Choices

Right, now we are finally getting to the bit I wanted to get to. Bear with me please, and I am going to start bringing in season 3 and 4 characters now which caused a revelation as to how to tie everything together.

I finished writing this story yesterday! So you are guaranteed to have a finished story now unlike my other ones... :/

I don't own YD.

Chapter 36: Preparations

"You think Jonno will be okay?" Robin asked.

Vlad and Robin were lounging on sofas in the throne room discussing what Jonno and Robin had done.

"He's a Van Helsing," Vlad shrugged. "If there is anything I have learnt about them, it is that they are impossible to truly get rid of. He'll be fine."

Robin sighed. "I really like him, he's a great friend."

Vlad smiled vaguely at him. "I'm sure he is. I am glad you are actually avoiding biting and everything. I thought you wouldn't."

He shrugged. "My family are human," Robin thought of his family down the hill, they thought he was long dead, as did the rest of the town, it was pretty close to the truth. "I don't want to be the one to kill them; I don't want anyone to suffer the way they have."

Vlad noticed he didn't say 'the way I have', it was like Robin did enjoy being a vampire or he was unwilling to admit that he didn't.

"So what's been happening since I left other than the engagement being cancelling and Terra having a weird transformation... and the return of the others?" Robin asked thinking if the four teenage vampires sleeping in the crypt.

"Well," Vlad sighed. "I have heard that the Grand High Vampire has recruited two new vampires."

"Half fangs?"

"No," he shook his head. "I mean ones that aren't famous... they have the name of Vaccaria."

"Never heard of them," Robin admitted.

"Neither had I until I heard. There are two of them, they are the only ones left of their clan, I think they slaughtered all their family in a bid for power."

Robin raised his eyebrows. "How the flapping bats do you know all this?"

Vlad gave him an dark grin. "Yeah... that reminds me, I have something to tell you..."

"You know you really should have paid more attention when you did your blood test," Ingrid told her brother.

Everyone was gathered around the table talking about strategy and eating, Vlad was at the head of one end and Ingrid was at the other. On Vlad's left was Terra who was sat next to Valencia, and she was sat next to Yassik. On Vlad's right was Robin, then Darius, Korith and Will who was on Ingrid's left and hold her hand beneath the table. Francine had left the night after Terra's birthday, and decided to stay with her brother to assist him in teaching his new students.

They were sat discussing the new allies of Salem's, trying to figure out who they really were.

"What do you mean?"

Ingrid sighed impatiently. "If you were still doing the blood tests then you would have to learn every single clan as part of the third test, but it also occasionally comes up on the first one. You were supposed to learn them when I was..." Ingrid refused to say 'helping' unwilling to make herself look weak. "Anyway you should have already know them."

"So should all of us," Vlad pointed out.

Korith snorted. "Like any of us remember the material for the blood tests, they are so painful I think every vampire blocks the information relating to it from their minds."

All of them laughed other than Will who had never sat the tests, Robin knew full well how bad the test was because Vlad telling him about it the day after he had sat his test.

"The thing is," Terra hadn't spoken till this point, since her transformation she had become quieter which seemed to make her more deadly if that was even possible. "Dad has access to all records on every clan. He may have recruited the two Vaccaria's because he knows something about them that we don't."

Darius frowned. "That's true. Very few people know the dark secrets of every clan. There are only two people that I am aware of that do know them all."

"Dad's one of them," Terra stated. "He started to teach me some of them in preparation of becoming Queen, but not many. I don't know who the other person is."

"I think I might," Darius admitted. "But..." he added before anyone could get their hopes up. "He hides so deep in the shadows you cannot find him, he comes to you and its rare he does that."

"What's his name?" Vlad asked.

"Bertrand," he admitted. "Bertrand du Fortunessa."

Yassik scowled immediately. "I have heard of him," he admitted. "He is renowned for leaving a trail of vampircides behind him, but he hasn't been punished for it."

"I have heard that too," Korith agreed no longer touching his food. "He's said to be a bit mad. I don't think we should hunt him down even if we have to fight people without knowledge of who they are."

"What's the problem with him?" Will spoke. "Surely we can stand up to him."

Yassik shook his head rapidly. "Even the most powerful clans are scared of him; Dad always said we should avoid him at all costs. He's a sacrosanct."

"Translation please?" Robin asked.

"He means it's forbidden to kill him," Darius told him. "It's an Ancient Roman invention, emperors used to become sacrosanct to protect themselves."

Valencia snorted. "Yeah it worked so well that half of the emperors were assassinated!"

Darius shrugged. "True, but it's taken on a more serious line with vampires. It's not just forbidden, and will cost you your life. It costs you a smashed blood mirror too."

"Ouch," Robin muttered.

