Here you go. Sorry it took so long. I am doing chapter 16 currently and do not want you to catch up too fast. ENJOY! i do not own Young Dracula.
Chapter 14- Enlightening
After helping Vlad step out of the van, Robin and Erin tried to disguise the fact that a giant wolf was stepping out also, by covering her with a random blanket they had found in a box in the van. It looked suspicious nonetheless. Mina and Jonno were getting out also and The Count, Ingrid and Ryan were just stood at the side waiting. Alex kept her distance from all of them. She didn't know what they were or if any of them were normal but she wasn't taking any chances. The strange looking group walked up to Garside grange with what appeared to be a large lump of material while the sun rose slowly.
They stepped into the Count's quarters of the school and immediately pulled the blanket off Sam roughly. Morning would soon be there and then Sam would change back into the bubbly and rather irritating girl that Robin had a major crush on.
"So, are you going to explain?" Miss McCauley said with her hands on her hips and raising her eyebrows.
"You were right. This is a werewolf; it's Sam and I am basically undead." Vlad admitted. "Actually, my entire family are, and Ryan." he added quickly.
"There's more you're hiding isn't there?" she looked at their pleading glances at each-other and their overall appearance was somewhat reluctant.
"This is awkward enough; I think we should leave them." Vlad encouraged and they all walked out of the main room.
"My dear Miss McCauley. If you wish to know more, know that you must first trust me completely." The Count stepped up to her; his face inches apart from hers with an expression of pure wanting.
"Of course." She nodded with teaching authority. She was so beautiful… NO! What was he thinking? He looked at her as he tried to understand why he thought that. Her eyes looked into his never-ending eyes and she fell deep into them and couldn't look away; he couldn't look away from hers either. Her heart raced. His heart didn't change but ached in his stone cold chest. This had never happened to him before; not even with Magda. Even so, Magda was more of an infatuation or lure than... Whatever this was. His un-beating heart never ached; it had always felt like it wasn't there anymore but know he had changed his mind. He shook his head to get out of the trance and started to move away when suddenly Alex grabbed his face and kissed him on the lips roughly but quickly and finished with a surprised face.
"Oh... Um... Not sure... Um... What happened then... Errr..." she stumbled over her words while the blood ran through her face; making her pink cheeks turn red.
"But I kissed you back." The Count said with a shocked tone to his voice. No. He couldn't be in love with a breather; he couldn't possibly. He tried to deny the fact.
"Well, I'm glad it wasn't completely me then." she laughed nervously.
"Trust me, you won't be wanting to kiss me again after you know more." he sighed. "Come on, I will show you our so-called secret." She would probably run away screaming. It wouldn't matter though; the entire world knew of the existence of vampires now and she wouldn't be thought of as crazy.
"Why did you kiss me back?" she asked in interest.
"Um..." the Count said uncertainly. "I just did; though I was hoping I'd kiss you first."
"You wanted to kiss me?" she said with surprise.
"My dear, I have never had a relationship this close with your kind. Never, I feel something for you. My dead heart yearns for you." he realised this was the chance for him to do what he wanted to do when Renfield messed up his courting by sending her slime covered chocolates. He had to be poetic and who else to be poetic than the Great Count Dracula.
"Mr Count..." she gazed at him as they walked down the corridor towards his coffin were about to turn a corner when Renfield popped up in front of them with Wolfie as a dog close behind him.
"Renfield! Watch where you are going!" The Count boomed to Miss McCauley's surprise.
"Oh master! You're back!" he sucked up. "Wolfie wants someone to play with and it can't be me." Renfield looked at the pup with disinterest.
"Send him to Vladimir; he's got a proper werewolf Wolfie can play with." the Count pushed off the subject with a wave of his bony hand and walked away briskly with Miss McCauley.
"Come on Wolfie." Renfield sighed and they together shuffled down the corridor towards Vlad's coffin room. Renfield stuck his mouldy-looking ear to the door and heard muffled talking so decided that he could knock. "Master Vlad?" he peered around the corner of the door to see Vlad leant on the wall with his arm around Erin and Robin sitting in Vlad's coffin while stroking the werewolf's fur.
"Yes?" he asked with interest.
