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Chapter 6
Mystery and Mystique
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Lenny had lightly planned (read as planned as thoroughly as the rest of his adventure I.E. not at all.) to visit Romania at some point. His discovery of Tsar Sasha the first's remains earned him fame, a minor fortune and an invite to Romania to speak about the discovery. Lenny hadn't intended it but his find had disproven a long held theory that the Romanian King had slain the Tsar, taken the jewel and feigned ignorance when questioned. Lenny was therefore a minor Romanian celebrity for having finally cleared the name of a very popular king whose only blemish was that he was accused of regicide. For the past week he had bounced between parties as a guest of honor and stayed at elaborate manors. This was a section of adventuring he had yet to experience; he had some actual claim to fame and was for the moment in the limelight.


Lenny was polite through it all, but this was not what he set out for. He was not content to simply find a singular treasure and coast on that reputation for the rest of his days. He wanted to peer into the world's deep shadows and find the things that had been hidden away. So it had come to pass this evening that he had excused himself from a banquet early to seek out new thrills.  


His party tour had taken him to most of the big tourist spots of Romania. The sole exception was a twelfth century castle constructed for a French noble who later married into the royal family. Forteresse De La Nuit Sans Lune was a one of a kind structure built by the cooperation of Romanian and French architects combining both the styles. constructed, on, around and even into a high hill side the castle boasted battlement walls, a moat and drawbridge and even fixed weapon placements. The most frustrating thing about the castle was that it was an invitation only as descendants of that noble still lived there and were terribly camera shy.


Naturally enough this led to Lenny sitting at a bus stop pondering a map in the town just outside the castle and wondering if he should just move on to another part of his adventure. He was eyeballing places in India when the sound of high heels moving swiftly caught his ear. Turning his head to the noise his gaze caught sight of a dark haired woman in a black silk dress running through the otherwise empty streets. Lenny watched her head turning left and right and then saw her gaze lock on him. Lenny was slightly concerned when he realized the lady was wild eyed and running right at him now. 


"Get back here you mistress of damnation!"  Lenny's gaze shifted to the left as he saw a shaggy graying hound come bolting out of the same alleyway as the lady and changed his view of what was going on. Because Lenny saw the glint of steel in the man's hand he concluded the lady had turned this man down and he was angrily pursuing her with a knife. 


Lenny strode forward, his brow set in his best glare. If he had learned nothing else on his adventures thus far it was that he was not about to let anyone come to undue harm, especially beautiful young ladies.  Grabbing the dark clad woman he put himself between her and the shaggy hound. 


"Get out of my way you damned fool, I will slay this foul creature of the night and end her reign of terror once and for all!" The hound said Lenny noted that what he originally thought was a knife was in fact a tent stake. 


"Not going to happen. I don't know what you thought was going on here but it's done. you are going to put down the stake and walk away." Lenny declared firmly as the hound advanced on him and the woman who was hiding behind him without a sound. 


"Are you deaf?! That woman is a vampire! A blood sucking undead! a plague that has been upon this land for nigh a millennium." Lenny glanced back at the woman and noted for the first time she was in fact a bat. She was the stripe whose wings had become vestigial, leaving little fin-like structures on her upper arm; her high ears and facial features had initially convinced him she was some breed of dog. Her fur was smokey gray and her eyes were rubescent seeming to shine in red, purple, and magenta in the light. More than anything though he saw she was terrified of the hound. 


"You need to calm-" Lenny started only to be shoved aside as the Hound lunged forward with the stake raised. Lenny would swear the world slowed to a crawl around him as he got his footing back and swung his right fist forward and into the Hound's jaw. Lenny watched the Hounds jaw shake from the impact and the off kilter man skew to the left his wild swing with the stake whiffing through the air as he stumbled into the street. Then the world resumed regular speed with awful timing as a bus slammed into the hound coming to a stop seconds too late to avoid hitting him fully. "... Damn." Lenny let slip because after all if any occasion called for swearing that was it. The hound groaned and Lenny sprang to action. "You! He pointed to the bus driver. "radio for help this man needs medical treatment." 


