Jonno stumbled from the throne room. Being in a room with the new Vlad, or 'Mir' as he called himself was like being stuck under a microscope. And there was so much guilt that surrounded Jonno when he was in the presence of his ex-friend. Whatever Vlad had become, whoever the monster before him had been… he'd created him. The slayer clung to the dark panelling.

A pale hand shot out and snagged his shoulder. Ingrid's talon-like nails dug through the shirt he wore. "Why is my brother still alive?"

"I can't." Jonno told her. "I've done too much already." Being around Vlad was just too painful, killing him would tip him over the edge.

Then those nails were digging into his chin and Ingrid was hissing in his face. "This isn't just a truce of convenience! You don't get to wimp out when you please! You kill Vlad and I don't rat you out to the slayers for leaving him alive!"

All he could do was look at her and shake his head.

Ingrid threw him to the floor. "You're going to leave now slayer. You're going to leave now. You're going to come back when I find you and you're going to kill my brother, properly this time."

Jonno's elbows were stinging. He got to his feet and fixed his shirt. The vampire's pale eyes bored into his. He frowned at her. "I don't like this."

She smirked. "Get used to it."

Erin looked sharply upwards as the door banged open and Mir slunk in. Apparently his playdate with Jonno was over. And neither of them were dead. Ingrid's eagerness had given her the impression that Jonno was going to kill the amnesiac. It seemed not though. Mir hadn't enjoyed it though. His lips were taut and his eyes were narrowed.

"I'm hungry." He rumbled, trailing his fingers down her arm. "We should go hunting..."

Erin opened her mouth to reply.

"That sounds like a great idea!" Ingrid bounced into the room.

Mir's lips curled in a savage snarl. The elder Dracula ignored him.

"Don't look like that little brother. It will be a great bonding experience." Her smile was positively poisonous.

Erin rolled her eyes. Bonding was unlikely, especially considering the loathing that Mir already festered for his sister. A polar opposite to how Vlad felt about her.

"Fine." He growled, snatching Erin's wrist. "Just don't get in our way."

More than anything, Ingrid loved poking the bear. It was a trait that made her both dangerously confident and often put her in control of the situation. Especially if the bear was her brother.

It was a sensation akin to standing on the lip of a volcano. The monster would hiss and spit but if she moved fast enough… She could watch the lava hit someone else.

So when Vlad vanished with a growl she could only follow with delight. To see him hunt and to learn his triggers would be both intriguing and empowering. Something in her still half expected him to faint at the sight of blood.

But apparently the boy was a vampire now, with his black mood and his furious eyes. Ingrid craved to watch her brothers hands be stained with blood because when he remembered, and he would if Jonno didn't kill him first, she would be there to destroy him with the knowledge.

Day lingered at the bottom of the horizon when Ingrid landed in the alley with her two hunting partners. She prepared her best innocent face. "Seems like you got your powers back then?"

Immediately two pairs of eyes snapped to her. Oh how Ingrid loved stirring trouble…

Vlad released Erin's hand from the iron grip he'd clutched it in and stalked over to her with a scowl that almost made her confidence stutter. Almost. But her smirk didn't even twitch.

"What powers?" Suddenly, as he invaded her space with his lips drawn up like an animal, she realised she knew his type.

Her brother had become nothing more than a common thug. A personalty that relied on intimidation and threats that sounded scary. She almost laughed – never would Vlad be able to scare her. "Step back brother." The sharp cut of her tone and a palm on his chest sent him back several paces. "I don't sing to your organ like this one." Erin's eyes narrowed. "And as she's so loyal I would've thought she'd have told you."

Her brother turned his back to her and Ingrid felt a surge of relief. Planting distrust in Erin's reliability had been a gamble but this proved that the half-fang still kept some cards to her chest.

It was laughable really. Her brother had returned, practically from the dead, and unknowingly surrounded himself with the three people who'd played the most monumental role in his demise.

He ex-slayer squirmed under the look she was given and glared at Ingrid, her lips curling upwards ready to spit insults back at her.

They probably would've reached physical blows if the argument was allowed to start but conveniently they interrupted by dinner walking around the corner.

Human instinct was a strange and entertaining thing. It didn't help any, it wouldn't save them but it made them so so afraid. And immediately the businessman who'd stumbled upon them knew he was in danger.

"Sorry," He said, not entirely sure as to why every fibre of him being was screaming to run. The man swiftly turned on his heel intending to exit onto the street.

Ingrid was prepared to attack him but Vlad got there first.

He snatched the man's collar his fangs dropping as he wrapped an arm around his victim's throat and pulled him deeper into the alley. At the same time Ingrid's stomach started to feel tight.

She stared as her brother slowly pulled the neck of the navy blazer away from a thumping carotid artery. Revulsion swam in Ingrid's chest when she heard the telltale rip of flesh. Mir, not Vlad, pulled back with a red mouth and chin.

That was not her brother.

No. No. No.

He couldn't be. The vampire with her brother's bloody face wasn't Vlad and the vampire offering Erin into a gurgling human was not the brother she knew.

Bile rose in her throat, jarring her out of paralysis. She ignored Erin's protests as she reached for the dying breather and focussed on the crimson spurting from two twin bites, obviously belonging to her brother. The nausea faded as she filled herself with the human's life.

She needed to drink. Blood would make this horror fade. Blood would make her feel better.