Syzygy

by HyaHya

An alignment of three celestial bodies.

Syzygy

An alignment of three celestial bodies.

A bus, a bat, and a BMW cruised into Stokely that night.

Glossy translucent wings sliced through a cool January breeze, streaking over a power line and diving close to the road to fly up the barren street to the castle on the hill. If the Stokely Sighters, a local bat-watch club was still active they would've been rewarded with a unique find. A rare variation on the vampire bat genus most often sighted in Transylvania. Perhaps the club would've noticed its strange flight path, or the length scar that stretched across the bat's form, from neck to lower abdomen. It would've seemed odd that such a small creature could've survived and healed from such a large and deep wound. The club might have speculated how the bat had sustained such an injury.

With a clumsy loop-de-loop the bat bypassed a barb-wire fence and a vandalised 'No Entry' sign. It reached the peak of the hill and stopped above a stone path, mottled with weeds and dark green moss.

Then the tiny mammal assumed the shape of a man.

For a moment Vladimir Dracula didn't move, bathing in the winter air before he opened his eyes. Entirely clad in black, beneath a sky as dark as ink, Vlad was invisible. The wind rattled his cape, wafting odours of alcohol and cigarettes up from the bottom of the hill to him.

There was a barrier now. A chain-link fence adorned with caution signs separated the castle and the grounds had been allowed to grow out of control, curling around the fences, creating a moat of flora to keep invaders away from the castle. None of the green dared touch the castle itself however, all the grass and foliage appeared to die within a foot of the stone walls. Even the stone gargoyles were given a wide berth by nature.

His childhood home blended into the night just as well as he did, blackened by flames, walled off and forgotten by the town.

Vlad could feel the miasma creeping out from the castle from where he stood. It was a sickness that prickled his skin and left goosebumps that weren't from any cold.

It had been a lifetime since he'd been here.

It had been a lifetime since he'd been the boy who'd lived here.

Now Vlad was a different man, to the point where he questioned if he was even a man at all. His life was so steeped in conflict that he'd forgotten that people around him weren't meant to betray him. He had no family left and the closest relationship he had, the only close relationship he had, was one he shared with a vampire slayer. But he was back in Stokely and he was shocked at how much emotion the sight of his old home summoned in him.

He hadn't felt this much emotion since the ambassadors.

The castle loomed above him, dark lines of charcoal crawled up its walls like vines and the windows were impossibly dark, the same kind of dark that would be found in deep ocean at night, the same kind of dark Vlad sometimes felt inside himself. It had aged, and like him, not for the better. Already, standing a dozen metres away from the door, the vampire could sense the evil lurking inside the castle. It reached out with invisible hands, tugging at his mental defences and searching for a weakness. Didn't it know that he was empty?

His mobile chirped, a welcome interruption to his monologuing. He fished it out of his jacket and accepted the call. "You here yet?" He asked.

"At the bottom of the hill now," Jonno confirmed. "There's a fence and no entry sign."

"Just drive through it," Now that Vlad focused, he could hear the soft familiar rumble of the BMW below. Jonno gave a murmur of dissent. "Drew will be fine. We'll need all the equipment on this one."

I'm not worried about Drew, I'm worried about my criminal record!" The slayer switched off the phone and Vlad listened out for the sound of a barricade being destroyed. There was the rev of an engine and a crash. Moments later Jonno had parked Drew a few feet from him and was getting out of the car. "You're never going to stop making fun of me for the car, are you?"

Vlad smirked. "Nope."

"It's what people do, normal human people!" At his look of scepticism Jonno rolled his eyes. "I guarantee you, if vampires had cars, they'd do it too." The slayer opened the boot of the car, exposing an armoury of various vampire-slaying related weapons. "Imagine that Cresil driving a car."

The vampire smiled faintly as he liberated a curved silver knife. Jonno always managed to interact with him as if he was still a person even if it was becoming very clear that he wasn't one. Sometimes he felt that he would've gone off the deep end long ago if the vampire slayer wasn't there. "He wouldn't fit in the seats."

They both continued to select various weaponry. "So what kind of spook is it?" Jonno picked out a gun with wooden bullets. "Something we haven't seen before?"

"I don't know." Vlad looked at the castle, it appeared benign, but he could feel the poison. "Whatever it is, I can sense it from out here." He plucked out several stakes and attached them to his belt. "We don't even know if conventional weapons will work."

"What about your vision?" The slayer pressed. "Is that what we're up against?"

"It's hardly a vision." Far from it, the inhuman screech that periodically exploded in his head like a lightning strike, blinding him and driving him to his knees from the pain was no vision. He had the faintest image of a corridor, with blinding light and the silhouette of a man at the end. "It won't help us with this." All he knew from that screech was that it was Stokely Castle, and he didn't even understand how he knew that.

"I'll bring the holy water then."

"Just don't spill it this time." Generally, Jonno adapted well to fighting side-by-side with a vampire but sometimes he forgot that Vlad couldn't handle certain objects. Like holy water or garlic.

Once they were both geared up, they pulled away from the car and Jonno slammed the lid to the emptied boot shut. Vlad had removed his cape and Jonno had put on a neck guard to protect against any vampire attackers. "Ready?"

"Go for it." A deep blue was peeking at the black horizon as Vlad's hand curled around the large brass handle to pull the outer door open. The stink of burned material washed out of the crack between the two doors where he couldn't make out a thing, not even with vampire night vision.

"Hey, wait!" A voice came from behind them. "HEY!"

Both vampire and slayer froze, not turning around as a pair of footsteps approached them. Jonno's hand curled towards his pistol and he hissed at Vlad. "Get rid of him!"

"I can't hypnotise him! Not with what happened last time!"

"Then hit him and we'll find somewhere to leave him!"

The vampire curled his hand into a fist, and he prepared to hit the unsuspecting breather in the head when-

"-Robin?" At Jonno's shocked voice Vlad dropped his fist and turned to face them. The door banged shut again.

An equally shocked face stared at him. Robin Branaugh, in the flesh, looking startled and unsure of himself and staring at Jonno. Then he was staring at Vlad.

"Vlad?"

"Robin?"

"Jonno?"

Vlad twisted his head to look at Jonno for some idea of what to do but the slayer had the same deer-in-headlights expression that he knew he was sporting.

Robin recovered first, an insult to vampire and slayer reaction times everywhere. "Whoa. Um. What." He started to smile, with real human emotion and relaxed, miniscule facial twitches that read and understood to be associated with comfort, yet somehow Vlad could only look at it from the outside. "This is… unexpected." His eyes kept flicking between the two of them as if he thought they might disappear. "What-what are you doing here?" He looked back down the hill. "You broke the fence."

Jonno and Vlad exchanged glances. The slayer couldn't communicate with him telepathically, but it was obvious what he was asking the vampire. How much does he know? Is the mindwipe still in place? Is he going to pass out at any moment?

Let's test that theory, Vlad thought, and snapped his fangs at the breather.

A splash of fear permeated the air. Robin's body didn't lock, his didn't face slacken and he didn't keel over. Instead he leapt back raising his arms in front of him in protection. As if that would do much if Vlad had wanted to hurt the breather.

"So that's another failed mindwipe." Vlad commented like he hadn't just made Robin's heart seize. "Chosen One indeed."

"I guess I don't need to ask if you're a vampire," the breather said hoarsely.

Jonno cast Vlad a look of disapproval. "Hi Robin. It's been a while."

"And you're a vampire slayer…" He'd begun to put two and two together. "Are you… friends?"

Vlad's brows quirked. "Well I haven't killed him, and he hasn't staked me." He cast an eye to the moon, noting its journey across the sky. "We should get a move on," he told the vampire slayer.

"-Wait-" Robin frowned "-What-what is- what are you doing?" He looked pointedly at the car, still with pieces of the initial chain-link fence caught on the bonnet. "You weren't exactly subtle about your entrance."

The slayer cast his eyes up at the great castle. "There's something here."

"Something? That's vague as hell- just what is happening!" Robin snapped.

Neither of them had the opportunity to respond as they were both suddenly occupied. Vlad noticed it first, the subtle energy of more vampires infringing on Vlad's senses, a soft movement among the overgrowth, the glint of moonlight off metallic buckles in dark patches of the grass, the sensation of eyes that he couldn't see. He nudged Jonno and the slayer caught on immediately.

Before Robin could comment on the next thing to occur in front of him. Jonno primed a UV grenade and tossed it into bushes. There were shouts and several shapes became identifiable as people within the flora.

Then there was a bright flash of light and the rustling of several piles of ash forming.

Jonno huffed proudly. "I think that was all of them; must have been at least six in that."

Vlad didn't comment as he was distracted by a shift in the foliage behind them. Faster and quieter than either Jonno or Robin could detect Vlad turned a full one-eighty to catch side of a figure charging him from a spot concealed by the castle's shadow. In the split second he had, Vlad lowered his centre of gravity and tensed taking the charging vampire head-on.

Each crash on the earth was as loud as a clap of thunder. They rolled once, he slammed the vampire down on the floor. Rolled twice, this vampire was on the blood, had fed recently – his veins were still warm. They rolled a third time and Vlad forced the vampire down, Jonno hurrying to his side.

"I'd say he's half-fang," the slayer commented. The vampire struggled against Vlad's grip, but he only squeezed tighter until both humans could hear the crack of bone. "You agree?"

