A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

I nearly lost this entire story thanks to someone wanting to report me for 'stealing' from myself.

I'm sorry if it has turned out that this is similar to the Truth and Consequence Saga, it wasn't my intention.

If people just want me to stop posting/writing then please tell me rather than trying to have my stories and account wiped completely.

It's upsetting that someone went to those lengths to stop me writing.

Chapter 38: Ceremony

Silence reined as the peasants looked at the two vampires in their midst.

Vlad tried to break the hold of his captors but he couldn't move. He was completely helpless. He'd never felt this helpless before.

He felt his collar being yanked down and his head twisted to expose his neck to them all.

"Igor." The cry came instantly as his neck was exposed to the air.

A chorus of gasps were heard all around them as they saw the silver marks on his neck. Vlad's jaw locked and his nostrils flared as their actions hurt him.

They stepped back from him as he glared at them.

"He's one too." Vlad snorted, he was more than an ordinary vampire. They didn't have a clue who he was.

Erin looked at him in fear, he was more defenceless than she was.

"He's still breathing." The one noted, seeing the way Vlad's chest rose and fell in a constant rhythm. "He's not one of them yet." Igor turned to face Erin, "She's bitten him. We stopped her from draining him."

"She didn't bite me." Vlad spat at them.

Igor leaned down and twisted his head fiercely, swiping at his scars to make sure that they weren't an illusion of the light or even make up. "She didn't give you those marks then?"

Vlad opened his mouth to speak but hesitated, "Well yeah but…" Igor laughed triumphantly. "Its my mark of marriage." He snarled at them, continuing. "She's my wife." He looked at Erin who was shaking her head, she seemed to know what he was going to say, "I bit her not the other way around."

Igor watched him as did everyone else in stunned silence before laughing frantically. Vlad wanted to know what they were laughing about, "You think we believe that? You're breathing there's no way you could have bitten her. She's a vampire she bit you."

"We're both vampires." Vlad spat at them.

"Not for long." Igor grinned at him and Vlad's blood turned cold.

Their gazes locked in a battle of wills.

Vlad didn't even blink as he watched Igor's dark eyes glaze over slightly. Only the sound of a woman's voice drew their gazes away from each other.

"Igor."

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Vlad closed his eyes; he didn't need to look to see what they'd noticed. He didn't want anyone to find out.

Erin's shirt had begun to pull across her stomach but her shirts were form fitting. There were as in between the buttons, exposing the grey shirt she wore underneath to the air around them.

Erin felt her shirt being yanked up to check what they were seeing, memories of Andrew Hartleigh doing the same filled her mind. Everyone's eyes seemed to be staring at her slowly rounding stomach. She held her head high; she wasn't going to hide it now they knew.

Someone went to put their hand on it but she snarled and snapped at them, thrashing in her bonds. She'd kill them before they even touched her child.

They pulled their hand back, terrified at her wave of maternal instinct.

"Leave her alone." Vlad shouted from where he was being held. A sharp kick in his back knocked him forward onto his chest, glass tearing at his shirt as he landed on the glass littered, cold, stone floor. He couldn't brace his fall with his wrists locked behind his back. He knew he would bruise and he'd hoped not to remember what a bruise felt like on his ribs.

The peasant roughly yanked him up by the cuffs, it felt like his arms were being ripped from their sockets. He let out a stiff cry, he'd never been affected like this before. As his arms were once again returned to their normal position he waited for the pain to fade but it didn't straight away, although he knew that when it did it would feel like

"Vlad!" Erin shouted in concern. Vlad shook his head, the pain wouldn't linger for long. He shot daggers at them all.

"She's carrying spawn." A female peasant whispered, her voice shaking with fear. "They'll need more blood to feast on when it's born. No one will be safe."

Another voice began, "It'll rip out of her stomach, killing everything in sight."

"The creature will be hideous, eating her from the inside. Drinking the blood that lingers in her veins."

Vlad rolled his eyes at their superstitions; Erin would go into labour just like very other woman in every other culture and kind on the planet, just had millions before her throughout history. It wouldn't be something out of Alien.

He shook his head, catching Erin's eyes. He could see the fear in them but he knew it was fear at being a terrible mother, as she didn't have the best example to start with.

"We need to deal with this quickly. There's only one way to deal with their kind."

"NO!" Vlad shouted and Erin looked at him in confusion. Vlad had never wanted to tell her about this particular method of dealing with vampires according to the people of Transylvania. They didn't believe in slaying in its most basic form – they considered that murder so they'd developed a method to absolve themselves of any wrongdoing. To make it a ceremony between good and evil.

"Get them ready."

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Erin was shoved firmly into a small room, she knew there was argentalium somewhere in there so there was no point in attempting to escape. The hut was small, it wasn't exactly a jail cell.

Erin skidded across the floor before spinning to face the door, anger written across her face. She wanted to be near her mate.

"Where's my mate?" She didn't use his name at all. She didn't want to give him the victory of knowing who they were about to slay.

