I'm quite heartened to see how many people read this, I always worry that with sequels people will lose interest - especially when it took me so long to start this one. So to all my Adam!Vlad readers, I love you!

If the French is off, blame Google translate - I did Spanish a decade ago and that's the closest I have. Translations/English will be at the bottom.

-AGU-

Still shaky with the sight of his past, and the overall emotional upheaval of the last twenty four hours, Adam dropped onto the bench in the deserted, dark park opposite Erika. "So, what's up daughter dear?" Erika fiddled with the label on her drink bottle, clearly anxious about whatever she wanted to say. "First off, how are you?" "Anxious, scared, still amused that I'm this uber vampire leading the whole race when I barely even function night to night. So, same as always? What do you want to talk to me about?" His daughter took a long swallow of her fizzy drink, grimacing as her taste buds flickered between human and vampire.

"Adrian. And Emil I guess." "You probably know them better than me, but shoot." Her fingers tapped on the plastic table-like surface, her nails always perfectly filed and painted dark blue. "Emil worries me. Not towards me and Adrian, but I feel like he doesn't actually know how to be around people. Adrian loves his mum, but Emil barely trusts anyone other than our mother. I don't mean to cast aspersions on her parenting skills, but there's something wrong there." Having wondered similar things, Adam nodded with a sigh. "I know, but I also think it's more than that. Adrian is the legitimate Dracula heir, in power and bloodline and I wonder if that makes Emil feel sidelined and whether he's just given up."

"Hmm. Maybe. Though if his true parentage were known I wonder if Adrian would still be..." "Yes. It's pretty twisted, but I checked - his parents are both Dracula and that's all anyone really cares about." Erika cringed a little, but then her face smoothed out into something else. "I... I understand. You and Ingrid. So does Adrian." It took him a minute, but Adam clicked. "Are you?" "No, nothings happened, but we both feel it. We agreed it was not a good idea, we're just trying to work out how to deal with it." A conversation he had had with Erin so long ago flashed through his mind - another shard of the break he had made in this family. "I said that to Erin. Or to that effect when we were talking about being prepared for you. I said I didn't expect you to have siblings you would meet during puberty. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You had no idea. How did you and she deal with it? Aside from not, obviously." "We tried. The longest two months of my life, if it weren't for Erin I probably would have made myself really ill. I barely slept, lost a lot of weight, apparently the tension was obvious between me and Ingrid but nobody knew anything. Except the slayers, as it turned out." "Wait. My mum knew?" Adam hadn't gone into detail, at Erika's request but she was asking now. "Yeah. A month or so before me and Ingrid knew. I used to think she was just accepting, now I think it was guilt for not telling me, and fear of what would happen if she turned up to her slayer parents pregnant by me." Erika hmmed noncommittally, and Adam felt a fresh spike of guilt that his children had to go through this - because of him leaving.

"What about Bertrand?" "At the time, all he cared about was that I trained on his time. He knew though, not that I ever told him explicitly but he's a smart cookie. Must be where you get it from." "Yeah, wasn't from you." Erika grinned cheekily at him - his smile all over. "Charming as ever. So, anything else playing on your mind?" "Just the dance with the mirror. Nobody seems to know what's going to happen." "I wish I knew. Mine could have been different because I'm a halfling, or because I'm me. Whatever happens, I know you'll be fine. You're a tough fang, you survived being raised by me." His daughter chuckled, tossing her bottle aside. "About Adrian. You're both too young, but then so were me and Ingrid. If something happens, I won't be mad. Just be careful, and talk to me. Ok?" She hugged him, arms tight around his chest and a few tears felt damp on his clothes.

"Thanks dad. Yeah, we don't want to give in but nice to know you won't go bats." "If Adrian wants to talk to me, he can. I think Ingrid may be a little sensitive about me right now, I wouldn't want her upset with him because of me." "Thanks. I'll tell him." Erika smiled softly at him as they separated, the one truly good thing he had done with his unlife were his children. Rubbing absently at the moles on his wrist, Erika turned his arm to look at them more closely. "You know Emil has them too? The only one of the three of us." "I didn't know that, but nice to know they didn't end with me." The reminder of George stung, he still missed his human family deeply.

