RomaniaxReader~Sustenance Pact~Ch 11

Sustenance Pact~Ch 11~

Gilbert's house wasn't really his house; he actually shared it with his younger brother, Ludwig who was an elite vampire hunter. You rarely saw him since he was always out and about taking on potential vampire cults with other elitists. What you never understood was how such an elite vampire hunter known by the best of GERUN was friends with your clumsy informant, Feliciano. It just didn't add up.

"____________, are you sure you don't want me to go with you?" Vladimir asked while he watched you eat the breakfast he prepared.

"I'm sure, Vlad," you answered and took a sip of your juice. "The shadows are good enough. Gilbert will flip if he sees a vampire, and I don't want any trouble from my higher-ups. If something happens to you, I don't think I would be able to…" Your voice trailed off.

"You wouldn't be able to go an hour without thinking about me?" your vampire finished for you.

"That's not it!" you frowned. "I was going to say that maybe you can help me find out who's behind this mystery vampire attack. We made a pact after all. Since you're not really helping me with my vampire hunts, and I still give you blood—I can't have you going out eating people under my watch—it's only right that you help me with this."

"Of course, __________," Vladimir grinned. "I'll always follow you. You're my soul mate, after all."

You let out a heavy sigh. "Vlad, what do you expect to do while I'm your soul mate? You've found me, you've told me you loved me, you've kissed me, what more could you want by sticking around if I don't love you back?"

"That's my goal," Vladimir said simply. "I want you to love me."

"Why?" you asked.

"Because…" Your vampire was having difficulty finding the right words. "I have feelings and desires, too, ___________. I want to find someone who loves me, as well. It's just hard when I'm…well, what I am."

"That's very touching, Vlad, but right now, we've got bigger things to worry about," you said finishing up the last of your eggs.

"____________, it's going to be cloudy today," Vladimir told you.

"So?"

"So if something happens while Gilbert's inside of his house, I can always help you if he's outside his house."

"For the last time, Vlad," you sighed and stared your vampire in the eye. "Gilbert's Gilbert. He's not a vampire, and he's not a bad guy."

"Still…" Vladimir mumbled and fiddled with his top hat.

"Don't worry, Vlad," you assured your vampire with a smile. "I'll be fine. He's just an informant, after all." You chuckled and gave him a playful shove. "You're just like a dog, you know that?"

"A cute one?" Vladimir asked looking up.

A cracked a smile. "It switches. Sometimes you act really protective like a guard dog, but you can be so clingy at the same time. You're very loyal, too. As for being cute…"

When you turned to study your vampire, you noticed how exotic he looked compared to most vampire you had encountered: his strawberry blonde hair wasn't too red or too brown, his ruby red eyes had an energizing light that glimmered with a curious spark that you found even more attractive than Gilbert's, and his overall stature wasn't too bad, either—for someone that didn't even have blood running through his veins.

"You're…alright…" you strained to say.

"You really think I'm cute?" Vladimir beamed and leaped on your shoulders.

"Argh!" you grunted. "Vlad, get off! It's annoying! I still have to get ready!"

"I can't help it~" Vladimir grinned. "You're my soul mate!"

"I swear if holy water on vamps didn't make a mess…" you groaned.

-----

"This is Gilbert's house?"

"Yeah," you nodded and looked up at the enormous house that was home to Gilbert and Ludwig Beilschmidt. You adjusted your gloves and walked up to the front door and rang the doorbell.

Ding-Dooooooooonnnnng…!

What kind of fucked up doorbell is this? you wondered after the eerie doorbell rang throughout the house.

After a few seconds, you heard the door's locks began to become undone. Another few seconds later, the door opened, and a head-full of white hair came into view.

"Hey, Gilbert," you said relieved the informant was actually home.

"____________?" Gilbert looked at you warily. "Vhat ze hell are you doing at mein awesome house?"

"I have some questions," you said. "It's about the vampire you guys captured."

"Vhat about him?" Gilbert asked eyed you suspiciously with his peering red eyes.

Gilbert was smart so you needed to bait him if he was going to break down any of his defenses. "Well, I actually have some juicy information on him from Eliza, herself."

"You do?" The albino informant wasn't completely convinced, but then he added, "She isn't talking to anyone. Zhe guys at GERUN are doing tests on her, but so far, we haven't gotten any results."

