“Uh, why was I named as well?” Em slowly raised her finger.

“I’ll leave the explanation up to Luis.” Alessia signalled to Luis to get up from his chair.

He nodded and plonked a sizable suitcase on top of the table. “Ahum, ahum.” Luis cleared his throat while opening the two locks the suitcase had with a click. “From mister Von Sachsen’s report, by the time he got to your residence and inspected Miss Du Bellay’s wound, the wound had already disappeared. Is that correct?”

“Yeah.” I replied.

“And you are sure she got hit?”

“Uh, yeah, definitely.”

Ria nodded as well. “It hurt a lot…” that comment stung and brought up some memories I’d rather not have remembered.

“And since Miss Du Bellay is not a vampire, this would be impossible. However…” He swung the suitcase open and took out an old looking file. “There is one case known to us with which we can compare this casus.” He looked around the table at his fellow vampires. “The case of the previously seated president of this conclave.”

The other side of the table started to murmur a bit, but it quickly got silenced by a small tap on the table from Alessia. “Please continue.”

“In short, there are a couple of types of vampires known to us. Vampires whose abilities favour stealth, like Epiphania and Alexandra’s… Vampires who have stronger psychic abilities like Viktor and Alessia’s… Those who are more dexterous like Marko… And then finally Vampires whose natural abilities favour strength, like Aileen and yours.” He explained in a very calm voice while still unpacking more things from his suitcase. “However, even within these groups, there are still major differences. While Aileen’s power is amplified a lot more than the regular vampire, it looks like your abilities favour endurance. Case and point, the lack of injury after being shot by an anti-material rifle. This is a very rare trait, so rare that there’s only one vampire known to us who has this speciality.”

“The previous president?” Ria asked.

“Exactly.”

“And how do these abilities get decided?” Em was clearly curious.

“It’s genetically decided, but it only becomes prominent when someone turns, so you can’t really find out beforehand.”

“I see… but what does that have to do with Em and Ria?” I tilted my head slightly.

“I was getting to that point.”

“Ah… sorry…”

“No, no. Asking questions is good.” He smiled. “Coincidentally, when we researched Jessica’s case… Jessica is the name of our president.”

“She chose not to have a last name.” Alessia clarified.

“Yes. Anyhow, we named her ability ‘enhanced immortality’ because she is for all intents and purposes unkillable.”

“That’s why she was so valuable during the last conflict?”

The professor nodded.

“I’ve never seen someone take so much punishment without a single scratch.” Aileen added. “But her psyche sadly didn’t get spared in the same way… She wasn’t a soldier, and she was forced into that position out of necessity. It was… hard to see... ”

“Sadly, it had to be this way.” Luis coughed again and then continued. “Again, let’s continue… But, this ‘enhanced immortality’ doesn’t look like the only ability you two have in common. It’s quite possible that, just like her, you can also pass it on to others, to regular humans, be it with slightly diminished strength.”

“So you are saying I might have made my girlfriends immortal?”

“From what we’ve heard from Viktor, that’s indeed quite likely.”

I looked over to Em and Ria to gauge their reaction. While Ria was still attentively listening, Em had buried her face in her hands. “Em, are you okay?”

“I-is there any way to know for sure?” Emma asked without looking up or replying to my question.

“The least invasive one would be to take a buccal swab. It’s where we swab the inside of your cheek and just how your cells behave through this microscope.” He tapped a wooden box that he’d taken out of his suitcase. “The slightly faster way would be to do the sleeping beauty test.”

“Pricking your fingers to see if blood comes out.” Alessia clarified, to which Viktor immediately jumped up.

“Let’s not do that, I would love to avoid a bloodbath.”

“I would definitely prefer not to have my girlfriends pricked, that’s true.” I agreed with him.

“I hate needles as well!” Ria joined in.

“So, are both of you okay with the swab?” The professor asked.

Ria immediately nodded yes, but Em didn’t really respond.

“Em?” I put my hand on her shoulder. She was breathing in and out pretty heavily.

Alessia hmm’ed, got off her chair and crouched down next to my girlfriend. “Emma, do you want to go outside to take in some fresh air?”

Emma took in a deep breath and then finally replied to us. “I will take the swab first…”

“Okay.” Alessia smiled and stood up, reaching out her hand towards the professor, who quickly gave her a cotton swab. “Do you want to do it yourself?”

Em nodded as she raised her head. Her face was incredibly pale.

“Emma…” Ria looked at her with concern in her eyes. I couldn’t help but feel incredibly bad, too.

After Em and Ria had taken a swab test and handed it back over to the professor, Alessia took the floor again. “Let’s all take a short break while Luis inspects the tests. If you want to speak to me during the break, I’ll be in the west garden together with our guests. See you all back again in fifteen minutes.”

The others nodded and quickly filtered out of the room, leaving the three of us together with Alessia.

I helped Emma get up from her seat, she could only barely stand. “Em, are you okay?”

“I-I don’t know, Au-Auro…” She stuttered as we started walking. Ria and Alessia held the door open for us.

