George was on her laptop working on math when Asan walked into her room.
"What are you doing?" Asan asked.
"School work. I'm home schooled," George said.
Asan looked confused, "Why?"
"So I can be smart," George laughed.
Asan shrugged his shoulders, "Want to play a chess or something?"
George looked up from her laptop, "Actually I never learned how to play chess."
Asan smiled, "I can teach you. A lot of vampires play chess."
"Sorry, but I need to finish this. Vlad is going to check it when he gets home, so I can't get behind."
"Oh come on," Asan begged. "Shango and I are leaving in a couple hours. You can do your work then."
George thought about it, "Fine, but if I fall behind I'm telling Vlad that it was your fault."
Vlad and Draco had just passed the Romanian border. They stopped behind a restaurant.
"Why are we stopping?" Vlad asked.
"Aren't you hungry?"
Vlad realized that he was, "Oh wow. I guess I was just excited to be home."
"You are the strangest vampire I have ever known. Most who are hungry at all cannot think about anything but blood."
"I've had a lot of practice ignoring that need," Vlad explained.
"Well we can just wait for someone to come back here and we will grab them," Draco said. "You can have the first one."
It only took a couple minutes for a man to walk to the back parking lot to get to his car. Vlad grabbed them and pulled them away from view of anyone. Vlad hadn't bothered to hypnotize this victim. He actually enjoyed how they always tried to pull away, but it was useless. He would only ever cover their mouth so no one would hear them screaming. Vlad sank his fangs into the victim's neck. He couldn't believe that he went so long without just tasting this. The warmth of it soothed his throat. The taste of it was indescribable.
The body went limp and Vlad savored the last bit. He disposed of the body and never gave the man another thought. It was a lot easier to kill someone if you just never thought about the kind of life the victims had.
Asan and Shango stood at the front door ready to leave. Shango shook the Counts hand, "Thank you for hearing me out and allowing us to stay here."
"You are welcome anytime," the Count said.
Ingrid appeared carrying a suitcase, "Ready."
Piers gave her a kiss, "Come back safe."
Ingrid rolled her eyes, "I'll only be gone for a couple nights."
Asan held his hand out to shake Georges, "I'll see you next time then?"
George ignored the handshake and gave him a hug, which took him by surprise.
Shango grabbed Asan's shoulders and flew off while Ingrid followed.
George was back in her room doing her math homework. She heard a swish behind her.
"Good to see you've been keeping up with your homework," someone said behind her.
George jumped up from her desk chair and wrapped her arms around her brother, "You're back!"
Vlad laughed, "How've you been?"
"Great, but you just missed Asan and Shango."
"That's ok. How about you take a break from school work and we can play some video games or something."
George wasn't going to admit that she barely got anything done that night, "Sure!"
Vlad and George hung out for about an hour before Vlad realized how late it had gotten.
"Aren't you tired?" He asked. "It's 2 am."
"No, I started staying up at night. Ingrid and Piers don't stay up in the morning with me like you would so I just got used to it."
The Count sped into the room, "Why don't you ever inform me as soon as you arrive back from your trips?"
Vlad stood up from the couch, "Sorry, just got distracted."
"I want to talk with both you and Draco," the Count said.
Vlad, the Count, and Draco all sat around the dining table while Draco recounted all that had happened during the trip.
"Vlad was a bit reluctant at first to listen to anything I said," he began. "That did not surprise me, but he eventually came around."
"So what then?" the Count asked.
"You're son has finally had a full transformation. He is obedient, strong, and is a great hunter. That last one I did not have to worry about. He is a natural at it as expected."
The Count watched his son who looked disinterested. It bothered him some that Draco was able to help Vlad see sense and he could not. He guessed he should just be grateful that Vlad did finally change.
"What about the slayers?"
"They are growing in numbers. They were determined to find Vlad, but we were able to stay off their radar for the most part. However, we cannot allow them to remain this active. Too many lower and middle class vampires are taking the hit from all of this."
Vlad expected for his dad to say something about how they should only be worried about the higher class, but he didn't. Every once in a while Vlad saw the former leader in his father.
"The Council only cares about themselves. They won't stick their necks out for lower class vampires no matter how important they are to our world."
"We know that," Draco said. "But that just means change in leadership needs to be made soon."
"So what are we going to do?" the Count asked.
"I guess we need to be friends with the Council," Vlad finally spoke up. "We can't take them on in a fair fight. We need to gain trust and then take the power when they won't expect it."
"They will always expect it," the Count argued.
"Which is why it will probably take some time," Vlad said. "In the meantime we can be building up allies and convince them to protect the lower class vampires of their regions by showing their importance. Clan leaders need to see what's in it for them, because that's how they all think."
"That sounds easier said then done," the Count said.
"We don't really have any other options at the moment."
"Well where do you want to start?" Draco asked.
"We should work with the lower class in our own region. That way we can show an example and we will have a stronger argument," Vlad said.
"You do realize that includes your friend Gerard right?" The Count laughed.
Vlad groaned, "Yeah I know."
"Well we should all get some rest then," Draco said. "We have a lot of work to do."