Duncans vs. Vampires

Summary: Teddy discovers that her ancestor was a vampire thanks to a school project. When she and her family are then protected by wizards because of a dangerous vampire coven, she begins to think maybe the A wasn't worth it.

Chapter 1

"Hi Charlie! You know that history project I had to do over the summer?" Teddy said to her video camera, in the typical upbeat tone she used for her diary. "Well..." She frowned, then panned the camera over to the living room coffee table in front of her, which was covered in old family pictures and documents. "It's not quite done yet."

Seated next to her on the couch, Ivy grabbed the front of the camera and turned it in her direction. "Turns out, your family's more messed up than even I thought."

"Cute," Teddy retorted as she she pointed the camera back at herself. "She means that researching the Duncan family tree involved calling some of our more...unusual relatives. Like cousin Mia, who's an actress in LA." Teddy paused. "Yeah, we couldn't talk to her long beecause she was in a restaurant. Where she works as a waitress. But it's just temporary until she gets another gig."

"If it's anything like her last one, she better keep her day job," Ivy remarked. "I doubt 'Friend #2' on a sitcom that wasn't even picked up pays very well."

Teddy glared. "Hey, My Neighbor, Bigfoot had a lot of promise. The writers just had some trouble when they realized...Bigfoot isn't really that interesting."

"Or how about the cousin who tried to sell us car insurance? After we already told him we don't have a car?" Ivy said, her eyebrow raised.

With a long sigh, Teddy turned back to the camera. "Sorry about her, Charlie. We're just frustrated. You see, my teacher for advanced placement U.S. history thought it would be fun if everyone looked into their family trees over the summer. Then when the school year starts, we can match up everyone's ancestors to the time or place we're studying. And when I told you this at the beginning of the summer, I thought it would be fun too. But as it turns out - "

"It stinks. See, assignments like this are why I didn't take AP history this year."

Again, Teddy glared at Ivy. "Really? Silly me, I thought it was your C-minus in history last year."

"Hey, you want to get snippy with me, I can go home. You don't need my C-minus brains helping with your advanced placement project," Ivy snapped as she stood up to leave.

"No, Ivy, don't," Teddy said. Reluctantly, Ivy sat back down. The tired blonde gave her best friend an apologetic frown as she turned off the camera. "I'm sorry, I'm just so stressed. This project is due in two weeks, but I only traced as far back as the early eighteen-hundreds."

Ivy shrugged. "Sounds like enough to me."

"And it is. But on the assignment paper, the teacher said the only way to ace this project was to trace back until when your ancestors immigrated to America," Teddy explained. The task seemed totally impossible at this point. Calling cousins and great aunts, searching public records, and reading captions on the back of ancient pictures only got her so far. Her oldest-known ancestors were her many-times-great grandparents on her dad's side, who were upper-class, sophisticated plantation owners in the pre-Civil War south (she still had a hard time believing that one). But records indicated that those great-grandparents had been born in Georgia, and there were journals of her great-grandmother's that confirmed her family had already been in the same town for generations. Any farther than that, and Teddy was stuck.

Amazed, Ivy just shook her head. "Man, I feel bad for the kid who's Native American Indian."

The joke was a welcome distraction from her anxious thoughts. Teddy laughed. "Who knows, maybe that's me. Given my luck with this project, I probably will have to go all the way back to before the United States was even the United States."

"At least your mom's family was easy enough," Ivy reminded her. "Great-grandma Kathleen came over from Ireland through Ellis Island in the 1940's. Done and done."

"Yup. That was the beginning of the summer, when I was filled with so much hope," Teddy said wistfully. She then glanced at the pile of papers again and stood up. "I think we deserve a break. Want a snack? I think there's still some brownies left, if Dad didn't bring the whole box to work for lunch."

"Right behind you," Ivy said, and the two went into the kitchen, where PJ and Gabe were on the hunt for snacks as well. Charlie sat in her high chair, cared for the boys since Amy was also at work, and Teddy needed to work on her project. Good thing the baby was happy to play with some toys, since the brothers weren't giving her any attention.

A book in his hand, Gabe was saying, "Look, you said the girl at the music store was smart, right? You tell her you're helping your little brother with his homework, she'll think you are too."

PJ just smirked. "You have to read The Blind Side. Just watch the movie! It was good - you know Sandra Bullock won the Emmy for it?"

"Mom won't let me rent it," Gabe whined. "And we don't have movie channels."

After a second of pretend consideration, PJ shrugged. "Sucks for you." With that, he grabbed a bag of chips on his way out to the basement.

A look of pure desperation crossed Gabe's face, and he went over to his sister. "Please read this book for me! Please, please please!"

"Get real, squirt. I've got enough work of my own," Teddy said as she pushed him aside on her way to the snack cabinet.

Ivy laughed, but took pity on the boy. "We have the DVD at my house. I'll bring it over tomorrow."

