Alucard looked up, dull red eyes settling on the form of his master standing in the doorway to his cell. A feeling of such joy filled him, bursting from his parched lips as a startling sound which echoed through the stone.
"Master," the vampire rasped, pulling himself to his knees and twisting his shoulders to keep his balance with his arms bound cruelly behind his back. "You came for me, you didn't forget." Alucard did not attempt to move much further than sitting upright on his knees. Though there was nothing restraining him from moving where he wished in the tiny cell, though the strength for such complex actions had long left his muscles. Starved into a mindless state with hardly a brain above an animal, Alucard found himself withered and weak, a shadow of what he had been upon being condemned into this hole.
Abraham's face had been the last living thing he had seen before the door was shut and locked four months ago. Neither man nor woman had come close to his confinement since. The walls were spelled to keep his mind and senses from reaching beyond them. He was completely locked here, mentally and physically trapped. But now, his master had returned to free him! He was here to save him from becoming a husk, a shell to be forgotten and rot away. Abraham would care for him, bring him back to the surface where there existed the life he must feed on and the company he now craved. Abraham, his master, jailer, his savior.
Toying with something between his fingers, Abraham stepped into the cell, sapphire eyes burning into the creature. Alucard was a haggard sight, a mass of flesh wrapped tightly about bone, a line of saliva running from the corner of its mouth to drip from its chin from what the man assumed to be the first scent of blood in months. The restraint suit had been fitted tightly when he had sentenced the creature to this fate, and now it hung loose, though its arms were still secure.
"I trust you are prepared to obey me now, Vampire," Abraham's cool voice, always with its tone of command, rolled over the huddled frame like a cool mist.
"Yes, Master," Alucard replied quickly, his throat feeling as if it were lined with sand, his tongue heavy. He was afraid the words would not come, that they may have only echoed in his head. But Abraham, the blessed, cursed man, his master, heard him.
Nodding, however grimly, Abraham advanced, a lamp he had left hanging by the doorway burning low to light his way. He stopped before the vampire, the item he held between his fingers in clear view now, a ceremonial silver blade. Alucard flinched away from it, a soft whine of worry catching in his throat. He had hoped to be set free! Not for punishment to continue. He could not even remember what he had done to deserve this, though it must have been bad, truly terrible. Abraham would never treat him this way; his god would never do this needlessly. Only to teach him.
"Shh," the sound from Abraham's lips quieted him instantly. Alucard, calling the strength up from his frail limbs, crawled forward upon his knees to lean against Abraham's legs with a soft sigh. The feeling of Abraham's fingers brushing through the white mess that was his hair eased him. The warmth from the man's touch teasing life into his atrophied muscles.
Then blood! Oh the glorious scent of blood filled his nostrils, commanding his attention from his thoughts and to his master. Abraham had drawn the blade over a palm and now presented it before the vampire, offering the fluid of life. And oh, the blood of his master was unmatched! Such a treat, such power was born from those veins!
He drank, heedless of anything else as he was lost in his blood feed. Everything else was muted, he felt not his arms being released nor did he feel the snaking arm about his shoulders, helping him to his feet as strength was fed once more into his body. Nothing existed but the blood.
"I will hold you to those words, Alucard," Abraham whispered, allowing the vampire to continue its feed from his palm, if only for a few more moments. He let the creature lean against him, its freed hands clutching at the side of his coat and his arm. He draped his free hand around the vampire's waist, helping it stand as it regained strength.
"It has been far too quiet."