CHAPTER 1
"I need a vacation." Vlad mumbled to himself after throwing the controller on the table. He lost another game of Dead Rising, a game he got after graduation. Henry laughed and tossed the controller on the couch next to him.
"That's what summer break is for." He said sarcastically. Vlad looked at him and glared.
"I know that, you jackass. I mean, like, get away from Bathory for a little while." Vlad said and got up and walked into the kitchen. He drained a blood bag and threw it in the hazardous bin. He walked back into the living room and stood by the stairs.
"I don't think that's such a great idea." Henry answered. Vlad's brows furrowed in confusion as he stared at his best friend. He was the Pravus for GOD's sake; he could kill a country with one word.
"Why do you think that?" he asked. Henry shrugged and got up.
"Even though you have the power of the Pravus on your side, there are still people who want to kill you. I just don't think it's safe." Henry and Vlad slowly walked up the stairs and into his room. Yes, they were still having sleep over's. They were eighteen but still kids at heart and they wanted to have fun before having to go to college.
"I get what you're saying but don't you think I deserve it? After all the shit I've been through I think I deserve a vacation." Vlad debated. Vlad looked at Henry and shrugged irritated. "Never mind, it was just an idea."
"Why do you want to go anyway?" Henry asked. Vlad shrugged. The idea just came to him. When he got it he thought it was a great idea and wanted Henry's opinion.
"I just thought it would be fun and it would help me relieve stress." Vlad said and stepped into his room.
"It's a good idea; just I think Otis should go with you for protection or something." Henry said trying to get his friend to talk to him. Vladimir grunted in reply and threw himself on his bed. He didn't bother taking his clothes off. Henry rolled up into his sleeping bag and watched Vlad fall asleep. He would watch him sleep just to make sure that he didn't pull anything. Henry had feeling Vlad was going to do something that he would later regret or get in trouble for. He watched for what felt like hours but was really only minutes.
Henry slowly drifted off to sleep and left Vlad to complete his plan. Vlad searched his drudge's mind to make sure he wouldn't wake up in the middle of Vladimir leaving. Slowly, Vlad climbed out of his bed and walked over to the closet. He grabbed his old backpack and stuffed some jeans and shirts in it, then walked to the bathroom. He grabbed cologne, toothpaste, toothbrush, deodorant, brush and tons of sunscreen. He walked to the stairs and found the one that always creaked. He slowly and quietly lifted it up and pulled out a wad of cash and stuffed it in his jeans.
His second to last stop was the fridge. He grabbed Twinkies and a bowl of spaghetti and put it in his bag. His last stop was the study. He would write a note to explain why he was leaving and when he was returning. He would write to those he loved and to those this would affect most. He would address the letter top Henry since he would be most likely to find it first. After writing the letter he walked out of the house. Vlad stood on the sidewalk and looked back at the house he was leaving behind. He would miss it dearly but would return soon.
"California, here I come." Vlad whispered into the night and began his journey.
CHAPTER 2
Henry rolled out of his sleeping bag and onto the cold hard floor of his best friend's bed room. He looked around groggily. He was alone in the room, no Vlad in the bed or anything. Henry slowly got up and walked to the bedroom door. He peeked into the hallway to listen for noises but found none. Henry crept down the stairs and looked into the kitchen. Empty. He went into the living room, also empty. Henry huffed and crossed his arms in frustration. He walked into the study and found a note sitting by the computer. He picked it up and read it out loud.
Dear Henry,
I'm sorry to say this but I don't think I can stand living in Bathory for another second. I will return before summer is over so don't worry, I just need some time to relax and get away from it all. Tell Snow I love her and Nelly the same. Take care of them and make sure they don't freak out. Tell Otis, when he returns, that there is no reason to come and search for me. If I need help I will contact him telepathically.
Yours in Eternity,
Vladimir Tod.
Henry reread the letter over and over again before picking up the phone and calling Otis.
"Otis, don't talk, just listen. Vlad ran away and left a letter explaining why. I need you to come back to his as soon as possible so we can find him. Please hurry." Henry said into the speaker then cut off, not giving Otis a chance to talk. While waiting for Otis to arrive he began to call a search party. He called Snow, Meredith, Joss, October, Kristoff, Sprat and Andrew. He explained nothing to them and just told them to come as soon as they could and Vlad's life depended on it. After everyone arrived he began to explain the situation.
"Vlad has run away and we need to search Bathory and Stokerton. We will separate into groups and search. We might even have to extend it if necessary." Henry said and met the eyes of everyone in the room, except for Otis, who has not yet arrived. Kristoff scoffed.