"What sorts of tests?" you asked worried that they might actually test vampire venom on your friend.

"They're trying to see if her blo—Vait a minute! You're not even an elite!"

"Ah, but I have information that you guys don't," you said. "It might help you with your research on Roddy—ah, I mean, Roderich."

Commence stare-down. It was hard trying to look at Gilbert without blinking—his eyes were so freaking creepy compared to Vladimir's. But, eventually, you won, and Gilbert offered to let you inside.

"So vhat did you want to tell me?" he asked. You caught a sharp smell of alcohol when you entered to kitchen.

He must've been drinking, you decided.

"I actually came to you first because there's one little piece of information I need before I tell you mine so it makes sense," you said sitting yourself down on a stool. Gilbert went to the fridge and opened up a bottle of beer.

"Want one?" he offered holding up the opened glass of ice-cold alcohol.

"I'm underage," you said.

"Not in Germany, you aren't," Gilbert smirked and drank the beer after your indirect refusal. After he finished it, he wiped his mouth and redirected his attention to you. "So what did you need?"

"I need to know if there was another vampire present somewhere along the way," you said.

Gilbert froze. "Where did you hear about that, ___________," he asked rather quietly. It was rare to see him with a serious expression. What sort of buttons did you unintentionally press?

"Tell me if there was another one first," you insisted.

"Tell me where you got that information," Gilbert said pointing his empty bottle at you.

"Eliza, herself, told me," you said thinking it was slightly irrelevant information.

"Ksesese~!" Gilbert laughed. "Thanks for that, you unawesome intermediate faction hunter!"

"You swindler!" you growled. "Keep your part of the bargain, albino trash!"

"No vay!" the informant continued to laugh. You were about to give him a good lesson on "intermediate" strength when suddenly, Gilbert took something out of his kitchen drawer.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," you said holding up your hands. You really needed to get a gun license soon—that is, if you managed to get out of this mess alive.

Gilbert tossed his gun back and forth in his hand. "You think I don't know vhat you're up to, __________?" he smirked. "I know you've got something to hide, too. It's not just Eliza and her unawesome piano-playing girly lame-o vampire guy, is it?"

You swallowed. Gilbert was crazy if he thought he was going to get away with this. This wasn't even like him…He was usually so loyal to his co-workers and obedient to all of the rules. What was going on?

"Now spill it, ___________!" Gilbert commanded and cocked his gun. "Vhy did you come here, in the first place?"

"Like I'd tell you that," you spat.

You caught a demonic gleam in the albino's red eyes. "Then maybe this will teach you to mess with zhe awesome—"

BANG!

"What the…?"

"I knew it!"

"Who the hell are you?!" Gilbert growled trying to get his attacker off of him.

"Vlad, what are you doing?!" you cried after regained your senses after a blur of strawberry blonde hair dove in front of you and tackled Gilbert to the ground.

"____________, this isn't the Gilbert you know," Vladimir said restraining Gilbert with ease. "He's been hexed this entire time."

"What?!"

"Well at least since he's hexed, I was able to come inside uninvited," Vladimir added. "Do you think you could go see if you can find those logbooks Gilbert uses? And make sure no one else is here."

"Uh…" You looked at Gilbert who was cursed up a storm in German, but he was securely immobilized by your vampire. "Sure, I'll go check."

-----

Your head was spinning with so many questions. Frightful questions.

Oh, God, how long has this been going on? you wondered. If Gilbert's been hexed for a long time, then he could have easily infiltrated GERUN's top security information. Goddammit it all…

After checking every room in the large house, you concluded that no one save for yourself, your vampire, and Gilbert, was in the house.

"Vlad, it's clear!" you shouted back towards the kitchen.

"Okay!" Vladimir called back.

"Now to look for those logbooks," you said to yourself.

The first place you decided to check was Gilbert's room. You could tell it was his room because it had an immaturely written signboard on the door that said, "ONLY HIS AWESOMENESS MAY ENTER."

You rolled your eyes and walked inside. "Could he have made it any more obvious?"

Oh, there were logbooks, alright. After ripping out some loose boards behind a bookcase, you found a hidden door that led to another room underneath. If there was a time to have a gun, it would have been now, but you had faced worse with nothing more than your own bare hands. At least Vladimir was in the kitchen if you ever needed him.

