Erin found herself being knocked out of the way before Ryan could strike her. She looked up to see her saviour, she was shocked. She stood brushing her hands on her jeans trying to wipe of the mulch that had transferred onto there from the floor.
"You were in my way." Ingrid protested angrily at her. Shaking her head, Erin could tell Ingrid wasn't sure as to why she'd knocked her out of the way. Ingrid spun to where Ryan had been standing only finding herself coming face to face with thin air.
Erin began to wish that Vlad hadn't destroyed her stake right now. She didn't think she could slay her brother but it would have been soothing to know it was in her hand. Her hand reached up to her neck as she realised that she hadn't replaced her scarf after Vlad had removed it two days before – had it really been that long?
Ryan watched his prey beneath him twist and turn trying to glimpse him. That was the problem with breathers they always looked at eye level, not upwards into the rafters. The breather had brought a vampire with her. Or was she the other vampire's prey? He would claim the prize, of that he was sure.
He dropped himself down silently, grasping Ingrid's leather clad shoulder and throwing her clean through the door. The door splintered and broke on impact, Erin barely registered her concern for Ingrid and the thanks that the door was rotten through.
With a snap Ryan's head turned towards her approaching her slowly, why did he need to run? It wasn't like she could ever out run him.
Erin turned finding a door, she twisted the handle – it was jammed. She forced herself against the door, slamming her shoulder into it wincing at the pain it caused. It refused to move – she was completely trapped. She didn't need to worry about the Dracula's killing her, her own brother was about to do it. Erin flattened herself against the door, praying she would disappear into it – her eyes tightly shut awaiting that sharp piercing feeling.
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A hand grabbed her shoulder and she opened her eyes. Bertrand was looking at her concerned.
"You okay?" He asked.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine."
"Did he bite you?"
"No." She assured him and he nodded. Erin knew his concern for her wasn't out of friendliness it was out of fear of Vlad. He still checked her neck for the tell tale signs of a vampire's bite. Vlad would be murderous if Erin became a vampire. They'd all had a taste of his power; the slightest annoyance could set him off.
Erin had never noticed how strong Bertrand was before now as he held Ryan. He held Ryan's neck stopping him from thrashing while Ingrid finished securing his hands.
"Let's get him back to the school." The two vampires whizzed off. Leaving Erin standing in the room.
"I'll make my own way back shall I?" She muttered, before feeling something grab her wrist and her surroundings blurred.
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Bertrand dragged Ryan into the room, taking care to hold him back from Erin. The Half Fang stared at her as if she were a piece of meat, it unnerved her making the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
"This is your brother?" The Count asked, Wolfie hid behind his cape, watching the snarling vampire. "The one who made Ingrid ill?" The Count's lip was curled disbelievingly, "Still Renfield take a bottle of his blood should we need it in the future." He whispered loudly with a wink. Ingrid crossed her arms and tutted loudly and angrily.
Bertrand shoved Ryan into the UV cage that Vlad had rigged up and recently repaired after destroying it with his powers the first time he met him. With a click the circuit completed and the cage appeared around Ryan. There was no telling how long the UV Cage would last. The Half Fang was uncontrollable, at any moment he might bite her or escape.
"Can I speak to him alone?" She asked the Dracula's, they shared an uneasy look. She didn't lose eye contact with her brother, staring him down was the only thing that kept her throat safe. In a blink he'd be attached to it if she wasn't careful, that was if the UV cage failed her.
Ryan hissed at her loudly. Hating being caged like an animal but at the moment he was one.
"He'll talk to me, I'll get through to him."
"Five minutes." The Count conceded, she nodded in thanks. "Clock's ticking."
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As the door clicked shut Erin grabbed one of the chairs from the nearby table and placed it in front of the cage sitting on it. "Ryan it's me." Her voice was soft and full of hope. Ryan simply tipped his head and looked her up and down as if trying to decide where to bite her first the moment her was free. "It's Erin your sister." Her voice was full of tears maybe this was a bad idea. "Don't you remember me?" Still nothing. "Do you remember the BMW you got for me? A heap of trash?" Something flickered in his eyes. Erin knew the signs well, Vlad showed them before he left. "Fight it Ryan."
"Erin?"
"Yeah, it's me." His focus cleared and suddenly it was her brother once more.
It was only a split second before his features clouded over again. "You helped them capture me! You're in league with vampires"
"We need your help."
"I'm not helping vampires."
"Do it for me then." She argued back to him, he turned away.
"I'm not helping people who are murderers."
She wasn't going to argue that fact, she wasn't in the mood to. "I need your help otherwise there'll be a bloodbath."
"For vampires or humans."
"Both." She told him sternly. Ryan studied her closely looking for any signs of her lying. "Vlad's…"
"Dracula?" He scoffed, "Why do I care about the new Vampire King?"
"Chosen One!" She snapped back, defending his title.
"He's a bloodthirsty freak like the rest of his kind. He's better off dead." His inbred training was reasserting itself. They were fare from being unbiased as Erin had found out in the last couple of months around the Draculas.
Erin grabbed the nearby…coaster. Throwing it hard through the sun cage. Ryan ducked afraid by his sister's sudden outburst. The tears in her eyes were plain enough to see. There was only one reason his comment would have drawn that reaction out of her. He thought his sister had more sense than that.
