Seras swam in the darkness, she allowed it to consume her, she breathed in and it absorbed into her lungs. She no longer quite knew where she ended and the shadows began.

'Am I dead?' she wondered. She felt it to be a little bit disappointing to be death, or perhaps this was her punishment for choosing to become a demon. A monster. She had eternity alone, with nothing but darkness and shadows to consume her. She felt something brush her arm, whipping her head to the side; she tried to catch a glimpse of what was in the space with her. She spun round in circles only to find that she surrounded by darkness, all alone with her wild thoughts.

"Hello? I-is anyone there?" her voice meek and childish. She felt a sudden caving for her master's presence; Seras let her mind barriers drop only to find more darkness. She couldn't find him. Tears rolled down her cheeks, the crimson liquid that was squeezed from her eyes pooled on the floor, and left stains on her ivory toned skin. Where in hell was she? "Master?!" her voice was pained and shrill as she cried out. The panic grew in her stomach and wrapped itself around her whole body, her legs collapsed beneath her and she lay on the ground, gasping for air, spasms rocketing through her limbs.

…

Alucard placed his fledgling onto her bed and watched as fat crimson tears rolled down her cheeks, glimmering ruby droplets staining her ivory skin. He wiped some of them away with his gloved hands. The sight angered him, but the reason for this emotion eluded him. He wasn't angry with her, no, some other emotion stirred deep within his dark soul at the sight of his Seras. But he was hesitant to put a name to that one as well. It was at this time that the young human girl crashed through the door, an odd pair of boxes in her hands.

"Has her condition changed?" She asked breathlessly, putting the luggage on the large table in the centre of the room. As she walked her feet made a smacking noise on the cold stone floor. In her rush to get to the draculina she had discarded her heels and had run down to the basement in bare feet.

"She's crying…" Alucard watched as Bethany frowned and walked over to Seras, inspecting the rivulets of blood falling from the vampiress' closed eyes and onto the white linen of the pillow and sheets, spreading out like cheap ink on fibrous paper.

"That is odd," she murmured. Walking back over to he boxes, she produced a key from inside her pocket and unlocked them both. Pulling open the lids revealed that one was heavily similar to an old-fashioned toolbox, inside it carried an assortment of herbs, spices and other organic supplies, some were contained in glass vials, whilst others were dried and tied together with green string. The smell was incredibly pungent, but didn't seem to bother the young girl. The other, which was clearly heavier by the way she had struggled with it, opened to reveal a small camping stove, two large canisters of some flammable gas, matches and a small cauldron. After a brief moment the girl produced a tiny spoon and vial, from the first box, and scooped one of Seras' tears into the vial, corking it and placing it carefully back in the box.

"Why did you do that?" Alucard asked his curiosity was peeked by the girls' odd behaviour, and her curious equipment. What did she want with Seras' tears?

"Later" Bethany murmured. Ignoring the vampires' gruff tone she pulled out five different herbs, and placed them down on the table. She began to set up the cauldron, but didn't light the fire. She was still to confirm her diagnosis.

"Do you and Seras, drink the same blood?" She asked the elder vampire

"No" he replied briskly. He watched the girl with distrust. "We have certain blood packs each, why do you want to know witch? He spat the accusatory word at her. He had no particular problem with her being a witch; after all she was still less tainted than he, however he did have a problem with not realising it sooner.

"Congrats, what got you to that conclusion? Was it my charming personality or the mini cauldron" Bethany replied, her voice laced with irritation and sarcasm. She didn't have time to spar with him right now. Taking a deep breath she tried a different avenue of interrogation. "I am trying to diagnose her, to see if I can help. I am currently at five theories, four of which I can help with. Your co-operation is essential." She held up her hand, fingers and thumb extended, "Theory one is that her blood has been tampered with, entirely possible If you drink separate blood and your not feeling any ill effects,' she ticked of her thumb "Theory two and three are different infections she may have encountered in the outside world, Normally I would rule these out due to her vampirism, but she is still young for your kind, and it is not unheard of" two more fingers went down " number four is that she is rejecting your blood, and is dying, really dying. I can't help her with that one…"

"And the fifth?" Alucard asked. He had long since tuned away from the young girl and looked down at his Seras.

"She is experiencing her first ever vampire mating season…" Bethany replied bluntly, pushing her last finger down. The girl would never have admitted it but she felt a tiny amount of embarrassment creep into her composure, although she managed to prevent herself from blushing too profusely. Bethany, herself, hadn't dealt with a case such as this before, though she had studied what little articles there were on the subject intently. Her time working for the government had given her ample opportunities to study remedies in ancient libraries. Much of her time had been spent on poisons or studying ancient herbalists, but occasionally she had found an interesting document on a supernatural creature. Now she was grateful for her extra reading, even if her teacher of the time was not.

She had assumed that the elder vampire would have known something about this or at least expected such a thing, but from his weighty expression it was clear Alucard was just as surprised as she.

It was at this point the butler opened the door, and wheeled in tea tray full of items Bethany had requested. It took only a brief moment for him to establish that he had interrupted an important conversation, and just before he was about to leave the room the vampiress began to scream, her muscles twitching, causing her limbs to flail. With a sharp tone Bethany ordered Alucard to pin the woman down to prevent her from breaking any of her bones or causing herself serious injury.

With the speed of someone who was used to dealing with high-stress situations, the young woman began her procedure. The hot water was poured into the cauldron and the fire lit beneath it to keep it hot, Quickly the herbs Bethany had set aside were added to the pot, all the while Seras screamed in pain.

"Has she been on any missions, without Alucard, within the past three days?" The young girl asked the room, straining to b heard over the animalistic yell of the vampire. She had set Walter to work extracting whatever blood he could from Seras' blood bags, both the full and empty ones, which the retainer had to retrieve from the bins.

"No," the retainer replied, an admirable level of calm in his voice, "Miss Victoria has not been on any missions for over a week, nor has she been training the soldiers."

"Well that rules out an infection from outside. How's the blood coming along?" Walter produced four vials of blood, three from previously unopened bags and one from the remains of Seras' previous meal. Bethany took them with a look of appreciation to the retainer. She dug through her box of herbs until she produced a small bag of tiny purple crystals. Taking a pinch of the crystals, she added them to the blood Walter had collected. In each vial the blood remained a deep red before slowly turning to a coral colour. "And that rules out blood poisoning..." She muttered.

Bethany looked down at her pot of boiling herbs and water, the liquid had become a deep scarlet and the rising bubbles created thick red foam across the top. With a great deal of skill, the young witch managed to get the crimson foam into an injection needle. Seras had finally stopped struggling against her master, and instead was back to crying, soaking her sheets with precious blood.

Walking over to Seras, Bethany paused for a moment, before handing the needle to Alucard, who was still sat beside his fledgling. A cold look coated his face, it hinted at the cruel emotions hidden beneath it.

"It needs to go into her heart, through the breast plate" Bethany said motioning to her own heart as an indicator of where it needed to go. "I don't have the strength to do it so you'll have to. When she wakes up it will be sudden and she'll most likely sit up very quickly and head-butt you. Like an adrenaline shot… Just be prepared"

The No-Life-King took the needle and glanced down at his Seras, mumbling

"A new experience for the both of us it seems…" before raising his arm and plunging the silver needle deep into her chest.