A/N: Ok, it's Brittany again because Steph is having a brain fart and can't figure out what to write. I know that lastChapter was a little blah and this one a just a bunch of info, but Ipromise come Chapter 6 you all will be panting. We are going to put in some Dracula loving.

Dracula: I'M GOING TO GET LAID!

Shut up, I didnt say that.

Dracula: YES!I am going to get laid:does happy dance:

Ok, just for that awful display of dancing, you're not getting laid.

Dracula: No Authoress! I'm sorry! I'll never do it again! Please!

Maybe some forplay in the next chapter just because your sexy.

Dracula: And who said looks weren't important?

Watch it...

Dracula: Sorry!

You're forgiven. On with the new chappie!

Sophia's screams were echoing throughout the whole castle, surrounding Romulus and Nicolae. Romulus gave his friend a worried look.

"What do you think happened?" asked Romulus. Nicolae then stood up, placing the Bible on the inside of his rugged looking trench coat.

"I'm not to sure what our good friend is conducting in that room of his, but I don't want to find out unless I have to," Nicolae replied with a half hearted smile upon his slender face.

"Should we check?" said Romulus, as he stood next to Nicolae. " I mean, hearing a woman screaming from Drake's room isn't exactly new but…" he trailed off.

Nicolae started to massage his temples. "Please Romulus, if you could refrain from the explicit details of our friends sexual life, I would be much obliged. The images are too much for this old man to handle."

"What old man?" Romulus looked around the hallway lamely, as if an old man in a rocker would show up behind him.

"Me, you fleabag." Nicolae sighed, his nerves running thin. He could feel the evil fingers of a headache tickling his brain as the worries of what could be happening down the hallway ate at him.

"You're about as old as me Nicolae." Romulus mumbled absent mindedly.

"Really? You're three-hundred and twelve? I wasn't aware," Nicolae replied quietly, trying to hear what was going on behind Drake's door.

"Nah, thirty-two." Romulus scratched roughly behind one ear as Nicolae rested his face in his long, slender fingers. Then all of the sudden they heard the deep boom of Drake's voice sound from inside his room.

"Not all your questions can be answered!"

Nicolae's head snapped back up as he swiftly followed the already charging werewolf to the room down the dimly lit hall.

Sophia started to shake violently again because of the vampires sudden angry outburst. "I... I… didn't mean to anger you. I… I am sorry…" she practically whispered, her voice trembling as a lone tear escaped her frightened oversized green orbs.

Drake grumbled in frustration. He never meant to make her cry. "It's fine." He was about to tell her that there was no need to apologize, but he was interrupted by two men bursting through his bedroom door.

"DRAKE! DON'T HURT HER!" the large Romulus almost shrieked as he fumbled inside the room, with a frail looking Nicolae stumbling in behind him. Drake sighed, rolling his shoulders to relieve the built up tension he might as well as deserved.

"I'm not going to hurt her, you over grown idiot!" Drake snapped at Romulus who did nothing but return with a growl. "Even if I wanted too, I couldn't…" Drake then mumbled more to the understanding Nicolae and sat down at his desk, his strong chin sitting in his large palm.

"We're sorry for running in here, my friend. We just didn't want anything to happen that we all may regret," Nicolae said in his soothing voice to Drake, but directing the last of the statement in Sophia's direction.

"I apologize my lady." He started taking steps toward her and then holding her delicate and trembling hand, he laid a cold corpse like kiss upon it. "We didn't mean to interrupt anything."

"There... there was nothing to interrupt! I just awoke and then I remembered the woods and..." She then busted out in hysterical tears. "And what hedid to me! I'm a vampire!"She was now shaking uncontrollably, and the gentle Nicolae enveloped her in his cold embrace.

Nicolae saw Romulus cowering in the far corner of Drake's room, terrified of an upset woman, while Drake was shaking his head at the accusing look that was obviously on Nicolae's face. But he didn't need the mute protest coming from Drake to know she wasn't indeed a vampire, because of the warmth she radiated. Nicolae almost sighed at feeling the warmth of the living in his cold limbs. When was the last time he touched a human? When was the last time he touched a woman, was the better question. He let out the breath he didn't even realize he was holding and held the girl at arms length.

"Sweet child, you are no vampire." Nicolae almost chuckled at her sudden halt of tears and the shocked O her full mouth shaped into. "You are merely a prisoner, for reasons that escape me." He grumbled at the now rising Drake.

"But… he bit me! Doesn't that make me a vampire now?" she asked, obviously confused.

"No girl, you have to drink the blood of another vampire to become one, don't you listen to myths?" Drake snapped, his nerves breaking loose from their short leash.

"Drake! This girl has been through enough without you adding to her stress by being mean to her. And besides, most of those myths are wrong," Nicolae reprimanded his close friend, like a mother would her child.

"Yeah! Don't be mean to her!" Romulus sounded from the corner of the room.

"What? Rom, your still here? I wasn't aware. I'd thought you'd be running from the girls tears with your tail between you legs," Drake sarcastically said to the now pouting Romulus.

"What tail?" Sophia asked, looking oddly at Romulus.

"Oh, yes, well Romulus, the big man over in the corner, is a werewolf. Drake was just being sarcas…" Nicolae couldn't finish his explanation however, for Sophia jerked out of his arms and was now cowering against the headboard of the bed.

"And you're… you're a…" she stuttered, staring at the solemn Nicolae, wide eyed.

