A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.
I know that some people don't like this story and I don't mind that – I knew not everyone would like it. I have to admit I have been a little selfish with this story and written something that I just wanted to write (although if anyone really wants to see anything please feel free to let me know).
I need to establish it because it's set in the future before I add my usual twists and turns, also I never give all the information straight away. Trust me, it won't be too different from my usual fics, the twists have already officially been established from the last chapter onwards.
After everything that's happened over the last few months this story is my stress buster to put it all behind me.
I hope you can forgive me.
Please let me know what you think.
Chapter 4: Cold
Erin was jolted awake as a scream pierced her ears, she brought her hands up to them and pressed them tightly to her head trying to muffle the sound.
She knew where the scream was coming from, her legs moving as fast as she could towards Alex's room. She didn't bother with a robe or slippers or anything else. She just had to get to her son.
She threw the door open to Alex's room, seeing him thrashing about, tangled in his sheets. She threw herself down on the bed and gently shook him away. His eyes snapped open and he shot upwards breathing heavily.
She'd never seen him like this before – he was terrified and she was terrified.
Alex sweated slightly as Erin ran a hand over his forehead. "You okay?" She asked him lightly, he was warmer than usual.
Her son lifted himself up, the whole bed wobbled and for a terrifying moment she thought that he was going to fall off the bed.
Alex dove for her and hugged her tightly, Erin wrapped her arms around him, kissing his forehead lightly. He was shaking as she pulled him onto her lap.
"What's wrong?" She whispered into his hair rocking him from side to side.
"My dream." He answered, tears soaking into her shirt. "They were chasing me and then they wouldn't go away. I couldn't find you or Uncle Jonno. Someone nasty was there and he…" He sobbed harder.
Erin was worried now, "He what?" Her son had never been like this before.
Alex shook his head trying to remember, "I can't remember. There was a tower…" He could remember a big circle tower. "I don't know." He cried harder and she held him tighter. She rocked him even harder from side to side.
"It was just a dream." Erin assured him, "Nasty ones are called nightmares. Everyone get them." She assured him.
"Even you?"
Erin pulled back to look at him, so he could see the truth in her eyes. "Even me." She'd had more than enough dreaming that she was back with the man she loved but when she woke up and that whole world crumbled around her… that's when she thought of them as nightmares.
Erin had left him for a reason; she had to protect herself, Vlad and Ryan. Vlad only knew part of the story he didn't know all of it, there was a lot more to it that being taunted. She could have lived with the taunting but she couldn't live with what they had promised to do to everyone she cared about if Adze didn't marry him. Jonno and Bertrand had also been at risk after being involved in Vlad's scheme to disgrace Adze, revenge was more enjoyable if everyone involved could be taken down. Leaving Vlad was her only bargaining chip to protect everyone that she cared about most.
Erin was loathe to admit it but she did know where Adze's anger came from, they'd played her tried to disgrace her, a disgrace that could have either gotten her killed or shunned for the rest of her unlife. If she was in Adze's place then she would act exactly the same way.
He knew the Count and Ingrid were working against him but he didn't know how many strings they'd pulled to bind him into this. She felt sick when she thought about what his own family was doing to him.
Erin knew the whole story it had been explained to her very literally and piece by piece, Vlad didn't know and she wasn't sure he knew even now.
As long as she'd been with him she was a threat to him, a tool in their plan to bring him down unless she did as they told her to. This had been about far more than them as a couple.
Erin had broken her heart that day and it hadn't healed.
She knew she sounded superficial at the time but she couldn't think of another reason to give him to leave.
She didn't know at the time she was eight weeks pregnant with Alex.
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Erin gently stroked her son's cheek, wiping his tears away with a maternal smile. Alex leaned towards her touch, she could feel him calming and relaxing.
"That man was nice." Alex told her quietly trying to take his mind off the nightmare. He ended on the topic of the man he'd met earlier, causing Erin some discomfort.
Erin felt herself warm a little, "He is." She confirmed. "I knew him before you were born." She told her son, Alex's eyes widened in excitement and awe.
"You knew Vlad?" Erin nodded, she more than knew him. Alex looked up at her with a look of confusion, "Have I met him before?"
She looked at him in confusion and slight panic, "No why?" It was a strange question for him to have asked.
"Dunno." Alex muttered leaning towards her once more. The bags were clear under his eyes, she stroked his jaw. There was something in his mind telling him that he knew the vampire from somewhere other than the pictures he'd seen on computers and around the base.
