Marie could feel her heart beating fast inside her chest. She looked up to meet his eyes, which were burning with hunger. They almost looked red, but it was hard to tell in the dark room.

"D-didn't you say that you don't have to drink blood?" Marie asked, her voice shaking with fear. He looked at her eyes back and forth trying to intimidate her, then sighed and looked away.

"I have some leftovers in the fridge I could warm for you? You must be really hungry." She added.

"Fine. Close the curtains in the living room first so I can walk out." Marie nodded and did just that. She found yesterday's spaghetti and put it in the microwave. Dimitri had sat down on her couch.

"What would happen to you if you hadn't jumped away from the daylight?" Marie asked.

"On a cloudy day like this, my skin would slowly have started to burn. If the sun was out, I would have immediately caught fire."

"So, in the underworld, what do you do during daytime? Are you nocturnal?"

"No stupid, the sun doesn't reach hell. Back in the day the hellfire lit up the place. Nowadays we have lamps and stuff." Marie took the spaghetti out of the microwave and put it onto two plates. She brought them to the small dining table, and then got forks and glasses.

"Do vampires drink Pepsi? Or do you prefer water?"

"Water is fine." Marie had finished setting the table, and then remembered his bandages.

"Oh, maybe I should change your bandages before we eat." She picked up the first aid kit she had left the night before and sat in front of Dimitri on the floor. He didn't give any signs of objection, so she started to take off his bandages. Then she saw that his feet were completely fine. Not a scratch on them.

"But... How is that possible?"

"The damage wasn't very deep, so even without my rapid healing it didn't take long to regenerate. Do you believe me now?" He looked down at her, completely emotionless. Was he really a vampire? No way, surely there was a way to explain this, Marie just couldn't think of anything right now.

"I'm too hungry to wait for your feeble little mind to comprehend what just happened, so let's just eat." He got up and sat down by the table. Marie followed, reluctantly. They ate in silence, Marie's head buzzing with thoughts arguing about what just happened. After a while Dimitri spoke.

"Is human food always this terrible, or are you just a poor cook?" Marie didn't feel insulted, she instead laughed.

"Are demon lords always this rude, or are you just an asshole?" She felt really clever about her comeback but saw that her guest didn't find the banter very funny.

"If I had been served this in the demon world, I would have had the chef's head for dinner instead. But I'm feeling gracious, so I will forgive you. What I will not tolerate, however, is insults." His emotionless face suddenly got very serious, and he had formed a frown.

"I'm sorry, I was kidding. I'm just trying to lighten the mood." His frown disappeared, and he let out a sigh. They both went quiet again for a while before Marie finished her plate and broke the silence.

"So, Dracula, I was thinking... Your jumpsuit is pretty busted, even if I washed it, it has a lot of holes. You look like you're about the same size as my older brother who moved out of my parents' house over a year ago. If you want, I could go and get you some of his clothes and shoes to wear? At least until..." She wanted to say, until he regained his senses and realized who he was and where he lived. Or that he was homeless.

"I mean, you can stay here for as long as you need to, and if that's for a while, you should have proper clothes to wear." He had finished his spaghetti and put the fork down.

"Master Dracula. And yes, I would like that very much. In order to find my powers I must blend into society better. I would also like a bath."

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

"Like I said, I don't have a bath, I only have a shower. I'll show you where the towels are so you can take one."

"Human. I am a royal vampire, the demon lord. I do not take my own showers. You will scrub me." He looked Marie straight into the eyes in full seriousness. He wasn't kidding.

"I will not scrub you, and again, my name is Marie. If you're so great, then surely you can take a shower on your own." Marie couldn't help but smile at the absurdity of his request.

"I'm not asking you to. As my servant I am commanding you to." For a moment they both went quiet, just looking at each other. Without announcing it, they had started a staring contest. His dark, colorless eyes were intensely penetrating through hers, and she was trying her best to look threatening back by squinting slightly. Marie was the first to look away.

