After the vampire was taken away Maria took me to the infirmary. She told me to lie down.

“Are you sure you are infected?”

“Yeah, she infected me.”

“Are you sure?”

“There are things I can see and things I can’t but I can’t see something and that turns out to be something else.”

“Then what happened this morning, what did you see?”

“The vampire but more mature, it was like two persons were there. Now that I think about it, it might be because she bit me.”

“What do you mean?”

“The vampire’s blood is like a virus right?”

“Yes, it infects your organs through your bloodstream.”

“My body has a normal mode, a regenerative mode and a combat mode.”

“By the way, this regenerative mode is that what happened to you after that explosion?”

“Ummm…Yeah, that’s when my body switched from normal to regenerative, my body shuts down and I enter in a sleep-like mode.”

“OK.”

“Basically when the vampire bit me my body went in combat mode and I was able to see her true form.”

Every time Maria looked at my neck she looked dejected. The teeth mark is gone and I’m not in pain; what’s wrong?

“What’s wrong?”

“Everything is. I have no way of creating a potion to stop your transformation and I don’t know how long it will be until you transform.”

“I become a vampire, so what?”

“That’s the happy ending. Once you are bitten you will carve more of your master’s blood, if the master decides to suck all your blood you will turn into a husk.”

That’s a little different from what I believed. I thought that if she infused me with blood I will certainly transform in a vampire. My scan showed the vampire’s blood in my body as a disease so there might be a chance for my body to develop a cure or immunity. I wanted to Maria this but now I’m not sure about anything anymore.

“So what am I supposed to do?”

“You wait.”

Well my question was stupid. She already said that there is nothing she can do to help me. Now I just have to play the waiting game. Well I could go to that vampire but I don’t think that she can help me.

“I’m going back to my dorm. It’s already evening.”

“No, until this problem is solved you are staying with me.”

“I don’t have a problem with it but why?”

“In case you go feral I will be the one to stop you.”

Isn’t it a little drastic? I know I’m infected but I’m not a normal human. Thinking about it if I were a normal human I would have died quite a few times.

Desperate or not she had a point; there aren’t many people who could stop me and I really like spending time with her even though most of it is just awkward silence.

In Maria’s room are some books about healing potions and curatives and yet there’s no information about a remedy for this. The fact that I can feel the foreign blood makes me feel uneasy and then there’s my left arm. Ever since that girl bit me my left arm is shaking, it looks like I have Parkinson’s. I don’t know how but the vampire’s blood is responsible for my arm too.

“I told you, there’s nothing there you can use.”

“It beats standing around doing nothing. You practically locked me up in here.”

“Las time you stayed here you didn’t complain.”

“Because last time I needed to be away from all that shit, now I don’t.”

“I told you I can’t have you running around freely.”

Why does she have to bring that up? I feel bad enough thinking that I wasn’t fast enough to dodge her and I even got infected.

I feel really tired all of a sudden.

“I’m going to lie down for a while, wake me up if something important happens.”

“I’ve never seen you tired before. Is it because of the bite?”

That’s the last thing I want an answer to; if I feel tired because of that infection it means that it’s working.

“Could be.”

Well I guess there is no harm on getting to bed early. This might be the start of a regenerative process. A human’s body heals when you sleep, I just hope I won’t transform in my sleep. I couldn’t convince Maria that staying awake is a bad idea, she really believes that I will wake up a vampire; who transforms is one day?

I thought I was going to sleep soundly but instead it appears I have sleep paralysis. I can’t see anything, my body hurts and it feels like I’m on fire. It hurts, it really hurts. I can’t move, even breathing hurts. HELP!

“…Alex…”

I hear somebody calling me. The pain distracting me, but I know that voice, it’s a familiar voice. My head is killing me, I can’t think properly.

*splash*

When I woke up I heard the sound of water splashing. It seems I really have a fever. When I woke up I saw Maria holding a water crystal in her hand. Thank god she woke me up; I wouldn’t have lasted much longer.

“You are awake, that’s a relief.”

“I know you wanted to wake me up but did you really have to splash me with water.”

“You were sleep talking and tossing around; this was the only thing that worked. More importantly, go look in the mirror.”

I got up and went in front of the mirror. I looked pale, almost as pale as that vampire. My hair’s color changed, instead of blonde it became close to white and that’s not all, my hair grew so long it almost reached my hips. That vampire’s hair was white; I have to assume that my body is changing. One interesting thing is that my eye color changed too. My eyes were still blue but the color is more intense than before.

“Alex, open your mouth.”

“What for, want to see if I have fangs now?”

“Yes. Usually the hair is the last one to change.”

Maria checked my teeth. Fortunately for me there were no fangs. If there are no fangs it means there is still hope, I’m sure of it now.

First things first I have to get rid of all this extra hair. After this I’m going to have a little chat with the vampire.

“Maria, can you cut my hair, make it like it was before?”

“I can shorten it but I’m not really experienced at this.”

“Make it as short as you can.”

After almost one hour and numerous pieces of advice Maria cut my hair. It looked kind of like a buzz cut; good enough for now.

“Let’s pay that vampire a little visit.”

“I can’t allow that.”

Oh boy, I forgot that she becomes overprotective like that; in these situations I wish Ellen was here. There’s only one thing left to do.

I put my hands on Maria’s shoulders and looked her dead in the eye.

“Listen, I’m not going to transform and attack you. I want you to trust me.”

I can see that Maria was skeptical about what I said. I won’t be able to solve this unless I pay that vampire a visit.

“Fine but I’m coming along with you.”

Well, at least that was a success. I wanted to take her along with me anyway.

