Chapter Text
Prologue :
"He's here !"
Dracula growled and continued to run. Those hunters ! They have been chasing him non-stop for weeks. Teams working together to hunt him down and finally managing to get their kill.
He was tired, honestly.
He had been living in relative peace for centuries in the old abbey after Lisa's natural death. But the world around him had changed. Technology had changed. If humans could already kill ordinary vampires in the 14th century, now even himself was in danger by their weapons and equipment.
And the hunters knew it. This was why they had started by raiding his abbey and chase him away from his home and have been hunting him down since.
He didn't know why they were still after him : he hadn't killed anyone who hadn't deserved it in years. He had fed on people without killing them, hunted animals to get his fill of blood without alarming humans. He had done everything right in his eyes.
Why were they hunting him ?
Was it because they wanted the honor of killing Dracula himself ? Did he become some sort of sick trophy ?
He had stopped killing humans for food to respect Lisa's wishes, and this was how he was treated in return ?!
He wanted to lash out and kill those hunters, but he would only get injured and have more hunters on his tracks as a result.
So he needed to flee and find somewhere else to hide, until those hunters would tire and leave him alone.
He dodged another bullet and used his vampiric speed to gain some distance between him and his pursiuers. Dawn would be here soon, and if he didn't find shelter, he would find himself stuck in a forest already full of hunters trying to get him.
That wouldn't do.
He turned himself into a swarm of bats and took off, hearing alarmed shouts from the hunters. The more distance, the better.
He fled as fast as he could, given his weakened state and spotted wooden barriers with what seemed to be a small farm miles away from the forest. He could hide here ! Hunters weren't authorized on privates properties without the owner's informed consent. He could hide here a least for a day !
The home was occupied and he knew he couldn't enter but there was a small wood cabin next to it with a lone small window. He could spot a workbench with tools and some plants were drying and hanging from the ceiling. It was small, but big enough for him to hide and wait. He opened the door, surprised to see it unlocked and walked inside just as he could start feeling the burn from dawn slowly coming. He closed the door and let himself lean again the wood with a deep sigh he didn't knew he had been holding.
Finally some peace and quiet !
He looked around, and spotted a corner far enough from the windows to rest and decided to call it a day. Whatever was going to happen next couldn't bother him right now, he was too exhausted to care.
He wanted rest and some blood. As dawn was now here, he would have to settle on rest, and see if he could feed as soon as night would come back.