Nope, still don't own the characters. It saddens me.
I'm supposed to be sleeping, or at least working on the start of a sequel story but oops I'm here again!
On we go!
-YD-
"Sorry, how do you not know someone is older than they say they are?" Adam looked perplexed. "Malik still looks like a teenager, vampire aging is scarcely predictable. Oh blood, ew. Erin was only seventeen, that's even worse than you and Ramanga." Vlad cringed as Ingrid scowled, remembering the garlic-awful flirting. "Go stake yourself, that was only about getting on the High Council. Which I have since accomplished. Let's not forget this ones mother was only eighteen when she met dad." The intense moment of discovery was broken by Vlad's phone ringing. "Hey Jonno. Yes, he's still alive, we have not eaten him. Here." Adam took the phone warily, but assured the slayers guild everything was fine and the two Draculas were being perfectly friendly with him - which raised Ingrid's eyebrow in a "really?" gesture.
Grinning, Vlad chatted back and forth with Jonno about the cease-fire a little more, then hung up. "Doesn't this mean that slayer girls baby isn't our niece or nephew?" "Bats, yeah. Let's not bring that up yet, the girls already a little terrified." "You think lying to her is better?" "Until we have a clue who Malik's father is, yes. Because Malik is the last Vaccaria, I don't see him telling us where to find their blood mirror. If it comes to it, we can add her kid to ours." Ingrid looked less than impressed, but she seemed to have given up arguing with him about cease fire stuff. "What's a blood mirror?" "A mirror linked to a vampire bloodline. You're of Dracula blood, when you turn sixteen we stick you in front of it and weird stuff happens, then you come out a vampire." "Oh, is that all?" "We think so. Neither of us had conventional experiences." Ingrid scowled again at Vlad saying that, as though hers was worse.
"How so?" "Well Ingrid ran away from the mirror for about a day, I avoided my reflection for about a year and a half. Neither of which we would actually recommend. Best to get it over with." "I thought you said I had to turn into a vampire." Vlad sipped on his glass, trying to choose his words. "You can dodge your reflection, but you'll still be a vampire. No sunlight, no garlic, fear of pointy wood but you'll have no powers. You get the choice when you're eighteen, why not have a couple of years flying and fireballs?" Adam nodded, and sat quietly thinking about his future. Vlad could feel Ingrid's eyes on his neck, and he wished right now he could see for certain there was nothing there, even though Adam had said nothing and Vlad couldn't feel anything. The curse of having no reflection. Scratching his neck absent mindedly, Vlad indicated for Adam to follow him and led them away from Ingrid's dark gaze.
"You don't have to read these, obviously. The whole library is open for you to look through, but these ones here are about what will happen to you as a vampire." Adam's eyes were wide as he looked at the huge books, and he looked up at Vlad. "What are you going to be doing?" "I need to meditate, then check my Council paperwork. If you need me, just knock on my door - don't come in until I say, meditation is for keeping control over my powers so I don't want to risk you getting hurt." The halfling nodded again, he did that alot, pulling a book towards himself and starting.
Flitting up to his room, Vlad looked at the coffin Ingrid had pressed herself against him in twice now. Sighing, he closed the lid and sat cross legged on top of it. Dropping into his mild trance state slowly, Vlad focused on keeping his powers under wraps, imagining a barrier between the raw energy and the outside world - like his skin was armour that kept everyone safe from him. Slowly coming back to awareness, Vlad noticed the door was knocking. "Come in?" Expecting Adam, he was surprised to see Ingrid. "Heard you tell the half breed not to get himself killed, figured I would be careless if I didn't at least knock." Stretching as he stood back up, Vlad tried not to get distracted by memories. "Right. What can I do for you Ingrid?" "Now who's acting weird?" Pushing his door closed and sitting at his desk, Vlad shrugged. "After last time, I'm allowed to be wary." "Didn't stop you." Ingrid was right, no amount of rational thought could stop him shivering inwardly as he thought of her.
"At least I've admitted I want you. You just jump me then disappear." He watched as Ingrid shook her head, rubbing at the side of her jaw - he knew she held tension there when she was upset, angry or a little bit murderous. "What do you want?" "That's a very loaded question. I'll settle for you telling me where I stand. Am I just a convenience for when you want... contact, or are you going to keep pretending that wasn't mindblowing and I get to wait until you come back?" "Both. Neither. I don't know. Vlad, this is wrong and we shouldn't... It needs to stop." Darting to stand right in front of her, Vlad leaned in closer. "Then tell me to stop. I gave you that chance both times before." Ingrid didn't back away, didn't tell him to stop as he closed the distance. Her hands slid up his chest, resting on his shoulders and he kissed her. Despite his refusal to call this 'wrong', he still stepped back guiltily when the door knocked again. Ingrid stayed where she was, eyes bright but face otherwise blank of expression.