"Thank you!" Gabe exclaimed as he gave Ivy a suffocating hug. "God bless you, Ivy!" He tossed the book aside and ran into the backyard, all while screaming, "I'm free! I'm free!"

The girls laughed while they broke out the snacks. "I wish my project could be done by renting a movie," Teddy said with a sigh.

"T, your project couldn't be done after a whole summer of work," Ivy replied. "You did your best. And it's your first assignment, chances are it won't even count for much."

"I know, it's just..." Teddy paused as she took a bite of delicious brownie and swallowed. "At some point during the summer, my motivation changed. Not only do I want an A. I want to know. But now I'm not sure if I'm ever going to find out."

When talkative Ivy had nothing to say, Teddy took it as silent agreement. And her cue to reach for another brownie.

Even though he was starting his first year of classes at New York University in two weeks, college wasn't even on Justin's mind. Mason had been returned to full form a couple of weeks ago and, despite the progress Justin had made to get over Juliet, he had quickly reverted to his determination to cure her. Part of the reason he'd at first able to put his longing for her aside when Harper confronted him was because he'd accepted that he couldn't help the vampire, no matter how hard he tried.

But the magic instruments that cured Mason gave him new hope.

Before, he'd been using his many contacts from Wiztech to see if there was a spell or a potion that would reverse Juliet's aging. Unfortunately, every full wizard he spoke to insisted that wizard magic had very little effect on vampires, certainly not enough to cure Juliet. That was why the Stone of Dreams couldn't help him. Naturally, the enchanted object that had saved his family was his first thought when he began his research. However, after reading up on the Stone, he realized it was made of wizard magic. So even though it could reverse time, it couldn't bring Juliet back. Of course, he'd considered wishing that the incident in Transylvania never happened, but messing with time was just too risky.

That said, he'd also realized that the charmed instruments were wizard magic as well. Still though, it helped him develp a different theory. What if, similar to the instruments, there was an object out there that could be the cure? An object with a different kind of magic?

At the moment, he was in the lair on the wizard computer, emailing a wizard archaeologist he'd met when the scientist gave a lecture at Wiztech. Professor Greene had mentioned in passing that a large chunk of marble that'd been chipped off the actual Fountain of Youth had been discovered. Authorities suspected it had some of the fountain's de-aging properties. Justin wanted to know if any of those suspicions had been confirmed since the lecture had been given a year ago.

Right as he clicked "send," the lair door opened. Justin quickly put the computer away and grabbed a random book, so he could pretend to be studying. When he started his research, he thought it would be best if he didn't let his family know how much time he actually spent on it. They'd he worry he was obsessed again, which he really wasn't. Okay, maybe a little. But not enough where it affected other aspects of his life too much, so he felt justified in keeping the secret so he wouldn't be hassled.

His father walked in, and Justin waved. "Hey Dad, time for Alex and Max's lesson?" While he pissed showing off his superior knowledge to his siblings, he was glad he didn't have to attend class anymore. He had more time to research while most of his family was preoccupied.

"Yeah. Boy, I miss having you in class," Jerry, then let out a nostalgic a sigh. "It was nice when somone actually paid attention. Did their homework. Passed a test. Shoot, at this point I'd be happy if either one of them showed up on time."

Justin chuckled while he put away the decoy book. He didn't need it after all since his father wasn't curious why he was in the alir. "I thought Alex was trying to be a better student."

"Well, that went out the window when Mason came back," Jerry explained with a frustrated groan. "Apparently, magic only matters to her when she's alone and depressed. Now she's all, 'Daddy, I'm going to give up my powers for Mason anyway, so why bother?'" The quotation was said in a high-pitched girly voice, that really didn't sound like Alex at all.

"Works for me. Means I'm that much close to winning the competition," Justin said. He smirked. "Though I doubt Alex had a chance anyway. That time in Puerto Rico was a fluke. My disappearing memory held me back."

Jerry nodded. "That's what I think too. Now, I'd ask you to stay and help out with the lesson, but your mom said you're grounded unless you help her with the Sub Station. She says you keep disappearing on her." At that, Jerry gave his son a worried frown. "That's not like you. Are you okay?"

Though he kept a casual smile on his face, Justin wanted to smack himself. In his effort to squeeze in more research time when his family wasn't around, he'd forgotten his responsibilities at the shop. Maybe he should cut back his work, if just to throw off suspicion. "Yeah, uh, got a new monster I need to track down, that's all."

Despite the solid lie, Jerry still narrowed his eyes. "Justin, I know you're trying to find Juliet again. You left her parents' WizFace pages open when I went to use the wizard computer a few days ago."

