Somehow, Imladris managed to make it back to the mansion by dusk. She got a hold of her tears, but she knew that her eyes must be red and puffy from all the crying. She couldn't let anyone see her in this state. She still couldn't wrap her head around her illness—she definitely wasn't ready to tell the others about it. As luck would have it, she was able to get inside, leave the groceries in the kitchen, and flee to her bedroom without running into anyone. She fell onto her bed and buried her face into her pillow.

What, oh what, was she supposed to do now?

She didn't think that she could bear to face anyone in the mansion just yet. Upon seeing them, she would just be reminded of how she would have to leave them soon. She would have to face them sooner or later, though. There's no way that she could just stay holed up in her room. If she refused to come out tomorrow, the worried residents would probably take down her door just to get to her. She knew the mechanical genius Isaac could probably open her door in less than ten seconds…

Besides, even if she didn't know how to face them yet, she really should take every opportunity now to spend time with them, given that she would soon be gone.

And with that thought in mind, she suddenly bolted out of bed.

She didn't have much time left in this world. She needed to see Leonardo. She needed to be with Leonardo.

Imladris hurried over to the water basin on her dresser. She wetted a washcloth with cold water and pressed the cloth against her eyes, trying to reduce the redness and puffiness. After checking on her mirror that her eyes seemed normal enough, she rushed off to Leonardo's room, urgently rapping her knuckles on his bedroom door.

She heard Leonardo's voice answer from inside. "Come in."

Not wanting to waste any time now, Imladris flung the door open and rushed inside. She threw herself into Leonardo's arms, nearly hugging the life out of him.

"Huh?" Leonardo was perplexed; nonetheless, he immediately returned the hug. "What's this about, cara mia? You miss me that much?"

"Uh-huh," she mumbled, nodding against Leonardo's firm chest. The sweet smell of his cigarillos filled her nostrils. It was quite comforting. But at the same, also depressing. How many times did she have left to be able to smell this scent? To be in Leonardo's arms? To be able to visit Leonardo in his bedroom, which, despite its perpetual messiness, she had somehow become fond of over time?

"You saw me just before you went out on your shopping trip," Leonardo chuckled. Imladris stiffened a bit at the mention of the "shopping trip," thinking about her side trip to the doctor. Leonardo continued, "But I ain't complaining. Missed you, too."

Leonardo began trail kisses down the side of her neck, making her groan and forget about her troubles for a moment.

"Stay here with me tonight, yeah?" Leonardo murmured, pulling her closer to him.

And just like that, her troubles came crashing back to the forefront of her mind.

Staying in Leonardo's room overnight meant that she would likely experience another cough attack while in Leonardo's presence. And what if she coughed out blood again? She didn't think that she could hide it from him if she was lying beside him (or worse, if she was under or on top of him, if the coughing hit while they were being intimate).

She hurriedly pushed away from him. "Uh, sorry, Leonardo. I'm a bit tired tonight. From all that shopping, you know. So… so, I'm just gonna—gonna go back to my room now, alright? Good night!

"Wha—? Wait, cara mia—"

For the second time in two days, Leonardo was left at a loss as Imladris ran away from him. Leonardo looked down at his cat, who was staring back at him. "What's gotten into cara mia, Lumiere? Been acting strangely lately, hasn't she?"

"Meow?"


That night, Imladris was unable to sleep, just tossing and turning in her bed. On her own and feeling lonely, Leonardo's invitation to spend the night with him sounded more tempting than ever. She briefly wondered if she should just go back to his room and take him up on his invitation. But she knew that she shouldn't do that. It would be risking Leonardo finding out about her bloody cough.

She knew that she would have to tell Leonardo (as well as the other residents) about her illness sooner or later. But she didn't know if she could actually do that—not when she herself was still so disbelieving and unaccepting of the diagnosis.

Why did it have to be a disease with no cure? She would have taken any other serious illness as long as it had a cure. She could stand having to be sick and in pain for some time, as long as in the end, she would still survive and be able to live with her loved ones.

But perhaps that just wasn't meant to be for her. Even if she sought help from other doctors, the best medicine in this eraandin the future couldn't cure the disease, so there was no way—

Hang on.

