White Hot Panic (Leon and Maria)

Leon was approaching his home quickly as the noon day sun hung lazily in the air. This was rediculously early for him to be home but he didn't care. His job was on hold right now. Why? Because his job wasn't the most important thing in his life. The most important thing in his life was Maria and she was in terrible danger. And he would protect her. He would protect her even against this new kind of threat. No matter what it meant, no matter what he had to sacrifice, he would protect her from this threat.

Opening the front door, he immediately closed it. It was midday after all and Maria was a vampire, if she got hit with a stray sunbeam from sunlight that strong she'd been red for weeks. All of the curtains were securely closed, as they always were when he left in the morning. Moving through the house he couldn't find Maria on the ground floor at all,

"Maria?" he called out, panicking slightly more now, "Maria where are you?!"

Maria had been laying in bed upstairs she had been feeling a little tired recently and she didn't know if she was just lethargic from the lack of blood she had consumed recently and there was also the idea that she had not been very active lately, she had been staying inside, cleaning and making Leon's Christmas present.

She had planned to decorate the house for Christmas while he was at work, but as she heard some noise from downstairs she gave out a muffled moan and crept out of bed, gently padding down the stairs in her bare feet and pyjama's Maria smiled sleepily.

"Bonjour my love, did you forget something at the office, you know I could have sent it via Floo if you had just let me know." she yawned a little bit, showing her fangs, as she did so then she tilted her head to one side and she frowned a little bit, Leon didn't seem to be his usual self and he seemed to be more than a tad stressed, what could have happened? "Are you alright?"

As soon as Maria appeared he turned to her and grabbed her by the shoulders, holding her still as he proceeded to do a very quick glance over every part of her. And he wanted to see every part of her to check if she was infected. When he was reasonably sure that even if she was it wasn't far along, he hugged her as tightly and as desperately as he could. So tightly that he didn't ever want to let go. Of course to a vampire it probably wasn't all that tight but to others it would almost have been bone crushing,

"You're alright!" he cried happily before looking up into her eyes and seeing the bags underneath her eyes, "Are... are you alright Maria? Are you feeling well?"

He was beginning to panic again and he really didn't want to freak her out too much if she did turn out to be infected. Guiding her upstairs to their bedroom, he encouraged her to lay down on the bed,

"Have you been feeling.... have you been noticing a complete lack of energy?" he asked hurriedly before forcing himself to calm down slightly, "I'm sorry it's just... there's been some horrible news Maria... meine leibling..."

Maria smiled widely at Leon when he looked at her happily and the hug she could tell was tight for humans but she wasn't really bothered by that she enjoyed all of Leon's embraces, but she knew that there was something wrong now...she knew something had happened at his work, something involving her maybe?

"Yes of course Leon!" she smiled lightly "Why wouldn't I be alright, I was just having a little sleep in that's all, did you try to call me or something, I didn't mean to worry you." Maria smiled, now a little nervous, what could be wrong, she was getting more than a little freaked out now.

Now back upstairs she yawned and lay back in the bed, it was so very comfy and she wanted nothing else but to fall back asleep again, but she knew she had to answer Leon's question, it seemed so important to him.

"I'm okay...I'm just a little tired, I thought it was because I haven't really fed much recently." she tried to reassure him, even though she didn't know what she was reassuring him about "Why what is it that you have heard Leon?" Maria asked, now worried herself.

Leon was just so happy that the infection hadn't taken her away from him like it was already doing to others across all of magical europe. He wanted to ensure that she was safe from this and it pained him to know that he couldn't do that yet. That he didn't have the cure which could save her,

"Mein gott, meine leibling..." he whispered quietly, "It's... it's awful and it... it can affect you as much as it can affect me and that... that's never happened before..."

Taking a moment to calm himself down enough to tell her what the problem was, Leon looked her in the eyes as he whispered,

"There's a new virsus, a magical disease." he told her quietly, "It's broken out. But... but it's been confirmed Maria... it's fatal to everyone who catches it so far and... and vampires can catch it just as easily as humans. Your natural immunities can't fight it."

Maria smile faultered a little and she felt her expression get a lot heavier and she wanted to be able to draw some reassurance from Leon but he seemed just as stressed as before, perhaps more so than she had ever seen him, apart from when they left each other for that short while.

"What can?" she asked getting more and more frightened, nothing shook Leon like this unless it was serious "Leon you're scaring me my love you never normally want to discuss your work with me...let alone rush home to do so,"

Biting her lip Maria sat upright in her bed and her eyes widened, she really had no idea something like that could happen, how could something affect a vampire, they were technically dead their cells didn't respond?

"B-but how?" she asked "W-what does it do? How can you tell if you have it...? Is there a cure being developed, I mean, is this very serious, how many people have it?"

Knowing she was asking lots of questions Maria crossed her legs and sat up properly in bed, wanting to make sure that she was awake and alert for this conversation, it was so important that she did so.

Leon didn't know what to say. He was still trying to deal with the reality of the situation himself and he had no idea how she was actually going to take it. He didn't want to scare her either but the fact of the matter was that however he presented this to her she was obviously going to find it rather horrifying. He couldn't imagine having lived for decades knowing that you were naturally immune to deadly diseases only to find out it wasn't the case anymore,

"This is less about work than it is about you and the other vampires being in danger." he told her urgently, "Vampires aren't resistant to this virus Maria but they don't know it yet."

He shook his head a little bit as he processed the questions that she was asking him,

"We're not sure. All we know is that it targets the person's magic. In the case of vampires it attacks the body as the magic in vampires is in the body..." he sighed quietly and turned away, "Estimated 35 people with the disease who were still alive this morning. Another 56 dead already. There's a joint effort with Britain to find a cure but... but until then the fatality rate is 100%."