A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

A longer chapter…

I'm surprise no one noticed my glaring mistake in Chapter 35, I only noticed it this morning but I'm going to make it work for me. I'm not going to change it. It gave me an interesting idea.

Chapter 37: Burns

Vlad let out a sigh, this was more about his father than his sister. His father was the biggest threat to him, his sister was being 'Ingrid' but Ingrid's blackmail if she followed through with it he wouldn't have anything left to bargain Erin's safety for.

"Do you remember what I told you when I thought it was you that had been bitten? When I was trying to make it sound not so bad?"

"Even though you hated everything about being a vampire?" He gave her a look, she was telling the truth but she decided to make herself that fraction clearer. "Everything that wasn't useful at least."

"Do you remember what I said about breathers?"

She couldn't forget, that was what told her clearly that he was different. He trusted her and that was when she allowed herself to admit that she had feelings for the youngest Dracula. "You said that you wanted us to live in piece, as soon as you became Grand High Vampire."

"I didn't say Grand High Vampire though." Vlad corrected her, "I said when I got my *full powers*."

Erin blinked slowly, she'd taken it to mean that he could do whatever he wanted when he became Grand High Vampire not that he would have more power. "Are you saying that you'll become even more powerful?" She asked.

"Yeah, I passed every single blood test. I don't receive my full powers until I come of age and that's my eighteenth birthday." He'd scraped through them but he'd passed them nonetheless.

"You think they've forgotten that?" Erin had so she wondered if they had too. Vlad shrugged, it was easy to do. He'd come into most of his powers early, he shouldn't have as many as he did now. He was more powerful than any other vampire already, they would have probably assumed that he'd already come into his powers.

"I think they should be more worried about them crossing me than me crossing them." He told her with a smile. The smile wasn't malicious though it was regretful. They wouldn't stand a chance if he unleashed that power on them and they wouldn't know what to expect. They only pushed him around now because they thought that that was the extent of his power. They didn't realised how wrong they were.

This was the Vlad she'd known the longest being forced into action. He'd be forced to use his powers to regain what was rightfully his – his father hadn't done a very good job as Regent so far so she doubted he would make a very good leader.

She just wished that he'd never been put in this position.

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The canteen was full of hustle and bustle, the young couple didn't really want to go upstairs for their dinner. Erin was seething silently at what Vlad's family had forced him to do. One blackmailing him and the other forcing him to give up half his power. At least down here she couldn't say something offensive and wind up with a pair of fangs in her neck. Vlad lifted his water bottle to his lips taking a long drink. He missed the days before healthy eating when fizzy pop was allowed and fruit juice for that matter. Most of the meals in the canteen involved pasta now and a favourite dressing was unfortunately garlic.

Something appeared in front of his vision so suddenly his eyes blurred before refocusing on it.

Vlad craned away from the object that was thrust into his face. He nearly tipped his chair backwards in the attempt to get as far away from it as possible. He winced as the offensive smell assaulted his nose. He looked to Erin pleading with her to take it from him.

Garlic bread. Garlic bread with a lot of garlic butter in it, he knew there was a reason he'd skipped that class although Vlad had a 'doctor's' note saying that he was severely allergic to garlic so he'd been excused from the lesson on making garlic bread.

Erin reached out a hand to grab the offending bread. Becky yanked it away before she could touch it, giving her the dirtiest look she could muster. Her face switched to sickly sweet as she tried once more to get Vlad to eat the poison she held it in her hand.

Becky decided that it would be easier if she gave him a smaller piece and broke it down to the size of a die. "Try some Vlad," Becky spoke flirtatiously before pushing it towards his mouth for him to accept it. She was trying the romantic approach of feeding him. She could feel everyone's eyes on her. Erin would never do this for him and perhaps it would convince Vlad that she was better match for him.

It touched his lips and Erin saw him screw his eyes up and a faint hiss escaped his lips. Becky held it there waiting for Vlad to open his mouth. Erin lashed out and smacked Becky's hand as hard as she could away from her boyfriend's mouth.

"What the hell Erin?!" Becky shouted at her as a red mark began to form on her hand. Erin felt guilty for it but a treacherous part of her had enjoyed hitting her.

