A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.
Sorry its really late, I didn't get chance to start typing until 9pm.
Chapter 25: Purpose
Jonno motioned them closer to the lab table. He lifted a small glass slide of the serum. He placed it underneath the microscope attached to the laptop.
They all looked at the screen in complete bewilderment, they had no idea what they were looking at. Ingrid squinted at the screen; it just looked like a clear liquid to her.
"What will it do to her?" Vlad asked quietly. Biological warfare had never been heard of in their society before, there had never been a need for it as vampires didn't really suffer from illnesses.
Jonno took a breath before speaking. "Deny Adria her birthright."
Vlad's face scrunched in confusion as Jonno's words washed over him. "What?"
"The purpose of the serum is to remove her abilities completely, or at the very least to stop her from accessing them." Without her powers Adria would become vulnerable when she took the throne, they were the entire reason that Vlad was the Chosen One and his heirs would succeed him. They were 'blessed' amongst their society.
"The serums been designed to latch onto her DNA and rewrite it, to remove every aspect of her vampire DNA. They couldn't pinpoint which gene gives Adria her powers so they decided to be on the safe side and create something that would rewrite everyone of her genes."
"Rewrite it how? Addy's three quarters vampire." Erin asked quietly. She wasn't a breather when she'd been conceived she was a half fang and Vlad was a full vampire, which meant Adria had to have been three quarters.
"Her vampire DNA will be completely rewritten and not very carefully. Basically it'll stop her growth into a vampire, she'll become almost human."
Vlad picked up on his words. "'Almost'?"
"The conversion will be excruciating, if she survives it she'll suffer for the next eight years." The last part was quiet, a muffled whisper as he spoke. It had been designed so she would survive for the moment.
If Erin had a beating heart it would have skipped a beat at his words, "Why eight years?"
Jonno continued slowly, "When Adria turns sixteen…"
Erin felt relief flood her, she should have known better than to accept and trust the emotion so quickly. "So it'll undo when she faces the Blood Mirror…" Erin trailed off as Jonno shook his head grimly.
"If this is given to her she won't be able to transform and you," He addressed Vlad directly, "Know you can't get out of transformation." Every young vampire had to transform to survive; their hearts stop beating automatically. Vlad hadn't faced the mirror properly until a year after his automatic transformation. "Instead of transforming she'll be killed. As the date draws closer and the vampire nature tries to take hold, she'll suffer from seizures and most likely slip into a coma before her heart stops completely."
Erin grabbed the table to hold her upright. Immediately Vlad reached out to steady her but realised he wasn't the best person to help her as he felt he was about to collapse himself. Ingrid grabbed her and guided Erin over to Jonno's empty seat.
"I thought you said her DNA would be rewritten, her vampire traits shouldn't develop."
Jonno hated being the bearer of the bad news, he hated crushing any hope they had but The Unsullied had clearly thought all of this through carefully. "When they created this they didn't consider how the change might affect her brain. She was born with a vampire mind; Erin was born with a human mind that was upgraded. A mind can be upgraded but not downgraded. Her mind will remain a vampire one."
Wolfie spoke next, asking a question that had at the moment been ignored, "What will happen in the eight years?"
"Her brain will barely function, I don't even know if she'll be able to breathe on her own. She won't be able to feed herself; she'll become unresponsive, in a vegetative state. She'll be alive but only in that way. She won't even recognise her parents."
Vlad moved over to Erin and pulled her to him, holding her to him tightly. He kissed her hair lightly.
"Are you sure there isn't a way to undo it?" Vlad asked again, pleading that everyone had been completely wrong.
Jonno shook his head; it would take years if it could be done, too many years. There was only one answer he could really give. "The only way to cure it is make sure she isn't given it in the first place."
YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL
Ingrid watched Erin out of the corner of her eye, the younger woman didn't seem to move, she was frozen in her seat. Vlad had moved away towards Jonno trying to see if he could jog Jonno's memory someway or get him to consider something that he'd never think of normally.
"They won't inject her." Ingrid tried to reassure her, they weren't ready to lose their bargaining chip no matter how feisty Adria was. Ingrid still couldn't believe the way Addy had kicked that one slayer, she definitely had guts and she was definitely a Dracula.
"I knew vampires were evil but…" She trailed off, not all vampires were evil but some seemed to make up for it. Vlad might have tried to kill his father and sister when he became evil but he'd had a genuine reason for it. The Unsullied didn't, they were just corrupt from the inside out.
"Addy is their bargaining chip, they won't hurt her. They'll do it in front of you and Vlad." She knew that thought didn't offer much comfort but it proved that they had time and that they didn't have to worry about Addy having already been injected.
Erin whispered, rocking back and forth slightly. Ingrid wrapped her arms around her shoulders, holding her tightly. "I just want her safe and home."
