A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

I finally had the chance to watch YD this week on CBBC and BBC1 only to find it wasn't on CBBC and the ep that was on BBC1 today was my least favourite episode (I'm not a fan of flashbacks in any programme). Typical.

Chapter 13: Cure

Vlad clicked his fingers and the screen went dark, the wires being pulled out from it. The Nobles couldn't see or hear the conversation the vampires were about to have.

Although conversation wasn't quite the right word to use.

Erin remained quiet as she tried to consider what to say or do even though her muscles were telling her to run away as fast as she could in the other direction.

"You have to say yes Vlad." Ingrid told him, this was all they had. Her love for Bertrand only went so far in the terms of undoing the bite. He was torn between two sides.

Vlad shook his head slowly at his sister; she wasn't going to be the one who made the decision. "I don't have to say anything Ingrid." He spoke as gently as he could even though he was feeling tense.

"We don't have any way to cure him Vlad, love isn't enough." Her love for Bertrand was only half freeing him. Their kind had never managed to undo a loyalty bite so the fact someone else had gave her hope.

"Its enough for now. Its better than nothing Ingrid." The Count spoke loudly drawing glares from Vlad and Ingrid. If he hadn't made it worse then they were both lucky.

"Ingrid they might not be telling the truth, you know what Erin's parents are like." Vlad didn't mean it as an insult he meant it as a statement. Erin nodded sadly in understanding; with Vlad's father you knew what you were getting with her parents they were always full of surprises, and not good surprises.

Ingrid began to beg, "Maybe this time they are Vlad, please, just try it."

Vlad shook his head; she needed to think with her head not her heart. He knew he was being a hypocrite but he wasn't putting their entire kind in danger, Ingrid was. "There is always a catch."

"They accepted your mating to Erin, there's nothing else left for them to accept." The young couple in question shared a look between them. There was something else.

"No Ingrid…"

"Shouldn't it be my decision?" Bertrand asked quietly. The vampires all turned to look at him. Bertrand lifted his head from where his eyes had been studying all the changes in colour of the varnished flooring.

Vlad shook his head, under any other circumstances he would let him make the choice but Bertrand wasn't in his right mind. He couldn't trust him. "I'm sorry Bertrand…"

Bertrand needed Vlad to understand, "I want to be myself again. No forced loyalties to anyone."

"They're probably bluffing." Vlad told him, he didn't want to get his hopes up. Bertrand's look was harsh as he looked at Vlad it wasn't something Vlad was used to seeing, he wanted it undone just as much as Bertrand.

"Vlad being loyal to anyone isn't something that I want. I want to make my own loyalties not because of a bite." Bertrand wanted to have a choice.

Erin gripped Vlad's arm before he could answer again, she looked at Ingrid who wore the matching expression to Bertrand's pained one. "You two should talk, while I talk to Vlad."

YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL

Ingrid pulled Bertrand from the room, before pushing him back against the corridor wall. She gently cupped his cheeks before realising that the action made her arms ached with his stiff posture. He usually relaxed but at the moment he was always tense. She lowered her arms to place her hands on his chest.

Slowly he looked down at her, she could see the fear in his eyes. Bertrand never showed fear.

"I can't live like this for the rest of my unlife." He told Ingrid quietly. "I've seen half fangs go through this, they're devoted to their masters. It never bothered me before."

Her voice was quiet as she thought of what she'd done to Ryan, "What does it feel like?"

"When the loyalty takes over its like you're trapped inside your own mind, as if someone else is controlling your body and you can't fight them." He took a breath, "I've always been free Ingrid, I've never served anyone…"

"You served Vlad," She corrected. Bertrand had obeyed Vlad and their father in the beginning and he obeyed Vlad now.

"Vlad still lets, let," He corrected himself, "Have freedom. I chose to be loyal to him, I don't want to be loyal to Olga but I am." He forced those last words out of him mouth through clenched teeth, Ingrid noticed and gave him a sympathetic smile. He hated his words being censored by the bite.

"Bertrand you will have that freedom, Vlad's thinking about Erin. You know how protective he can be of her." Bertrand nodded, Vlad was as protective of Erin as he was of Ingrid and now unfortunately of Olga.

"We can't be married until it's undone." He told her, he couldn't risk it. Ingrid had never officially accepted his proposal, she'd turned it down but she was wearing his clan signet ring.

Ingrid nodded, her bottom lip quivering, "I know."

"There's another reason I want it undone. I need to tell you something." Bertrand whispered, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear. The eldest Dracula sibling leaned in to his touch, her eyes half closing.

Her eyes still remained closed, "Then tell me."

"I can't until it's undone." Olga had bound him in loyalty, he couldn't tell Ingrid until it was undone. "If its ever undone."

"It will be undone." She reached up and kissed him lightly, before pulling back and wrapping her arms tightly around her waist, fighting the urge to let the tears fall.