He nodded.

Robin piped up behind them. "How do you -uh – know he's a half-fang?"

Vlad roughly yanked the vampire's mouth open. "His fangs are undeveloped." Two pointed canines were visible, but the secondary fangs had yet to come through. He could only be a month or so old. Vlad glanced back at the breather. "And he doesn't understand that this is a fight he's guaranteed to lose."

"Phhft!" A glob of bloody spit flew up from the half-fang and hit him in the face. "I know who you are!"

At the same moment that Vlad removed one hand to wipe his eye, his strength abandoned him. A well-aimed punch from the floored vampire had him choking on dirt and he dragged himself to his feet, powerless.

Then the moment passed, and his strength returned.

Jonno had drawn a stake, ready to defend a vulnerable Vlad but he spurred past him and caught the half-fang by the neck. His nails drug rivets in the skin as he slammed him into the main-door of the castle, and when that door buckled against the weight and opened, he slammed him again on the inner door.

The other two nervously darted in after him and the front door shut behind them. Jonno lit a flare as Vlad pressed the vampire into the hard wood, ignoring the luke-warm blood trailing down his fingers. "Oh, so you know who I am?" He smiled nastily, revealing fully-developed, gleaming fangs. "Then what kind of idiot half-fang would attack me?"

"Slayer-fraterniser! Breather lover!" Fangs snapped, and Vlad snapped back with his own. "The blood brotherhood will-" Then his expression turned from rage to nausea.

On no. Vlad drew all the power he could back in but before he could even retract his own fangs, the half-fang exploded into ash.

"Oops." The dust collapsed into a neat pile and Vlad turned to address Jonno.

"Again?"

He nodded and suppressed a shiver at the electricity thrumming through his body. Whatever was in this castle had turned him into a walking lightning rod, prone to power surges and shortages. "It's worse here."

"What's worse here?" Robin eyes were still fixed on the dust that used to be a vampire.

The vampire and slayer exchanged a glance. Vlad knew dragging humans into this was foolish. Their best bet was to get rid of Robin as quickly as possible before anything else happened.

They'd already had far too much trouble with humans getting involved.

Four years ago, Vlad might have slipped it into conversation or been subtle about his intentions, but it had been far too long since he'd properly interacted with a human to know what to do. He couldn't behave like he would with Jonno or other vampires. A month ago, he would've hypnotised him but in his present state, with his powers as inconsistent as they were, he would be likely to leave Robin a drooling mess.

So, he just said it outright. "You need to go."

Robin was indignant. "Why!? You've been gone eight years and now you don't even want to talk for five minutes?"

"No, because you can't be in this castle any longer." He could feel it creeping under the inner door. The darkness, sneaking into the air like smoke, reaching into their hearts and minds. Vlad and Jonno could summon an adequate mental defence but Robin had no idea what was getting into his psyche. Already Vlad could feel it in himself, doing its best to pull his own darkness to the surface. It was knotting him tighter, making him angrier, choleric, even hungry. "It's dangerous in here. Especially for a human."

"Jonno's human."

"But I know how to defend myself." The slayer pointed out.

Robin looked at them up and down, noticing their weaponry. "Maybe…" He took the handle of the great door and shot them a meaningful look. "This is not the end of us talking." Then he gave the handle a yank.

And another.

And another.

Vlad had a sinking feeling in his chest. The door wasn't opening. The monster in the castle had already began its games. Pretending he didn't already know that they were trapped Vlad strode over to the door with every intention of getting it open. He really, really wanted this to work.

Robin wasn't supposed to escape his world only to die eight years later.

He brushed past the breather and rested his hands on the firm wood – too firm for a castle that had practically burned to the ground – dug inside himself for each and every drop of power and pushed.

It took a little longer than he expected. To Jonno and Robin it appeared he was just pressing against the door. "Is something supposed to happen or…?" Robin said.

Then blue light exploded from Vlad's palms and into the door. The sheer amount of energy flung the vampire back into the inner wall where he crumpled. Brilliant light danced on the surface of the door, brightened, and then faded back into nothing.

The pain that now throbbed in his head didn't. With a quick tug of Jonno's hand Vlad got to his feet massaging the blackened, smoking patches of his hands.

"I'm guessing that wasn't supposed to happen." Robin quietened at the two furious looks he received.

"No," Vlad muttered. "You were supposed to get out, but it's already started." He looked at Jonno. "Whatever is in this castle is fighting." He gave a sigh that was more akin to a growl. "So, we better get moving!"

Robin flinched as a stake was shoved into his hands.

The vampire slayer led the way, handing the breather a flare of his own. Vlad brought up the rear, scanning the darkest parts of the castle for threats. This was the advantage of a slayer-vampire duo. Jonno could work efficiently in the daylight. Vlad was deadly in the dark. His sight had advanced to such point that his night vision was far superior to his day sight.

That was why he was confident he could spot any threat.

If he knew what the threat was. In his mind he imagined feral, macabre vampire-abominations, crawling along the walls like spiders, blue skin stretched taught across nothing but bones, cracked lips drawing back to expose black, dripping gums and blinding white fangs. He hoped not; Jonno didn't know about those dreams.

They swept through the castle like ghosts, vampire and slayer, well-oiled machine, a coordinated team of dark and light, perfectly synchronised, perfectly silent, perfectly deadly.

Then there was Robin.

He stomped, he stumbled, and he skidded. Vlad could only wince as the breather made as much noise as a rampaging elephant and swore twice as loudly. It was a beacon to the rest of the castle – come eat us! We are utter amateurs.

"This is not working." Both Jonno and Robin stopped and turned to look at Vlad. "If there is anything in this castle it will have heard us by now."

The slayer nodded. "What are you thinking? Wait for the spook to come to us?"

"Sort of," There was no specific spook, they couldn't find it, not within these walls, not when the entire castle was the spook. "We should find the screamer instead." Even now, there was a compass in his brain pointing in the direction of his vision. If they found what had drawn him here, then maybe they'd be able to beat the castle. "Can't you feel it? This whole castle is evil. There is noone spook."

"Agreed," Jonno glanced around, his nose wrinkling. "This place has a sickness to it." He refocused on the vampire. "I trust you on this. So, what do you want to do? We could play it like we did in Calder."

Oh hell, Calder? If Jonno was bringing up that relic then he must have felt as unsettled as Vlad. Robin was looking between them in confusion.

"Calder?" He said. "What's 'Calder'?"

"Calder is the first non-human, non-vampire issue we had." Vlad scowled. "And it was a complete disaster."

Calder was a quaint town on the border between Wales and England and they'd been summoned there by the Guild as per their agreement: if they were letting the vampires co-exist then they damn well better get something in return. They'd wanted Vlad to be their hired muscle. He and Jonno had gone into the empty expecting a simple vampire issue and had been jumped by a large number of jikininikis, a whole town in fact of corpse-eating gluttonous ghoul-creatures.

"What Jonno is trying to suggest is that we set up a perimeter and wait for it to come to us."

In Calder Jonno and Vlad hadn't been able to set up a perimeter. They hadn't had the option. This tactic came from being trapped in an abandoned building and having to banish each jikininiki with whatever they had.

A week they'd been trapped in that town. A vampire could barely go without blood for four days.

Vlad took in Jonno's solemn look. The slayer was drumming on his stake, and his other hand rested on the salt bag he had hanging from his belt. "How about a moving perimeter? If we can find what's causing the visions, then maybe we can-"

The vampire didn't hear the end of his sentence.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

It was happening again.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

Through tears of pain Vlad could see down a corridor, one that had to be from this castle. There was a blinding light at the end. A figure was just visible through it.

The sound intensified, and the image became nothing more than shapes.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

His balled his hands into fists, nails biting into his palm. It racketed through his head, a burning, screeching noise that was too powerful and too loud and too shrill!

Then as quickly as it had come, it was gone.

He was on the floor; his hands were wrapped around his head and the castle was shaking. The two humans were out of his view, but he could hear Robin's frantic heartbeat. "I'm fine," He mumbled into the floor as he sat up. Jonno grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to his feet.

"That one was worse than normal," The slayer commented.

"This is normal?!"

Vlad ignored Robin's startled question. "It's because we're closer. As soon as we find whatever it is, I'll destroy it."

He took off before Robin could ask any more questions and let the humans silently trail him.

The first room they entered was the throne room and the dark presence increased to the point it was almost tangible. Vlad spotted two dust stacks immediately. It was a startling thought to know that one stack of dust belonged to his brother in law.

Five years this castle had been untouched. Ingrid hadn't been back after she'd done her best to raze it and Vlad had never wanted to confront the memories that lingered here. Apparently, he'd have to now. Five years that this castle had been corrupted.

His father's precious throne was a skeleton of charcoal. Likely to be one of his sister's fits of rage. The long table that often stretched down the room had been cracked in several places and dark slashes of burns had melted the finish on the wood.

Jonno looked the room over. "Ingrid really did a number on this place."

"Ingrid did all this? Turned the castle evil and all that?"

Vlad stared up at the ceilings, half expecting some creature to be lurking up there. "No." The arches were free of monstrosities. "Everything that happened here had a combination effect on the castle." His sister had done some evil things, but she didn't have the power to transform the castle in this way.

The Chosen One was afraid to find out who did. Because someone had poured power into this castle until it had turned dark and if they couldn't solve it, they couldn't get out.

