A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.
I haven't decided on a title for the sequel yet, hopefully for tomorrow I'll have some idea so I can let you know before this fic is finished.
I think this story has been my favourite to type since my sage, considering the length of the chapters are longer than some of my other fics.
Chapter 25: PackingErin looked around the room slowly; everyone seemed to have pitying looks on their faces as they looked at her. Her parents must have known that they might try this and that's why they had Hartleigh sign it. They really were focused on her fulfilling her 'destiny'.
An idea came to the Count and he gestured to Erin with his right hand, "Bite her. She becomes your responsibility." All half fangs were the responsibility of their masters.
Vlad shook his head, looking at Erin out of the corner of his eyes. He could see the fear on her face at his father's suggestion. "I'm not…"
"You bite her, its war." Jonno didn't say it as a threat; he said it as a statement. The Truce demanded no biting in return for no slaying and biting included creating half fangs.
"Why can't the contract be overruled?" Vlad asked him, this seemed a pathetic reason.
"If Hartleigh hadn't signed it we'd have a chance. He signed it so all the heads of the Guild are bound to it."
"He did it behind your back! Its illegal!" Vlad shouted at them. Surely if it was illegal that made it null and void, at the very least Erin wouldn't be forced to follow through with it.
Mina chose to speak at that moment, "He might have done it behind our backs but the contract is an official document. It's a sacred document as well amongst the slayers." The contract wasn't the same as a shopping list that could be tossed away once it was finished with or changed.
There was more bad news for Vlad now, Jonno needed to protect the Truce at all costs. There was only one way they could do that now: take Erin into their care saying Vlad had handed her over to them.
"We have to move her, Vlad." Jonno told him gently. "If she's found here now nothing can be done about the contract we will have war." Jonno turned to face Erin, an apology all over his face, "I'm sorry Erin…"
"I'm not taking her back to her parents yet." Mina told her son firmly, she wasn't going to do this to the girl. She couldn't imagine what Erin had been through. She began to fully understand why Erin had chosen the vampires over her own kind. Vlad had showed her love and let her make her own choices; clearly Erin didn't have that with her own family.
"But I still have to go." Erin muttered, "And it has to be now." She wiped at her face with her hands, she really was trapped, her parents had thought of everything. The mascara that had run giving her panda eyes now coated her fingers; she wiped it on her blue shirt leaving streaks of back.
Mina nodded slowly, "This way you're making sure Vlad stays safe."
Vlad stood protectively in front of Erin. "You're not taking her."
Mina didn't want to be the bad guy in this but their hands were now tied with Erin's piece of information. "We don't want to but we have to."
Vlad turned to Erin, taking her hands in his. "I'll keep you here, hide you until I'm eighteen then…" Erin shook her head slowly, Vlad was becoming desperate.
"You can't hide me forever Vlad. They'll know you had something to do with it." She brushed his fringe back slightly from where it had fallen into his eyes.
"Its two months." He whispered softly.
"You'll be accused of kidnap Vlad, the slayers will have to act." By acting she knew it meant he'd be slain and the Truce would be brought to an end. She wasn't going to play the part of Helen of Troy. "You are *not* going to war because of me."
"You're worth it." He told her quietly, he had something to fight for. Something precious.
"I'm not worth the unlives of countless vampires and the lives of slayers." Erin answered, a sad smile on her lips. Neither of them could live with those deaths on their conscience, it would eventually tear them apart.
He pressed his forehead against hers, "To me you are."
"There's another two months, we'll think of something else." She told him false cheer in her voice. She knew there weren't any more options for them but she had to keep hopeful.
"Can't you just leave her here until they arrive?" Vlad begged, "Then say you only found out then?"
Jonno didn't want to watch what would happen, Vlad didn't deserve it. He never thought he'd say that about a vampire but Vlad had proved him wrong he wondered what it would have been like years ago to have actually befriended Vlad instead of immediately being against him. "Then we'd have to stand by and watch you being slain."
"So?" Vlad whispered, it wasn't worth it if he had to watch Erin being married to someone else. His status and power wasn't worth anything if he couldn't protect her like he'd promised to.
Erin kissed him slowly, "Vlad you need to survive, no one else can lead your kind."
Vlad screwed up his eyes, he didn't care he was looking weak anymore. "I can't lead them on my own."