After going down some stairs, you began to smell something foul.

Did something die in here? you wondered holding your hand up to your nose to block the rancid, sour odor.

The more you walked, the stronger the smell became until it was close to unbearable.

Gilbert's logbooks never smell, you told yourself. I'm sure that whatever's down here, there aren't logbooks waiting on the other side. But, nevertheless, you continued to press onwards. You had a friend to save and an informant's story to uncover.

After a few more steps, you came to a door.

This is it, you thought and brought a shaky hand to the door.

"Don't worry. I don't think there are any vampires here."

"How can you be so sure about that?" you whispered loudly.

"Just trust me, ___________."

"Whatever, Vlad," you grumbled and opened the door. Immediately, you were swamped with a stench that almost knocked you out from its putridity.

"Hhnngckk!" you gasped and plugged up your nose. What the fuck has Gilbert been doing down here?!

As you walked inside, you noticed that the air was filled with the stench of death. Something or someone had been mutilated in here. It was too dark. You needed a light.

There's got to be one in this hellhole, you thought hastily not wanting to remain in the unknown for any longer. But it was also the thought of seeing what you might discover that was even more frightening.

After searching around the walls, your hand finally came across a shape that resembled a light switch. With a flick, you turned on the light—and heaved.

"Holy shit—!" You hurled. It was a bad idea since that left your nostrils exposed to the stench of rotting human and animal flesh.

"___-_________?"

"I'm fine, Vlad," you coughed. No, you fucking weren't! What the hell did that hex have Gilbert doing…and for so long?

"Shit, these bodies are at least a few weeks old…" you groaned and kicked over the hacked-away corpse of a young man. While making your way around the room, you had to avoid slipping on some unknown entrails—they weren't human, though.

"Aw, fuck," you hissed. This was utterly disgusting. How the hell could Ludwig have missed all of this? Well, at least you found the logbooks; they were tucked away on the far shelf (terrific), and it looked like they had not been touched for a long time.

Strange… you thought. Gilbert's usually so orderly according to Francis and Toni.

Doing your best to hold your breath, you reached for a logbook and began to flip through it.

Day XX, Forecast: Cloudy

I was being awesome as always. (You rolled your eyes.) Eliza went with ________ to their usual café today. ____________ has been gone a long time. I should find out if her reports were true, but Eliza's more awesome than her, anyway. (You rolled your eyes again.) I saw a piece of trash in my way back from my job. With mein awesome skills, I kicked it out of the way. I am so awesome—

"Enough of this shit!" you spat and flipped through the book looking for anything on vampire sightings.

"Awesome…Francis…need to purchase birdseed? Yadda yadda yadda…Toni—here we are!"

Day XX, Forecast: Cloudy

I was awesome today. I got dibs on this awesome vampire, but he got away before I could tag und classify him. It looks like West will have to wait. As for the details, he had meess~y bunde hair...~~ geen eyez……..sgg~~eyebr~~s…I don't feel t':; good. Even awesome pple nee the—rest~~~……,,…

You flipped to the next page. It was blank. That meant this was the last entry Gilbert made; he always filled his logbooks.

So then what were those other logbooks he was carrying around? you wondered. There was also the vampire that Gilbert had mentioned in his last entry; it must've been the one who hexed him. You looked at the last entry again.

"Me-Messy…'bunde?' Must be 'blonde.' Messy blonde hair. 'Geen' must be 'green.' Green eyes. What's this? 'sgg~~eyebr~s?' That last one must be 'eyebrows.' So something to do with eyebrows…Oh. My. Fucking. God."

Messy blonde hair, green eyes, and peculiar eyebrows?

"Vlad!" you shouted and took the logbook with you leaving the hellish room and its contents behind you.

-----

Vladimir was sitting on top of an unconscious Gilbert.

"What happened to him?" you asked when you were within speaking distance.

"I undid the hex," Vladimir told you. "It's not easy for vampires, but it's doable. I also took away some of his memories so he won't remember any of this, but the room…" He wrinkled his nose.

"You can smell it from here?" you asked and began to sniff. Fuck. The stench was leaking out.

"We need to do something about that later," Vladimir said. "So did you find anything out?"

