While a crowded house pleased some and displeased others, it certainly made for some interesting days.

Erik had never imagined he'd be housing so many vampires, nor did he particularly enjoy the amount of noise that sometimes echoed around the corridors, but he did make significant progress on his 'cure'.

Ivan was a willing test subject – large in stature and with a pain threshold that was incredibly high even for a vampire.
He didn't really care for how Ivan would lean over his desk and read his notes without his permission, but he tolerated it to the best of his ability.
Ivan's own blood was proving interesting to study.

Not to mention the blood of his sisters.

Erik had a selection of vampires related to one another now, and insisted on blood samples from them all.
Cécile included much to her dismay.

"Found anything interesting?" Maarten asked as Erik studied some samples under his microscope.

"Nothing ground breaking, but still interesting," Erik muttered. "I'm trying to find any links in blood samples that tie family blood relations to the vampire bond..."

"What do you mean?" Maarten pulled up a chair and yanked the notebook from Erik's desk, flipping though the pages with a keen eye. "Oh," he mumbled as he read what Erik had so far discovered.

"Like a DNA link of sorts," Erik said. "It would of course be easier if I had blood samples of someone before they were turned and after, but beggars can't be choosers here. Unless..."

"If you're thinking of turning anyone I will personally punch you to hell and back." Maarten warned darkly.

"Yeah yeah... I know I know," Erik frowned. "Just saying..."

"We need a 'cure', not a vampire family tree," Maarten sighed and handed Erik's notes back to him.

"One thing may not exclude the other," Erik grumbled.

"How so?"

"Given the individual skills of a vampire, and based on what they were like as humans – one type of drug may not be the cure for everyone," Erik explained and switched glass slides, peering through the lens at the other sample. "Take Cécile and her cousins. They're related, and thus there's some common things found in their blood. However, as far as I can tell; variations will also occur depending on what vampire turned you."

"So..." Maarten scratched his chin. "If we can trace who turned who by blood samples, we can work out a tailored cure for each vampire?"

"That was my thought," Erik nodded. "Cécile and Halldór have link that I lack, but if Mircea was to turn me I'm sure I'd join the same 'group' as them."

"And me?" Maarten asked, trying to make sense of the little tally marks on each blood sample slide.

"You also share a link with them and Mircea, but not as strong. But do tell me if you drink some human blood. Because I then have to check your blood again."

"Noted, but not happening," Maarten huffed, crossing his arms and glaring.

"I know," Erik waved his hand. "Just saying. For science you know?"

"Yes, for science," Maarten scoffed. "That's what this is still about, right?"

"Are you trying to insinuate anything else?" Erik glared coolly at him.

"Not at all..." Maarten sighed. "I'm just tired of not getting anywhere here. We seem to get some progress and then we're thrown off the track!"

"Ah, yes I know what you mean," Erik grimaced and stared at the growing mountain of paper and notebooks he had started to accumulate on his desk. "We get one lead on how to fix one thing and then we've got a hundred new problems to solve before we can return the original issue at hand."

"Just..." Maarten took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Just keep at it. Eventually we've got to make something that works perfectly."

"Or close to," Erik smiled faintly. "I can't create a magic pill that solves it all, but I can perhaps make something close to magic."

"Mhm, yeah. Magic..." Maarten mumbled to himself. "That's what we really need. A spell to reverse what's been done..."

"Are we still talking about vampires or are we now onto Ciprian's powers?"

"Oh," Maarten shook his head. "Uh. Both?" he said with a shrug.

"Compared to 'curing' vampires, transferring Ciprian's powers back to Mircea is going to be a walk in the park."

"And taking some of those powers for yourself?" Maarten raised an eyebrow. "How easy do you think that will be?"

"Given my family history with magic I doubt that will be a problem," Erik shrugged. "It's the least of my worries right now. I assure you that."

"Good to know," Maarten replied, leaning back in the chair and letting Erik get back to his research.

The silence in the lab was nice – no vampires trying to break out of cages or causing any trouble any more.
Just the sounds of Erik taking notes and some chemicals bubbling away in the corner.
Maarten opted for checking them out as Erik seemed lost in the microscope for the time being.

He liked seeing Erik's work in progress.
Every little discovery was jotted carefully down, any new information would be checked, double checked and checked again for errors until he was sure he had the correct data.

The blood samples from each of them seemed insignificant at first, but Maarten didn't have to spend too long reading Erik's notes before things started falling into place.