"The Count wishes you to look after Wolfie as I can't. I have to lick the masters entire collection of shoes clean." he huffed as Wolfie came skidding into the room and started to play about with a more than willing and bubbly Sam.
"Okay. We'll look after him." Vlad smiled and Renfield left the room and the young adults to themselves wondering why he hadn't done the shoe-licking when the Count had told him to.
"I still can't get over this coffin Vlad! It's so cool! It's better than the one you had in Stokely." Robin obsessed over the differently styled coffin.
"Well, it's more me." Vlad didn't want one of the Counts wooden coffins and wanted a more up to date one so chose the newest in the catalogue.
"Yeah it is." Erin looked up at Vlad with a grin and snuggled underneath his tensed chin. Vlad was still worried even if they had something to go on now because of the fact that it was an extremely loose lead.
"Hey Sam." Robin looked at the playful monster having a play-fight with a dog with caring eyes. Vlad and Erin could tell that this was developing into way more than a mere crush.
"Wolfie." Erin knelt down and Wolfie ran to her knees and she started to rub his belly to his happiness.
Sam sat next to the coffin again and Robin fiddled with her fur. "Who would think you could be even more beautiful when you are a wolf? Hmm?" Robin said and Sam's large face looked at him with bright green wide eyes.
"Um Robin, just because she's a wolf doesn't mean she can't understand you." Vlad almost sniggered.
"Oh, ah, um... Yeah..." Robin blushed and smiled nervously at Sam. She looked back at him and licked and nudged his face affectionately. "Eww, thanks Sam." Robin complained while trying to rub the saliva off his face.
"You realise that was a kiss Robin?" Erin pointed out.
"Oh! Um, thanks Sam." he smiled widely and then hugged her around her neck. She knew he liked her but he know knew she liked him back; not that she could say anything to him about it.
The Count and Miss McCauley stood outside the door and she was about to touch the golden doorknob when he stopped her.
"Before we go in, promise not to run to the authorities or form a peasant mob." he said seriously but she laughed.
"Of corse not." she agreed with a chuckle as she thought the Count was being sarcastic.
"Alright then." the count opened the door. "Ladies first." The Headmistress stepped into the room with peeling wallpaper and more cobwebs than she could possibly imagine to find an extremely old looking coffin lying in the candle lit dimness of the shadows.
"Why is there a coffin here?" she turned around to see that the Count no longer stood in the doorway.
"What do you find strange about my family excluding the fact our hearts don't beat?" Alex swirled around to find him leaning casually against the coffin.
"Well, firstly you move so quickly! You never seem to go out in the day; you have such strange tastes in clothing and decor; you've got a coffin; sometimes your eyes go green; Vlad had that strange spell; Ingrid also had a strange spell and you seem to have these spontaneous visitors who don't appear very friendly." she listed like the educator she was while counting the number of them on her elegant fingers.
"You notice a lot." the Count chuckled. "I'll give you a hint; I sleep in this coffin. Any ideas?" he suggested and she blurted out her thoughts.
"No, you can't be." she denied it. Her face dropped and her stance suddenly became protective.
"That girl with the red hair is a werewolf and Wolfie is half werewolf and half what we are." the count carried on.
"You're vampires?" she squeaked.
"Finally! You don't know how hard it's been to keep it from you!" the Count sighed in relief.
"You're vampires." she said with a straight face.
"Yes." The Count nodded with a slight grin.
"Tell me who you are." She ordered.
"I am Mr Count." he didn't want to give away too much as the Dracula name was now known to belong to a real family by the whole world.
"Tell me who you really are." she added with seriousness.
The Count sighed. He would have to tell her; she wasn't stupid. "I am Count Dracula."
"You've got to be kidding me?" she laughed nervously in denial.
"No kidding intended here." The Count told the truth to her for the first time in a while.
"Count Dracula? Well, that means that your son is that Vampire king they said about on the news?" she said with a stumbled face.
"Yes." the Count stepped forward. "Do you still trust me?"
"Will you bite me?" Ales said with her hands in the air.
"Not if you don't want me to." he didn't want to drain her and he didn't want her to turn out like Magda but it would be her choice.
