A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

Sorry I didn't post, something happened on the site that got in the way.

Chapter 51: One Thousandth

The reaction to Erin's admission was immediate. Robin darted towards his friend but Ingrid managed to beat him to it. Robin knew not to cross Ingrid so he darted backwards.

"WHAT?" Ingrid snapped, marching over to her brother. She hauled him up but his jacket before giving him a firm shake, regardless of the fact her brother was now taller than her, and Vlad felt as if he was thirteen all over again.

"Ingrid. Let. Him Go." Erin warned slowly, her voice deepening. The current condition of her husband was already weak enough.

Ingrid didn't let go of Vlad, instead she tightened her grip on him making him gasp as he felt the material tightening around his throat. "He never wanted to merge… It's a bit convenient that he can't merge…"

"Ingrid let your brother go." Bertrand spoke quietly. Ingrid looked at her brother seeing that he was struggling to breathe and immediately let go of him. Vlad fell to the ground landing with a thump.

He bit his lip, drawing a little blood as his teeth sliced through the muscle of his lip as he jolted down on the ground. Erin let out a hiss at Ingrid's rough treatment of Vlad. Vlad wasn't a vampire he wasn't as durable as the rest of them at the moment.

Vlad picked himself back up and brushed himself down. Dust came from his clothes and landed on the floor. As soon as he did so he felt himself go dizzy. Ingrid – being the nearest to him – caught him and lowered him to the floor. She placed a hand on his chest, she could feel it slowing again. Being thrown against the wall had placed stress on his heart.

Erin tried not to let Vlad see how it was affecting her, it was hard watching him go through it. He would become a gene fang and unlive that way but they couldn't let it happen to him. It was a deadline they weren't sure of.

"They can't merge with each other, they're like magnets repelling against each other."

"He absorbed them before!" She hissed at Erin. It didn't make any sense, her brother had handled them before. Unless Olga had done something but she could see that having happened, she'd smashed the mirror she wouldn't have done anything else.

"He was a vampire before…" Erin trailed off as she considered her words, a strange look crossing her face. She tipped her head and looked between them. A smile crossing her face as an idea came to her.

YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL

"You want me to do what?" Vlad's reflection hissed at Erin while his counterpart started at their mate with a dumbstruck look on his face.

"Separate your reflections." Erin told the reflection slowly. His reflection looked at her as if she'd gone mad.

"What?" Vlad repeated in confusion. There wasn't enough room to separate one thousand reflections individually, that's why there was so much room in the mirror.

"You absorbed one reflection when you turned sixteen then the other nine hundred and ninety nine. Maybe its too powerful to handle for a mortal, you need to be a full vampire before absorbing the rest."

The normal Vlad looked at her, "Erin you don't…"

"No I don't know everything about vampire culture but think about it. Why couldn't you absorb all one thousand reflections in one go? You could only absorb one at first. It then made you powerful enough to accept more." Vlad and his reflection looked at each other before looking back at Erin in complete disbelief. "You know that's really annoying when you both look at me like that." Erin told them firmly only succeeding in drawing the same annoyed looks from them. She shuddered, closing her eyes at the sensation.

"Erin's got a point." Ingrid offered. Then the glares were fixed on her and she could immediately tell how Erin felt – it was creepy. "You needed to be a vampire both times to accept the reflections. Even when you took him out of you, you still had one reflection inside."

"How do you know?" They spoke together, their eyebrows raised.

Erin closed her mouth. She didn't know, she was assuming. "I don't know! Just try it!"

Both Vlads looked around the room trying to gain support against their mad mate. Unfortunately no one seemed to be on their side. They looked deliberately at the one person who would usually defend them but Robin was a traitor. "Try it Vlad, it might work."

The reflection looked at Erin with a look of defeat. "So you're asking me to separate one reflection from myself?"

"Yes. You grouped into one, so you can separate one small reflection."

"'One small reflection'?" Both Vlad's asked, there was nothing small about a reflection. Each one contained uncontrollable evil.

Erin really wasn't going to go into how they'd taken her words. "Look the quicker you sort this the quicker you can sort things out with your Dad." Erin told both of them. They harrumphed at each other before giving her an irritated look.

"He doesn't want to know us!" The reflection hissed at her. His fangs were lowered.

Erin wasn't going to back down, "Don't use that tone with me Vladimir."

His reflection stood quickly and prepared to walk away. "Sit down and concentrate!" Vlad told his reflection firmly.

