A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

I feel so guilty not posting when I promised to. I went out with some friends to meet up with a friend who lives in Barry before going into Cardiff Bay for the Doctor Who Experience (it's fantastic) and shopping in the city itself. We ended up staying the night at her house as it was gone midnight when we were finally ready to leave after going back to the Bay for a meal. She wanted to make sure we all got home safely.

I hope you can forgive me.

Chapter 25: Returning the Favour

The cage was empty.

That was the first thing they noticed about the room when they entered. Bertrand cautiously sniffed the air, trying to detect any trace of Vlad or Erin. He'd never bothered to notice Erin's scent before but it wasn't a slayers, it was… distinctive somehow. Almost as if there was something familiar about it that he couldn't put his finger on.

The scent was now too stale to be of much use to them. The pair must have left the room shortly after they did. He knew he wouldn't get far with the scent, possibly a mile at most if Vlad had flown. The wind would have scattered her scent, leaving him with nothing to go on.

Bertrand reached up and toyed with the padlock, there was nothing wrong with it. Vlad hadn't used his powers on it – not that he could in the argentalium cage – he must have used something else to escape. He hadn't taught Vlad this section of his training yet so he was curious how he knew how to escape. Erin couldn't have shown him as she failed to escape the cage last time.

Ingrid bent down and picked up something that was on the floor, a folded over piece of wire. Her eyebrow rose as she twirled it in the dim light of the room, watching in fascination as the light reflected off the painted surface of the wire. Curious she unfolded it; she knew Vlad didn't have any wire on him so she wondered where it could have come from.

Bertrand looked at the wire, confusion filling him as he saw the curved surface. Ingrid smirked as she realised what it was her smile only growing as she realised that Bertrand didn't know what it was. Although he was part of the vampire world and this wouldn't concern him at all.

"I didn't know she could be so useful." Ingrid muttered under her breath before dropping the wire back down to the ground, it landed with a soft ping.

Bertrand looked at Ingrid; her plans were taking another turn for the worst. She had never been lucky in her planning. "So what are you going to do now?"

"I don't know." Ingrid whispered, Vlad could intervene at any point and stop her if he wanted to.

"With Vlad out of the way you can kill the Count." Bertrand wasn't being serious he was being more snarky than anything else. "He'll welcome it." Bertrand knew that Vlad wouldn't forgive while he was like this, he'd want his father to suffer for what he did to him.

"He's probably hoping I'll do it." She shuddered, almost imperceptivity. "He didn't stop us when we began fighting over his power, he probably wouldn't have given me any of it."

It seemed like something this side of him would do, she was curious as to what role Erin would play in his power. Erin wouldn't accept any power, she didn't want it she only cared about the young vampire, Ingrid remembered confronting her about it only for Erin to pull a blank look before realising what Ingrid meant by 'Queen'. Erin honestly didn't care about Vlad's power.

She felt like kicking something, anything, just to alleviate this feeling of frustration. She knew she couldn't kick Bertrand like she used to kick her brother – he'd just kick back.

There was only one way to get the Vlad back that they knew, the Vlad who wouldn't divide his family on purpose and the Vlad who usually sorted out everyone's problems. Bertrand was actually glad Ingrid hadn't managed to work up the courage to tell Vlad about the deal she'd made. "We need to make sure he's bound."

"He'll never forgive us for this." Ingrid muttered under her breath, she was beginning to wonder whether it would help at the end of the day. She wondered if it wouldn't turn him into the vampire he could be even without his reflection in control. You didn't have to have be evil to do evil. She didn't know if Vlad could cope with being paralysed.

Bertrand knew that as well, Vlad would never have the same freedom he had now. It was a dilemma. Usually there were two options – kill a vampire or let them live. There was no in between. They were considering taking an action that would affect Vlad for the rest of his unlife and he wasn't sure if the Vlad they wanted back could ever handle what they were going to do to him.

This was the price of the freedom of the Vlad they knew. It was a steep one.

"We can't let him carry on like this." He told Ingrid, for the sake of their kind and every other kind out there they couldn't let the bitter Vlad take over.

Ingrid shook her head, wishing there was a better way. If they'd known sooner there might have been. "We should have seen who he was sooner!"

"We didn't know which Vlad he was." Bertrand told her. "This is the only way to make sure he's controlled." There Bertrand had said it, Vlad needed to be controlled and guided it was the only way they could make sure that he did what they wanted him to do.

"None of us bothered to look!" Ingrid shouted at him. "He was here for nearly three months and we never even looked at him and realised which Vlad it was!" She cursed herself; there were things about him that were questionable looking back in hindsight.

"He fooled everyone Ingrid." Bertrand reminded her.

"Not everyone." She spun around and folded her arms over her chest. "Erin knew it was him. A slayer who'd only known him for a few months. She could tell the difference between the bad Vlad and my brother. I've known him all his unlife and I couldn't tell." Ingrid looked down, before looking at Bertrand; he prided himself on being observant. "You didn't notice either, the only person who did was Dad and that was only a couple of days ago. How many of us actually knew Vlad in the first place?"

