A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

A slightly longer chapter for you…

Chapter 13: Vanished

The cold sense of fear prickled down Vlad's spine. He wasn't use to feeling like this. He was usually the one who got his family out of the scrapes they were in. Everyone else was restrained or unconscious. They couldn't do anything either, they could only wait for the end to come.

The Hunters didn't care about being exposed to the sunlight, their job was done their deaths would be an acceptable sacrifice.

The remote finally stopped moving back and forth in front of Vlad's face. His gaze fixed on it, he tried to concentrate on making it disintegrate or something but the argentalium buried in his shoulder was preventing him from doing that.

His gaze flickered to Erin saying everything that he could in one look, an apology, love, hurt, a need for forgiveness to name a few. He'd never thought their marriage would be so short lived.

Erin's first instinct was to close her eyes but she fought it with all her might and kept her gaze firmly fixed on Vlad's. He was going to be the last thing she saw, nothing could change that.

"Why?" Erin asked fiercely, finding it hard to speak from her position on the floor. She wanted to know why they were obeying someone who hadn't even been crowned yet. Vlad had enough problems in his first month before his coronation in terms of being recognised and being recognised officially by his nation.

"He's not the one with the power, power is everything in this world." The Hunter lowered his or her arm as they spoke and grabbed Vlad's jaw, pulling him up higher. The sharp handle of the spear ripped his flesh even more as he was lifted forcing him to wince. "He can't even get himself out of this now." He let go and Vlad crashed downwards once more ripping his flesh again.

Vlad's free hand pressed against the wound the spear created, trying to protect it somewhat although he knew he couldn't do anything about it.

The Hunter pressed the button down a fraction of an inch, a smile on his face.

The Draculas couldn't go out like this. Erin closed her eyes summoning all of her strength and shooting upwards, knocking the Hunter to the floor that had pinned her down. She didn't know where it came from but the energy was there. The Hunter went to pin her down again but she twisted out of the way, barrelling into the Hunter holding the remote.

The remote flew through the air, landing at Vlad's feet with a clatter and a bounce. The Hunter ran towards him and Vlad knew he had to stop him getting the remote so he kicked the remote away, wincing as his shift in weight made him drag along the spear more.

The Hunter let out a snarl at her, he or she backhanded her sharply across the face. Erin flew backwards hitting the wall, breaking the panelling with a thud. It caved inwards a crack appearing in a yellow colour, splinters imbedded themselves in her back.

If all she did was buy them a few more seconds then so be it.

The Hunter pulled a weapon from underneath their robes around their waist – a small, silver decorated, jerkily cut stake. He or she approached her, twirling it around in their fingers as they tried to decided where would be the best place to bury it in her flesh. By best it meant most painful.

Suddenly the Hunter froze becoming like a statue in the centre of the room. The vampires who were pinned looked at each other in confusion. Bertrand pulled himself out of his capturers' grasps. They didn't try to stop each other at all.

The lead Hunter who had just been about to slay Erin confused her even more when he slipped his stake back into the back of his garments, he'd changed his mind about slaying her – something that was unheard of amongst the Hunters.

The Hunters looked at each other as if they were deciding something, the next thing they knew they'd all vanished completely.

They'd left them all alive – they hadn't finished the job they were supposed to do. They were supposed to slay them, wipe them out.

Instead something had made them stop and disappear.

It didn't make sense.

"What just happened?"

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Jonno and Mina stumbled forwards no longer being restrained; they pressed their hands to their chests trying to calm their racing hearts. The pounding made them feel like their hearts were about to rip out through their chests.

Erin ran towards Vlad at the same moment Bertrand ran towards Ingrid. Vlad rested his head back against the wall, he couldn't move at all.

Erin placed a hand on his left shoulder, looking at his impaled right one. Black residue trickled from the wound, obviously the blood that used to be pumped around his veins when his heart still beat. She gently caressed his shoulder before gently looking behind him, she tenderly pushed a hand behind his back trying to find out how deep the spear had been buried into the wood. To her dismay she could only feel the argentalium length, not the tip. The entire spear tip was in the wood and it had gone in at an angle, not a straight line. Getting Vlad off it would be difficult.

Erin knew she'd never get the spear out of the wood on her own, if Vlad couldn't do it she definitely couldn't. Her strength was nowhere near Vlad's. Tears ran down her face as she realised she couldn't help him.

