Chapter 11

"Is it just me or has anyone else noticed that Ingrid's been everywhere we've been?" Bryn enquired after spotting her again near the bench that they spent their break time on.

"And she's been extremely nice." Chloe added remembering how different she had found Ingrid had been to Bryn when they had a run in with her, outside the girl's changing rooms.

"Maybe she's finally come to be nice!" Robin said innocently. Chloe and Bryn looked at each other; there was no chance that Ingrid was going to be nice to them, unless she had something evil planned for them.

"What? Ingrid's being nice to you!" Vlad could hardly believe his ears. Bryn and Chloe nodded, Robin shook his head.

"Ok, so she's being nice to you two, but not Robin." Vlad was attempting to think like his sister so he could figure out why she was acting odd around Bryn and Chloe but being her usual, mean, self around him and Robin. It was true that Bryn and Chloe seemed to be going round the school together a lot more than they used to, but that was a good enough reason for Ingrid to be nice to them.

Unless she meant it for only one of them and if she did and it was the person Vlad thought it was meant for, then he would be glad because maybe, just maybe Ingrid had learnt to respect his best friend, for there had been no immediate reason why she should've been mean to her in the first place. Robin, he could understand, for he acted like a small puppy around her, always aiming for attention but receiving none.

They assembled on the bench anyway despite Ingrid being there. Speaking loudly they discussed how ugly they thought Ingrid was, (they did this on purpose to see how long she could put up with hearing it!) sure enough about two minutes into the conversation Ingrid had walked off, annoyed. They all broke out into fits of giggles, to think how successful that had been!

It was about 3 o'clock in the afternoon when three sodden friends arrived at the castle door (Chloe would go home after school because she didn't like staying in the castle for very long; it gave her the creeps). Vlad pushed the door ajar –it was just enough for them to slip through but no more.

"Seriously Vlad, you've got to persuade your dad to get electricity fitted in here, I can't see a thing!" Bryn exclaimed through the darkness.

"Yeah, working on that!" Vlad called back vaguely aware of Bryn's whereabouts.

Bryn felt a cold hand clamp round her mouth as she was dragged backwards, unable to scream, she couldn't get Robin or Vlad's attention as they walked through to the great hall, the door shutting behind them.

The great hall was dimly lit but it was enough to see everything that was situated in the room, or that wasn't.

"Where's Bryn?" Vlad asked he had turned round to face both his friends but found that only one was standing in front of him. Robin looked behind him convinced that Bryn had followed him in.

"I don't know," both boys eyed each other, worried.

Bryn found herself pinned to the stone wall. She was too much in a state of bewilderment to be sure of what part of the castle she was in. Right now she was more concerned at why she was being pinned to a wall.

"Next time, you leave my brother alone; you've done something to him, made him change." Ingrid spat the words un-thoughtfully in Bryn's face. Bryn was speechless, not understanding how Ingrid could rightly lay the blame on her when it was Vlad's own decision to change his attitude towards breathers, nothing to do with her influencing him.

"Well, SAY SOMETHING!" Ingrid shook Bryn violently, hitting her head hard against the solid brickwork that made up the walls of the castle. Bryn's body fell limp into Ingrid's arms; the impact on her head had made Bryn faint. Ingrid released her arms away and watched as Bryn slumped to the floor.

Ingrid took several steps away from her crime, not really thinking about what she'd done. She chucked her hands angrily in front of her; letting out an ear-piercing scream of anger. Sparks flew out her hands, making a semicircle of fire around the spot where Bryn lay motionless.

Ingrid stared at her hands unbelieving. She was beginning to receive her powers, after all this time of waiting! Running out of the room Ingrid went in search of her mother to inform her that the deed was done and that she had gained some of her vampire-given powers.

Vlad had the only powerful torch that his family owned, in his hand as he searched through the darkness. He and Robin had searched the castle, starting from the small hallway that served as an entrance room. There was two other possible ways that Bryn could have gone, one led to the tower and the other led to the dungeon. Having already searched the tower and found nothing; Robin and Vlad took a deep breath as they headed down to the dungeons.

Robin was extremely glad that they had managed to find the torch, dungeons where scary as it is without it having to be in entire blackness. As they reached the end of the winding staircase they found they no longer needed the torch for there was a bright light coming from one of the cells. Vlad switched the torch off, not wanting to waste the battery when there was sufficient enough light for them to see where they needed to.

Cautiously Robin poked his head into the cell which was generating the light; his face was greeted by a hot gust of wind as the fire continued to burn. Vlad entered the room with much less caution then Robin had taken, the heat hit him square on but he continued into the cell, mystified at how the perfect semicircle of fire could have begun. He looked deeply into the flames; he admired the bright colours: the oranges, the reds and the yellows, but something more important lay behind the bright array of colours.

"Bryn! Oh my god! How the hell did this happen?" Robin took the words straight out of Vlad's mouth. He had come up behind Vlad and had spotted her at exactly the same time as he had.

"Water, get water!" Vlad told Robin hurriedly. Robin headed straight for the door, pausing for only a moment while he asked for the torch. Vlad chucked it to him and Robin caught it neatly in his right hand –he could catch when things depended on it!

Vlad examined the height of the flame, experimentally holding out his hand to be in line with the flame. He could do it. If he put his mind to it, he could jump the height of that flame. Vlad lifted his leg over the blaze, taking one deep breath in, he jumped.

