A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.
Chapter 3: Training
Vlad positioned Erin carefully in the room, twisting and turning her until he thought she was positioned just right.
"Did you have to go through this with Bertrand?" She asked, growing tired with the way he was pulling at her shoulders to position her just right for whatever training he had planned. He finally left her facing the gym horse.
"Right, I want you to hit the bottle."
"What bottle?"
With a click of his fingers an empty soy blood bottle appeared on the top of the gym horse.
Erin extended her arm lazily, not really putting much effort into it. Nothing happened, not that she'd expected it to. Vlad let out a groan he knew she wasn't trying. Erin straightened herself and tried properly this time. She concentrated like she had done with Sethius, bringing her former friend to the front of her mind. The image of Becky smiled at her. She found she couldn't grow angry with it so it wouldn't work.
She tried once more, this time thinking of Jonno. A small shower of golden sparks erupted from the palm of her hand, they moved forward a few feet before fizzling out in the air.
Vlad moved behind her, pulling her arm backwards. Erin jumped slightly, resisting him at first before she let him move her.
He stepped backwards but she could still feel him behind her. Erin tensed automatically preparing to strike. He shook his head slightly.
He placed his hands on her hips before she could do anything. "Spread your legs slightly." Erin did as she was told, spreading them until they were shoulder width apart. "Now relax." That was easier said than done.
Erin closed her eyes focusing on clearing her mind; Vlad trailed his hands up from her hips and along her back before resting on her shoulders, gently stroking her throat with his thumbs. Erin relaxed instinctively under his touch.
Vlad gently took her left arm, preparing to guide it. With his right he wrapped it around her waist, holding her to him. It was going to be tricky with Erin being left handed. Erin fought the urge to lean back into him. "Don't throw your arm forwards, you'll hurt yourself if you do that to often." He pulled her arm back, "Swing it around in an arc." He guided her arm, arcing it slightly. His arm around her waist turned her with the swing, forcing her to step into it, almost as if she were bowling a ball.
"Did Bertrand teach you like this?" She teased into his ear. Vlad turned his head to face her; he smirked at her tease pressing a quick kiss to her lips.
"I could do all this before my last birthday." It came out as a slight brag even though he hadn't intended it to. Bertrand only helped him hone his telepathic and telekinetic powers, besides the hand-to-hand combat.
"What do I do next?" She whispered quietly.
Vlad knew this was the most difficult part, "Concentrate on something that makes you angry. Bring it to the front of your mind and let it flow through you." He spoke quietly.
Nothing came to mind, "I can't think of anything that makes me angry." She turned her neck to face him again. "What do you think of?"
"Mum." He answered shrugging slightly, "Leaving dad to raise us, only coming back when she wants something." Erin had only met Magda once and the woman had more a sense of selfishness than evil about her. "I think she's only spent about three years with me." That was adding up all the months and bits inbetween. Vlad only remembered her coming back for a maximum of a month at a time.
As if to demonstrate he lifted the empty soy bottle up with his mind and spun it slowly in circles before setting it back down.
"Show off." Erin teased leaning back against him and poking him in the chest with her shoulder. Vlad smirked at her, gesturing towards it. "Your turn."
"I don't know what makes me angry. I can't bring force myself to be angry whenever I want to. How many of these have I got to learn?"
"You've learned how to speed, use telepathy and light candles. You've just got to master fireballs, telekinesis, flying…"
"I'm not learning how to fly!" Erin protested, she nearly broke out of her stance trying to face him in her protest but Vlad pulled her back to him holding her tighter. His face was filled with a mixture of annoyance and amusement. She hated it when Vlad had flown her back to the school. She'd barely made it back without throwing up. "And I'm not turning into a bat to do it!" Erin shuddered she really wasn't a fan of bats, she never had been.
Vlad began to chuckle at her reaction, that made one thing she hated about being a vampire. Erin fixed him with a glare.
"It won't be the same as before," He tried to reassure her. "You'll be the one in control." He assured her. Erin gave him a very sceptical look making him snort as he tried not to laugh any more. "You'll enjoy it." He promised, he never thought he would but he enjoyed it now.
Erin could already see she wasn't going to get out of it. "Please tell me it won't involve you pushing me off a balcony."
"That's Dad's way not mine." Somehow that didn't comfort her. She wondered if he'd been pushed off a balcony to learn to fly. "We'll focus on this first, you need to learn how to use offensive powers."
"I'm a rubbish vampire aren't I?" She asked him, slightly upset. Vlad shook his head and pressed a kiss to her throat.
"You're not going to learn overnight. You beat Sethius, you're stronger than any other vampire not to be loyal. You are a fantastic vampire. Remember what I said, it'll take time to get used to the idea completely." Erin nodded slowly, he was right. She just wished she'd had some warning what was going to happen to her. If she was going to be transformed she wanted Vlad to do it, that choice had been taken from both of them.
Erin turned back to the bottle, feeling more determined than ever to use her powers.
"That's it concentrate," Vlad noted before dropped in casually: "I asked Becky to lunch…"
"WHAT!"
