Chapter 10: Leavetaking

The hour Seras left Castle Dracula for a stroll in the dark, the moon was nearly full. It rose pale and bright behind the silhouette turrets and cast long shadows across the silver glass snow. Somewhere in the night, a screech owl cried out and the vampiress twisted her head to follow the sound, eyes wide and alert as a crisp breeze swept across the plain. Crystals of ice skitter past her boots and she breathed in the winter air. It was another lovely evening, she thought. Cloudless, cold, and a castle in the distance. Like something out of a fairytale where princesses did not starve in wintertide famines and felt nothing of the cold.

The owl called out again, and this time, Seras heard the far off songs of the wolf pack answer, eerie in the silence. She sighed, and no clouds of warm air formed at her lips, though she tightened her sable-lined cloak around her shoulders.

"Greetings, my Lady Seras!"

The vampiress paused, startled.

Undeterred, the unforseen voice continued, filled with dark, bemused laughter, "You left your household in quite an uproar, Lady Seras Victoria. Whatever were you thinking up and abandoning us lost children like that? And without even a note, too; you're heartless!"

At that, Seras found her voice again, laughing through closed lips and turned on her heel to face her sudden visitor. "Well, I was trying to get away from you for a spell. It seemes I did not go quite far enough."

"What an adorable sentiment! Travel all the way to the Mediterranean or Edo or even across the mighty western ocean and I'll always find you, Seras! You know I am everywhere and nowhere."

She fixed her page with an admonishing smile. "Ah, Schrödinger. How are you?"

"Mm. Well." The werecat pulled his slim shoulders into an exaggerated shrug, his black ears twitching in his blond hair. "Thank you for asking, meine Dame."

"Is it total anarchy back home then?"

In answer, Schrödinger sidled close to her, pulling part of her cloak around his shoulders and snuggling close in a casual familiarity she allowed only to him, and only because his cat-like persistence never permitted refusal. "No fires yet, although Zorin is pretty close to mutiny. And you, of course, know what the Valentines are like. Not to mention van Winkle and Alhambre follow where they are led, so Walter thinks it might be best if you would return posthaste and restore some order before matters get out of hand."

"Of course," Seras sighed.

"You left us so suddenly." Schrödinger fixed her with a pair of large, pleading eyes. "We'll be good, meine Dame. I promise we'll all be well-behaved, good, little vampires from now on."

"Now you are just mocking me, mein Liebling," Seras nuzzled his hair. "Zorin probably attempted a hostile coup the minute poor van Winkle found that stupid pillow I stuffed under my bedclothes."

The werecat giggled and hugged her tightly. "Well, I can't fault you for wanting to visit your dear father. It's so rare that you do. How is the old man these days?"

"In fair health I imagine." Seras absently leaned her cheek against his head. "He's the same as he's been these past few years. Quiet, reclusive. Weary."

"But he has a companion now?"

"You've seen her?"

She felt his head nod. "Of course. Everywhere and nowhere. I knew about the Dame Lisa long before you left us at Poenari."

"Why did you say nothing? Why did you not warn me of her?"

In answer, the werecat's arms tightened around her torso where he ran his hands along the sable fur lining of her cloak. "You're so soft, m'lady. Do you think the Berserker Draugr remembers that?"

Seras shoved him away in disgust and strode away across the snow. "For sure, he received a damn good reminder of how sharp my fangs are. Did Godbrand show himself at Poenari?"

"Yes," Schrödinger grinned carelessly as he skipped along beside her. "But our good Captain ran him off without too much trouble."

Seras smiled at that. The nameless werewolf had once been a warrior in Godbrand's service before he'd defected to her own household some seventy or eighty years ago, and it pleased her to know that, for all his silence, he had no qualms about his long ago change in allegiance. "I imagine that infuriated Zorin some. Being deprived of a good fight and all."

"You shouldn't provoke her, Seras," the werecat said quietly over the crunching of their boots. "She's not a vampire one crosses lightly."

"Neither am I," she retorted, waving her hand in dismissal. "Ugh, but you're right. What do you think would please her?"

"An excursion to the north to put Godbrand back in his place?"

"Perhaps." Seras yawned. "I'll put the idea to her when I return to Poenari."

"So you're coming back soon?"

Seras halted and the werecat cartwheeled to a stop next to her. Was it time to go home? She had been away for a few nights now, and it seemed there would be trouble if she stayed away much longer. In the strictest sense, she'd already accomplished what she'd set out to do: she'd visited her master and made her reports of the countryside. Soon, she would need to attend to the Ottomans at the southern border awaiting winter's end and keep her eyes open for rogues of her kind aiming to use the human chaos for their own designs. At some point, she needed to head west and take the measure of the new—was Styria a duchy? An earldom? Whatever; she intended to take the measure of that territory's new mistress and determine whether this Carmilla would prove hostile or conformable to her master's overlordship.

