It had been a few weeks since the incident with Sebastian. In the meantime, Adrian and Vincent had only grown closer to each other. Learning and teaching one another about various things from each individual's life. Vincent found Adrian highly attractive and this thought never faded. He didn't know much about what Adrian thought of him, but he decided it didn't matter.

"I never expected vampire on my list of tastes," Vincent muttered, putting a book back on the shelf. "Werewolves? Maybe. Mermaids? Sure. Weird sea creature with tentacles? Possibly. Vampires? Never would've expected that."

"Never would've expected what?"

Vincent nearly jumped out of his human flesh sack and turned around. "That's a very good question. I was just, uh...ignore that," he laughed, trying to wave it off as something trivial.

"Are you still thinking about the Sebastian thing?" Adrian leaned up against a bookshelf and folded his arms.

"Sure, let's go with that."

"Darling!~" a voice hummed from the entrance to the castle. Adrian visibly tensed and moved to hide behind the bookshelf. He looked over the books to check the door as footsteps drew nearer.

"Oh no," Adrian muttered, grabbing Vincent's hand and pulling him close to his chest, covering his mouth with his other hand.

"I have a long list of candidates for you!~" the door was kicked open and a redhead stood in the doorway with a stack of papers and files.

Vincent tried his best not to think about the close proximity to Adrian. His mind wandered off into the distance. Think pure thoughts. Start meditating. You are an angel, Vincent. An angel. A pure being.

"I know you're in here. I can smell you and- is that a human?" the redhead turned the corner and frowned.

"Hi, Angel," Adrian laughed awkwardly and thrust Vincent behind him to stand in front of him. "What brings you here?"

"I believe I just shouted what brought me here as I kicked your door open. Who is this?"

"Vincent, this is Angel. He is my...uhm..."

"I believe the word you're looking for is 'friend'" he frowned and pushed Adrian aside to stare at Vincent. "Why don't you smell foul?" he frowned, crossing his arms. Vincent scratched the back of his neck, avoiding eye contact at all costs, and feeling terribly awkward.

"I like your..." Vincent eyed him up and down trying to think of something but the thing that stood out the most was the corset-looking type vest that matched his hair. "Vest."

"Oh? Do you really?" he squealed and brought his hands to his face, swinging his entire body side to side, thrilled for the compliment. "My mate made it. Isn't it a dream? She is so supportive of my..." he stopped and looked around, looking ashamed in a sense.

"Angel! My star-crossed friend! Have you-" a different redhead walked into the room but froze and pointed at Vincent. "Who is this?"

"Vincent, this is Grell, she is my...," Adrian gestured, still at a loss for words.

"Friend." Angel and Grell both frowned and enunciated the word for Adrian to get it through his brain. Each one grabbed one of Adrian's arms and sat him down in a chair before the papers. "We will ignore the human situation for now but you have to pick a mate," each one crossed their arms and nodded in sync. Vincent followed and leaned over Adrian's shoulder to look at the pictures. Pictures? Wasn't that a bit too modern? How far advanced was vampire culture compared to humans?

"Do you have a printing press?" Vincent asked, taking a shot in the dark. The two redheads stared at each other and then back to Vincent.

"How do you know what that is? All of the books in here are transcribed," Angel pointed at Vincent, curiosity peaked.

"These images are hand-drawn but the text is..." Vincent picked up one of the pages and stared at it. "No," he squinted, lifting it up closer to his face, "you have typewriters too?"

Adrian smirked at his friends' shocked faces. "See? My human is smart," he smiled and crossed his arms.

"Oh?" Vincent chuckled. "Am I 'your human' now?"

Adrian's face flushed as much as a vampire's could and he looked at his hands. "Uhm, no, I didn't mean it like that..."

"Oooooh," Grell smirked, elbowing Angel. "Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?"

"I hope to Ancient Dracula that you are not," Angel brought his hand to his forehead. "The current Dracula having a human as a mate is a bad omen...especially considering the last time a Vlad had a human mate..."

"That's old news," Grell waved her hand. "This is different. Besides, do you really think this little idiot would have it in him to ruin the world?" Grell grabbed Adrian's cheeks.

"We're talking about the same vampire that wanted to raise a corpse from the dead to re-live that human mysticism the first Vlad used, right?" Angel raised an eyebrow.

"I forgot about that..." Grell flinched.

Vincent laughed. "I can see him doing that," he snickered, trying to hold back his laughter, and the two redheads stared at him, even more confused.

"How do you know what we're talking about?" Angel's eyebrows furrowed.

"Long story short: I watch a lot of Netflix," Vincent shrugged.

"What is a Net-Flex?" Grell tilted her head, bewildered.

Vincent had neither the words nor the desire to try and explain to these two vampires what Netflix was. He placed his hands on Adrian's shoulders and pointed to the papers. "So, about these mate options, does anyone catch your eye?"

"I don't want a mate..." Adrian huffed.

"Why?"

"Too much work," he puffed out his cheeks. "I can barely manage myself. I don't want a mate or a family. Besides, Dracula isn't a bloodline. Even if I had a child, it wouldn't be my heir."

"But if you had a mate that was from a well-respected background it would help squander those rumors going around about how awful you are."

Grell clapped her hands together. "He gets it," she grinned.

"But I'd rather have a mate that I love..."

Angel sighed, "He doesn't get it."

"Do you have a type?" Vincent sat down at the table and started looking through papers, ignoring the remark.

"Intelligent, slightly shorter, clean-cut hair," Adrian rested his chin on his hand and leaned up against the table, staring at Vincent. "A beauty-mark," he muttered.

"I can't be your mate," Vincent didn't look up when he said this. It was just matter-of-fact. "I'm not a vampire. No one knows who I am. And, most importantly..." he paused, lifting his hand to the back of his head. A sharp pain traveled through his spine and his vision blurred. Memories started to drift back more completely as he remembered what caused him to be sent here. "Most importantly...I don't know when I'll be leaving..." he muttered, falling forward into the table and losing consciousness.