While the sunlight bathed the ruins and the presence of the ancestors dissolved into a definitive peace, reality hit the Valerious siblings.
Velkan wrapped Anna in his arms and both collapsed, clinging to each other, weeping for the liberation of a burden they had carried since their birth.
Lief did not intervene.
That space of mourning and celebration did not belong to him.
Turning his back on them, he walked toward where Van Helsing lay.
He remained stretched out on the stone, sunk in a state that went beyond sleep; it was a deep lethargy, almost comatose.
Lief observed closely the work done by Gabriel.
Van Helsing's body was not only intact, but emanated a new solidity.
Gabriel's reconstruction had knitted the muscles and bones with a remnant energy that had left the vessel even more resistant than before.
"Look at you... in the end you came out ahead with all this."
Laughing and without much ceremony, he kicked him on the sole of the boot to see if he reacted.
Nothing.
The man slept like a stone.
A few meters away, the solemnity of the moment was interrupted by Carl's curiosity.
He orbited around Adam like a satellite, inspecting him from all possible angles.
A good while passed before the siblings' weeping died down, giving way to an exhausted calm.
Velkan separated gently from his sister. He looked her in the eyes and, for the first time in his entire life, his features did not reflect anguish nor fear of nightfall.
"Let's go home..." He said, with a voice that sounded strange due to the lack of tension.
Home...
Anna nodded slowly, feeling how the physical exhaustion finally caught up with her.
She wiped the remains of tears and dirt with the back of her hand and turned around to leave.
But before taking the first step, her eyes drifted toward Lief.
She said nothing, but in her gaze there was a deep mixture of emotions.
...
Once back at the Valerious family mansion, the group was installed in the best guest rooms.
Velkan resumed his role as lord of the house immediately, taking charge personally that they prepared hot baths and clean clothes so that everyone could remove the traces of the battle.
Carl, however, had other priorities. Ignoring the fatigue, he ran straight toward the library with urgency, murmuring that he had to document every detail of this war before the memory cooled.
Lief walked slowly through the hall of the Valerious ancestors.
The heavy air, now felt light. Upon passing in front of the portraits of the heads of the family, he noticed the subtle but undeniable change: the expressions, that for centuries had reflected gravity and torment, seemed to have softened.
"It is time to return..."
…
Shortly after, the group found themselves back at the entrance of the now silent Dracula's castle, in front of the immense full-length mirror that dominated the vestibule.
Anna and Velkan observed Lief with curiosity, following every one of his movements.
They did not understand what they were doing there.
Lief stood in front of the glass and without any mystical ceremony, pressed his open palm against the surface of the mirror.
"Devil May Cry..."
Hum...
The air vibrated with a low frequency that made their skin crawl.
A strange fluctuation was born under Lief's palm and expanded toward the edges of the frame.
And with it the surface of the mirror began to ripple as if it were a pond disturbed by a stone, and the space around seemed to become malleable.
The reflection disappeared. The glass stopped behaving like a solid and transformed, before their eyes, into an oak door.
A faint dark red light filtered from the opening and under the astonished gaze of Anna and Velkan, the mirror frame, which now acted like a door, together with the surrounding walls, began to become transparent.
And they saw a completely different room.
It was a living room, with strangely designed furniture, lights, and a messy desk.
"This... this is..." Velkan was stupefied.
"My office."
Lief withdrew his hand, breaking the contact but maintaining the portal.
"Now it's fine," he explained with a relaxed smile. "It has fused with this castle."
While he spoke, he walked toward a huge side window in the living room wall.
"Besides, it seems that some new functions were also added."
He extended his hand toward the glass of his office window and under the bewildered gaze of the siblings, his fingers did not crash against the glass.
Instead, the surface yielded docilely to his contact, enveloping his fingers as if it were water.
"Indeed."
He nodded with satisfaction, withdrawing his dry hand.
Velkan looked at Lief with his mouth open, the words had died in his throat.
His mind struggled to process what he was seeing.
Anna, for her part, kept her gaze fixed on him with an intense shine.
With the fusion complete, Lief stopped paying attention to the window and turned his head toward where Adam had remained in silence the whole time.
"Adam."
The giant raised his head and directed his gaze toward him.
"Tomorrow I will organize a place for you." Lief sketched a brief, but sure smile, "You will like it."
"Thank you..."
With that last matter resolved, the reality of exhaustion hit them, rising like a dark tide that claimed their bodies.
"Go everyone to rest." Velkan rubbed his face, recovering finally from the commotion, "Tonight, at last, sleep well."
...
Lief was led to one of the most luxurious guest rooms.
It was a spacious space, with clean sheets and a stillness that invited sleep, but he had something to do.
He stripped off his clothes, letting them fall, and entered the bathroom.
The steam began to fill the room immediately.
Lief got under the stream and closed his eyes when the hot water hit his head.
The water ran over his skin, washing away the dirt and loosening the knots in his back.
At his feet, the water swirled toward the drain, dyed gray.
His muscles began to yield slowly.
From the combat against Dracula to the overwhelming pressure of facing Gabriel and that last impact...
He had never been so active.
Now, in the solitude of the bathroom, he allowed himself to release the air he didn't know he was holding, enjoying the peace.
However, the solitude was short-lived.
Click
The sound of the knob turning cut the constant noise of the water. The door opened softly, letting in a current of cooler air that collided with the accumulated steam.
Lief did not startle, he did not even open his eyes immediately. He kept his face under the stream, letting the heat continue hitting him.
He heard footsteps. They were light, one could say careful.
There was a pause in them, a moment of hesitation, before the sound of bare feet advanced with firmness toward the shower.
The steam was dense, turning the room into a white and diffuse world.
Lief ran his hands backward through his hair, wiping the water from his face, and finally opened his eyes.
Through the mist, a silhouette became defined little by little.
It was Anna.
She was no longer wearing her clothes from the battle. She had changed into a light white silk nightgown.
Her curly brown hair, still damp, a sign that she had also just bathed.
And on her usually serious face, there was a blush that was not due only to the heat of the bath, and in her eyes burned a strange determination, the look of someone who is about to jump into the void.
She stood there, just at the edge where the water splashed, running her gaze over Lief's body, from his broad shoulders down to where she could see through the steam.
"..."
Lief observed her without making a move to cover himself. He did not turn off the tap either. He stayed there, under the artificial rain, leaning one shoulder against the wall.
"Everything okay?"
"Mmm." Anna nodded, but did not move.
"Do you need something?" he insisted, with a smile, knowing perfectly well that she had not come to ask for a towel.
"...sigh..."
Anna's chest rose and fell as she took a deep breath, filling her lungs with air and courage.
"The curse is over," she said taking a step forward. Her voice was firm, although her hands trembled slightly at her sides. "We are safe, for the first time in centuries."
She took another step.
Now she was inside the radius of the shower.
The hot water began to soak the nightgown immediately. The white silk became translucent, heavy, clinging to her skin and shamelessly outlining the curve of her waist and the hardness of her nipples reacting to the temperature change.
Anna looked up, locking her eyes with his, ignoring the water that now ran down her own face.
"But I looked around and realized something," she whispered, placing a hand on Lief's chest. "Only Velkan and I are left. We are the last ones…"
Her hands moved up Lief's chest until tangling around his neck, locking her gaze with his.
"And I have no intention of the Valerious name ending with us."
________
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