"I know you do. We want her safe too."
YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL
Vlad felt grateful towards his sister as he watched her speak to Erin, trying to comfort her. He was terrified he'd say the wrong thing to her. He wasn't sure even what he wanted to hear on the subject at the moment.
Vlad moved towards Jonno, the slayer placed a comforting hand on Vlad's shoulder. "I'm sorry." He spoke; he couldn't imagine his fiancé being used against him the way Vlad's daughter was being used against the vampires. "I've asked more of the Guild to arrive." He told Vlad.
"They'll die." Vlad's outlook was grim, more people would mean more deaths.
"We're allies Vlad, we have been for ten years." One year had after all been the setting up of the truce. "We stand by each other." Jonno looked back at Erin, "How are you?" He asked cautiously, Vlad's powers were often more powerful and closer to the surface when he was angry. Jonno didn't like to think about it but he was worried that Vlad might be willing to tap into the evil that was contained inside to get Adria back – not that he would blame them.
Vlad couldn't believe that Jonno was asking such a stupid question. "How do you think I am?"
"You need to use what you're feeling and plan around it. It gives you something to fight for."
"I've *always* had something to fight for." Vlad snapped at him. Adria and Erin were everything to him; soon they would have a new member to spur him on.
"I know." He smiled slowly; he could have worded it better he supposed, "They're too confident, they'll make a mistake."
"They've got everything thought out." This wasn't like Vlad to be so pessimistic; he was usually the optimist of the group. He was the one who always said slayers and vampires could live in peace, he'd been laughed at back then but he'd never gone back on that hope, as a reward it had come true.
Jonno squeezed his shoulder, this was a team effort now, Vlad couldn't be relied on for the answers all the time, it wasn't fair on him. "We'll think of something."
They had eighteen hours left to think of something.
YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL
Vlad had explained everything patiently, having to go over the details a number of times as they tried to pretend that what The Unsullied had created was impossible. They only tried to deny it because they were terrified of it being used on them.
"So we're going to sit here and wait for them to attack us?" Augustus asked angrily. He glared between the vampires, they were all carefully composed, not even the slightest emotion on their faces.
Vlad leaned on the table, dropping his head down slightly before looking back up at Augustus. "They're returning tomorrow night, we know when. We'll be the ones with the surprise this time."
Atilla scoffed, "All this is over your heir, you have another on the way. If she doesn't lose it this time." The barb was there to hurt intentionally but Erin ignored it. She was honoured that she'd managed to have Adria so early, especially having found out that it was difficult for vampires and half fangs to have children.
Vlad's fists clenched at his side as he resisted the urge to lash out, "Even if it wasn't Adria it would be my next child, and the child after that…" He glanced over to Erin; they'd talked about children many times although they hadn't settled on a number. Vlad was just saying this at the moment to make a point; The Unsullied wouldn't just stop at one child. "They need to be stopped, if nothing more than to show what happens when they touch their future Grand High Vampire."
Augustus immediately began to answer that statement; sometimes his by the book approach was too much for Vlad. Sometimes things needed to be done unofficially. "Then we need to tell the rest of the vampire world immediately..."
"No," Vlad answered without missing a beat, "I'm not going to give The Unsullied a chance to scare them into cooperating. This needs to be dealt with quickly and quietly."
Ramanga spoke sternly, looking directly at Vlad, challenging him. "Our kind has a right to know…"
"You want to cause a panic then you tell them." Erin began slowly, "Very few clans are pure, they'll wipe the others out." Most clans had at last one half-fang ancestor somewhere in their clan tree. "A panic is going to give them what they want, chance to take over."
"The Unsullied aren't going to allow our kind to grow. They'll 'remove' clans that don't match their ideals, marriages will be arranged again, our kind will be in chaos. Every change that has been put in place over the last hundred years will be removed. Is that what you really want to happen?" Vlad told them firmly, staring each and every one of them down. They flinched under his hard gaze.
"But…"
He bit back a growl, he'd had enough now. He'd kept them here for a reason originally, now they were becoming more of a hindrance than a help to him. "You want to go…go!" He yelled at them, he couldn't deal with them and develop a plan to get Addy back and save their kind from the ideas of The Unsullied.
Augustus vanished, as did Atilla, although Vlad was surprised considering her fractured hip. It showed how desperate she was to get away.
Amia gave Erin a heart felt smile, "We'll stand by you." She gestured to Tomak who nodded as well. "We'll always support Vlad, you know that."
"Thank you."
Ramanga looked at Vlad, he enjoyed a good battle – that's if it was going to become a battle and not negotiations. "What are we going to do?"
Vlad glanced at them, he nodded to Erin and she understood immediately. She answered for him, "For our kind to survive…we need to fight."
They had a busy night and day ahead of them.
TBC
A/N: Thanks for reading.