“But if something happens to you I’m going to show that vampire why humans are more feared than demons.”

If I learned one thing from Kraft is how to recognize blood lust, Maria was serious about this. I just hope this won’t cause an incident; I’m already getting more special treatment than anyone else, causing a scene would affect more than the school’s reputation.

I changed into my peasant clothes and left the room with Maria. It seems that my night vision is better than before, now I can clearly see my surroundings without using magic. There were no guards on the way and it looks like the paladins left. Is it normal to let a dangerous prisoner unguarded?

Well, here we are. The vampire was here and so was her mature version. When she saw me her face lit up. Just look at that victorious look on her face, she actually thinks I’m here to get her out.

It’s hard for me to look at her, I see two of them and I don’t know which version of her is her real form. Based on my memories her current one should be the young one.

I don’t understand why they treat her so poorly; in her mature version the rags she wears don’t leave much to the imagination. If a human was kept like this he would kill the ones who put him here first chance he got.

“Welcome young one; what brings you here?”

“I just wanted to know why you chose me. There were other people there, why me?”

“There is no right answer to your question but if I were to give you a proper answer…I saw that you were different, special and the circumstances didn’t leave me any choice.”

The stories say that the vampires age much slower than humans but now it’s clear, I can see her true form. You have to reach a certain age to be able to keep your composure in these situations; also she isn’t trying to take advantage of her looks or change her manner of speech so she dislikes her current form; that’s what I believe.

“I trust that you came to set me free.”

“No, I’m not. It seems I’m not under your control after all.”

“Ha ha ha. I know; the appropriate time to activate the blood inside you and place you under my spell is now.” Her eyes started shining.

When the light hit me my head started spinning, I lost my vision and I lost my balance. A took a few steps back before falling on my knees. The burning sensation is back. Maria stopped me from falling down but in reality that’s about all she can do.

“What did you do to him?”

“His suffering will end soon. Fear not, he will not be conscious when he wakes up; consider it an act of mercy.”

“I will kill you before you get the chance to escape. The headmistress and I inscribed the cell with an explosion spell; I will kill you even if I have to die too.”

I heard them talking but I couldn’t focus on what they were saying. The pain is too strong…I can’t…resist. SOMEBODY STOP IT.

After a few moments my Black Blood activated. I started regaining control over my body and the pain was starting to subdue. Thank god it stopped.

“This is something I haven’t encountered before, a human who submitted fast enough for the demon blood to take over. Raise my servant.”

Oh, I’m getting up right now; slowly to create a dramatic scene.

“Alex?”

Ow, I could feel the sadness form here; after she finds out I was joking I think I will spend the rest of my days in the dark room.

“Now release me from this prison.”

“Ha ha, and if I don’t; what will you do?”

“Wha…?”

I didn’t know someone as pale as that could go even go even paler. Keep staring at me and watch your hopes get shattered. The vampire was speechless or maybe she doesn’t know where to start. She kept staring at me, mouth half open. That’s the reaction I expected, seeing your hopes get destroyed.

When Maria heard me rejecting the vampire’s order she quickly regained her composure.

“It looks like I was a fool worrying about you.”

“You may have been, but that’s why I love you.”

Really, no reaction? If anything she looked disappointed. I thought I would catch her off guard, well not today.

“Why? How; I saw the demon blood flowing inside you!”

“That’s something Alex could do long before he got bitten by you, this is your loss.”

“I suppose I should congratulate you young one, you escaped my grasp without transforming.”

Well she is wrong. While I still look human her vampire blood altered my abilities a little. My scan showed an improvement in my healing abilities and my magic manipulation as well as a slight increase in strength and speed. Since one of my powers is called Magically Engineered Human it means that I will stay human no matter what happens to me.

“Not entirely, I just kept some things for myself and eliminated the rest.”

“Regardless, today is my loss.”

Does she actually think she is going to get away after what she did?

“You still have to pay me back for trying to control me.”

“What could you possibly want from someone such as myself?”

“Simple: knowledge. I want you to tell me about the demon continent and I want you to teach me your language too.”

“Very well; for the time being will you tell me your name?”

“My name is Alexander Lowe, a pleasure to meet you.”

“Pardon the late introduction; I am called Astrid Dracul. I look forward to working with you.”

She was calm. That’s not the face of someone who hit rock bottom; she is planning something. I will have to keep an eye on her.

“It seems I will have to wait longer than I anticipated.”

This was the last thing I heard before she went out of my range; she really is underestimating me.

When we entered Maria’s room Maria went straight for the bed, despite how she looked there she must have been nervous. She looks all right now, that’s good. She will be all right if she sleeps a little.

“Come here for a second.”

“What is it? Hey!”

I got close to the bed to hear what Maria had to say. She caught me and pulled me down on the bed. What the hell? Maybe this is going somewhere after all.

“What was that for?”

She didn’t answer; she just put her head on my chest and nestled up against me.

“Your blue eyes really are beautiful.”

Thant’s nice of her; I don’t know why she would she focus on my eye color…Wait, my Black Blood is active so my eyes are supposed to be black not blue. My eye color staying the same must be another side effect of the vampire’s blood. Well, I never liked the black eyes. I might as well deactivate Black Blood before going to sleep.

“You are warm.”

Well yeah, my body temperature is a bit high to compensate for the temperature in the room, after all the clothes I was in are thin and the room isn’t actually that warm. Well I don’t know how to answer that. I started to gently stroke her head. She really is cute when she’s like this; I couldn’t help it and cracked a smile.

“Good night Maria.”

“Good night.”

I have a feeling that this night will be a good night.