A/N: Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

Thank you for all your support regarding the recent problems I've been having. I'm sorry I took a week's break but I didn't want to finish this story in anger I wanted to make sure it's the best I can do.

All of your reviews have inspired me on to keep going and I can never express how grateful I am for it.

There are about ten more chapters after these two then I can begin a new story. I'm trying to think of a title at the moment I have a few ideas. The next story will be a 'T' just to be on the safe side.

Chapter 59: Choice

Vlad's eyes slowly lifted towards Erin, something on his face. It wasn't fear and it certainly wasn't shock. He always knew he'd see them again and he was right.

The figure on the floor was out for the count. Erin slowly crouched down to look at them.

"Octa." She confirmed. Vlad nodded but didn't take his eyes from his former Council.

Ingrid sped into the room, stopping beside Vlad, "I thought I could smell something." She looked at Augustus with hatred in her eyes. This was the man who was determined to use her brother's power for his own gain.

"Who's that?" Ingrid asked pointing to the girl on the floor. She saw the marks on her neck and was confused at the sight of the blood pouring from the wounds. Vampires didn't bleed.

"Octa." Erin told her, Ingrid's eyes widened, she knew all about Octa.

"What's she doing here?"

Vlad folded his arms over his chest again after briefly moving them to his sides. "That's what I'd like to know."

Augustus looked at them, "She knows things, things about you and your plans…"

"You went looking for her." Erin cut in, "Someone told you that there was a woman who'd helped me and Vlad and you went looking for her." Erin didn't want to think about what they had done to the young woman in front of them. She was black and blue all over her face, cuts marred her features.

"We didn't know she was a former half fang!" The disgust was clear in his voice. "A disgusting abomination! A half fang is bad enough but to be a former…"

Lightening erupted from above them, "Stop right there!" His voice was final and fearsome, forcing the others to look at the young Grand High Vampire. "The Queen is a half fang, you speak out of turn about her again and I will turn you to dust in front of me."

"You're taking former half fangs into your confidence now!" Augustus yelled at him, "And strangers at that! What about our security?" Didn't Vlad see the harm he was doing to their nation?

"What security?" Vlad snapped at him. "When you come in here demanding to know things when this no longer concerns you? When you offer the matings of my children without consulting me! Creating pacts behind my back! You have no thought for security yourselves!" The room shook with his anger, he wasn't going to take any insult lying down. "How dare you question my own thoughts of security?"

"I didn't mean…"

"I know exactly what you meant Augustus!" Vlad snarled, his handsome face twisting into a feral sneer. "My mate being Queen gives me the power to disband the Council as I have done. You have no right questioning me. As for what you said when I lost my reflection, we'll talk about that later."

Augustus didn't stop there. "You wouldn't have a mate if you hadn't questioned me about the Carpathian Feast years ago. If I remember your father and sister…"

"Is that a hint that I owe you?" Vlad cut in. As far as he knew he didn't owe the former councilman in front of him.

"Vlad was the one who thought to question you, he wouldn't have left me to burn." Erin told them fiercely. "Vlad knew what he was doing, it as his idea he just put fear into you and he needed someone official to back him up. Don't think you can hold it over him. This doesn't concern you."

Augustus wasn't going to be beaten. "It concerns all of our kind! If you cure him then this could be applied to all bitten vampires and half fangs. If it gets out that the loyalty of half fangs can be reversed…"

"It should get out!" Vlad snapped at him. He didn't want to hold any information back from their kind that would give them a choice, it would create more enemies but it was worth it. "That woman, Octa, is an example of why half fangs shouldn't be created without consent."

Augustus sniffed and looked away, his hands locking behind his back. "They've never complained."

"Because they've no choice to!" Erin answered angrily, there was only one half fang who had ever spoken out against her bonds of loyalty and that was Octa.

"Then they're content to live as them."

Erin spoke angrily in Transylvanian, her speech was quick but Vlad picked up on every word. He threw her a look telling her not to go any further. She sent him a look of apology realising that he was right. "Octa killed her master to escape that life." She spoke clearly, she relished the way Augustus' eyes widened at the realisation that a half fang could kill the master they'd created. "She experienced miscarriages and misery. No one deserves to be put through that."

"You haven't miscarried." He was trying pitifully to get them to see his point of view. Erin's jaw clenched as Vlad's fists tightened into balls.

"And you know the reason for that Augustus." Atilla interrupted, stopping him before he slandered her first great grandchild. "A miscarriage affects all vampires emotionally, I suppose it gave her the strength she needed to escape." Her voice was full of pity, vampires could be evil but a child was precious in their world.

"I think every half fang or bitten vampire should be given the choice to undo their bite, if they can't answer then it has to be undone anyway." Vlad's voice was quiet, he knew that it would be a shock being released from the life that had been created for them but being a half fang was being a prisoner in your own mind. Bertrand felt a prisoner, losing the life he had and the future he wanted. Vlad couldn't let it continue.

"What will you do with them afterwards?" Atilla asked him quietly.

"We haven't considered that yet but at the moment we're thinking of Bertrand and sorting him out so we can end this stupid war."

