Author's Note

I do not own Young Dracula.


They heard some horror stories of what happened in Stokely after they left. They tried not to look back, tried not to think about it.

The crown, as it turned out, gave him some of his vampire powers, and they were much more powerful than any other vampire Vlad had seen, but not all of them, and not enough for him to be a full blooded vampire. The sun was uncomfortable, but bearable, and there was no bloodlust.

The problem was that that meant on his sixteenth birthday they were going to have to go back to their dad.

They hadn't taken the Blood Mirror.

It had been the last thing on their minds when they fled Stokely, despite the fact it should really have been the first. They talked about it often.

"I could go through the transformation without it," was Vlad's favourite plan.

"Don't be an imbecile martyr baby brother, that's meant to be hell on earth for pureborn vampires."

"Do you really want to go back to dad?"

"No. But I'm pretty sure the Chosen One will be able to handle him once he's been through his transformation."

"I'm not worried about me. I'm worried about what he might do to you while I'm in there."

That was a very valid concern.

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In the end he slipped out three weeks before his sixteenth while Ingrid was out hunting (one of the few times she would leave him alone). His dad was no longer in Stokely, he had moved to a school called Garside Grange.

"Vladdy my boy! I knew you'd come back!"

"Get over yourself. I'm only here for the mirror."

"Don't be ridiculous! Until you turn eighteen, I am your regent."

"Ingrid is my regent."

"She can't be. Ingrid's a girl."

Vlad had to look it up, but that was true. Women under a hundred couldn't be named as regents. Apparently they had to focus on finding a husband and having children.

It didn't matter in the end, because after he turned sixteen he couldn't find her. He looked, but she had gone to ground, no doubt sulking over his leaving her to use the Blood Mirror alone. His dad saw him into the mirror room. Vlad fought the transformation every step of the way, determined to keep his own will and heart. It took twelve hours.

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He didn't see Ingrid again for a full year.

This time she had none of her usual fire, sick and injured and coughing.

"I tried to find you," Vlad said.

"Maybe I didn't want to be found."

"Why not?"

"You left me Vlad. You left me, all on my own." She flashed her fangs. "You deserved to know what that feels like."

He growled. "Next time you do something like that, I will personally drive a stake through your unbeating heart."

"Noted."

She collapsed shortly after, choking and retching. Vlad helped her into the car and gave the half-fang with her directions to Garside Grange. She had to drag her from the car whaen they reached the school. Vlad flashed her up the stairs.

"I tried giving her some blood," said the half-fang, "but she couldn't keep it down."

"It's okay. We'll fix this. My turn to play Doctor, okay Ingrid?"

'Fixing it' involved un-mindwiping Renfield, who then dithered about with various things that only made her fever worse and had her coughing up blood. The one the Count swore would make her better did no such thing. Vlad tore through the books in the library with the help of his new self-appointed tutor Bertrand de Fortunesa (who highly disapproved and wanted Vlad to be training) and the half-fang, a girl his age called Erin Noble. It was nice to have her company. Vlad hadn't made any friends since Robin and Chloe. At last they found a rare kind of blood poisoning in one of the books and brought Ingrid the cure.

She recovered slowly.

Too slowly for Vlad's liking.

While she was still sick, still weak, she was still vulnerable.

The half-fang, Erin, offered to share her room and watch out for her. Vlad readily agreed, and wondered whether the girl was one of Ingrid's creations. That didn't matter of course, what mattered was that she was another set of eyes and hands for them.

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Their mum showed up, but both Vlad and Ingrid had got used to her arrivals always meaning she wanted something a very long time ago. They got rid of her quick sharpish by pretending that Ingrid needed to be spoon fed, and since Magda was her mother...

She didn't stick around.

Her son, the baby that caused so much trouble all those years ago, did.

Admittedly, both Vlad and Ingrid had forgotten about the boy.

Those six months had been eventful ones.

The boy was a sweet kid. It made Ingrid sick and angry that their mum had never named him properly, so she gave him a name for himself: Sirius, after the dog star . He was a sweet kid. Vlad did wish he'd stop crawling into holes and overhearing stuff he shouldn't overhear though.

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Ingrid was taken by surprise by the fact he'd never taken his first hunt.

"You've been a vampire for a year and you've never been hunting?"

"I never wanted to hurt people."

Now he cared much less, and sometimes that scared him.

"It's tradition baby brother."

"Ingrid. I'm not going hunting."

An hour later they were hidden in the shadows of the city outskirts. Vlad wasn't sure how she'd managed to talk him into this.

"Just like old times, right baby brother?"

"What, hiding in alleyways from dad this time instead of closets?"

She flashed her fangs at him. "Exactly."

She was careful with her choice, a young woman with bright red hair who she dragged into the ally and bit before tossing to him. Instinct kicked in and he clamped down on the wound.

The blood tasted good, but Vlad vowed never to taste it again.