A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.
What would people like to see…
Should the baby be a boy or a girl?
Chapter 8: DeviceVlad landed silently outside the Slayers Guild, Erin and Ingrid followed him silently. The night had only just fallen when they'd set out. Vlad felt dread filling him.
They hadn't bothered dressing in leathers; they had been in a rush to find out what had happened to the two slayers. Vlad was dressed in jeans, plaid shirt and his leather jacket, Ingrid was still in her long dress and Erin was in a chequered shirt and jeans. The slayers wouldn't mind, they always felt uncomfortable when they saw them in their formal vampire wear.
He looked at Erin checking she was all right, for some reason her news had made him worry now. He always felt protective of her but now it was more understandable.
Erin smiled softly before nodding, Ingrid looked between them she hadn't expected them to change so suddenly. She expected some awkwardness; it made her suspicious that it wasn't. She was thankful they weren't arguing anymore but she was going to find out why they'd changed towards each other so suddenly even if it was the last thing she did.
Vlad reached into his pocket and pulled out his pass that Jonno had given him in the case of an emergency or whenever he had to visit the Guild. It saved time on the routine of checking visitors to ensure the security of the Guild, Jonno trusted Vlad not to betray them just like Vlad gave him free reign of his manor. Another reason it had been given to him was to stop him bursting in and triggering off the security alarms – they took hours to reset.
He swiped it across the sensor in the wall. A metallic click and hiss was heard as the door opened itself. Vlad walked inside followed by his wife and sister.
Now they were going to find out the truth.
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Catherine Millbrook was waiting for them inside, just beyond the entrance. She didn't have any slayers with her – clearly she trusted them. The last time they'd had direct contact with her was when Erin was standing trial for betraying the Slayers Guild.
They'd only had limited contact with Catherine Millbrook over the last three years, she wasn't one of the heads of the Guild anymore she was a deputy head now. She'd been through a divorce following what had happened to Erin. Jonno had kept his word and changed the laws to allow slayers to divorce and choose their own matches. Catherine was one of those who'd been forced into an arranged slayer marriage.
She wore a softer expression now as she looked at them. She nodded to them all in greeting, a gesture they all returned. Catherine respected Erin for following her heart even if at the time she'd scoffed at Erin's choice of boyfriend. Erin hadn't cared that Vlad was a different species than her; she'd had the confidence to defy everyone for the man she loved.
"What's happened to Jonno and Mina?" Vlad asked not bothering with pleasantries.
Catherine's expression changed to a mix of dread and remorse. "Come with me."
Vlad looked at Erin, the expression on Catherine's face made her worry. Silently they followed her down the long corridors. Erin had a sinking feeling that she knew exactly where they were headed.
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The stark whiteness and the cleanliness of the room startled them, the smell of industrial strength disinfectant made its way through the thick glass of the observation window towards them. The beeping of the machines grated on them as their sensitive ears picked it up and the constant, low pitched hum of the machinery almost deafening them.
The glass window showed two figures lying prone on hospital beds. Tubes were in their arms offering them vital food and life saving medicines. Both had abrasions across their arms and faces, their skin much paler than Vlad had ever seen almost blended in with the crisp hospital gowns both wore.
Mina wore a cast on her right leg, it was elevated slightly. Jonno looked far worse the small protective frame that held the bed sheets above his torso spoke of an operation, the mask on his face delivered much needed oxygen to his body.
They were both in terrible shape.
Catherine eventually spoke, her voice hoarse the sight always made her feel this way. "They've been in surgery, Mina needed her leg reset but Jonno had internal bleeding. He's critical but stable at the moment. Mina's been put into an induced coma to heal but there's no telling if Jonno will ever wake."
Vlad couldn't believe the sight he saw, he'd never seen injuries like this. "What happened? Who attacked them?" He couldn't believe a vampire had done this, a vampire wouldn't have left them alive. Jonno and Mina had survived vampire attacks, they couldn't be killed like this.
"A car crash, apparently." The 'apparently' was sarcastic, clearly they didn't believe it. Vlad raised an eyebrow, "The car flipped on a side road, rolling one hundred feet before landing upside down in a ditch. They were travelling at a speed, obviously trying to get here as fast as possible. Mina has never crashed before, she'd had training in all conditions…"
"Something wrong with the car then?" Erin asked, something could have gone wrong with the car.
"The cars being checked but that car was serviced and checked before they took it out. We didn't know they were coming back to us. It was only when we heard whisperings we tried to contact them." Vlad nodded slowly, the slayers hadn't had cause to worry. They hadn't thought to contact them, it wasn't their business to. "Is it true you're at war?" Catherine asked Vlad quietly, they'd heard rumours it was part of the reason they'd contacted Vlad.
