A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

I hope people are enjoying this so far, it's strange not wrapping it up just yet, the last 11(?) YD fics of mine were beginning to be wrapped up about now.

Chapter 23: Octa

Vlad let out a grown and grabbed the pitchfork violently, stopping it from its manic wobbling. He yanked it out of the wood and dropped it to the floor angrily.

Erin looked at Vlad, noticing for the first time that his scarf was loose around his neck. She grabbed it and tightened it, all the while Vlad was trying to push her behind him to protect her. They couldn't take the risk that the youth had seen it so the quicker she hid it then the sooner the youth would realise he was mistaken. Eventually he managed and he held his hand out across her stomach forming a barrier from anything else that might be thrown towards him.

The voice quaked with fear. He managed to whisper, "You're a… Dracula."

He looked about seventeen, maybe younger. His eyes were a brown hue with dark hair, he was dressed in the traditional garb of a peasant that she'd seen in movies. He reminded her of the French Revolution. His hair was long, he didn't wear a cap. He wasn't freezing, he was modestly built.

He only held a flaming torch in his hand, Erin looked at it not understanding why the Count was so terrified of it. It couldn't do anything to him, maybe make his skin feel hot it wouldn't burn him vampire skin was too tough.

Vlad stood tall and regally, he hated being recognised it made him long for the days when he was 'freak one', sometimes it felt like he didn't have a life of his own.

"We're not." Erin told the youth, hating to deny her mated clan name. She would have always denied Andrew's if she'd married him but she never though she would deny her own.

"Vampire then?"

"No." Erin told him, she wasn't exactly lying she was twisting the definition of vampires slowly, she was a half fang and therefore not a full vampire and Vlad wasn't considered an 'ordinary' vampire he was the Chosen One.

"Who are you then?" The youth was no longer armed after throwing his only weapon at them, the torched waved in the air as he fought to be brave. Vlad didn't move he remained where he was, he wasn't going to let the youth know what he was yet.

"Erin Noble." Erin greeted him, with a small wave. She was trying to look as friendly as possible.

"You're not from Transylvania?" He questioned, looking at her in relief. Vampires were fluent in the language, if she wasn't she wasn't a vampire.

"Britain." She admitted with a shrug, he'd obviously heard her accent as she'd spoken to him in the native language and her slightly halting speech. She could if she spoke it slowly or conversed with Vlad, other than that she didn't understand it at all.

He gestured to the man beside her, "Who's that?"

Erin looked at Vlad, he really wasn't going to enjoy what she was going to call him. "Vlad Noble." As expected he winced at the choice of surname but she was going for something least vampiric although his name was Transylvanian.

"Vlad?" The youth questioned in fear, "The Vampire King." The torch trembled again.

"He was born here but moved away to Britain. He's not the Vampire King." She resisted the urge to say 'Chosen One actually', but she resisted as that conversation popped to the forefront of her mind.

He shook his head, waving the torch from side to side as if it was supposed to scar them, Vlad looked at him as if he was an idiot. "I don't believe you."

Erin reached into her pockets and pulled out her phone, she handed it to him. "Take a picture of us. If we appear we're not vampires." She encouraged him to take it. He shuffled closer to her, never once taking a large step, his fingers brushed against the cool plastic.

He held it up with shaky fingers and pointed it directly at them, then he pressed the icon on the screen to take the picture. The phone flashed before displaying the picture. He seemed satisfied. Erin didn't want to tell him vampires appeared on digital images.

"Why are… you… here?" He asked in halting English, Vlad knew he wouldn't be able to understand if he answered in English so he switched languages.

"We're looking for the vampires who attacked my family."

"Draculas?" He asked with wide eyes.

Vlad nodded, technically they were attacked by Draculas. "Yeah. We're looking for something that will lead us to them." Vlad needed to find where the mirrors were.

"You need to see Octa in the village. She may be able to help you." The boy's voice was hushed, as if he was sharing a secret.

Vlad looked at Erin, surprised at being given a name to seek out. "Octa?"

The boy looked frightened at the mention of this woman, as if it were taboo to speak out loud. "A woman, she lives alone. Some say she's a witch but I think she's strange. She knows things about vampires."

"You're slayers?"

Erin shuddered at the implication, Vlad spoke instead. "Sort of."

The youth's face had changed during the conversation, he was studying Erin's features intently. Erin had begun to grow uncomfortable at the boy's fascination with her. Dread filled her stomach making it feel like it was full of lead.

"He's your brother?" The youth asked gesturing between them. Erin and Vlad looked at each other in amazement, they looked nothing like each other.

Vlad lifted up his hand, to show his wedding ring. He nearly revealed his scar, which would have been the worst thing he could do. The ring didn't mean any where near as much as the bite. "Husband."

The youth looked at them, nodding as his face fell. He didn't seem that perturbed about their young age, they looked younger than they were due to their transformations. "Marriages at sixteen, I'm looking for a wife perhaps…"

Vlad cut him off before he could continue, he knew Erin was a prize amongst their kind. "She's not being sold." Erin knew about this custom, she was prepared for it.