It got him the desired effect as a fireball erupted from her palm and hit bottle full on, the glass exploded in front of them making Vlad smirk. She'd followed the stance and successfully hit the target. Lightening flashed and thunder roared from her reaction to his words.
He lifted his hand creating a wall for the shards to hit before they dropped harmlessly to the floor.
Erin spun round and hit him in the chest. He laughed; he knew what it was for. Erin couldn't help but smile at his ploy, he knew which buttons to press to get the reaction he wanted.
YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL
She leaned against the wall with Vlad, a smile on her face. She leaned into him; she'd managed to throw enough fireballs for today. Each time it got easier to aim and create them all she had to do was think of Becky and Vlad's darkness asking her to or rather for lunch before it settled on the Slayers' Guild.
Vlad was pleased with the progress she'd made, she looked tired but it wasn't draining her in the same way it drained other half fangs or even other vampires.
He pressed a kiss to her hair, it was slightly damp with sweat from her practicing. She smiled up at him, leaning her head against his shoulder closing her eyes as she relaxed.
"Will I be okay around breathers now?" She asked, being around them still made her throat feel as if it were on fire, her head throbbed and her fangs tingled. Vlad and Bertrand had been afraid of her not being able to control her main offensive power but she seemed to have developed a good grasp of how to use it.
Vlad thought she should be okay now; she only needed to do two things. "If you drink enough soy blood before going to school but you still have to avoid touching them."
"Because our skin is so cold." She finished. Vlad could tell that she was a breather before by her body heat and if a slayer had infiltrated the school they'd find out the same from touching her.
"Yeah but you can kill a breather by touch." Vlad told her quietly. Erin's gaze snapped to him, she didn't think it was possible it was only rumours in the slayer world. "That's why you need make sure you've got control over your powers."
Erin lifted her head up completely from his shoulder, staring into his eyes. Erin quirked her eyebrow trying to understand. Vlad left the room before returning with a single flower, a beautiful white rose. He placed it before them on the floor.
He extended his hand touching the silky petals gently. This power was the one he hated to use the most. Erin gave him a questioning look before her eyes widened in horror and amazement.
From where Vlad's fingers touched the petal, sinister blackness spread outwards, shrivelling and hardening the petals until it reached the stem, making it shrivel and shrink. He removed his hand shaking his head slightly, trying to remove the emptiness the power brought.
Erin picked up the once perfect rose, trying her hardest to be gentle but small flakes of petal fell from the flower, crumbling to dust before it hit the wooden floorboards.
"It's dead." She mumbled, it strangely looked beautiful. There was no scent attached to the flower anymore, not even the smell of death and decay.
"Yeah." He answered.
"We can't use it on other vampires as we're already dead but breathers…" He trailed off. "Once the power is used it can't be stopped."
Erin shuddered as she thought about it, if the power was used on a breather the corpses would be dry and shrivelled within moments.
"It's a mixture of bitterness and anger that makes it work." He told her answering the unspoken question that he could see in her eyes. "Vampires use it for decoration. Mum always did, its also considered romantic in our world." Erin gave a shudder and Vlad lifted his hand to her cheek brushing the hair back. "I'll never give you dead flowers." He promised. "But if you ever receive them it's a compliment." Never would she have thought that in her entire life.
YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL
Erin finished her goblet of soy blood, it reminded her of some kind of fruit juice she had when she was a child. The fruitiness of it reminded her of berries, she had cravings for human blood but the soy kept it all at bay.
She hadn't realised how thirsty she'd become at least Vlad had a good mind to keep a few bottles in the training room for when he'd trained.
She held out the bottle to Vlad who nodded and she topped his goblet up. It was amazing how normal this had become; Vlad didn't wince anymore at seeing her drink the blood and she didn't dread drinking it.
Vlad looked at Erin over the top of his silver chalice, she seemed perfectly at ease with her new life. It was as if somehow she'd always been destined to be a vampire. He knew she had an evil in her and she needed to accept the way he had, she was terrified of it the same way he was. It was an inevitable part of being a vampire or being turned into one. Erin was a lot stronger than she looked, they'd deal with it together. He'd stand by her the way she had with him.
"What?" She asked smiling, seeing his gaze on her.
He shook his head, unable to stop the tugging at the corner of his lips. "Nothing."
She leaned forward onto her knees kissing him gently. Vlad set his cup down taking care not to knock it over before gently cupping her cheeks and kissing her back. He moved until he rested on his knees, slanting his mouth over hers. His tongue brushed against hers and she moaned, he grinned slightly, before giving out a moan of his own as she raked her fingers through his hair.
They drew apart when the clock chimed throughout the school; Vlad lifted his left wrist looking at his watch. 11:30pm.
"We need to get some rest before school tomorrow." He extended a hand towards her, she grabbed it and he pulled her up. "We don't want you accidentally flaming Becky because you're tired."
Erin gave him a half playful, half serious frown, "Don't tempt me."
TBC
A/N: Thanks for reading.
