A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

If there is anything anyone would like to see, please let me know.

Chapter 2: Punishment

Erin looked across at Vlad this was to be expected, she'd been waiting on this for the last two weeks. She had expected them to drag it on longer. They had a lot to consider.

"Mistress Erin, they are waiting." Renfield had taken to calling Erin 'Mistress Erin'; it seemed to mark Vlad's relationship with her in his eyes. Vlad didn't bother to dispute it.

"Where are they Renfield?" Vlad asked him softly, he saw the way Erin seemed to harden as if she was preparing herself for this meeting.

"The school hall."

Vlad's eye narrowed, he expected them to be waiting outside or in the foyer for them. He hadn't expected them to barge into his home for their tribunal.

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Erin slowly opened the door to the hall. They were taking a risk commandeering the hall for their own purposes; anyone could walk in and discover what they were.

Seated at a long table, (obviously one of the school collapsible ones) covered in a long, light brown drape with the emblem of the Slayers Guild embroidered in black on the front. At the table were seated four slayers. Two Vlad knew – Jonno and Mina Van Helsing, the other two he hadn't ever seen before and judging by Erin's lack of reaction she didn't know them either.

Mina extended her arm, to introduce the unfamiliar faces. "This is George Hartleigh and Catherine Millbrook. I assume you know why we're here?" She wanted to make sure this wouldn't be a surprise for her.

George Hartleigh was clearly an aging slayer, it was rare for a slayer to live beyond fifty and he clearly was nearing sixty. His hair was receding somewhat and he wore glasses. He looked more the teaching type than the slaying type.

Catherine Millbrook was in her late twenties, early thirties at a push. She wore a pinched expression as she looked at the younger woman. Her hair was pulled back tightly and she wore a tweed suit just like Mina was wearing next to her.

There were no signs of weapons on the table, obviously they didn't expect a confrontation or they were testing Vlad for this.

"Yeah." Erin nodded slowly,

"What are you doing in my home?" Vlad ground out; he didn't like surprises – especially surprises from slayers.

"We've got business we need to deal with Vlad, we didn't think Erin would want to come to the Guild again – or that you'd let her go on her own." The way Mina said it, she was almost accusing him of being a possessive boyfriend, he wouldn't let Erin into the Guild alone simply because he didn't trust the slayers.

"How did you clear this with Miss McCauley?" Erin asked quietly, if Vlad hadn't been informed then Miss McCauley would have had to have been.

"We've told her it's a meeting for those who want to go to the academy."

"And I'm guessing you missed out the 'Slayer' part." Vlad summarised with a small smirk, Jonno shrugged. Sometimes he wished that slayers were bound by the 'no entering unless invited in' rule that vampires had to obey.

Jonno turned towards his new ally, "Vlad this needs to be done in private." This wasn't a show; he didn't really want witnesses to the tribunal.

Erin looked behind her at Vlad; he seemed to be hovering nervously in the doorway. "Vlad can stay."

They looked at her, disgust barely disguised on their faces. They clearly didn't like her choice of companion, "Only family members…"

"Ryan's a half fang, I want Vlad here. You can't let one vampire be here and not another." Erin told them firmly.

George looked at him, "Fine." He glared at the young vampire. "But he stays in the background, he doesn't speak or move. He's still a vampire no matter the temporary truce."

Vlad rolled his eyes but didn't comment. He moved away from her giving her hand a quick squeeze, he wouldn't leave her in this.

Erin gave him a grateful look and prepared herself to receive her punishment.

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This had never been done before, in the Guild's five hundred year history, no slayer had ever betrayed them for a vampire.

They couldn't lock her away because no lives had actually been lost as a direct result of her actions, besides being locked up was a second option. The slayers had been killed while patrolling their usual locations.

Twenty years ago they considered wiping memories but there was always a personal connection to the Guild in some form or other so that was impossible.

And lastly killing her was against the law, human and slayer. They couldn't kill her without the fear of Vlad's kind retaliating against them and they knew Vlad could wipe them out with a mere thought.

Erin knew what her charges were; she was told them so she could mount a defence against them. There were six in total.

Her charges were:

1. Destroying the super weapon. (Although that had been more Vlad and the Count than her.)

2. Warning the target of an upcoming attack.

3. Entering the Guild under deception.

4. Freeing a vampire from 'protective' custody. (Protective meant protecting the breathers not the vampire.)

5. Inviting the future Vampire King inside the Guild Headquarters. (Vlad had wrinkled his nose at being referred to as the future Vampire King.)

And lastly,

6. Living with vampires without the intention to slay them (this one really was scraping the bottom of the barrel).

Erin stood tall; she didn't regret what she'd done and she knew she wouldn't.

