27. Dusty Mansion
Content: a state of peaceful happiness.
Nero
“Father, why don’t you tell her about the castle that you just bought yesterday? The one with the dungeons and vast secret passages promising ghostly feel.”
Lucius managed to ruin my surprise when he just casually let it slip. If I hadn’t known better, my son was trying to get rid of me. I bought the castle thinking that it was a good investment. And I also like a place of my own when I come to visit my son, cause it seemed that he was adamant to stay at the little eerie village. And with the long travel, I like to stay longer than a week or two.
“Son, we stayed here for four days. I was looking forward to spending more time with you.”
“Wow, you bought a castle? with secret passages and did I hear dungeons as in plural? wait, does it come with a chef with cheese meals expertise too?”
I couldn’t help but laugh when cheese was one of Tessa’s primary concerns. She was lazily spooning her cheese pie while Gergo sits by her feet waiting for scraps of her food, though with Tessa she was giving him chef’s gourmet processed meat.
“The place is still empty, but well preserved. We can go and see the place right now if you want. I need to check it too. I’ll be meeting the contractor and interior decorator tomorrow evening and I would like to see the house again before they arrived.”
“House,” Lucius scoffed, “It’s a castle my dear father, the previous owner was royalty. You’ll love it Tessa and I can lend you my chef for your meals, you’re the only human guest here anyway. I’m sure he’ll be happy to cook for a human rather than heating blood bags.”
“Aww… you have the sweetest kid Nero. Thank you, Lucius! I might just steal him from you if I have the funds to pay for his salary. Oh, the things I’d make him do…” Tessa was staring dreamily while Lucius laugh and told me that she was definitely different.
“Very odd for a human, and I’ve heard stories from Connie and Vesper. I like her.”
“Thank you, son, I like her too, love her and,”
“Please stop, there, I don’t need details. I’m just glad that you’re happy, father.”
“I am.” I smiled as I watched Tessa who was now babying the scary-looking hound. She was adorable and sexy in her cheese way. Damn… I was getting sappy when I saw the look Lucius was giving me. He knew, my son knew that Tessa was different for me.
“Okay, then, I’m going to go get changed into something warmer before I embarrassed myself by having a third pie.” She got up, even her move was elegant, predatory just like a true professional killer.Upstodatee from Novel(D)ra/m/a.O(r)g
“I’ll get the driver to take you,” Lucius added, “You can walk there but tonight is colder than usual.”
I thanked him and followed Tessa to our room to get my phone. I need to check in with Aldrich and follow up on the situation with Rigel and make sure the hunter won’t retaliate after what Tessa did to him.
“Aldrich, it’s been days. Tell me, Rigel staying out of our business?”
“My source told me that he’s staying low. Tessa wounded him real good.” There was amusement in his voice from the other line.
“He’ll heal, he’s just being dramatic. I just want to make sure that he won’t be turning the tables and finding out about her extracurricular activities. We don’t need her to put more notes on her wall, she has plenty already.” I didn’t even want to think about the implication when Rigel found out about Tessa’s profession and decided to bring her to the human justice system.
“Of course, sire, I will keep my eyes on the hunter.”
“Good…” I ended the call after a few minutes of hearing him reporting about the recent activities at the den. He also told me that Ammar had gone home and everything was under control. He did offer to follow me to Transylvania since he’s my personal guard. But I told him that it would not be necessary, everything was good here. Tessa was out of trouble and the village was too quiet for anything but drunk tourists and some rogue younglings. Nothing that I couldn’t handle, I needed Aldrich back at the den to keep an eye on everything.
“I’m ready,” Tessa announced as she gets out of the bathroom looking delicious in her signature all-black attire. This time she was wearing a thick black oversized sweater with black colored jeans. I know for sure that her knives were hidden somewhere under her clothes if I pulled her close and roamed my hands all over her delectable body.
“We should go now, before I decided to strip you off,” I did pull her close and let my hands feel her up while she melted easily to my kiss. “You look beautiful, little killer.”
“Why, thank you… I thought so too when I see myself in the mirror,” she replied cheekily as her hands were on the back of my neck, keeping me close to her. “And as much as I like making out with my older boyfriend, I really like to see the castle you bought. Can we take Gergo with us? he likes to explore.”
I chuckled telling her, of course, we can while thinking of telling her about the Dobermans I have back at the den. A long time ago, I decided to start breeding and training the best of them when we needed a better alarm system and let them roam the yard to patrol for added security awareness. It helped when Aldrich sired one of the best breeders in the country, the male vampire had been with us for the last couple of decades, almost a century now.
It took us less than ten minutes before we pulled into the spacious driveway. The place looks even grander under the night light. I was glad that I made the quick decision to buy it, knowing that the place won’t be on sale for long. Granted it was big, too big for some humans, but they would renovate the place probably to a tourist-designated spot or even a hotel.
“Wow, you can be my sugar daddy anytime,” Tessa whistled her appreciation as we stepped into the grand entrance, making me chuckle telling her that she didn’t need a sugar daddy. The double spiral staircase exhibits the grandeur of the mansion. The impressive size chandelier will light the room elegantly once it’s restored. And the Persian rugs will dampen the echo around the house.
Gergo was sniffing around the place and paced beside the beauty dressed in all black. I was letting them roam the house freely while I followed from behind. I was taking mental notes on some of the things I’d like the contractor to renovate first. Which were the master bedroom and ensuite for sure, then the kitchen.
“Um, Nero, this place is beautiful and I haven’t even looked at the well-appraised dungeons.” Her eyes gazed around her surroundings as if she was in the most luxurious penthouse with a rotating floor that overlooks the city’s landscape in the most prestigious high-rise building. Instead, she was in a cold old castle-like mansion that needed so much renovation. The word renovation should scare any human and make them run out of the building. Some parts of the house were like a horror set, the spacious kitchen made our voices echo throughout the room, and of course, it made Tessa giggle and the hound barked as if he was having a private joke with his new bestie.
At that exact moment, I had a realization that this dusty echoey old castle-like mansion was it as Tessa was it, hell, even Gergo fit perfectly. I was freakishly content with where I am and who am with. I’d even invest in a chef with cheese meal expertise to take it to perfection. Now, if I could find the same kind of feel at home that’ll be the most ideal.