Mastering his body somewhat, Vlad sat back at his desk and pulled out a piece of parchment. "Come in?" Adam pushed the door open, looking surprised to see Ingrid. "We're just discussing council stuff, don't worry. You alright?" "Got bored reading, kind of hoped you would show me how to find the training room again, this place is huge!" Pushing his work aside, Vlad stood and smiled at his brother. "Sure, lets go." Adam turned away, and Vlad looked at Ingrid, feeling his stomach twist when she shook her head. Leading the boy down, he watched as Adam examined the weapons hung on the wall. "Are they real?" "Yep. We have practice ones, foam and rubber so you can learn motions, then weight, then safety. All while learning how to behead a three headed killer monkey effectively." "Excuse me?" "Dad and alchemy... Never again." Vlad shuddered in memory, those monkeys had been so loud. "Alchemy? Actually, never mind. I don't want to know."
Chuckling, Vlad walked Adam through everything in the training room and explained what was what. "And you use all this?" "Yep. Its a good way to destress when you run a whole race." Zoltan wheeled himself in then, informing Vlad there were two bats at the door. "Thanks Zoltan. I better go see who that is." Zipping down, one of the bats was his clothing order delivery. The other was an invitation to another vampires Hunt Ball - not so aptly named now the hunting peasants part was banned. "Why invite a bloody betrothed couple? Ingrid!" The vampiress in question landed in the doorway, boredly brushing her hair and catching Vlad's attention for a minute before he remembered why he called her. "What?" Holding out the invitation and floating his new attire at his side, Vlad waited for her to read it. "Why invite betrothed couples? I assume we have to go?" "Wouldn't be seemly to not go, especially when we refuse to host our own balls."
"What about the half breed?" Vlad couldn't help smirking. "I still have some of Erin's stasis spray, how much fun will it be to put a fake crown on him and see what happens when we walk in?" Ingrid matched his smirk, ever loving to plot some kind of deviance. "Since you banned the fun part of a Hunt Ball, thats as exciting as it will get." "Better mentally prepare him, can't have him outing the fake engagement." Plucking the letter from Ingrid's hand, Vlad whooshed off without waiting for an answer to drop off his clothes, then seek out Adam. "A Hunt Ball?" "It's like speed dating for vampires. A guy invites loads of others, and any single vampiress is a potential future wife. You up for it?" "Are they not going to notice I have a pulse?" "We have something for that. Or I'll wear surge spray, and we can both have a pulse." Adam looked back down at the invite, then himself.
"Not sure I have suitable clothes." "I've got a spare cape, and I'll take your measurements to get some formal stuff made up for you. Assuming you want to come?" "It does sound kind of fun, if a little weird." It was a little awkward asking his teen brother to strip down a little to take his measurements, but Adam laughed and pointed out it was literally nothing he couldn't see by looking down - they were practically carbon copies. "You a shoes or boots guy?" "Either or." Adam was a little wary of Vlad automatically saying he would buy stuff, until Vlad pointed out it wasn't really an issue when he was the Grand High Vampire. "I'll go sort this tomorrow night, you can call your mum and have a good talk with her if you like then. I want to keep you out of sight before the party, it'll be more fun that way." A hint of Dracula mischief shone through his brother then, joining in Vlad's amusement at the 'plot'.
"The other thing is - me and Ingrid have to act like a normal couple, no bringing up that we spend most of our time apart here and that we aren't actually planning to get bound." "Is... Will our father be there?" "It's a distinct possibility. You'll recognise him, long hair and making a fool of himself." They stopped for a late lunch, and Adam gamely tried the 'soup' without asking what was in it. "As bad as you expected?" "No, surprisingly good. I still don't want to know what it was." Given that it contained badger blood as a flavouring, Vlad thought that was a good idea. "Will I have to dance at this ball? Because I cannot dance." Chuckling, Vlad had a similar issue only a few months ago. "Me and Ingrid will, you don't have to unless some confused vampiress asks, unsure if you're me or not. I can teach you if you're feeling brave." "Sure, I could do with a laugh, me teaching myself to dance." Draining his glass and floating things to the dishwasher (vampires liked convenient technology, they just had a habit of breaking them), Vlad led Adam back to the training room - it had the most space.
