As Augustijn had mentioned before, any time one organization becomes too large, schisms occur and factions or sects are born. Luckily, Hans and I found ourselves in the hands of Augustijn's comrades. Somehow, Uta had gotten a call out from the Hospital and sent them to pick up Hans and I.

Unfortunately, the ones who had attacked the restaurant had been part of a lesser sect who had heard that I had survived. The people who died in the explosion were just petty casualties.
It made me sick. What if it had been Anna in that restaurant? What if they attacked her? If the Ministry could find out about Anna and I's friendship, what was stopping an organization known for knowing everything about everything? What if they attacked Anna and I wasn't there to save her?

I shook my head, grim thoughts racing through my head. Before I could even begin to stop Lillith, I had to put a hold on Anna's activities and keep her from going anywhere at all, and after that was done, sever ties with her permanently.

It was far too dangerous for her to even know me at this point, but the desire to have her with me in this fight was overwhelming. I had to at least warn her, to at the very least ensure her safety through informing her of the situation.

I sat in the Van der Zanden's high-end hotel room, waiting for further instruction, my mind straying beyond the pompously elaborate venue.

Romania: Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania. Even for someone like myself, that was dangerous territory, and for Anna, as sharp…no, as obscenely brilliant as she was, it would be suicide.
I felt an abrupt pain in my chest as I suddenly recalled something she had told me, the sharp details flooding my mind or the winter before she met me.

Tearfully, one bittersweet night, she had told me of her stint in a Muggle hospital and how she had given up on the world. It hurt me to think of what I could have lost without even knowing.
I sat in silence, staring at the paneled walls, sucking on a blood packet one of the men had so thoughtfully set out for me. Naturally I had inspected it beforehand, but I was certain by now that these specific people no longer meant me any harm.

It seemed that Dr. Van der Zanden had been writing to the Illuminati: essays, reports, and letters telling how cooperating with vampires could benefit the Illuminati.

And Anna had helped, writing her own essays and letters on the matter.

I was amazed to say the least, especially after reading several of them that had been left out on the marble top table.

I knew Anna was exceptional, that there was an incurably sharp mind behind those soft green eyes, and her essays seemed only to prove my hypothesis.
There were a few notes accompanying her neat handwriting, slight corrections in theories or annotations for further clarification. Dr. Van der Zanden seemed to have taken her on as an apprentice of sorts.

I sighed, tossing the empty blood packet into a nearby rubbish bin and leaning back in the chair.

I have no idea how long I had been trapped in this gilded prison, but my patience was wearing thin and I was growing more than irritated. Each moment that passed was a breath of danger, each second that ticked by was keeping me from Anna. I had to protect her.

The bedroom door opened and Hans bounded in, appearing quite relaxed, his clothing rumpled from sleep.

"Do you need a coffin to sleep?" He asked suddenly, grabbing a piece of fruit and sitting down on the plush velvet couch across form me. His stocking feet were swinging from the seat, narrowly missing the edge of the tea table.

"No…not always…" I said, sitting up a little straighter.

"Then why didn't you sleep? You look tired."

I shook my head. "I'm worried about your father, and Anna…"

Hans nodded, poking holes into the apple with his fingernails. The room was uncomfortably silent and I rose, looking out the window over the darkened, rain-soaked city.

"Do you miss Dante?"

My shoulders fell and I shook my head, turning with a smile.

"Can you keep a secret, Hans? Just between you and I?"

Han's eyes widened and he nodded, leaning towards me. I sat back down on the couch, next to Hans.

"What's the secret?" He asked excitedly, bouncing slightly.

"Dante's a vampire now. I saw him after the train crash. But you have to promise me you won't tell anyone."

"I promise." Hans said solemnly, his grey eyes wide. He looked terribly like Uta despite his father's fair coloration.

"Good. Because tomorrow morning, Dante and I are going to go get Anna…"

"But what about me? I want to go to."

I sat back, pulling my hair from the knot at the back of my neck and twisting it nervously back in place.