Things had gone quiet on that front – the calm before the storm. They didn't know how long they had and the faster they acted the better it was for them all.

"Would you let your wife use it, if she wanted to?" Augustus asked him. Vlad's jaw clenched, "I mean you know she's not loyal," He gestured to her gently rounded stomach, it was all the proof their world needed, "But what if she didn't want to be a vampire anymore, would you let her do it?"

Erin jumped forward, "That is out of line." Her authority was coming more naturally to her and more.

"It's a valid point." Augustus pointed out, "If he wants to give half fangs the choice I think he should lead by example. Would you let your wife use it if she wanted to?"

Vlad looked Augustus in the eye; his gaze didn't waver as he spoke loudly and strongly. "Yes, I would." Augustus blinked rapidly; he hadn't expected Vlad to answer that way. "If Erin didn't want to be a vampire anymore then I wouldn't stop her. It would be her choice and I'd respect it. You're forgetting Erin chose to become this, other half fangs didn't." Vlad didn't stop there. "Bertrand wants to be free, I want to help him."

Atilla spoke quietly wanting to get them off the subject. "How does this Octa fit in then? How does she know what you were planning?"

Vlad looked at Erin, he decided to answer diplomatically, "I haven't told anyone of our plans." Outside of their family and the slayers no one else knew and no one else would for a long time. "And if anyone else finds out I will invoke death by dawn as I know who it will have come from." He told them fiercely.

Atilla gulped slowly, she knew her grandson was capable of it. "Then how did she know about it all?"

Vlad looked at them over his shoulder. "Because she gave Erin the idea in the first place."

With that he dismissed them with a wave of his hand. The conversation was over and they'd outstayed their welcome.

"What about her?" Atilla asked, gesturing to the woman on the floor.

"I'll keep her here, where she's safe and away from you."

They looked at each other before bowing and vanishing from the room.

"What are you going to do with her?" Erin asked him the moment they were on their own.

Ingrid bent down and looked at the marred face of the woman in front of her, who ever had initially taken her had been rough. She looked in a bad way, she was completely unconscious. There was no telling how much blood she'd lost.

"She needs to be sent to the Guild." Ingrid told him, "She needs treatment and without Renfield here…"

Vlad shook his head, it was out of the question. "I'm not having Dad…"

"I know." Ingrid spoke cutting him off, "She needs treatment and the Guild will be the best place for that." Vlad nodded, they needed to know exactly why they had taken her and to do that she needed the best treatment.

"How long?"

"Depends on what they put her through." Ingrid shrugged, it could be a few days, it could be a few weeks the only way they'd find out was if they got her the treatment as soon as possible.

"Do it."

YEKNODELTTILYEKNODELTTIL

Ingrid gently knocked on the door that led to Bertrand's room. Receiving no answer she opened the door, the silence startling her as she was unused to the fact that Vlad made sure all the hinges in his manor were oiled.

Her eyes quickly settled on the one person who was sitting in their coffin. "Bertrand?" Ingrid called quietly.

"I'm not arguing again." He told her firmly, he was short and sharp with her.

"I want to say sorry." That got his attention, he closed the book in front of him. The leather bound cover looking up at him 'The Art of War'. It was well worn although he knew it wasn't from Vlad reading it. "I'm sorry, its your choice to be free and…"

She stopped as he sped in front of her. "I'm sorry too." He answered. "I shouldn't have said no so quickly."

"We can be married." Ingrid smiled at him softly, before suggesting Erin's idea. "And mate later on. Its still a commitment to each other." She played with the crest around her neck.

Bertrand smiled at her compromise. Now it was his turn, "I want children." He told her quietly, "But with this…" He gestured to his scar.

Ingrid stroked it like she'd seen Vlad do so many times before to his mate. "They will know their father gave everything to protect their mother's clan. We can wait, wait until you're comfortable with the idea."

"I want them to have the life I never had." He told her, with his parents being killed when he was young then raising his siblings by himself he wanted to provide them with a stable home.

"They will." She told him. "Children don't care about appearances they care about being loved. Love is what matters, look at Erin. Vlad is dead and was dead when she met him but she didn't care. She never saw him as dead because she loved him. Children won't care about your scar, they'll only care about seeing their father."

"I love you." Bertrand told her softly.

Ingrid's throat clenched at his words, "I love you too."

Bertrand leaned down, gently brushing his lips against hers. Ingrid immediately melted into him, having missed this contact with him. He pulled her tighter against him, supporting her weight as he kissed her. Ingrid ran her fingers through the constantly loosening curls of his hair as they kissed, their tongues battling. Ingrid groaned as Bertrand weaved a hand into her hair, clenching it tightly between his fingers.

A light knocking on the door separated them, they didn't jump apart as they might have done before they simply took a small step back from each other. A head poked around the door.

"I need that blood sample." Mina apologised to them, Erin had sent her to ask for it. The quicker it was done the quicker they could begin.

"How long will it take to get the results back?" Ingrid asked her softly.

"A couple of weeks." Vampire DNA was different to their own and without Renfield to speed up the analysis process like before it would take longer.

Bertrand nodded and rolled up his sleeve.

TBC

A/N: Thanks for reading.