"We should get back. Before you go looking for them again and we find out how good Bertrand's memory wipes are. Plus you didn't actually wipe Robin's mind, just made him think you hated each other." His daughter was right, in spite of logic and reason Adam wanted to go back and look at them again. "Hold on tight." Erika gripped his arm, letting him flit them back to Garside. "Go on up, you have school and I have council work." "Thanks for the talk and stuff. Look after yourself." "Always do. Someone has to keep an eye on you kids." Watching Erika head up to the attic, Adam flitted back down to his room and went back to the council work.

Bertrand found him leant over the clan history book, confusing him. "Shouldn't you be sleeping?" "At night?" Looking up at his tutor, Adam couldn't put his finger on it but something didn't feel right. "Well you're watching the school aren't you?" "Of course. What are you working on?" Holding up the list, Adam muttered out "council work" and tried to work out what felt... wrong. "Off you go then." Bertrand immediately went, and Adam was now very confused - his tutor always made a parting comment, usually sarcastic. Tucking the list into his pocket so he wouldn't misplace it, Adam flitted up to the attic. Still seated around the table working on a Shakespeare essay were his three children. And Bertrand. Now very confused, Adam tried to think.

"Quand est non anniversaire?" "Pourquoi demandez-vous?" "Reponds-moi!" "21 Juin." Barely remembering his French lessons, Adam was surprised he remembered so much, and he was satisfied this was his tutor - given he himself was French and would know Adam's birthday. So who was that he just spoke to? "Il ya un problème. Je viens de parler de vous. En bas." Bertrand stood up, looking at Adam strangely. "Quelle?" About to answer, he was interrupted by Emil. "Can you go flirt in Spanish somewhere else?" "It's French. And not flirting." Emil glared at him, then went back to his essay.

"Whatever you say little brother, everyone knows you fucked the tutor." Rolling his eyes, Adam restrained the urge to dust Malik. "Then you don't need to tell them again. Don't you have somewhere else to stick your tongue down my ex girlfriends throat?" Malik scowled at the reminder that to everyone else, he was just taking Adam's 'cast off'. Erin looked slightly murderous, but if she had any memory of Adam, she would recognise the worry in his eyes. Bertrand brushed past him, a barely audible whisper of "metamorphe" against his ear as he dashed down to the basement and back. "Nothing there." "So the grand high lunatic is losing his marbles? Brilliant." Bertrand put on his most patronising tone as he spoke back to Malik.

"Not at all. Adam knows I would put garlic in his soya blood if he ever damaged one of my books, but several of them have been 'flamed'. So somebody was down there. They just aren't now." "Someone that idiot thought was you? Still not confidence inspiring." The word shape shifter rang in his ears - had that been what he saw with Malik? Had he all but verbally attacked Ingrid for something she hadn't actually done? Flicking his eyes across the room, he saw her in the corner with a glass of blood, but she was clearly doing her best to ignore his existence. "Protegez les." "Toujours."

Flitting back down to the basement, Adam could feel that there had been two different vampires down here. And with Bertrand's energy the newer, it was clear whatever had been there wasn't him - he knew something was off. Mentally banking that feeling as 'shapeshifter', Adam could smell the burnt books - several of them much older than him in Bertrand's collection. Scanning the pile, one that was missing was on rare vampire powers - such as shapeshifting. Bertrand had found that one for Adam, as he was the only other one to find out Adam could zone. Even Ingrid and Erika didn't know he could turn them into crystals full of screeching sounds and pain - it was a 'dark art' and needed to be kept a secret.

His own things were untouched, which confused him as he too, had books in his bag. Whoever it was doing this was either not particularly thorough, or assumed Adam knew very little without his tutor (true to an extent but still). Racking his brains and checking the time, Adam hunted out his council robes and crown, figuring if he was fast he could get a couple of hours in the VHC library and be back before the sunrise. "Dad?" That uneasy feeling was back, even as he turned to look at his daughter. "Where are you going?" "Just to the VHC, urgent telepathy message requires my attention. You should be in bed, school in the morning." Bolting past before the potential shapeshifter wearing his daughter could push him further, Adam flew straight to the VHC.

