A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint I've gone for a different twist that people hopefully wouldn't have expected…

Chapter 26: Locked Inside

Vlad turned to face Olga, his face was carefully arranged into an emotionless mask. Olga waved the bone at him from side to side, as if trying to hypnotise him but only trying to taunt him instead.

Vlad refused to let his eyes be drawn to the bone, Erin was doing exactly the same. They were their Grand High Vampire and his Queen, it was about time that Olga respected that – they knew it was far too much to ask though.

"You worked *something* out then?" He didn't like the way she said 'something', he couldn't put his finger on it but there was something in that tone she used.

Vlad didn't take his eyes from her for an instant. She was the type to stake you in the back while you weren't looking. "You want the power from the bone, make yourself as powerful as me. As powerful as Sethius."

Ivan chuckled and that scared Vlad, his uncle never chuckled unless he was going to take pleasure in this in a morbid way. "Give me more credit than that Vlad." Olga laughed at her cousin. "Is that really the best you could come up with?"

Vlad was now confused; he resisted looking at his wife. "Then what do you want it for?"

Olga didn't answer directly, "I knew I couldn't trust Bertrand anymore so I had to change my plans. Has he squealed yet?"

"No." Vlad lied to her, a perfectly calm expression on his face.

"You always were terrible at lying." Olga laughed. Vlad wasn't sure if she was basing that on a hunch or if she truly could see through him. The only person Vlad knew he could never fool was Erin, he always felt uncomfortable lying to her and she knew that, using it to her advantage.

His American cousin sped past him to stand on the mirror in the room; she crouched down and gently touched the mirror, caressing it lovingly. Her fingers gliding across the smooth aged glass of the mirrors. She traced the 'crack' in between the mirrors.

"Do you like my new mirror?"

"Why is it on the floor?"

Olga's answer was quick and sarcastic. "I didn't have enough room along the walls."

"Very funny Olga." Vlad muttered, he wasn't in the mood for sarcasm of any sort. He wanted this over with. He wanted a safe vampire world for his child to be born into.

"I'm sure you know my host." Olga grinned at Vlad, Vlad turned to face the shadow behind his uncle and Olga used his distraction to her advantage. "He's proved to be a very cooperative ally." Vlad noticed then that Olga had about eight followers with her at this point, they weren't the same ones as those who'd attacked them and taken the bone.

Erin couldn't help herself, "So you bit him as well?" Vlad covered a snort at Olga's look of fury at Erin's patronising tone.

"I reserve that for my cousins' potential mates." Olga sniped back but there was a moment's hesitation. It didn't work because Vlad and Erin were mated, they'd been bitten already. Vampires could only be bitten once for loyalty, Erin's first bite would have counted as the loyalty. Any more bites only left a scar.

The shadow stepped away from Ivan, a bright red Armani shirt coming into view. A gold chain and ruby encrusted pendant glimmering in the light. A fake tan covered his face and he goatee was immaculately trimmed. He wore a self-satisfied expression on his face, striding towards Vlad, his left hand resting on the pommel of his gold filigree sword. His silk cape billowed out behind him as he moved.

"Von Racalud." Vlad muttered, that's where he'd recognised the location from. He remembered writing it on the envelope years ago. He should have known considering it was an upmarket area that this 'palace' was situated in.

Erin looked at Vlad's former – and very brief – tutor. Vlad had been right when he'd described him as arrogant and pompous.

Racalud smiled at Vlad, lifting his sword out of its scabbard and twirling the golden pommel in his fingers. "I said you'd pay for insulting my honour."

"I thought Dad smoothed everything over." Vlad's head jerked back, he couldn't believe he'd said those few words, he should have known better. Erin rolled her eyes, that really wasn't the best thing for Vlad to say.

"I was insulted by the Chosen One, nothing can 'smooth' that over."

Vlad had forgotten how prideful Racalud was, he was more concerned with honour and dignity. He was born in the era where those were high priority.

"Now its time to pay." He smirked at Vlad, before drawing his arm back. It seemed to be the cue they were all waiting for.

Vlad was suddenly under fire from all sides. Fireballs flying at him and Erin, he couldn't stop them all at once, they were all different intensities. He was forced to use his strongest shield which would drain the power from him making his reactions sluggish if he used it for too long.

Vlad was slowly pushed backwards as his reaction time for throwing a shield became slower and slower.

"Vlad get out!" Erin cried seeing that Vlad had been pushed into the room. Vlad looked down seeing Erin was right, he was standing on the glass. Any moment now the pain would begin. Suddenly the fireballs ceased being thrown.