The tribunal scrutinised her trying to make her crack, this had to be the first tribunal for 'Treason' (there was no other word for it). Usually when a slayer was disciplined it was either for endangering other slayers' lives or that they were poor slayers.

"How do you plead?" Anyone would think this was a court of law.

Erin wasn't going to plead guilty – guilty meant she had done something wrong. She'd saved a good person; Vlad didn't deserve to die because of them. If she pleaded not guilty it was like denying what she'd done. So she settled for another answer.

"I'd do it again to save them." She answered, automatically ruffling feathers. "If you had killed Vlad then there would have been no one to stop Sethius. Sethius would have killed you all." Bertrand and Ingrid's plans were already set in motion before the weapon had been destroyed, Sethius would have been resurrected regardless.

"You let your feelings cloud your judgement. You were his girlfriend." Mina reminded her,

"I *am* his girlfriend." Erin responded automatically before throwing a look over her shoulder towards Vlad. They'd never actually discussed whether they were together again or now. They'd just assumed they were. Vlad gave her a small smile and a nod.

This was news to George and Catherine, they had just assumed they were just friends and she had been corrupted that way.

"A vampire is your boyfriend?" The accusation rang clear across the hall making her wince. It had never been heard of, no slayer had ever chosen to be with a vampire and vice versa. It wouldn't change her punishment though; they were already going to cast her out for what she'd done. The only thing she cared about in this was Vlad's reputation.

"I never meant for it to happen." She spoke, she heard the small instinctive gasp behind her and she realised how it sounded. "But I wouldn't change it."

Mina shook her head, "In this job personal feelings don't matter. If you listened to that advice, slayer, then you would have done your job." That came close as possible to saying they still wanted Vlad dead even with the truce.

Vlad had had enough now, this was turning into a witch-hunt. "Leave her alone." Vlad began, stepping forward, forgetting the conditions for him staying in this tribunal. "You came here to do a job, get on with it."

George spoke, glaring at the insolent young man. "Back off vampire."

Vlad let out a low hiss, he only just managed to stop himself from lowering his fangs. He hated being addressed as 'vampire'. His proper title, if they wanted to be formal, was the 'Chosen One' until his coronation or 'Vladimir'.

Jonno leaned closer to George, his voice low hoping Vlad wouldn't hear. "Vlad is the Chosen One, the truce is with him." Jonno reminded him, Vlad had the power to break the 'ceasefire' and they didn't want to be caught in the middle of it if and when it did break. "Be careful with what you say to him."

George pulled back and nodded to him, accepting the young slayers advice. Jonno turned to Vlad but there was not look of apology on his face.

"Were you hypnotised?" Catherine asked her firmly. If Erin didn't feel confident in her choices she could take that option, plead that Vlad had hypnotised her to do all these things.

Erin's voice was clear as she spoke. "No."

A slight rustling of papers was heard as they tried to find another excuse for her.

"I understand that your brother being bitten was hard for you, I understand if it influenced you to commit these acts. I mean freeing your brother even though you knew there was no hope…"

"If that was the case why would I save Vlad? I could have let the whole Dracula clan be wiped out if I knew it would reverse it. I chose to save Vlad, there are no excuses. I wanted to save him. Stop trying to make up excuses for it."

Erin didn't want to go through excuses so they could find a way to blot out her actions from the Guild history books.

"Do you have anything to say in your defence?" Catherine tried again, though this time it was little more than a formality.

"Just that slayers need to understand their victims instead of going after them as some kind of revenge for something that happened. My brother was taken and I promised to help him, I failed but I tried to find another way. Vampires are people as well, they chose how they live like humans do." Well most of them did, some didn't have a choice. "Some of the vampires that you killed were vegetarians – they would never have touched humans. Not all vampires are evil."

They looked away and down at their papers. No matter how many vampires Jonno and the others had slain it wouldn't make the hurt and pain go away. It wasn't justice they were performing, it was genocide.

"We'll take that under consideration." George said not looking her in the eye once. Erin didn't care though, her words would make them think whether they wanted them to or not. "Now we'll sentence."

Erin knew her sentence already, it had been decided before this meeting and the chance to 'defend herself'.

He nodded to Jonno, Jonno had this wonderful task. "Your card." He asked quietly.

Erin reached into her pocket and withdrew it. Her hand didn't shake as she held it out to them.

Vlad looked at it curiously, he'd never seen a slayer's badge before, Erin had never wanted him to see hers, almost as if she hated it or was ashamed of it. It was exactly the same as a police warrant card, only this one was for the Slayers' Guild. Her badge was prominent in it.

With effort Jonno ripped the badge from the card and threw them both into a small metal tin. It reminded her of the one's surgeons use to dispose of swabs and soiled equipment during operations.

He lit a match and dropped it into the bowl, immediately the warrant card burst into flames. The smell of burning filled the air. Nothing would happen to the brass badge, it would only become covered in black residue nothing more.

