A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

Thank you all so much for your support. I'm so touched and grateful for it all.

As I said I was hurt by the abusive PMs from a number of people based on something was spotted by the side and I was told to do by the site. Thank you again for all your support during this time.

Chapter 53: Revised Headcount

Vlad ran a hand over his face, he looked around the room. Everyone was staring back at him expectantly like they were waiting for him to take charge.

Erin gave him a small smile, silently asking if he wanted her to organise this one as he wasn't fully recovered yet. Vlad shook his head, he appreciated her offer but he needed to do this.

"Mina you stay here with my in-laws, keep working on the sensors try to make them clearer." He couldn't resist that judging by the way they squirmed; it was the mood he was in. Mina needed back up and he really didn't trust them to be let loose in his home unsupervised. "Robin and Catherine you go together see what you can find on the east wing. Bertrand and Ingrid go to the cellar. Erin and me, we'll check out the west wing." He looked across to his wife who smiled at him, she was always ready to follow his lead.

"What do we do if we find anyone?" Ingrid asked Vlad quietly.

Vlad fixed her with a determined gaze, "They committed treason, there's only one punishment for that."

He didn't need to say it they could tell from the gravity of his words.

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Bertrand led the way with Ingrid down the corridors. He moved stealthily.

"Is it getting easier?" Ingrid asked him quietly.

"Is what getting easier?" Bertrand asked her looking up and down; his eyes were far keener than hers. He knew exactly what to look for and what to look at for any signs of an intruder.

"Defying Olga." Ingrid closed her eyes as she said the words; the thought of Olga made her want to claw something's eyes out.

"I can delay it Ingrid but I can't stop it for long." His eyes seemed to catch something and his head snapped in that direction before focussing on the small moth that had caught his attention. He let out a soft hiss before focussing back on the path in front of him. "I want it over so we can be married."

Bertrand carried on but Ingrid froze in her tracks, he didn't notice as he was too absorbed in finding the intruder.

Ingrid managed to speak again, this time slightly strained. "We never actually did pick a date or really talk about it." She practically ran to catch up with him.

Fear gripped him, Ingrid had never formally said yes. "Have you changed your mind?"

"NO!" She answered immediately with a shout before realising that the intruders would have heard them, she dropped her voice down at his slightly annoyed glare at possibly scaring off their prey. "I was just wondering what mating was like."

"You don't mean that." Bertrand told her. Ingrid felt her jaw tightening at his matter of fact words.

"What's that supposed to mean?" She felt hurt that he doubted her.

"It took you nearly four years to agree to marry me, Vlad and Erin only took six months. If we were true mates it would have happened sooner."

Ingrid shook her head; he couldn't use them as an example. Vlad and Erin's situation had been completely different to theirs. "That was different."

"We've got four hundred years between us Ingrid, being mates might not be the best idea. Married yes, mates no."

Ingrid didn't believe him for a minute and she was going to let him know it. "That's a fogging lame excuse and you know it."

"You're still in love with Will." He answered as another excuse. Ingrid couldn't deny that she'd always feel fond of Will but it wasn't love like she'd thought it was, it was attraction. Being with Bertrand had taught her that.

Ingrid tutted before laughing, "What's the real reason Bertrand? I want what Erin and Vlad have. They are mates in every sense of the word. They've had arguments but they'll always stick by each other like we will." Ingrid didn't care about the age gap and she didn't think her history with Will got in the way either, there was something he wasn't telling her.

"Everyone will take a look at this bite scar and think I'm mated or I have been mated before…" Ingrid's eyes flew to the scar before looking back up at him.

"They will know the truth…"

"Do you think that makes it any better?" He shouted at her through clenched teeth. "I was bitten by a woman, made loyal to her. The only bite I'm supposed to receive is a mating one if I ever chose to mate. You can't even look at it. If we mate I'll have two scars." Ingrid knew it was true, she couldn't look at it because she didn't like to be reminded of what Olga had done and how they'd failed to protect him.

"Erin has two." She defended.

"Vlad did both. I'll have one from you and one from her. I'm not like Erin a half fang. Anyone that sees it will know that someone else overpowered me. You'll be the second person to bite me not the first like you were supposed to. I can't accept that and in time you won't be able to either. We're not Vlad and Erin, we're not perfect…"

"Vlad and Erin are far from perfect!" She snapped at him, "Their first time together was based on the fact that it would being their only chance to show how much they loved each other. Vlad would have waited as long as it took if none of that had happened. They're hardly perfect, even they call joke about being Romeo and Juliet." Although Bertrand was really the one to blame for all of that in the first place.