*an hour and a half later*


Lenny sighed, sitting on the streets waiting for a chance to use a payphone and call a ride. The phone lines in the area were down due to some bad luck he was having. The ambulance had cleared away and it looked like the crazy hound would live but Lenny was stuck in Romania for a bit longer until the police decided he had not been trying to kill the man. Naturally enough the bus he had been waiting on had cleared out without him on it.


"Well if it isn't my hero." Lenny looked up to see a sleek black vehicle with the bat lady he had saved earlier leaning out of the window. "What's a bold handsome guy like you doing sitting around like this?"


"The trip out of town was cancelled and now I can't even get a ride to a hotel." Lenny replied standing up. "sorry i kinda lost you in the crowd there.


"Oh I can't stand large groups." the bat held out a hand. "I'm Ivana by the way."


"Lenny elkhound, at your service." Lenny declared bowing lightly before kissing Ivana's hand. 


Ivana giggled and Lenny beamed as he stood up. "Well seeing as you have no place to go this evening mister elkhound..." Ivana gestured to the passenger seat of her car. "...would you care to take a ride with me?"


"What sensible man turns down a beautiful ladies offer?" Lenny asked in reply before walking around the car and getting in. "Though I am curious as to where we might be going."


"Oh no special place, just my house." 


*A few moments later*


"Wait, this is... You live here?" he pointed to the castle that he had been hoping to tour.


"surprise. Ivana Colet at your service." Ivana declared as she shut off the engine and got out of the car.


Lenny stood up utterly gobsmacked. "You're fooling with me." He insisted unable and unwilling to believe he had saved the last living heir of a noble lineage.


"Not until we get to the bedroom, mister elkhound. Unless you have a misses elkhound at home?" Ivana said as she swung the door open. 


"The only Miss Elkhound there is anywhere is my Mom." Lenny replied, following Ivana inside. "oh wow."  The inside of the castle was something truly special rather than wall paper or stone cladding; the walls were lined with mirrors that each stood about eight feet tall and from there to the ceiling great painted portraits stretched framed by elaborate crucifixes of gold and ivory. "oh this is something special."


"A monument to the incredible vanity of my distant ancestor." Ivana gestured to a painting of a grey furred bat woman in a red dress with a plunging neckline that would surely have been scandalous in her time. "Petrina Colet the first. She made it a family tradition to have your portrait done when you turned eighteen and for all that time since it's carried on." Lenny looked around at the portraits. 


"boy the ladies in your family sure look alike." Lenny said as he noticed that from at least a dozen portraits brilliantly red eyed grey furred bat women with black hair stared back.


"Yes, the resemblance is quite strong. which is where dolts like that Hound you saved me from get it in their heads that I'm some kind of Vampire." Ivana shook her head. "And of course from there anything else becomes suspect. Heaven forbid someone not like Garlic. Just because I'm nocturnal doesn't mean I'm some blood sucking monster." Lenny noted that Ivana was very visible in the mirrors and that the sheer quantity of crucifixes in the decor would seem to disprove those theories. "But no, they insist that there is no Colet family, just one lady vampire who takes a new husband every so often and pretends to be her own daughter after her mother and father vanish into the night.


"So that guy attacking you... has tried it before?" Lenny asked concernedly.


"No, that was an exceptional outburst. Plenty of the people in town whisper and gossip about me and just as many will refuse me service on the grounds that I am a vampire. Until tonight though No one has ever straight up attacked me." Ivana stared at the floor. "it's getting harder and harder to even leave my home."


Lenny rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "that is just awful." he said and then winced as he realized how blunt that was. "Nobody should be afraid to leave home because of superstition or rumors."


Ivana smiled at Lenny. "But that is how things are. and I must say thank you once again. It's not just any man that will jump in front of a woman he's never met when a lunatic wielding a knife is after her."


"any man worth a damn would. uhm Pardon my oaths." Lenny said firmly.


Ivana giggled and bit her lip revealing to Lenny that she did have rather pronounced fangs. "So it's not just an act, you're a real knight in shining armor?


"I'm very genuine about my desire to help people and do what's right. I don't know if that makes me a knight in shining armor or not but it's how I was raised." Lenny said with a blush. 


"You are absolutely adorable, you know that?" Ivana said, walking up to Lenny.


"I don't think anyone except my mom called me that." Lenny said trying to hide how it made him flush even more.


