A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

I couldn't stop typing this chapter, I couldn't make it come across how I wanted it to.

I hope it doesn't disappoint.

Chapter 7: Reasons

"What does that mean for us?"

It was a loaded question if she'd ever heard one. A question that could make or break either of them.

Six words that held their future in their grip. It was amazing the power that world held over people. They had the ability to hurt someone or give them joy. At the moment all they could do with them was hurt each other more and more.

The unease grew between them until it became stifling. They just stared at each other; Vlad's eyes searched Erin hoping for an answer.

Erin gave a small shrug she didn't know how to answer, so many things raced through her mind. So many things Vlad needed to know, so many things he had a right to know.

"We can't separate." Vlad whispered to her, they literally couldn't the mating ceremony bound them together eternally. Vlad's eyes stung, he always knew she'd regret being with him and now it was too late.

Erin's head snapped up at him, confusion and hurt filling her, "Is that what you wanted? To separate if we could?" She whispered equally quietly.

Vlad jumped back slightly startled at her comment, "No!" He protested immediately, "It's what you want…" He saw the way she looked down, confusion filled him. "Isn't it?"

Tears flowed faster down her cheeks, she felt sick at the thought. She was a useless wife, she always knew she would be. He always offered her too much and now it had led to this. There was one way to spare him from any more pain.

Erin wanted to scream at him, shout that she didn't want to but she had to look at this logically. It wasn't fair that either of them were being put through this. There was only one way to deal with it. "Maybe its better if we act like we're friends and nothing more. Try to stop feeling the way we do about each other, then maybe the Council will stop all this." She answered, trying to look him in the eyes but failing. She could feel her heart breaking as she said the words. Vlad felt as if his heart was being ripped from his chest, he couldn't move as pain racked through him. Vlad could see straight through her. "I mean we can pretend to be together for everyone, we still have to live together but…"

Vlad's fists clenched at his side, he stepped back trembling at her words. "Why Erin? We've been mated for nearly three weeks, do you really hate me that much because I made a mistake?" A mistake he regretted with every single second he existed. They couldn't lose everything without even trying to undo it. "Just let me try before we do this…" He pleaded with her.

"I don't hate you, I can't hate you." Erin gave him a sad look, "Vlad you were right, I should have married a slayer then none of this would have ever happened. We could have moved on and done what was expected of us." Vlad knew what had been expected of him – a pure blood wife.

Guilt racked Vlad's body, he shook his head frantically, "I didn't mean that. I was angry and…" Erin placed a finger on his lips cutting him off.

"I shouldn't have come into your home, you thought I was a half fang and because of that your vampire instincts kicked in. If you'd known the truth you wouldn't have fallen for me…"

"Is that what you think?" He asked, he needed an answer, "That I only fell for you because I was fooled into thinking you were a vampire?" Erin nodded slowly. "It doesn't work like that." Her head tipped in confusion, he couldn't believe they were having this conversation three years too late. "Amongst our kind we don't usually date, we pick someone we want to spend the rest of our life with. It doesn't control us, we control it. I never entered our relationship expecting anything from you, I hoped we'd be together but we were from different worlds I knew we were taking a risk. Erin when I met you I wanted to undo the 'transformation' you were going through. I wanted you to be normal not one of us. Being a vampire never entered into it, if it did I wouldn't have even touched you when I found out the truth."

"If I'd done my duty like I should have Vlad I wouldn't be making you unhappy, they wouldn't have given your crown to Olga and they wouldn't have demanded this from your children."

"Don't say that," He begged, he didn't want to think of her with Andrew or any other slayer. Erin didn't deserve to have her life ruined.

"The Council are only doing this because you love me, I'm a weakness Vlad. I love you too much to ruin your unlife any more…"

Vlad saw his chance and stepped towards her. Her simple answer had given him hope again – despite everything she still loved him. He grasped her face in his fingers and kissed her slowly. Erin gripped his shoulders fiercely, afraid that he would disappear. Vlad held her neck, guiding it as he kissed her.

"We can't…" Erin told him softly pulling back, "We can't be together not now."

Vlad spun, his arms flailing widely, "We've always faced everything together."

"This time its different."

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He cried brokenly to her, he clutched her to him tightly, letting his tears coat her neck. Erin couldn't escape he held her too tightly. "Why are you throwing it all away?"

"I don't want to but I have to. I have to protect all of us." She told him, he'd understand soon enough. Erin wasn't looking forward to it either. "Its too late to fix it, our children are bound by it." Her voice was resigned; it wouldn't have been so severe if a child had been born already. Vlad let out a cry of frustration. He just didn't understand her. "Vlad…" She began preparing to explain it to him.