They might even be as powerful as him.

"Where even is Ingrid? What happened to her?"

Jonno shot a concerned look at Vlad as he kicked an abandoned chair. It flew across the room and smashed to bits against a wall. "After I put on the crown Ingrid tried to kill me, we ran, I found her agfain four years later, then she lived with us for a year or two, tried to kill me some more, now she is in Germany." He answered curtly.

Robin caught the dangerous element in his voice and steered away from the subject of Ingrid. "So, are you like Grand High Vampire now? What do you have to do?"

They followed Vlad into another room. The vampire ignored Robin's question.

As they swept through rooms Robin turned to Jonno as a source of information. "Why is he so… different?" He could cut off the breather's interrogation now, inform Robin that he could hear him perfectly and would hear him perfectly from outside the castle, but he was curious. He hadn't felt curious in a while. Not outside of rightfully suspicious and vampires didn't tend to have intriguing conversations. Was this the effect of being exposed to a human? Jonno barely counted in that department anymore – he was as deprived as Vlad was. The vampire regretted bringing the slayer in to his black hole of a life – the guild treated them both as outsiders now, but he needed Jonno.

One last tie to humanity, one last reason to hold back the abyss that had taken the place of his soul.

"He's a vampire." Jonno replied stiffly, aware that Vlad could hear everything they were saying. "Would you expect him to be the person you knew eight years ago?"

The castle was devoid of life but not presence. Every time they stepped through a new door Vlad felt like choking. He also felt like satisfying the urge to feed, the compulsion to strip both Jonno and Robin of their blood far more tempting than normal.

"No, but he's… he's… dark." Robin swallowed. "He's moody and angry and nothing like how he used to be."

"None of us are." The slayer had changed, he was tactical and hardened and he was protective, but Vlad knew that Robin was focussing on the dark personality that he'd now adopted. "We grew up."

Another empty room, another stifling rush of corruption. He did his best to ignore Robin and Jonno's conversation behind him.

"Look, the life we've been living since Stokely isn't the life either of us wanted. A lot of stuff has happened. It changed us."

Nine years ago Jonno wouldn't have been speaking of Vlad as if he knew the vampire intimately.

He hadn't meant to change. At sixteen he became a vampire, but only in body and at seventeen he was bitter and sour but that had been human. Even when he'd faced his reflection, he hadn't felt that changed him.

It was the time that had changed him. The door that he'd put between him and his dark-self had been opened so wide that he could never get it closed. He couldn't work out what belonged to him and what didn't.

The slayer had changed. He'd become wise and brave. He'd also become grief-stricken, cynical and overly, dangerously, self-sacrificing. Sometimes Vlad wished the slayer had been saved from his influence. But what would become of him without a conscience like Jonno?

"Have he ever… you know?"

"What?"

"Killed anyone."

Vlad almost stopped short but managed to pass it off as scanning the ceilings. Too many. The shadows clung to the hollows of the ceilings like clouds and the he was surprised that even his vampire-grade vision couldn't penetrate the dark. Behind him he felt Jonno shift.

"We've all made sacrifices for this." A sigh. "Vlad more than most."

There was something familiar about the castle – not just the fragments of his childhood – the monster that had taken hold of the castle. He recognised it and he couldn't identify from where or how. Vlad didn't have time to ponder the familiarity however, as the conversation behind him had become impossible to ignore.

"Is that a yes?" Robin's voice was one of disgust. "But you're meant to be the good guys! When I knew him Vlad would've been freaked at the thought of killing someone! How can either of you just be okay with that?"

"What were we supposed to do?" The vampire veered around and hissed in Robin's face. "A lot has happened to me that I didn't want to happen, and I've had to do many things I haven't wanted to do." Robin skittered back at the venom in his voice. "I don't need a breather to tell me what I've done wrong. You have no idea of the things I've done!"

Oh, the mistakes Vlad had made. Enough to last him more than a few lifetimes.

He didn't need Robin to remind him that he was a murder. Would his old friend like to hear how he hadn't always killed out of necessity? That some of his kills were out of anger, some hunger and some were even accidents? He didn't think so. Vlad marched away leaving Jonno and Robin to trail after him as he ascended the staircase.

Jonno tried to run damage control. "It isn't like how it was when we were kids. You have no idea what we've sacrificed, what he's sacrificed." Their conversation quietened to the faintest mumble as Vlad ignored the two breathers and focused his hearing on the creaks above him.

Soft measured steps, multiple footsteps, too quiet for breathers, too clumsy for something as malicious as the castle they were in. "Shh." A quick glance back with his finger on his lips muted Jonno and Robin. They crept up a stairwell in the direction of the hushed voices.

About half-way up the stairs he'd sensed what they were and communicated as much to Jonno. The slayer drew a crossbow from his back and loaded it. They'd done this so many times before that it was almost second nature. A couple of steps before the top they stopped. Jonno managed to tell Robin to stay put and Vlad clenched his fists.

It was all over in a matter of seconds.

Slayer and vampire flew up the stairs and into the room. The door shattered into sawdust and broken planks under the force of his shoulder. Vlad launched off a table and dived across the room, taking one assailant to the floor while Jonno fired his weapon and a stake embedded itself into the heart of the other. The vampire exploded into dust.

"Wow, that was- wow," Robin blinked at them from the doorway. "That was something else."

Vlad sent the breather a withering look before turning back to his captive. His knee rested on the vampire's ribcage and his hand was clenched around their throat, rendering them incapable of speech. "So, the blood brotherhood figured out I would be coming here, and they set up a trap. Except you got stuck in the castle and your backup got left outside."

The vampire made a choking sound.

"I should kill you. The ambassadors and now this? Do you think you're untouchable?"

Another choking noise, then a shake of the head.

He released the vampire's throat and she glared at him helplessly. "Your Grandness," She said.

"Iona."

Jonno's crossbow had been dipping towards the floor but at the name he raised it again. "This is Iona?"

A blonde vampire who shared Ingrid's tastes in make-up and clothing – and her bite. She smirked at him. "In the flesh."

A swift knee to the stomach had the vampire curling into a ball. "Don't look so pleased with yourself yet." Vlad snarled. "You're going to explain what you're doing here." Iona scowled at him and rolled her eyes.

"You know exactly what I'm doing here."

"I want to hear it from you." And then he would kill her. Or let her bargain some more. Iona was too obsessed with her own survival to ever fully commit to a plan. She'd side with anyone as soon as it benefited her, and until they escaped, she'd be safest on Vlad's side.

"Yeah fine." She glanced at the pile of ash that used to be her companion and a dart of fear crept through her movements. "I got wind from the brotherhood that they knew where you were going to be, so I joined up with them to try and kill you."

"Wow, this sounds kind of familiar." Jonno growled. "It sounds like you're confessing to treason, again." He readied his crossbow. "Pretty sure that means execution."

Vlad watched Jonno load up his crossbow with another stake and point it at Iona'a chest. He nodded at the slayer to continue.

Her eyes shot towards Vlad. "You're just going to let him dust me? Vladimir, I confessed! You don't need to kill me."

"Why should I stop him? You confessed to treason."

"No!" She snatched Vlad's wrist as Jonno slowly pressed down on the trigger. "I can tell you about Ingrid!"

Of course, Ingrid was involved. Only Iona would get involved in something as stupid as this on her orders. But Ingrid tended to forget that Iona wasn't as loyal as her other soldiers. Iona would sell out her own flesh and blood to survive.

Robin, who'd been watching everything go down finally chipped in. "Okay what is going on? Who is Iona and what does this have to do with Ingrid? You said she was in Germany!"

"This is Iona." Vlad explained to the breather. "She was originally a council member, and Ingrid's right hand until they decided to betray me. Ingrid escaped, Iona didn't." He smirked at the vampire in question. "Do you remember begging for me to spare you?"

Iona glowered. Instead of rising to his jab, she said, "I'll tell you about Ingrid."

"Go on then." Vlad felt his emotions bubbling. It had been two years since the incident with the ambassadors and it had been two years since he decided to forget about human feelings, but he still couldn't entirely stifle the rage and betrayal and hurt that threatened to overtake him when he heard her name.

"She's-" The walls began to rumble. Loose titles and debris fell from above, the arches concealed by darkness – even from the eyes of vampires.

"Move!" Jonno fingers curled around the arm of his jacket. A chunk of ceiling, about the size of coffin dropped and crashed onto the spot he'd been standing. Shards of rock were flung clear, many embedding themselves in the backs of both slayer and vampire. They clattered to the floor.

Missiles continued to plummet from the ceiling. Vlad's eyes wildly searched the shrapnel clouds. Iona was out of sight, most likely crushed; Robin was ducked under a table and Jonno and Vlad were completely exposed.

The vampire rolled on top of the slayer. Jonno's blanched face showed he'd reached the same conclusion as Vlad. A quick glance at the ceiling showed the storm of projectiles wasn't stopping and with his powers as erratic as they were Vlad knew he wouldn't be able to flit them out of there. He met the slayer's determined eyes. Vlad locked his back against the falling rubble and braced his form over Jonno's.

He squeezed his eyes shut.

Vampires were resistant, Vlad exceptionally so. But that didn't make the debris shattering on his back any less painful. He flinched and grunted through the collapse, concentrating all his energy on maintaining his powers.