"Why should we help him?" he asked bitterly. Henry was at his throat in mere seconds. Henry grabbed Kristoff's shirt collar and threw him against the wall.
"You should help him because if any of you ran away he would go crazy looking for you and if you don't I will kill you." Kristoff laughed but it was choked due to the fact that Henry was cutting off his air supply.
"Fine, but if he's smart he won't come back." He said and pushed Henry away. Henry grimaced and turned back to the rest of the group.
"He will come back; we just have to help him realize that he is wanted here no matter what he thinks." Everyone nodded in agreement and Otis walked in the door. Snow filled him in on what was going on. He immediately went to call Nelly. She broke down on the phone and Otis went to pick her up from work. Soon the whole town was informed and searching for the young Pravus. All Nelly could do was weep for him, praying that he would return unharmed.
After everyone in the town was notified they began a search party searching all the surrounding cities. All police officers were to let the Tod family know if they had any leading information on Vladimir.
CHAPTER 3
After three weeks of searching the town of Bathory gave up in the search of Vladimir Tod. They said he was a lost cause, a basket case.
Henry, Meredith, Snow, Joss, October, Kristoff, Sprat and Andrew sat on the steps of Bathory High. After giving up on Vlad they decided to all be friends in his honor. They sat on the steps and talked about the times they had with him, the good and the bad. Henry snapped.
"You're all talking about him like he's dead or something." He yelled frustrated, running a hand through his hair. They all looked at the ground ashamed. "He's not dead and he is coming back. We just have to give him some more time." He whispered quietly. Everyone knew how Henry felt about Vlad, being his best friend for ten years. He was lost and hurt that he would even consider doing something like this. He stared at the street remembering how it all came to this.
A black Porsche rounded the corner. Every head turned to stare as it drove down the street. It passed the teenagers sitting on the steps of the high school. Then it slowly came to a stop and backed up. The unknown vehicle parked in the school parking lot and a girl stepped out. She said something to the passenger then smiled and walked toward the teens.
"Hey, I'm Scarlett." She said and smiled. She was wearing a Black Veil Brides t-shirt with black eyeliner heavy on her eyes. She wore fish net stalking on her arms and long black boots on her legs. She was about 5"8 with the boots and 5"6 without them. She smiled at Henry.
"I'm Henry. Do we know you?" he asked hesitant. She looked back at the car then back at them. She smiled again but this time it was different. Instead of pearly white teeth she bared pearly white fangs.
"I'm a friend of Vlad's." she said.
"You know Vlad? Where is he?" Snow asked, walking down the steps and to the girl. Scarlett laughed.
"Yeah, of course I know Vlad. He'll be here soon, very soon." Everyone's eyes widened.
"How do you know Vlad, exactly?" Meredith asked.
"I met him in California, at a concert I was hosting. I'm a very close friend now." Meredith nodded and walked toward her.
"How do we know that you're not lying or didn't kill him?" she asked.
"Well, I guess you're going have to trust me, Meredith." Scarlett said. Meredith's eyes widened and she stepped closer.
"How do you know my name?" she asked.
"Vlad described you perfectly, right down to every detail. Do you want the long version or the short?" Scarlett asked smirking.
"Give us the short." Joss said.
"Okay Joss. He said 'just look for an animated bottle of Pepto Bismol." Everyone laughed except for Joss and Meredith.
"He would never say that!" Meredith gasped. Scarlett shrugged and turned.
"We'll just have to ask him for yourselves." She said and motioned to the car. The passenger side door opened and a guy stepped out. He had jet black hair and dark brown eyes. He had a black lip ring and eye liner. He smiled and revealed two gleaming white fangs. Henry stood up and stared disbelievingly.
"V-Vlad? Is that you?" Henry asked unsure. Vlad smiled and kept walking.
"Of course. Who else would come to this shithole?" he said and stood by Scarlett.
"Vlad where the hell were you? We had the whole entire town looking for you!" Snow yelled.
"Why would you do that? I told Henry that I was leaving the night before." Vlad told her. Everyone turned to Henry with angry glares.
"What? I told you that you shouldn't go because it wasn't safe and you told me you wouldn't go, but you did. So that's not my fault." Vlad shrugged and turned back to Snow.
"Well, you can all stop searching now. I feel so loved now that I know that all of you cared enough to look for me." Vlad said and he and Scarlett laughed.
"Hahaha, very funny. Why is she here?" October said throwing her head in Scarlett's direction.