"Well she was right. But moving along, come with me and I'll show you the chambers."


"oh that sounds fantastic you know i was really hoping to get a tour of this castle before I left." Lenny declared with a grin.


"Then it will be my delight to show you around." Ivana said as she took Lenny by the arm. "lets start in the servant quarters."


Forteresse De La Nuit Sans Lune was roughly divided into four sections; the servant quarters were situated in the center of the building with passages throughout the castle so they could reach their assigned tasks and charges swiftly and without being seen. The guest quarters were in the high towers where they would both be safe from invaders and easily contained if needed. Guest servants had special housing in the tower bases which could easily double as dungeons if things went poorly. Finally there were the Royal chambers, an elaborate ballroom deep underground kept at a wonderful chill temperature year round by the natural insulation of the hillside and heated by the bodies that would fill it. further in and down the Royal suites were twenty five bedrooms, ten for close family, fourteen for the children and a master Bedroom for the head of the family.


Lenny tried not to gawp but the design of the master bedroom was a wonder. The roof was a high dome painted with a night sky. The star signs of the zodiac twinkled refracting the light of a moon shaped fixture. The walls were adorned with images of a sleepy village at night that Lenny knew must be the town just outside. Dominating the far wall was a colossal canopy bed draped in purple silk curtains with a deeper purple bed spread.


"Like what you see?" Ivana asked.


"It's beautiful." Lenny replied before looking at her voice and realizing she was standing totally nude a few feet before him. "... Absolutely stunning." Ivana was a petite thing; she barely came up to his chest. The elkhound hadn't noticed it before but she was just barely wider than his hips at the shoulders. She was by no means lacking in curves; it was simply that her curves were smaller because she was. 


"Glad you think so... it would seem you are over dressed." 


Lenny pulled his shirt off and was more than a bit pleased to see the grin on Ivana's face grow. He tossed his shoes quickly before undoing his belt and pants slowly. the moment he was down to his underwear though he paused his finger hooked into the waistband before he simply tugged them down enough to reveal himself to the bat. Lenny was quite pleased to see Ivana's face go from pleased to shocked.


"goodness you are a big one!" Ivana said, biting her lip. 


"It's nothing special." Lenny assured her. Even though he had been informed several times now that he had a big cock he remained convinced it was just flattery.


"if that's nothing i assure many men have less than nothing." Ivana said before gesturing to the bed. "Now lay down so I can properly thank you for saving my life." Lenny started towards the bed before reaching into his pants pocket. " What are you doing?" Ivan asked.


"Looking for the condom I put in here." Lenny replied only to discover that the condom had seemingly vanished from his pocket.


"Oh no need for that... I prefer bare skin anyway." Ivana said with a smile that sent shivers up his spine.


"if you say so~" Lenny said, sprawling out onto the bed. With a cocky grin he curled one finger at Ivana who leapt from the floor onto him. 


"I may not be a vampire but I do bite." Ivana declared before Lenny felt her teeth against the skin of his neck. Lenny wasn't sure how to react to being bitten as a prelude to sex. Ivana hadn't broken the skin or drawn blood but if he didn't have a bruise there tomorrow he'd be shocked. Ivana's teeth left his neck and he found her soft lips pushing against his in a kiss. Lenny was surprised at how long and nimble her tongue was as she led his in a dance. The kiss ended with Ivana's fangs gripping his lower lip as she pulled away. "It's just a kink." she declared with a smile. Lenny was still wrestling with how to react when Ivana took hold of his cock. She teased him a bit running the tip back and forth across her cleft letting him feel the warmth that awaited him. The elkhound felt her sink down his rod, her slick snatch engulfing him to the very base. Ivana grinned at Lenny as she rose up his cock only to let herself fall back down it again. Lenny at first was shocked at how well Ivana could handle him before a new sensation crept up on him, Ivana was going far too slow.  Lenny tried to distract himself from the feeling by stroking Ivana's breast, his fingers gentle cupping and stroking over the soft tender flesh only for it to enhance the feeling that he needed her to go faster. Lenny bucked his hips and Ivana lost her balance resting against his chest. Lenny grinned as he repeated the motion finding that Ivana was very lightweight. Ivana was on top but it was Lenny who had control now as he thrust into the bat's sex. For her part Ivana was surprised but quickly pleased with the turn of events. her finger nails dragged along Lenny's chest as she braced herself against him. Lenny learned that Ivana was prone to very loud orgasms crying out as her sex seized about him. Lenny wasn't far behind her having little choice but to fill her cunny with his cum.


