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csi_sanders1129 ([personal profile] csi_sanders1129) wrote2021-05-20 10:39 pm

Fic: Bite Me (April Fic Challenge)

Title: Bite Me
Chapters: 1/1
Author:[livejournal.com profile] csi_sanders1129
Ratings: K+
Word Count: 3106
Pairings/Characters: Dracula/Johnny
Synopsis: In which some unexpected guests visit the hotel and are not accustomed to humans.
Comments: Written for my April Fic Challenge 2021, Prompt: Hotel. Technically a prequel to my other HT fic, Hunted. This has been in progress for a loooong while and finally finished it for this challenge. Goes AU in the first movie (I haven’t seen any others) and plays with vampire lore. Established relationship. Comments and kudos would be awesome. Enjoy!


"Come on, come on, come on..." Johnny stares down at his phone, fingers moving rapidly over the touch screen surface as his anxiety level raises. "Oh, come on!" He says again, louder this time, as the screen flashes red at him, reading 'GAME OVER,' in big, bold letters. "Stupid game," he hums, tossing the device aside, to make sure that he still doesn't have anything more important to be doing.

The lobby of the Hotel Transylvania is still completely empty, but for the trio of witches cleaning up, chatting amongst themselves on the other side of the room.

Begrudgingly, he picks up the phone again, starts another round of this bizarrely addicting game. "Just one more try at this level..."

Five attempts later, and he's finally defeated the troublesome level that he'd been stuck on for the last week and a half. He pockets the phone this time, as the battery is nearly dead, and glances around the lobby again. Typically, he likes being on desk duty – he gets to meet all the guests when they check-in, gets to talk with them all as they come and go, and after the initial surprise of realizing he's human wears off, they all like him well enough. Today, though, today just seems... off.

Three reservations had been cancelled with little notice, leaving awkward gaps in the schedule that throw off everyone's routines. An incident within the Haunted Forest had drawn Dracula out of the castle early in the evening, and a leaky pipe had left a lot of the security knights rusting up and in need of repair.

A group of young skeletons, here on what is apparently the monster equivalent of Spring Break, approach the desk, requesting to leave. This is unexpected, as they'd booked the room for the next three days.

"What's going on?" Johnny asks, though he does as asked and checks them out.

They all keep glancing nervously at the entrance, as if they expect a pack of rabid dogs to come barging into the Hotel at any moment, but it's only as they leave him behind at the desk that one of them finally answers, "we didn't know it was time for the Gathering."

"Huh?"

But, they're gone and he's alone in the lobby again.

"The Gathering?" He wonders to himself, having no idea what that's supposed to be. The only Gathering he's ever heard of as been of the card game variety and he can't think of why that would be at all relevant to the day to day running of a hotel for monsters. Whatever this Gathering is - is that why all those other monsters postponed their trips, too? Is that what's so weird?

He could ask the witches – he's sure they would know. They know everything. All the gossip, all the drama, all the secrets. – but they've already finished with the lobby ad moved on with their work.

The hotel seems eerily quiet around him, nearly empty. Dracula still isn't back and it's nearly sunrise. He's all alone and for the first time since he first stumbled into this place almost a year ago, it's actually kind of freaking him out.

"Well," he tells himself, glancing up at the clock that tells him he can leave the desk soon, "since no one's coming, I could always just go meet up with- Ahh!" He jumps in surprise when he turns back around to find a whole horde of creepy looking individuals hovering by the desk. There's nearly two dozen of them, he'd guess, all looking dark and broody and kind of terrifying.

And it's not exactly a professional reaction, so he schools his face into something that hopefully does not completely betray the level of panic he's presently experiencing and clears his throat, "Ugh. Hm. Welcome to the Hotel Transylvania, do you have a reservation?" He asks, even though he knows they don't, according to the list of arrivals he'd gone through earlier.