"Then why is it too late to fix it? We have plenty of time, we don't have to fix it before your coronation." Erin cut him off with a look she didn't want to be crowned especially not with this hanging over them. "We've got years afterward to…"

"We haven't." Erin told him cutting him off quickly, stressing her words slowly and deliberately.

"You're not making any sense."

"You haven't got time to undo it because," She took a deep breath, this wasn't exactly how she wanted it to be. She'd pictured something else when he finally understood why she was so angry. "Its not just about us now."

Vlad felt like he'd been knocked to the ground. He finally realised why she'd been so angry, why she'd felt there was no hope. "You mean?"

Erin nodded, her eyes glassy as she looked at him. It was now or never. "I'm pregnant."

YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL

Vlad dropped to his knees and Erin was terrified he was about to faint. He reached out and placed a hand to her stomach, rubbing it slightly trying to feel the child inside. She jumped slightly not expecting him to touch her. He gestured with his eyes for her to kneel down opposite him; Erin copied his actions placing a hand over his.

Despite the fact they were arguing a smile crossed his face, the argument was pushed to the backs of their minds now. There hadn't been any signs that Erin was pregnant, he'd expected nausea and vomiting but there hadn't been anything – not even a mood swing, unless he counted their current argument.

"How long have you known?" He needed to know.

"A day." She admitted, "Didn't you wonder why Renfield was in the room when you came out of the meeting?"

Vlad remembered that but he'd been slightly too busy arguing with Ingrid although he was ashamed to admit it. "I just thought he was checking up on you."

"He found something strange in the tests he was running, you know he's been taking all kinds of samples." Vlad knew that, Erin had urine, skin, saliva and even sweat taken from her to test to make sure she was recovering from both the stun grenade and the crown. "He wanted to check it."

"Do you know how far along you are?" Erin looked down. It wasn't as big a stigma as it still was in the breather world but she must have been pregnant before their mating ceremony. Unlike breathers, vampires they didn't bleed when women went through their monthly cycle, so she didn't have any way of finding out.

"Renfield thinks just short of six weeks."

His brow furrowed up he'd latched onto the word 'thinks'. "Why six weeks?" Vlad couldn't understand how Renfield could pin point it.

Erin gritted her teeth, she may have been mated to him but she'd never had to explain something like this to anyone other than a woman before. It made her slightly uncomfortable; if she was still a breather her cheeks would be flaming about now. "Because I'm starting to feel sore."

"Where?" He began to panic, was there something wrong with the baby? His eyes flew to her stomach. He couldn't lose the small life minutes after finding out about it.

Erin pointedly looked down at her chest and Vlad's mouth opened in a silent 'o'. "Renfield said it happens about six weeks in and morning sickness starts between four to six weeks so…"

He nodded before coming to a realisation, "You'll be suffering morning sickness soon." She let out a groan, she hadn't thought about that obvious statement. She wouldn't put it past her body that the reason she was feeling sick at the moment was because morning sickness had begun and not because of that stupid crown.

Tears came to her eyes, she'd let him down again. The emotions finally caught up with her. "I'm sorry," Vlad though at first that she was apologising for crying before pushing herself up and moving away from him. "Its at the wrong time. I didn't mean to be pregnant. You can't deal with this, a war and now the Council and their demands. That's why I don't think we should be together as lovers any more. Its not fair on you or the baby…"

Vlad sped over to her, now he understood everything. Erin was terrified deep down about how this would affect him and that's why they hadn't been able to sort out their argument. She didn't know how to tell him and she thought that without her in the picture everything would be solved.

Vlad tried to get closer to her but she stepped back. "I'm sorry." She whispered again. "I went against our promise." They had never promised anything, they'd mentioned having children later on but a date had never been set in stone.

"Erin answer me one thing," She nodded at his firm demand. He needed to know something. "Do you want this baby?" Her hand flew to her stomach instinctively.

"I don't… I can't…" She couldn't get what she wanted to say out of her mouth so she settled for the most basic, if not as eloquent answer. "More than anything." She couldn't imagine not having it now, it was a part of Vlad and that made her treasure it more than anything else. They'd both created this child, a thrill raced through her at the thought. She already felt warm love rush through her directed at their child.

Vlad relaxed, a grin crossing his face. Her answer had made him relax, he had a feeling that he knew her answer but a part of him had been terrified. "I don't care its not at the right time. I know we said in a few years but," He looked at her stomach, love lighting up his face with a large smile, "I'm ready to be a dad, if you're ready to be a mother."