Yassik shrugged. "It's why no one dare attack him, and those who would like to can't because he's impossible to find. The guy is four hundred years old with a great deal of knowledge about vampires and humans both; he certainly knows how to hide."

Korith started thinking changing the subject. "Vlad, question what was the name of the clan again?"

"Vaccaria," Vlad told him and a look of realisation spread across Korith's face. "Why? What is it?"

"This is not good," he muttered.

"Korith," Yassik said. "What is it?"

Korith looked at Terra.

"Oh," she realised. "How did we not recognise that name before?"

"She was only one student Terra," Korith told her.

"What in the name of the devil are you two talking about?" Ingrid said and received a thankful look from Vlad because he was beginning to lose his temper.

"Elizabeta Vaccaria," Korith said.

"You know one of them?" Vlad stated shocked.

"Dad does," Korith muttered.

"She was one of Daralum's students centuries ago," Terra told Vlad putting her hand on his because she was now nervous.

"That means she's a shapeshifter!" Darius gasped. "Salem has a shifter on his side!"

"There's more though," Korith added. "Dad once mentioned that she was married into a powerful family, but he never said what. Whatever family it was, it ended badly, she was widowed and didn't get remarried for some reason."

"How did I not know about this?" Darius demanded.

"You never looked through the school graduates," Korith shrugged. "Elizabeta wasn't one of Dad's favourite students, he only let her in because he felt sorry for her..."

Ingrid snorted. "Sounds like your Dad."

Korith snarled at her.

"We need to contact Daralum," Terra interrupted getting out of her seat. "He'll know more."

"He might not tell you," Will pointed out.

"He has to," Korith said looking still furious but slightly calmer. "He wants Salem dead as much as any of us, and he'll do anything, anything to make sure that we win."

"Korith's right," Valencia agreed. "Daralum will help us. If we cannot find this Bertrand person, then the next best person to turn to is Daralum."

"I don't like this," Yassik muttered as Korith placed the laptop on the table.

"Don't be so traditional," Korith told him sternly. "There is nothing wrong with technology."

"It causes more vampire deaths!" He pointed out, Vlad considered interrupting but knew the advancements had lead to more vampire deaths than there used to be say two centuries ago.

"It's the quickest way to contact Daralum," Terra assured Yassik. "Doing it in writing could take weeks, and if we go to Corella we are bound to be spotted. This is the best and only way to contact him. Its second best after talking face to face, after all it is face to face just on screens that's all."

Yassik shrugged and frowned. "I still don't like it."

"I agree it's not completely secure," Vlad admitted. "But like Terra said, we don't have a choice, we need to find out about the Vaccaria's, if one of them is a shapeshifter then we have trouble on our hands."

"Right," Korith muttered who in the meantime had got onto the webcam system and clinked on the link to his father. "I just need to press 'call' and it'll start ringing."

"Like a phone," Valencia realised making Korith,Robin, Vlad, Ingrid and Terra who all understood technology best of all of them roll their eyes.

"Please be in Dad," Korith muttered looking at the screen.

Daralum answered only three minutes later surprised that his son was bothering to use technology to contact him rather than coming to see him, whatever he was contacting him about must have been important.

"Dad!" Korith breathed seeing his father on the screen; on the other side Daralum could see Korith, Terra and Vlad gathered around the laptop them were using, but knew well there must be others which the webcam couldn't show.

"Korith," Daralum greeted him. "It is not like you to contact me in this manner."

"Sorry Dad," Korith apologised.

"We wouldn't have resorted to this unless it was important," Vlad added and Daralum nodded showing he had realised that.

"Uncle Daralum, we need to ask you something, it's very important, it could turn the tide of the war in my father's favour if we don't know," Terra carried on and their old teacher's eyes widened.

"Why?" He asked now looking worried. "What have you found out?"

"Salem has two allies called the Vaccarias," Korith stated and Daralum stiffed, a guilty and furious look on his face that none of his students had seen before.

Vlad ignored the look on his old tutors face. "Daralum, please tell us what you know."

Daralum faked a sigh leaning back on his chair. "Vaccaria, I taught a vampiress called Elizabeta Vaccaria."

"I remember you telling me that," Korith admitted.

"She was pregnant at the time," Daralum added and all the teenagers looked shocked. "I don't know who the father was, I assumed it was her dead husband, but it may not have been now I think back on it."

"So the two Vaccaria's must be Elizabeta and her son or daughter," Terra said looking around at everyone in the room.

"Son," Daralum interrupted. "The child was a boy, he's called Malik Hellfire Vaccaria."

Yassik snorted. "Nice middle name."

Daralum ignored him. "Elizabeta had been widowed and her husband's brother refused to marry her even though it is against the law. I took her in because I felt bad for her."

"You taught her how to shapeshift," Vlad realised and Daralum nodded nervously.

"Yes, she was very good at it, not the best I have had she could turn into vampires, humans and animals but never anything else."