Becky didn't let go of the bread that easily although it was forced from Vlad's lips, it 'accidentally' dropped down the collar of his shirt instead.

Vlad frantically tried to loosen his collar, instead it only slipped down further and under the white t-shirt he wore underneath. It didn't help that he had his shirt tucked into his trousers. Becky watched with rapt attention as she waited for Vlad to remove his shirt so he could get the garlic bread from there. Erin knew Vlad couldn't, they would see the burn marks the garlic caused to his flesh.

Vlad looked at Erin, he didn't touch her but she could see the pain in his eyes. "Go." She told him firmly, he nodded and practically ran from the room to find a safe place before speeding to his room. As soon as he was gone Erin turned a violent shade of purple as she glared that the stupid woman in front of her. "Vlad's allergic to garlic!" Erin snapped at Becky, "You could have killed him."

"What is he a vampire now?" Becky tossed at her, not noticing how Erin froze as she said those words. It took a moment for the former slayer to realise they'd been said sarcastically. "Don't try and make him into Edward Cullen, Erin." Erin bit her tongue resisting telling her that the Cullens weren't affected by garlic in the novel but resisted. She'd never read the books but when the girls went on and on about them it was hard to ignore. "He's far better than Edward Cullen." She told Erin with a smirk. "You just didn't like it because he was going to accept what I'd made in home economics. You were jealous."

Erin really had nothing to be jealous about. "I'm not the one who's jealous. Becky when are you going to realise he's not interested. Just leave him alone."

Unable to face her sometimes-friend anymore she turned her back on her, she couldn't forgive her for injuring Vlad no matter that she hadn't intended for him to be hurt and that she hadn't known how it would affect him.

Erin grabbed her bag and quickly left the canteen wanting to make sure Vlad was okay.

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Erin didn't bother to knock, she just entered the room. She saw him groaning and letting small bursts of involuntarily swallowed air out through his teeth as he tried to get his shirt off. Every time his shirt shifted the garlic moved inside burning another part of his flesh.

Erin dropped her back to the floor, alerting Vlad to the fact that she was in the room. Vlad turned to her, his eyes streaming from the pain. It was unbelievable that such a small amount of garlic could do that much damage to someone.

She darted from the room and ran as fast as she could to the kitchen to grab a bowl of clean, warm water – she needed to clean the garlic from him – and a flask to rinse his back to make sure there were no traces of the garlic remaining afterwards. She grabbed a fresh cloth as she waited for the bowl to fill before walking back as fast as she could without spilling the water to Vlad's room.

She pressed her back against the door and pushed it open slowly, she did a half turn once the door was open. She paced he bowl on the couch as she saw that Vlad still hadn't managed to get his shirt off and was now tugging at it only succeeding in making the garlic burn him more.

Erin reached around his waist and pulled both of his shirts from his waistband completely, a fraction of the yellow shirt was still tucked inside the band.

The young slayer placed her hands on top of his halting his movements. She moved his hands away and deftly undid the buttons trying to ignore Vlad's studious gaze on her. "Knowing our luck your dad will walk in and catch me undressing you when we're not doing anything." Erin muttered, Vlad laughed before hissing as the bread moved around under his t-shirt.

She pushed the yellow cotton shirt away from his shoulders before grabbing the hem of the t-shirt and pulling it over his head. The offensive piece of garlic bread dropped to the floor. Erin grabbed it and forced it into her back so he couldn't tread on it.

She encouraged him to sit down with his back to her. She sat on the floor behind him, her gaze fixed on lowering the bowl to the floor and wringing the cloth. She turned towards him and gasped.

Wide, straight marks were on his back from where the bread had shifted and moved. They looked painful and inflamed. They were angry marks, some much deeper than others where the garlic had been lodged. Black residue wept from the marks. She kissed the back of his neck, just below that curl of hair at the nape of his neck that she loved to twist her fingers in, silently telling him that she was about to begin.

She felt him tense just before she lowered the cloth to the first set of marks. She saw the way the muscles in his arms clenched. She could picture his face all screwed up as he tried not to cry out. She swore she'd get revenge on Becky for doing this to him.

