A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

I'm calling this saga (affectionately) 'The Cursed Saga'. Ever since I began it there's been one problem after another after another, yesterday was no exception. I want to finish it, I'm sorry for all the delays. Unfortunately as many of you pointed out there are some people who hate me writing for reasons I won't mention and I had to deal with the site last night again. False allegations coming up again – a hilarious one this time.

I was accused (not by the author) of copying some of the plots for my Truth and Consequences Saga, which was posted back in November through to January, from a fic posted four months *after* it. I must be becoming telepathic!

The stunt I pulled with the twins… I didn't really want to have Erin go into labour and suddenly they have twins I wanted them to find out first. I hope no one really minded.

Chapter 55: Time

Ingrid's eyes shone with hope, widening just a fraction. They were words she'd longed to hear but then again lead settled in her stomach – Erin's tone wasn't positive but it wasn't negative either it was neutral.

Erin rolled her tongue in her mouth, she wasn't sure how she was going to broach this. It had been gnawing at her for a while but getting Vlad's reflection back had been the main objective. Without that her idea would never have even been considered possible anyway.

Ingrid could hear every sound in the room, the ticking of the clock, the breathing of the slayers, Robin's heart beating ten to a dozen at Vlad's anger, the grinding of her brother's teeth. She wanted Erin to continue but she wasn't sure she wanted the answer.

Erin slowly opened her mouth, her voice barely louder than the whispering of the wind. "Vlad has the power to separate a reflection from a vampire…"

"How do you know that?" Ingrid asked her scoffing slightly.

"Olga had to use the power in Sethius' bone to do it. Vlad is more powerful than Sethius, he should be able to do it." It was plausible, Sethius' bone had been channelled directly into the mirror to make it reabsorb his reflection. They would need an unbound mirror of course to make it possible.

"Erin…" Vlad was sceptical. He didn't think he could summon the power to do it. Erin saw his own self-doubt and she grabbed his hand and gave it a tight squeeze. She knew he was capable of it, she hated the fact he doubted himself. He'd never been praised for something that he'd done genuinely, he'd only been praised when he'd manipulated a situation to appear that he'd thought of the solution on the spot, just like the Carpathian Feast.

"Octa said we might find something to help us in Racalud's palace."

"You think she meant that?" Vlad asked her, thinking back there hadn't been anything else of use in there.

"We didn't find anything else Vlad." Erin told him quietly. "It has to be the answer."

"Who's Octa?" Ingrid asked, looking between them. She didn't like the feeling of being left out of a conversation. Not to mention the fact she didn't like a name being thrown in that she didn't now she could trust or not.

"Someone who tried to give Erin animal blood rather than soy blood. She miscarried a few times as a vampire, she was jealous of Erin's pregnancy." Erin looked down; she wondered how other half fangs might feel at her doing the impossible. Granted their love was manufactured it wouldn't stop the pain of missing out on something that she'd achieved.

"A half fang?" Ingrid asked.

"She was." Vlad told her quietly.

"No one can stop being a half fang."

"She's mortal." Erin confirmed, "She killed her own master." Ingrid opened her mouth to protest that it was impossible.

"Then Bertrand can kill…"

"It'll take too long." Erin told her, "If one of us kills her then nothing will happen, Bertrand will still be devoted to a dead mistress. You know what that does to vampire minds." She trailed off, letting the gravity of her word sink in. Bertrand would go mad, he would be torn between avenging Olga and being with Ingrid. It would pick at their relationship, slowly destroying it. "Bertrand needs to do it himself and we need to act now. As strong as he is it'll still take him years to do it."

Ingrid shook her head, there was more at stake here that Bertrand's loyalty. "If Bertrand separates from his refection he'll die!"

Erin shook her head, "His reflection will still exist he'll be fine." Bertrand would only turn to dust if something happened to his reflection, it would be just like pushing his life force from his body. Nothing would happen to his flesh remains.

"What if he becomes a gene fang?" Ingrid snapped at her.

"It's a risk." Erin answered. "But it's the only solution I can think of."

"You're not doing it."

"You're deciding for him?" Erin asked, she wanted Bertrand to be the one who answered her.

"Yes I am, I'm not going to risk losing him." Ingrid never spoke so bluntly in front of so many people in the room about her feelings. She spoke to Erin and Vlad about them but she was usually the strongest of them all. She still hid behind the 'feelings make you weak' wall she'd built years ago.

Vlad rolled his eyes and decided that for the sake of his children that he'd better interrupt. "Its up to Bertrand." They turned to look at him and he resisted flinching at Ingrid's scathing look. "I know what its like to have a reflection ripped from you," He told her softly, "its painful but not impossible." He was proof of that. Erin gave him a small smile in appreciation, Bertrand wouldn't go through as much pain as Vlad had but it still wouldn't be an easy experience. "We need to ask him…"

"No!" Ingrid snapped sharply, Erin and Vlad looked at each other before looking in sync at her. Ingrid noticed and looked away sharply, feeling uncomfortable at her outburst.

"Its Bertrand's decision." Vlad told his sister, he wasn't going to go by what she said. Bertrand had the right to choose. "Whatever's happened between you," Ingrid looked at him sharply, Vlad had obviously picked up on it a lot quicker than she'd hoped, "doesn't come into this understand?" Ingrid nodded slowly.

YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL

Bertrand and Ingrid stood on completely opposite sides of the room, something Vlad hadn't seen for years. He tried to ignore it but he found his attention constantly being distracted by it.

"So when the reflection is separated what happens then?" Bertrand asked Erin quietly.

"We treat the two halves with the device. That's what the device was designed for, to work on a half fang – the equivalent of half a vampire." Erin was as strong as a full vampire because she'd been trained and it was Vlad who'd bitten her. He'd given her more power. "Then we merge you together again."