George looked at the burning card, a nod of finality following, "It's done."

"You can appeal against the decision." Jonno told her quietly. The punishment had been set in stone for centuries; she had betrayed them to their enemy. It would have been worse if lives had been lost because of her.

"It's fine." She gave him a half smile. The members of the Board looked around in confusion.

"Are you saying you don't want to appeal?" Catherine asked, she didn't understand why Erin didn't want to appeal. "You do know this is your only chance to appeal." Erin nodded, she knew that. Catherine glanced at George in complete confusion, he seemed just as puzzled. Jonno and Mina didn't look confused, surprisingly they seemed understanding. "I thought your…"

"No I don't." Erin answered cutting of Catherine's train of thought. "Slaying isn't the career I wanted." The slayers in front of her looked taken aback at her words but she didn't care, slaying wasn't her first choice of occupation for life.

It took them a few minutes to recover, eventually George stood.

"Erin Elizabeth Noble, you have been found guilty of the charges brought against you. You have accepted your punishment and have chosen *not* to appeal against it. This tribunal hearing is over."

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Erin waited patiently for the board to leave, their business had finished now so there was no point in them staying. Vlad gently placed a hand on her shoulder, rubbing it slowly before turning her around to face him.

"You okay?" The purpose of the board had been to humiliate her.

"Yeah, just glad its over." She smiled up at him; they had been keeping her on edge for weeks as they tried to decide what to do with her.

"What exactly did they do?" He wasn't exactly sure what he'd just witnessed.

"Took away my slayer's license." She felt as if she'd gotten off lightly but a knot of dread formed in her stomach. She wasn't sure what it meant but she only usually got it when something was brewing in the distance – like when she saw Jonno and Mina for the first time.

Vlad didn't understand how it was a punishment, "So what does that mean?"

"I can't slay vampires, I can't go anywhere near the Guild ever again and I can't buy any slaying equipment." She gave him a small shrug, "Also I can't discuss slaying with anyone who's a member of the Guild or anyone else. Vampires don't count." She told him with a small smile. "If I do I will be locked away, probably in an asylum. They'd say I was mad to keep their cause a secret."

The young vampire couldn't believe what she'd just done, she hadn't even bothered to put up a fight.

"That was your whole life." Vlad whispered to her, "You just let them take it away." Only Vlad could defend her life as a slayer. Yes it had been a large part of her life – the only part in fact – until she met Vlad, she didn't have to be a slayer around him she could be herself and that's what mattered at the end of the day. In truth it felt like a weight off her shoulders, for the first time she felt free.

"It was my choice Vlad." Erin told him quietly. Her destiny looked easier to escape than Vlad's was. "You know what its like having your future decided for you, now I get to make my own choices."

Vlad gave her a small, grim smile. "At least one of us can escape." She felt guilty that she'd managed to get out of her destiny but he never had.

Erin's eyes softened and she moved closer to him.

Vlad looked down at her slightly as she placed a hand on his chest lightly. Vlad slowly lifted a hand to her cheek. Erin blinked slowly before moving her hand up to his neck, standing on her toes. He slowly leaned down towards her.

A blur suddenly appeared next to them making the pair of them jump as they caught it out of the corners of their eyes. Vlad shook his head and groaned, Erin looked just as irritated, this was the eleventh time since Erin had moved back in with them. He was sure his father had some form of radar, as he seemed to always know exactly when to interrupt them.

The Count looked between them, studying his son and the slayer girl. He didn't approve of their relationship but he knew his son wasn't going to be swayed. "Am I interrupting something?" Vlad bit back a comment and stepped away from Erin in annoyance. "You've got a letter, Slayer." The Count didn't look at her but Erin didn't take it personally, he didn't look at Ingrid unless he absolutely had to.

Vlad rolled his eyes at his father's 'insult'; Erin wasn't going to be addressed as anything else for a while.

The Count threw it at her; Erin barely caught it, the edges of the white envelope trapped between her fingers. She tried not to send him an irritated glare, instead she cursed him mentally.

Vlad was trying to hide it but he was curious, Erin seemed to sense it. She never received post. "Probably to let me know the Slayers' Guild decision in writing." They would send a letter for her 'records' although why anyone would want to keep a record of something like that was beyond her.

Erin ripped it open; it was strange that it was hand written usually the Guild typed everything.

She unfolded it quickly, it was only a short note. She squinted slightly as she stumbled over a few words, her dyslexia making them hard to process at first glance.

Her face suddenly blanched as the entire letter sank in. It wasn't the official confirmation of her punishment that she thought it was.

Vlad knew something was wrong from the way Erin clutched the letter, her knuckles turning white.

"What's wrong?"

TBC

A/N: What do you think?

Thanks for reading.