Vlad had deceived them about who and what Erin was, he'd defied his father, he'd put up with all her taunts all his life, he could lie to them without any of them knowing. All this was before he'd even absorbed his reflection.

The only thing she knew about him was that he didn't want to be a vampire. That's all she'd bothered to know about him.

"You can't trust a slayer." Ingrid spat, she was furious at Erin keeping it to herself. "If she'd told us all of this months ago we wouldn't have to do this." Ingrid didn't understand one thing though. "Why hide?" Ingrid muttered.

Bertrand tipped his head; surely Ingrid couldn't have missed something so obvious. "He'll be eighteen soon, all the power he wants. He can do what he wants."

"You think he actually wanted the power?" Ingrid should have known the answer to that. When he had the power he could do whatever he wanted, he could get revenge on them for what they did or tried to do to him and he could get revenge on them legally.

"The Count and you show him as spoiled but when was the last time Vlad actually got something he wanted without having to work for it?"

Ingrid tried to think back, trying to figure out a point where Vlad had actually been given something without lies and boot licking to get it. She did managed to think of one thing, "Erin agreed to go out with him." Erin hadn't wanted anything in return.

"Erin doesn't count," Bertrand answered; Erin had come in trying to slay them and instead had fallen in love with the youngest Dracula and the most powerful vampire. She never came in to twist his mind but she'd stayed when he'd asked her to. Granted the two of them had hurt each other more than once they'd gotten past it. Vlad didn't hold a grudge against her unlike the rest of his family simply because Erin had never treated him differently because of who he was.

"Don't let Vlad here you say that." Ingrid muttered, she had a feeling that Vlad would protect the young slayer now more than ever.

Bertrand needed to finish what he was saying. "This side of Vlad just wants what he's been stopped from having since he was unborn. He's angry and bitter and that's what makes his decisions for him nothing else. He's more dangerous than ever before."

She looked down then back up at Bertrand, she felt like she'd betrayed her brother. Vlad was in that mind somewhere trapped, unable to break through. She was disappointed with Erin for not helping him, she thought the young slayer loved her brother but clearly didn't care about him. Vlad had saved her unlife more than once and it was about time that she returned the favour.

Bertrand had been the one person, besides Wolfie, that Vlad hadn't attacked before. Now he would consider him a traitor and a target, all of his past sins had been erased when Vlad had found out who was truly behind trying to get Erin and Ingrid out of the way. For that she felt incredibly guilty.

Her gaze met with his as she uttered words that were extremely difficult for her to say, "I'm sorry I got you into this." He was surprised at the sincerity of her words as his blue eyes widened.

Bertrand looked at Ingrid and for the first time he could see who she really was. There were no walls up, no calculating glances, nothing. She was just Ingrid. There were no ulterior motives behind her words.

"I know." He answered.

Ingrid looked down; she wished she hadn't involved him in all of this mess to start with.

Bertrand was bold; he grasped her chin lightly between his fingers and raised her questioning gaze up to look at her fully. She tipped her head to her left in confusion, this was the second time he'd initiated any form of tender contact with her.

If she was a breather her breath would have hitched in her throat as she saw something in his eyes. He looked serious, more serious than usual, he was deciding whether to do something or not. Seconds ticked by as he finally reached a decision.

He leaned in slowly, he didn't hesitate once but Bertrand never hesitated in his actions. Her eyes fluttered closed instinctively as he drew nearer and she waited patiently.

Then she felt it.

The tender brushing of his lips against hers and she felt herself coming undone. It was a brief contact but her eyes remained closed as he pulled back away from her. Her eyes fluttered open questioning why he'd moved away.

Then she saw something that surprised her, he seemed unsure. Ingrid had never seen him that way before, even when he'd tried to defend himself after staking her. He seemed almost apologetic that he'd 'taken advantage' of her in that moment but she didn't think of it that way. Ingrid lifted her right hand to grasp his left lapel, using it to support herself as she stood on her toes.

Their lips were just about to brush when she heard it – a deliberate cough.

YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL

Ingrid stepped away from Bertrand, irritation flooding her. "What?!" She boomed, her voice lowing to a bass as she turned to face Renfield who looked positively horror filled at her reaction.

"I've finished the binder you asked for Mistress Ingrid." He passed her a small clear vial, large enough to hold ten millilitres of the precious binding liquid. Ingrid snatched it off him, taking care not to touch him.

Ingrid twisted it around in her fingers. "How does it work?"

"If this is injected into the back of Master Vlad's neck it should begin to take effect almost immediately."

Bertrand wanted to make sure of something. "Will he be able to fight it? He's stronger than other vampires."

"I've made this one stronger, it'll work quicker but it will be more painful. There might be more damage." Renfield held onto the vial, "Are you sure you want to do this Mistress Ingrid?"

In all truth the answer was no, but she couldn't let Vlad get away with being who he was at the moment. There was no telling how much damage he could wreak on their world. If she didn't she'd have to deal with Ramanga and his posse.

She felt Bertrand rest his hands on her shoulders and her mind was made up.

"I'm sure."

TBC

A/N: Thanks for reading.