TITLE: Tempted By Power

CHAR: Ingrid Dracula

GENR: Drama

A/N: This is just a short One Shot, as it's my first story... Please let me know what you think and above all let me know what I should write about next? I'd love hearing some ideas!

Ingrid sighed as she stood in front of the mirror and looked at the place where there once was a reflection. She missed being able to look at herself. No matter how evil she thought she looked, she couldn't quite bring herself to feel it on the inside. All the black, all the make-up, the new hair, everything she had changed about her appearance, all of it was to make her look dangerous. But she couldn't see if it had paid off. She couldn't see if she looked as terrifying as she wanted to.

Sighing again, just for dramatic effect, Ingrid stood up and strode across her room to the window. All her life she had had to bow for the Chosen One. Now she stood in a dusty room with a second hand coffin and a cracked mirror fixed against the wall, reminding her that she was second place. Yet she couldn't bring herself to kill Vlad. She wanted to, really, she did. She just didn't want to be the one to do it. He was her baby brother, and despite her father permanently choosing him over her, she would miss Vlad if he ever left her life.

When she'd caused a bloodbath in Stokely it had pleased her much less than she cared to admit. Every time she sank her fangs into a terrified child, she thought of Vlad. She thought of Robin, even. She had spared the Brannaghs, she had let them get away. Ingrid had tried to persuade herself to believe that that was only because she would never lower herself to drink their disgusting blood. She knew it wasn't true. Too much had happened, and however irritating Robin might have been, he had admired her. He had been the one that made her feel special when her father couldn't be bothered.

Ingrid took a step back as a ray of sunlight broke through the window. She was sorely tempted to stick her foot out and watch it turn into dust. It wasn't like anyone would miss her. Will was gone, Vlad hated her, Robin was probably hiding somewhere far away. Her mind wondered to the only other male in her proximity who had given her any attention. Betrand. She couldn't deny he was handsome, with his curly hair and his swords and his voice and... Stop yourself you bloody fool. Ingrid shook her head, Bertrand was just like the others. Just like her father. All he wanted was power, and she was simply the doormat he would clean his shoes on before he'd step over the threshold of leadership, following Vlad.

If Ingrid could cry, she would be doing it, but she had locked all her tears away. Crying was weak, and Ingrid could not afford to be weak any longer. She had to think of a way to change things, to make her father see that she was a better leader than Vlad, a stronger leader. She would make him proud of her somehow. He used to tell Vlad to be more like her, and even though it was not a direct compliment, Ingrid had felt a little proud at his words, and she tried to grow more evil with each birthday. Now, Vlad had a thousand evil reflections of himself within him, and there was no way she could beat him. Even the one thing she had prided herself on to be better at, he had beaten her at.

But she would get him. One way or another. If power was the only thing that could make her father see that she was equal to any male vampire they had ever known, then it was power she would get. Ingrid pulled her foot back from it's dangerous position. She would not become dust without a fight. Will had died again trying to stop slayers, and if Ingrid ever turned to ash it would be whilst battling for leadership.

She would be the Queen of Darkness. She would be so fierce that her father would cower in the shadows when she entered a room he was in. She would force the breathers into hiding whilst vampires would live in the open. She would show the men that they were beneath women. She would show Vlad that he was nothing more than her pathetic baby brother, too scared to bite his breather girlfriend as she had done with Will. If there was a Chosen One amongst the Dracula's, it would be her. Soon enough they would all know it.

Before she left the room, Ingrid cast one last glance at the mirror as it shattered into a thousand tiny pieces.