Erin's question was completely ignored so she focused in trying to listen to the sounds around her. She heard heavy footfalls, light footfalls then she heard it. A combination of the two. Vlad treading lightly on his injured leg and heavily on the opposite one. At least he was fine for now.

There suddenly was an exchange of some sort at the door and Igor was given something in a bundle.

The lead peasant threw something at Erin, she only just managed to catch it as his aim was completely off. "Get changed, vampire."

Erin looked at the bundle of cotton that she was thrown. She unfolded it, if you could unfold something that was screwed up, and held it out.

It was a long, white gown. The kind that people were buried in. She shuddered as she looked at the lace work on it. The dress was long sleeved and cotton. It was a little on the small side and she knew that it wouldn't fit her very well. It reminded her of a wedding dress that was crossed with a Victorian nightdress. It would reach her toes easily. White for purity she assumed, ironic really.

The peasant hadn't left the room, he stood there watching her.

"I'm not changing while you're in here." She knew she didn't have a choice changing into it; they'd kill her either way. Usually she'd fight but she was more concerned about protecting the baby more than anything.

"I'm not turning my back on a vampire."

"Then wait outside, you've got me trapped in here. Where do you think I'm going to go?" It was true she couldn't' go anywhere.

Igor seemed to consider it before nodding he walked backwards out of the door before reaching for it and closing it tightly.

Erin looked down at the gown in her hands. She sighed before beginning to strip off her shirt.

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Erin had been right the dress had been too short. She let out a small growl as she tried her hardest to fasten the dress around her bosom. It was far to tight to fasten properly, especially with the way her figure was starting to change to accommodate her pregnancy.

She let out a triumphant laugh as she managed to put a knot in the tie that held the dress closed over her breasts, she quickly added another three knots to make sure that it was completely secure and wouldn't come undone. She was sure that if she still breathed she would have difficulty doing so, if she could even breathe at all.

Underneath her bust the dress flowed downwards disguising her pregnancy completely. She slipped her shoes back on and stood triumphantly.

Erin was tugging on her sleeves when the door was opened and she was roughly grabbed by two men and dragged outside of the hut.

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Erin's eyes caught Vlad's, he was forced on the ground in front of a clearing of some kind. The clearing had a large stone altar in the centre, around the edges were the peasants standing in the circle. He looked at her, she could see the raw fear for her on his face.

"She goes first, if you're free of her when she's slain you're free to go."

That would never work because of two reasons the first was that others slaying the vampire that bit you didn't work and the other was that even if it did, Vlad had transformed her and not the other way around.

'I love you.' Vlad mouthed to her making her smile softly.

'I love you too.' She replied instantly before she was harshly pulled towards the altar.

As she drew closer she could see four sets of cuffs imbedded in the stone. She shivered as she realised what the cuffs were for. She began to struggle and try to pull away but they held her firmly. Erin tried thrashing again but nothing happened.

They hoisted her up into their arms and pinned her down on the altar, cuffing her wrists and ankles firmly. She twisted her head to face Vlad who looked at her helplessly.

The gown pooled on the altar as gravity took over, it no longer hid her pregnancy, rather it helped expose it.

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Erin was stretched out along the stone altar, shadows were cast on her face from the glow of the fire all around her.

She struggled but she couldn't move. They must have been argentalium fang cuffs on the altar.

Igor stepped up next to her, he held an ornate, ruby and sapphire encrusted dagger in his hand. It had a very familiar crest on it, Vlad's family crest. She felt anger that they'd stolen it from his family, they'd probably looted his home when they'd moved to Britain.

He began to speak. "We coat this silver in the fire of hell that all vampires are born from." He then proceeded to bath the blade of the dagger in oil and lowered it into the flaming beacon. Immediately the entire dagger lit in a fiery blaze. Erin flinched and tried to move as far away from it as possible.

He reached across to a small flask, he held it over the dagger and began to pour it. "We douse it in the water of the most holy, a reminder that good can remove the flames of evil." The flames immediately vanished.

Some of the water splashed on Erin, soaking through the gown and making her skin burn. She bit back a scream, she refused to show any weakness.

He pulled out another flask, "The strength of garlic, unable to be combated by any medicine." He poured it over the dagger, making sure it was entirely coated.

Erin gulped in fear, her eyes widening, this would be painful. More painful that what she'd been through before.

Vlad struggled against his bonds, this ceremony was one of the most barbaric in the world. He needed to free her but he couldn't even move. He wished for his powers more than ever before.

The peasant held the dagger over her chest, lining it up with her heart, "The purest of silver, imbedded with the flecks of willow, to pierce the coldest of hearts."

He raised the sword higher above his head, holding it steady as he said the final line to the ceremony. "All these to make the death of evil everlasting. We rid our home of this vampire. May God have mercy on your soul."

"ERIN!"

The dagger plunged downwards, impossible to stop.

TBC

A/N: Please let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading.