Chapter XII

Seras POV

Author's Note: I am so sorry I haven't updated this story for such a long time! The summer has been long and full of studying for upcoming tests that will decide my future. Please just hold on a bit longer. I will be able to post regularly after January. Until then, I will sporadically post chapters. One per month? As always, please review. It increases my motivation~

The monitor connected to Izaiah's lifeline beeped as I sat there stunned by what had just happened.

Master just kissed me…

I moved my right hand and lifted my arm to touch my lips. They were still tingling and Master's taste stayed lingering on my tongue.

I wasn't quite sure what made me say Izaiah's name during our kiss. He had just suddenly entered my mind without warning.

Maybe it was how Master had touched me… how he was gentle and warm like Izaiah for just one moment.

BEEP…BEEP…BEEP

My attention focused on the monitor showing the heartbeats of my Childe.

No! Alucard did this to my Childe!

There was a deeply seated outrage in my chest. Never have I ever before felt such heat rise within my physical body because of my temper.

How dare he do what he did?! I will make him pay.

My mind had started to rush with all the possible ways to make Master regret what he had done to my Childe when I felt a soft touch on my arm.

I looked down to see Izaiah. His eyes were half-opened and his face showed his obvious pain but he smiled, trying to hide the agony that he was in.

"Izaiah…"

I felt my eyes start to water. All my previous bellicose thoughts melted away. I let my hands travel to his head and lightly combed through his hair.

"Hey…" His voice was hoarse.

I untangled one of my hands from his hair to reach for the glass of warm blood on the counter next to the coffin and held it to his lips.

I saw his eyes glance at the glass and his wince when he tried to sit up to be able to properly reach the blood without making a mess. I allowed myself to be even closer to him and supported his body against mine. After much effort, his lips touched the glass.

My voice was quiet, "You ok?"

He choked on the blood before he could answer me. I moved to soothe him but the blood regurgitated itself from him. I rushed around looking for a rag and cleaned up what had left his lips.

"I guess not." He tried to take a jab at humor.

I could feel that something was off but I couldn't quite pinpoint what it was that felt different. It was only when I sat myself down once again that it hit me.

Izaiah no longer smelled undead. He was alive. He was genuinely a human!

"Izaiah…you're a human." I tried to mask my shock.

His eyes clouded with confusion.

His voice held a hint of fear, "What do you mean?"

"You smell human. Everything about you smells human and I can hear your organs functioning. They are all working…"

Third Person POV

The nurses and the doctors were finally moving away from Izaiah. They had taken multiple samples of both his blood and tissue.

Seras had had a fit when she saw what they were doing to her Childe, former Childe rather, and had been close to him ever since. She let her presence guard him and refused any visitors that she deemed to be able to do even the slightest bit of danger. It had taken her hours before she allowed Integra into the room without the disturbances of the medical staff.

"How did this happen?" Integra's voice rang throughout the room.

Izaiah wasn't sure himself, "I don't know."

"Integra… please find out what happened to him." Seras whispered.

"Why don't you try biting him again?"

"No. Not again. He never had a choice. This time, I'm going to let him live the life he wants to lead."

Izaiah felt the need to interrupt.

"I've told you over and over again Seras. I'm ok. Really. I'd rather stay with you while I can than lead the life I was leading 30 years ago." His eyes spoke volumes of his conviction.

Seras solidified next to Izaiah, her eyes staring into his intently.

"Izaiah-"

Her sentence was cut off when she felt her Master enter the room. She immediately positioned herself between the two men.

"What do you want, Master?" she snarled.

Alucard's face cleared of all emotion before his lips twitched.

"Still angry at me even after our kiss?" His tone was both teasing and dangerous in manner.

Integra's eyes widened.

"Wait-what happened?"

Alucard looked at Integra and replied by avoiding what she was actually asking for.

"I asked her a question."

As Izaiah looked on, he could feel the animosity growing within himself towards his mirror image.

"Stop teasing her when all you're going to do is hurt her." Izaiah could not control the words that left his mouth.

"Oh? And who are you to talk? You no longer hold any connection to her."

Alucard's response held a note of boasting, but Seras cut herself into their conversation, staring straight into Alucard's eyes when she uttered the next words.

"He is my Mate."

She had hardened her resolve and had decided that this would be the best way to protect Izaiah. No matter how ruthless Alucard was, he knew that with the death of a Mate, the other would die too. She trusted that he cared for her enough to not end her undead life, even if she knew what she was saying was a lie.

Alucard could feel his vision go red. He had logically understood that his Childe had only said that to protect her former Childe but something within him clouded his judgement.

He moved quickly behind Seras and dematerialized with Izaiah.

Alucard had materialized along with Izaiah on the roof of the mansion, his hold on Izaiah's neck tightening.

Izaiah's words came out strained against Alucard's hand.

"You know she'll hate you for this."

Alucard snarled. He was too far gone to care about the consequences of his actions. He didn't know why he was reacting so strongly to what Seras had said but he couldn't calm himself down enough to think.

He opened his lips to reveal his sharklike teeth and swiftly bit into Izaiah's neck once again.

The more he drank the more complete he felt. He began to forget what his original intentions were and continued to drain Izaiah of his life.

"ALUCARD!"

He heard Seras scream his name and almost smiled hearing his name leaving her lips, but then remembered his position.

His fangs were still buried within Izaiah's neck and the blood was still mixing with his own. Although he hadn't been able to place the exact feelings he had had when he first drank from Izaiah because of his fury, he now knew what it was.

Blood was the currency of life. Everything could be conveyed through blood. Izaiah's blood had been familiar. His blood had had the exact same taste as his own and there truly were no memories before he met Seras. Memories could never be erased from blood. Not even amnesia could affect what the blood could tell the drinker.

Izaiah hadn't existed until a week before he met Seras. He hadn't existed until the day that Alucard released his humanity in hopes that he would not have to kill himself.

Suddenly everything made sense. Alucard could feel all the pieces of the puzzle go into place as he saw and felt every single event that happened between his human self and his Childe.

His human self had truly been in love with Seras. Even as he was fading back into the main body, all he thought about was Seras and her wellbeing instead of his own life.

"ALUCARD!"

Alucard could hear Seras scream once again before he felt a sudden force separate his head from his shoulders.

His Childe had forcefully separated him and his human self knowing that such a move could kill a lesser Nosferatu and without knowing whether or not Alucard still had the ability to regenerate and come back to life.

He could see, with his head landing 3 feet away from his body, the scene that was unfolding before his eyes. Seras was frantic about the unconscious Izaiah as his body slowly returned to nothing, not even ash.

As Alucard's head reattached to his body, the memories of his Childe crashed into him like a speeding bullet train: she had let her guard down in a moment of distress.

He couldn't believe that he had failed to see everything that had happened to her and within her the years that he was gone when he had taken her blood during their first fight.

He moved himself to be closer to her, but all he saw reflected in her eyes had been hurt and fury.