And, of course, Seras would sooner or later have to make some form of reparation or other to appease Godbrand so their alliance with the draugar wouldn't completely crumble. Catch more flies with honey than vinegar and all that rot. She sighed. So much for sending Zorin north and out of trouble.

But was all finished with Castle Dracula?

Was there anything more to be said to her father? To the Lady Lisa? It occurred to Seras that she would need to take the human woman into account more often should Dracula proceed with his intention to marry her. Without turning her. God, a vampire marrying a human…had such a thing ever been done before? Walter would know, but of course if she asked him, then he would want to know why such an idea had come to her.

And then she would have to explain Lisa.

The uproar that would bring forth in her castle….

A breath of air left her lifeless lungs. A rueful smile crossed her face. Her eyes closed. "Tonight. I will leave tonight."

"Best hurry then, Draculina," Schrödinger's voice echoed as he was gone in the blink of an eye and snowflakes began to drift lazily upon the world. "The sun rises soon."

…

When Seras returned inside, she found her master and Lisa in the midst of a lesson, seated across from each other in one of the library's many alcoves with a slew of open tomes and notebooks, as well as a scattering of pens, inkwells, random foodstuffs, and the occasional anatomy model spread before them.

"…so you see," her father was saying as she came within earshot, oblivious to her presence. "In this way, nutrients derived from the food humans eat, as well as properly prepared medicines, are absorbed into the bloodstream and carried throughout the body. At the same time, it serves to remove the waste products such as carbon dioxide via respiration in the lungs and urea, salts, and water through the kidneys. Understand?"

Seras watched Lisa's head bob up and down in an eager nod. "So the practice of bloodletting does in fact do more harm than I originally thought."

"Indeed. It is not for nothing it is sometimes referred to as lifeblood."

"Blood," Seras broke in and the pair looked up from their books. "Is the currency of the soul, the very vehicle of life itself, not to mention the binding contract between vampire and fledgling."

Dracula rose from his chair and held out his hand in a sweeping gesture of welcome. "Ah, my dear, so good of you to join us. We were just examining the finer points of the circulatory apparatus."

"So I see." Reaching out, the vampiress plucked a diagram from the table and found herself contemplating side by side comparisons of red and white blood cells and platelets. Irrelevant to herself, of course, as neither she nor Dracula had a working heartbeat, nor need for oxygen, or regulation of body temperature. "A complex system to be sure."

"I think it's rather elegant," Lisa countered, tracing her finger along the run of a vein in another illustration.

Seras shrugged and set down the page. "I've decided to return to Poenari tonight. Right now, in fact."

"So soon?" Lisa raised her head in surprise. "But it's nearly dawn now. You'll never make it to Argeș before the sun rises, nevermind Poenari. It'll burn you."

"Nonsense. The sun does not concern me in the least." Seras smirked. "Besides, I already gave my word I leave tonight."

Lisa opened her mouth to speak again, but Dracula quieted her with a gentle touch to her shoulder. "Lisa, there is a basket for Seras down in the scullery. Would you mind fetching it for me since she is so inclined to leave us this evening?"

"But…" Lisa glanced at Seras, back at her mentor, then with a polite nod, she scurried off and the tattered hem of her skirt soon disappeared through the doorway into the corridor.

Seras rounded on her master once she had gone. "She needs better clothes, sir. Warmer clothes. Why have you neglected her so?"

Dracula's eyes flashed at her accusatory tone and he looked away as he answered, "I have tried, Daughter. Many times. Yet she refuses my aid."

Yes, she said as much, Seras thought, crossing her arms. "Then you must persist further. We may not feel the cold, but Wallachian winters are oft brutal, especially up here in the mountains." Although Lisa had gone, Seras leaned in close and whispered softly. "She has been pursued before, Master, make no mistake."

The look in Dracula's eyes hardened to an icy stare.

"Pursued by wealthy and powerful men who, unlike yourself, had less than honorable intentions."

The vampire king clenched his hand, scoring four parallel claw marks into the table and ripping the corner of one of his diagrams. "Are you implying," he asked in a cold fury. "That a simple and decent gift of warm clothing is construed as an invitation to become a concubine? Have you no shame, Seras, thinking so low of me?"

"I imply no such thing," Seras retorted. "I am merely pointing out she is cautious. She was a servant once upon a time, and it would surprise me not if, in her youthful naïvety, the poor, pretty, little nit made the mistake of accepting some lord's gift without understanding what it meant."

