Choices

I don't own YD.

This may confuse you... anyway...

Two years later...

Chapter 20: Chance and change

"You know Vlad, you should really try this whole flirting thing," Yassik told Vlad for the millionth time in the past week.

Vlad was lounging on one of the grey leather sofas in the boy's lounge; Yassik was playing Darius at chess and Korith was lounging on another sofa with an upside down magazine trying to cheat into finding the answers to a crossword.

All the boys were now vampires, except Vlad... as for the girls, Valencia was a vampire but Terra still had another few months, Vlad only had one month or so.

For the past month Yassik had insisted that Vlad and Terra had something going on between, and when he realised there wasn't he had started to tell Vlad that he should try and get with Terra. No matter how many times Vlad told Yassik that by getting with her it would one be betraying her friendship and trust, and two that it would be doing exactly what the Grand High Vampire wanted, he just wouldn't listen.

Darius and Korith both hadn't got involved, though they both agreed with Vlad, but saw Yassik's point that Vlad was pretty close to Terra.

Since Ingrid's first visit Yassik and Valencia – after several sets of squabbling, and tears; a rare thing for vampires – had got together, though they weren't as close as say Will and Ingrid, who were together in an unequal way, but Yassik and Valencia were on equal terms and very private about their relationship; even though all the students knew about it.

Vlad shook his head at Yassik, he was a good and loyal friend but he could be quite the annoyance, Vlad guessed he got it from his mother who her killed her brother with a garlic covered coffin in a bid for power.

All the boys were very loyal to each other and the girls, a result of two years in practical isolation with each other, they only saw people from the outside rarely, and usually the person that showed up was Ingrid, Terra's mother – who had been told by Daralum that Terra was there – or Yassik's parents. None of the others had any family to show, Darius' family was dead - literally, Korith's only family was Terra's mother, Terra and Daralum, and as for Valencia, well as she put it, 'it is complicated'.

Vlad flinched remembering the difficulty he had had when he learning about Valencia's story.

"You see," Valencia told Vlad once when they were all in the girl's lounge studying. "I am not technically a vampire at all, or rather I shouldn't be."

"I don't understand," Vlad said plainly, giving Valencia a confused expression.

"I am full vampire by all rights, I was born one, and will transform into one... but my parents were never vampires," Valencia admitted interlocking her fingers together nervously and then shifted to move her red hair aside and looked at Vlad with her grey eyes.

"She's an original," Terra told Vlad from the other side of the room, and Vlad gave her a baffled look.

"I thought they went extinct!?" Vlad said confused, the original vampires had existed long ago and were the ancestors for all natural born vampires.

"They did," Darius said from behind a book, being the history buff, he understood this better than anyone. "They were murdered by their own children... who wanted their power."

Vlad snorted at that, completely unsurprised. "So how come you are one Valencia?"

Valencia shrugged. "There are only two explanations Daralum has been able to come up with... one," she ticked it off with a finger. "When I was a baby I somehow learnt to become a vampire like the originals did."

"Which is highly unlikely," Darius added. "The originals took years to accomplish their immortality... or so the myth goes." He shook his head causing his dark hair to fall into his face. "I doubt the myth is completely factual, but still I doubt that's how Valencia was born a vampire."

"Exactly," Valencia said and leaned towards Vlad almost in the same melodramatic way his father would. "The second option is that I was born a vampire, because I am related to vampires."

"Translation?" Vlad requested.

"She... thinks that she is descended from one of the old families that had their blood mirror smashed during the Blood Slaying War," Darius told him and Vlad still looked baffled. "Look," Darius put down his book with a clunk. "A couple of hundred years ago the slayers found out about how the blood mirrors can kill us... and went on a rampage going to destroy them. They weren't as well protected back them and many families were killed. Then the vampires hid their mirrors and destroyed as much evidence of the blood mirrors as possible... so much that they didn't even dare tell their own children about them until transforming time..."

"Explains a lot," Vlad agreed, thinking of how he didn't know much of the Blood Mirror until Boris arrived in Stokely with his father and sister.

"Yes it does," Darius admitted. "But the slayers didn't realise that while they had destroyed families, there were still parts of them left."

