Bloody roses

10: Bonding

Vlad decided that, in order to protect her as well as the people of Paris, Lacrimă was to stay on castle grounds. She could roam it freely, all the rooms and the huge gardens. And she did, barely spending any time in her new room. Vlad has gotten her new clothes, but she was not quite fond of the current fashion and preferred wearing men’s clothing. Charles was so nice to let her borrow his clothes. That is, until Vlad had some dresses, but also shirts and trousers tailored, especially for her.

It was terrible.

Just like back in Romania, Lacrimă was locked up. Her cage was golden, but that didn’t distract from the fact that it was still a cage.

When wandering the castle, she ran into Faust’s lab again. “Ah, there you are. I was just about to finish dissecting this specimen.”
“How can I help you?”
“Give me that saw over there.”
She obeyed and watched with interest how Faust cut the skull open, revealing the brain. “Looks like that’s all ordinary here.”
I continued that way at first. She got him the tools and then got to watch him. On the second body, however, he allowed her to perform small tasks. Lacrimă had rarely had this much fun. She felt proud that Faust permitted her to help him, especially with the perfectionism he showed in dissecting.
Way too soon, they finished with the second corpse. Faust did not find anything worth noting down again.
Later, he did. In the third body, a child’s, presumably very poor. His lungs were full of mucus, blocking his airways.
“That seems like a kind of influenza, however I’m not so sure if I’ve seen it before. Bring me that microscope.”
“What’s influenza?”
"Human diseases. Hurry along now.”
The pureblood ran and got the microscope for the lesser vampire. Never had she thought she would let herself accept commands from someone below her, but with Faust, she had no problems doing so. Neither had Faust thought that Lacrimă, granddaughter to his sire, would obey him. Vlad just usually ignored his demands.

The doctor was in for a shock. The virus he had found in the corpse was a new kind of plague. It was more infectious than the common ones, and due to how little experience the human body had with them, it killed them quickly.
In short, a pandemic was about to start. And he had no clue on how to defeat the virus and stop it. Plus, he had to develop a better version of blanc that would cure Lacrimă’s bloodlust. His mind told him that the humans were more important. Especially the orphans he was taking care of in his function as a priest. Surely he could put the girl after them. But, another part of him couldn’t give up on Lacrimă, even for a short time. There was only one solution, but how was he gonna do both in such a short time?
Well, it looked like the doctor wasn’t about to get a lot of sleep in the near future.
“What did you find out, domnul Faust?”
“Just Faust. And well, it’s none of your concern. Shouldn’t you be with the kid in the body of an old man now?”
“Do you mean bunic? You can’t just call him that, he’s your sire!”
Faust did not answer, instead chasing her out of the room and slamming the door in her face and shut her out.

After he so rudely put their bonding time dissecting human bodies to an end, the woman wandered across the hall when a pure white fox jumped up on her. She (I refuse to acknowledge Marshmallow is a he) ripped a part of her shirt off and ran away with it, prompting Lacrimă to chase the fox. Soon, they reached a big music room. Vlad was dozing off on the piano, and his fox jumped on the keys, trying to get him to wake up. When her attempts were unsuccessful, she placed the piece of fabric she had stolen from the vampiress there. With this, she ordered Lacrimă in her own way to wake her grandfather up.
“I cannot wake him up for you, I am truly sorry.”
The fox replied with a frustrated hiss. Then she shoved Vlad off the piano chair and put the scrap of fabric on a music sheet.
“Would you like for me to play this song?” Lacrimă asked the fox and sat down in front of the piano. She replied by sitting down in the vampiress lap and nudging her fingers to the piano keys.
Lacrimă knew how to play the piano. What she did not know, however, is how she learned it. Every time she tried to remember, she was just greeted by a pounding headache. The woman took a deep inhale and placed her fingers on the keys.
Then, she began to play. The world disappeared around her, the music room, the fox in her lap, everything. It was just her and the instrument. Without even trying, her fingers danced elegantly on the keys. The tune they produced was the song on the sheets, just better. Where had she played that song before?

Vlad clapped. Lacrimă’s song had woken him up. He was not mad at her. It had been a very pleasant way to wake up. She turned around, facing him, and he saw Marshmallow on her lap, curled up and snoring lightly. “Bravo. Marshmallow made you play it, I assume?”
“That fox’ name is marshmallow?”
“Yes. She is very fluffy and pure white, so she reminded me of one.”
“Well, yes, she was very adamant about this lullaby being played. Originally, she wished for me to wake you in order for you to play, bunic. When I hesitated, she made me play it instead.”
“That does sound like her. The little one can not sleep without her lullaby, so she needs it every day around this time. Why did you hesitate to wake me up, though, neopoata?”
“My father hated it when I disturbed his sleep.”
“He did? I cannot remember him being like that. Anyways, I, for one, do not mind if you wake me when I dozed off somewhere. Especially if you or the little one needs me.”
“Thank you, I will remember that.”
“Would you like to go gardening with me now?”