𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧🧭

Chapter Thirty-Four

The healer awoke to the feeling of fingers running along her hair. She opened her eyes to see Alucard staring back at her. 

"You came back?" he whispered to her. 

"Of course, I came back," a small smile covered her face. 

It felt nice to be home. She had missed Alucard and the castle. 

"Where's Hector?" 

She sighed and rolled onto her back to face the ceiling. "He didn't want to come with me. I risk my life to try and find him," tears clouded her eye and her voice lowered to a barely heard whisper, "And he rather stay with some vampire he just met than come back home with me."

A tear slid down her face only to be caught by a gentle brush of a finger. 

She released a shaky breath, "How could I be so stupid?" 

Alucard placed a hand on her cheek and turned her head to face him, "You are not stupid. You simply have a lot of love in your heart and not everyone is going to recognize and appreciate that." 

She sniffled and shuffled closer to the dhampir, "I should have never left you. I had everything I needed here and I still left...I'm sorry." 

He traced shapes on the skin of her arm, "You do not need to apologize. You went searching for your truth and I can never be upset at you for that."

The healer felt lucky to have ever met such a kind man. She had left him in search of someone else that didn't even care.

She didn't know where Hector was now but she did know that despite all he put her through she could never hold any ill towards him. Without him, she wouldn't have met Trevor, Sypha, or Alucard. 

"...You smell different." 

She shifted her gaze to the vampire in front of her. 

Different? 

"What do you mean?" she sat up and he followed after her. 

His brows pinched together, "I thought it was the scents of the other vampires that were in that castle. But it would have rubbed off of you by now."  

"What are you going on about, Alucard?" she narrowed her eyes. 

He grabbed her hand and flipped both of them to have her palms facing upward. "...You have a bite mark," he looked at her in concern, "What happened in that castle?"

She looked away from him as her thoughts of the castle resurfaced in her mind, "I did what I had to do." 

He lifted her bitemark to his face and took a deep breath before his lips curled downwards. "The smell is strongest here,"  he slowly gazed at her with wide eyes before a look of pure horror adorned his face, "...You have been turned." 

She wrenched her hand from his grasp and stared at the bite mark, "That is... It is not..."

She hadn't drunk Carmilla's blood, she turned it to wine. She hadn't...

Memories of that day floated back to her.

The vampire placed the tray down on the small table in the middle of the room before handing one of the teacups to her.

She mindlessly took a sip out of the cup, "Sweet." 

The taste was different, not in a bad way and she could barely taste the difference but it was there. She wondered if Carmilla had brewed her a different blend. 

Carmilla sat down across from her and took a sip from her own cup, "I was thinking that we could elope. A nice little ceremony for the two of us."

She couldn't believe it. 

Carmilla had tricked her. 

"She tricked me," she whispered with glossy eyes, "I thought I had the upper hand."

She turned to look at Alucard, "How do I stop this? What can I do to regain my mortality?" 

He sighed and closed his eyes, "You would have to kill her."

"That doesn't make sense," she was quick to say, "Isacc killed her. She's dead." 

Alucard narrowed his eyes, "If she was dead then you would be a human." 

"It can't be," she whispered. 

How was she going to kill Carmilla? She didn't even know if the woman was still in the castle. 

She rubbed her fingers onto her temple, "Let us talk about something else, anything else but this."

"The people of Danesti have set up camp in front of the castle, they were the people that sent us that note," he revealed, "They need help to fend off the remaining night creatures." 

A small smile crept onto her face, "I am glad that you have taken in this town." 

She knew that it wouldn't have been easy for Alucard to readily accept humans after being betrayed so horribly. But she was proud of him, proud of his abilities to put aside his biases.

🧭

After getting dressed and drinking Alucard's blood to stave off hunger— he said that it was better to feed when she wasn't hungry because if she allowed herself to grow the tiniest bit of peckish then she would be a danger to the townspeople— they went outside to the town.  

It was nice to see the front of the castle so lively. Children ran around in glee and shop owners bartered for their goods. It was truly a peaceful place. 

A woman with long brown hair and hazel eyes strode up to her and Alucard.

The brunette smiled at him, "You're up late." 

"I had some catching up to do with an old friend," he motioned towards her, "This is Y/N." 

The healer reached out her hand with a smile, "I have heard only good things about you." 

"Same to you. Alucard raves about you whenever he can," she shook hands with her, "My name is Greta." 

"Lovely meeting you," she said. 

Greta chuckled, "Has Alucard always been like this? The strong, mysterious, showoff?"

"No!" she laughed, "He has always been a sweetheart in my eyes." 

The two women participated in a few more jokes at Alucard's expense before Greta left to tend to her people.

What a nice woman she thought to herself.

She peered over to look at Alucard, "You talk about me a lot, huh?" 

A small tinge of pink colored his cheeks, "Maybe." 

"Don't be so shy, Alucard," she smiled and leaned on him, "I love people who stroke my ego."

He looked away from her with a hand covering the tinge on his cheeks. 

GRR!

The two vampires turned to see a group of night creatures and monsters advancing on the horizon.  

The healer's eyes widened, "This can't be good." 

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I'm getting back on my update grind. I'm also planning on doing NaNoWriMo this year so there won't be any updates in November. I'm hoping to finish more of my popular books before then the wait isn't so long for you guys.  
~Pink