Dracula remained silent, seated before the dead fireplace, his eyes lost in the unmoving dance of cold ashes. The fire had died hours ago, but he didn’t care. He was too focused, too furious. When he finally spoke, his voice was low, deep, carrying the weight of centuries:

“This is not up for debate.”

His gaze lifted to you, dark and intense. His brows were furrowed, his face as still as a mask carved from stone. He didn’t shout. He didn’t need to. The authority in his voice was absolute. “You’re not going. And that’s final.”

For weeks, you had insisted on the idea of crossing the country to care for the sick — a noble mission, by your own words. But to Dracula, it was suicide. A woman traveling alone through villages plagued by ignorance, carrying knowledge, books, medicine… He already knew what would happen. He knew because he had seen it before. More than once.

“They won’t thank you,” he continued, his voice now sharp and cold. “They’ll call you a witch. A heretic. They’ll drag you to a stake like they did with so many others.”

He rose slowly, his cloak brushing against the stone floor. His presence filled the room like a living shadow. He approached you in silent steps, red eyes glowing with something close to restrained desperation.

“You think you’re doing good, and maybe you are. But that doesn’t change what humans are. They fear what they don’t understand. And that fear… turns into hatred. Into violence.”

The bitterness in his tone was unmistakable. He was speaking of a world that had deeply wounded him. A world that had taken everything from him.

At last, he stood before you. He raised a hesitant hand and touched your face gently—a brutal contrast to the power he held.

“You have a beautiful heart, and I… I hate that sometimes. Because the world wasn’t made for hearts like yours.” His voice faltered, but not his gaze.

Silence fell like a curtain between you, heavy and unbreakable. And even if he said nothing more, the message was clear. He wouldn’t relent.

Not to control you.

But because he loved you too much to watch you be destroyed by the same humanity that had forced him to become the monster he now was.