A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

I meant to ask, (before I became ill):

Do you want me to leave the Count, Robin and Wolfie out of this for a while or bring them back into it before I start the final story?

Chapter 20: Weapon

A pin could have been heard to drop in the room. Olga's bombshell had officially made their entire plan backfire on them.

The Council looked at Olga in complete confusion.

"Pardon?" Baylor was sure his ears were deceiving him.

"I'm sure you heard." Olga grinned widely at them Baylor and the other shuffled nervously under her gaze. "I don't need the Council anymore." They served no purpose for her now.

Mikhail shook his head, she didn't have the authority, "You can't disband us only a Queen…"

"For Vlad to have a Queen, he must be a King. King is a title for men. Queen is the proper title for men. As you said, having a Queen means I can disband a Council." Olga smirked at them; the vampires look as if they were about to be sick. "I'm Queen and I don't need you anymore."

Olga had clearly thought this out. She'd twisted the law against them.

Olga began laughing manically, she couldn't believe how thick the Council really was, she'd never met anyone so idiotic. "You honestly thought I'd keep the Council after I had the power? That I'd have you trying to tell me what to do?" She stopped laughing suddenly, her face hard, her lips curling upwards in a frightful sneer as she looked down upon them, "If you wanted to stay in power then you shouldn't have come to me, you should have gotten rid of him yourself."

Vlad and Erin were too strong to take on by themselves, Erin wasn't as skilled as Vlad but she was the most skilled woman out there with Vlad's mentor training her even if it was only to be a sparring partner for Vlad.

Mikhail was completely confused, this plan had taken them three years and they'd ended up with the exact same result – nothing. "What do we get out of this? Jorgen is dust…"

"You get your unlife!" She snapped, that was all the reward they deserved, although their unlife might not be for much longer when she stepped into her inheritance as Queen once and for all. "GO!" She screamed making them jump, then she dramatically lowered her voice and stood up sharply, "Before I change my mind."

Needing no further encouragement they vanished from the room.

Olga slumped back down into her seat, "Cowards." She muttered, she would have enjoyed slaying someone.

"What do you want me to do with it?" The lead Hunter asked her sternly, there was no way to tell how he or she felt about the weapon, their masks hid all facial reactions. Olga found it unsettling she couldn't tell if they were laughing at her in front of her, to demand them to remove the masts would be signing her own death warrant.

Olga looked at the pile on the floor; it really wasn't as impressive as she remembered. She'd seen the weapon many times before even now it was far less impressive than the last time.

Her eyes snapped up to look at the Hunter, she didn't really need to consider it and they really shouldn't have needed to ask her, there was only one place that it could possibly go. "Put it in the basement." She didn't really give it a second glance, it was no use to her in this state anyway, she'd have to wait until it was… ready to use. Her eyes met the Hunters, warning clear for all to see, "Make sure that its guarded, I don't want it 'disappearing'."

The Hunter clicked his heels together and bowed down before her, she loved the way they bowed and gave her the respect she deserved. He straightened stiffly before walking away from her dragging the weapon behind him.

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Ivan flew after the two Council members, he grabbed Baylor by the shoulder yanking him back. Baylor toppled to the ground. Mikhail didn't want to stop, he wasn't going to help his acquaintance, his own unlife was more important than Baylor's.

Ivan drew back his arm and sent a warning blast towards Mikhail, the fireball wouldn't hurt him but it would stun him. The fireball hit Mikhail, burning through his cape and singeing him slightly,

Ivan guessed he used more energy than he thought but he didn't feel any sort of remorse. There was something that needed dealing with right now. "How did Jorgen turn to dust?" His voice growled like a lion preparing to pounce.

Baylor was the one to spoke, Ivan's face snapped towards him, no emotion was evident in his eyes he was careful to disguise everything. This only made them more nervous. "Vladimir was in the room with the weapon. He killed Jorgen."

Ivan let out a roar that sent the natural bats fleeing from their homes in the belfry and the surrounding trees, the entire night became as silent as the grave nothing moved and nothing breathed.

"He saw you take it?" Ivan snarled as Baylor's words sank into his mind, this was much worse than he had expected. It was supposed to be a clean operation, get in and get out. Vlad wasn't supposed to notice straight away that it was missing, let alone know that they were the ones to take the weapon.

"He doesn't know why though."

"It had better stay that way!" He glanced back towards his daughter's 'throne' room. "She doesn't need to know about this... yet." His voice was gruff as fear laced it, his daughter had become ruthless she wouldn't stop at anything to get rid of those who went against her or failed her, not even her immediate family.

Mikhail looked at Ivan, "Isn't that treason to withhold information from the Grand High Vampire?"

Ivan gnashed his teeth at them, "As Vlad pointed out, until she wears the Crown she's not officially Grand High Vampire."

Baylor and Mikhail looked at each other unsure what Ivan meant by that. They saw the concentration in Ivan's eyes, his attention was completely focussed somewhere else.

Seizing their chance they tore themselves away from him before he could stop them, escaping into the cool, crisp night air.

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The lead Hunter threw the weapon into the room, to him it wasn't worth anything. He couldn't understand why it was so important to her. There were much better weapons out there, stronger ones more powerful ones but these were the weapons that could only be wielded by the Chosen One himself, there was nothing that she could wield herself.

The Hunter hated taking orders from the woman, she was rightfully in charge so that's where his allegiances were besides if she ever tried to double cross them she'd die in the most painful and slowest way imaginable. They hadn't been around for hundreds of years without learning a trick or two.

