Jonno paced the courtyard, massaging his bandaged knuckles. His throat was dry and his heart empty. The slayer was unarmed, shocking even himself with his reluctance to bring weapons into a nest of vampires. The cold prickled at his skin. It crawled up his sleeves and into his jacket sending spikes of ice through his chest.

"Are you going to knock? Or just stand there like a lemon?" Erin emerged, not from the school, but from the garage to the left. Her make-up was smeared across her eyelids in a way that made Jonno wonder if she'd been rubbing her eyes. She sneered. "What are you even doing here? Have you come to hang out with Vlad again?"

The slayer glared at her miserably through his lashes. "Erin please, I don't have-" He stopped. His heart sank as he realised the words he spoke were familiar to him. They were the words Vlad had said before he'd murdered him. "I can't -I need space."

The vampire stepped back with a frown. "I don't think this is the right place for you to get space." She raised an eyebrow and the venom in her eyes diminished. "I don't think this is the right place for you to fall apart either." Jonno just looked at her helplessly. "Come on." Surprisingly kind, she placed a pale hand on his shoulder and pulled him off towards the garage.

They settled on the tables, Jonno fiddling with the zip of his coat, Erin managing to appear uninterested and vaguely sympathetic at the same time. "So what's eating you?" Her eyes were like pale emeralds, a gem with the life drained out of it.

"Do you really care?" Her dismissal of his previous upsets made him feel sceptical towards any compassion she claimed to sport. She was a vampire – a fact she liked to remind him of, bluntly and without softening the blow. It was unfortunate that Jonno was so desperate for a friend, any kind of companionship, that he was almost willing to spill it all.

Erin seemed to be seriously considering his question. "I didn't think I did. But just being here again…" She shook her head, as if she realised what she was saying. "Do you need me to? Seems to me that you need a partner-in-crime more than a friend."

Jonno mumbled a jumbled explanation of Ingrid and their current 'agreement'.

"Meh." The vampire shrugged. "Mir's not that easy to kill, I saw him take stake to the chest and get up. How'd you cap him in the first place anyway?"

Cold steel and guilty-ridden rage, Jonno thought. "A modified argentalium pistol," was what he said. "It was a prototype made to take down the more powerful vampires – ones capable of catching a stake or an arrow." He started to talk, and found he couldn't stop. "I caught him when he wasn't expecting it; he was running from the school. I think… I think he was scared." A pale face, grey with panic and apologies, flashed in his mind. "I didn't care at the time… I was, um, too angry."

"Why?"

"He killed Grace."

Erin sat up. "Mir- Vlad killed someone?"

He swallowed. "A slayer, she uh- um- picked a fight she couldn't win."

"Did he…you know…" She did an exaggerate vampire expression. "Drain her?"

The slayer shot her a distasteful look. "N-no. But he did drop a chandelier on her." Unbidden and unwanted he was taken back to the scene, thinking of a splayed lean figure, arched like a ballerina.

"Hang on, a chandelier? Like the one that was in the main hall?" Erin's green eyes locked on his own and he nodded. "Show me." She snatched his arm and he was forced to return to the scene where the end began.

The lobby had been wiped clean, any trace of the atrocity that occurred there, gone. He glanced warily at the ceiling. It was bare, a partial lone chain hanging from the roof where the chandelier used to be. Erin stood on the dent in the floor, staring quizzically at the scrapes and frowning.

"What?" He asked. "What is so interesting about it?" He looked longingly at the door. Their trip down memory lane had been a much needed therapy but now his apartment called and he needed time alone, to cope with what he'd recounted.

The vampire quickly checked the balcony was empty and poked the floor dent with her foot. "Mir recognised this, when we arrived – he asked if something had happened here..."

"What does that mean?"

Erin looked at him gravely. "It means that if he can remember something happened then he can remember other things." For a second Jonno thought he saw real fear in her eyes. "It means he can remember what we did to him."

In a displacement of air she was gone, fleeing from the thought of Vlad remembering and all that came with this development. Jonno wasn't sure whether this was something he wanted or not. After sharing a room with the predatory Mir he welcomed the return of a Vlad he understood and knew. But Vlad did not part with him on friendly terms, and he did not willingly part with his memories either.

