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"Where's Cheyenne." After returning and having a shower Mir was apparently angry. Which was stupid in Erin's opinion after he'd just murdered his friend. He wanted to know where Cheyenne was and while he didn't say it outright but the way he was looking at her distinctly suggested he thought it was her.

Maybe he was going to kill her too.

She shrugged and told him she had no idea. That seemed to make him all the angrier.

"She said she was coming to the bar when I last spoke to her." His hands were wrapped around an orange he'd picked up from the kitchen. He was fidgeting, turning it over in his hands, rapidly switching how he was holding it. "We were at the bar long enough for her to reach us. Why didn't she?" Erin wasn't even sure if he was talking to her anymore. Anyway, if she were him she'd be glad Cheyenne hadn't come across the scene they'd been involved in. Especially considering the fact Mir's girlfriend didn't approve of his serial-killer lifestyle.

The vampire snatched his jacket and made towards the door.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Erin snapped before he could open it.

"I'm going to go find Chey!"

"I'm not sitting around in your apartment while you go on a wild goose chase!" With equal ferocity she snatched up her own jacket. "And why did you put that shirt back on anyway? It's got blood on it!" Ryan had done that too, he'd have a shower and put his stupid smelly clothes back on afterwards. Though her brother had never had blood on his clothes, it was the same concept. Apparently all boys were the same, murderous vampire or not.

Mir stalked out the door with a snarl. Erin followed behind. The night was crisp and still young as the vampire led her on a merry dash around the town. They looked like hit squad with the combination of scowls and dark jackets. They could actually be a hit-squad. Considering the fact Mir's breather had only yelled at him and Cheyenne yelled at him a lot, they could be there to kill the breather girl. If they could find her.

The stars glittered in the sky like the glass shards of a bottle on the floor as Erin walked silently beside Mir up and the down the streets. She had no idea what had gotten into him earlier and she was slightly afraid to find out. His eyes had been empty, not fathomless black or crimson, they'd remained their Dracula blue but so very very empty. Without feeling, without pain and (something that set him so far aside from Vlad) without remorse. And she couldn't tell if it was a mask or the real him.

"This is getting ridiculous Mir, she's not here!" Four laps around the city had heeded no Cheyenne and Erin was fed up. The breather girl was a slippery one, but she wasn't that slippery. So slippery that she could avoid two powerful vampires. "Mir!"

He spun around with a snarl on his lips. "Where is she then?!" His eyes held a dangerous kind of desperate and it was only then that Erin noticed the moisture pooling in his eyes. "We need to find her!"

His aggressive tone wasn't fooling anyone and for a second his mask faltered. For a second longing and need and terror shone through his features. It was Vlad, so unbelievably, truly, disgustingly Vlad in his expression. Vlad that she loathed. The familiar rage burst into life in her stomach and she trembled for a moment. Keeping Mir and Vlad separate in her mind was getting easier and harder every minute she spent with him. Fury urged her to attack him. He was fragile; too busy obsessing over his precious breather girlfriend to be prepared for an assault.

She could take him.

Mir seemed to feel this disturbance in her thoughts and his sapphire eyes drew up to meet hers. Vlad shimmered in the whites of his eyes. She knew now that he could she straight into her. The azure that so simultaneously inspired curiosity and toxic hate stared straight into her. They were so dark. His eyes, Mir already replacing his mask and protecting himself, dark as the sky they stood under. He looked at her contempt, and a bitter half smile curved his features.

"Make a decision." His voice sent shivers down her spine. He knew, he always knew. The vulnerability that he'd allowed her to see was gone and the sadistic amusement was back in place.

That remnant of Vlad was hidden again. But he'd let her know that it was there. No doubt he could feel the malice that sprung in her at every hint of Vlad and wanted to know why. She couldn't let Vlad get away. Maybe he was hiding under the skin of someone who had no idea who he'd been but she couldn't let him go. She couldn't.

Her mask drooped. Her green eyes stared into Mir's with burning intensity. Vlad was still there and he had to die. But...

Her shoulders slumped and air that she needn't of held onto escaped out of her in a gasp. Mir's slender fingers curled around her porcelain hand. "Now…" Erin's palm jerked out of his at the rumble. He linked their hands again. "Let Vlad go."

Mir's voice was so different to that of Vlad. Hoarse and guttural, like rocks rubbing together. Did the amnesia change that as well? "Just let it go Erin." He murmured into her ear, pulling her close to him. She allowed him to.

Vladimir Dracula was apparently someone she would forever be joined to. There was an invisible thread between them, more than just blood and bite, keeping them constantly drawing near and pulling away from one another. She knew Mir felt it too. Even with the hatred clinging to her unbeating heart she was drawn to him. Clutched in his arms, the bond was even stronger, lighting electricity in her veins that she was unable to ignore.

Finally she released herself from his cradle and gazed into his eyes. Brilliant azure, like a sky without stars still lacked the compassion that had belonged to his former self. It was both relieving and unnerving. She sighed.

"The slayers will have a base near here. If they've got her, Cheyenne is probably there."

See you next week!