RomaniaxReader~Sustenance Pact~Ch 18

Sustenance Pact ~Ch 18~

Gilbert had told you that GERUN’s main headquarters was still untouched by Arthur’s and Lukas’ vampire hoard thanks to special security measures.

“It’s getting harder to hold on,” he told you while Vladimir was making his way to the nearest safe entrance. “There are different strains of vampires who are able to survive in the sunlight so the sunlight grenades don’t work.”

You frowned. “Sunlight grenades…? Why does the term sound so familiar?”

The GERUN elite rolled his red eyes. “Uh, maybe that’s because you and Eliza took some prototypes from Vash?”

“I don’t remember,” you mumbled. That got you thinking back to another topic.

“So I was really part of GERUN?”

“You were one of the best,” Gilbert said.

“Was I an elite?” you quietly asked.

“No, but we were thinking about promoting you when you got enough experience.”

You frowned. So Vladimir really alternated your memories after all. How long had this been going on, and during the time you were your real self, did you love Vladimir the same way you did now?

Despite Vladimir’s protests, even though Gilbert told you that you were once a vampire hunter for GERUN, you couldn’t bring yourself to hate Vladimir. Deep down in your heart, you felt that you still loved him, but you weren’t sure if those were your real feelings or just a part of Vladimir’s elaborate hexing powers. He was a senior vampire, after all. There was no doubt that he picked up a thing or two in the several hundred years he had been alive.

Gilbert’s eyes narrowed. “You know, the more I think about it, when I was going through your old informant’s files, one of the vampires you said you dispatched matched your little soul mate’s profile to a T.”

“Hmm?” You furrowed your eyebrows. “I was supposed to kill Vlad?” You turned to your soul mate for answers. “Vlad is that true?”

Vladimir hesitated to speak. For most of the trip, he remained silent. Gilbert did a majority of the talking in his place.

“I distinctly remember Feli—that’s your old informant—describing a strawberry blonde vampire with red eyes and a top hat. There’s no one else I know with that description. You’ve got to be the one ___________ was sent to kill. So in other words, she lied to us about killing you because in your updated profile, you were labeled as destroyed.”

“And that’s where our pact started,” Vladimir murmured when Gilbert finished.

Both you and Gilbert were confused.

“What pact?” you asked.

“It doesn’t make a difference now,” your soul mate sighed and got to explaining the details. “Back when you were a regular vampire hunter, I found out you were my soul mate after biting you. When you didn’t change, I just knew I needed to be with you so I convinced you to make a pact with me: in exchange for your blood and power, I would help you slay other vampires when you needed the help.”

Gilbert made a face. “And what’s all of this with the soul mate this and soul mate that crap?”

You threw the GERUN elite a dirty look. “It’s not crap. It’s something amazing.”

“The human is entitled to his opinion,” Vladimir said through bared fangs. “Each and every vampire has a soul mate the moment he or she becomes a vampire. No matter what happens, that soul mate is always a human, and that human is able to be bitten by his or her vampire without transforming into a vampire, too.”

“Huh.” Gilbert scratched his head. “No wonder ____________, here, never changes when you bite her.”

“That’s right,” Vladimir said. “And when I drink her blood, my powers become amplified.”

“Hold on,” the elite informant spoke up. “How did you find ___________? Was it just by coincidence?”

“Pretty much,” Vladimir said. “There’s only one soul mate for a vampire in his or her entire lifetime. I could have found __________ when she was anywhere between an infant to an old woman.”

“How lucky for you,” Gilbert sarcastically commented.

“Some vampires live their whole lives without ever finding their soul mate because there are so many people to come and go in their lifetime,” Vladimir explained. “To be able to find a soul mate is a strange kind of vampire goal. That’s why male vampires prefer female humans and female vampires prefer male humans.”

“And what about that one Roderich Edelstein guy Eliza hooked up with?" Gilbert then brought up making you cringe. “Was he…?”

You grimly nodded. “He was Eliza’s soul mate.”

Gilbert blinked. “Was?”

You lifted your head up. “You didn’t know?”

The informant looked confused. “All I know was that after GERUN went to shit, Eliza disappeared along with you and that Roderich guy. You’re here with your…soul mate. So where the hell is Eliza and hers?”

You and Vladimir exchanged uncomfortable glances. So Gilbert hadn’t known. Was it better to leave that bit of crucial information unexplained? How would he react when he found out about what happened to person who had been your friend. What was even more tragic was the fact that you couldn’t even remember the times you and Elizabeta had spent together. Vladimir’s hex was incredibly strong.

“I…I don’t remember,” you lied. Of course, it hadn’t been too long before you had found out the fate of your supposed best and only friend, but that didn’t mean Gilbert needed to know right away.

Gilbert, however, was unconvinced. “I’ll bet your little blood sucker friend is hiding something.”

Vladimir didn’t respond. He had other things he needed to worry about—like the pair of GERUN members beginning to bar the entrance of the sewage pipe Gilbert had mentioned.

“Oh, wait! Stop, stop, stop!” Gilbert shouted and tried to get out of your soul mate’s grasp. It must have been embarrassing for someone like him to be getting carried like a baby.

Nevertheless, Vladimir obeyed and placed the GERUN member down at the sewers.

“Hold on! Stop! It’s me, Gilbert Beilschmidt!” Gilbert shouted holding up his hands.

“Vampire spotted!” one of the members shouted above Gilbert’s orders and poised his gun at your soul mate.

“You idiots! He’s got a human hostage!” Gilbert frowned and plucked the gun right out of the hunter’s hands.

“Wh-What are you doing?!” the other vampire hunter shouted. “Are you crazy? He’s going to kill us!”