The light bulb in her head clicked. Apart from Arthur, Imladris personally knew another doctor. Another famous historical figure turned vampire. Sure, he may be grumpy and sadistic, but she knew that he cared a lot about his patients (though he didn't want to make it obvious).

Imladris made up her mind. Tomorrow, in a last-ditch effort to find some way to save her life, she would go to the church at the outskirts of town to see Faust.


Entering the church, she heard the shrieks and laughter of children. There was Faust, with an exasperated expression on his face, surrounded by running children.

A child suddenly ran up to Faust, tapping him on his arm. "Tag! You're It, Father!"

The children all scampered away from Faust, running toward the exit. Imladris managed to step out of the way just in time to avoid being ran over.

"Run, Imladris!" a passing child shouted on his way out of the church.

"Aahhh! Father Faust is It! We're doomed!" another child screamed.

Imladris raised a questioning eyebrow at Faust, who smirked as he closed the church doors after the last of the children had escaped. "They always say that I'm 'too scary' when I'm It. Something about how the experience was more like being chased by a demon instead of a priest… For some reason, though, they still keep trying to include me in their games… Well, at least that has now gotten rid of them."

"Those kids really like you," Imladris had to smile a bit. "Shouldn't you be going after them? They still think that you're playing with them."

Faust shrugged unconcernedly. "They will just continue playing and select another It once they realize that I'm not chasing after them."

"Oh."

"Now, what do you need from me, Imladris?" Faust gave her a quizzical look. He knew at once that this was not merely a social visit.

"I, uhm, was hoping to get your opinion on a medical issue," Imladris said. She couldn't help but get her hopes up now that she was here face-to-face with Faust.

"Father Faust" was actually the legendary alchemist Johann Georg Faust, brought back to life as a vampire by Vlad, a pureblood who had been both a friend and rival to Comte. After the incident at the Exposition Universelle, a kind of truce was formed between Comte's vampires in the mansion and Vlad's vampires in the castle. Vlad had always been doting toward Imladris (in fact, though Vlad and Comte no longer fought over resurrecting historical figures, they now instead fought over who could spoil Imladris the most), and Imladris also became on friendly terms with Vlad's vampires, Charles-Henri and Faust.

Though Faust was far from "friendly."

Still, she knew that Faust was brilliant with medicine and even experimented and created his own concoctions (Faust would always try to get her to be his "guinea pig" whenever she visited their castle). Faust was now her best—and last—hope.

Imladris continued, "I was wondering if… you maybe… know of a possible cure for a certain disease."

"And what disease is this?"

Imladris stated the name of the disease. Faust maintained a blank expression on his face, but she did notice that his eyes widened infinitesimally upon hearing the disease. She held her breath, hoping that this was a good sign. However—

"There is no cure or treatment for that disease," Faust said promptly in a businesslike tone.

Imladris' hope was quickly dashed. It seemed like these days, whenever she got her hopes up, they were just quickly crushed. Perhaps this really should be a lesson to her; she needed to learn to stop getting her hopes up in hopeless situations.

But she couldn't help but persist. Maybe it was her desperation to live that was making her this determined to pursue all possible options.

"Maybe… maybe you can make something new?"

Faust frowned. "That would not be possible. The disease is unresponsive to all currently known chemicals and compounds. Whatever other new combinations I try to create would be ineffective, since the main ingredients that I would be using are already ineffective in the first place."

"Can you at least try?" Imladris pleaded.

"What is really going on?" Faust just asked flatly. "Who is it you know that is sick?"

Faust was certain that for Imladris to be this anxious about treatment for the disease, someone she knew must be sick with it. Faust narrowed his eyes, the face of the mansion's butler flashing in his mind. After all, the butler was the only other human in the mansion full of vampires—vampires who could not possibly get such a disease. Besides, even in those brief moments when Faust had met the butler when he went with Vlad to visit the mansion, Faust could just sense that the butler was sickly. And given Imladris' close relationship with the butler, she would naturally be worried if something was wrong with him.

However—

"It's… it's… me," Imladris whispered, her watery eyes fixed on the ground. She didn't want to see Faust's expression. She couldn't bear it if she saw pity on Faust's face (on the unlikely event that Faust actually showed some pity).