Bertrand gently patted Ingrid on the cheeks, trying to get her to wake up. It didn't seem to be working so he hit her a little harder, the thought of hitting a woman outside battle made him hate himself. He knew of marriages where abuse was a common occurrence, he hated striking Ingrid even with the most gentle of touches.

Ingrid began to stir slowly; her eyes fluttered open to look into Bertrand's dark eyes. She smiled before wincing as her muscles hurt. She let herself become absorbed into his dark eyes before she remembered everything that had happened.

She shot up quickly, "The Hunters?" Her head darted from side to side as she tried to locate them.

"Gone. They vanished."

Her brow furrowed, Bertrand had been hit around the head causing him to become delirious they decided. "Hunters never run away."

"They just vanished," He repeated. "They left us all alive."

Ingrid let out a gasp as she saw Vlad, pinned to the wall. He was standing on his toes as he tried to take the weight of the place he was pinned to the wall. Bertrand followed her gaze, he'd forgotten about Vlad for the moment. He'd been more concerned about waking his other half.

Bertrand helped Ingrid stand shakily on her feet. She wobbled and he grabbed her waist, supporting her. "Are you okay?"

Ingrid hated sympathy, she yanked herself away from her partner. She didn't show weakness at all. "Fine." She wobbled but remained upright.

Bertrand watched her carefully before racing over towards Erin and Vlad.

"Its at an angle." Erin told him, fear in her eyes.

"This will hurt." Bertrand told Vlad quietly. Vlad nodded frantically biting his lip and screwing his eyes shut.

Bertrand grabbed the handle of the spear firmly in his hand, there were small spikes all along it, too small to be seen on first glance. As he began to pull he felt the spikes tearing at his skin. Vlad let out a hiss of pain before he clenched his teeth together in a bid to stop himself from crying out. His fangs lowered as he tried to concentrate on ignoring the tears that trickled down his cheeks.

The jagged blade and large spikes stopped him from pulling it out at all, Vlad would have to be pulled along the entire length of the spear if they were to free him. The only way they would be able to do this would be saw the spear as close as possible to Vlad's chest.

"Have we got a saw?"

Jonno darted into action, rummaging through the tools he'd brought in to use on the device. After a few moments of tools clanking against each other he withdrew a hacksaw – a junior hacksaw. The saw looked tiny in Bertrand's hand once he'd accepted it from Jonno. The four hundred year old vampire looked at it with disgust before glaring at Jonno.

"It's all we have."

Then it would just have to do.

Bertrand looked around the room, Erin was too small to help him guide Vlad shoulders back as he held the spear in place. He glanced at Ingrid who, wearing her heels, was the same height as Vlad.

"Ingrid." He spoke. "I need you to hold the spear as I saw it." Ingrid grasped the end of the spear. Bertrand shook his head. "The sections ticking out of Vlad's back. Jonno I need you to hold where Ingrid was just standing."

Bertrand saw Erin lacing her fingers though Vlad's, "Erin don't hold his hand." He wasn't saying it because he was feeling uncomfortable; he was saying it because he didn't want Erin's hand to get crushed. This would be painful for Vlad and a vampire's instinct told them to grab and squeeze the nearest thing to them. Erin's had would definitely be crushed.

Bertrand lowered the saw to the spear, barely an inch from Vlad's shoulder. "You'll need to hold it as tight as possible, if it moves it will hurt even more." Ingrid and Jonno nodded. He looked at Vlad who was tensed read for what was to come.

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The hacksaw seemed to take forever to saw through the argentalium. Argentalium was tougher than most metals. Ingrid and Jonno slipped every now and again, the spear shifting as they did so ripping into more and more of Vlad's muscle.

Erin bit her lip every time she heard Vlad cry out. She couldn't watch the spear being sawn and in the end she'd turned his face towards her to stop him from watching too. She'd never seen him in pain like this before, she wondered if this was how he felt when she'd had that stake in her stomach.

Eventually a loud metal bang was heard. The sound of the spear dropping to the ground.

"We need to get him off this now." Bertrand dropped the saw to the floor looking at Vlad's sweating face. Vlad was now gasping instinctively at the pain. Breathing was still hard not to mimic when in pain. "We need to pull him off slowly." Jonno stepped backwards knowing that he was no longer needed. "Hold it steady." He told Erin. Erin nodded taking over from Ingrid. Ingrid grabbed her brother's shoulders and slowly began to pull him off the spear. More damage was done to his shoulder and Vlad let out a sharp cries of agony as each second ticked by excruciatingly slowly.