"She's my girlfriend. It's only natural that she would come with me." He said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Snow, October and Meredith all stood and walked toward Vlad.
"You leave for three weeks and come back with a girl and a fucked up attitude. What about us? When you left we were together, you can't just end it." Snow yelled angrily.
"Obviously he can because he just did." Scarlett said and turned to Vlad. "Are we going to your Aunt's house?" she asked.
"Whoa, hold the hell up. You barely know her and you're already taking her to meet your aunt? What is wrong with you?" October was now majorly pissed. She was all in Vlad's face screaming.
"Nothing is wrong with me, what's wrong with you?" he yelled back. October slapped him across the face. She stormed off toward Eats and yelled profanities back as she walked. Vlad shrugged it off and turned to Henry.
"So what's been happening?" he asked unaffected by the slap.
"An animated bottle of Pepto Bismol. Now I know how you felt all these years, thanks Vladimir." Meredith said and slapped him, walking off toward her house.
"You used to be really cool, now you're just an asshole." Joss said and began to walk off after Meredith.
"Don't talk to him like that, Slayer." Scarlett spat. Joss stopped in his tracks and turned on his heel.
"I'm an ex-slayer and I will talk to whoever I want, however I want." Joss said angrily. Scarlett laughed.
"When will these vermin realize that we are in control?" she asked. Vlad shrugged.
"You will just have to put them in their place, love. But not now, we will not hurt them." Scarlett pouted and Vlad kissed her lips lightly. She smiled and kissed him back.
"Only because you asked nicely." She said. Vlad smiled and hugged her.
"I'm glad you're happy, jackass." Snow said and went in the direction October went.
"She might kill you, watch out." Joss said and ran after Meredith. Vlad turned to Henry.
"What do you have to say?" he asked. Henry thought for a moment. He really wanted Vlad to be happy. In the end that's all that matters, right? Henry honestly didn't know what to say. Vlad's friends would forgive him, he was sure, but Henry didn't know how he felt.
"As long as you're happy, I'm fine with it." Henry said happily but inside he was reeling with unanswered questions. Vlad and Scarlett smiled.
"How was California?" Henry asked. Everyone seemed quite before Vlad answered.
"It was awesome!" he exclaimed. Henry jumped in surprise at his sudden outburst. Scarlett smiled.
"So are we going to meet Nelly and Otis?" she asked. Vlad nodded and grabbed Scarlett's hand and began walking. Henry followed quietly.
"Aren't we going to take your car?" Henry asked. Scarlett shook her head.
"It can stay here." She whispered quietly. There was an awkward silence before Scarlett broke it. "So I take it that all your friends absolutely hate you and I now, right?" Scarlett asked. Henry stepped forward and rested a hand on her shoulder.
"They don't hate you. You just have to understand that he disappeared and everyone was worried. They will come around eventually." He reassured. She smiled at his attempt to comfort her.
"Hopefully Nelly won't kill me." She said as they reached the house. Vlad smiled gently then led them up the steps. From outside the house you could hear sobbing from Nelly and Otis trying to comfort her. Vladimir looked at Henry.
Henry shook his head. "Sorry dude but your ass is toast." Henry whispered before Vlad turned the door knob.
There were six people sitting in the living room. Six pairs of eyes met Vlad as he entered the room. So many emotions and face expressions spread across the room. Anger, shock, disbelief, relief and happiness but the one that stood out was anger. Vlad, Scarlett and Henry stood in the doorway for what felt like hours before Nelly stood. She ran to Vlad and hugged him with her life.
"Where were you? We looked for weeks and called everyone in every city, even the police." She said after she pulled away.
"I went to California." he whispered. Her eyes widened and she grabbed his shirt collar. Vlad gasped surprised that Nelly would do something like this, especially to him. As he was thinking this, Nelly slapped him across the face.
"What the hell were you thinking? You can't just leave and to California! What was going through your head? What is wrong with you? I should kill you right now but I want to hear what you have to say." She yelled and angrily and pushed him to the couch revealing Henry and Shadow.
CHAPTER 5
"Who is this?" Nelly asked Henry. Henry laughed nervously and pulled Scarlett's arm to pass Nelly and find something safe to hide behind. Once they were standing by the stairs Henry began.
"This is a friend from California. I don't know all the details so you're going to have to get the details from Vlad." He said and looked at Otis. His eyes were blood red and he was shaking. "Otis are you all right?" Henry asked. Otis calmed his shaking and looked at Vladimir.
"Speak Vladimir." He ordered. Vlad cleared his throat.