Erin noticed Alex's plain blue pyjamas, sweat had made these ones damp and they clung to him. She darted over to the drawer and pulled out a pair of rugby pyjama's she'd bought him for his fourth birthday. He liked rugby, one of the slayers had looked after him and he'd ended up watching the game, he'd been fascinated by it.
She stripped him down, worrying even more as he began to shiver even when she redressed him. Alex was a usual tangle of limbs when she dressed him, he hated being dressed by her and he was old enough to dress himself now.
"Alexander Artur Ryan…" She stopped before his surname as he'd stilled. A fleeting thought crossed her mind at the realisation Vlad had heard the first of his two middle names and she hoped he didn't make the connection that was there. "Thank you." She held out his pyjama bottoms and he stuffed his feet through the legs, she pulled them up around him. She reached up and smoothed his messy, soaking hair down.
Erin hoisted Alex into her arms, she was getting him checked out now.
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Ver wiped her eyes trying to erase the sleep that was in them. Erin was wide awake in comparison hovering over the slayer. Ver tried not to be distracted by Erin, she hated it when people looked over her shoulder as she worked.
Ver placed a thermometer into Alex's ear, she pressed a few buttons on the digital device. Alex squirmed at the intrusion in his ear. She took it out and looked at it. "He's a little warmer than usual; it might be a mild infection. A cold." Ver dropped the thermometer back on the desk taking a deep breath.
Usually she would be angry at being woken up at three fifteen in the morning but she understood Erin's worry.
Erin shook her head, "Alex doesn't get colds." Her son didn't get sick.
"Erin, Jonno and Mina brought me in because I was the expert on vampire physiology. There is nothing wrong with Alex, he probably has his first cold." Ver had grown up in her homeland knowing the effects of vampire bites and dealing with them as an unqualified doctor. She knew more than the rest of the Guild about vampire physiology and the only person other than Renfield with enough knowledge to have Alex in her care.
Ver was also the most qualified medic in general on the base. She had more experience treating the bitten and injured than most of the slayers in the Guild. She'd been apprenticed from the age of twelve in her homeland; they needed doctors and with the rate of bitings before Vlad was in charge they were highly valuable. She was a year younger than Jonno and Erin but she was close to them and Alex. Alex called her 'Ronnie' or 'Nic' although she hated it, she preferred Ver, most of the time she was sure it was his form of tease. Although until today she'd never met his father personally.
Erin spoke again drawing her from her thoughts, "What about the nightmare?" That had worried Erin.
"Probably brought on by the cold." Ver told her with a reassuring smile.
Erin shook her head, "He's never had them before." She fussed over Alex and he tried to pull back from her.
Ver placed a hand on Erin's shoulder. "He's never had a cold before. Erin you know Alex has a stronger immune system but he's still half human until he transforms when he'll mostly take on the characteristics from his father's kind. It's nothing to worry about."
Ver was one of the only four people who knew of Alex's parentage. The others had no idea that Alex was half vampire.
"Are you sure?"
"Erin there aren't many tests I can run. His temperature is a little high but apart from that he's fine. His throat looks a little sore but it ties in with a cold."
Jonno ran a hand down his face, Erin had woken him as well wanting him present. This was one of the situations he'd always dreaded. A situation that involved Alex being seriously ill or injured, granted he wasn't this time but there was always a first time. He didn't want to be the one who had to call Vlad asking for his help for a son the vampire never knew existed.
Jonno caught Erin's arm and pulled her to one side, "I think you need to tell Vlad about Alex."
"I can't." It wasn't that she didn't want to it was that she couldn't. There were things Jonno didn't understand, things he could never understand. Erin couldn't tell him for his sake. If Jonno knew he would be in the same kind of danger that she already was or would be once Adze found out that Vlad had seen her.
Jonno shook his head, Erin had no right to keep Vlad away from Alex, "He deserves to know his son."
"Vlad and Alex deserve to be safe. They can't be if they find out who each other is." Erin told Jonno with distress. Alex wasn't paying attention to their conversation instead he was giving Veronica the evil eye as she held out a needle. He glared at it, there was no way he was going to have that in him.
Jonno continued his conversation with Erin, "He'll find out the day Alex turns sixteen."
Erin shook her head, "Don't you think I know that?"
