It is done! Another chapter is finished and I am curious how you guys will like it. As always I wish you a lot of fun while reading 3

Your

Salaka-chan

Origin

A pleasant fragrance, like a sweet embrace, enveloped him, while something soft covered his face and tickled him at times with gentle movements. He felt safe after the unwanted loneliness and at the same time wished that he would never wake up from this dream. Memories of long gone summer days full of bliss filled his mind. A tender smile was on his lips as he tried to touch the source of the smell with his hand. The vampire's long fingers ran through silky soft hair, while his distinctive fingernails stroked over warm skin, allowing him to better absorb the lovely scent. He was familiar with this scent, but it took his mind a while to make the right connections.

Instantly his consciousness returned to reality and the most recent events happened in rapid succession before his mind's eye. Her tearful face, her attempts to help him and the mad magician. Dettlaff rose up in panic, ready to continue the fight before he realized that he was in Livia's workshop.

Silence reigned in the building, only interrupted by the blonde woman's quiet breathing in and out. Half she sat on a small stool by the side of the bed, half she lay with him, her arms folded under her head as a pillow substitute.

Dettlaff's posture relaxed and he uttered a relieved sigh as he remembered the end of the fight. He looked down gently at the woman, noticing her severely reddened face. This small, fragile creature, whose life was passing by incessantly, had defeated an opponent he had failed. Maddening anger rose in him as he had been unable to protect her while pressing his lips tightly together and closing his eyes. Livia's tear-streaming face in the arms of this vile man had burned into his memory. The vampire was unfamiliar with her power, yet he had great respect for what she had done and planned to speak to her about it in due course.

When Livia moved, he noticed with some surprise that he was lost in thought and had tenderly touched her head. With furrowed brows he pulled his hand back and after a short hesitation, held it to his nose to better absorb her scent. His intention to prefer loneliness seemed ridiculous to him, while the vampire recalled the encounter between them, when the roles were reversed and Livia was laying in bed.

She seemed to be afraid of men, which was not surprising given her past and recent events. The same was true for his vampiric appearance after the transformation and yet she confronted him and vouched for her ideals. Livia handled her feelings openly and directly, which made it easier for him to understand her, even though her statements during a confrontation could be hurtful.

She was different from her.

Her smell, her appearance, her way of acting, her body and her complete being.

He wanted to stay with her, be close to her, be there for her and further develop their friendship. Unconsciously, she had managed to affect him. Livia was right at that time with her statement in the hunting lodge that the actions of a single individual should not be transferred onto all others.

Green eyes looked at him sleepily, before they widened in disbelief with surprise, the exhaustion blown away.

"Dettlaff!"

Livia straightened up while her features strained with concern. The long uncombed hair curled around her body, with a few unruly strands of hair caught in her face, while her voice took on a quivering undertone.

"How are your wounds? Are you still in pain?"

Torn from his thoughts, the vampire had to blink several times in response to the young woman's strong reaction, while a warm feeling of comfort spread within him before he started to respond. "They are already completely healed. More important is the state of you."

The blonde haired woman squinted her eyes, which were marked by conspicuous rings, and looked at the man searchingly. She did not seem to be very convinced of the truth of his statement. With a serious expression she stood up without further ado and pulled the blanket away, only to press on the affected parts of his body while she looked at the man with a stern glance.

He had not expected such an offensive interaction, while his confused look drifted from Livia to Regis, who appeared shortly after their conversation. A slight smile surrounded his lips as he approached the bed and paused beside Livia.

"As I have assured you several times before, our friend has recovered from his injuries and should be on his way to recovery. As vampires, we have the valuable property that no other being is able to mortally wound us, even though the regeneration can take some time after a fight, as I have already explained to you with an example from my own past." Thereupon he cleared his throat embarrassed.

Ignoring the attempt of the vampire to cheer her up, the alchemist left Dettlaff and sank with a sigh back onto the stool. The old piece of furniture creaked softly while the younger vampire watched Livia's features relax under the soft candlelight. With an expectant rubbing of his hands, Regis sat down on the edge of the bed before staring at the two of them with a questioning look.

"I would now be very grateful if you could enlighten me about the recent events. A confrontation seems to have taken place, which fortunately ended happily. Perhaps we should start with the moment when you", he looked at Livia, "left the cemetery."

The addressed woman told about her trip to Beauclair, not mentioning the trip to the toy store. Regis nodded at regular intervals and occasionally uttered an "Hm" or "I see." When Livia ended with the fight against Sebastion, her voice trembled slightly during this part of the story, the elderly vampire seemed extremely thoughtful and then remained silent for a long time. Dettlaff had mutely listened to her story and was now waiting in suspense for the grey-haired vampire's reaction.

Deep in thought, Regis stroked his chin at regular intervals before he began to ask a question. "What was this man's name again?"

Livia's eyes darkened before she answered in a low voice, "Sebastion Morel."

"Could you please describe his physical appearance to me?"

As far as Livia was able to, she described the appearance of this man and also mentioned his extreme physical strength and his magic abilities.

" Very interesting," Regis replied in a neutral voice to the summary.