"I was just checking to see if there was any news about Juliet's condition since I hadn't checked in a while," Justin insisted, maybe a little too defensively. Most vampires had social networking pages, even on mortal sites like Facebook. It was an easy way they could convince unsuspecting victims to come right to them. True, it was a disturbing practice, and monster hunters were obligated to report such pages. But Justin simply kept a watchful eye on the van Heusens' pages, both so he could look for status updates about Juliet, and so he could protect himself by keeping track of their location. Since what happened to their daughter was his fault, he wasn't exactly their favorite person. "And to make sure they're still in Transylvania. I mean, I have to keep an eye on the enemy, right?"

The argument didn't make his father any less concerned. "Justin, college is two weeks away. You should be focusing on that. I know I am. Even with your scholarship, it still hurt when I wrote that first tuition check. Still hurts, actually. I'm thinking of taking those free stress management classes they're offering at the gym down the street."

"I get it, Dad. Relax. Zeke and I have plans to get our books tomorrow," Justin said while he hurried out of the lair to avoid further questioning. "See? College is all I'm thinking about."

Alex kept her arm tight around Mason's waist, and enjoyed the warmth of his arm on her shoulders, as they stood on the Russos' roof to gaze at the Manhattan skyline. Of course, there wasn't a full moon yet, otherwise wolf Mason would be roaming the nearby woods in upstate New York alone. But for the moment, they were simply a girl and a guy in love enjoying each others' company. "I love you," Alex whispered, her head on his shoulder. "I'm so glad you're back."

"I know. You've told me every day since," Mason teasted gently. He then kissed the top of Alex's head. "And I love you too."

The kiss made Alex's smile widen, which she hadn't thought was possible. She just couldn't believe how perfect her life had been since his return. Their days were spent painting in the tunnel Alex frequented, or walked in Central Park, or maybe went to an art museum. At night, they had dinner out together almost every night. Fortunately, after living for centuries, Mason had a bank account big enough to support himself and spoil Alex. All he had to do was paint a piction, then a hundred years later, antique dealers went nuts over it. Because of this, Mason had an impressive apartment on the upper west side. Alex was insanely jealous...and much to her frustration, not allowed to go there alone, thanks to her overprotective parents.

"I can't wait until I'm eighteen," Alex said, her head still on his shoulder. "Then we can live in that big apartment of yours, and turn that extra bedroom next to your art studio, into an art studio for me."

Mason laughed. "His and hers art studios. I like it."

"Mhm. We'll be the ultimate art couple," Alex said, then added, "Of course, I'll have to cast a spell on you that makes it look like you're getting older. Otherwise it would be weird."

At that, Mason tensed. When Alex gave him a questioning look, Mason explained, "Sorry, I just thought that you wouldn't have your powers then. Wizards aren't allowed to marry non-wizards."

"Oh. Right." Alex frowned. Funny how she kept imaging that she had powers in the future. "Then we'll get Justin to cast the spell. No problem."

"Or Max," Mason joked. They both burst out laughing. "Still, Alex, I really think you should focus on your studies more."

Alex kissed his cheek. "Aw, I love it when you look out for me. But you just reminded me I'd have to give up my powers anyway."

"You never know, we might have kids one day," Mason pointed out. At her surprised glance, he grinned. "You're not the only one who thinks about our future. Our kids are going to be half-wizard. Someone will have to teach them."

"We'll hire a tutor, then. Or send them to Wiztech." At the disproval in his expression, she insisted, "Come on. Me, a teacher? So not happening. Besides, we probably shouldn't have kids anyway. I mean, they'd be half-wizard and half-werewolf! That has 'messed up, dysfunctional family' written all over it. Trust me, I know messed up and dysfunctional."

His arm still around her, Mason let out a loud chuckle. "I suppose we'll have to wait and see what the future holds for us, then."

"Yup. For now, we can just look at the stars." She took out her wand and pointed it at the sky. "Star light, star bright, now the stars we see tonight. Wish I may, wish I might, make a shape in the light."

A bright blue spark flew from the tip of Alex's wand and hit the dome of the dark city sky. Clouds parted, and then the night was crystal clear, lit up by millions of stars. A small group of those stars directly above the couple moved into the shape of a paint brush.

"Wow," Mason whispered in happy awe, which instantly made Alex smile again.

"I knew you'd like it," Alex said as she put her wand back in her boot. "You've been spoiling me a lot lately. So I wanted to do something for you. And this was what I could afford."

Mason stared at the constellation for a second longer, then brought his face close to hers. "You're amazing, Alex Russo."

They were about to kiss, when excited shouts drifted from the street below. The couple froze, and Mason asked, "That sounds like...Zeke, doesn't it?"

Curious, they ran to the side of the building and looked over Waverly Place. Zeke and Harper had been out for a walk, but Zeke was not pointing frantically at the inexplicably bright night sky, and the unusual constellation. Also confused at first, Harper looked up until she spotted Alex on the roof.

Then she crossed her arms and gave her best friend a death glare, while her distracted boyfriend focused on the impossible night sky.

"Oh no," Alex groaned.