"I'm not the same person without a reflection." Bertrand warned her. Erin nodded slowly, she knew that. It would be a frightening experience for Bertrand having had his reflection for four hundred years.

It scared him, as much as he hated to admit it, he didn't know who he was before without his reflection. Those were the years of his life he preferred not to think about.

"I know."

"Will the scars go when I turn mortal?" He asked her softly, his hand subconsciously reaching up towards them before he grimaced and pulled his hand back down at the feeling of the bobbles that had been left when the wound healed.

Vlad shook his head; a vampire's bite was a permanent mark. "No." He knew it was different to Bertrand, Vlad had willingly accepted his; Bertrand hadn't. Bertrand's eyes dropped in defeat.

A loud creaking made Vlad look across to his sister. Erin followed his gaze, clearly it had distracted her as well. Ingrid pushed herself from the wall she'd been leaning against. With barely a glance towards Bertrand she stormed from the room.

"Go after her." Erin whispered into his mind. Needing no further encouragement he followed his sister.

"How long have I got to think about it?" Bertrand whispered.

"As long as you need but I don't think there's another option."

"I can kill her." He sounded like he wanted to do it.

"I know but wanting to and being able to are different things, if you try you could fall back under her spell." Erin gave him the gentlest of smiles, she gently squeezed his shoulder. "Take your time."

YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL

"Ingrid?" Vlad called through the door. He could see his sister silhouetted against the window. Ingrid jumped but she didn't turn to face him trying her best to recover.

"Congratulations on the twins." She whispered, her voice coming out hoarse as she spoke. Vlad narrowed his eyes at her something was bothering her.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing *is* wrong." Ingrid protested, trying her best to sound strong.

"Ingrid the twins won't take any power…" She let out another sob at the word twins. Vlad began to grow more worried now, this wasn't the strong, emotionless sister he was used to.

"What *is* wrong?" He asked again, firmer than before. Vlad stepped fully into the room, closing the door gently behind him. He wasn't going to leave until he had an answer. Then he realised she'd sobbed on the word 'twins', she couldn't be broody could she? Vlad never thought of how Erin being pregnant might affect Ingrid, either that or… His mouth became dry. This really wasn't a question he felt comfortable asking his sister. "Are you…?" He began to ask in fear, a selfish part of him wanted it not to be true. He loved the idea of Erin carrying twins. He didn't know how to go back now, it would almost be like losing a child.

"No and I'll never be." She told him firmly.

"Ingrid just because Bertrand's loyal to Olga…"

"He doesn't want to explain his scar to them!" Ingrid shouted at him angrily. "That means no children, it also means no mating." Ingrid wanted to be mated, she'd seen the happiness it brought Erin and Vlad and she wanted to felt that too.

Vlad didn't see how the scar was such a big deal. "Erin has two scars. It makes no difference how many sets you've got."

"Erin is a half fang, Bertrand is a full vampire. Bertrand can't cope with having two sets, he thinks it makes him weak."

Vlad did know something about scars and weakness, he honestly felt like he might have some understanding of Bertrand even if it was from the opposite side – not wearing a bite scar but causing it. "Do you know why she has two sets of scars?" Vlad asked her.

Ingrid gave him a look; the answer to that question was obvious. "Because you're mated."

Vlad let out the sigh of the frustrated, "Do you know why you can *see* two sets of scars?" Ingrid shook her head, "I wanted to line the bites up, bite her in exactly the same place so no one would see the first set of scars."

Ingrid's brow furrowed, "Why didn't you?"

"Erin wouldn't let me." Vlad told his sister, he'd never tell her under any other circumstances.

Ingrid gave him an irritated smile, "That's not the same."

Vlad continued, ignoring her. "I'm ashamed because I was the one who bit her in the first place, I hated that first scar and Erin knows that." He closed his eyes as he tried to erase the memory of her blood all over him pouring from a wound that was fatal. He shook his head trying to remove the picture his mind created – his memory was too perfect to deal with it all over again. "She sees it as a mark of how much I loved her to change her and the fact it meant we could spend our unlives together, no matter what I say she won't see it another way."

Ingrid saw Bertrand's scar as a sign of how much he loved her and how loyal he was to their family for not betraying them willingly. If only she could get Bertrand to see it that way, like Erin wished for Vlad to.

Ingrid's voice softened. "You have a reason for that, Andrew plunged a stake into her."

"I was distracted and she took the stake that was meant for me." Vlad was still angry with himself for allowing himself to get distracted in the first place. However he knew that if he hadn't changed her he would have been forced to before their mating ceremony.

"Still Bertrand doesn't have a reason for it. He knows I don't hold it against him, it wasn't his fault but his pride is in the way."

Vlad nodded in agreement, pride was hard to shake in all people, not just Bertrand. However Bertrand only had his pride, he didn't have a home anymore. "Bertrand fought against Olga, he wouldn't betray our family willingly that's why she bit him. Its something he should be proud of." He paused to let his words sink in, "But remember it isn't an easy thing to accept. I have a scar on my leg and on my shoulders but it's the one on my leg I don't like Erin seeing because she saw how bad it was and it showed that I failed her because I let my reflection be taken." Vlad always tried to shield it from her but Erin knew best and usually grabbed his leg and held it in place to prove her point.

"Erin doesn't care about scars, like I don't care about Bertrand's."

"Scars mean different things to different people." Vlad lifted his hand to her shoulder and squeezed it firmly. "Give him time."

"How much time?" Ingrid wasn't the best person at waiting. She knew how Bertrand felt waiting for her now.

"As long as he needs."

TBC

A/N: Thanks for reading.