"When you're papa goes out on a dangerous job, he wouldn't take you with, would he?"

"But that's different. Papa's old."

I almost started laughing as the door opened.

"Oh, Hans! Thank god you're safe!" Uta dropped her purse on the floor by the door, running to scoop her son up in her arms. After a brief exchange in Dutch, Uta sent Hans in to take a bath, sitting down in front of me.

"How's Dr. Van der Zanden."

"They're keeping him for observation." She said in a tired voice, wiping a few strands of graying hair away from her forehead. "Oh, I'm so glad you've kept Han safe. He seems to like you, Integra."
I sat back, smoothing the black fabric of my trousers against my legs.

"You're about to ask about Dante?" Uta said, looking up at me from her own lap. "He's been put in cold storage until the funeral."

"Is there any way you could get him out of there tonight?" I was concerned: if he froze, it would take a while for him to thaw safely…and he was impulsive, he would no doubt break something.
"Oh, Integra…he's dead." Uta said softly, shaking her graying curls.

"If you don't believe me then come down and see with your own eyes." I said, crossing my ankles. Uta sighed, hanging her head and looking far more tired than before.

"Very well, Integra, if it will make you feel better…"

"We can wait a little while if you like. I know you've had a long day, and the dead can wait."

XxX

The cold storage room on the basement of the hotel was dark, but it didn't trouble me. Uta walked behind me, bundled in a thick fur coat, her breath clinging to her face and the flashlight in her hand shaking gently.

Hans had been put to bed, and one of Uta's colleagues, an American man with a large nose and kind eyes, had been left to keep an eye on the boy.

"Do you know which way…?" I couldn't smell him there in the darkness, worry wracking my brain as my eyes searched through the gloom, occasionally blinded by the beam of Uta's flashlight.
"Over there." she pointed into the farthest corner, Dantes white lacquered coffin shining in the darkness.

I raced over, Dante's scent faintly lingering around the silver latches. I paused for a second, feeling dizzy with excitement as I waited for Uta to catch up with me.

"Well, then, lets get on with it." I said, my fingers curling around the latches. Uta swallowed hard, a girlish blush crossing her cheeks as her blood roared with adrenaline; she was just as excited as I was as her fingers curled around the other latch.

"Yes, lets…"

She took a deep breath as we flung the coffin open. Dante was laying inside, the white lining stained with a slight amount of blood.

"Dante, get up." I reached in, poking him gently with my fingertip. Uta swatted my hand away, her face contorted in horror.

"Stop please!"

Dante's single, crimson eye flew open and he smiled, sitting up.

"Signorina, it's about time you came for me!"

"Mein Gott!" Uta screamed, falling back against a crate of frozen vegetables, clutching her chest. Dante sprang out of the coffin, landing lightly on his feet and extending a hand to Uta.

"My apologies, Signora Uta…I didn't mean to startle you." He said, helping her up. I leaned back against the open coffin. He was really hamming up the vampire thing, and for some reason, it amused me greatly.

"Dante!" She embraced him, sobbing against his chest. "Oh, Dante, I can't believe it! Look at you!"

He smiled, looking down at Uta. "You're lips are blue, let us go where it is warmer."

I followed them out of the darkness, Dante talking rapidly to Uta in Dutch, gesturing wildly with his hands as he often did when he was impassioned with something.

It seemed that Uta was sort of a mother figure to him, and he was positively giddy as we waited for the elevators.

"Signora Uta, how is Hans?"

"He's fine, a little traumatized. He's had a full few days…"

"And Dr. Augustijn?"

"He has a small degree of head trauma…he's in the hospital for observation overnight."

I tugged lightly on Dante's sleeve, trying to get his attention, but he was so absorbed with Uta that even when we got to the hotel room, I remained nearly invisible from the conversation.
Eventually Uta went to bed, leaving Dante and I alone in the small living area. Dante looked quite calm, though his lack of blood was making him seem more gaunt.