It stopped. The crashes faded into silence and Vlad could finally hear his own thoughts again.

Jonno groaned as Vlad crumpled on top of him. "Ow…" He muttered into the vampire's ear. "You okay?"

"Will be," The pain was already fading, the smallest of cuts and bruises already sealing up. In a day or two he'd be healed, faster if he had blood.

"Are people okay?" Robin's voice rang out from somewhere in the ruin that used to be a room. "...Anyone?"

"Just about!" Jonno wriggled out from under the vampire. "A bit battered." He amended looking at Vlad's prone form.

Vlad was pretty sure stakes were less painful than this. As he tried to get to his feet, the hundreds of shards that had embedded themselves in his back protested. It had ripped through his jacket to his bare skin leaving an innumerate number of splinters. He stripped off his jacket to pull out a particularly large chunk of ceiling and winced as each movement caused more sharp pieces to drop out of his back.

"There you guys are- Whoa." Robin stopped, eyes fixed on a point on Vlad's spine. "Was-was that from the rocks?"

Oh. He'd seen that. His back was sure to be bleeding and must look gnarly but he was pretty sure he knew which scars the breather was looking at.

"No." He said shortly, shrugging his jacket back on, ignoring how much it still hurt. "Are you injured?"

Robin shook his head, but Vlad could smell fresh blood emanating from somewhere. With the cocktail of adrenaline and hormones pulsing through his veins he probably didn't even realise he was injured.

Something dripped into the vampire's eye and Vlad brushed away the blood leaking from a cut on his brow.

"Ok." He said. "So, everyone who matters made it?"

"HEY!" The shriek came from the centre of the room, where the largest rock had fallen. Iona glared at him, pinned by one leg under a large chunk of ceiling. "I have information," She spluttered. "You have to get me out."

Vlad wanted to let the blonde rot. But she offered a valid point. He fixed his hands around a corner of the boulder. "When we get out of here, you're going to tell me everything you know and not leave a thing out."

The vampire nodded fervently, tugging at her leg.

He braced one arm beneath the rock, prayed to Satan that his powers wouldn't fail and hoisted the weight crushing Iona. She wriggled herself free.

"You're the one who should've been hit with this," She moaned as she got to her feet, balancing with Vlad's arm. "You walk away from everything without a scratch."

He ignored Robin's eyes on his back, but Iona noticed them anyway.

"Well not everything..." Eyes wide with wonder she reached out an arm to trace the scar. Even after two years it was unhealed. Scar tissue had grown out of him like a vine, marring the front and back of his torso and snaking up to his neck. Only now it was visible, thanks to the tears in his clothes. "Even after two years..."

He snatched her wrist, tight enough to crunch bone. "Don't."

The pain of it still remained. Who could forget the rending of flesh? Blood exploding from new rivers in the skin, the physical pain and the agony of betrayal merging into one torture as he crumpled in Jonno's arms.

The slayer was frowning at them. Vlad assumed he was reliving the memory too until he spoke. "I think she's right."

"What?"

"Who was that rock meant to hit? Her or you?"

Vlad eyes flicked to the piece of rubble in question. Unlike most of the projectiles, it hadn't exploded and rested exactly where the he'd had placed it after freeing Iona. Now he thought about it, the path of the missile had been unusual – it had been exactly the spot he and Iona had been standing.

He looked at Iona, the other vampire coming to the same conclusion as him. "You've been stuck here what, a week?"

"Two days."

"And this is the first time the castle has been this violent isn't it?"

She nodded, and a sigh heaved from his chest. "So, the castle is targeting me."

"But why?" Robin asked. "Why does the castle want to kill you specifically?"

The two vampires and slayer just looked at him. Vlad gave a bitter laugh. "In my life it's more of a who-doesn't-want-to-kill-me than a who-does." He looked out the window. Dawn should've been rising by now, diurnal crawling through the cracks in the bricks but it was dark. Inky blackness in every direction. He glanced back at their little strange group. How the hell were they getting out of this place in one piece? "We need to get moving," There was darkness in this castle and they were breathing it. "Every second we waste gives the castle another chance to attack us." With a growl he tucked the falling sleeve of his jacket back onto his shoulder and started off through one of the corridors. He wasn't sure where his intended destination was, maybe an abandoned bedroom or a study. They needed to plan their next move and not out in the open.

As they walked the group fell into natural pairs: the vampires upfront, the living behind. Iona maintained a significant distance from Jonno and his crossbow and the slayer was also apprehensive. Vlad was the one who knew how to handle other vampires.

"So it just won't heal, ever?" Iona's gaze was fixed on his neck, his collar exposing the top of the scar. She talked with a familiarity, as she hadn't been begging for her unlife the last time they'd talked.

He glared at her. "Shut up Iona. Or if you're going to talk to me – the information you promised would be an ideal topic."

"Hmph. Fine." She pointedly looked away. They walked in silence for a moment, then she talked. "The blood brotherhood has been sitting on this place for years. When we got wind that you would be coming here, we reached out to some of your enemies."

"And you came? I assumed after the ambassadors you would stay under the radar." Seeing Iona was bringing back old memories. Having to think about Ingrid, the ambassadors and his childhood was wrenching up memories he'd much rather avoid. He'd shut them away for a reason. He'd shut them away because emotions hurt, and the Grand High Vampire couldn't be weak.

"I did." The vampire didn't expand but the implication was clear – she came back to the fold because Ingrid asked her to. They passed a suit of armour, the visor open exposing a black nothingness at all. The same impossible blackness that lurked in every nook and cranny corrupted the knight as well. Iona's eyes observed it with the same fear that she observed every open doorway. "We're vampires." She growled. "We're not meant to be afraid of what's in the shadows – we're the things in the shadows!"

Vlad looked down at the shorter vampire. "Whatever is here… It's..." It was familiar – that was for sure, but the vampire was keeping that to himself. "It's something dark."

"It's evil." She agreed. "More than just normal-evil."

Most to all the rooms on this floor were locked, and the ones that were open were unusable. They were nothing more than charcoal and splinters destroyed by either Ingrid in the past or the castle. Vlad took them down a level. He was pretty sure whatever they were looking for was going to be at the deepest point in the castle.

But they needed a plan first.

"Don't your breathers know you can hear them?" Iona muttered in his ear as they crept down the stairs, ducking in an alcove as a suit of armour, animated by the monster in the castle, walked by. Jonno and Robin were a little further back, in deep hushed conversation, as they had been the entire walk. Vlad had done his best to ignore them, because he knew the topic would be him.

"Jonno does." The slayer couldn't not know – his ears had got them out of scrapes in the past. Vlad knew exactly what the Van Helsing thought of him anyway and they'd been a team too long for stray words to damage their trust.

The pair behind were as expected, discussing him. "But why doesn't it heal?" Robin was saying. "Vampires don't scar, and he's meant to be more powerful, isn't he?"

"Some weapons… some weapons can scar."

"Like what?" An argentalium blade, treated with garlic, imbued with as much power as Ingrid could muster.

"This isn't my story to tell." The slayer shot Vlad a concerned look, and the vampire knew he was reliving that night. "Honestly I don't think any of us want to talk about."

"But you're both-"

"Just talk about something else Robin. If you want to know – ask him yourself but don't expect a good reaction."

Iona raised a dubious brow at him. "I don't get why you're so hung up on the whole betrayal thing. We're vampires – you knew it was coming." Vlad had always known it was coming. He knew that Ingrid would never settle for second best. His hope had been that she would give him a decade or so before she turned on him – he'd wanted just a little longer with his sister. Grand High Treason wasn't a joke and Vlad knew that sooner or later he'd have to stop Ingrid permanently.

He'd just wanted to wait a little longer. And she'd punished him for that.

She was forcing his hand with his actions – she wanted a showdown because she thought she could win – she thought that he wouldn't kill her.

Vlad fixed his eyes on Iona, but he couldn't summon the energy to force a neutral expression. "I let it happen. Sentimentality, weakness got to me. Is that what you want to hear?"

Iona shrugged. "I don't know." She stared at him with an expression of true bewilderment – searching his face for something. "Why are you like this? Why aren't you like other vampires?" For once there didn't seem to be an ulterior motive in her questions – her blue eyes were clear and questioning. "What are you?"

It was a question Vlad had asked himself often, especially after his transition into one of the undead. Even with the power of one thousand evil reflections inside him, with urges and hungers like any other vampire he still clung to his remaining for dear life. It was as much a part of him as his fangs and his powers and he didn't know what he'd be without it. Surely being the Chosen One meant he was a vampire in its truest form – yet he was a minority in his own species.

"Your guess is as good as mine."

He pushed open a near door and glimpsed inside. This would do. Iona went silent and Vlad gestured to the pair behind them to get in. They were in a study, one of many they'd passed. This one had an operational fireplace and several chairs which they moved to sit around a coffee table.

Jonno cast a cautious look around the room they were in. "I may have gotten lost in the castle before, but I know it didn't have this many rooms."

"Whatever is in this castle – whatever is this castle is messing with us," Vlad growled. He glared at the closed door. "And the longer we stay here the more extreme it's going to get. It's using me like a battery – or trying to at least." It was a sort of tugging sensation. Vlad imagined that was what was causing the surges and declines in his powers; the tug of war between it and him. The thing that had taken the castle for itself had a connection with him that Vlad couldn't figure out, and it was doing its best to abuse it.