The reflection couldn't help but laugh, "You want to get into Dad's good books again? He disowned us before. He chose me over you then rejected me for you. He doesn't know which one of us he wants!"

"I'm not thinking about Dad I'm thinking about Erin and the baby. We need to be able to merge to protect them. Erin's getting closer to four months, half way into the pregnancy, she can't protect herself."

That seemed to convince his reflection. He half stomped across the room and sat down firmly in the centre of the room crossing his legs.

He gave a sigh of displeasure glaring at them all – including his mate before firmly closing his eyes and concentrating.

YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL

Seconds became minutes and minutes became two hours as they all watched Vlad's reflection concentrate on trying to remove a thousandth of his reflection but to no avail. Eventually even he had enough. He uncrossed his legs, kicking them out and feeling them crack uncomfortably at being trapped in one position for so long.

His reflection concentrated but nothing seemed to happen. "Nothing." He glared at her. Erin shook her head at the others to let them know.

"Are you even trying?" Ingrid asked the thin air. Her eyes missing him completely by forty-five degrees.

"Does she want to get pushed outside again?" His reflection asked Erin. Erin rolled her eyes and fought not to bite back on that subject.

Ingrid seemed to sense he'd said a snide comment from the way Erin reacted. "What did he say?"

"You can't stay outside of the mirror for much longer and Vlad won't last for much longer." She reminded him. Vlad was turning a strained colour as his breathing was becoming more and more difficult.

"I know!" He snapped at her, "I know I'll be destroyed if I stay out longer than I have to, you don't need to keep reminding me." He saw hurt flash in her eyes before vanishing. Erin gave a nod and moved back.

He gave a small Transylvanian curse before pushing himself up from the floor. He gently grasped Erin's arms but she wouldn't look at him. He caught her chin and she looked up at him stubbornly, he could see she was biting her tongue.

"I'm sorry, okay?" He told her firmly, although his apology was harsher than the one his flesh counterpart gave Erin knew he meant it. She nodded accepting it but she didn't say anything. He knew she was still hurt from his snapping at her. He gently leaned down and pressed a soft, chaste kiss to her lips before pulling back and pressing his forehead against hers.

The flesh Vlad turned away, it was painful seeing her kiss anyone even if it was half of himself. Erin saw his reaction as the Vlad in front of her pulled back. Vlad didn't even notice her approaching him. Erin bent down and softly kissed him, she loved both halves of him there was nothing to be jealous about.

She stroked his neck and he smiled at her. If nothing else she could always tell them apart by the bites on their necks. It was one thing neither could change – which side they were on as his reflection had them reversed.

She turned back to his reflection, "Try again, please." She pleaded. "I can't lose either of you." Her voice was broken as she spoke, she was used to his evil as strange as that sounded. They had their arguments but it was all part of who Vlad was, without it he was different somehow. Vlad would also grow to resent his weakness in their world.

The reflection nodded and closed his eyes. He used her plea to spur him on and within moments he began to blur, shaking himself apart.

"Done." A dual echo sounded across the room. Erin grinned widely as she saw two reflections standing opposite her. It was clear which of the two was Vlad's single reflection as it didn't give off as much of an aura of power as his large one did.

"We need to do it now." Vlad told his reflection, they couldn't' wait another moment. He could already feel his heart preparing to stop, it was skipping beats.

"I get to see Vlad become a full vampire? Awesome." Robin muttered under his breath.

Erin was the first to comment, Robin seemed too pleased. "No you won't…"

Vlad reached out and squeezed her hand stopping her in her tracks. "I need witnesses to prove that I'm a vampire again." He whispered to Erin, "They need to see me absorb my reflection."

"I can witness it." She didn't want this to become some kind of freak show.

"You're my mate, they'll say you're lying." He reminded her with a small smile.

Erin shook her head, they could call her a liar but this wasn't a show for them all to watch. "I just don't think…"

"Erin they need to be here." Erin searched his eyes and he nodded trying to convince her. "I need to do this, I know what I'm doing." Erin nodded before helping him stand slowly.

He wobbled on his feet and Robin dove towards him, grabbing his shoulders. Vlad shot them both grateful looks before pulling away from them. Erin stroked his forehead feeling the sweat there.

"I hope this works." She whispered beginning to completely doubt her idea.

"Me too." Vlad answered before standing tall, nodding to his reflection who began to walk towards him ready to merge.

TBC

A/N: Thanks for reading.