Ingrid found them laughing heartily as they stumbled over each other, giving them a look of disdain. "What the blood and garlic are you doing? I can't even tell you apart when you're giggling." "Having a sing along, what does it look like?" Ingrid had a smirk twitching at the side of her mouth when Vlad brought up their kidnap by Van Helsing, it had ended quite funnily all in all. "Adam can't dance, I didn't think you would appreciate teaching us both. Plus you're allergic to happy fun." Adam yelped in surprise when Ingrid tossed a fireball at them, though Vlad simply ducked and tossed one back. "Hey! Flammable teen here!" "Get behind the punch bag, you'll be fine." Adam hurried to hide, just in time for Ingrid to light a circle of fire around Vlad's feet. "Is that the best you've got?" Vlad waved his hand to put it out, throwing his zone light out but intentionally missing widely. "Now thats just playing dirty!" Laughing as Ingrid tried to hit him with lightning, he dodged and saw the burn marks in the wall behind him. "That wall had been untouched for centuries!" "Much like the cells in your brain coffin breath."
He vaguely registered Adam watching them with wide, mildly fearful eyes as he and Ingrid sped around the room, tossing attacks back and forth until Vlad managed to get behind her, pinning her to the wall and trying to remember they had an audience. "You lose!" Ingrid shivered slightly but then pushed him off, both panting and laughing breathlessly through their fangs. "Are you two mad?" "That is neither here nor there, sometimes board games just don't pass the time. And it's good to spar a little now and then." The half-ling slowly reappeared from his hiding spot, looking at the grinning vampires and burn marks on the walls. "Sparring... Right. Think I'll stick to chess." "We can do that. There's a pile of board games in the living room, but Ingrid requires intense bribery to even pretend to play." The sister in question slapped the back of his head, then disappeared off to do whatever it was she did.
"So. Dinner?" His brother looked at him in surprise, then nodded - they had been fooling around with the dancing for a few hours. "Then we can play chess before daybreak if you like." Adam stood quietly for a moment, silence building until Vlad got a bit worried. "You ok Adam?" "If I go back to being human when I'm eighteen... Will you still be my brother?" "Of course. Why do you ask?" "I always wanted a brother. George is awesome and I love her to pieces, but I was just worried I would get attached to having new siblings and then you would be gone." Offering his brother a short squeeze on the shoulder, Vlad smiled. "We're brothers. I can't speak for anyone else, but you're family to me now. So don't worry. Now come on, time for you to look scared the kitchen will bite again." Adam finally perked up at that, and Vlad sincerely hoped the boy would always want to be his brother, human or vampire choice aside. Adam turned out to be much better than Vlad at chess, and he was reminded of Robin again. Adam and Robin would have got on pretty well, Vlad missed his old best friend dearly.
"I want to shower before bed, I still smell like smoke from your little firefight earlier." Adam finished trouncing him on the board again, then headed up to his room with a smile. Tidying up the board and pieces, Vlad bid Zoltan goodnight and headed up himself. Checking his VHC payment card was with Adams clothing measurements, he hung his clothes over the back of his desk chair and resolved to actually do the paperwork he meant to when he got back the next night. Whipping around as he heard his door close, he was almost relieved to see it was Ingrid - Adam may have been confused by Vlad's still-healing back. "Something wrong?" She didnt answer, just stepped closer and pushed at his shoulder until he turned around. Feeling a little vulnerable with his back to her, Vlad supposed it showed how much he trusted Ingrid right now.
The first touch of her mouth on the scratches she made in his skin made him gasp, the next making him shiver as Ingrid essentially healed the physical damage she had done to him. Hands wrapped around his hips, touch gentler than he expected from Ingrid even now. "Tell me to stop." It was usually him that said that, so her breathless whisper surprised him. "Why? Because you want to, or because you think you should?" Ingrid's hands moved him back around, those bright eyes burning into his again. "I'm not going to tell you to stop. I just want to know what this is to you." Rationality this close to Ingrid now wasn't easy, even less so when her hand slid around his neck, pulling his mouth to hers. This wasn't gentle, not when her fangs nipped at his mouth and she pushed him backwards, both scrambling into the coffin and conversation fell away with Ingrid's clothes and his inhibitions. Ingrid might try to say this was wrong, but the look in her eyes as she guided him into place was all desire, burning heat and Vlad refused to think past these moments now.
-YD-
I know I said this wouldn't revolve around Vlad and Ingrid misbehaving, and it won't! Just bear with me on this.