Chapter 7 - Vampires

Seven months later…
Bruce shifted in his sleep in his dark room. His curtains were closed and he was grimacing, in pain.
"Hnnh…"  Bruce's sleep was uneasy, and months after the Dracula incident, they can only assume that their cure and Superman's blood drove off Dracula's blood inside Bruce….

Bruce stood outside of a doorway as Batman, tensed, waiting…
It was dead quiet. Way too ...quiet... Then a shadow overlapped Bruce's and he turned to find himself face to face with Dracula.

"So it is true, there is another batman in Gotham." He said to him. He tried to convince him to come to his side.
He said to become a vampire was to heighten all of the senses.

He then leapt at him, drawing blood from his own arm and forcing Bruce to drink it…

Bruce woke with a start; he took in a deep breath, his bare chest covered in cold sweat.

"Don't worry, Master Bruce, it's just a dream." Alfred said, starting to pull back the curtains.  Some sunlight hit his shoulder and he grimaced as it felt like his skin was boiling and he felt like he was being blinded by a thousand suns…

"Alfred…keep the curtains closed please…" He muttered, Alfred did as asked and closed the curtains once more, glancing to Bruce, who actually…looked frightened as he looked at his shoulder. Alfred frowned in thought. He didn't see anything wrong with it.

"Do you have another Migraine sir? You seem to have been having quite a few lately." Alfred asked cautiously as he went and picked up the pitcher of water and a glass with it.

"No…I don't think so…" He frowned in thought, "I'm going to try and get some more sleep… Make sure Alicia and Dick are fed…" And Bruce pulled the covers up over his shoulders and Alfred left the room with a frown.

Bruce fell asleep for four hours before waking up again to find some sandwiches, water and a bottle of advil on his side-table.

Bruce stretched, noticing that Alfred had kept the curtains closed.
"I swear it's like he can read my mind sometimes." He muttered as he picked up one of the sandwiches and ate it. He usually loved the taste of Alfred's sandwiches…but now it was tasteless… Though he was thirsty…He took the water and drank it. What happened earlier on his shoulder… his skin was starting to burn away in the sunlight!  No….It couldn't be happening again! And how?! He got up and walked over to the elevator hidden there in the room. He opened it and staggered in.

The elevator doors closed and it went deep into the earth down to the main floor of the cave, but he pressed a hidden button and it went down even further.

He stepped out when it opened and then found himself at a thick vault. He pressed his hand to the lockpad, it read his hand and then opened. Bruce looked around the huge vault. It held Kryptonite and several devices he confiscated from the various criminals he fought alone or in a group with.  He came to a smaller safe on the ground and knelt down by it…

"Bruce?"

Bruce blinked and glanced back, Alicia was standing in the doorway watching him.

"Hey, Alicia." He said, turning his back to her and punching in the code for the safe, which when it opened, showed him the vials with the blue liquid used on Dracula's victims. There is about fifteen extra vials left in there.

"What are you going to do with those?" Alicia asked, as Bruce picked up one of the vials with it's spokes to inject the liquid into the blood stream. Bruce allowed his tongue to feel his teeth, he actually felt the fangs, and the thirst for blood was getting stronger with Alicia there. He doubted the formula would work on him, but he had to try.

He backed away from the safe, closing it and the spokes came from the container.

"Bruce, no!" Alicia yelled as he stabbed his arm with the spokes, the liquid being injected into him.

Alicia started to come towards him but Bruce yelled, "Stay back!" Alicia blinked at the tone of Bruce's voice, he was…frightened?
Then she realized there was only one thing that he could have injected that liquid into him for.

Bruce grimaced for a moment, it stung at first…but then…nothing. It had no affect…

"It's happened again somehow, hasn't it? You're a vampire again…"

"Heh…Yeah…the first sign is when your skin starts to burn in the sun…It happened this morning when Alfred opened the curtains…though thankfully he didn't see, and closed them right when
I told him to…." Bruce sighed and looked to Alicia and smiled at her faintly.

"At least there's no Dracula around this time."

"Yeah…" She muttered, her eyes still on Bruce.  She approached him and hugged him tight, surprising him. Alicia hardly ever hugged Bruce or anyone. Bruce couldn't help but smile and he hugged her back, patting her back. He could smell the blood being pumped through her veins, but he didn't care at the moment. All that he cared about was keeping a hold of her…

"Everything's going to be fine, I swear…We'll find a way to get this out of my system…"

Alicia started to cry for the first time in months.

"Shhh…Shhh….Calm down…." He muttered softly as they stood there for the next hour, keeping each other company.