"You've fallen for a vampire Sis. The most deadly of the lot." Ryan told her condescendingly. Vampires didn't have feelings they had victims. "You're a trained slayer, you know all of their tricks. They can make you believe anything." His pitying look was too much for her to handle. Vlad had never hypnotised her, he definitely couldn't now even if he wanted to.
"Vlad's not like that." She protested. How could Ryan possibly know what Vlad was like? He hadn't grown closer to him, hadn't seen what he was truly like. Too much of slayer Intel was based on fear and manipulation. Honestly would the slayers really kill him if they knew he had a teddy bear? "Vlad's kind and loving…"
"They can't help what they are!" He yelled.
"Any more than we can?" Erin snapped her patience breaking. Anger shining forth. "We didn't have a choice either! We couldn't chose our destiny because ours had been decided the moment we were born!" Erin advanced her hands clenched as she tried to stop herself from hitting him. "Mum was a slayer, Dad too, Gran, Granddad…every person in our family has been a slayer."
Ryan didn't know how to respond, Erin had never complained before. "Why didn't you say something?"
"And have them be disappointed in me?" Erin swatted away a tear with her sleeve. "You saw how they reacted when I turned vegetarian."
Erin had been subject to a riot act when she'd announced she was vegetarian 'How can you believe in slaughtering a vampire if you don't believe in slaughtering animals'. That was a wonderful family moment.
Maybe that's why she and Vlad bonded straight away, both were pushing away at their pre-ordained destinies. She didn't want to be a slayer; he didn't want to be a vampire. That was another thing they had in common with each other.
Erin changed the topic, "Ryan you've been living in the shadows for two months. You must have heard something."
Her persistence shocked him, he realised then that his sister did love a vampire. She hadn't been hypnotised – there were no tell tale signs such as blank looks and monotonous speech. "You really love him than much?"
"I love him Ryan," That was the first time she said the words out loud to anyone, "And Ryan, he loves me." Ryan's jaw opened and closed as he considered how to respond to her revelation. He'd never heard of a vampire being in love.
"He's only going to bite you when your back's turned." Ryan warned, seeing his sister couldn't be dissuaded. Erin's hand moved to her throat feeling the ghost of his fangs at her throat. Thinking back she hadn't been horrified, she'd been surprised. Wasn't that wrong?
"Vlad's different, he's not like other vampires." Erin fought to assure him. "Vlad won't hurt me, and he's made sure no other vampire can." Vlad had left to protect her, but she wasn't going to tell her brother that at any cost. "He doesn't even want to be a vampire." She laughed and Ryan felt his jaw drop once again, every vampire relished their nature. "He wants us to live in peace, and I believe him."
Ryan seemed to hesitate. If his sister trusted him and loved him there was nothing he could do. He trusted her judgement. Erin was a good judge of character. At the very least it might lead to a cure. "I don't know how true it is?"
She needed to know, "What?"
"Something I've heard." Erin waited, "About the Chosen One…"
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He couldn't escape he was trapped inside the cage, or whatever it was, the light was still there, brighter than before. How long had he been there? He hadn't slept; he couldn't sleep with that brightness.
From the few moment he'd actually dared to open his eyes he'd counted five dazzling, intense spotlights focusing on him, through some sort of glass. The way the light refracted he assumed it was a form of glass.
He'd been given something; he didn't know what it was. Something had been forced down his throat, a liquid of some sort. It wasn't blood but it wasn't as harmless as water either. It tasked acrid and bitter. Another does was due at any minute.
Something in the drink made his powers difficult to access even his fangs wouldn't descend. While he wanted to fell normal these weren't the circumstances he wished for.
When he did manage to access his powers he only felt intense pain. Pain like he'd never felt before. Even the most natural of his powers – moving at speed – forced stabs of hot, white pain throughout his body and felt like nails being hammered into his skull. The pains made him forfeit the power he was using. While Bertrand hadn't progressed onto pushing through the pain yet, he doubted he could even win with pain at this level.
As if on cue the doors to his cell opened. Immediately he was restrained. His arms were forced behind him and his mouth held open. He couldn't wiggle or move, he felt too exhausted to try.
"Time for your next dose your Grandness." A gruff, husky voice sneered with much amusement. The man – he assumed it was a man from the vice-like grip – behind him laughed loudly, sounding like a pig.
The liquid was poured into his mouth and a hand covered it so he couldn't spit it back out. If he could he would have bit the man's hand but at the moment he had very little choice but to concede. His stomach ached from the last consequence of not swallowing it.
The worst part was with the lights on he couldn't work out when the next dose was coming or even what was coming next.
The lights suddenly snapped off. Vlad opened his eyes slowly, the headache lessening somewhat. His eyes adjusting to what was considered his more natural level of light for the first time in what must have been 48 hours.
Vlad looked up, his head heavy and woozy. He could already feel the effects of the 'potion' on him.
Something swam into his focus; he struggled to see it through the blur.
"Hello Vlad."
TBC
A/N: I'm working most of the day tomorrow so it might be a later post again. I had hoped to post a 3rd chapter tonight but it really needs tweaking, I'm not sure what but there's something missing from it.
Please let me know what you think?
Thanks for reading.