"It's better if he finds out now, it might even stop his marriage…"
Erin shook her head, her son wasn't a tool. "I'm not using Alex to stop Vlad's wedding." She took a breath. "The moment Ramanga and Adze find out about our son, they will hunt him down. I'm not losing my son to them like I did his father." Her throat was filled with tears as she so desperately tried to make Jonno understand what was at risk here. If she could show Vlad Alex without consequences she would have done it years ago. She hated keeping it from him but it was important that she did.
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There was a sharp cry and a loud metallic bang. Jonno darted downwards to help Ver stand up, she brushed herself off. There was no dirt only creases that clung to her clothes, she let out a groan at the sight of the bent syringe at least it hadn't ended up in her.
"He pushed me back." Ver explained. "I wasn't ready so I fell down." Her centre of gravity must have been off when he hit her in the chest.
"Alex!" Erin scolded her son. He curled himself up on the bed, trying to protect himself from the 'weapon'.
"She was going to hurt me with that thing!" Alex cried, his hand shook as he gestured towards the needle that was now looking more like a u bend than a needle.
Erin's expression softened, Alex had only had one blood test in his entire life. The day he was born to check there were no problems. Erin sat on the edge of the bed.
Erin placed her fingers under his chin lifting his head to meet her eyes, "She was going to take a some of your blood."
"To give it to the vampires?!" He cried moving backward trying to escape Ver for the first time in his life. "Or is she a vampire?!" Jonno stifled a laugh behind his hand, Erin shot him a dirty look and Ver hit him discreetly in the ribs.
Erin shook her head, his imagination sometimes made things worse for him. "You're too young, and you can never give blood to them and you know Aunt Ver isn't a vampire Alex."
Alex looked up to her, "Like you can't?"
Erin nodded, "Just like I can't." She couldn't give her blood anymore and there was a reason for that. She'd never explained it to Alex, he was too young for that. "Ver wants to make sure there's nothing wrong with you and to do that she needs to look at your blood."
Alex's eyes narrowed and his head tilted, looking like Vlad and Erin in that moment. "How much?" He was suspicious.
Ver pressed her index finger and thumb together before parting them about an inch as a completely inaccurate estimation of how much blood she needed to take. "Just a little."
"Will it hurt?"
Erin shook her head, "Just a pin prick."
Alex sighed and held out his arm. Ver grasped it lightly and cleaned the area again that she wanted to draw blood from. She then reached for a new syringe and placed it against Alex's skin. "Ready?" She asked him. He nodded, he let out the smallest of whimpers as the needle pierced his skin. Erin kissed his hair telling him she was proud of him for not crying.
Alex winced as he saw the blood, pulling a disgusted look and turning away. He really was his father's son. Erin rubbed his back lightly.
Ver removed the needle completely from him and pressed a cotton ball to it. "That's it?" He was a little disappointed that she'd only taken a small amount and Jonno laughed again.
"All I need." Ver looked to Erin, "I'll have the results ready by morning but there's nothing wrong with him."
"Thanks." She stood from the bed, gently grasping Alex's waist she lowered him to the floor. "You. Bed. You can stay in my room tonight." That seemed to cheer her son up to no end.
She held out her hand to him and he took it and allowed her to take him from the room. She smiled to Jonno and Ver before closing the door behind her.
Ver took the vial of blood from the syringe. He wished she didn't have to do this at this time of night. She dropped a spot of it onto a glass slide and slid it under the microscope. There were a few tests she had to run on the half vampire's blood to reassure Erin before morning.
Jonno looked at Ver, "Is there anything wrong?"
"He's just got a cold coming, nothing more." She knew vampire physiology inside and out. There was nothing physically wrong with Alex.
"I wish she'd tell Vlad."
"She's never told us the whole story." Jonno whispered, looking towards the doors Erin had just disappeared through. "I wish she would."
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Erin rubbed her arm with her free right hand as she walked along the corridor. It felt as if the room was being plunged deeper and deeper into a freezer. The cold made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
She knew that feeling anywhere.
"Alex. Run. Now!" She shouted sharply at her son, Alex didn't hesitate he ran as fast as he could back towards Jonno and Ver.
Something hit Erin's chest with the force of a small bomb, she felt immediately winded and pain flared throughout her entire body.
Erin was thrown backwards; her only thought was for Alex as her head hit the thick concrete wall.
Knocking her out cold.
Leaving her at the mercy of her attacker.
TBC
A/N: What do you think?
Thanks for reading.