Here we go. I've been threatening redrachxo with this for ages... Enjoy. If that's the word.
Disclaimer: Young Dracula is not mine. It belongs to the BBC.
He had known from the beginning that it would end this way.
They had holed up in a small council chamber, but it would be a matter of mere minutes before the vampires chasing them caught on to where they were. Vlad was frantically throwing things against the door with his insane powers, but Bertrand caught at his arm.
"Vlad, it's useless. They're going to get through eventually."
The Grand High Vampire shook his head, desperation clouding his judgement.
"We just have to hold them off long enough to explain, they'll come round, they have to understand – I'm the Chosen One, by all that's bloody, they're supposed to respect that!" The voices outside the door and the sudden hammering of fists against the solid oak, however, clearly contradicted what he was saying.
Bertrand shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry, Vlad. Our time's up."
The younger vampire's face crumpled. "So, what, the Council react badly and you just walk away? I thought I meant more to you than that, Bertrand. I thought we meant more to you."
How could he answer that? "I'm not walking away from you, Vlad. I'll never walk away from you." The worst thing was knowing that it was true, and that it would break both of them. "Now listen carefully, because this is important."
Vlad's eyes lit up; Bertrand always managed to come up with a plan. The trust he placed in the older vampire just served to make the next words more crushing, however.
"We're not getting out of this together. Trust me, I've thought of everything and no matter what we do now, this – us – can't go on. So I need you to keep quiet and play along with everything I say, no matter what. Alright?"
"No, that's not alright – I can't lose you. You can't leave me now, it isn't fair-"
Bertrand crushed him against the desk of whichever council member the chamber belonged to, trying to convey everything he felt in a single, scorching kiss. There was nothing gentle about it, or about the hungry way Vlad responded, but that didn't make it any less meaningful. And then, after longer than he knew was wise, Bertrand pulled back, resting his forehead against his lover's.
"Te iubesc." It was barely a whisper, but he knew Vlad had heard.
"Je t'aime, Bertrand." They always exchanged these most crucial words in each other's native tongues; it was something just for them, a habit they'd acquired to show they cared. Now, though, they exchanged one more sweet kiss and Bertrand frowned.
"Then forgive me... and forget me." He pulled himself from his lover's grasp and hammered on the door.
"Everyone quiet, and move away from the door, or the Grand High Vampire is dust and you'll all be held responsible." There was some muttering from outside, but silence slowly fell. Bertrand removed his old stake from his belt, staring straight into Vlad's eyes as he continued to call out to the waiting vampire mob. "I'll tell you the same thing I told Vlad; if you don't go along with this relationship – if he doesn't go along with it - my agents will strike against the entire Dracula clan, and the entire Council will be wiped out as well. So I suggest that you let me leave with the boy."
Vlad's eyes widened in horror – this was the first he'd heard of any such threat, and Bertrand didn't have agents – and his stomach gave a sickening lurch as he realised what Bertrand was doing.
"No..." The whisper was so quiet that even Bertrand barely heard it. He responded just as softly.
"It's the only way, Vlad, they'll never let us go."
"We will get in eventually, du Fortunesa! How long have you been manipulating him for?"
Bertrand chuckled. "Weeks, months even. I'm impressed, though, I wasn't expecting him to act against me so soon, to manipulate me so easily. Conned me into a trap, quite the Dracula."
"What do you mean?" The vampires outside appeared to have elected a spokesperson as the same voice rang out again.
"My desire for the Chosen One was my downfall. I forgot the game we were playing, when he suggested we announce our partnership to the Council. I failed to predict the consequences. Clever – he must have had a good tutor." The sneer in his voice didn't reach his eyes.
You're lying. Vlad had switched to telepathy. Please, stop this.
Don't believe me, Vlad. Not for a second. But I have to. And you have to play along. The response wasn't what Vlad wanted, and he aimed a vicious kick at the desk, furious at being trapped in this situation.
"Open the door, du Fortunesa. You can't escape." Bertrand crossed the room then, unable to resist saying a proper goodbye as the pounding on the door began again. He pulled Vlad into his arms, clinging to him as if his life depended on it as he kissed him one last time.
Te iubesc. Mereu. Doresc... (I love you. Always. I wish…)
Vă rog, Bertrand. He had to force himself to switch back from his first language to Bertrand's. Je t'aime, ne me quittes pas. Pas comme ça. (Please, Bertrand. I love you, don't leave me. Not like this.)
Bertrand wrenched himself from Vlad's grip and his desperate telepathic appeal, and pushed the few items the younger vampire had managed to form into a barricade aside. He turned back to look into his lover's eyes before twisting the door handle and letting the startled council members in to the tiny chamber.
The expression on Vlad's face pierced his heart before the first stake did.
And then Bertrand was gone, crumbling into a neat pile of dust – ever tidy, even in the midst of a murderous mob – and leaving Vlad completely alone.
The council members had accepted the older vampire's blackmail claims as fact, and for the next few minutes they alternately fussed over his 'victim' and hailed him a hero, the trick that had brought him here declared a masterstroke. He had brought the evil, manipulative Bertrand du Fortunesa to his doom, they said, as surely as if he had wielded the stake himself. And Vlad knew that he had. How did he feel, in the wake of this great ordeal?
The Grand High Vampire stared at the pile of dust that had once been the only being on Earth he couldn't hypnotise, the only one he had ever loved, and he spoke just two words.
"It's over."