The newly shortened spear felt as if it were over three metres long, he could feel every bump and crevice on the weapon. If they did it quickly more damage could be caused to him.

The tiny spikes rubbed and grazed the muscle. A large spike cause even more damage as they moved him. Vlad had never experienced pain like this before.

Once Vlad was completely freed from the spear he collapsed to the ground, his legs too shaky and weak to hold his weight for a moment longer.

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Erin reached above the unit, standing on her toes to reach the first aid kit that she stored there for the slayers. Her shirt rode up slightly exposing some of her midriff. She gripped the green case between her fingers and yanked it down.

She ripped Vlad's shirt away from him the moment she reached him before opening the case and sitting down next to him ready to begin patching him up. She looked at the six inch wounds on his right shoulder and back, they were angry and black. They would hurt, it looked like the tendons were still okay, they hadn't been touched it had just sliced through his muscle it hadn't even touched his bones.

"Hunters don't leave anyone alive." Vlad spoke. He pulled his shoulder back sharply as he was poked and prodded by Erin. "I don't know why they left us." She wiped away the black residue that had leaked from the wound with a small antiseptic wipe. The chances of infection were low but it was the only thing she had to clean the wound, any dirt would help form a noticeable scar even though he would definitely end up with one anyway.

Erin next pulled out a needle and medical threat to stitch the wound. Stitching it would help speed up the rate at which his skin knitted back together. He'd have two scars unfortunately from this. She showed him the items and he nodded, she needed him to see what she was going to use so it wouldn't be too much of a surprise for him.

Vlad nodded before closing his eyes as Erin began to stitch the wound.

"Only one person could have recalled them." Bertrand reminded him but for the life of him he couldn't work out why. "They'd have no choice but to obey their highest bidder."

Ingrid nodded slowly, "Olga wants us all alive for some reason."

Jonno gestured to Vlad, trying to ignore the wince on his face as Erin tightened and tied off the thread. "Why? Killing Vlad would guarantee her the throne."

Bertrand looked at Vlad. "Vlad has the power she wants, maybe she thinks she can take his powers from him."

Erin slowly climbed around Vlad, sitting next to him as she knotted the 'string' she was going to use to finish stitching him up. She pressed the needle to the wound and began stitching it. The needle pierced his skin easily.

"Ouch!"

"Wimpire." Erin teased with a grin, she'd had a lot more stitches in her than he'd had in him. She'd had to go through this twice, he only had to do it once. Vlad smiled back at her before it became a grimace as she stitched another stitch.

Vlad didn't say anything else, he moved his arms back and forth tempted to cross them in a childish way but he just about resisted the urge.

Jonno deliberately looked at Vlad and not at his stitches. He twirled the recovered detonator in his hands, he'd never seen something this complicated. He didn't dare fiddle with it in case he set off all the explosives. "We don't know how many detonators they've got, we don't know if they can be activated from a distance. We need to get them out of the walls as quickly as possible before they try again."

"You can't touch them with you bare hands."

"If we wear rubber gloves it should do it. It'll act as an insulator they shouldn't detect us." The gloves would prevent any body heat being detected if body heat triggered it that it and they would allow them to touch them without being shocked. Then a thought came to Jonno. "You have got rubber gloves?" They didn't carry them, there never had been a reason to.

"In the kitchen somewhere." Mina nodded before vanishing to find some as fast as she could.

Vlad nodded, this was the only idea they had, "Just start with one near the door, that way you can throw it out quicker if it doesn't work." He really didn't want any of his manor redecorated.

"We'll get the ones out of critical areas first – if it works, that way the whole building shouldn't collapse on us."

Vlad nodded, Jonno didn't need any verbal confirmation to start, he grabbed the tool bag and vanished out of the room, presumably on his recon off the building.

Erin resumed finishing the last few stitched on Vlad's shoulder before tying them off. Vlad gently grasped her hand over the wound, rubbing her fingers lightly in thanks. She smiled and kissed his forehead lightly before turning to the case and packing it away.

Ingrid looked away whenever Vlad and Erin seemed to forget they had company she felt uncomfortable. It amazed her how they could lose themselves in their own little world.

Bertrand looked at Ingrid, his face was completely serious. The expression on his face made her stomach quiver and quake. His next words floored her, "We need to talk."

TBC

A/N: Thanks for reading.