A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

Chapter 21: Member

The four men turned to each other in complete confusion, or should it be genuine confusion on three of their faces and faked on one.

Tomak stepped forward slowly, his finger waving at them.

Vlad's face darkened violently as he realised who exactly Tomak was pointing at. Erin placed a hand on Vlad's arm trying to calm him down.

"Why?" Vlad forced out through clenched teeth.

Jonno's eyes widened, he pointed at himself. He wouldn't work with vampires against Vlad. "I'm…"

"Not you." Vlad snapped at him, Jonno nodded and darted out of Vlad's way, he wouldn't be healed if fireballs started being thrown about.

"I'll stand with Erin." Jonno motioned towards Vlad's wife and within seconds he was beside her.

Vlad's gaze turned harder as he waited patiently for an answer, when none came he spoke. "I want an answer…Bertrand."

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Vlad's eyes didn't leave Bertrand who'd dropped the façade of confusion and took on a defiant look.

"What did you find out?" He asked Amia sombrely.

Amia wasn't looking forward to this; she'd been shocked when she'd found out. She couldn't believe that Vlad would have let someone get close to his family who would intentionally help The Unsullied take Adria.

"The Unsullied aren't just out for purity, they're out to cause chaos. They're willing to kill their own kind if someone disagrees with them, they want the throne. If they make it to power they'll go through every clan's history and work out who is 'pure' and who isn't. They'll trace it back to the thirteen original clans anyone with half fang blood will be wiped out completely. They're a threat," Vlad gave her a look as if to say 'Really? I wouldn't have guessed.'. "They've got nearly a hundred members. Some powerful, the rest have very little influence.

"Half of them aren't part of the clans."

Tomak continued quietly. "They won't care, they'll use it against their enemies or anyone they just don't like." He paused. "They want the Slayer Pact to end and the deal with the Werewolves. They want women back in the kitchen." Adria spat at Tomak's words she'd been in the kitchen most of her unlife until Vlad's rule and she wasn't going to go back in there. Vlad shook his head, he'd spent months cutting a deal with the wolves over the last incident over land. "They want vampires to be the superior race and they don't care how they get there."

It was sounding all too familiar to Vlad. He knew that idealism from somewhere else – Sethius.

"They're terrified of you, they were going to attack when the vampire world was at its weakest after the slaying of the last Grand High Vampire but you emerged. The prophecy was coming true. The only way they can stop you was to take Adria."

Erin asked softly, moving forward as she did so. "What about Bertrand?"

"He was a member of their group for over a hundred years." Amia told her quietly. Erin's eyes widened, she knew he hated half fangs but she thought it was out of pride nothing more.

Vlad had thought it was a bit quick the way Bertrand had worked out that The Unsullied were behind this, he must have known what they were planning.

Bertrand's eyes snapped to Ingrid, she looked at him with barely concealed fury and disgust. The others wore matching expressions but theirs weren't as hidden. Erin looked as if she were about to cry, she would take sparing him eight years ago as a personal mistake.

"Are you a member of The Unsullied?" Vlad asked sternly. His tone left no room for discussion, he knew better than to accept things without confirmation.

"I was…eight years ago!" Bertrand shouted at him, eight years ago he'd cut all ties when he pledged complete loyalty to Vlad. Vlad had chosen not to execute him, which meant he owed Vlad complete loyalty.

Vlad didn't think it was that easy to break free, they would have been keeping tabs on him. "Vampires like that don't just let you go without a fight."

"I got out," Three had been a few scuffles and self defence slayings but they had decided he wasn't worth the effort. "I joined because I wanted our kind to be pure. That's what they stood for." His face wrinkled in disgust. "Our kind is becoming more diluted as the years go by…" Old prejudices couldn't be wiped easily, only time could remove them and sometimes even time didn't work.

Vlad cut him off. "You came into my home to 'train' me, when all the time you were planning this." He'd always wondered why Bertrand had appeared; no one else seemed to know that he needed to be trained in such a way. They knew about the book but nothing more. Vlad shook his head trying to clear it as the thought of the book made his side ache in memory.

"I was ordered to make you see things our way, to make you realise that vampires should be the ones to rule this world…" He trailed off.

"That's why you were so focussed on me leading an army back then." An army had seemed slightly odd at the time; their kind wasn't trained for combat. There was no way an army could survive unless he was talking about an already trained one. "And that's why you were so desperate to get rid of Erin. A half fang."

From day one he'd been trying to get rid of the distraction. He was the one who'd planted the idea of her being a distraction in his father's head.