Robin had stayed quiet since they'd settled in this room, and Vlad had a feeling he knew why. He glanced over and saw the breather looking at him with the same expression Iona had. Who are you? What are you?

He wished he knew.

"It didn't get extreme until you got here," Iona pointed out. "It might come to you if we use you as bait." She sounded a bit too enthusiastic about the second part.

"Oh, so you know how to fight a castle?" Vlad asked her sarcastically. "We don't even know if there is a separate entity controlling this place."

"At least I'm making suggestions."

"Terrible ones."

The vampire shrugged and settled back. "You do it then Chosen One – save us all." She flapped her arms dramatically.

Vlad ignored her and started talking to the only real tactician in the room. "Jonno. If we started working our way down this maze do you think we've got enough weaponry to hole up in one of the crypts?"

"Maybe." The slayer had a grim expression. "You think the castle will start sending tangible threats our way?"

"I'm surprised it hasn't already." The castle was angry with him. Something in this castle hated him and was powerful enough to corrupt the entire castle. They didn't even know the limits of this thing. And for some reason it was disrupting his own abilities.

Jonno dumped several stakes on the table. "Weapons here. If we're going to get down to the crypts, I need to know exactly what we're carrying."

He then proceeded to place several cloves of garlic, a bottle of holy water, his stake-firing crossbow and a handgun.

Vlad nodded but didn't move. He looked at the vampire on his left. "Iona. Weapons."

The female vampire looked back. Then shifted, then squirmed, then dumped a small stake on the table. "Fine."

"And the rest?"

"What rest?"

Vlad's eyes started to glow red.

Three knives appeared on the table, along with two stakes, a coil of argentalium razor-wire and finally a small metal disc.

"Wow." Vlad looked at the selection of weaponry. "You really were desperate to kill me." He picked up the disc. "You know a UV cage wouldn't last right?"

Iona's lips were set in a taut expression. "We hoped it would delay you for long enough." Her eyes wondered over to the wire. The contraption was pretty ingenious. Vampires could hold the ends of the metal that weren't treated, heat up their hands as if they were going to throw a fireball and use the hot argentalium wire to slice their victims neck clean off. If they got the drop on him the blood brotherhood's weapon might have even worked on him.

He pocketed the wire. "I'll keep this if you don't mind."

Vlad added his own arsenal to the desk. An argentalium dagger, four stakes and several short, sharp chunks of argentalium.

Then they handed out the weapons. Vlad got the knives, Jonno and Robin took the stakes and the weapons vampires couldn't handle between them, as well as Jonno's stake-launcher and much to Jonno's disappointment Robin got the handgun with wooden bullets as it was the weapon, he would likely be most proficient with.

Iona looked at him expectantly. "Well, what do I get?"

He gave her a small knife. "Can't trust you with anything that can kill us." A small smile quirked at the edge of his lips. "Good luck."

"You're a bastard Vladimir Dracula. This is a death sentence – you don't have the stones to kill me yourself so you're going to let this blasted castle do it for you."

"Fine." Vlad grabbed one of the stakes and pressed it against Iona's chest. "Do you want me to do it now? Because I can."

She drew in a sharp breath. Her wide eyes focussed on him, searching his face. It was the same expression she'd donned the first time he'd nearly killed her; absolute fear and terror, as if she couldn't believe someone would try to kill her.

Vlad didn't break eye contact. "Just say the word and this is over."

A minute passed. Vlad could hear Robin twitching.

Then Iona broke away. She looked at her knees. "Please don't."

He removed the stake and added it his belt. "I'm glad we sorted that then." Without another look at her he got to his feet and headed to the door. "Come on kids, we're going to the crypt."

Or he made for the door. He didn't actually make it as on his third step his knee buckled.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEE-

A hallway. Blinding light. The figure.

Vlad shook his head as he came out of the vision. He was on one knee and the castle was shaking. Iona, Jonno and Robin were all looking at him with differing degrees of concern.

"See anything useful?" Jonno asked as he pulled him upright.

"No. Same as always."

"Are your visions always this painful?" Iona asked curiously, her fear momentarily forgotten.

"No." Vlad felt safe admitting this to the vampire; there wasn't much she could do with the knowledge. "Most of the time they're actually helpful."

He made for the door again. He didn't make it.

The screeching obliterated his mental barriers the never-ending SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE- reverberating around his skull. Just as the image of the hallway began to form he felt a hand touch him.

SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-

His head burned. He was back in the corridor. The light at the end was so bright he put up a hand to shield his eyes. As the light was obscured he realised that it wasn't just him and the man at the end of the hall. Iona was there, staring straight into the light, staring at the figure in horror.

He bared his teeth at her. "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

The eruption of rage was so strong that it ripped them both straight out of vision, back into the room with Jonno and Robin where Iona was thrown into the furthest wall. She crumpled. Vlad was over there in a second.

"Don't ever do that!" He roared. "Don't ever go in my head!" His hand had closed around her throat and lifted her off the ground without even thinking. "You are not welcome in here!"

"Vlad!" She gurgled. He couldn't stop her breathing but having one's neck squeezed was still immensely uncomfortable, especially with Vlad's crushing grip. "Leggo." He didn't release her. "Vlad! I saw- I saw him- the man at the end-" He dropped her neck and pressed her up against the wall.

"Who," he growled into her face, "was at the end of the hall?"

She stared through her sweaty matted hair to meet his eyes. "It was you." She started to tremble. "You were at the end of the corridor."

Vlad finally let go of her. "Me? It can't have been." He closed his eyes and pictured the hall, trying to make out the man at the end. "How could it have been me?"

"I don't know how." Iona whimpered. "I just know what I saw."

"Let me see." He placed his hand on her head. Obediently, she invited him into her mind. He saw himself, crouched on the floor, fighting to gaze into the light. It didn't blind her, it seemed as though the piercing glare was only directed at him. He could see through it, right to the end where a man stood.

Iona was right. It was him, with the black eyes and fangs of a monster. The man winked, and then Vlad heard his own scream of "GET OUT OF MY HEAD" and then the memory faded.

"I don't get it." He said stepping back. He looked to the slayer. "It was me."

Jonno looked as stunned as he did. "It was just a vision though? Could it have been some sort of trick? What if it's the castle?"

"No. This is the same thing I've been seeing for months. I've just never been able to work out who was on the other side before."

"What do we do with this knowledge?" The slayer looked at Iona's shivering frame. "What does this mean for our mission?"

"I don't know." Vlad answered. "We're just going to have to keep going. We can't let it stop us, otherwise we're never getting out of this place." It couldn't be him… He had been completely in control of himself ever since he'd merged. Even when his temper had taken over he'd always been semi-cognizant. It had to be an illusion. But just to be sure… "Jonno."

The slayer stopped at the door. "Yes?"

"Did you bring the knife with you?"

Jonno didn't need clarification. "Yes..." The slayer said slowly. "I've kept it on me ever since the ambassadors."

He wasn't angry that the slayer had it with him; with some of the accidents Vlad had been having it was hard to blame the man for wanting some piece of mind.

"Good." He said. "We might need it."

Robin looked between them. His skin was ashen and there was a sweaty sheen to his skin. Vlad had seen it in Erin; humans weren't supposed to get involved in vampire business. It never ended well. "What's the knife?" He asked.

Vlad looked over at Iona. The vampire was clutching her knife as if she expected monsters to fly out of the shadows. He nodded at Jonno.

The slayer reached into his vest and pulled out a sheaf. It was made out of a very unique leather with argentalium beads sewn into it. Jonno gripped the handle and pulled out a combat knife.

It seemed to glow with an unnatural blue tint. Vlad reached his hand out to touch it and the blue intensified. The power within it harmonising with his own. Robin was transfixed.

"What is it…?"

Vlad looked at it solemnly. "It's a weapon the slayers could use against me if they needed to."

"We won't ever need it." Jonno said. "It's just a precaution."

Vlad himself had insisted on making it for Jonno. After a close call he decided he couldn't keep expecting the slayer to work with him without a way of protecting himself. The garlic-treated metal had burned his hands when he'd handled it, and once he'd concentrated all his energy into the blade the thing had sliced into his hand simply by him holding it.

That blade was the only thing he was sure would kill him.

Jonno put it away. As soon as the weapon was back in its sheaf Vlad relaxed. He hadn't even realised that he'd gone stiff as a board in its presence.

He looked at straight at the slayer. "If you think it's necessary – use it."

Jonno nodded. "Only if it's necessary."

They headed for the door. Vlad pulled Iona up from the floor. She flinched away from where his fingers touched her.

This time when they ventured out into the castle they didn't separate into two groups, they stayed in one tight-knit formation. The energy in the castle seemed to have intensified, as if it knew they were coming for it.

There was so much hatred in the air. So much had happened here to corrupt the castle, to a point beyond salvageable. Vlad had already decided he was going to destroy this place once they got out. There were too many ghosts and too many memories here to leave alone.

Vlad stopped the group and squeezed his eyes closed.

"What are you doing?" Iona hissed.

"I'm trying to control the castle." If powerful events could influence this place, surely the Chosen One might have some sway of the corrupt location. He concentrated his energy, pushing it out of him and into the air. The castle resisted. There was something pushing against him, a malevolent presence that fought him at every turn.

His knees buckled as his power left him. "Agh!" Charcoal and gravel bit into his hands.