All that was present on Faust's face was surprise, though. Even he couldn't hide his shock.

There were a few moments of silence.

"I'm sorry, but there's nothing that I can do about it," Faust said slowly. "However, I do commend you for trying to hold on to your life. Many would simply give up and say that they did not want to 'fight fate or God', or some rubbish like that. But you have more determination than such cowards. You are determined to fight for your life."

Imladris chuckled derisively. "But that's still not enough, is it? No matter how much I want to live, there's nothing that can be done about it."

"…Well, I might not be able to do something about it. But we both know someone who can."

That made Imladris look up at Faust in surprise and hope (though she knew that she really should stop hoping by now). "We do?"

Faust said briskly, "Follow me."


To Imladris' confusion, Faust brought her to their castle and straight through to the lounge room, where they found Vlad relaxing on a sofa, with Marshmallow snoozing on his lap.

"Oh, hello, Imladris," Vlad greeted her with a sweet smile. "This is a nice surprise. It's quite rare to see you with Faust."

"Hi, Vlad…"

"What brings you to my castle?"

"Uh, well, Faust said that he would bring me to someone who could help me… I'm guessing that's you?" she finished in a questioning tone, eying Faust. She didn't quite understand what Faust was thinking. Did Faust mean that Vlad was the one who could solve her problem? Well, Vlad was an ancient pureblood, after all. Maybe in all his centuries of living, he had learned of something that might work on her illness?

Vlad now looked inquiringly at Faust. "I am to help Imladris? With what, exactly? And how?"

"You need to bite her, you old goat." Faust spoke so casually that it was as though he was merely asking Vlad to do something inconsequential.

But there was nothing inconsequential about such a request.

"WHAT?!" Imladris shrieked. She was downright Faust's brilliant solution?! To have Vlad bite her?

Vlad was also quite surprised. "Explain, Faust."

Faust turned to Imladris, staring directly into her eyes. "This is the solution to your problem. The only solution. Come to think of it, it's a fairly simple solution to a serious problem with no other possible ways to resolve, no?"

"It's not simple at all! You do realize that Vlad biting me would turn me into a vampire, right?!"

Vlad was a pureblood vampire. Being bitten by a pureblood would turn a person into a vampire as well. That was how Comte and Vlad turned their "collection" of historical figures into vampires in the first place.

"That is precisely the point," Faust stated in a tone that it was as though he was pointing out something that quite obvious, and chiding Imladris for not recognizing this quite obvious thing. "Vampires are immune to human diseases. Problem solved."

Imladris' mouth opened and closed a few times, but no words came out. She couldn't form a response, shocked as she was. Yes, Faust was correct that being a vampire would make her immune to the disease, but that wasnotthe kind of solution that she had in mind! Not at all!

Vlad looked between Imladris and Faust for a moment. Then, he said, "Leave us for now, Faust."

There was no mistaking the aura of strong, unshakeable authority from a pureblood when Vlad gave his instruction. Faust promptly turned around and left the room without another word to either Vlad or Imladris.

Vlad gestured for Imladris to take a seat beside him on the sofa. She did so, which caused Marshmallow to wake up, yawn, and move over to her lap instead, looking up at Imladris with big eyes that were clearly asking for pats. Imladris automatically obliged, stroking Marshmallow's silky head.

"Now, tell me," Vlad said. "What is going on? Why is Faust suddenly asking me to bite you?"


About half an hour and many tears from Imladris later, she managed to retell her whole ordeal to Vlad, from the bloody cough, to getting the diagnosis at the doctor's clinic, to asking Faust for help and Faust bringing her to the castle.

"…So, then, I pleaded with Faust for some help, and I guess that he thought that you changing me to a vampire was the obvious solution." Imladris gulped through her tears at the end of her story. Retelling everything brought back all her fears and uncertainties, making her quite emotional. "I probably should have clarified to Faust that I wanted the disease to be cured while still remaininghuman…"

Vlad stared at her for a moment before letting out a soft sigh. "I'm sorry for what you've been through, Imladris. Being told that you have such a disease must have been very shocking and painful for you…"

Imladris sadly nodded. "I still wanted more out of life, you know? To be able to spend more time with my loved ones and friends… with Leonardo… But I suppose that just wasn't meant to be for me, huh?"

