Hurrah! So I'm on holidays now for the better part of a month (though the effort involved was ridiculous, whichever uni person decided to put all my exams in the first week of exams when I was sick with the flu is going to get an earful one of these days). However, since I now have all this free time I'm back to doing some writing, and since I stumbled across a wonderful fic by starrrz I've been motivated to continue this one. So without further ado, turning points part 4.

Disclaimer: I do not own Young Dracula, any copyrighted plot lines, or show specific constructions. The characters should definitely come live with me though, I'd look after them way better. :P

An Unexpected House Guest

It was some days until Ingrid decided to let him out of his cell, he got so hungry that eventually even Renfield's cooking became edible, albeit in small portions. Exactly how much time had passed was hard to tell since the room had no windows, but he assumed Renfield would bring food twice a day, under that assumption it had been five days with no one but the suits of armour to talk to when the door unlatched earlier than he expected and Ingrid herself walked in.

"Hello brother…. Eww you look disgusting and," she sniffed the air, "garlic this room stinks something horrid!"

Vlad just glared at her from his position on the floor where he'd been leaning on the coffin plinth, "Well you've had me locked in a mouldy old room for days! It's not like I can do much when I can't even pace more than six steps!"

Ingrid huffed, "Forgot you weren't a real vampire yet. Anise!"

A moment later One of Ingrid's cronies appeared at her shoulder wearing a goth/scene style outfit in Ingrid's colours, something Vlad would soon discover was practically a uniform around here now, "Yes my lady?"

"Take Vlad to our new cloak room and get him cleaned up, in fact, put him in a new outfit, purple, burn this one, he'll look much better in purple, and as long as he keeps his mouth shut the uniformity will provide a great deal of support against the council representative."

Pausing she glared pointedly at Vlad, "And trust me little brother, you want to be in support with me against the council representative."

With a short, high manic laugh Ingrid vanished back up the stairs. Anise then grabbed him by the arm and he felt the familiar disconcerting tug in his stomach as she flitted him to a different room.

Blinking around himself he looked at the room around him, it could have been any one of a number of rooms which they'd never had cause to use while it was just the three of them in the castle. Now it has racks of clothing along one wall, a small fire on the other and what appeared to be old-styled changing room stalls on the far wall. Looking at him critically Anise tutted lightly and shook her head, "You're so short, I don't know how she expects me to fit you into something. Go on then, go get those things off, I'll throw something over for you in a minute. Oh, and don't try to run away, there's a reason I'm Ingrid's first."

Meanwhile in the throne room…

Ingrid reappeared in the throne room and inclined her head ever so slightly to the council representative, "He'll be along shortly Ovidue, I'm sure you can appreciate that in a castle like this there's always a few matters to attend to first."

As if on cue another vampire walked past in gothic uniform with a sack of something that seemed headed for the kitchens, "Ryan, when you're done delivering that get Renfield to give you the stuff for cleaning, I want the special coffin room clean and smelling of nothing but rock and dust by morning, it's a mess at the moment."

Ovidue, for his part, merely raised a delicately shaped eyebrow in her direction and smirked ever so faintly, "Of course, I imagine the future grand high vampire has important things, though I wonder that he sends his sister, a woman, to keep his castle represented when there are perfectly suitable men whom he could have as his primary servants."

Ingrid pulled a face, eyes flashing red, "Well perhaps unlike you, Vlad actually appreciates all the members of his family."

Ovidue just chuckled, "Dearest, you should definitely learn to control yourself, your feeble little powers aren't going to scare me."

"Well at least the council sent someone competent."

With a swish of her cloak she waltzed past the council rep toward the double doors to the lounge, flicking them open ahead of her with a wave of her hand, "Come and make yourself comfortable representative, I'll send one of the girls along with a cup of blood while you wait."

Ovidue, for his part, selected the most quality looking arm chair by the fire and sat, steepling his fingers thoughtfully as Ingrid exited by yet another door. There was definitely something curious going on in the house of Dracula. The count's exaggerations were clearly that, but perhaps, just maybe, he had something of a point, and he would have to get to the bottom of it.

Back in the cloak room Vlad had just stumbled out of the changing cubicle where Anise was straightening his clothes properly with a look of disgust on her face when Ingrid entered.

"Ah brother, perfect, you do look better in purple, much more sinister. Not that it'll do you any good once you open your mouth of course but we can but try."

Snapping her fingers at Anise she cleared the room and then approached Vlad, placing her hand on his shoulder as she fixed him with her gaze.

"Now little brother, you will listen to me. The council has sent a representative called Ovidue to assess the situation here, and escort you back to Transylvania if he deems it necessary. However, I need you here, you may have noticed I have a little operation going on over here and I don't need anyone messing it up. There are dozens of slayers camped out in various ways all over Stokely and the surrounding countryside, they've heard about the Chosen One and they're not stupid but, after you zapped their top slayer Kurt a way back they're cautious, and I've recruited enough extra muscle that they haven't dared attack the castle."

"Ingrid! What happened to keeping a low profile!"

Ingrid just gave him a long-suffering 'you're an idiot' look and continued, "Dad's not the only one who's been back to Transylvania in the last couple of weeks. If the vampire world gets a look at you while you're still a wimpire like you are now you won't live long enough to get your full powers. Either that or they'll pack you up and send you to hide with Dad wherever he's gone for your own safety, but I know how the council works, you'll have at least three attempts on your life before they'll move you, and if you die then my little plans are all going to the gutter. But that doesn't matter to me little brother, because if you leave my plans go anyway with all these slayers around, so you have to tell Ovidue that you want to stay here, with your sister, where most of the vampire world doesn't know where you are so you can hone your powers before becoming the grand high vampire, got it?"

Vlad just stared at her, "Are you mad, why would I voluntarily stay here with you! Of course I'll say yes if he says to take me away."

Immediately, Ingrid smacked him over the head, her voice rising in anger, "You'll stay because if you don't I'll drain that little breather boy of yours and mail him to you in a coffin!"

"No!"

"Yes! Now get out there and follow my lead, I'll kill Ovidue myself if I have to in order to keep you here."

Quietly, with Ingrid's hand on his shoulder and her smirk burning into the back of his head he allowed himself to be lead out of the cloak room to the lounge, wishing he could be anywhere else right at that moment.

Meanwhile in stokely Robin tried to ring his best friend on his mobile once again, and again received nothing for his trouble except an electronic voice saying, "Sorry, your call could not be connected, please check the number and try again."

Angrily he shoved the phone in his pocket and pulled his shoes on, Vlad had been gone for nearly a week now, and this time Ingrid wouldn't stop him seeing him.