"Okay," he said as Jonno, for the fourth time that day, helped him to his feet. "Whatever it is doesn't like that." He looked around and smiled when his eyes landed on the statue in question. He led the group towards it.

Iona and Jonno looked vaguely confused but a look of confused joy was forming on Robin's face. The breather grinned at him, "I guess you haven't forgotten everything then,"

Without even thinking about it, Vlad had smiled back. It was only when he turned to face the statue, he'd realised he'd done so. "Well, I may not be able to control the castle, but I can influence it a little. Moving my favourite statue to us wasn't too hard."

He grasped the candle-holder in the gargoyle's hands, feeling almost decade-old wax crack and crumble underneath his fingers, and turned the candle-holder, and the gargoyle's wrist itself ninety degrees. A passage opened beside them.

He winked at Jonno who was staring at the newly opened door in shock. "There was a reason why you always got lost in Dracula castle."

The passage revealed a set of stairs descending into blackness which only Vlad seemed happy to see.

"Where will this lead us?" Jonno asked.

"This used to be the path to the blood mirror. The mirror's no longer in this castle but it is by far the most defensible room here. And I've got a feeling we should go there. Come on," he said producing a fireball in his right hand, "torches and fireballs if you would."

Then they followed Vlad into the dark.

And it was dark. The vampires couldn't see further than their ring of light and the breathers had even worse visibility.

"Stay together," Jonno instructed as they walked down the spiral staircase into black. "We have no idea what will happen if we step out of the light."

"I imagine," Vlad mused, "that whatever is here will be able to do whatever it wants to you if you can't see and we will have no way of rescuing you." He raised an eyebrow at Iona, "so don't step into the dark."

The tight coiled chamber of the staircase eased, and they entered into another corridor. Upstairs light had been limited but there had always been a slight bit of natural light, despite the blackened windows. It leant to Vlad's theory that most of what they were seeing was an illusion, but it meant that below ground level, away from the windows there was no source of light outside of their own meagre torches.

Once they reached the bottom of the staircase Vlad raised his hand and the group stopped at his back. He snapped his fingers.

Candles all along the corridor lit up. Iona gasped. "This is the vision…" She muttered, her eyes flicked between Vlad and the hall before them.

It was a thin passageway, only a pathway to the mirror room but even without the blazing light Vlad could see this was the origin of his vision. He ignored Iona.

"You should know," he stated calmly to the others. "That it wants us to come this way. If it didn't I wouldn't have been able to light the torches."

"But you want to go to it anyway," Robin realised.

"We won't be able to get out of here until we confront this thing. Jonno?"

"Vlad,"

"You ready for a fight?"

"Always."

They walked forwards. The corridor seemed to stretch as they went. What had already been a long corridor in Vlad's youth was now a trek with only foreboding black at the end. "Any idea what this thing will be?" Jonno asked the vampire.

"I have theories." But he didn't tell Jonno anything more, nor did he tell Jonno of the apprehension that was building up in him. He was feeling more now, much much more, and he was starting to understand how closely connected he was to this thing.

They reached the end of the corridor. The torches behind them were all lit but ahead there was nothing but the pervasive darkness, impossible to penetrate.

Vlad snapped his fingers.

Nothing happened.

"Come on," he growled under his breath and snapped them again.

Still black.

Then just as he was about to try something else the room ahead lit up.

The mirror room had changed. Unlike the rest of the castle it seemed to be the only the thing that had been changed. What had been a crowded dusty room, walled by old masonry was a large spherical chamber with stairs leading up to where the mirror used to be. Instead of the Dracula blood mirror at the top of the steps, the entire room was walled with mirrors so that at every angle the breathers could see themselves, alone in the mirrors.

His stomach twisted.

"It's here." He muttered. "It must be."

He closed his eyes and reached out with his powers.

Where are you? He asked the darkness. What are you?

Then, he felt it.

Anywhere else in the castle he wouldn't have been able to feel past the evil aura of the castle. Perhaps if he was stood even a step or two further back he wouldn't have been able to feel it but now he felt it clear as day.

This was why his powers were playing up. But it didn't explain the state of the castle, nor the state of this room. This room had been set up. This castle had a mind of its own.

There was someone else at play, and they held all the cards.

But Vlad couldn't do much else than play into their intangible hands.

He walked to the centre of the room, eyes closed, sensing. At the middle he turned left and walked the radius of the chamber and stopped by one of the staircases. He opened his eyes, knelt down and picked up the small object.

It was a bone. A tiny joint, only the size of a child's pinky finger, but the power contained in this one joint was more energy than the two breathers and Iona combined.

A tiny joint that had a direct line into Vlad's being and his powers.

His entourage had wandered over by this point. Jonno looked at Vlad, paling. "That's from the crown…" He stated slowly. "Your crown."

Vlad nodded. "It's the reason I've been seeing things and the reason my powers have been on the fritz." He held it up, squinting at it. "Almost nine years it's been here gathering dust. The crown must have been damaged after I first put it on, and this piece has been just here, all this time."

"But that was in the throne room, what's it doing down here? Who would put it here?"

Things were starting to make sense, and not in a good way and Vlad was beginning to think he might have an idea of who was behind this.

He didn't voice his theory- he didn't get chance to.

"Who would indeed?" It was his voice, unmistakably. But it didn't come from his mouth, it came from the other side of the room.

It also didn't sound like his voice, there was a little too much cheer, too much glee.

He turned smoothly on the spot and stepped through Jonno, Robin and Iona to face his voice.

The man that stood at the top of the stairs was Vlad. It all locked into place as he began to descend the stairs.

In each of the mirrors around the room, the man was reflected from every angle.

Vlad raised an eyebrow. "Did you get lost? I turned sixteen seven years ago."

His reflection laughed lowly, and his voice echoed around the room.

A quick glance at the humans at his back told him they couldn't see the reflection the way he could; their eyes were fixed on the mirrors where the ghostly image of his monstrous self was laughing. Iona's face was pale, but her eyes dead focussed on his reflection.

"You're one to talk. You didn't face the mirror properly for almost a year."

In sync, they approached the centre of the room and began to circle each other. "So, what did you do? Did you run when I forced you out the first time? Left the others to merge and ran and hid? How did you even survive like this?"

The reflection raised his eyebrow, a perfect mirror of Vlad's expression moments before. "You have a connection to the crown, as Grand High Vampire, even before you were anointed," his dark-self explained. "I felt it, and when I realised you weren't ready, I used the connection to get to that." He pointed at the bone still between Vlad's fingers, "And once I was in the castle…" He raised his arms and spun in a circle, "Well it just responded to me from there."

"You?" Iona's voice, shaky and shocked, came from where she stood with the two breathers. Jonno's hand was resting on his argent blade. "This energy? This castle? It's all you."

His reflection shrugged. "The castle was already angry from Ingrid, I just nurtured it."

Iona looked at Vlad. Her expression was so horrified and her eyes so wide. He could see her asking the same question she'd asked earlier. What are you? But it wasn't due to the good in him anymore. It was the evil standing before them.

It would've been a lie to say Vlad wasn't scared. He hadn't been scared for a long time, but this took him back to his years as an inexperienced unweathered vampire. They'd always been taught to fear the reflection and Vlad just had to face it again and again and again. He wouldn't be overwhelmed. A thousand reflections and he still hadn't been overwhelmed. But he would always fear it.

"Is your plan to stay here? To trap me in your castle and steal my powers? You know it doesn't work like that. You don't belong out there. You belong in me."

The breathers were whispering behind him, but he didn't care to listen, not while he stared at his reflection.

"You aren't a body to take Vlad. We need you," his other self said, his voice almost loving, "We wouldn't be our full most powerful self if it was just reflections. You balance out the madness. You are the logic, the conscience, the restraint. Without it we'd be mad as Sethius."

Sethius. Another concept still able to summon fear in him. On meeting the man he'd been so sure that there was no way they were ever the same thing. But perhaps they were a mirror. Sethius was the monster he had the potential to become. Powerful, unstoppable and utterly mad.

This wasn't just one reflection standing before him, Vlad realised, there was more to this. This version of his reflection was a powerful one, possibly the piece of him that had always been missing. His absence may have been the reason why there was good in Vlad at all.

His reflection closed its eyes, inhaling. "We're so close, I can feel your emotions. Fear. I can take that away. With me, we'd have nothing to fear." Vlad stepped back as he felt the mental probe of his other self. It was that poison that had been in the air, that had followed them through the castle. "Pain too," he was coming closer to Vlad. He couldn't let them touch. If this reflection got a hold of him Vlad feared who he'd become. "Those scars," he reached out to touch Vlad's neck, but the vampire flinched away. "Traitors, fools and enemies. With me you'd heal, and with me, no weapon on earth would stop us."

"And what would we do to the earth?" Vlad asked. He was under no illusions that his reflection wasn't trying to sweeten him. "I don't think you believe in stopping."

His reflection grinned, showing a set of sharp fangs. "Whatever we want."

"Vlad." Jonno's voice. The slayer was looking intently at Vlad. He recognised that expression, they'd fought so often together that they had their own non-verbal form of communication. He was asking what are we doing?

"You could keep the slayer alive." His other side said, "Love is something that even a vampire can have. You could have anyone you wanted, with me. The humans too. Once we're together you'd be able to see everything for how it's supposed to be."