“She’s having a pretty severe panic attack, Aurora.” I suddenly heard Alessia’s voice inside my head, which freaked me out a little bit.

-How does she do that?-

“It’s my special ability, it’s also pretty rare but useful at times like these.” Alessia walked ahead of us and took a corner to the right, presumably to one of the doors leading to the garden. “But be assured that this is the first time I’ve used it today.”

-Uh, thanks for respecting my mind’s privacy… but do you know what’s up with Emma?-

“As I told you earlier today, immortality does have its drawbacks, and the implications of it are always pretty widespread. This news came suddenly, and she probably wasn’t prepared for it at all. It’s something I had somewhat anticipated as new vampires tend to have that issue too, however you and Corelia seem to be handling it a lot better.”

-Hmm, she definitely gets along a lot better with her family, so maybe that’s why?-

“That’s definitely possible.”

Alessia arrived at a heavier looking door, the orange light of the setting sun was filtering through the cracks. She gently pushed it open and let the three of us pass. A dozen meters in front of the door there was a beautiful white marble fountain, the sun’s light majestically reflected in the multiple spouts of water. The sound of the water falling back down into the basin was pretty calming, especially with the flowing hills and forests behind it.

Once the door closed behind us, Alessia’s voice spoke in my mind again. “If you would allow me to, I could try to calm down her mental state a little. It’s part of my psychic abilities as well, but I do need to be with her alone for a while. You can look at us from a distance if that’d reassure you.”

-Are you going to mess with her mind?-

“Not really, it’s hard to explain, but it’s definitely not invasive.”

-If it will help her… sure, go ahead.-

Alessia smiled. “Alright.” She then started speaking to Emma. “Hey Emma, would you come with me for a second? I just want to talk with you for a bit, if that’s okay?”

Em nodded. She was still incredibly pale, and it really hurt to see her like that.

Alessia took her hand and led Em down the side of the castle towards a bench that was facing the valley.

“Rora, do you know what they are going to do?” Ria asked as she grabbed my hand. She was also looking at Emma with great concern painted on her face.

“Alessia is going to try to help Emma with stuff.”

“Stuff?”

“You know, mental things…”

“Ah…I hope it helps…”

“Me too…” I took Ria along with me and leant my butt against the fountain’s basin, putting my cane next to me on my right. As the sun hit the side of my face while I looked at Alessia and Emma in the distance. Even though the autumn sun had lost most of its power at this time of day, my black leather jacket did immediately start to heat up.

Luckily, Ria quickly stopped me from baking by joining me on my left side. Although, it did remind me to not wear this outfit outside in the summer, but fortunately that season was still quite far away.

“Are you not too cold in that dress?” I asked as I glanced over to her.

She shook her head and then continued to rest it on my shoulder. “No, it’s quite nice in the sun.”

A small breeze blew through the treetops, making the leaves rustle in the wind.

“Rora is blocking most of the wind after all.”

“Ah, so I’m merely a windbreaker to you? I see how it is.” I laughed and secretly dipped my hand in the fountain behind me, scooping up a tiny little bit of water.

“Mhmm. Rora is the best windbreaker.”

“Is that so?” I then enacted my plan and sprinkled her with a couple of drops of H2O.

“Eeeep! Rora!” She giggled and turned away from me. I could tell by the way she was acting that she was contemplating retaliating, but ultimately decided not to do so.

“Hehe.”

“Meanie.” She stuck out her tongue and rejoined me at my side to see how our girlfriend was doing.

From our angle, we could see Alessia had placed a couple of her fingers against Em’s temple, but apart from that we couldn’t really see much from this distance. They stayed like that for a couple of minutes before they both got up from the bench and walked back over to us. Emma clearly looked a lot better, and she was even smiling when she was talking to Alessia on her way here.

“Feeling better?” I gave Em a kiss on her cheek and a big hug the moment she’d come close enough.

“Yeah, a lot.” She kissed me back.

“I’m happy to hear that.” I smiled and handed her over to cuddle monster Ria-chan, who was just jumping to give her girlfriend some attention.

I took the time to thank Alessia. “Thanks a lot. I suppose that’s not a trick I can learn?”

“No problem, but sadly, it’s not. I don’t know anyone apart from myself who can do it. However, I can teach you some tips to handle it better in the future.”

“That’d be very welcome.”

“Good.” She put her hand on my shoulder and squeezed slightly. “I’m happy the three of you joined us.” Before I could reply, Alessia took her hand away and turned herself to Emma and Ria. “We should probably head back soon for the second part. You can always come back later, at night the village lights in the distance make things look even more magical.”

“How is that even possible? It’s already a fantastic view.” Em finally got released from Ria’s hug, but Ria was still adamant on holding her hand.

“You’ll see.” Alessia smiled and headed back to the door.

“I guess we’re following.” I smiled and waited for my girlfriends to catch up. When they finally did, I held the door open for them and bowed. “Miladies.”

“Dork.” Em giggled and dragged me inside with her free hand.

-Part two, here we go.-