One among the group steps forward, a woman nearly as tall as Dracula, clad in a lavishly complex red gown that would not look out of place if she were in Renaissance London (he suspects she may be from Renaissance London, but he certainly knows better than to ask a lady her age). She settles her piercing green eyes on him, clearly identifies him as a human, and 'hmms,' in clear surprise.

"Well, I never thought I'd see the day," she declares, "when the Count would associate himself with a human."

Others in the group start muttering amongst themselves at this announcement, shooting him curious looks and Johnny finds this, too, more than a little unnerving.

"Yeah, I'm new here?" He tries, unsure what will get him away from the intimidating group the fastest. Surely recounting the tale of Mavis' Birthday will not speed things along, though it is a story he often does like to tell those who are curious about his presence here. "How many rooms would you like? We've had some cancellations, so..."

They request six rooms in all, very specifically. Among them are the three that had, perhaps not so coincidentally, been meant for those unexpected cancellations and a fourth had been the skeleton's room. Odd.

"Is there anything else I can-"

"Your master," the lady vampire in charge starts, flashing him that red-eyed mind-controlly glare that... doesn't work on him. He fakes the absent stare anyway, doesn't want to explain contacts, either, and he's even nice enough to ignore that 'master' comment because seriously, what the hell, this is the twenty first century. "Your master, I wish to speak with him at once."

"He's... unavailable at the moment, but I'll be sure to tell him that the second I see him. In fact, I'll... uh. I'll go find him for you. Right now. The, ugh," he rings the bell on the desk to summon the bell-hop zombies, "the zombies will help with your luggage, if you'd like?"

"Very well," she grumbles, and turns to rejoin her group.

"Great," he says and perhaps his exit from the lobby is a bit swifter than usual.


He is not hiding.

Really.

It's nearly dawn, which means that Dracula will be returning from whatever crisis had arisen in the Haunted Forest shortly. Chances are good that he'll stop by their room.

See? It is definitely more of a strategic retreat.

Sure enough, the bat that flitters through the open window and shifts back to human form just a few moments later is indeed Dracula, and the vampire looks like it's been a rough night.

"How'd it go?"

"There were some disturbances on the edge of the forest, the ghosts were concerned. Insisted we do a full evaluation to look for the cause."

That's... weird. "Did you find any?"

"Not a one," Dracula responds, "How was desk duty?"

"Ugh, it was pretty uneventful, but... What's the Gathering?"

Dracula freezes. "What is the what now?"

"I mean, I assume it has something to do with the two dozen vampires that appeared in the lobby with zero warning, but why does it scare all of the other guests off? Aren't vampires, you know, a regular kind of thing here? They're looking for you, by the way, at least the tall creepy woman is. Oh! She called you my master! I mean, really, that's just a little judgmental, don't you- Drac?"

"Stay here."

"Yes, Master," Johnny jokes, but Dracula has already vanished.


"Lady Lilith," Dracula greets, bowing to the leader of this visiting vampire clan when he finds her waiting for him in the ballroom. "I do wish you'd told me you were coming – it has been quite some time since your last visit to the Hotel. A lot has changed."

"Starting with your new employee, I'd dare to say. Imagine my surprise, Count Dracula with a human for a pet."

"Jonathan is not-"

"But, yes, a little warning might have been polite. My apologies for my clan's abrupt arrival, but I'm afraid we were in a bit of a hurry. You'd do well to keep an eye on your human, though. Two of my number are freshly turned and still learning restraint. I'll keep them confined as best I am able – unless you'd like to share your food source, that is." When his face flashes red in anger at that suggestion, she quickly adds, "Very well, then."

It would not do to insult the Lady, Dracula knows, no matter how much she has just insulted him with her assumptions about Johnny. It's likely she doesn't know about the careful peace they've established with the nearby humans, so he'll have to fill her in on that, as well. But not right now.

"My Lady," he says, instead, "Do you know if any of the other clans are coming?" That is typical of the Gathering, an event that occurs every 50 years or so, where nearly all vampires meet to go over any pressing issues – dealing with rogues, establishing new rules, the politics of near immortality. He'd planned to propose new legislation regarding humans whenever the meeting came around, but usually there's a bit of warning involved.