"What do we do now? Wait?"

"We talk now, Dante. I have questions."

I crossed my knees, folding my hands and smiling at him darkly. The rain railed the windows behind the heavy draperies, the neon glow of the city below cutting through the mist.
Dante stood up, the suit the undertaker put him in fitting well, but looking out of place. He stuck his hands in his pockets, looking down at me, his face that of barely contained excitement. He was going to be a bloodthirsty one, I had seen it before.

XxX

Dante and I strolled through the rain arm in arm, Dante singing out loud in Italian, skipping a step every once in a while. To say he was happy would have been an understatement: he was positively scatty.

We had stopped by a novelty store, purchasing a leather eye patch to cover his empty socket. I thought it made him look like a pirate, but he rather liked how it looked, so I said nothing.

"It's so wonderful to be a vampire, Integra!" he exclaimed, breaking away from my arm and grasping a street sign, spinning himself around the base as his song reached a crescendo. "Why didn't you tell me it was so wonderful!"

I shook my head, my wet bangs sticking to my forehead. "It's not…I guess…"

"I can see things, hear things…" He paused, inhaling, his chest puffing out beneath the wool of his suit. "I can smell…wonderful things…things that I never would have imagines existed!"

"Stop screwing around, Dante. You'll learn quickly it's not all fun and games."

"Let us play tonight." He said taking both my hands and leading me towards a neon-lit café. "Grant us some sport tonight, and tomorrow we can worry."

"Tonight I will still be worried." I said coldly, my shoes becoming soaked as he led me carelessly through a puddle beneath a stoplight. "Tonight I'm here to teach; you need to lean to hunt, to take victims, you need to lean your limits."

"How hard can it be?" He purred, striking a pose on the street corner, reaching a hand towards me. "We'll be together forever."

I stopped, glaring at him in the buzzing lights. "Not if you're going to be this annoying for all eternity."

He paused, striding towards me and placing one palm on each side of my face, leaning down to look into my eyes. "Signorina Integra, let us be alive for tonight!"

I scoffed and looked away. He was being annoyingly affectionate tonight. He had always been a little bit like this, but tonight it was too much for me to handle.

"Fine…"

He took my arm as we reached a café, the tables under the awning packed despite the pouring London rain.

"There are multiple hunting techniques, each depending on your needs at the moment. Avoid drunk people." I said, gesturing to a man who was drinking a beer rather shamelessly. "The alcohol makes us sick…you can pick a loner in an alleyway, that's the easiest, or…chat someone up and lure them away. As a general rule, people are nice, they want to interact with others, even if they think they want to be alone."

Dante had left my side before I had even finished and was already chatting up a couple of girls in glittering cocktail dress'. I stopped beneath the awning, glancing around. He didn't even notice me anymore. I wasn't sure which was more annoying; too much attention from him or none at all.

I felt a tone of annoyance at his disregard for the 'rules'. He wasn't even going to listen to me, but I didn't feel comfortable leaving him out on his own in our current situation, so I sat down in a dark corner beneath the window, the deep green foliage in the window boxes providing a subtle cover.

After a half an hour of watching Dante, I was growing annoyed. He was flirting, but it was obvious he wasn't going to go in for the kill.

I sighed, crossing my knees beneath the table. Suddenly, Dante got up, glancing in my direction, the girl in the turquoise cocktail dress following him. She hid beneath his arm as they walked through the rain, the moisture running off of the soft black wool of his suit but making his black hair stick to his face and eye patch.

The remaining girl watched as Dante and her disappeared into the darkness, the girls body language somewhat bitter despite the gratuitous amounts of wine Dante had fueled her with.

I sat back shaking my head in silent laughter. If he was planning what I thought he was planning, he would learn very quickly that that part of his anatomy didn't work anymore.

I stood up, smiling to myself at the irony of it. Quietly, I lifted an umbrella from a man who was eyeballing the remaining sequin clad girl, but I knew she had far too much sense to go home with a drunkard.

