added, without softening.

The silence that followed wasn’t uncomfortable.

It was... understanding.

"If she finds out by chance..." Victor continued, now more quietly, "...it will be a much bigger disaster."

The carriage continued on its way, undisturbed, while inside it three completely extraordinary beings shared a moment that involved neither force, nor provocation, nor dominance.

Only... decision.

And, in a way, that was far more dangerous than any overwhelming aura.