Happy New Year!
I wanted to write something. I've gotten a lot of requests and wanted to take the time to give my readers SOMETHING for the New Year!
So, an Abraham and Mary story. Happy New Year!
x xx xxx xx x

Happy New Fear

He'd warned them. He really had.

Every few years, he and Mary would host a New Years Eve party. Christmas was out of the question with a vampire in the house. He'd put up the required decorations as a Lord, but it was "window dressing" in a very real sense. Much of the house remained fully accessible to Alucard. He had no interest in a Valentine's Party, Alucard would have used the celebration of Love to get as many females in a bed as possible. A summer celebration would mean a sweaty and uncomfortable evening in suitable dress.
So they'd opted to host a New Years Party. Not yearly; in fact, it was as rarely as possible for a Lord to host a part and still be acceptably lord-like!

And this year he was hosting a party.

And as always, he'd gently requested that his guests stay in the well-lighted areas of his house. The basements, cellars, dungeons, attics, and unused wings were NOT well-lighted. And being Lords and Ladies and assorted gentry, they gently accepted this request and stayed in the well-lighted areas of his estate.

And then there were the youngsters. Convinced they were in love (or at least in lust), happily disappearing into empty rooms to reappear a half-hour later, slightly mussed and giggling or strutting. And much less likely to listen to any directions.

No one was going to be in the basements? Splendid! What better place to be?

He watched them as best he could, but…nearly a dozen had vanished. All young men, which had its good points and its bad. No one for Alucard to lure into a bed…but…. They'd found one of the very few accesses to the basement from the second floor. Most likely they'd been hunting for a way to the basements, attics, or any place where they could get roaring drunk and play cards and make the sort of comments young men often made when one was able to supply cards featuring women that did not feature much in the way of clothing.

Alucard, being the bastard that he was, had bided his time. The vampire had made his appearance, set a few hearts to swooning, decided the noise and bustle was not to his taste, found a few agreeable women that were, and before midnight had already retired to his rooms.

And found the young gentlemen, soused and loud and excellent targets. And waited, while they got more drunk and more relaxed. Alucard did not rush things. He had a knack, one that had caused Abraham to drink more than few times, of waiting until the best (worst?) possible moment to act.

And so, mere moments before the New Years Eve clock would have struck, a gaggle of screaming young men smelling more than vaguely of piss and vomit stampeded through the festivities. Screams of anger and fear and startlement and concern spread throughout a room which had been on the cusp of a grand celebratory moment.

The clock struck Midnight.

The screaming continued.

He shrugged, she shrugged, and Abraham and Mary began their New Year with a kiss, a gloating vampire, and a ballroom full of guests to soothe.