Bertrand was desperate to defend himself and his views back then, "You were our leader, you needed to set an example!"

Vlad scoffed, looking away as he folded his arms over his chest. Trying his hardest not to use his powers and turn Bertrand to dust then and there. "I never wanted to be." Vlad roared at him, "You trying to take Erin away from me made me reject it even more. The 'half fang' saved your unlife last time." He narrowed his eyes. "I want my daughter back."

"I don't know where she is." Bertrand answered, if he knew he would have told him immediately.

"I believed you again. I let you live when I would have executed anyone else. You betrayed me and took my daughter in doing it." Vlad snapped at Bertrand. "I told you what would happen if you betrayed me again."

The lights in the room flickered violently before four exploded, glass raining down on the occupants as Vlad acted.

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He lifted his arm and threw him backwards and towards the windows, intending to throw him outside into the sunlight.

"Vlad!" Erin shouted, pleading with him to stop. "We need to get Ree back, killing him won't get her back." If Bertrand knew anything they couldn't afford to lose that information.

Vlad considered her words for a split second before jerking him to a halt in front of the windows. His head lowered so he looked through his lids at Bertrand, just the slightest movement of his hand would send him careening through the window.

Erin moved over to him and placed a hand tenderly on his left side, just above his hip. She felt Vlad relax at her touch. He turned to her and nodded slowly.

Bertrand landed with a thump in the centre of the room. Jonno and Mina immediately withdrew their stakes, preparing to use them if necessary. The other vampires had their fangs lowered ready to attack him at the slightest provocation

If Bertrand had known he would have informed Vlad from the start, he owed Erin for convincing Vlad to spare his unlife last time. "I didn't know their plan, I swear to you Vlad. I would have told you…"

"Why should I believe you? You lied about Ingrid, you lied about Erin's 'boyfriend'." That last one still stung about how stupid he was to have believed them when he should have known better

"I would never hurt Addy…"

Vlad's eyes changed to an all-knowing gaze. "You're 'promises' don't mean anything." Vlad spat out at him, Bertrand broke and honoured oaths to suit him, and this was just another example. "You swore never to harm your leader." Vlad's eyes didn't alter as he spoke, "I still have the scar you gave me."

"Addy is a child, I won't harm children." He would never hurt an innocent child. He looked directly at Erin, "I will never harm your unborn child either." He was promising he wouldn't harm Erin as well in that statement, although he was using her pregnancy as a reason.

Vlad felt all of the Council's gazes on him and Erin. Erin's hand automatically went to her stomach. The Council wisely didn't speak. Erin's eyes blackened, she hadn't wanted the Council to know until she was sure it was safe to do so and there wasn't a chance of her miscarrying this time.

Erin let out a shaky phrase, "Why should I believe you?"

The honesty was in his eyes, "Because it's the truth."

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The room remained silent for a few minutes. Erin didn't know whether to believe him or not. Bertrand had had plenty of time to hurt Addy but he hadn't. However the lingering question was: was he biding his time, planning to attack them when their guards were down?

"Have you spoken to them recently?" Vlad wanted to know; he needed to know how much information had been given to them.

"Not for eight years." He promised the younger vampire. He was a traitor to The Unsullied for leaving their ranks but in the end Vlad's side was the right side. "They tried to get me to rejoin but I refused. I haven't been a member of The Unsullied since the day you spared my unlife."

"But you know where they might be hiding."

There was no guarantee they still owned the same buildings, "Things have changed in eight years…"

"VAMPIRE'S DON'T!" Vlad bellowed angrily, vampires never changed their fangs. The whole room shook, dust falling from the rafters. "NOW I'D PREFER YOU TELL ME INSTEAD OF HAVING TO GO THROUGH YOUR MIND!" Vlad could easily enter Bertrand's mind and find the information he wanted but he was prepared for the older vampire to actually tell him the truth and save him the migraine he'd inevitably receive.

"You taught him how to do it." Erin spoke quietly; there was some irony in that. "I want my daughter back." She told Bertrand, "If I were you I'd agree to it before I let him finish what I stopped him doing eight years ago."

She felt sick at the thought that if she'd let Vlad continue with the execution then this could have been prevented. However a niggling thought at the back of her mind made her wonder if it could have been stopped, or whether it would have still happened.

If Bertrand was telling the truth, her daughter would have been taken anyway.

Bertrand wanted to help them; Adria couldn't suffer for his mistakes. He needed to redeem himself somehow. "I'll tell you everything I know."

TBC

A/N: Thanks for reading.