He slammed the door shut. He clicked the small button on the wall and a rustic keypad emerged. A more modern technology in the breather world but it had been around centuries in the vampire one. There were ten brass plates each one for one number from zero to nine, along with a button for clear and one for enter. The user had three shots at entering the correct code, if they failed on the third try a small glass canister would drop from the key pad to the floor where it would shatter before the vampire had chance to escape and bathe the entire room in a brilliant UV light.

The system used the ancient vampiric number coding system. Their numbers weren't the same three thousand years ago and there wasn't a vampire alive today that could decipher the codes – they'd all been slain in the vampire wars that had encompassed them for centuries. The last had dies a thousand years ago. It simply wasn't taught anymore to any vampire child, that's what made it so perfect. The numerals were lines and scratches, a few circles here and there where the lines intersected, many vampires had tried to translate them but everyone had failed, not to mention the ones who got too close to decoding them and had to be silences for eternity.

He punched in a five digit code (most devices required four digits that's another reason this system was so successful, it relied on using a misconception that it would require the same number of digits) and immediately the door locked firmly, bolts shooting out from inside the metal of the door and locking into the walls, there was no way that it could be opened even by a vampire's powers without bringing the entire wall down and destroying what was inside the room completely.

He smirked under his face cloth, turning his back to the door, prepared to guard Olga's weapon with his or her unlife.

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Olga knew that the atmosphere was tense around her and her only emotion towards that was joy. They nervously drank their blood from their goblets. For drinking they had a mask that revealed only the upper parts of their lips, they could easily drink from just that narrow gap. They didn't want to risk their identities being revealed with too much of their faces exposed.

She swirled the blood around in her goblet like a fine blood connoisseur, all blood tasted the same to her it was wet and that's all that mattered. Although she would have loved to sink her fangs into Erin's neck when she was still a breather, anything to see her cousin's face as she drained the last of her life force from her. That was in the past now though, she had to focus on the future.

The young vampire glanced around the room, she'd have a much grander place when she was officially Grand High Vampire. Of course there was the small matter of the crown but she knew how to get around that, unfortunately she couldn't do that while Vlad was around.

The Hunters were her strongest allies at the moment, she knew at least half of their kind didn't want to follow her. At first she thought it was because she was a woman but thinking back they were thrilled (maybe thrilled was too strong a word – open-minded, perhaps?) that Erin was going to be their Queen. They wouldn't have a chance before long however, she'd make sure her enemies were crushed beneath her feet.

She glanced at the Hunters, "Wasn't there another one?" She looked around them and began to count, one, two, three on her left, one, two, three, four, on her right. Three add four made seven. There was one in the basement, eight.

One was missing – there should have been nine.

"One of you is missing." She slammed her goblet down, the metal stem bending almost completely in half and a huge groove was sliced out of the table with the sharp base. "Where are they?" She screamed loudly at them, even she didn't know the Hunter's real identities, the one that was missing could be an ally or a spy. With this new revelation she couldn't wait for her weapon to be ready she'd have to force it to be ready.

"We don't know." The Beta Hunter muttered to her, his eyes not meeting hers.

"He's gone after my cousin!" She screamed, she knew the Hunters couldn't refuse a challenge, recalling them would have made them want to fulfil their honour and Vlad was their biggest challenge. She'd have that Hunter's head on a plate if they survived their confrontation with her cousin.

She kicked the table angrily, one of the ancient, willow legs easily splintering off and flying through the air. It caught one of the Hunters unaware.

The wood sliced into the Hunter's flesh, she felt a sense of dissatisfaction at not seeing the pained and surprised look on his or her face as they turned to dust.

She needed to see the weapon.

NOW.

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As Olga walked down the corridor, thunder rumbled every time her foot met the stone floor. The Hunter looked at her, he didn't need to snap to attention as his posture never changed.

"OPEN IT!" She screamed, the candles flickering in her anger.

The Hunter spun towards the keypad hastily punching in the code. Every bolt slid back and the door opened with a clank and a creak mechanically, one bolt hadn't drawn completely back and squealed across the floor.

She paced around the weapon looking at it accusingly; she never dreamed she'd hold this kind of power. She needed to hold on to it. The weapon in front of her would ensure her power for the rest of her unlife. There was no way that she would lose it.

"Vlad doesn't even know what you are," She laughed to herself, her cousin could be so stupid sometimes. He didn't know the power of the blood mirror years ago, he didn't want to announce himself as the Chosen One and spare some of their clan leaders' unlives and now he didn't even know about the weapon he'd been harbouring in his home for the last few years. He'd even used it himself not that he knew what it was.

The weapon stirred and looked up at her with dark eyes, it blinked rapidly in the darkness trying to refocus its vision. Only succeeding in seeing double. "What do you want?" She looked at the figure they were thoroughly dishevelled, dark hair falling into their eyes.

The answer to that was obvious, wasn't it? She knew the weapon in front of her had felt the same at some point. "The same as any vampire – power."

"What do you want with me?" The figure coughed, their throat suddenly feeling dry and scratchy. They needed something to drink to ease the burning that was there, only one thing could ease this craving.

"You know all of his strengths and weaknesses. You trained him how to hone and use his powers, you trained his wife to be the most powerful female vampire, so you can train me to be just as powerful. You're my weapon to destroy Vladimir Dracula… Bertrand de Fortunessa."

TBC

A/N: What do you think?

Thanks for reading.