"But they're happy! They have a baby on the way. I could never face my own children and tell them the reason I have two scars, let alone one." Ingrid felt as if a knife had been plunged into her stomach, she wanted children someday but Bertrand didn't because of his scar. She felt as if everything was crushing in on her. She needed to get focussed.

"So it comes down to pride?" She snapped at him. "I thought you'd gotten over that three years ago." She walked away from him, "I was wrong."

There weren't even words she could use to describe how angry and hurt she was with him at the moment.

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Vlad pulled the door to behind him, clicking his fingers to lock it so no one else but him and Erin could open it. They'd nearly completely searched the whole of the west wing. There was no one here. He hated having slayer technology inside his home that didn't do the job that it was supposed to.

Vlad motioned with his hand for Erin to go ahead. The west wing held their own private quarters. Erin crept down the quarters, she knew exactly where every single squeaky floorboard was and took great care not to tread on a single one of them.

It might not have been considered noble for Vlad to follow Erin but experience with Olga and the others had taught him that vampires didn't confront them head on they preferred to sneak up behind them.

A closed door caught his eye and he pointed to it. Erin nodded showing she'd seen it as well. He gestured that he was about to enter the room and Erin nodded taking her place beside the door. He tipped his head to her, she nodded – she was ready.

One a mental count of three Vlad pushed the door open rushing into the room once the gap was wide enough.

Looking around the room all of the chairs and furniture was still in place in the corners of the room. Erin faltered as she realised that this large room was like this because it had always been planned for their nursery. They'd moved the furniture when they'd first moved in but that's as far as they'd gotten.

Neither of them could dwell on it at the moment though. Vlad's sharp eyes searched around the room looking for something or someone. He let out a groan as he came up with nothing.

"Can't you brush your mind against theirs?" Erin asked him softly directly into his mind, fully aware that they may be heard any other way.

"I've tried."

"And?" She asked in a tone that showed she hated him not giving her the complete information in one go.

"Its nothing clear, emotions and colours. Nothing more." It was baffling him, nothing could resist his ability, the only way someone could was

"Maybe you're not ready to activate that power fully yet." There was no telling how long it would be for all of Vlad's powers to work properly, perhaps they needed time to 'recharge' before he could use them to their full extent in his current state.

"Maybe." He agreed.

He gestured back towards the doors, "Three more rooms to go."

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The throne room was once more becoming crowded as everyone was returning from their search. Mina snapped the cover onto the device. "Any luck?" She asked as she pushed herself up, wiping her hands on her knees leaving grey dust marks on the black material.

"Nothing." Vlad muttered, bending his knee and propping the sole of his shoe back up against the wall. Catherine and Robin shook their heads, they hadn't found anything either.

Ingrid leaned against the wall, she was tired. She'd had enough of running backwards and forwards trying to spot their intruders. "Nothing in the cellar."

"Its still reading fourteen people inside the manor." Mina had run multiple diagnostics and the answers always came back the same. The device wasn't malfunctioning, they did have two people unaccounted for in the manor.

Erin moved over to Vlad leaning back against him, she was nearly half way in her pregnancy and now she was feeling tired. She'd conceded to the fact that her pregnancy was going to be the vampire eight month long pregnancy, not the standard human nine. The rate their child was developing told her that, clearly he or she had gotten that trait from his or her father.

Vlad saw her drag her feet towards him, he knew she was tired and he wished he could let her rest but at the moment neither of them could risk it. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her flush against him.

Ingrid closed her eyes for the briefest of seconds; she felt as if she could fall asleep against the wall in that moment, that was how she felt. An idea came to her mind, something that she hadn't considered but maybe others had. "Did anyone actually count the baby?" She asked curiously, everyone looked at Erin's stomach. Erin felt very subconscious and placed her hands on her stomach.

Mina rolled her eyes, it hadn't occurred to her at the time. The equipment was sensitive enough to pick up the vampires so it would make sense. "That still leaves one person on the loose in the manor."

Vlad pushed himself from the wall feeling tired, they couldn't let them roam freely, they couldn't risk the information that was gathered. "We'll try the east, Bertrand and Ingrid the west, Robin and Catherine the cellar." Perhaps different eyes might see something that had been missed.

Vlad turned back, realising that Erin wasn't with him. She seemed to be in a complete daze as he glance back at her. Erin looked up at Vlad, "Unless…" She whispered completely awestruck.

Vlad paused and turned slowly to face her, he sped until he stopped before her. "You think?" He asked softly.

Erin shrugged, it made sense to her. "It would explain everything."

"Care to let the rest of us join in?" Ingrid asked them.

Vlad didn't take his eyes from Erin. "There's not an intruder." Erin nodded frantically, a laugh escaping her. Vlad placed a hand on her stomach. "Erin's carrying twins."

TBC

A/N: Thanks for reading.