"I'm a preacher. My name is Nicolae von Gottard. I am three-hundred and twelve years old, a husband and father of two beautiful, and long dead girls, and yes, if you must know, I am also a vampire." He finished with a sigh and a weary smile upon his pale mouth. "But the last is just a technicality. I don't think it effects my person all that much. Now that I have answered your question, may I ask who you are?"

"My name is Sophia…" she breathed out quietly.

"What else? I love meeting new people!" Romulus had come from his corner and was now sitting on the edge of the bed, looking like he was ready to hear a story. Nicolae glanced back at Drake, who was looking agitated and was pacing back and forth in front of the bed until the girl said her name, which was when he stopped staring at her, his attention fully peaked.

Sophia seemed to have calmed considerably and was looking at the almost childish Romulus with a look of something like humor."Well, I am seventeen years of age. I was a maid at the Heinchek manor all my life. I never knew my real parents. I was left on the von Heinchek's doorstep as a baby and raised by Ameilia, the head maid there. Tonight I was at a Masquerade, my first ever. I was on my way back home when… when all of this happened," she said with a slight look of fear, but it was fleeting and she looked far more content then she did only a few minutes ago.

"For a maid, that's more than a little odd that you would be attending a Masquerade. When I was a member of society they didn't let commoners attend balls," Drake said accusingly from across the room.

Sophia looked flustered. "Well, I am engaged to be wed to the Duke von Heinchek, if you must know!"

"Ralph von Heinchek?" Romulus blurted out of no where, feeling involved in the conversation.

"Yes… how did you know?"

Everyone was looking at Romulus with quizzical looks. "Well, you see I was at the Inn tonight and a dandy," Romulus almost growled the last word, "He was asking if anyone knew about his fiancé . She hadn't come home that night and he wanted to know if anyone had information they wanted to get off their chests."

"Oh no, he must be so worried about me! I cant believe he'd go to the Inn to ask questions. It's so unlike him," Sophia said, her delicate hand resting upon the swell of her breast.

"What do you mean, unlike him? Is this man of yours so much of a pansy that he wouldn't go to a damn Inn to try and find his future wife?" Drake spat accusingly.

"Not that it is any of your business, but yes frankly, he must be terribly worried to go to the Inn by his lonesome. I would have thought him to send a messenger…" She was talking almost to herself, it seemed.

"May I ask what your doing with such a winner? And isn't the Duke an older man? A girl your age shouldn't be involved with a man past thirty…" Drake examined her as he said this, making her extremely uncomfortable.

"He's only thirty one, and he loves me. Just because he isn't very tough by some men's standards doesn't mean he's a bad person," she said, with an air of finality.

But Drake ignored her obvious desire to end the conversation and prodded more. "When you say he loves you, are you implying that these feelings are not mutual?"

" I… I… he can… can take care of me. That's all that matters. "

"So, you don't love the dandy?" he said, with a smirk. Again, she felt very uncomfortable at the way Drake drew nearer with that look of his.

This was the first time she actually sat and stared into his face. Before it was always a fleeting glance or small look. She knew he was handsome, but now looking at him she knew he was more than just that. His skin was the color of ivory, it looked so soft and smooth she half yearned to reach out and touch him. His jaw was also a smooth line down to a strong chin that led up to a full and sarcastic mouth. He had a sharp nose and round eyes. But his eyes were the most beautiful she had ever seen. They were stuck in a limbo of colors; partially green and then some blue, with a hint of storm cloud gray. They were shielded by inky black lashes and brows to match. He was truly an amazing sight.

"I take it your lack of speech means I am correct?" he said. Sophia was all too aware to the fact that he was as close as Nicolae was, and that was too close for comfort.

"I... I don't love him…" she breathed, completely transfixed and unblinking.

Nicolae saw the look she was giving Drake and decided that it wasn't perhaps in his best interest to stick around. "Romulus, let us leave and visit Sophia in the evening. The sun has risen and I am exhausted!" Nicolae got up and stretched, patting Romulus on the back and leaving out of the large double doors at the front of the room. "Sophia darling, if either of these scoundrels bother you during the day, just yell and I'll rescue you." Nicolae gave Drake a knowing look and they both departed.

"Why did they leave?" Sophia asked, no one in particular.

"Because they think I want you in ways they would rather not witness." Drake said casually, causeing her to gasp. He turned his back on her and went to the amour on the wall, opposite the giant four poster bed. "But I don't. Not tonight anyway, although I can't deny that it isn't a pleasant thought." He looked from behind the amour door to grin at her.

"I don't want to... I mean, I do... well, not with you... I mean, I've never..." Sophia wrapped her arms around herself and blushed furiously.

"I assumed. Well, it's quite early and I need my rest. You can have the bed and I'll take the couch over here," he said, signaling to the plush red sofa next to the desk. He put the blankets from the amour on the sofa and took off his cape. He then pulled off his boots and took off his white linen shirt. Sophia just watched in awe as the man undressed himself. She couldn't deny that the man wasn't a sight, for he was well toned and sculpted, but manners had her casting her eyes down to her lap.

"I thought you sleep in coffins…" she whispered, just loud enough for him to hear.

"Yes, and I also can't stand the sight of crucifixes," he said sarcastically, motioning to the one that was hanging on the door. "Why don't you go to sleep. I promise not to let anything happen to you, I'm a light sleeper."

Sophia nodded and took off the red cape that was draped around her shoulders. She then shook off her slipper shoes and got between the velvet cover and lay her head upon the satin sheets, her eyes as wide as an owls.

"You must learn to trust child," he whispered and burnt out the flame that was on the desk. All was dark.

Thank you all forreviewing! I oober appreciate it! Much love