Chapter 5 -Good Fortune: Ezra

I had been waiting for night to fall so that I could go into the city and feed. I wanted something different this evening, something other than the blood of one of our servants. Any one of them would gladly fulfill my needs, but I was restless and wanted a change of pace. 

Surprise washed over me when I opened the door and spotted a wolf sleeping on my front porch. As a rule, vampires steer clear of wolves, though once, about 125 years ago, I had one that I kept as a pet. That, of course, was before I found my brothers. Adrian and Mateo aren’t actually my brothers, but we have been together for the past 100 years. 

At first, it was friendship only, but over the years, it has developed into a brotherhood of sorts. We built this home together and have shared servants for the last 87 years. None of us has taken a paladin since we’ve been together, but there hasn’t been a need for it. 

What is a paladin? It’s simple; a paladin is a loyal animal companion. The best way to explain what I mean by loyalty is: they are protective of you, kind of like the K9 partner of a police unit, combined with caring for you when you are most vulnerable, like a medical support animal would.

Vampires occasionally go into a period of hibernation, so to speak. We go into a deep slumber for days, weeks, months, or in extremely rare cases, years.  In those instances, our paladin would guard us fiercely and protect us from anyone or anything that might wish us harm. Of course, their well-being would be provided for by our servants. 

In typical day-to-day life, our human servants take care of all of our needs; they tend to our home, feed us, and of course, sate our carnal desires. We do have to replace them from time to time as they age and become unable to provide for us as we are accustomed. However, that is to be expected since they aren’t immortal like we are. 

In the beginning, we went through many servants. A fragile human body isn’t capable of withstanding the affections of three vampires simultaneously. After a couple of times of gruesome trial and error, we learned that fulfilling our more adventurous proclivities would be best sated amongst our kind. Still, individually, we could find satisfaction with our servants. 

Anyway, back to the wolf. I don’t know what provoked me to observe the creature other than I was mesmerized by her beauty. Sensing my presence, she stood and looked around the cavern until she decided it was safe. Even from this distance at night, I was still able to tell it was a female. When she lay back down, I was going to get closer, but then kicked a pebble, which startled her all over again. 

I waited for nearly an hour before attempting to get close again, and it paid off. I managed to not only get close, but was able to scoop her up off the ground into my arms. She put up quite a fight, turning her head from side to side, trying to sink her fangs into me. It wasn’t until I spoke that she stilled. 

“Take it easy, poochie. I wanted a new lapdog, and you decided to rest on my front porch. Looks like it’s my lucky day,” I told her. It was as if she understood me and instantly stilled in my arms.

As a vampire, I can smell emotions, and this wolf had gone from smelling like anger to fear instantly. “Don’t worry, girl, I’ll take good care of you. My brothers and I haven’t had a paladin in the house before. You have nothing to fear, though, we only feed on humans,” I told her as she whimpered. 

I lifted a hand to scratch behind her ears, and she cowered. “Let’s get you inside, my beautiful wolf. I can have one of the servants hunt up something for you to eat, and you can rest on something besides the hard porch,” I murmured as I turned to carry the wolf inside. 

I can’t say what made me feel an affinity for the pooch. Like I said, as a vampire, I would generally steer clear, yet I felt compelled to have her by my side.

“Destiny, where are you? Are you busy?” I called out as I walked back through the door. Destiny is one of our oldest and most loyal servants. She essentially keeps her finger on the pulse of everything in our homestead. 

“Right here, Master Ezra. What did you… What is that?” she questioned, stopping dead in her tracks as she took notice of the wolf.

“My beautiful wolf. Can you help me find her something to eat? Please, Desi?” I added, flashing her a toothy grin when she looked as if she would argue.

Destiny was a short, curvy woman with piercing green eyes, who would make a lesser man wither under her disapproving glare. The fire in her hair may have long been extinguished, but Destiny could still sear you with one glance.

“Really, Ezra? You can just put away that boy next door charm. I can’t believe you brought a wolf into the house. You don’t plan on keeping it, do you?” she asked, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

“Sure. Why not? It’s been a long time since I had a paladin. None of us has gone into hibernation this century, but it’s always possible,” I reasoned.

“You have a house full of servants who would care for you. Your brothers would protect you with their lives,” she insisted.

“One can never be too careful. I’m keeping her. Do you have something I can feed her or not?” I sighed and adjusted the hold I had on the wolf. 

“Yes. Yes. Keep that thing away from my kitchen, and I will see what I can find. Now shoo,” she fussed, motioning for me to leave her to it. Sometimes I think Destiny forgets who is actually in charge here. 

“You aren’t going to be any trouble, are you, girl?” I murmured to the wolf scratching between her ears. The wolf whimpered in response. “It isn’t that bad. You’ll see, I’ll treat you like a poochie queen,” I added with a gentle squeeze. 

Entering the living room, I noticed that not much had changed since I left earlier. Mateo is feeding from Toma and Trisha’s head was bobbing up and down between Adrian’s legs. I suppose Stacia didn’t get the job done, or Adrian is in one of his moods again—same shit, different day. 

“I thought we agreed that we didn’t need pets of the four-legged variety,” Adrian sneered from where he sat, unaffected by the blowjob he was receiving.

“Our servants aren’t pets, Adrian. Just because you don’t want a paladin doesn’t mean I can’t have one. She won’t cause any problems and obviously won’t be sucking my dick in the living room for everyone to see,” I hissed in reply.

“Taking to beastiality now, brother? I’m sure one of the servants would take care of things for you,” Mateo snickered, dabbing the corner of his mouth to wipe away a stray drop of blood.

“Not everyone is a deviant like you, Mateo. You know very well that Camille is my servant of choice. The wolf was asleep on our porch. I saw her and I decided I wanted to keep her,” I sighed and set the wolf on the floor when Desi brought in a dish of food. 

As soon as the wolf’s paws touched the floor, she took off like a rocket, and chaos ensued.