"Yeah." Catherine's face fell at his admission.
"So breathers could be attacked."
Vlad couldn't take his eyes from Jonno and Mina, "So you need to think about defences against us just in case a vampire attacks. I wanted to discuss working together…"
Catherine looked at them all sadly. She'd tried her best but she couldn't give him the answer he'd wanted. She'd given it careful thought when she'd found out about this. "I'm sorry Vlad, we can defend ourselves but you're on your own until they wake up."
Catherine couldn't make the decision to help them or not. If she made the decision and Jonno and Mina never woke up, if it went wrong and lives were lost then she would be held accountable. She didn't have enough knowledge about the situation either to make a decision. Without Jonno and Mina she would have to create a board, something that was extremely risky at the moment with the thought of a vampire war, as Vlad wasn't entirely trusted by the slayer community.
"I thought so." He'd known the moment he saw Jonno and Mina in those beds.
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Catherine had left them to fetch something for them to look at in the interests of the treaty. Something to do with the crash.
The vampires had left the room unable to look at Jonno and Mina any more. They couldn't believe that the usually strong slayers looked so weak in their beds.
Ingrid looked at the pair of them, "What's going on?" Her eyes narrowed as she watched Vlad lean back against the wall, pulling Erin back with them. He wrapped his arms around her waist, Erin's leaned her head against his shoulder her eyes closing briefly. She'd missed this contact over the last twenty-four hours.
"We've stopped fighting." Vlad told her softly with a faint smile on his face. "Like you wanted." Erin closed her eyes as she felt Vlad caressing her stomach and the child underneath. She didn't think he knew he was doing it. The thought made her smile even more.
"But you can't get that smile off your face." Erin looked up at Vlad, seeing that he was still wearing a smile despite the situation they were in. "And Erin has a matching one. So what's going on?"
"Nothing." They answered at the same time making Ingrid roll her eyes. They would have to tell her but now wasn't the right time. They could trust Ingrid.
Erin felt Vlad stiffen, looking at him before using her hearing and hearing the same thing as her. The clicking of heels on the floor, Erin pulled from his arms coming to stand beside him.
Ingrid knew she had to voice her suspicions before she lost the opportunity. "I've been thinking about them and you don't think…"
"Chloe." Vlad and Erin spoke at the same time.
"She was on the manor grounds before they left," Vlad shrugged, "She could have done something to the car."
Ingrid shook her head finding a flaw with that timing, "She wouldn't have been able to do anything, she would have been dirty and she didn't have the strength…"
"Not necessarily." Catherine interrupted making them jump, an amazing feat considering they'd known she was on her way towards them. She handed something to Vlad in a small bag. Vlad took it from her, it looked like an evidence bag that the police used.
Inside the bag was a charred device. It was about the size of a two pound coin and just about as thick. It was made of some form of metal, it was hard to tell what it was the way it was mangled and covered in black. There was a computer chip of some sort inside.
"That was under the wheel arch of the front drivers wheel." It had taken them a while to find it, but it had been recovered. "It would take a matter of seconds to attach." She could have attached it between them seeing her through the window and meeting her in the foyer. She would have had ample time. Her excuse to see them and their ease at making her leave had been odd at the time.
The more they thought about it the more they were convinced she was involved.
The vampires all squinted at it, trying to see if they could tell what it was before Erin asked, "What is it?"
"We think its what caused their car to crash. Something interfered with the electrics inside the car, cutting them out completely." It was being tested but so far they'd come up with nothing. "It was supposed to destroy itself or be destroyed in the crash but it survived." They were glad it had survived, it gave them something to work with.
Erin looked at Catherine as an idea came over her. "An EM pulse?" That would have knocked all the electrics out.
"It might have been." Catherine agreed, "But it had to be triggered remotely, also it must have had a jammer inside, they couldn't contact us. We recovered their phones they'd tried four times but there was no call received here."
Ingrid looked at her with a slight sarcastic expression on her face, "Are you sure it wasn't because no one heard it ringing?"
"Every call is automatically logged into our computers, it can't be hacked into. The calls never got through to us."
"Chloe might be able to do this." Vlad muttered, she was brighter than they gave her credit for.
She'd said something that made him think she was involved in this, she'd almost gloated. She'd known something he didn't about this whole situation. All the pieces seemed to fall in to place, if she thought he wouldn't work it out she clearly underestimated him.
Chloe had said he'd regret his decision, he just hadn't expected her to put his entire kind at risk in a moment of revenge.
Without Jonno and Mina to agree to help them in a vampire war they were on their own.
That thought terrified him.
TBC
A/N: What do you think?
Thanks for reading.