"Well, see-"he was cut off by Scarlett stepping forward.
"Uh, I know none of you know but me, but Vlad is not a dog." She said simply. Henry stepped behind her, afraid of Otis's wrath.
"You will not speak until spoken to!" he yelled.
"I'm not a kid nor am I a dog. If I was him I would have left ages ago. Taking this kind of treatment and from humans! Ha!" she said.
Otis stepped forward but was restrained by Nelly, whispering words of calmness to him. Otis soon relaxed and settled into a chair. The McMillan's occupied the couch watching as the family settled down. Mr. McMillan stood and brushed his pants off.
"Maybe we should leave and let you all have a talk." He said reaching for his wife's hand. Nelly took a step toward them.
"No, you mustn't leave. We all deserve an explanation. Vlad had us worried sick and we all deserve to know why. While he was living the dream of a teenager, we were filling out police reports and crying our eyes out, Vlad was partying with this skank." Nelly said. She walked back over to Otis's side and watched Vlad with intense eyes. At the word skank Scarlett took a sharp intake of breath. Vlad ran to her side and restrained her arms.
"How dare you! You pathetic mortals need to learn your place. Do you realize that if Vlad was not restraining me your throat would be ripped out and your remains strewn across this floor?" Scarlett yelled. Otis stood, anger flooding his features.
"You will not talk to her like that!" he said. Otis and Scarlett began to yell at each other until the only things heard in the room were profanities and threats of death. Their voices rose in volume until Vlad's ears were filled with high pitched screeches. Vlad took in a deep breath, filling his lungs with air.
"Shut up!" he yelled. The room fell into an uncomfortable silence. All eyes were on him as he sat Scarlett down on one of the steps next to Henry. He stood in the middle of the room.
"Everyone single one of you will listen to me. You will not stand, you will not speak and you will not interrupt with anything. Understood?" everyone shook their heads. "If you have a question then you will raise your hand and wait for me to answer." They nodded simultaneously. Otis sat down and Nelly stood behind him.
"I left Bathory because I was tired of having to be an adult. I never had any fun; I was always stuck training and getting my ass kicked and people betraying me. Yeah, I left for three weeks and didn't tell anyone. You're all lucky I came back. I went to Huntington Beach, California and I met Scarlett. Her dad owns this law firm and makes millions and her mom is an interior decorator. She had a big secret that she was keeping form them; she was a vampire. But there was more, you see, they weren't her real parents. She was adopted because her parents died in a plane crush when she was four. After some research she found out that her mom was a witch and dad was a vampire. She's real special. She found me when I was wandering around, claiming she could help me. I thought she was crazy until she kissed me and these thoughts came flooding in. They were visions with me and her and my family but there was something off." Vlad looked around the room.
He remembered when Dorian was alive and would joke about him. He always wanted Vlad's but he never got it. Instead, he saved my life by getting in the way of Joss's stake.
"When you told me that there was more to having these powers, I believed that. I really thought that I could use them for good and become the opposite of my father. Scarlett's vision was interesting; it showed all of us standing on, what looked like a hilltop. Below us were humans, all bowing down to me as if I were GOD. Scarlett was at my side like she was my Queen. They worshipped us as if we were the royal family. Vampires were coming at me from every side. They were coming from every country and city around the world. Every vampire that tried to attack was disintegrated by a ball of fire that was shooting out of my hands. They all went up in flames. Some of them were attacking the humans, and they were destroyed."
"Humans were used as food. We had them locked up and used for donors. We were evil and ruled everything and everyone. After Scarlett and I discussed it, we decided that was my destiny. To become ruler of this world and to finally be free."
"Vlad that must never happen. The world will be in danger. Too much power will kill you." Nelly whispered. Vlad laughed humorlessly.
"This is why I didn't want to tell any of you. All you ever try to do is stop me, but this time is going to be different. You are either going to help me complete what I was born to do or you will be against me. Vous etes avec moi ou contre moi." He said and walked out the room. He gestured to Scarlett and she began to walk toward him. When he opened the door Scarlett stopped and faced the room of people.
"We will be back tomorrow at eleven sharp. Have your choice made and ready, then we will proceed from there. Good day." She walked out the door after Vlad. Henry and his parents stared at the ground as Nelly and Otis watched Vlad walk out the door. Nelly looked up at Otis as his face filled with rage. She put a comforting hand on his arm and he tensed and looked down to meet her concerned gaze.
"What are we going to do?" she whispered. Otis shook his head.
"I don't know." He answered, almost completely silently. A single tear rolled down Nelly's cheek.