"The untransformed children," Vlad muttered. "They would be human," Vlad said remembering his own experience with the Blood Mirror and his attempt to smash it to become human.

"Exactly," Valencia interjected. "I must be related to one of the families somehow, no one knows what exactly happened to those children, we know some died unable to survive without parents... some were adopted by vampires and made into half fangs... and the rest disappeared."

"So why do you think you were born a vampire?" Vlad said.

"Daralum thinks it's some destiny thingy," Valencia dismissed it with a swipe of her hand.

"Something to do with the prophecy," Terra added leaning on the sofa Valencia was sat on and looking at Vlad. "Something to do with you."

"Naturally," Vlad said briskly. "It always involves me..."

Korith laughed from by the bookcase. "Don't take it personally Vlad, it just happens..."

Vlad sighed.

"Anyway," Valencia continued. "I was abandoned by my human parents when I was two because of my odd behaviour – it was odd for a human but not a for a vampire – I tended to focus more on physical things like walking than speaking, and when I spoke it was in Romanian, not in my parents native tongue – English - though I can speak both... I was left lying in a holiday cabin in the dead of winter. I was passed from orphanage to orphanage... they got a psychologist to look at me, he said that I was just a little depressed." Valencia snorted rolling her eyes. "I was in an orphanage without people who loved me, what the bats did they expect! But, that wasn't my problem..."

"Dad and I were here at the time," Korith added now coming in to tell how he and Dalabon got involved. "Dad went out hunting and found Valencia's scent... it was that of a vampire child... and 'adopted her' so to speak, that's what the breathers' think anyway... but really she's not been raised as my sister, more of a cousin really. No offence."

Valencia smiled shaking her head telling him it was fine. "I was six at the time... have been here since."

Vlad shuddered still upset that everything orientated around him in the vampire world... it's what he liked about this place. No one saw him as the Chosen One; they saw him as Vlad, no one else.

Soon that may have to change, while Salem – the GHV – hadn't entirely given up on finding Vlad, he had realised that Vlad had found somewhere to hide that he would never find him. Salem had found out where his daughter was though... that hadn't been a pleasant thing.

Vlad remembered how he had to go back to Stokely for a week so as not to be found, and though the GHV hadn't entered the school, they couldn't be too careful. He also remembered how shaken up Terra had been by that experience, her father hadn't done anything to her, but she still feared him, despite having the clear advantage of shapeshifting.

Vlad himself could shapeshift just as well as Terra now, which was as good as you could really get; all of them could shapeshift into anything with the exceptions of Yassik and Valencia; Valencia only shifted into a bat or any vampire form and Yassik only shifted into animal forms.

Daralum had been a bit disappointed that they were limiting themselves, but in the end had told them it was their decision and they should control their own destiny.

One thing had become plain in the past two years, while the Grand High Vampire had been obsessing over Vlad; the clans – particularly their leaders – had been becoming restless. The slayings were increasing, though Vlad knew well that Ingrid was not at all in conflict with the Van Helsings anymore.

Instead the Van Helsings had been called away to slay other vampires, and they had to do it. As far as Vlad knew, all three of them were now slaying...

"Master Vlad," Zoltan approached him and Vlad sat up.

"Hey Zoltan," Vlad yawned and saw the look on the old wolf's face. "What's up?"

"Master Daralum wants to see you," he informed him; the hellhound had now saw Daralum as a master along with all the teenagers, he was very fond of all of them and grown attached to them and they had him; they saw him as a second tutor in a way who did things more playfully.

Vlad got up. "Okay... this could be interesting."

Daralum looked very uncomfortable where he was, Vlad noticed when he entered.

"You wanted to see me Daralum?" Vlad asked all the students called Daralum by his first name despite being a group of formal teenagers.

Daralum looked up. "There is someone here to see you," he waved for someone behind him in the shadows to come forward.

Justice Mori stepped forward, in a black leather version of his armour and helmet.

Vlad hissed. "YOU!?"

Mori ignored the boy's anger and spoke. "You better listen to me Dracula... because you will have the best chance you have to take down Serlai Arnex Salem... the Grand High Vampire."

Put your hands up if you saw that coming!

Thank you for reading and please review!

C

xx