"Well that gives us an advantage," Terra said looking slightly relieved.

"There's more," Daralum added and on the screen he seemed to be trying to look at Vlad directly. "Vlad, how much do you know about your father's family?"

Vlad looked over his shoulder briefly at Ingrid and they exchanged a quick surprised glance and looked back at the screen. "I know Dad had parents, Count Dragos – who died - and our Grandmother, Granny Dracula; then there is Dad's younger brother Ivan and his children Boris – who Salem killed for attacking Mori – and Olga."

Daralum frowned. "So you don't know about Arta?"

"Who?" Ingrid and Vlad both said it at the same time.

"Arta Dragos, who later became Count Dragos, and changed the family name to Dracula," Daralum admitted. "He looked a lot like your father except his brother had brown curly hair and a beard. They looked so alike people mixed them up; it was why no one really knew of Arta's existence, your father and his brother looked so alike that no one realised when Arta died."

Vlad blinked. "Dad never mentioned this."

"Not surprising," Daralum admitted. "Arta was the eldest, he married Elizabeta, and at his ascension ceremony he died mysteriously – Elizabeta said it was your father's fault. Your father was meant to marry Elizabeta but he didn't, however did take on the throne."

"Why didn't he marry Elizabeta?" Ingrid wondered.

"Probably because he had met your mother by this point," Daralum guessed. "I cannot be sure of that because I don't know much about Magda, I don't know how old she is, she claims to be two hundred and fifty but I know she's older than that."

"So Elizabeta is our 'auntie'," Ingrid spat the word 'auntie' like it was a disgusting word. "And Malik must be..."

"Our cousin," Vlad muttered also disturbed. "He's a Dracula, a direct link to the throne." Vlad looked at Ingrid. "Our throne."

Ingrid snarled. "He's not having it."

"Agreed," her brother said looking just as furious as she did.

"Elizabeta disappeared not long after Malik was born," Daralum informed them. "I am guessing that she raised him, she would also be scorned for not getting married again."

"What about the rest of her family?" Korith asked.

"They disinherited her, blotted her out," Daralum shrugged. "It's not uncommon. About four centuries ago all the Vaccaria family were mysteriously slayed – only sixteen years after she was disinherited, it was blamed on the slayers but Elizabeta claimed the Vaccaria throne and all the power and inheritance of the family including the blood mirror."

"Malik must have transformed in front of the Vaccaria mirror instead of the Dracula mirror," Terra realised. "Elizabeta lost her link to the Dracula mirror when Arta died, and couldn't get near it so had to resort to that."

Daralum nodded. "She must have used her powers that I taught her to kill them," he sighed. "I'm not proud of teaching her, I thought I was doing her a favour, but now I see it was a bad idea. It is why I have firmly pressed that loyalty isn't to be taken lightly, and trust is the earned not handed out like bread in Ancient Rome."

"It's not your fault father," Korith assured him. "Not all your students turn out the be perfect vampires."

Daralum smiled at his son.

"Thank you Daralum," Vlad said earnestly.

"You're welcome; it's nice to see you all." He shrugged. "You've made a fine vampiress Terra," he told his niece. "I'm proud of you."

"Thank you," she smiled.

"One more thing," Darius leaned down so Daralum could see him between Vlad and Korith and swept his dark hair aside out of his eyes. "Daralum, do you know anything about Bertrand du Fortunessa."

"Ah," he murmured. "Bertrand."

"You know him?" Korith gawped. "Why didn't you mention this?"

"It's not important," he shrugged and looked at Vlad. "Not to all of you anyway."

Vlad frowned.

"Look Vlad," Daralum sighed. "Bertrand isn't someone you can chase; wait for him to come to you. Then you can learn from him, as much as I hate to admit this he knows more than I do on knowledge, I specialise in dark arts the physical things where Bertrand is more in the mind - the things from books."

"Why would he come to Vlad?" Terra asked.

"He's the Chosen One," Vlad flinched. "Bertrand has been looking for the Chosen One for centuries; when he finds out where Vlad is he will come to you. I will say this though, when he arrives be prepared he may try to stake first to get Vlad to show his true power. Don't let him get to you Vlad, it's what he wants. Bertrand is bad to the bone, but you have a good heart, do not let him change that. I don't care what he has to offer, you Vlad are the best chance we have for peace."

Vlad nodded. "No pressure then," they all laughed.

"Thank you father," Korith said.

Daralum smiled. "I am proud of you, all of you. Goodbye."

The image flickered off the screen leaving everyone in shock from the knowledge they had obtained.

Wow, that was a long chapter!

I have skipped a bit in this; there is a reason for that. I don't want to ruin the surprise that will be coming later. Next we will be going to see things from Malik's view.

Thank you for reading and please review!

C

xx