“No, he’s not!” Gilbert protested, though from the look in his eyes, you couldn’t be too sure he was confident in completely trusting your soul mate.

“_____________, how are we supposed to get inside?” Vladimir asked you.

You shrugged. “I don’t remember anything that’s happened so we might have to leave this up to Gilbert.”

“Oh, right,” Vladimir mumbled.

Then, one of the GERUN members removed his helmet and stared at you.

“Wait…___________? Is that really you?”

You blinked. The hunter had short blonde hair and bright green eyes similar to Arthur, but his expression was worn and hardened like he hadn’t gotten a good night’s rest in a long time.

“Who are you?” you asked.

The GERUN member looked confused. “___________, it’s me, Vash, remember? Or don’t tell me your stupid soul mate hexed you, too?”

“Erm….” You looked over to your soul mate who had set you down.

“I knew it,” the man named Vash frowned. “If you hadn’t been devoured by the rest of the hoard, then the only other thing that could have happened to you was getting your memories altered.”

You furrowed your eyebrows. “Where did you come up with reasons like that?”

“Gilbert was hexed, too, remember?”

“Huh?”

The elite informant frowned and looked down. “Yeah, I remember. I did some fucked up shut down in my brother’s basement. It was a pain to clean up the mess and do DNA tests on the victims.”

“Can someone tell me what’s going on?!” the remaining GERUN member said with his gun still in Gilbert’s hand.

“Oh, you can leave this to us,” Vash said. Even though he sounded relaxed, he was still on edge. Then he focused his attention back onto you and Vladimir.

“So, __________, what brings you back here? Did you take care of the things you need to get done?”

You furrowed your eyebrows. How were you supposed to answer that kind of question when you didn’t even remember what you had set out to do to begin with?

“We’re not done,” Vladimir hesitantly answered in your place. “It’s gotten more out of hand. We need to speak with the head of GERUN.”

Unconvinced that he could trust you, Vash narrowed his eyes. “What makes you think I’m going to go right on ahead and believe that a vampire has a right to see the person in charge of an anti-vampire organization?”

“I don’t,” Vladimir simply replied. “I’m just hoping you can trust me. No harm has come to ___________.”

“But you hexed her,” Vash said. “It doesn’t take a genius to figure that out.”

“Please trust him,” you pleaded to the vampire hunter. “Vlad isn’t a bad guy. He’s here to help. As long as I’m around, he won’t do anything to hurt another human being, I promise you that.”

The blonde-haired vampire hunter sighed and pointed down his gun. “Alright, __________, I’m going to have to check on some things to see if you’re telling the truth.”

You blinked. “Like what?”

Then, Vash pointed to Gilbert.

“Alright, Gilbert, what do you think about vampires?” he asked.

Gilbert raised an eyebrow. “Why are you asking me these kinds of questions?”

“Just give me a damn answer,” Vash snapped.

“Arlright, alright!” Gilbert said. “I think they’re unawesome.”

“Okay, that clears up any suspicions.”

Huh?

“And, you, ___________, do you remember the name of my sister? And I swear: if you don’t get this right, I’m blowing off both of your heads.”

You frowned, your heart drumming in your chest. “Uh…I…”

“Come on, __________!” Gilbert spoke up. “It’s easy!”

Even though the albino informant said it was easy, you couldn’t bring yourself to remember her name if your life depended on it—and that was the problem: your life, as well as Vladimir’s, depended on whether or not you could answer the question. This was all about trust. If you didn’t answer this correctly, then there was no way Vash was going to trust you. It was just a simple question! Why couldn’t you remember her name?!

“____________...” Vladimir murmured your name.

You hopelessly shook your head. “Vlad, I’m sorry. I don’t know.”

Your soul mate furrowed his eyebrows. “That’s because I made sure to block out every possible memory that might have triggered you to remember who you really were.”

“But, Vlad, if I don’t answer this, then the person is going to kill us!”

“I’m fast enough to get us out of the way of a bullet,” Vladimir said.

“It’s not about that! It’s about gaining GERUN’s trust!”

The vampire’s expression darkened. “They were the ones who have been hunting our kind for hundreds of years, and you even said it yourself: you hated them. So why are you trying to get their help and trust now?”

“Because…” you trailed off.

Why were you even here? Why was Vladimir being so wary about you getting back your memories? Who were you before the human race and vampire world collided into a big bowl of chaotic goop?

“This is taking too long,” Vash growled and pointed the gun at your head first. “Alright, you damn blood sucker! If you don’t give back __________’s memories right here, right now, I’m going to blow her head off!”

At the sound of this, Gilbert’s eyes grew wide.

“Hey, Vash, I know you’ve got a thing against vampires as much as I do, but isn’t killing ___________ a little over the top?”

The vampire hunter remained unmoved, his gun still poised at your forehead.

“Vlad!” you whimpered.

“It’s okay, ___________,” your soul mate assured you. “I can get us out of here. We can go back and pretend like nothing's happened.”

“But what about Eliza? What about Gilbert and my memories?”

“What about them?” Vladimir coldly asked.

You blinked. “Vlad, do you really love me? Is the love we share together even real or is it all a part of your hex?”

The vampire flinched and looked away. “I can’t answer that.”

Then, in your desperation, you gripped onto his cloak. “Well, if you can’t answer that, then let my memories answer for myself,” you fumed. “You are going to give me back my memories whether you like it or not. I need to know the truth, Vlad!”

“Three seconds!” Vash shouted.

Vladimir moved to you. “_____—”

“Now, Vlad!” you demanded.

“Two seconds!”

“Vash, calm down!” Gilbert shouted looking back and forth between the GERUN member and the two of you.

“_____________...”

“Vlad!”

“One second!”

“Vash!”

“For God’s sake! Do it!”

BANG!!