"Good." she breathed a sigh of relief and began to smile again. "So you have fangs, can turn into a bat and can't go out in the sunlight?"
"And so much more." he smiled.
"Not like those vampires in that book you were reading?" she sniggered.
"No. I am not sparkly and I don't know how they can just live on animal blood!" he pondered deeply. Vampires could drink animal blood but it wasn't very good for them and lost its nutritional value after a while.
"So, you do drink blood." her face dropped again with disappointment.
"Yes. But my Vladdy doesn't." he tried to make things better between the two of them.
"You know, you're not as nasty as you pretend to be." she smiled again and walked up to him shyly.
"I am evil." he grinned devilishly and touched her face lightly when the door swung open with a bang.
"The Chosen one wants to see you when you've finished." Ingrid was there with a slouched Ryan.
"Knock before you enter Ingrid!" The Count complained and stepped out the door with Miss McCauley hanging on his arm from the fright of Ingrid and Ryan smiling evilly and waving slowly while following them down the corridor.
"Leave her alone Ingrid." The count said without looking at her and Alex smiled at Ingrid who looked back with annoyance. The four of them entered the main room again and found the rest of the group including the Van Helsings sitting all around the room in casual positions. Vlad stood though with authority with his arms held behind his back. Miss McCauley no longer saw him as the sweet, shy, helpless school boy but now as a strong, independent creature who fought hard for what he believed in.
"Please sit down." he gestured for them to do as he said so the Count sat in his throne; Alex sat at the table; Ingrid sat on the sofa and Ryan sat annoyingly close to her making her push his face away on several occasions. Renfield stood in the corner of the room nearest the Count and Wolfie was trying to play with a concerned Sam who just sat on the floor while Wolfie bit her toes.
"If Miss McCauley now knows about us...?" Vlad looked at his father who nodded quickly. "... Right. We can update all the happenings of the past few days to each-other as I trust each and every one of you in the room... Well, nearly." he looked at his family who gave false surprised looks. "We haven't had much information you see."
"Well, I have heard that the human government is appointing military operatives to fight us." Ryan gave input for one of the first times while being in the company of Vlad.
"Great. Now we've got trigger happy morons ready dent our skin." Ingrid moaned and crossed her arms.
"They are just following orders!" Erin complained. She knew that it took major courage and strength to fight for your country's honour; her grandfather had shown that by fighting in World War 2. She respected all soldiers no matter what side they were fighting for.
"They have a choice." Ingrid sent back like a whiplash.
"Vladimir. I have news too. It's important to you." The Count said. His information was from the Vampire Times he had read recently.
"Yes dad?" Vlad became more interested at once. His father rarely showed that look of worry.
"The government have appeared to stop all transports of soy blood from the production site. In other words, you have no blood substitute." It had been the main headline yesterday.
"Fang-flipping-tastic!" Vlad yelled which made the whole room jump and then kicked the wall. He seemed to do this a lot recently. It was the only way of expressing his anger without killing someone.
"Don't you have the bottles you packed?" His father asked him.
"No. We left that bag at the house. We didn't think about getting it." Mina apologised sincerely. "I'm sorry Vlad."
"It's fine. Next time I see the Prime Minister he may leave with two holes in his neck that's all." he sighed and collapsed into a chair while rubbing his temples with his forefinger and thumb.
"And there's another thing." The Count added. "Bertrand has appeared to have left. I haven't seen him in so long." The Count told an agitated Vlad.
"He probably didn't feel safe in your house. He might have wanted to hide from the government." Robin interjected.
"Spineless wannabat." The Count said under his breath.
"I hope so. I don't want him against me again." Vlad had seen the enemy side of Bertrand recently and it wasn't a side he wanted to be on.
"Anything to go on from that Carly girl then?" Ingrid asked Vlad.
"She only remembers being in a forest near here before she was hypnotised." Erin told the rest of them.
"The culprit is near here then." Robin came to a conclusion quickly.
"Not necessarily. They could have visited the area but it would be wise to search there anyway." Mina told Robin who looked sheepish.
"Good idea but we can't go now, the sun is rising." Erin pointed to the open curtained window which showed a reddish orange sky beginning to form through the darkness.