But Lilith shakes her head, "This is not that, my friend. My clan encountered some trouble and we thought it best to get away for a while. As I said, we left in a hurry."

"What kind of trouble?" He inquires, now wondering if it's something he needs to be concerned about, if it's something that might have followed them here to the hotel.

But, before she can answer, there's an armor knight entering, rushing to him with troubling news.


Johnny's down in the kitchens, grabbing a quick noontime snack for himself and a couple bottles of Dracula's favorite blood substitute – hoping to cheer him up after his night spent in the forest. He's gathered the items on a tray and is just cleaning up the remnants of his sandwich preparations when a strange feeling falls over him. Like he's being watched. It's hardly an unfamiliar feeling. He's more than accustomed to the gossiping witches, the ever watchful armor knights, the curious gazes from hotel guests still getting used to the idea of a human in the hotel – but this feels different. Less friendly, less curious, more nefarious, more predatory.

He wheels around, but sees nothing in the darkness of the big, stone room. Nothing, then, unless Griffin has made a surprise appearance (ha) and is messing with him. It's probably just the vampires that have him on edge. He shakes the feeling off and gathers the tray, intent to return to the safety of the room he shares with Dracula to await his return.

But as he turns to the door to leave the cavernous kitchens, one of the younger vampires who'd been in the lobby appears, poised to leap straight for Johnny, and he has no illusions as to what those pointy fangs are going to be used for.

He lets out a very unmanly shriek, but in his panic, he grabs up the bottle of blood substitute and hurls it at the vampire's face. The glass explodes on contact, sending an eruption of not-blood all over the both of them. It has the desired effect, though, in that the attacking vampire is distracted long enough for back-up to arrive.

Dracula appears at warp speed, tackling the young vampire hard into the wall, red-eyed and furious, jaws snapping. The sight of Johnny covered in red is probably not helping the situation any.

"Whoa, whoa," Johnny tries, "I'm alright, Drac. Not my blood."

It takes a second, but Dracula must realize that the blood really isn't blood, and that Johnny is, indeed, unharmed. He still looks furious – just because it's not Jonathan's blood doesn't mean it couldn't have been, after all – but he lessens his hold on the young vampire from strangling to merely restraining. "Go back to the room," he breathes, and Johnny agrees without complaint, even allows one of the armor knights to escort him.

"You will control your younglings or they will be removed from my hotel."

Lady Lilith doesn't look terribly put off by the threat upon her appearance in the kitchen doorway. She has two other vampires with her, and Dracula hands Jonathan's would-be attacker over to them. "Cassandra and Corvin will see to it that he behaves himself," she promises. "Though you might have mentioned the human was unmarked."

"Respectfully, Lady Lilith, that is none of your concern. Jonathan is not here for me to feed upon," he counters. "He is my Zing, not my lunch."

At that pronouncement, though, the Lady appears to be caught off guard. Not entirely surprising – no one, including Dracula himself, expected him to find love again after Martha at all, let alone with a human. "In that case, my friend, it seems that congratulations are in order. Perhaps you and your Zing will join me for dinner tonight? We do have quite a lot to talk about."

"That we do," he agrees. "We will see you at dinner, then."


Dinner is… problematic.

It starts out well enough. Lady Lilith joins them in the dining room. The new chef (one that is not perpetually determined to make Johnny into stew) serves up two orders of their finest house blood and a less vampiric meal for Johnny. Conversation moves smoothly, from talk of the hotel, to Mavis (currently off on an adventure (she was visiting Bigfoot in the North American forests, last time Johnny checked in with her)), to the recent interactions with the nearby humans.

"What was the trouble that brought you here, my Lady?" Dracula asks, realizing now that they were interrupted earlier before she could tell him.