It became even harder as she felt his arms wrap tightly around her.

YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL

Vlad slid down the wall to the ground, resting his head in his hands. Erin trailed a hand from his hair down to his shoulder as she sat next to him, groaning as her muscles were tense from seeing her parents.

She leaned towards him and rested her head on his shoulder, he lifted his head and wrapped his left arm around her shoulders feeling her muscles relax under the contact.

"Vlad you didn't have to listen to me before but you always did, you made me Queen to be your advisor. Let me advise you officially for the first time." Erin ran her hand up and down his arm, she couldn't believe he was forcing her to pull rank on him already. "Just lets see what they have to say."

Vlad couldn't believe what she was suggesting, at the moment she was vulnerable. "Erin…"

"Vlad I can handle them, we don't know what to do about Bertrand. We don't have a cure. They have one, its somewhere to start." The vampire world had never thought about finding a cure, there never had been a need for one.

Vlad looked up at his wife, cupping her cheek gently. "Are you sure about this?"

Erin nodded frantically, "Yeah. Ingrid needs Bertrand and I really don't want to check every wardrobe before going to sleep, terrified of a vampette jumping out with a UV bomb just because you didn't want me to get hurt." Vlad chuckled at her comment; it was good that they could now joke about her accidentally slaying a vampire.

Vlad pushed himself up, holding out his hands to Erin. Erin smiled at him gratefully slipping her smaller ones into his larger ones; he tightened his grip before pulling her upwards.

Vlad knocked on the door, it was strange having to knock on a door when he wanted to exit it but he didn't want to be mentally scarred for life. Hearing nothing he decided to knock again, he looked at Erin who shrugged. He gestured for her to open the door but she shook her head, she wasn't going to chance seeing something that would give her nightmares. She pointed to him then the door; Vlad mock glared at her before tugging open the door.

Vlad was relieved not to have interrupted anything and for Ingrid and Bertrand to look around at him.

"I'll contact them." Ingrid could see the sacrifice Vlad was making. "It had better be worth it Ingrid." His voice came out as a threat; he was putting his wife through the stress he knew her parents would undoubtedly cause.

Ingrid nodded solemnly, understanding exactly what Vlad was saying. "It will Vlad."

Somehow he wasn't too sure about that.

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The foyer was being slowly illuminated as the sun began to rise. The sun glinted off the driveway as the vampires looked down the driveway waiting for the Nobles to arrive.

Vlad shuffled nervously from foot to foot, Erin leaned back against the stairway her eyes closed as she tried to push back all the negative thoughts she still held towards her parents.

They watched as a car drew closer and closer to them, the headlights still on as dawn broke. The car was much bigger than they'd used before, a Nissan Juke. The seats in the rear were flattened down obviously containing their 'cure'. Vlad knew it wasn't something so simple as an injection, not that an injection worked on their kind after the age of sixteen. They couldn't see what the rear of the car contained as it was covered in a large sheet of tarpaulin.

Vlad felt something brush against his hand and he jumped, not realising that Erin had slipped her hand into his. He gave her an encouraging look; she tried to return it but ended up looking as if she was constipated instead.

The car doors opened and the two slayers slowly got out of the car before slamming the doors shut loudly. Vlad's first instinct was to stop them from entering his home but he had to play the part of the gracious host – something he wasn't looking forward to at all.

They'd barely crossed the threshold to Vlad's "You said you were able to cure Bertrand."

Tom pretended to look confused before eyeing Erin's neck; Erin resisted the urge to grab it. Vlad was the only person who'd looked at her neck with so much interest and from his own admission it was because he wanted to make her his. "The loyalty bite." Vlad gave an exasperated growl; he wasn't going to be played. They were either going to get straight to the point or he'd kick them back out of his home.

"How are you going to undo it?" Vlad asked firmly, folding his arms across his chest before remembering that Erin's hand was clasped firmly in his and that he'd pulled it as he moved his own. He pressed an apologetic kiss to her knuckles and she smiled at him.

"It's a procedure." Tom grinned smugly at them. "Designed to undo the loyalty of a bite inside a vampire's DNA." He looked at his daughter in particular. Erin's hand flew to her neck; she always did that at the mention of bite. Not because she was ashamed but because she wanted to protect it from others.

"You haven't tested it." Ingrid pointed out, there was no guarantee it would work.

"This was designed to work on Erin, its harmless." Tom looked at his daughter. "We wouldn't hurt our own daughter."

Erin shook her head; she knew it would come to this. "You said you'd accepted my choice."

Thomas still couldn't' accept that, "You don't even know what your choice is!"

"We want to use it on Erin, if it doesn't work we know she's made her choice. If it does we get our daughter back. Then we'll use it on Bertrand. If we can't use it on her, we won't use it on him."

Vlad knew there was a catch.

TBC

A/N: Thanks for reading.