"Sorry." The apology slipped out at the thought of being the one who caused this pain. He tried to shrug to say it didn't matter but failed. "I'll try to be quick."

He nodded but he knew she couldn't guarantee it.

Erin quickly set to work trying to get the garlic out of his wounds but it was much more stubborn than she thought. The water seemed to be hardly touching it, it eased it a fraction but that was all. Then an idea crossed her mind – the Count had recovered from Vlad placing garlic around his neck so there must be something they could use.

"The waters not working." She spoke softly, his head snapped around to hers a concerned expression in his eyes. She wiped the tear tracks away that looked like small rivers down his cheeks. She threw the cloth into the bowl. "I'll see if there's anything that will help. Your Dad recovered…"

"I'm fine Erin." He tried to assure her but she could tell he was lying from the way he worried his lip. Looking at the wounds she could see that they were still burning, the garlic wasn't easy to remove and it was still burning through his flesh albeit at a slower rate. She couldn't leave him like this.

"I won't be long. There has to be something…"

Before Vlad could answer her, she'd already left the room on a quest to find something

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Erin poked her head around the door to the training room. She checked to see if Bertrand was in there, when she couldn't see him she hesitated. He always came in before she'd managed to do anything before. She wondered if she should wait for him she really didn't want to risk his wrath again. However Vlad was already in enough pain, she didn't want him in any more than necessary.

She stepped into the room before closing her eyes forcing confidence into her.

Erin glanced around, various equipment was dotted around the room. She swept her eyes over the walls before her eyes came to rest on an ancient looking shelf that looked like it housed first aid equipment. That would be the place that might hold something that could help Vlad.

As quickly as she could she jogged over to the shelf and looked up at it.

It hadn't seemed that high on the wall from a distance. She quickly spotted and empty crate, ignoring the splinters that buried themselves in her hand she grabbed it and placed it below it before gingerly testing her weight on it and climbing completely on it.

She grimaced as she hesitantly reached up to explore the shelf with her hands. She really didn't like doing that.

She felt her hand go straight through a spider web or something like that. Whatever it was the string like material was sticky and clung to her fingers. She shuddered as she wiped her fingers on the shelf before reaching around amongst the spider and fly corpses that were on there trying to grasp a bottle in her hand.

Erin jumped as she heard a voice hiss behind her sharply, nearly falling backwards and tearing the shelf of vile things from the wall. "What are you doing in here?"

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"What are you doing in here?" Bertrand asked her, he knew he'd startled her and at the moment he didn't care. She was invading his privacy and he wasn't going to stand for it. He didn't have much that was his and he was fiercely protective of what he did have. "I told you what would happen if you came in here again." He was restraining himself from dropping his fangs, he knew that Vlad would probably hear him and rush to Erin's side like he'd done on so many occasions before.

Erin carefully stepped from the box she was standing on before wiping her fingers freeing them from the dirt that had been collected on the palms of her hands.

"I'm not here to see what you're up to." Erin told him firmly and more importantly honestly. Bertrand blinked looking surprised at Erin's courage to speak back to him like that. She'd never dared to before. Being with Vlad had clearly given her the confidence to.

"What are you doing in here?" He repeated.

"You practiced with garlic right?" She asked quietly, "Training Vlad you threw garlic and things at him?" Bertrand remembered that, he'd been forced to wear gloves and he hated wearing gloves at any time, he nodded answering her question.

"Why would that interest you?"

Erin wrung her hands in front of herself, "You must have burned him a few times with it." Bertrand nodded, "I thought you might have something that could soothe the burns in here."

His eyes softened in concern, she was trying to help one of their kind, "How did he get burned?" He asked, Erin looked at him in surprise at his concerned tone before shaking herself as he moved past her. He didn't knock her but she felt the chill that spread over her as he did.

"Becky tried to feed him garlic bread before dropping it down his shirt. I've cleaned them with water but the burns seem to be getting worse." Bertrand rummaged through a small chest and Erin stood on her toes to try and see what was in there. She couldn't see much as his whole body was blocking her she only saw a few trinkets. She lowered herself back down before he turned around fully so he didn't notice her prying.

"Here." He handed her a small bottle of something.

"What is it?"