"Ah, yes," she starts, "We had several odd disturbances-" but before she can continue, they are interrupted yet again.

The heavy wooden doors of the dining room burst open and the youngling who attacked Johnny earlier comes sprinting towards him once more, nearly manic in his attempts to reach the human. The other two vampires who'd dragged him off earlier are close behind, and appear to be sporting injuries, but Dracula gets to him before they do.

"Enough," Dracula growls out, his eyes flashing a powerful, mind-controlly red at the young vampire he's presently restraining. "You will stop this at once."

But the vampire does not stop. He screeches, wild and desperate, flailing to get free.

The Lady Lilith steps in. Two more of her vampires appear, and together she and her four compatriots wrangle her unruly charge into submission. "Might we have the use of your dungeon?" The Lady inquires. "It seems the temptation is too much for my newest member."

Furious, but with Johnny safe within arm's reach, Dracula nods and sends them on their way to the dungeon rooms. He waits until they're all well away from the dining room, sweeps Johnny into his arms and speeds them back to the room they share. Only there, where no one would dare to tread, does he relinquish his hold on Jonathan.

"It would be safer if you stayed here until they take their leave of the hotel," Dracula reluctantly declares. He hates the mere idea of confining Jonathan when he should be able to move about the hotel and its grounds freely. But, "The youngling will be difficult to keep contained, even in the dungeon."

Johnny, meanwhile, sets aside his anxiety over the near-attack. He has another idea. It catches Dracula quite off guard. "Or you could bite me?"

"What?"

"In the kitchens earlier. When I was leaving, I heard her tell you something about me being unmarked?" Johnny admits. "If you bit me, they'd leave me alone?"

"…They would," Dracula concedes. "You would be safely off limits until the wound healed."

"So, do it. Bite me."


"You're sure?"

"Yes," Johnny says, for what is not the first time, the second time, the third time, or even the tenth time in the span of the last hour that they've been having this conversation, an endless back and forth. "I am sure. Very, very, very sure, Drac. If you bite me, it will keep the other vampires from attacking me. And that will keep you from worrying about the other vampires attacking me. And that will keep me from being stuck in here all week. So, why not?"

Finally, he seems to have gotten through to him. "Fine," he relents. "Would you like me to do it now?"

Dramatically, Johnny bares his neck in invitation. "All yours," he offers, sitting on the edge of their bed.

"You're aware that it's been a very, very, very, very, very, long time since I've done this," Dracula warns, even as he approaches.

"Bite me," Johnny demands.

So, he does.

Dracula's fangs sink into the flesh of his neck. It doesn't hurt badly, just a dull sort of ache. He can feel the warmth of his blood as it escapes his veins, can feel Dracula's tongue working over his skin, coaxing out more as he drinks it down, keeping the wound open. He starts to feel a little funny, a little bit dizzy, a little bit sleepy. Something in Dracula's saliva, he knows, meant to help control victims, keep them calm while a vampire feeds. Combined with the effects of blood loss, it feels like a drug.

And then it stops.

He stills feels out of it, but the world comes back into a bleary sort of focus without Dracula attached to his neck. He blinks up at the man, who's licking away the last traces of blood from his lips. "You taste… exquisite," Dracula tells him, looking a little bit high himself.

Johnny laughs, pulls his vampire down for a sound kiss, instead, and ignores the metallic tang of his own blood still lingers in Dracula's mouth.


They release the young vampire from the dungeon the next evening. Several members of Lady Lilith's clan are present, just in case, but when confronted with Jonathan, now bearing the fang marks on his neck, the younglings bloodlust seems to have abated.

It turns out that he is considerably better company when he's not trying to eat his hosts beloved. Johnny learns that the vampire, Quincey, was only turned a few months back – before that he'd lived in London, though he was originally from the United States. The two of them spend a long while discussing travel experiences and the latest video games while Dracula and Lilith discuss vampire politics.

Quincey even helps him get through the next level on that blasted game on his phone.

They'll have to keep in touch.


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