"You can Vlad." Erin knew he could do it, he would be the best thing that ever happened to the vampires.
"I don't want to lead them on my own." He corrected, "I wanted you to be beside me." Erin's breath caught, she hadn't thought he'd ever admit that in front of his clan or two of the Council members.
"I know." She kissed his jaw, she'd never answered his question about sharing his power. She still thought he was offering too much. Erin pulled back from him, "I need to pack."
Before Vlad could respond, Erin was out of the door.
YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL
Vlad had his head buried in his arms sitting at the throne table. The Count thought he was asleep at first and decided to leave his son alone.
He knew the pain of losing someone you loved to someone else, even if Erin didn't have a choice the pain was hard to bear. Magda kept coming back to them whereas there was a high chance that Vlad and Erin would never see each other again.
"Where's Erin?" The Count asked quietly, he thought his son would be with her, spending every moment they could together.
"Packing." He answered, his voice breaking in the middle of the word. Neither of them could be near each other while she packed, they'd tried but they couldn't do it. It was just too hard.
"This is like that story you and Erin love so much, the one with the happy ending." He couldn't get over the fact he was admitting to knowing some breather literature – Twilight was just for research purposes of course, see how breathers portrayed their kind.
"What story?" Vlad crinkled his face in confusion.
The Count waved his hand. "The one by that Tremblelance fellow."
"Tremblelance?" Vlad suddenly understood. "Shakespeare." He corrected with a frustrated sigh, "It's a play Dad, Romeo and Juliet. They both end up dead."
"You're already dead…"
"Fine," He snapped. "Think of it as they both end up as dust."
The Count tried to answer that, but found he couldn't. The Count sat down next to his son.
"Sometimes you have to take the things you want," He paused before looking up, "Of course vampires do it anyway." He pointed out, it was supposed to be common knowledge but rarely did vampires take what they wanted now. That's why they needed someone to lead them out of the shadows.
"Erin won't let me do it." Vlad told him, he'd already considered it.
"You're letting a woman tell you what to do, no vampire is controlled by a woman."
"Mum controls you." Vlad pointed out. "I won't do anything Erin doesn't want."
The Count shrugged, he hated to see his son in this much heartbreak. He'd wanted to drain Erin for it last time when she'd broken Vlad's heart but this time his heart went out to her. "She might need a push in the right direction."
"Usually she's the one who has to kick me in the fangs." Vlad admitted. Erin had kicked him in the fangs when he'd become evil and she'd managed to do it when writing started to appear in that flapping book.
The Count sighed, "Then all you can do it be there for her."
"I can't even think about her marrying him, let alone being forced to breed his children." Vlad looked at his father, "Is this how you felt when Wolfie was born?"
The Count wanted to deny it but he couldn't, he couldn't lie to Vlad when his son was this vulnerable, "Your mother made her choice to leave us Vladdy, Erin hasn't. Yes it does hurt and it doesn't go away, it numbs but it never goes away. You learn to live with it Vlad. Wolfie is part of this clan now," His father admitted to him, although he would never say it again. "He'll always be." He kissed his son's forehead standing upwards. "Just like Erin is part of our clan."
Before Vlad could respond to that the Count vanished leaving him looking at thin air.
YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL
It was strange for Jonno to see a vampire so distraught, this was worse than when he'd seen Vlad upset after agreeing to Chloe's demand to become Queen.
"I'm sorry Vlad." Jonno told him quietly.
Vlad nodded slowly he understood the position Jonno was in. Jonno could either defy the Guild and have dissent amongst his kind or he could perform his duty and hope another solution came to them.
"I thought the whole point of this was to get her out of there to think of something before you ever thought of the contract…"
"It was, but Erin's contract has been agreed to by a head of the Guild, I can't used deniability on it. I'm bound to see it through. I'm so sorry Vlad." Jonno wouldn't take any pleasure in this at all. "If they hadn't forced you to act and reveal yourself at the Academy then we might have had a chance to hide her for two months then reveal her so you could contest. As they found out we have to hand Erin back to them otherwise they'll target you."
"They'll target Vlad anyway." A new voice came from under the archway,
"Are you ready?" Mina asked Erin quietly.
"Yeah."
TBC
A/N: Thanks for reading.