"Chalk, bicarbonate of soda and vinegar." Erin didn't look too convinced. "It will help." He assured her. "It'll sting when it goes on first though. The chalk will remove the grease, the vinegar the smell and the bicarbonate will sooth it." She clutched it to her.

"Thanks."

"Vlad's had it before." He told her, "He knows what to expect." He opened his mouth to scold her and threaten her about being in here again, but she spoke before he could.

"Sorry about coming in here, I would've asked you but I didn't know where you were. I didn't want Vlad to be in anymore pain for longer than he had to be." Bertrand was shocked at her apology, it was sincere. Erin didn't want to give him any reason to think she was up to something. This was his private domain just like her room was, she understood how much he valued the privacy and she wanted to show him she respected that despite the fact he'd tried to kill her on more than one occasion. "I know you don't like people being in here and I promise I'll ask you before I come in again – unless Vlad drags me in here and I don't get a chance." She muttered and the corner of Bertrand's mouth quirked up in a smile, he couldn't blame Erin if it happened because of Vlad.

"Thank you." He told her. It was the first time she'd ever heard those words from him.

"I didn't trust Renfield not to make Vlad worse like he did Ingrid." She continued, "But I'm sorry I didn't ask you first." She waved the jar in front of her. "Thanks for this."

Bertrand nodded unsure what to say. She'd treated him differently, she wasn't considering him a part of Ingrid's blackmail of her brother – and he wasn't, she didn't judge him the way he thought she would. He wasn't sure what to make of that. She hadn't been malicious instead she was being respectful of him. She was trying to get along with him. He found a glimmer of respect forming for her.

That was something that he wasn't prepared for and it was a terrifying thing to consider.

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Vlad groaned the moment he saw what Erin held in her hands. He hated that stuff. He hated the feel of its thick texture on his skin.

"Bertrand gave it me." She smiled, Erin couldn't help but smile as Vlad recognised the stuff and the reaction to seeing it. He gave her a dirty look that only made her laugh. She gestured for him to turn around and he reluctantly did so.

Using her fingers she gently applied the salve to the burns. It felt lumpy, it had a smell to it but nothing as powerful as the garlic itself. Erin felt him tense under her gently fingers. She lifted her right and squeezed his right shoulder lightly, she felt his left hand come up and lace their fingers. His thumb caressed the back of her hand.

The only thing Erin didn't like was the fact that she could see exactly where the garlic bread had touched his back. Large white patches made him look as if he'd had a case of chicken pox. The entire left side of his neck was covered in the mixture. He would never have allowed anyone else to apply the cream there. Her eyes watered at how fragile his porcelain skin could be. She pressed the softest of kissed to the spot between his shoulder blades before resting her forehead against his back. She felt his head tipping backwards at the gently caress her lips had given him.

He groaned as he heard the bell ring in the distance. He pulled himself away from his girlfriend.

He reached for his shirt but Erin snatched it off him before he could do anything with it. She threw it across the room away from him.

"You're not going back down there." She told him, kissing his forehead lightly. "I'll bring your work to you."

"Miss McCauley…" He began.

"I don't care Vlad," She told him sternly, she wasn't going to let him go back down there. She knew he healed quickly but she didn't want to risk him being knocked into at change over. "You can't wear your shirt, you've got baggy t-shirts. Wear them."

He knew he wouldn't win the argument, she could be like a mother hen at times like this. They would probably end in a compromise where Erin came off better if he kept arguing. "What will you tell her?" He didn't want her to lie, Erin wasn't that good at lying.

"I'll tell her what Becky did and that you accidentally swallowed some of the garlic that she'd spread on your lips from the bread." He wasn't sure whether it would be accepted by Miss McCauley. "Stay and heal. It won't help if you hurt yourself more."

Vlad nodded slowly. Erin walked over to his wardrobe and grabbed the baggiest t-shirt she could find – a grey one.

"I'll bring your work to the throne room." She promised before pressing a lingering kiss to his lips.

"Enjoy art." He answered with a grin, it was something Erin couldn't stand.

Erin rolled her eyes, how could she? Art would be hell with the girls moaning that he wasn't there. She couldn't wait for the next two hours to be over with.

TBC

A/N: Thanks for reading.