I shifted, raising the umbrella over my head, stepping out into the rain and following Dante up the street, always evading their field of vision.
I kept my senses open for other vampires, fully aware of everyone and every thing I passed. I was Dante's guardian tonight, tonight was about making him stronger.

I shook my head as I trailed them. No, the Count said I had to kill him…

But it was Dante. There was no way I could…

I stopped beneath a glowing green sign as I was struck by a brilliant thought: I would make Dante stronger, and leave him to take care of Anna. I would confront Lillith on my own.
I smiled to myself, proud of my own genius moment. Anna would be safe with Dante. Mind you, she would most likely try to murder him for being a lecher, but that was nothing new.

Somehow, during my pause, I had lost Dante's scent. I began to panic, running across the street in front of a passing car, causing the driver to veer out of the way and crash into a parking meter.
I ran into the shadows of an alleyway where I found Dante, the sequined girl leaning back in his arms, her neck stained crimson from where he had torn, but he himself was holding his bleeding wrist over her open lips.

"Dante!" I cried, ripping the girl away from him. "That is the cardinal rule of vampires! Do not make another vampire!"

Dante smiled down at me as the girl stirred in my arms, her visage altered by vampirism to that of ultimate fleshly beauty. Immediately I resented her beauty, her perfection as her vampire eyes looked fearfully up at me.

"I know you hunger, Integra…" Dante said darkly.

"I'm not cleaning up your mess."

"Then let her go, hunt her!" Dante said, raising one bloody fist, an unnaturally wild smile spreading across his pale features. "You like the hunt, so hunt!"

I felt my blood boiling as he spoke, the confused, newborn vampire in my arms crowing continually puzzled. Without thinking, I tore the gash in her neck anew, draining her fully this time. The poor thing didn't even have time to fight back.

I finished, wiping my mouth with a handkerchief. "How dare you damn an innocent like that."

"It's no more cruel…" He said softly, lifting her limp form in his arms. "are we not gods of the night? Are we not here to pass judgment on who is and is not fit to die? How is what I have done any different that what you have done for over a half century?"

"How dare you! I Saved you from Death, I raised you from the coffin, and here you…you mock me! You question my moral judgment!" I clenched my fist so tight I drew blood form my palms. The fresh vampire blood inside me made my veins quicken, my heart race like I was alive again; there was blood pressure again. I was angry.

Dante laughed out loud, genuinely throwing his head back and laughing from deep within his belly. "Morality? What good is morality? Who is judging? God has turned his eyes from us, and even if we were to die as this woman has, what would become of us? What good is morality if we are already bound for Hell?"

"To lessen the blows, the level of Hell for the Futile and the Virtuous Pagans, Dante, this is our Divine Comedy. Being a vampire is Hell, and after this, there is nothing." I fell silent, my own words falling heavily on my ears as my voice echoed above the falling rain, bending through the alleys' and bouncing off the buildings.

"Then you do fear God!" He laughed, tossing the woman's cold body into a pile of rubbish and extending his arms towards me.

"Dante!" I snarled, bristling as he approached. "You will never understand…"

"I understand what Lillith told me, and I understand that you still possess a living heart…you cannot abandon that, can you? "

Without meaning to, I struck him across the face.

He stopped, blinking his good eye, which was brimming with crimson tears.

"I'm sorry…I don't know what came over me…"

I lifted the woman's body in my arms, leaning her gently against the brick wall, positioning her gracefully so her discovery wouldn't be shameful.

"What you said had truth to it, and perhaps that's why I got angry, Dante…" I stopped, standing up and looking at him, the prediction Madame Trelawney made suddenly coming to mind:

"One the King of Hell became…"

I smiled, shaking my head. "Never mind, we were both wrong, and I'm sorry." I took his hand gently. "Come now, let's go."

XxX

A/n: Sorry it's not a Tuesday update, things are going slow in the writing department.

I was drunk. Again. I need to put my foot down on the 'party's' we've been having.