We've officially overtaken Argentalium Bones. Suck it! Hmm… Not quite sure why I felt the need to say that but meh…

Chapter Fourteen - Blame

Jonno's heart struggled to beat. The organ had been frozen, a layer of dread being just as effective as the icy waters of the Arctic. Ingrid's expression was dead serious as she recounted her brother's actions. No smirk quirked at the corners of her scarlet lips as Jonno's face lost its entire colour and her tone remained evenly blank.

Jonno wondered how he'd stepped into this world. It couldn't be his; Vlad would never harm a human yet he was yanking them off the streets, either leaving them in pieces or like him. His brown eyes focussed on Ingrid's. Her eyes were full of ice. Frozen emotions, locked in eternity as a coldness to serve as a warning to all those who tried to reach her heart; it would not thaw.

Then when he saw the small flecks of fear, he felt rage.

He pushed her away harshly with a snarl of "you did this!"

She regained her footing quickly with a vampiric grace that humans could never match. "I think I just covered that it was Vlad who did this." Her expression didn't change in the slightest, Jonno's anger furthered.

"No, you did." Fire shone through his whiskey irises and Ingrid shifted slightly as if the furious light might burn her. "You got them to take him!" He turned away from the vampiress, unable to stand the sight of her any longer. "All for some damn promotion!"

When he turned back around Ingrid's expression was much the same, perhaps a little more sobered. "It doesn't matter how we got into this situation," She replied in clipped tones, "it's how we get out alive."

"Yeah," Jonno muttered bitterly, "alive."

"We restore his soul!" When Jonno bought back Ingrid to their flat Robin was ecstatic despite the knowledge of Vlad's diabolical plan, and they still didn't know the aim! Robin's face was a picture of excited glee while in contrast, Jonno and Ingrid looked like they'd just watched a kitten get skinned alive.

Jonno glanced uncomfortably at the vampiress beside him. It was a foolish idea to invite her in and he was sure he would regret it once this was all over. If it did blow over.

"We what?" This idea seemed to piss Ingrid off just a little. Probably because her suggestion was to kill Vlad but neither Jonno nor Robin thought Vlad deserved that just yet. Or Robin didn't. Everything slayerish in Jonno was howling at him to team up with Ingrid and destroy the Chosen One but everything that had been friends with Vlad wished for a chance.

"You know, they took his soul out…" Robin did a little gesture with his hands that didn't look like what it was meant to and appeared horribly wrong. "We just stuff it back in there!"

Jonno's lips curved into a content grimace. Then the humans looked at Ingrid. She stared back with an irritated expression. "What?"

"What did Vlad do with his soul?" Ingrid thought for a moment then opened her mouth to reply. Jonno zoned out and allowed Robin to take charge of the situation.

It was odd, Jonno decided. For the last two years it had felt like he'd had the weight of the whole damn world on his shoulders, between having to redeem the Van Helsings and being the Guild's golden boy as well as trying to be friends with Vlad had drained him (pun intended). He hadn't been able to just let go and let someone else take the reins.

The vampire slayers' thoughts drifted to Vlad as Ingrid and Robin devised their genius plan. Who was the vampire really? He'd always seen Vlad as a compassionate human in essence, not the abomination other vampires saw him as. But he had been a half vampire the whole time… What if truly Vlad was simply a vampire? The humanity he had was simply a result of his genes and it was obvious that without it the person he knew was a monster.

Jonno stopped his line of thought and looked to Ingrid and Robin.

"Do we know where the witch who removed his soul is?" He ran a hand over his hair. "It would help if we knew how to replace his soul…"

Robin looked puzzled but Ingrid provided a solution. She pulled a slip of paper from the folds within her dress and laid it on the end table they were crowded around.

"Vlad had left it lying on his desk and I figured it could be used against him," Ingrid explained.

It was an address in lower class London. Ingrid glanced out the window; there were a couple of hours left in the night for their road trip. She didn't appreciate her new allies but they could topple her brother yet. Ingrid would've been delighted in her brother's change in behaviour apart from his change regarding her. He didn't want her allegiance. All he wanted was her out of his way.

Now like many times before, Ingrid wanted him dead.

Totally ignoring whatever Robin and the slayer had just been saying Ingrid got to her feet. "Yeah, great, whatever," They blinked at her as she roughly pulled them to her feet. "We're leaving."

She snatched Jonno's arm and they vanished in a flurry of air. The vampire slayer would feel horrific when they stopped as this trip due to its length took about five minutes at its fastest. When they arrived she left the slayer dry heaving then went back to fetch Robin.

Soon she had two humans tossing their cookies outside a witch's house.

She huffed impatiently as the putrid scent of human stomach acids attacked her enhanced nostrils. Eventually the pair of humans finished empting their bowls and Ingrid turned back to the house, searching for the witch in the windows.

But she was already outside, tracking across the glass to reach them.