Just like blood type could vary from person to person, certain aspects of a vampire's blood was a good marker for knowing who had turned who.

It had also given Erik an insight in some of the individual powers of some of the vampires.

Ivan had an incredibly high tolerance to the Selenium found in garlic, while his sisters only were slightly more resistant to it.
Any 'cure' given to Ivan could be twice the strength of whatever else you gave someone else and he'd still struggle with the thirst for blood.

Maarten had watched him eat a whole garlic ("For science," Erik had said and handed it to him) and feel pretty good afterwards – a feat that was impossible for any of the other vampires.
Gilbert had to leave the room, even the smell of the garlic was too much for him to handle.

And their blood samples reflected this finding. Ivan's blood contained a much higher level of Selenium than Gilbert's blood did, thus enabling him to withstand the toxic levels of Selenium found in garlic.

So Ivan was a true abnormality in terms of vampires.

Even Mircea had admitted to Maarten that Ivan unsettled him greatly.
He didn't act threateningly, but the air around him made him seem like he plotted something sinister.
"Nonsense," Francis had told him when he'd voiced his opinion quietly. "Ivan thinks only of protecting his family. He's just like you."
Francis's words had been jumping around in Maarten's mind for days, and he didn't know what to do about his growing frustration.

"Hey, Erik. Can I talk to you about something?" Maarten asked softly.

"Mhm," came the mumbled reply.

"I'm scared..."

Erik paused, looked up from his microscope and turned his head towards Maarten.
"Scared?" he asked. "Why?"

"All this magic. From one person to the other. What's that going to do? Will we change?"

"Well..." Erik cleared his throat. "Change is relative. Magic doesn't have to cause huge changes, but what you do with it may end up changing you. But that's a decision you make."

"As in if I choose Black or White magic?"

"Given the nature of the magic Mircea had and the magic Ciprian currently possesses – we're much more likely to receive Black magic here..." Erik tapped his pen against the desk. "But that's not to say it is inherently destructive or evil. It all comes down to how we end up using it."

"A moral decision then?"

"Pretty much. A pen can be as mighty as a sword, but you wouldn't show up to a sparring match with one, would you?"

"That's an awful analogy," Maarten frowned.

"No no. Think of White magic as the pen. Black magic as a sword."

"Okay..." Maarten crossed his arms, Erik's explanations didn't always follow the most logical path, but he stayed put.

"If we think of destructive power, a sword is much easier to use if you wish to break things, correct?"

"Yeah," Maarten nodded.

"But with a pen you can cause just as much damage, if not more, but not by the same means." Erik smiled and held the pen in his hand out for Maarten to take.
"You might think White magic is the only good magic, but it can just as easily be used to cause havoc as Black magic can. The difference lies in the intentions behind the magic."

"So Arthur's Black magic can be used like White magic?"

"He would perhaps know that best himself," Erik shrugged. "But if Veronique is in essence a White magic user and Arthur a Black magic user, you would assume that you shouldn't anger Arthur while Veronique is all flowers and hugs."

"Yeah, but I know Veronique well enough to know she's capable of, well, scary things." Maarten shuddered slightly at the thought.

"Precisely. If you pitched them against one another – Veronique's vampireism aside, you wouldn't necessarily pick the winner just by knowing their magic inclination alone."

"My money is on Veronique," Maarten chuckled.

"Oh same," Erik smirked. "Arthur doesn't stand a chance."

Maarten laughed softly at the idea of Arthur trying to raise any dead to battle Veronique – with hilarious end results in Maarten's daydream.

"That said, people like Veronique and Halldór – who possessed White magic before turning into vampires should probably be categorised as grey magic users. Seeing as they receive a little Black magic from being vampires, which then mixes with their existing White magic."

"See, I think I understand but to be honest I'm not even sure what makes White and Black magic different, except by name and perhaps how it's used. Good and Evil?" Maarten rolled the pen between his fingers, trying to place this unscientific knowledge into boxes that made sense to him.

"I've been told it 'feels' different." Erik shrugged. "But White magic draws more on the energy of the person casting the magic, while Black magic tends to draw from others or their surroundings."

"So White magic is a drain on the user alone, while Black magic drains others?" Maarten grimaced. That didn't sound too good.