"Not necessarily," Vlad replied. "Faust was right. Becoming a vampire would solve your problem. I can easily turn you into one of us, if you wish?"

Imladris goggled at him, unable to believe that Vlad was actuallyoffering to turn her into a vampire. "Not you too, Vlad?! That's no solution!"

"Really? And why not? You would not have the disease anymore. You would be able to live longer, like you , in fact. And you get more time with your loved ones. All of your concerns would be fixed."

"I don't want to turn into a vampire. I-Ican't… I just can't…"

At Vlad's questioning look, Imladris looked down at her hand that was still petting Marshmallow before softly replying, "Leonardo is… against immortality… He… doesn't want me to become a vampire…"

Vlad frowned deeply. "Ah, yes. Comte has mentioned something about that before. Da Vinci has issues with how we purebloods have unending lifespans."

Imladris nodded despondently. "Yes… So, he doesn't want me to become a vampire as well… Not when he disapproves of how purebloods live forever…"

"Yet he has taken you as his lover. A human with a limited lifespan. A very short lifespan, in comparison to his." Vlad tilted his head slightly, looking at Imladris with inquiring eyes. "He must know that he would lose you when you die. And he would have to wander this planet on his own for the rest of eternity…"

Imladris' heart clenched painfully at the reminder that Leonardo would have to be alone forever. Sure, Comte and the other residents would be there for him. But that wouldn't be the same… Yet that was the fate that he and Imladris had agreed on.

"Leonardo doesn't even want his own immortality," Imladris said quietly. "He thinks that living forever is against nature. He's always longed for how humans have a limited time on earth, making their moments alive all the more precious…"

"I would have thought that he would consider any moment with you to be most valuable to him, regardless of whether you're human or vampire," Vlad said lightly, though his eyes were serious and somewhat dark.

But Imladris just firmly shook her head. "Me becoming a vampire would hurt Leonardo. I don't want to hurt him. To me, that would be worse than having a fatal illness and dying."

Imladris thought about the time when she had first found out that Leonardo was an immortal pureblood… and how she had thoughtlessly, in the spur of the moment, asked him to turn her into a vampire as well. She remembered his pained expression. No, she didn't want to hurt him like that again. That was why she offered to stay human while being with him when they first became lovers.

"I see… So, you are decided with staying human, even if that disease will soon take your life?" Vlad said somberly. He respected her decision, though he didn't agree with it. "What do you plan to do now, then?"

That was the million-dollar question that she had been trying to answer ever since first finding out about her illness.

"I'm… not yet entirely sure," she said slowly. "I suppose the next step would be to get pain management medications, to help me live a normal life for as long as possible… And I know that I have to tell the guys at the mansion about my condition… But I'm not yet ready to do that. I don't knowhowto do that…"

"Why don't you stay here for the night?" Vlad suggested. "Take some time to breathe and think about what you're going to do next."

Imladris thought it over. It was a good idea. Some time alone, away from the mansion and its residents, could maybe help her rationalize things and think about the best way to tell her bad news to the residents.

"Leonardo, Comte, and the others would be worried if I don't come home tonight, though…"

"I'll have a letter delivered to Comte right away and tell him that you're helping me with my flowers and would be staying here tonight. I'll also tell him that you'll be back home, safe and sound, tomorrow. We don't want that worrywart to storm my castle in an attempt to 'rescue' you," Vlad smiled wryly.

"Thanks, Vlad," she said sincerely.

"Anything for you, Imladris," Vlad said softly, his eyes full of some strong emotion that Imladris couldn't quite read. "Now, I suggest that you take a stroll along my flower gardens. It might cheer you up."

"Yeah, I'll do that," Imladris agreed. She gave Marshmallow one last pat and gently transferred the fox back to Vlad's lap.

Just as she reached the door, Vlad called out to her.

"Oh, Imladris?"

"Yes?"

"Just know that my offer to… 'solve your problem' still stands, should you ever change your mind."

Imladris gave him a sad smile. "Thank you, I appreciate your concern. But… I won't be changing my mind."

She couldn't do that to Leonardo.