It was war, yet again.

After the truce had been broken with the werewolves finding one of their members dead in their own territory, Lucas had to set rules and boundaries again amongst his ‘family’ members. He cannot lose the ones he currently has now after having gone through the trouble of inviting them over to live with them. Although he may have had liked that hundred year of peace back then, he can’t really do a thing about what had happened. He can’t also try and change the werewolves’ minds. They are pretty hard-headed when it came to letting them to understand what had happened. When they believe something, that was it.

At least, that was how Lucas saw them. Hell, for all he knew they weren’t the cause of that werewolf’s death. Even humans hunted for wolves in Alaska. It was a known sport and he was there when he saw them shoot all kinds of animals they could get their hands on. It disgusted him but he didn’t speak out loud.

It never was in Lucas’ nature to do so especially when he was dealing with humans. They were fickle-minded humans or so he thought.

[imgright]http://www.cosplayfu.com/images/character/mini/1018_847f26311189ce0edfe994a84064c115.jpg[/imgright]As he padded down the hallway towards a door, he stopped to look around at what seemed to be a dark and musky wine cellar. The oldest wine one could find here was a thousand years old and though he may be a dead creature, he’s often found drinking a glass of wine before he slept in the wee hours of the morning or while he was enjoying a book. It may not have the same effects as to when a wine was drank by humans and perhaps not as enjoyable as a glass of human blood but nonetheless, it had become a habit. It was a habit that has become hard to break for over five centuries now.

The pale-skinned male didn’t bother brushing off the strands of curly hair that were starting to settle onto his face, covering his eye, as he raised one hand. His thin and long fingers brushed over a half-drunken wine on the very top shelf before he took it and put it in the case at the lower left of the other shelf. This action made a door open at the corner, just right of the shelf he first approached, and he dusted his hand a bit before he stepped up onto the top of the stairs. It was a dungeon that he had thought of building when they got this castle. His father had one before while he was searching the whole castle. There were rooms he couldn’t go into and certain rooms that were hidden from the rest of the family members. His father was not aware he knew though.

The smell of human excretes filled the air and the vampire’s sensitive and sharp sense of smell made him frown in distaste and disgust. Human blood was the best but only when they were fresh; when they hadn’t died yet. It should explain why Lucas was here to get some of their harvest to feed his other family members. The only other dead creature who knew about this place was the one who kept them all in good health. But even then, he only allowed them in when he couldn’t do it himself.

“Let us out, please.”
“We wish for freedom.”

Those words had become a mantra of the sorts for these people as he silently padded through the dungeon. They didn’t even realize his presence until one of their kin had screamed in terror at Lucas suddenly appearing behind him. It had silenced them as they listened for any more movement and they all huddled back into their cells as if such an action would save them. They were starting to lessen in numbers and Lucas noted this. He might just have to have one of his people bring in humans but with the werewolves roaming the town themselves, this was going to prove to be rather hard compared to when they had the treaty.

These humans living poorly in their dungeon, after all, were leftovers from back then.

The human was drained off of his blood; his last scream heard by everyone and seen by him. The dim light barely showed the man’s face but with his eyes seeing better in the dark, those features of the corpse now wasn’t hard to see.

By the time he was done and he had gotten enough to feed his people for the day, he had gone back up to put the wine back from the case to put it back at the top shelf. He didn’t bother watching the door to the secret room shut and he shut the door to the wine cellar behind him. All one could see from him were the two bottles tinted dark green, which were even darker now that they had blood in them. The male prepared five glasses and put the bottles on the table in the dining room.

Lucas poured himself a glass and like the usual days, he headed for his library on the second floor. He entered a lavish room with high bookshelves and he took a sip of his drink as he skimmed through the titles. Almost all of the books here that were now decaying with age were books he had read a long time ago. He had collected them over the past two hundred years having traveled to and from Alaska just to get the said books. It was his only source of entertainment and he read to get informed about the world outside. Though he may love Alaska like the other werewolves and his fellow vampires because of the darkness settling for a couple of days, it benefitted him and his kin.

