Coffee and Blood

Summary: Vlad arrives in Amity Park for the first time and tries to acquaint himself with his new home.

Characters: Vlad and Lancer

Originally Written: February 2014

"And that would be the school," the man said as they arrived back at the principal's office. "Our resident witch has kept up the spells upon the school to protect vampires from sunlight so you don't have to worry about walking the school halls during the day. Just so long as you don't step outside of the building."

Vlad nodded along as the man spoke. He had been in Amity Park for all of five minutes, but he already felt a weight lifting off his shoulders now that he wasn't locked up at one of the council's headquarters in Europe. It didn't erase the horrible guilt that ate him up inside every second of his life since his unfortunate encounter with the vampire Marquis. He resisted that urge to reach up and rub at the spot where he was bit, a habit he developed whenever he thought back on that moment in his life. If he had only returned to America when his friends did, his life wouldn't have turned out like this. He wouldn't have become the very thing that he had hunted with his friends.

His chest hurt thinking about Maddie and Jack. Maddie who had been the love of his life when they first met in college, but he doubted she could ever learn to love the monster that he had become. He had taken the lives of too many people to feed his hunger by order of his sire.

"They've told me that you've studied hard to take over this position, so I assume you don't have any questions for me."

Vlad blinked, turning his gaze onto the man. Like him, the previous principal was a vampire, far older than Vlad. His skin was a sickly blue and his eyes glowed red after dropping the illusion charm that made him appear normal. "Why are you stepping down from this position?" The question spilled from his lips before he realized it had formed in his head. "They told me that you were the principal at this school for the last forty years."

"It seemed like time for a change." The corner of the old vampire's eyes crinkled. "They told me that they had a young vampire in training to take over one of the schools, so I decided it was finally time to step down and hand the reins over to you. I've heard good things about you, so you have my faith that you'll do well watching over the students here." He clapped his hands together. "Now then, since the sun is still up, I'm going to relax a bit before I can catch a plane out of here. Amity Park is nice, but I haven't gotten to see the outside world in forty years. I need a change of scenery." He patted Vlad on the back before he wandered off down the hall to find some place to lay out and relax until nightfall.

Vlad watched him go, and in the silence that fell afterward, he found himself feeling lost. For so many years now, he had spent all his time focused on achieving the goal that the council set out for him. He seized it, the opportunity to do something with this worthless life that Marquis gave him after turning him. But standing there alone in the hall with nothing to do, he realized that he had lost touch with how to deal with people. He didn't exactly have what he would call friends among the people that worked in the council.

Wandering down the halls of the school, his feet absently carried him to the teacher's lounge where the prior principal told him they kept bags of blood in the refrigerator for any vampires on staff. He pushed open the door and slipped silently into the lounge, but he halted when he saw someone else was already there. The balding man stood at the counter near the coffee maker as he stirred the steaming coffee in his mug. He was a bit overweight, his belly hanging somewhat over his belt. Lifting his hand, he made a casual flick of his wrist, and a page in the book that hovered at eye level turned.

Ah, Vlad thought as realization dawned on him. This man was the resident witch that the older vampire mentioned.

The man plucked the book from the air as he picked up his mug. When he turned around, his green eyes remained on the book his hand, lost in the story he was reading. Vlad strolled over to the refrigerator to grab one of the packages of blood. The door slammed shut a little louder than he meant it to, catching the witch's attention. His green eyes snapped toward Vlad, flicking briefly to the blood bag in his hand then back to his face.

"So you're the new principal," the witch said with his mouth pressed thin.

Vlad nodded slowly as he walked over to grab a mug from the cabinet. "And you are?" He lifted an eyebrow as he glanced toward the man and pulled down a mug.

"Mr. Lancer," the man answered, setting his book down on the table at which he sat. "And that's Coach Tetslaff's mug. You don't want to drink from that. She'll knock your lights out just for touching it."

Vlad frowned at the mug in question. He certainly didn't want to make enemies among the staff before he even had his first official day as principal. "Is there a mug here that I can use without pissing anyone off?" He placed the white mug with flecks of color dotting it back on the shelf where he found it.

Lancer stood and walked over to him. After a moment of searching, he retrieved a mug of navy blue and handed it to him. "This one's never been used."

"Thanks," Vlad said as he took the mug, his fingers brushing briefly over Lancer's hand before the witch pulled away.

Lancer folded his arms as he leaned against the counter and watched as Vlad poured the blood into the mug. "You're never going to be happy if you keep allowing your past to weigh you down."

Vlad froze in the middle of putting his mug into the microwave. He turned to stare at the man beside him. "What?"

Lancer rolled his eyes. "I'm a witch. I may not be able to see auras, but I can read lines of power. In you, I see that you think yourself a monster for what you've become."

Vlad slammed the door of the microwave shut as he rounded on the witch with anger flashing in his dark blue eyes.

Lancer laid a hand upon his chest as if to hold him back. "I try lend an ear and offer help to my students if I see them struggling with something. I may not be a proper counselor or have any degrees for psychology, but I care for my students and their well being. I was only trying to say that if you ever feel the need to talk about things with someone, my door is always open."

Vlad stared at the hand on his chest as the rush of anger slowly flickered out. During his time under the council's constant watch, none of them had ever offered to help him sort out the trouble of feelings twisted up inside him. It was strange for him to have someone he only just met offering him more care and kindness than the people that surrounded him for years. In a way, it only brought back his memories of Maddie, and Jack if he was honest. Whenever he was feeling down, he could always count on them to be there to listen to him and try to cheer him up.

"Perhaps in the future," Vlad said, turning his gaze back to the microwave as it beeped. His blood was suitably warm enough for him to drink. He took it out of the microwave and brought the mug to his lips. Other vampires might find it disgusting to drink packaged blood, but he preferred it this way. It had always made him feel sick to drink from a living person, knowing that he was draining their life away. And the feel of when their life expires in the middle of feeding? It made his stomach churn uncomfortably. "What was that you're reading?" he asked curiously as his gaze darted back to the man.

"Ah, just a spell book," Lancer answered, leading the way back to his table. He didn't press the vampire to lay out his problems on the table for him, and Vlad was thankful that the man at least wasn't pushy. They sat at the table, discussing various topics as they enjoyed their coffee and blood. Maybe fitting in at this school wouldn't be so difficult after all.

Author's Note: A pre-A World Unseen story~ A start to a beautiful relationship! 8D So talk before, people wanted to know if Plasmius was a separate identity from Vlad in this story, but since I had already named his sire as Marquis in the story, I couldn't make Plasmius Vlad's sire. So~~ Plasmius was the prior vampire principal of Casper High. XD;;;

Sakural7865: Abner's just so cute and adorable! X3