He had singed the bottom of his trousers and burnt the skin on his ankles but he was alright. Rushing over to where Bryn lay, he tried to get her to respond but she had been unconscious to long. The fire was getting dangerously close to her arm, he had to do something. Sliding his arms underneath her body, Vlad was able to lift her into his arms.

Either she was extremely light or he was surprisingly strong; 'a bit of both' Vlad thought to himself as he faced the fire once again.

Robin had found a wooden bucket near the kitchen sink and was hastily trying to fill it up; the tap just didn't seem to be pouring enough water out to be able to fill at least half the bucket. Eventually the water started gushing out and the bucket was filled in no time. Swiftly turning the tap off, Robin turned towards the door.

Magda stopped him.

"Sorry countess, I didn't see you there." Robin's eyes fixed themselves to Magda's beautiful complexion.

"Oh, don't worry about that!" Magda took a strand of Robin's fringe in her hand, curling it round her finger. Robin followed the hand, wondering what she was doing but didn't dare ask. She was beautiful, that was all he could think about. Taking his eyes of her for one moment and glancing down at the water he held in the unstable wooden bucket, he was reminded of the fire, and the vision of Bryn lying helpless on the floor, vulnerable to the ring of flames that surrounded her filled his mind, wiping away any thoughts of Magda.

"Sorry, gotta rush!" Robin gently pushed past the countess, holding the bucket carefully in both hands. He didn't even reach the door from the great hall into the small entrance hallway.

Vlad appeared at the doorway. His face was red from the intense heat of the fire; he carried Bryn effortlessly to the table, where he placed her, delicately, on top.

Magda watched as her son took such great care over the unconscious girl. Her plan had failed. Backfired. Even her addition to the plan had failed; all three of them were still alive, all three of them closer than ever. Wrapping her long cloak around her, she apparated, unseen by anyone in the room.

"MAGDA OUT! YOU'VE RUINED EVERYTHING, YOU'VE MADE IT WORSE, AND I CAN'T STAND THE SIGHT OF YOU ANYMORE!" the count threw Magda's suitcase out the window, it landed with a thump on the gravelled path.

"But darling!" Magda protested but the count was having none of that. He grabbed Magda's arm and dragged her to the exit, pushed her out and slammed the door in her face. She was left with no choice but to pick up her suitcase and apparate back to her werewolf lover.

Back inside, the count turned to his daughter.

"Ingrid. Did you play a part in your mother's stupid scheme?"

"NO. It was all her idea! I didn't tell her to do it!" Ingrid skirted round the subject avoiding the original question.

"Ingrid. You made the fire ring; you must've, for your mother can only do lightning bolts –comes from her side of the family. My side of the family uses fire." The count looked at Ingrid expectantly; she had been caught out, no hiding from the truth now.

"Yes I did it." Ingrid crossed her arms and stared at her father defiantly. The count nodded sharply, patting her on the shoulder.

"Good, good. But next time go a little easier with the mortal." Ingrid had expected a big speech from her father about what she had done wrong and so was quite surprised when he came out with just that simple sentence.

Bryn lay in the hospital bed, wires all around her, her eyes still tightly shut. Vlad had been given a chair to sit on, (his burns had been bandaged up making it impossible for him to stand for longer than a few seconds) Robin had perched himself on the edge of the bed, his jacket splayed out over the white sheet.

Chrysantia and Paul Nurson had arrived and where standing on the other side of their daughter's bed. Lyden had arrived shortly after his parents and was leaning on the barrier at the end of the same bed.

Vlad reached over to move Bryn's hair away from her face, Chrysantia leaned over to do the same but Vlad beat her to it. Chrysantia locked gaze with Vlad, she could see the concern forming in his eyes and understood how he felt. Bryn stirred breaking Chrysantia's gaze and making her move it to her daughter.

Opening her eyes, Bryn found herself staring at the sparkling white ceiling. She tensed as anxiety took hold of her. Where was she? What had happened? Her gaze fell to her parents, they were smiling at her but she didn't smile back, she was confused. Following her gaze round her bedside to Lyden, he was also grinning, in the way that he always did when trying to make her cheer up. Why was he there? Why couldn't she remember? She continued her gaze round the rest of the bed, Robin had his head tilted, he knew she was confused but didn't understand why. Bryn paused, it was coming back to her, the castle, yes; they had been in the castle. What had happened there? She continued her eyes round the last part of the bed, Vlad sat, with his hands clasped on the bed, regarding her emerald green eyes with his own gentle gaze.

All at once everything came back to her, she remembered Ingrid shaking her, she remember how she had felt the heat radiate from the fire, she vaguely remembered hearing Vlad's voice as he tried to bring her round and very vaguely she remembered being lifted up into his arms, carried away from the danger of the flames.

Uncovering her left arm from the white sheet, Bryn leaned over to Vlad, her left arm slinking round his neck. She pulled him closer and kissed him on the cheek. Vlad blushed, Robin grinned and Lyden looked round for someone to say 'I told you so' to.

Paul Nurson put an arm around his wife's waist; she glanced up at him and smiled. Deep down inside they had known that their daughter would one day fall in love and they couldn't think of anyone better then one of her best friends.