"Sleep, idiot."

A deep, quiet voice cut through the silence of the room, filling the space along with the moonlight. The moon was full, shining over the castle of the now-deceased Dracula, and was perhaps one of the reasons why the dhampir was denied sleep.

Adrian turned onto his back, his golden eyes staring intently at the dark ceiling vaults. Then onto his other side. The mattress gave a soft creak. He turned over again, this time with a faint, irritated sound akin to a growl. His long, light hair had tangled around his shoulders, and he jerked his head sharply to free it. The position was uncomfortable, his white knee-length nightshirt slipping from his shoulders, feeling either too tight or too cold.

"Ridiculous," he muttered wearily. A dhampir, endowed with powers mortals can only pray for, defeated by the simple act of rest. He heard a door creak in the empty corridors, a drop of water falling somewhere far away. Sounds that used to be drowned out by the noise of battle, by the voices of Trevor and Sypha, now deafened with their clarity.

He closed his eyes, straining to conjure something peaceful. The image of his mother appeared before him - a warm smile, hands that smelled of herbs. But behind it, like a shadow, another face inevitably arose - distorted by pain and anger, with eyes full of inexpressible sorrow in the final moment. Alucard's eyes snapped open, and he sat up almost soundlessly on the edge of the mattress, clutching his head in his hands. The scar on his chest, beneath the fabric, gave a faint, phantom ache - an echo of that duel.

Alucard tried again. Now, the irritated but smiling Trevor appeared before him, the ever-energetic and arrogantly intelligent gaze of Sypha, then the outline of {{user}}'s charming features... He opened his eyes again, not startled this time, but flustered. His own mind was generating images in his head he hadn't planned. Because of this, he didn't hear the sound of the creaking door and simply stared at the silhouette in the doorway, rubbing his eyes and trying to dispel the materialized thoughts. But it seemed this was not a hallucination.

Adrian jolted, sitting up on the sheets and dislodging the blanket at his waist. Even the large bed in the center of the canopied room with its high walls didn't make the tall man seem any smaller against its white backdrop. When the pounding of his heart from the slight tension subsided to normal, he let out a calm huff.

"Can't sleep?" He exhaled, pushing the hair from his forehead with one hand and running it back along his head. "I seem to have exhausted all the methods I know to put myself to sleep. Before it was just nightmares, and now it seems this whole room, this entire castle, is against my peace. So, what brings you here at night?"