Vlad nodded but stepped back when the reflection reached for his arm. They began circling each other again, and his dark self's inviting look twisted into a dark snarl. "I've been waiting for years," he growled. "Please don't make me wait any longer."

"Jonno?" Vlad asked, keeping his eyes on his other. "You remember Sethius?"

"Evil, old, completely insane. Said he was the Chosen One. Yes. How could I forget?"

His other's eyes were becoming cold. He could sense what was coming.

"Any idea why he was that way?"

"I want to say, 'he's a vampire' but that just comes off as racist now,"

They were still circling. Those eyes were glacial. "I think he was the Chosen One, or he was close enough that he could've been if he'd gotten his hands on the crown. And I think I'm looking at the reason why powerful vampires become insane."

Just as his other self leapt with a snarl Vlad amassed all the power he had and pulled it from the bone. Then as time slowed, he ran towards Jonno, Robin and Iona, snatching them up and sprinting out the room.

Having wrestled at least some of his power back from his reflection Vlad was able to negotiate the castle without fear of being lost.

They stopped in Vlad's old room at the top of the tower.

Iona darted away from the Grand High Vampire the second they stopped while the two breathers just swayed on the spot. Though Jonno was far more familiar with Vlad's method of travel than Robin, the slayer still had a distinctly green tinge to his face.

"Well…" He vocalised. "That's not good."

There was a hysterical giggle from the other side of the room. Iona flopped down on Vlad's bed. "Not good? This is- This is just fantastic. You know this means that the castle isn't some evil thing to kill," her eyes were ringed with purple and her skin had a clammy consistency. "It's just you." Her eyes stared deep into him. "You're the monster."

Vlad didn't have a response to that. He turned to the window instead and tried to open the latch. No luck. He wasn't expecting it to. His reflection had likely set this whole thing up, so he couldn't run away. Already, he could feel the malevolent controller of the castle hunting him down. It wouldn't take him long to get to them.

He cast an eye about his surroundings.

The room was unchanged.

Vlad's wardrobe was still open from where he'd gotten dressed for that evening. His school bag was discarded by one of the chairs and dirty washing peeked out from beneath his bed where it had been hiding for nine years.

All that had changed was the heavy coating of cobwebs and dust that adorned all the furniture. All that had changed of the room, anyway.

Vlad realised the boy that had lived here was dead.

And Vlad had to work out what he was going to do about that before the monster got there.

"Why is your reflection still running about?" Iona seemed to have switched from fear to anger. "What happened when you turned sixteen? Did you not face the mirror?"

Vlad shot her a glare to silence her but Robin and Jonno had recovered from their motion sickness.

"Yeah," Robin said, "Ingrid tried to run from her reflection, but she couldn't become a full vampire until they merged."

Vlad was faced with three very curious faces.

Iona scowled. "If you'd done things like a normal vampire we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"I'm not a normal vampire!" He snapped. "And for your information, I have faced the mirror – twice in fact."

The curious faces did not abate. Vlad took a calming breath.

"I faced the mirror when I was sixteen and met my vampire side for the first time. We merged, and I thought that was the end of that." He spoke slowly and calmly though he knew he was on a time crunch. He hadn't had to vocalise these things before. It felt like he was telling them a terrible secret. "However, while I was trying to open the Praedictum Impaver I kept hearing whispering coming from the mirror. When I got close enough to investigate I was thrown in."

He paused, reliving those memories. The cavernous, stone rooms, a tangible dark and the prickling sensation as if someone was laughing at him but he didn't know where they were. Thinking about the castle he should've twigged – this oppressive atmosphere had his reflection written all over it.

"…Vlad?" Jonno prompted. Vlad realised he'd gone silent.

"In the mirror I found out where the true power of the Chosen One comes from. Not a reflection, but reflections plural. I was briefly overwhelmed." He didn't give them a number. He didn't want to. It only showed just how destined he was to turn down a dark path.

"There were some teething issues and we separated. I assume that was when the one downstairs split from the pack. Then I merged and found a balance. But apparently I missed one."

Jonno pursed his lips. "What if you merged with this one? You'd have all the power over the castle. If you managed to control the others, and you're… not crazy, then could you just absorb the one here?"

"Maybe." Vlad said carefully, "But this is one is… stronger. He's been siphoning power off me for years through this," he wiggled the bone from the Crown of Power. "And he's been absorbing all the energy in the castle. We could merge but we might be evenly matched."

"And if he's stronger than you…?"

Vlad met the slayers eyes. "Think Sethius,"

Jonno nodded.

"That's where I'd be headed."

Jonno blanched.

"But we don't have any other option, do we?" Robin pointed out hoarsely. "Unless you can get out us out of the castle the only way, we're leaving is through him."

Vlad swallowed. "Yes."

"Is there something we can do to improve your odds? Weaken him?

"I've taken back as much power as I can through the bone, but he's intangible, you can't harm him. I can't even harm him." Vlad put his fingers to his temple and sighed. "The only thing I can do is merge."

A moment of silence passed.

Vlad curled his fingers around Jonno's wrist. "You've got the knife – if it looks like I'm losing it – you go for the kill. Don't hesitate."

The slayer put his other hand on Vlad's in response. "I'll do it if I have to. But you're strong. Whatever mistakes we've made to get here, you've never not tried to do the right thing."

I can't believe I'm saying this," Iona said, "But I've felt your reflection's presence. I would take you over him any day. Forget being a proper vampire. At least you're mostly sane in this state."

Robin clapped a hand on Vlad's shoulder. At the start of the night the vampire would've flinched away. He didn't now. "You've changed, and I don't know what's happened to you over the years, but I've seen enough here to know that you're stronger than you've ever been."

His reflection was back in the mirror chamber when Vlad finally ventured down. "I thought about chasing you," his other said as Vlad, flanked by Robin, Iona and Jonno, stepped over the threshold. "But then I realised you'd have to come and get me anyway." His eyes glittered red. "It's time to be complete. I've been waiting."

Vlad stepped forward hesitantly and his reflection laughed. "I don't know why you're so nervous – it's not like you haven't done this a thousand times already." He smirked at the inside joke.

Vlad took a breath.

His reflection swiped at his hand, but Vlad dodged his hand out of reach. "No," he said, "not like that."

Then he snatched his reflection by the neck. The second his fingers made contact they began to fuse into one. As fast as Vlad had been his other half whipped round and snagged Vlad's throat. They leaned into each other, moulding into one unit.

Vlad's face was centimetres away from his other's face. The reflection grinned, a maniacal delight glowing in his red eyes, "I've missed you," he breathed and then the pain became unbearable.

Vlad couldn't have said how long had passed between grabbing his reflection and becoming whole, only that some time later he came to, his eyes blinking softly, on his knees, looking at the stone floor of the mirror chamber.

There was a slight shift to his right and Vlad's head shot to look at the source of the noise, his eyes bled to black and his fangs descended, instinct leading him by the hand.

Two humans were backing away from him, one with a heart like a rabbit, swift, watery pumps of blood pulsing erratically around his circulatory system, and the other, calmer with the more potent cocktail of a vampire killer. His eyes were searching Vlad's face for mercy, for weakness, for some indication that the vampire wasn't about to rip his throat out.

He couldn't find any and drew his weapon.

The slayer's dagger glowed blue and he recognised his own power within it, but he did not care. If he thought hard enough, he would be able to pluck the names of the human's out of his mind, and remember who they were, but right now he didn't care. He didn't want to know who they were, he just wanted to spill some blood.

His lips curled into a bloodthirsty smile and he unfurled from his crouching position.

There was another vampire in the room, one that Vlad had been ignoring; if she knew what was good for her, she'd stay out of his way until he was finished with the humans.

She decided to interfere.

It was almost sad, how outrageously slow she moved. In what must have been a blink for the breathers the vampire sprinted to the slayer, snatched the glowing knife from his clenched fist and headed for him, the weapon arching high above her head to obliterate his heart.

Or it would've if she'd moved a bit faster.

Vlad snatched her out of the air, swinging her by the neck like a ragdoll. He bent her arm until the knife dropped out of her grip and kicked it across the room and then, waiting an instant for her eyes to widen in terror he drove his fist into her rib cage. Flesh and bone were no match for his restored strength, and he plunged into her chest cavity up to his elbow. Dark vampire blood began to drip onto the stone tiles.

Her eyes unfocussed a little as she felt his fingers among her internal organs. The lungs and the stomach didn't matter but as soon as his hand got near her heart, she began to writhe and squeal, a difficult task while Vlad's hand was crushing her windpipe.

He released her neck and the vampire began to talk very fast. Begging, mixed with moans of pain, mixed with promises and deals, mixed with insults and venom, mixed with apologies spilled out of her. Vlad ignored her incessant chatter and instead pointed his arm at the slayer who'd been creeping towards the knife.

A whirling fireball of blue flames formed in Vlad's outstretched palm. "Don't," he ordered. "I'm with it." The slayer's name was Jonno, and they were friends, he remembered that now.

"I'd be more likely to believe you if you weren't pointing a fireball at me."

Vlad extinguished the ball of flame. "I'm with it." He repeated and refocus on Iona who'd resorted to tears by this point. Her eyes were rheumy and red, and her lips set in a swollen pout.