"Fine, I'll help you, but I am not your servant. And you must wash your private parts yourself." For the first time, and it was only for half a second, he smiled slightly. And he looked relieved. Marie took their plates to the sink and walked to the bathroom. Dimitri followed behind her.

"A-are you wearing underwear, by the way?" She asked, blushing slightly.

"No. Most prisoners in hell's hell are naked. I was only permitted to wear this because I'm special. But not special enough for undergarments."

"Okay, why don't you take it off and put this towel around your waist, then?"

"Royals don't undress themselves." Marie had a lot of patience, especially for those who need help, but with this rude, spoiled stranger, it was running thin. She got visibly annoyed, which to her surprise, made Dimitri give in.

"But I guess I can make an exception." He started unbuttoning the jumpsuit and pulling it off. Marie turned around, holding out the towel. After what sounded like he had taken it off, he grabbed the towel.

"Okay, you can look now."

She noticed that despite how dirty he looked, he was odorless. He had a slender, yet muscular body. His arms and chest were bulging with mass, and he had slightly protruding abs. She picked up the jumpsuit and put it in the washer. She put in laundry detergent and softener and started the machine.

"It will take a few hours to wash and dry. Until then you can just wear a towel, and I will go to my parents' house and get you some other clothes and shoes." Dimitri didn't say anything, he just looked at her.

Marie went into the shower and put the water on. She rolled up the sleeves of her sweater and cuffed her oversized jeans and tested the water's temperature.

"Okay, you can get in now." Dimitri went in, looking at Marie the whole time. She put some shower gel in her hands and started scrubbing his chest and shoulders. It was the first time Marie had touched a man like this. Her face was getting hot and red, and even though she was looking at his chest, she could feel his eyes studying her face. She lifted his arms and started spreading the soap to his armpits.

"Turn around, please." He followed her order, and she started washing his back. She noticed two big scars between his spine and his shoulder blades, and when she touched them, he recoiled slightly, then turned around and grabbed her wrist.

"Don't touch the scars of my wings." In this light, his eyes almost looked red again.

"Sorry, I will avoid them." Marie assured him, and he let go of her arm. She finished scrubbing the rest of his back.

"It will be hard to reach your hair, so you will have to either wash it yourself, or sit down." He got down on his knees. His hair was a long, tangly mess, almost down to his collarbones, and it was blacker than any hair she had seen before. She tilted his head slightly backwards, and carefully avoided getting shampoo in his ears and on his face. She grabbed the showerhead and started washing out the soap in both his hair and on the rest of his body. With the dirt off his skin, he looked even paler than before. Lastly, she rubbed in some hair conditioner.

"Okay, while the hair conditioner is working, you can wash the lower part of your body." Marie left the shower and pulled the curtains between them.

"Let me know when you're done." She sat down on the toilet, waiting. She was thinking about what had just happened. She could see in the reflection of her mirror that she was red, and she could feel her heart beating fast. It's not that Marie wasn't into boys, it was just that thinking about them in an intimate way made her really nervous. When she was a young teen this was normal, but she was eighteen now, yet she hadn't even been kissed before. Laura suspected Marie was secretly gay, and the nervousness was just a reasonable fear of masculinity. Julie blamed it on her hot older brother, which no other man could compete with. Nina thought she just needed to find the right guy.

"I'm done."

"Did you put the towel back on?"

"Yes." She got back in, and he got down on his knees again. She washed the conditioner out of his hair, which had now softened and untangled a bit. She then turned off the water and got another towel.

"Use this to dry off, then you can wear it while we wait for your jumpsuit to finish washing. I'll go to my parents' and get you clothes. Will you be fine here on your own? It will take me about two hours round trip." Dimitri took the towel handed to him and looked at it as if he didn't know what it was for. Then he looked at her, confused.

"Human-" Marie sighed, grabbed the towel, and put it over his head. She started massaging his head through the towel, drying his hair. Then she lightly dabbed it across the rest of his face, arms, and torso.

"The rest you do on your own, okay? If it's something you haven't done before, you will have two hours to figure it out. Okay?" She almost found it cute how helpless he was.

"Okay."