"Good evening Your Grandness. You do know it's not a meeting night?" "Yes Hack, I do. I wonder if you could point me to the VHC library?" Roqueloire almost seemed to come out of thin air next to him then. "Allow me sir. This way." Following the security vampire, Adam could feel multiple eyes on him wherever he went as they headed to what had to be the biggest library he had ever seen. "Wow. Bertrand would kill for this place." "Anything in particular you were after sir?" Digging up the name in his head, a brief glance at the shapeshifting chapter he suddenly wished had been more thorough. "Daralum." Roque pointed him to the inventory catalogue, which was quite possibly the longest book in here - and that was saying something.

Every list was cross referenced - alphabetical order, subject, author, time it was written, pertinent names of vampires in them. There were three whole pages of references for 'Chosen One', another two for 'Vladimir Dracula' and it was confusing to think most people had only known his existence for sixteen years. Mind whirling, he found the cross he was looking for. Daralum, Shapeshifting. The reference led him to a pile of scrolls, thankfully all well marked. Not entirely sure what, or rather who he was looking for yet, Adam figured he could always check it against clans Malik may have come into contact with. Because whoever this shapeshifter might be, it had clearly arrived with the new Dracula. Unrolling the 'Graduates of Daralum' scroll out, he scanned the list and one name immediately leapt out at him. 'Elisabetta Vaccaria' was there, Malik's mother.

"Can I borrow this?" "You need to sign it out and promise to return it in the same condition, but yes. It is a library after all." Hands shaking, Adam barely remembered to write "Vladimir Dracula" on the sign out sheet, thanking Roque and tearing out of the VHC again like a bat out of hell. The scroll was still clutched in his hand when he got back, landing straight in his room and only leaving for the clan book. Changing out of his robes quickly, Adam looked up Vaccaria in the clan history. Old clan, mention of her binding into the Dracula clan, then being cast out for getting pregnant after her husband was dusted. There was no mention of shifting here, but after a perfunctory glance at the rest, Adam was certain of one thing. Well, two. One was that bizarre energy he could never quite follow was a shapeshifter - that's why he didn't immediately realise, she copied vampire energy but she couldn't fool him forever. And second, the shifter was Malik's definitely not dusted mother. Oh, and thirdly - he couldn't tell anyone, she could be anywhere or anyone.

Drumming his fingers against his leg as he thought for a moment, he hid the scroll in his council robes and pulled out the candidates list again. Adam knew he wouldn't make any progress on it tonight, but if anyone were watching he would look to be still doing so. Another moments thought had him digging out the old UV cage panel from his bag, back when Bertrand taught him about slayer weapons. Holding it carefully away from himself, Adam flicked the switch to check it still worked. A weak, but still very painful should he touch it UV cage sprung out, so it worked but needed new batteries. "Vampire energy has so many uses" he mused, holding the rechargeable batteries in his hand and refilling them with his own power. The beam that came out next time almost blinded him to look at, so that was him ready to go.

The shifter might be able to copy whoever they liked, but Elisabetta was still an adult vampire - she couldn't leave a UV cage. Resolving to keep it on him at all times, Adam locked the safety switch so he wouldn't inadvertently dust himself and shoved it in his pocket. It was getting light, the sounds of breather teens starting to fill the school but Adam was far too wired to sleep. There were still weeks to go until Erika's birthday, and much like he had with Ingrid's sixteenth so many years ago, he felt like it was a countdown to when something would shift, change.

-AGU-

Kind of short, but there was nothing more to be added to this chapter without it dragging through too much at once.

The translations are in order below, though you could probably have gotten the gist.

When's my birthday?

Why do you ask?

Answer me!

21 June.

There is a problem. I just spoke to you. Downstairs.

What?

And metamorphe - shapeshifter, Protegez les - protect them, Toujours - Always.

Remind me never to use other languages, my mind is dribbling out of my ears trying to get Google translate to work.