"Simplified, yes." Erik nodded. "But like I said, both can be used for good and evil. A White magic user can probably use the energy of others to fuel their spells, but they rely more on their own powers and what they borrow from nature. Black magic is more about 'stealing', but not all Black magic users follow the same rules."

"All right, slightly less worried now," Maarten admitted with a smile. "But it's still a little bit terrifying." He handed back the pen to Erik, watching as Erik spun it around in the air a few times before he jotted down some numbers in the margin of his notes.

"Change always is," Erik hummed. "You'll get used to it."

"Hope so. I don't think I get a return policy on all of this..."

"No. Not at all."

"Any idea of what sort of magic we'll, uh, get?" Maarten picked nervously at his own nails.

"Not at all. This isn't some magic shop where you get to choose what you get or not," Erik cracked his knuckles and grinned. "But personally I really hope I get the ability to teleport. That would be fun. I could then have revenge on the amount of times Mircea just decided to appear behind me unnoticed. " Erik chuckled darkly at the idea.

"For the sake of peace and quiet in this house I really hope you don't get that ability," Maarten frowned.

"Don't say that. I could be in the kitchen, grab a cup of coffee and be down here in the lab in less time than it takes to walk from my bedroom to the bathroom."

"You have a skewed sense of what's useful..." Maarten rolled his eyes.

"I assure you I have the right priorities at all times," Erik huffed.

"You wish," Maarten snorted. "You're a pair of thick glasses and a whacky hairstyle away from a mad scientist."

"You started all this," Erik replied bitterly. "By experimenting on my little brother."

Maarten frowned. He didn't have a very good comeback for that at all.
"Fine. So we're both mad scientists/doctors who clearly need other hobbies besides obsessively looking at blood and its components."

"Each to their own," Erik hummed. "This type of work is rather fun."

"So you keep saying... I still think you're weird."

"Do you want my help or...?" Erik crossed his arms and looked at Maarten with a stern glare.

"Like before, I don't have a choice," Maarten frowned. "Your serum is much better than the one I made, and no way can I replicate it for myself."

"Precisely," Erik smirked. "So you'll just have to put up with me and my 'mad scientists' ways."

"Me and everyone else in the house hold," Maarten sighed. "You crave more blood from us than any of the vampires do."

"But I'm the least likely to drink it."

"Really?" Maarten cocked an eyebrow. "Because I can very well imagine you drinking vampire blood to see what it would do to a normal human."

"Eh, well," Erik scratched the back of his head. "The idea has crossed my mind..."

"Of course it has," Maarten face palmed, groaning over Erik's lack of fear for well – anything.

"Someone's going to have to find out what happens eventually." Erik shrugged and poked at his microscope.

"No. Just find a serum that can properly quench this thirst and we can all move on with our lives... Please," Maarten begged.

"Our to-do list seems to just grow and grow. My experience and research papers would land me a job in any magical institution I wanted," Erik hummed. "That said, between this and transferring magic back and forth between vampires and humans and people in-between that it's a wonder my business isn't failing by now."

"Oh..." Maarten bit his lip, feeling very guilty for a split moment. "Wait... It's not failing at all, is it?"

"Far from it. But I do have a very dedicated and talented secretary/business partner who's very good at convincing people to keep investing in new projects and drugs," Erik chuckled darkly.

"Why do I get a nagging feeling Cécile has just gotten even better at her job after turning into a vampire..." Maarten sighed and massaged his temples.

"Nonsense. She's always been brilliant," Erik frowned.

"My apologies to her and you then," Maarten sighed.

"I'll accept on her behalf," Erik scoffed. "But next time you insult her I'll kick your sorry ass out of this house."

"Good luck trying," Maarten snorted.

"I don't care if you're a head taller than me and immortal. I will find a way," Erik replied darkly and glared at Maarten.

"Noted," Maarten whispered and stood up from his chair. Clearly he had overstayed his welcome.
"I'd rather not get injected with anything where I don't know what it is or does... again."

"Worked out fine last time," Erik hummed a little too happily. "Send Ivan down here if you see him, will you?"

"Sure," Maarten shuddered. He hated admitting it, but slowly all the fear he had had about Mircea was ebbing away, worming itself into other parts of his subconsciousness.
Erik sometimes unsettled him greatly.
Hell, some days he felt like everyone was a bigger threat than Mircea had ever been – and he knew that was the biggest pile of nonsense in the whole universe.

However, for every new thing he learned about the others, something he didn't feel he should know seemed to surface.