Suddenly Jonno realised he was standing in the middle of the lobby, unmoving when he should probably be running, just as Erin was. He darted out into cold evening.

He found himself on the drive. It was as dead as the last night he'd been on it. Jonno swallowed at the onslaught of memories that came with it but foraged onwards, only halting briefly to glance back at the school.

His shoes scraped the pavement, one boot after another. He was so focussed on his walking that he didn't notice the sky transforming into a furious black until thunder crashed and lightning flashed in the distance. Cold droplets were spewed from the sky, an uncharacteristic rain assaulting any unlucky enough to be outside. Jonno was quickly drenched.

"Did I deserve it?" The voice was almost unfamiliar in it's harshness. Jonno's blood ran cold.

He almost choked. "Vlad."

The vampire stalked forward and the slayer backwards, reaching a hand in his waistband for a stake. Shit. He'd come unarmed.

"Mir." His fangs were illuminated by a flash of lightning. "Actually." He curled a hand into a fist. Jonno twitched. "It's funny, really. And don't run." The slayer froze from where he'd been trying to slip away. "I'll chase you." He was close enough to feel the vampire's icy breaths. "I'm faster than you. I think. I don't remember." His hand shot out and snatched Jonno's throat. "But you do."

For the first time since running from Vlad's crumpled form Jonno looked properly into the face of the man who called himself Mir.

There were lines that hadn't been there before. His features were worn differently, twisted in a way that made him appear… deadly. The boy-face that Vlad had, even when he was angry, was gone and a man who knew death- was death glared instead. His eyes, though still blue, were infinitely scarier than Vlad's red flashes were. There was no soul there. Only vengeance and fury.

"Vlad- Please."

The vampire shook him roughly, snarling into his face. "I'm not Vlad! You killed Vlad, don't you remember?" His tight grip bordered on obstructing the slayer's breathing. "I don't remember much. I only remember one thing."

Jonno was thrown to the floor and his limbs immediately began to sting. Vlad didn't know his full strength without his memories. Concrete and grit dug into his cheeks as the vampire leapt on him, pressing his head into the floor.

Vlad never should have survived. The thought came at the strangest time. Jonno, immobile and likely to die at the hands of his ex-friend finally had the realisation he should have had long before. Forget the argentailum treatment, the bullets, the injections and the subterfuge – they should have killed Vladimir Dracula with the classic stake. Instead they took away Vlad's ability to die and they took away his compassion. By doing their best to destroy the Chosen One, Jonno and the slayers had made someone far worse.

"Did I deserve it?" Jonno was wrenched out of his thoughts by Vlad snarling in his ear. He was rolled over to face the vampire and a knee was pressed into his chest. White teeth flashed in front of his face. "Answer me!"

The muscles on Jonno's face twitched. His mouth was a thin straight line.

The vampire's fingers dug into his throat. "You answer or you die. Did I deserve it?"

"No." The slayer slumped. "You didn't." Vlad's eyes penetrated his very soul.

"Then why?"

It wasn't an answer he wanted to give. Another strike of lightning illuminated the vampire's face, highlighting a stiff jaw and deep lines of a frown.

"Why?" Vlad's eyes had gone wide, and if his hands weren't presently cutting off Jonno's airways the slayer might have recognised the expression as hurt. "Why?!"

He shook his head. There was no why.

"Tell me!"

Jonno continued to shake his head.

"Fine then!" The vampire bared his teeth and dipped his head. The slayer gasped as sharp teeth tore through his shirt and into his collar bone. He could feel the vampire sucking at his skin, pulling blood from his veins. Feebly he tried to push Vlad away but the dissiness and fatigue had already taken hold.

His vision flickered, grey eating at his sight and consciousness but he thought he saw Vlad pull away. The vampire rose up, wiping at his bloody mouth. His foot nudged Jonno's chest. The slayer's head lolled to look. "Don't worry. You won't turn, you took that too. See you in hell Jonno."

Then the vampire was gone, and the blue sky faded to black.

There were flashes. He thought he saw Ingrid, cold eyes wide and disappointed. Then she too, was gone and suddenly Erin was there. The blonde leaned over him. Her lips moved, muttering words he couldn't hear. He mumbled that her hair looked like the sun.

Then, finally, Jonno was gone.