Erin let out a relieved giggle, she'd been scared he'd be disappointed in her for this happening now. She should have had more faith in them. "I'm ready." She promised him, she just knew she was, she couldn't explain when or how it had happened but hen Renfield had told her she'd known she was ready.

"We've never done anything when we were supposed to Erin." He gestured to her transformation bite as his main example, he'd transformed her before he was eighteen and nearly paid the price for that.

Vlad leaned down, pulling her shirt to expose her stomach and kissed it softly. Erin felt her eyes water at the tender gesture of affection at the child they already loved.

"I love you." The words tumbled from his lips as he marvelled at the fact there was a baby growing inside Erin, a child he'd helped create. They were extremely young by vampire standards to have a child, not so much by breather standards, there had been no pressure on Erin to have a child, he'd made sure of that.

Erin's throat clenched, her voice came out sob laden. "Love you too." She pressed her forehead back against his. She knew he'd love the child, she was just afraid he'd be angry with her for becoming pregnant now.

A realisation came to Vlad, his eyes widened significantly. "Olga could have killed both of you." He couldn't have lost them both, granted he'd only known about the child for a few minutes but he already felt a deep bond with it.

"She didn't, you saved us both." Erin realised then that she'd been an idiot with her earlier suggestion, "Please forgive me Vlad."

"What for?" He was confused now, Erin had just told him something that made up for every thing. He understood her reasons – she was trying to protect their child.

"For saying that we should act like friends now to try and stop the Council doing this. I can't do that Vlad, I can't leave you even if it's only leaving the same coffin. I hated leaving you when you became evil and I couldn't do that even back then." She admitted, she couldn't believe she'd even considered it; she'd just been so desperate to try and protect them all. She'd taken a drastic route in the process.

"You tried to leave back then?" He was surprised, he'd never known that and Erin was mad at herself for letting it slip, he deserved an explanation for her statement.

"I was scared. I was leaving until I realised that you were protecting me from your other side. I couldn't lose you." Erin watched as he smiled softly, "Although he did make you more confident since you merged properly and took control. I've always liked some of the traits you got from him." She whispered into his ear, making him shiver. She reached up and played with his parting that had changed when he'd merged.

"I'm glad you stayed."

"Me too." Her expression suddenly changed. "I'm sorry." Erin whispered, she'd been vile towards him. She'd been terrified for their child, she didn't want them to go through what she'd only just managed to avoid. "I shouldn't have said that we didn't have a choice to mate…"

"You were right." Vlad had to admit that she was partly right. Erin opened her mouth to contradict him but he kissed her stopping her from continuing. "It was in a way forced upon us with that contract." It was the only way to get out of marrying Andrew.

"Vlad I wished that the ring was an engagement ring, right after our first time, that was before we even knew what it was. I've never regretted it, I just don't want to be the reason people keep hurting you."

Vlad gave her a half smile kissing her forehead lightly, "I don't care about that, I care about you and our child. You come first, if you let them get to you they win."

Erin lifted her hand and stroked his cheek, brushing his hair from his eyes. She nodded understanding, they could do this together. "Can we keep it quiet?" Erin asked Vlad shyly. Vlad looked up at her in confusion, he didn't know why she wanted it to be a secret. "Just for now," She added knowing what he was thinking. "The moment the Council find out they'll demand we set up a match before he or she is even born. They'll want an example to be made of the baby, they'll make sure it can't be undone."

Erin didn't have much hope but they were known for defeating the odds against him.

Vlad placed a finger to her lips. "No one will know unless you want them to but I swear our children will mate for love just like we did. I'm not letting anything happen to them." He lifted her hand and kissed her fingers lightly. "Just because an heir is involved now, it doesn't mean that it's too late. You were committed to marrying Andrew but we managed to avoid it. You trust me right?"

Erin couldn't believe he was asking that, "Always."

"Then trust me to undo this. It was an accident but you know me better than to let it beat me. We stand a better chance if you're Queen, they won't expect you to agree to it. We'll face this like we've faced everything else – together."

The expression of love and determination on his face made her heart swell, she knew he'd keep his promise.

Erin nodded, she felt hope for the first time in twenty four hours as his words finally convinced her. As Queen the Council couldn't counter any moves they made giving them a better chance. She leaned in to kiss him softly but was interrupted as the door banged open.

They jumped apart looking at the intruder angrily who didn't flinch under their irritated gazes.

Ingrid looked at Vlad and Erin, not noticing the way Erin's shirt was bunched up above her stomach. Erin yanked it down quickly. "I've found out why Jonno and Mina didn't meet us at Garside with backup."

TBC

A/N: Thanks for reading.