Dracula said nothing, but she could see the conflicted thoughts behind his eyes. He was no fool; surely, he had noticed Lisa's innate compassion as much as he had her aloof nature. How she equally respected him and maintained a careful balance of friendship and formality as though…as though she feared what he could do. As others had perhaps done.

Seras watched her sire's broad shoulders sink with a bleak sigh, and he seemed to crumple in on himself as he sat down again, hand to his brow. "I see your point. What must I do?"

"Persist. Be clear it is merely a kindness and nothing more." Seras sidled up to him and hooked her arm through his. "Or, if she refuses to be supported still, you could make an offer of marriage just for that sake alone. She would have no fear of shame if she was safely married. Can you imagine?" She lowered her voice as deep as she could and, imitating him, said, "Woman, marry me so I may clothe you properly."

Dracula chuckled at her antics.

"Funny, in my experience, that's the opposite of what happens in—"

"Seras!" He pulled his arm away from her and rested his hand in her blonde hair. "What am I to do with you, you harridan?"

The young lady shrugged impertinently and leaned up to kiss his cold cheek. "It could work, Master. "

"It could." He sighed again. "Does this mean you approve, my dear?"

"I give you my full blessing." Seras assured him. "If you love her, of course. Make that clear to her, too. She may not agree to marry you otherwise.

"Without a doubt." She felt his smile against her temple and he combed his fingers affectionately through her hair.

Thus they remained until Lisa returned to the library, burdened by the large basket Dracula had spoken of and staggering a little under its weight. "What is this?" Seras asked, peering under the lid incredulously. Inside, she saw a multitude of preserved fruits and meat, as well as jars of spices and a few bottles of wine carefully sealed with wax, among other items from the larder. "Are we to have a picnic, Lisa?"

"When you arrived," Dracula said. "I set aside some various foodstuffs for you and your household's enjoyment. I seem to recall Walter in particular is fond of Oriental tea."

"You're too kind," Seras said as she took the basket from Lisa.

"Have you your firearm?" Lisa asked.

Seras thought about where she'd left it, propped against the wall of her bedchamber. "No, but I have others. I can retrieve it another time."

The young woman nodded and a smile crept across her lips. "By the by, Seras, you say gunpowder is a terrible weapon devised by mankind."

"Yes?" She frowned. Everyone knew that.

"But did you know the Chinese call it huo yao?"

"What of it?"

Lisa's smile widened. "Huo yao means 'flaming medicine.' It used to be a medicine for treating skin diseases."

"There's always a silver line with you, isn't there." Seras looked back and forth between the two of them. Lisa, young and full of life. Her master, centuries old and weighted down by it. No longer ambitious and cruel, just weary of it all. Seras lowered her eyes. Till the stars bleed from the heavens, huh? She would be good for him, if he was able to inspire Lisa to love him. Of that, Seras had no doubt.

They walked in silence from the lab and Seras again took in the brighter and cleaner corridor. The sconces and the suits of armor free of dust and cobwebs. The feeling of life within the tomb. She smiled.

"I hope we will meet again, Seras," Lisa said when they reached the portal and Seras pulled it open. "Maybe we could go to Bucharest again."

"Or Targoviste or Brăila. Have you ever seen the Black Sea? Or the ocean?"

The woman shook her head and Seras could see her eyes shining at the prospect. To have spent so much time as twenty years on this earth and yet never having seen the sea. "We'll have to rectify that."

"How will you get home?" Lisa asked. "Will you become a wolf and run?"

Dracula bit back a laugh. A true and genuine laugh, not contrived in out of deception or annoyance.

"And traverse all those peaks in between? No, I think not." Seras shook her head, and then, in a single fluid motion, she swept her fine, fur-lined cloak from her neck and draped it suddenly over Lisa's thin shoulders. The woman gave a quiet gasp, her eyes wide as the vampire lady laughed into her startled face. "My gift to you. Sister." And then, basket in hand, she was running.

She sprinted down the snowy path, eyes forward, faster and faster until she reached the very end of the skeletons, wherein her crimson wings unfurled and Seras threw herself into the sky. Undaunted by the rising sun, as so many of her kind were, she flew into the dawn, a red streak of light trailing after her like a comet.

Or a red arrow fired from a bow drawn taut.

From below, Dracula and Lisa watched her soar away until she was no longer to be seen and daylight ushered them back inside.

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Author's Notes: Thank you to everyone who favorited, followed, and reviewed. It's been a delight working on this crossover, I hope you all enjoyed, and I hope to see you for the sequel: The Court of Intrigue, which will have more of Seras' relationship with her fellow Generals, more on her connection with the Belmonts, and just more of her usual badassery. Honey and Vinegar has one more installment to go in the form of an epilogue, which I aim to have up very soon. Take care all!

And again, I own neither of these series.