"I've heard that name before, but a very long time ago. Centuries, to be precise."

Neither Livia nor Dettlaff dared to interrupt Regis and waited impatiently for his explanations.

"Your description regarding his appearance fits, but differs from the person I know in some details. He was a doctor and together we did some research at the academy in Oxenfurt. Sebastion stood out because of his lack of physical endurance, but why most people really avoided him was his focus, rather his obsession, in a special field of research.

Over the centuries, some groundbreaking discoveries in the science of medicine have been made, which I witnessed at the hour of its birth, and which have become indispensable in modern times. However, it has not always been possible to balance the usefulness of research with people's basic moral understanding. An advance into the unknown always requires a certain amount of tribute. If one wants to understand a body, it must be viewed from all angles, this naturally also applies to the inside of the body. In order to be able to fully understand the vital functions, it is, for example, essential that the individual being studied is alive and remains so during the course of the research.

Our paths separated already after a foreseeable time, which was not too surprising. My focus has always been on the physical healing of the patient, whereas Sebastion had concentrated on the psychological level. He was firmly convinced that most physical complaints could be eliminated by stimulating the brain. It should be noted at this point that he was a man of action.

Conversations with the patients were out of the question for him as an impulse for healing, rather he pursued a highly invasive approach to solving the problem. I must admit that at that time this theory had an extremely visionary effect on the majority of practicing medical doctors. However, after a few practical experiments, even a non-professional should have noticed that this methodology was massively negligent and, moreover, did not produce any evaluable results."

Livia listened spellbound to the vampire's monologue, but when the topic of the invasive intervention on the brain was taken up, she felt a wave of fear swell up in her body, which embraced her stomach with an icy grip. Her voice was little more than a whisper when she asked Regis her interposed question.

"What exactly has he done?"

"Well, I doubt the term lobotomy will mean anything to you?"

When the addressed person merely shook her head in silence, Regis continued in a matter-of-fact tone: "In order not to bore you with unnecessary medical expertise, I will come straight to the point. It is an operation in which the nerve pathways between the thalamus and the frontal lobe and parts of the grey matter are severed.

However, before he had improved this procedure, he tried several other variations, such as simply opening the top of the skull and wetting the affected areas with alcohol. However, this method turned out to be extremely imprecise, as the liquid naturally spread to other areas. I".

Livia raised her hand with a disgusted, contorted face to interrupt Regis. "I think I can roughly imagine what this RESEARCH looked like."

Regis looked at her with compassion. "I assure you that I was not involved in such seemingly barbaric research, even if, admittedly, it had a certain appeal, it seemed too speculative and hardly target-oriented to me.

Sebastion however, despite the negative results, saw things differently and wrote various folios on this topic. One of his most famous works is -Regeneration begins in the head- and is, as coincidence would have it, to be found in the library of the Oxenfurt Academy. By the way, have you read my letter yet?"

Livia's head was literally overflowing with thoughts. It was too much information with an insufficient number of clues. If Regi's story was true, Sebastion was an ordinary person with little physical strength, who was only infatuated with the medical field. However, since this was several centuries ago, this meant that someone else had introduced himself under this name. What was the point of this? Was this madman a supporter and proponent of this field of research? Despite his inhuman strength, she had defeated him, which brought her straight to the next question.

"And how do you understand this term -divinitus electus sanguis excogitatoris-? It visibly amused him that I was unable to understand this description. Sanguis means blood, which could be an indication of my offensive reaction to Sebastion."

Thoughtful wrinkles formed on Regi's forehead as he leaned back slightly. "I must confess I'm not familiar with this description, and with all due modesty, it seems rather pretentious."

Dettlaff narrowed his eyes and looked at his blood brother sincerely: "He did not treat Livia like a normal hostage. This man was out for death and destruction and yet he did not harm her. He seemed to want to protect her from me. Why? What does this term mean?"

Regis nodded in agreement before continuing: "Roughly translated, I would say that it could mean God's chosen blood-former. Livia," he turned to the young woman again, "as you already know, we are immortal."

The blonde-haired woman nodded hesitantly as she didn't know what Regis was getting at.

"There is no God. That's why this statement seems rather exaggerated to me. The use of allegorical representations strongly reminds of religious writings. An extremely striking description of a simple process to convince a certain kind of person of the content and to convert to faith. Therefore, I would ignore anything supernatural and only consider the part of the blood former as relevant. Could you demonstrate your ability?"

"No!"

Surprised by the intensity of this unexpected outburst, both Livia and Regis gazed questioningly at Dettlaff. "She would have to hurt herself to obtain her blood. After what happened, Livia should recover a little."

Regis looked at his friend with a sharp look. Livia was visibly uncomfortable in this oppressive silence and slipped restlessly back and forth on her stool before speaking up. "I couldn't use my ability right now anyway"

Regis raised one eyebrow and watched the young woman with interest as she continued to examine the injury on her wrist:

"I've been in an extreme situation twice. The first time when these disgusting men had sneaked up on me. My head started to hum and I felt, for a short moment, really dazed. The second time was with Sebastion. I...", she faltered briefly and gave Dettlaff a sad look before she lowered her head in humiliation and stared at the ground.