His hand brushing her cheek soothed her and her eyes brightened with hope at his gentleness. He crawled his free hand up her face, first stroking her wet cheeks and then moving his hand into her hair to massage her scalp. When his eyes rolled back into his head, she realised what he was doing and let out a piercing scream.

But he was already in her mind at that point.

Love was very rarely found in vampires, and Iona was no exception.

But the admiration she held for Ingrid Dracula bordered on worship. In fact, she was obsessed with both of the Dracula siblings. She wanted them both, to respect her, to give her power, to want her.

He dug through her interactions with Ingrid.

"One of the courtesan's reported that the Grand High Vampire collapsed in the hall yesterday."

Vlad found himself standing beside the Iona. She knelt at the step of an ornate throne. His sister leered over them, looking as deadly and cut-throat as the last time they'd seen each other. This time however, she wasn't coated in a hefty layer of Vlad's blood.

"Did the courtesan happen to find out why? Or am I simply being informed when my brother trips over or stubs his toe?"

Iona ignored Ingrid's venomous tone and proceeded. "His Grandness-" Vlad's sister hissed at the title "- Vladimir, I mean, fled back to his study before the courtesan could discover the cause of his weakness but almost immediately after he left the castle and was spotted next in Northern England."

"I know this one," Ingrid smirked, "then he ran to a certain slayer and now they are gearing up to storm my fortress."

"This doesn't seem to be about you at all, Countess. One of our spies in the slayer's guild heard that Van Helsing was preparing for a trip to Wales."

"So, he's going home. Finally got the stones to visit the old castle."

Iona remained silent, waiting for an instruction. Vlad took the moment to study his sister's face. She looked immaculate, as always. It had been more than two years since he'd seen his older sibling and his last memory of her face had been the moment her expression had shifted from righteous fury to something almost… guilty. Jonno had been dragging him backwards, firing a spray of garlic juice in Ingrid's direction to prevent her from finishing the job. He hadn't tried to kill her, Jonno knew too well that Vlad couldn't let that happen.

Vlad and Ingrid would always be locked in this battle. They couldn't let anyone else kill the other, yet they would hurt each other over and over and over again.

Ingrid smirked. "I've got a task for you Iona. The blood brotherhood has been watching the Dracula castle in Stokely for years waiting for Vlad to come back, I want you to go and warn them of the good news, and then I want you to be there and watch while they kill my brother, or if you can manage it… kill him yourself."

"Yes, Countess Dracula."

Vlad pulled himself out of Iona's memories and back to reality. He was parallel with her snivelling face. She wasn't speaking but her eyes were pleading, that same pleading when he'd charged her with treason two years earlier.

"Good news Iona," he smiled, "I'm not going to have you publicly executed."

Before the vampire had time to react, he locked his fingers around the static organ that was her heart and pulled, hard.

"I'm going to do it right now."

She turned to dust before he even had time to remove his hand.

He shook himself off, scattering the ashes that used to be Iona and looked at the two breathers.

The vampire slayer was shaping himself up for a fight, he'd retrieved the knife had it raised between himself and Robin, and Vlad.

He nodded at Jonno, "I'm fine," he said honestly, "I had a moment there, where I…" Where he would've torn the two of them to shreds. "- I'm okay," he reaffirmed. "I'm not going to snap."

Robin was looking at the remains of Iona, "I think you just did."

"She had it coming."

There was a moment of silence and Vlad noticed Jonno studying him. He let the slayer do it, knowing that Jonno's trust had been shaken slightly by Vlad's almost-attack on him. Ironically, in Iona's desperation to kill him she most likely saved the human's lives.

Jonno finished his assessment while Robin fiddled with the zips on his jacket. Vlad rolled his neck, feeling all the muscles uncoiling. He hadn't realised just how much he'd been lacking until now. His reflection had been draining his powers and strength for years; being restored now, felt like waking up after putting on the crown for the first time again. He hadn't had this motion in his neck for years either. Vlad frowned. There was something missing.

He ran a hand along the skin of his throat, feeling for the uneven scar tissue. His skin was as soft and unblemished as the day he was born. Slowly, as if the scars and the pain would return if he moved too fast Vlad unzipped his jacket and pulled his t-shirt away from the front of his chest. His eyes scanned his torso looking for the enormous scar that cut through his centre like a fault line.

Nothing. Just white, spotless flesh.

"The scar…" Jonno was as astounded as Vlad was. "It healed…"

Vlad patted his chest again, checking that had hadn't somehow missed the marks where Ingrid had tried to slice him up the middle. "My reflection wasn't lying about healing…"

He rolled his neck again. Oh Lucifer, it felt like he hadn't felt this good in decades. He could move again, he had his full powers, and most of all he wasn't empty.

He sighed deeply and grinned sincerely for the first time in years. "It's gone." He glanced around at the room of mirrors and raised a hand. He just wanted to test… just feel that new feeling.

He snapped his fingers.

Robin and Jonno both jumped as every single mirror in the room shattered into a million pieces. But none of the pieces hit them. Even the mirror that had exploded right behind Jonno had broken away from the slayer without a single shard connecting.

"So, your powers are back, fully?" The slayer asked though he didn't look comfortable.

"More than fully. There's no way I would've been able to heal that even without the drain on my abilities."

He didn't even know where his limits lay anymore.

"And there's nothing left in the castle?"

Now that Vlad was whole, he could feel the castle in its entirety now. It could've been an extension of himself. "Completely clear. I'll give us a straight-forward route back."

There was no miasma over the castle on their exit and Vlad allowed the darkness to recede from the windows just enough that the breathers could see. He didn't know whether the sun was out yet, but he was not inclined to risk being toasted.

Once they got to the front door, Jonno stuck his head out.

"It's still dark. Must be 4-5 in the morning by now."

"Great," Vlad affirmed. "Step away from the door,"

Robin and Jonno both cast each other a glance before stepping back. Vlad lazily raised one palm and batted it in the direction of the door as if swatting away an irritating insect.

The door exploded off its hinges and flew several metres until it landed a few metres away from Jonno's car.

Jonno swore. "If that had hit Drew… Grand High Vampire or not, I would deck you."

"I got it," Vlad affirmed. "No more accidents. My powers are fully under my control again."

"You think you'll be able to fix David?" Jonno asked. The question was voiced in casual tone of voice but both Vlad and Jonno knew the true weight it carried.

Vlad swallowed. "I hope so." He looked up at the castle. "Oh Lucifer, I never want to see this place again."

He raised a hand and clenched it into a fist.

The castle seemed to fold in itself. A tremble, not unlike an earthquake, rattled the entirety of Stokely as the foundations of the Dracula castle disintegrated. Support beams began to fall, mortar and stone tumbling as wood snapped.

Until there was nothing more than half-broken walls and rubble.

Vlad flexed his hand, watching the tendons in his palm twitch. "If I can do this… Surely I can undo it." He cast his eyes to Jonno, though the vampire hunter was still watching the remains of Stokely Castle fall in on itself.

Robin looked between them and wisely decided to not broach the subject. "So um... what happens now? Actually, first, did all that happen? Or is this some crazy dream and am I actually still asleep on the shuttle bus?"

"You're not dreaming," Jonno told him. "And as for what happens next…" He looked at Vlad.

The vampire nodded regally. "I've got to go back to Transylvania to announce Iona's death and what I've discovered about Ingrid's whereabouts, and I'm assuming Jonno has reports to write," he looked at Robin, "but we should catch up. We'll have to arrange something between the three of us."

"You know, if you keep telling the council about Ingrid's plans, you'll never catch her," but for some reason Jonno didn't look too unhappy about that. "She has a lot of spies."

The vampire shrugged. "That's the plan."

Jonno looked at Vlad carefully. "Are you sure you're good? I just…"

He smiled. "Honestly Jonno, I've never felt better."

"But you felt the castle just as I did. You said it was evil."

The skin-crawling sensation of wandering the halls of something so dead and corrupt wouldn't leave Vlad any time soon.

"It was." He agreed.

Then you get why I'm concerned," the slayer gestured at the remains of Stokely castle, "whatever was in there, is now in you. You say you're better than ever, and you seem happier than I've ever seen you. But the atmosphere in there was sickly. It was dark and I don't know where that sickness has gone."

Vlad sobered. "You're right about that. But I can't feel anything wrong. I just feel… better." He shrugged. "Vampires aren't meant to be without their reflections. I want to say it's possible that our separation caused all that as a side effect."

Jonno didn't seem convinced. "Maybe. Just… be careful Vlad. You've nearly lost yourself before. I don't want to see it happen because we missed something."

He nodded. "You've always been a good friend to me Jonno. I'll try and stay objective. If you think I'm going down a dark path, stop me."

Then the vampire took off into the sky.

Jonno looked at Robin, "you alright? It's been a while since you've been involved in this… stuff."

He shrugged. "Could be better, but y'know I'm not dead, or dying. I've definitely gone through the stages of supernatural acceptance at double speed this time." He shrugged again, "don't really not what I'm feeling. Need some sleep to be honest. I barely slept on the bus and I've been up since 9 am."

"Right," the slayer agreed. "You want a lift? Assuming your parents haven't moved."

"Nah they live in the same house as always and a lift would be great, but you should probably stay as well, it's not like you're going to be able to drive to wherever home is after being up all night."

"You think they'll be alright with that?"

"Yeah. Paul and Ian are away so I'm sure Mam will let you sleep in one of their rooms."

"Thanks."