"oh~ oh my dear... we shall have to do this again tomorrow." Ivana declared with a smile.


"Tomorrow?" Lenny asked, unsure of the last time he had spent so long in one place. 


"And the day after as well I should think. However long the police decide to extend your stay. I welcome you to my home and very specifically my bed." Ivana said as she traced little hearts on Lenny's chest with her fingers. "You are something special I think."


---


Ivana's prediction came true and the Romanian police extended his stay a full week. Lenny himself was mainly confused because there seemed to be split opinions on him whenever he  was called down to the station. Half the police seemed to think he was some sort of swaggering ego driven foreign lout who attempted to murder a local purely for the thrill of it. The other half were apologetic as they questioned him about the relationship he had both with the hound (whose name was apparently Vincent.) and Ivana. They were crossing their T's and dotting their I's as they put it. To those officers he was an upstanding young man who had done the right thing in exactly the wrong place.


Lenny wasn't really worried about the police, at least he seldom had time to worry about them. Ivana was beyond distracting, Lenny was just about sure she was smitten with him and he felt much the same. There was a teeny voice that told him not to get too attached because this felt too close to what happened with Nani. Lenny shoved that voice down and did his best to please and entertain his host who very much returned the favor. 


Ivana had a strong oral fixation which manifested both as her love bites and as just hours of kissing. naturally when one has a beautiful woman resting in their lap actively making out with them things got hot. Ivana's oral fixation very naturally extended to a love of fellatio or as she called it playing the flute. Lenny was only a little disappointed to find that while she loved the act he was a good bit more than she could handle, with the bat only able to take about half of his cock before she started to gag and choke. Naturally enough Lenny felt obliged to return the favor and eat her pussy out, in fact on about the third day of his stay Lenny was introduced to the idea of mutual oral sex. The difference in height meant he had to lean forward a bit but the reward was well worth it. Ivana was not exactly in a rush when they had sex, which often led to Lenny taking control to her delight. Ivana often started out in control but seemed to delight in having it taken from her. Lenny found that he had a special thrill in pinning the bat to the bed, her petite frame laid beneath his relative bulk. They had sex sometimes two or three times a day.


Of course it wasn't all sex, and making out. Lenny felt a special pride from Ivana telling him she felt safe with him at her side. So they had gone to her favorite late night restaurants  and a twenty-four hour theater. Lenny's personal favorite was an all night Library where Ivana and he had curled up in a lounge chair and enjoyed some light reading. At a bar Lenny caught Olga on the news and was thrilled to see that she had sold The Great Green Tear for just about double its estimated value making her a multi-billionaire overnight. 


Today though Lenny had the letter in his hands in it was his passport and a notice that he was free to leave the country cleared of suspicion. 


"Hey there my lovely." Lenny called out. "I just got the all clear." The elkhound grinned as he prepared to hit her with the big question. 


"Mister Elkhound... I don't think we should see each other anymore." Ivana said not turning from the window she was staring out.


Lenny staggered like he'd been punched. He'd never had anyone dump him before. "W-w-Why not?"


"I-i am afraid... of us. M-My mother loved my father with all her heart and i saw that everyday. and then my father left us. vanished into the night and never came back. My mother's heart broke very literally. Her grief took her from me decades early." Lenny was sure he saw Ivana wipe tears from her eyes. "You aren't ready to marry and settle down, you'd leave me all alone again. I'll take my chances by letting you go now."


Lenny held his hand out to the open air reaching for her but the two feet of space between them felt impossible to cross. He wanted to tell her that he wasn't going to leave and that he refused to give up. that he wanted her to come with him on his grand adventure. He wanted her but that little voice inside him planted long ago  told him that she didn't really want him (though he was wrong) and that he should just go.  


"If that's what you think is best." Lenny said, turning to leave. Lenny didn't notice as a slip of paper dropped from his pocket, a slip of paper that among other things showed his budgeting for two people for the rest of the trip.