"I wanted it all to stop. After all, it was my fault that I was naive enough to offer my help to a stranger and thus finally got into this situation. I called Dettlaff for help and tried to find a way to avoid unnecessary bloodshed. I think the result speaks for itself."

Dettlaff's deep voice made her look up. "It's not your fault. Many people lie to achieve their goals. But a friend said to me that you can't blame all individuals for the mistakes of just one."

Livia looked into the vampire's ice-blue eyes and was unable to respond in any meaningful way. They had only known each other for a short time, yet she knew with absolute certainty that he would protect her from anything and everything, no matter who or what the opponent was.

Wild. Unbridled. Unconditional.

The natural reaction to such extreme characteristics would have been fear towards this being, but instead a pleasant goosebump spread over her entire body, mixed with a portion of joyful excitement, before she inwardly scolded herself for this state of mind. She would never make the mistake of reducing him merely to his inhuman powers, ignoring his personality.

Regis rose silently from the bed, with an inscrutable expression on his face, and tore Livia from her thoughts with his movement. "I'll check on the potion shortly. If you need my help, don't hesitate to call me."

Silence filled the room as Livia turned to Dettlaff again. Her slender fingers plucked at each other as she noticed her increasing nervousness. " Do you really feel no more pain?"

"Yes."

"You", she paused for a moment, as she had not expected such a monosyllabic answer and was thinking about how to continue. After an embarrassed clearing her throat she started again, feeling more confident. "Just before Sebastion's attack, you said something to me in Nilfgard language. Would you tell me the meaning of those words?"

Dettlaff sat down at the edge of the bed to get closer to her and looked at her incessantly and with a serious expression. "I have said that I forgive you."

They sat facing each other in silence. Livia did not dare to spoil the moment with a movement, nor a reply. Was she wrong or did his eyes take on a warm expression?

"My brave friend."

She noticed under his intense look, an increasing heat reddened her cheeks and turned her gaze away in the vague hope that the vampire would miss this embarrassing reaction.

"I couldn't help you. You had to kill humans for me and were badly wounded. It does not matter that you cannot be mortally injured by humans! Nevertheless you feel the same pain as I would if I had a physical wound. If I had," the young woman obviously struggled for the right word, because her mind still refused to recognize her new discovered ability, " supernatural power used earlier, you would have been spared all this suffering. Finally, Regis came in the last moment and gave you his blood for regeneration. I couldn't do anything on my own."

"You killed Sebastion. Isn't that enough for you?"

Livia pressed her lips firmly together. "At what cost? Your wounds, they were..." The young woman tried to repress the visual memories of this event and did not manage to finish the sentence.

"You offered me your blood."

"Yes, and shortly afterwards, Regis came. He took care of you and brought you here."

She felt his cool hand under her chin before he forced her with gentle pressure to look into his ice-blue eyes. This gesture seemed all too familiar to her, while her thoughts were literally overflowing.

"You're afraid of men." His voice was calm when making this statement.

Both her heartbeat and her breath accelerated and seemed to be unnaturally loud in her ears. As the vampire cautiously approached her face, his distinctive scent enveloped her. Beside a note unknown to her, it smelled exotic and reminded her distantly of the tonka beans from Nazair. She could only too well imagine this man in this hostile climate.

"Why do you not shun my touch?"

Dettlaff's deep voice had the same gentle and calming effect on Livia as his touches. How could she ever consider this man a monstrosity? He was the most sincere being she had ever met. Her belly contracted almost painfully with excitement, while paradoxically there was a pleasant clarity in her head, which she had missed almost painfully in the last few days, whereupon she countered with a mischievous smile on her lips.

"Why do you now prefer my company over solitude?"

They could now feel each other's breath while their playfully fight continued. Her heartbeat stopped for a moment as Dettlaff's iris turned white and he took a deep breath to fully absorb her lovely scent again. His fangs became visible and Livia thought she could feel his claws on her skin.

She was now sitting in front of a vampire who never let her out of his sight. Ignoring the negative memories of her previous encounters with Dettlaff, she examined the strange appearance of the immortal being. He only possessed certain basic human attributes. His emotional expression in his eyes stood in contrast to his bestial appearance and touched the young woman.

With a subdued voice he replied: "Would you still offer me your blood?"

"Yes." Her answer was little more than a gentle breeze. Dettlaff surrounded her with a powerful, animalistic aura, which could not be described by words and which literally cast a spell over Livia.

She felt with excitement how his claw moved up her cheek while he paused with the tip of one of his extended claws, at the level of her ears. A light pressure or a careless movement would be enough to slit her skin at this point. Yet she did not retreat and continued to withstand his gaze.

With a fluid movement he pushed the dishevelled hair over her shoulder before breaking eye contact and approaching her neck.

Her body shook and she reached for his elbow with a trembling hand. The feeling of being completely at the mercy of the vampire and the sharp fangs on her neck was strange for the young woman. Never before had she let anyone come so close to her willingly, not to mention had she ever considered offering her blood to a vampire without a fight. She squeezed her eyes tightly together and waited for the yet unknown pain as the pressure on her neck steadily increased.