"You should stay inside here until sunrise. See Octa then." The boy told him fiercely, "It isn't safe to be out at night with the demons around. The attacks have begun we thought the demons had been vanquished there were rumours that their King had stopped them from hurting us but we were wrong. He was waiting to slaughter us."

Erin felt Vlad wince next to her, she didn't need to see it. She rubbed a small circle on the back of his palm in an effort to try and remove the hurt the boy's words produced.

Erin smiled at the boy falsely but he didn't seem to notice. "Thank you."

"This is a demons home, take care in here."

He then brushed past them with a last longing look to Erin.

As soon as he'd vanished Erin turned to him, "You weren't joking when you said superstitious."

Vlad nodded slowly, that hadn't exactly been the way he wanted to be greeted back to his homeland but it was better than being slain on sight.

He looked down to his wife and noticed how her eyes were fluttering. Fatigue was getting to her, he'd noticed that she easily tired now she was pregnant and that flight wouldn't have helped.

"Lets get you and the vamptot to sleep." He told her with a kiss to the temple.

Erin tried to pull away but Vlad wouldn't let her. "I'm fine."

"Erin its going to be dawn in a few hours, we haven't got long enough to find this Octa, take the chance to sleep while we can."

Erin's voice came out as a grumble. "Fine."

Vlad decided to add an extra piece of information. "And you'll be sleeping in a bed not a coffin." Mainly because the only decent coffin the castle had, had been taken to Britain years ago.

Erin's only answer was the distant rumbling of thunder and lightning.

YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL

Most of the things had been taken from Vlad's old room when he'd moved to Britain; it wasn't like Stokely, he'd had time to pack.

She looked at the wall, seeing an old picture of Vlad on it. A smile crossed her lips at the way it was captured in paint. Vlad winced as he saw it, lighter hair on it. He had been dressed up to look like the vampire he was now, he was only about five in the picture. He'd changed since then. Everything was much simpler back then.

"I hate that picture." He muttered. It showed what he was supposed to become.

"I've never seen pictures of you before you were fifteen." She told him quietly, they'd all been destroyed in the fire at Stokely. The only other one she'd seen was at the slayer school when she was held hostage there.

"I wish you could see them." He whispered, stroking her cheek lightly. He hated them but sometimes it would be easier to explain his past to her if she had something to look at.

Erin decided to drop the conversation before he began to brood over the past.

She dropped her case onto the bed, dust flying up from the sheets. Unzipping it quickly she found what she was looking for.

Erin threw Vlad an opaque, crimson, red, one litre sports bottle that he caught with ease. He pulled open the cap, taking care to hide his fangs from view as he extended them. He hated drinking with them on display, unfortunately it was a natural occurrence from when they had to tear into the flesh of their victims to get at the blood underneath. Erin did the same with a matching bottle, hers was midnight blue instead. It had been the safest way to conceal the soy blood.

Vlad took a large gulp before gagging and shaking his head, sticking his tongue out in disgust.

Erin looked at him strangely, "Don't tell me you've turned into a snob and can only drink from glass bottles or goblets."

"It tastes terrible." He muttered, the plastic had tainted it with a bitter taste and he growled, pulling a face. "Can't you taste it?"

Truthfully Erin hadn't taken a sip yet, she lifted it up to her lips and took a long gulp. She didn't notice anything at first but when she did she was determined not to show it. A faint twitching of her eye let Vlad know she'd noticed it too.

He smirked at her as she stared him down daring him to challenge her.

She took another long drink; she needed the nutrition for the vamptot. She shuddered this time. Vlad put his down on the nearby dust-covered table, tracing the cup rings with his fingers that he'd put there when he was much younger. Erin passed him her bottle and he set it next to his own.

He clicked his fingers and the dust was thrown from the bed, he'd never tried it before and he was surprised that it had worked. He patted the bed to make sure there was no more dust to be shaken loose. Happy that there was none, Vlad sat down on the bed and stretched himself out with a determined expression on his face.

Erin stared at him, shaking her head. "Its either the bed or the floor." He told her seriously.

Erin let out a sigh dropping her hands from where they were folded to her sides in defeat. She climbed on the bed, it dipped under her weight. Erin curled next to Vlad on the large bed, wrapping her arms around him securely. She buried her nose into his shirt, trying to make herself as comfortable as possible.

Vlad gently stroked his fingers through her silky hair as she flicked the buttons on his shirt.

"Where are you going to start?" She questioned softly, her voice slightly muffled against his chest.

Dawn was peeking through the closed drapes, they couldn't do anything yet. She felt fatigue wearing her down.

Vlad toyed with the top of her t-shirt, moving his hand from her hair he gently slipped the shirt down over her right shoulder and traced patterns on the skin underneath.

"I guess we see this 'Octa'."

He expected an answer but didn't receive one. He looked down seeing her sound asleep. He was right, she was tired.

They couldn't do anything so he just let her sleep, closing his eyes he joined her.

TBC

A/N: Thanks for reading.