"Renfield! Shut the curtains you imbecile!" The Count ordered and he skidded to the windows to close the tatty, worn, pieces of cloth.
"We'll have to go tonight. It's a shame it's not a full mooned night; it would be very convenient to have sniffer dogs." Ingrid laughed at her own comment with Ryan giving a forced laugh for his biter. Sam and Wolfie growled at the comment fiercely. Wolfie never growled at Ingrid and this shocked her.
"We can use their noses anyway. They can smell equally as well and also our noses aren't half bad." Vlad stood his ground on the fact and no-one challenged him.
"It's sun rise." Miss McCauley observed. "And I expect you lot to go to school at least once today, alright?" Alex threatened and got out of the chair she sat in. "I will see you all soon." she nodded her head to The Count who smiled back and stood as she left the room.
"Great, school." Vlad moaned.
"I'll go for a lesson if you want Vlad. To keep you lot company." Robin offered.
"Me too. I need to catch up." Jonno said.
"Yeah alright. Do you want to go to school Sam?" Vlad turned to the Wolf who was shaking slightly. "Sam?" Sam's figure shook once more and she transformed back into a person and Wolfie also changed back.
Sam huffed slightly and then said, "School. Yay." she said sarcastically and laughed; making the rest of the teenagers laugh as well; excluding Ingrid and Ryan of course.
"We've got spare uniforms haven't we?" Erin said.
"I don't think Sam will fit yours as your height difference is a lot. Robin, Jonno and I will be fine though." Vlad thought.
"You can use my uniform. It's not like I want to go to school today and you aren't making me dad." Ingrid pointed a finger at her father and began to leave the room.
"You will do as I say!" The Count boomed.
"No thanks." She said and slammed the door behind her which made some of the artefacts shake on their shelves.
"Dad, you have to respect her otherwise she won't respect you. She will retaliate against you because you do the same to her." Vlad tried to get Ingrid in his good books.
"You want me to... Treat her as an equal; a girl as an equal?" the Count struggled to say the words.
"Yes. And you will or you can forget about being my second." Vlad threatened.
"You are my second." The count growled.
"Let's face it dad. I am going to be Grand High Vampire and then you will no longer be the top Dracula. I'm sorry but it's true and I'd rather have Ingrid being my second and supporting me then you being my second and spitting on every woman you see." Vlad hated it when his father prejudged people; especially girls. He thought them as weak when Ingrid had proved herself strong on several occasions.
"Fine. I'll try to be a more 'supportive father' but she is still going to school." The count gave in to the look Vlad gave him. "Tomorrow." he said and stormed out the room with Renfield following closely behind.
"And I thought my family was a calamity." Sam said sarcastically and pulled herself up from the hard floor.
"Are you okay?" Robin asked her and helped her up steadily with his face close to hers. She looked up under her thick eyelashes to see Robins pale features framed by dark hair and with concerned warm brown eyes fixed on her face. She kissed him quickly and sweetly on the lips to his immense surprise and then cackled.
"Now I can kiss you properly. Sorry for the lick. Dog mind you see." She shrugged.
"No p-problem." Robin stuttered and almost fell back into his sitting position.
"Does this mean you're my girlfriend now?" he asked on instinct, regretted his actions and blushed.
"Maybe." She winked and turned to Erin and Mina. "You wanna show us to a bedroom Erin?" She began to walk out the room with the two women following.
"Wait!" Erin ran back to Vlad and kissed him on the cheek. "See ya." and they left the now nearly empty room.
"Robin mate." Jonno said. "You know when she says maybe, it almost always means yes." He pointed out and grinned.
"I've got a girlfriend?" he looked shell-shocked.
"Congratulations." Vlad gave a hard smile.
"Finally." He sighed. He had waited all these years to have a girlfriend and he finally had one that was so similar to what he always wanted it was unimaginable.
That night, Mina and Sam slept in Erin's room for the first six hours of the day and Jonno and Robin slept in Vlad's room until twelve o'clock. The next day the young adults were going to school and were to hunt down a crazy vampire. What was the world coming to?
was it okidokey? hope so... i feel as though it's going on foreeeeeeeeeeevvveeeeeeeeeee r. yawn. YAY! so random.