Olga took over, cutting them off. "Perfect!" The two Dracula's turned to face her, she was now resting by the bone shaped groove. She was standing on the edge of the mirror looking in, she glanced up and down at Vlad before smiling.

"VLAD!" Erin shouted, desperate for Vlad to get out of the room but she knew he'd never leave her behind. Erin was yanked backwards by Ivan, tearing her away from Vlad.

Olga slammed the bone into place on the mirror. Her eyes never leaving Vlad's, her face twitched into a feral smile.

YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL

Nothing happened for a few seconds then it began.

The pain Vlad had felt came quicker and stronger than before, it still wasn't enough to knock him out though.

He doubled over this time, clutching his temples.

Erin bent her leg and kicked Ivan hard in the groin. He let out a gasp and his grip slacked on her. She tore away from him, spinning around and kicking her leg backwards and landing in his stomach with a grunt. Ivan flew backwards hitting the brick wall, causing bricks to dislodge and be forced out through the brickwork.

Erin sped over to him but he held his hand out to stop her, he didn't want her to get close. Erin frantically glanced around the room but the other vampires looked thrilled at what Olga was doing to him.

"You're killing him!" Erin screamed at Olga, "Vlad never deliberately killed your brother, that was the crown."

Olga grinned at Erin, "I'm not killing him, I'm doing something much, much worse." She grinned at her, Olga was enjoying watching her strong cousin twist and writhe in complete agony. Without him the crown would be hers.

Vlad let out a scream as he felt his insides were being ripped from his body, unable to clench his jaw any longer.

The young vampire began to blur, Erin shook her head – this couldn't be happening.

She'd only seen this once before and it had been terrifying back then.

YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL

Erin could only watch as her vision began to double. She knew it wasn't from any head injury.

Slowly another Vlad began to emerge but instead of fighting against each other, they were fighting to remain as one. More and more reflections emerged – Vlad had a thousand.

As each new reflection emerged it jelled into the single reflection they had fought against before.

Vlad had been able to force his reflection from his body before when no other vampire had it showed how much power was required – only Sethius could match it.

The power of the combined mirrors and the bone was pulling them apart. Without the bone the mirror probably would have only succeeded in bringing the reflection to the surface, the bone gave it the power boost it needed to complete the job.

Slowly the last of the reflections emerged and was absorbed into the one reflection. Leaving Vlad, his reflection and Erin staring at each other.

Vlad and his reflection looked at her in pure fear, Erin looked surprised at seeing her mate's reflection, she hadn't before but then she hadn't been connected to Vlad through his bite back then.

They didn't fight much to Erin's amazement instead the looked at each other, Vlad reached out his arm to grasp his reflection but it was being pulled downwards into the mirror – into a foreign mirror.

Vlad's reflection was the key to him accessing his full power, now he didn't even have the one he'd gained at sixteen inside him

It was sinking into the mirror like a stone in water. Vlad tried to grasp his reflection, Erin tried hoping that even if it was absorbed into her own body then it would be saved somehow.

That was why the mirror was on the floor.

When lad had forced his reflection from him last time he couldn't put it back in the mirror because he couldn't force it to touch the mirror. They had no choice now; Vlad couldn't escape standing on the mirror.

Olga nodded to her followers and they all grinned at Vlad, each one of them was perched on the edges of the frame, not even their toes touched the mirror.

Erin saw what they had in their hands and screamed, "NO!" but it was too late.

Olga threw a brick at the giant mirror, smashing it into a thousand pieces. The others copying her actions, small spider webs of cracks appeared around the impact sight, spreading out and meeting other cracks. The sound of smashing glass echoed around the room reminding Erin of a construction site.

Not one individual mirror remained intact. Without the mirror his reflection would be destroyed..

Shards jumped up into the air, a shard from the mirror his reflection had disappeared into buried itself deeply in Vlad's leg, he let out a gasp of pain as the eight inch long, sharp, thin, shard of glass buried itself into his right thigh. His leg gave underneath him automatically and he crashed downwards into the broken pile of glass.

When Octa had said for Vlad to keep his 'reflection locked inside'…

Octa hadn't meant stop Vlad's reflection from taking control.

She'd meant for him to keep his reflection locked inside his body, to not let it be torn from him.

Olga hadn't sought to make herself as powerful as Vlad.

She wanted to make Vlad as powerless as her.

She'd succeeded.

TBC

A/N: What do you think?

Did it disappoint?

Thanks for reading.