"Yeah," you said flipping to Gilbert's last entry. "Vlad, do you see this? Messy blonde hair, green eyes, weird eyebrows…Does that ring a bell?"

Vladimir frowned. "Arthur…" he whispered.

"Arthur?" you repeated confused. "No! It's the other vampire I encountered when I was first properly introduced to you!"

"Oh, right. He's also that, too," Vladimir added.

"Are you saying you knew this guy before I met you?" you asked trying to piece all of the fragments together.

The vampire nodded. "It's a long story, but I—"

"Bruder, I'm home!" a deep voice shouted into the not-so-empty house. "You'd better not have been drinking too much beer!"

"Shit, shit, shit!" you whispered. "That's Ludwig! Vlad, you'll be toast if he sees you! We need to get out—"

"____________?" Ludwig said stepping into the kitchen. "Vhat are you doing here? And who's zhat? And Bruder! What ze hell is going on?!"

"Eh, look Ludwig, I can explain—"

"___________! Zhat's a vampire!" Ludwig shouted and brought out his gun.

"Vlad, look out!" you shouted and pulled Vladimir under the counter before a silver bullet lodged itself in his chest.

"__________, vhy are you helping him?" the elite vampire hunter demanded. "He's our enemy!"

Fuck! How do I get myself out of this?! you thought hastily. Ludwig was one of the best in all of GERUN. It didn't even take five seconds for him to realize Vladimir was a vampire.

"____________, we've got everything we need here," Vladimir said. "We should just book it."

"How?!" you whispered. "He's got a fucking gun!" You noticed Vladimir was eying your neck. "Oh, no. Do I have to?"

"Do you care about me?" Vladimir asked staring into your (e/c) eyes.

"I—" You lost the staring contest. "You win, Vlad," you sighed and pressed your neck against your vampire's lips. Vladimir sank his fangs into your throat and began to drink. Since your heart was beating so fast, it didn't take long before you began to feel dizzy and faint.

-----

You could've sworn you closed your eyes for a second. Maybe you heard Ludwig cursed in German, but that was all you remembered before finding yourself back in your bed under the roof of your home.

"Ungh…" you groaned. "Vlad…? Are you there?"

"I'm here, ___________," you heard Vladimir say and touched your forehead. Like always, his skin was icy cold before becoming warm. It was comforting knowing he was here. He was like your shoulder to lean on or the annoying dog that you couldn't get rid of, like a lingering itch waiting to be scratched.

"We really fucked up, huh?"

Vladimir chuckled and shook his head. "I think we made some progress. Now all that's left to do before taking any real action is to go see Roddy."

You groaned. Your vision was still blurry, and you're entire body would've been cold if it weren't for your vampire's touch.

"I could really use some chocolate…" you managed to say.

"I thought you'd ask for some so I got some for you," Vladimir smiled and began to unwrap one of your chocolate bars.

"I appreciate it, Vlad," you thanked him and waited for him to hand you the chocolate.

"Uh…Vlad? My chocolate?"

"Say 'please,' first," Vladimir teased and swung the chocolate bar right out of your reach.

"Vlad, it's not funny," you frowned and tried to reach for the chocolate bar, but your arms felt like lead weights and fell back on your mattress.

"I'm still waiting, ___________," Vladimir grinned looking over you.

"Please," you said.

"Please, what?"

"Please give me the damn chocolate, Vlad," you growled.

"Nope!" Vladimir laughed and bit into the chocolate bar. You could've exploded.

"What the fuck, Vlad! I thought you hate choco—Hrmph!"

When Vladimir kissed you, you could feel his tongue giving you the chocolate that was in his mouth. Since all he drank was blood, you had expected it to taste disgusting, but coming from him was something along the lines of…

You swallowed your first piece. It tasted surprisingly good.

"More?" Vladimir asked softly.

"I don't like being force-fed," you frowned despite enjoying the strange feeling.

"It's not force-feeding if you want it, ___________," Vladimir smiled and kissed you on your cold forehead. "Besides, I don't want you to have doing this by yourself. I took a lot of blood."

"I don't care anymore, Vlad," you sighed. "Just give me the chocolate however you want to."

"If you say so, ___________," your soul mate laughed and bit into another piece.