Once he’d gotten himself a book, he’d settled down on the cushions that were arranged by a tall window, a royal, window pane. It was one of the many intricate designs of the castle that seemed to have become even much more elegant with time. Back when he had first taken the castle as his with the war with the werewolves, it wasn’t as pleasing to the eyes as it had been.

None of them better be making trouble for me, he thought as he laid down on his side and propped himself up with the pillows tucked under his arm. He flipped the book to a certain page and looked out the window for a few seconds. The drapes were pulled back to show the dark clouds hovering over above them. With winter, there was barely any sun and Lucas was quite thankful for it.

Lucas had a strong sense of hearing. It came with age and as long as he continued to feed himself with human blood, it made his senses sharper every single day. With this, he could tell if any of his vampires made any wrong move. Lucas, by far, was the most deadliest and scariest when he was angry. Though this didn’t take much of his energy, he still barely ever uses it. Growing older with vampire age, after all, told him its benefits and disadvantages.

“We’re only on the defense. It’s much important for us to live than to kill the werewolves for no reason.”

Lucas didn't even lift his eyes from the page in his book when he'd heard the bare sounds of the footsteps along the hallway. He was quite sure he knew who that was. When he'd heard the knock and had heard her start talking, he only nodded in silent reply to the first question and lifted his gaze from the book the moment he'd turned the page. "I'm afraid not," he said before he'd sighed and reached out to take his glass, "I just hope they aren't bringing themselves any trouble."

Taking a small sip of the drink, he finally settled his gaze to Fox and smiled almost dryly. Indeed, he didn't like the fact that the war had resurfaced again. Honestly, if he could find that perpetrator, he'd deal with it himself and hand the head of that said human, vampire, or whatever creature it is that killed that werewolf on a silver platter. Lucas would do anything to keep his children safe and those of the werewolves' children safe, as well. "I will watch over them while you're gone," he assured her, "And should anything happen, I'll try and keep them out of trouble." He was going to try. He can't promise. After all, younger vampires were stubborn, as well, when they don't understand something.

The vampire leader brought up his fingers to have them run through his hair. The male glanced back out at the window and then shifted his gaze back to Fox. "I trust your word that you take care of yourself," he said with a slight nod, "And bring our family more harvest."

It seemed like his family was slowly gathering themselves back to their real home, this castle. The sight of Ruth made him smile and he shifted to shut his book and put it onto the table with his half-drunken glass of wine. "Quite nice of you to join us, Ruth," he started before he'd gotten up to his feet. The male's hair wasn't tied up so when he'd stood up, the curly strands fell about his face. He brushed them back but a few had found themselves to fall back onto the side of his face.

A quiet chuckle left the male's lips as he came over the two women. He lifted his hand to tilt Ruth's face up to meet his own. "I think it is worth the effort," he said as he leaned in to press a light kiss onto her forehead, "Just as long as you don't make the mistake of sleeping with a werewolf or being found by them." He put his hand on her cheek and then retrieved his hand again. "Knowing their sense of smell, though, they'll be sure to find you should you do that in town." A look of distaste took over Bloodheart's features as he walked towards one section of his bookshelf and ran the tips of his fingers along the spines.

"I'd suggest doing the act of intercourse in the four walls of our home. It would not matter how loud you are; the humans in the dungeons seem to not mind their current situation."

When he came to one thick book entitled, 'The Kama Sutra', he pulled it out and looked at it for a few seconds before he'd scanned it for a few minutes. "And Ruth, you wouldn't mind accompanying Fox when she'd leave for town to harvest more food for us, would you?" he asked as he stopped at a certain page and then suddenly shut the book. Lucas returned the said book into the shelf, turned back to walk to the coffee table to pick up his glass and drink the rest of his drink. The male licked his lips and flopped back down onto the cushions with his head tilting back to look out the window. His arms were stretched out; for a leader, this was quite a lazy position. "We'll be needing to gather as much as we could with the war now going on. We can't just freely go into town and do what we want; we don't know how the werewolves are going to be attacking us."

"We'll need to replenish our kin should the time come for us to recover from the war." The vampire didn't stop there. He pulled his head forward again to look at the two with quite a stern stare. His voice held power, too, as he spoke: "You two must remember: we will not start a fight, we will protect ourselves from any of their attacks. Am I understood?"