So…. Quite a gap between this chapter and the last… :/ Sorry..
I would tell you that my evil brother stole my laptop so he could take over the world and I had to climb across a pit of lava and a crocodile infested swimming pool to get my laptop back and save everyone but I guess you want the truth yes?
It's a very infectious and potent disease called laziness. It was back to education, work and homework and I really just couldn't get in the mood :/
Sorry.. :/
On brighter news: my birthday was on Saturday!
Well enough about me, on with the chapter!
Warnings: Rude language.
Despite the discipline and seriousness of the guild gossip still spread like wildfire and the news that the Chosen One's sister had savaged Mina Van Helsing was juicy as well as enraging. The news of Ingrid's execution was also circling by way of the rumour mill and many wondered how cold blooded Vlad must have been to kill his own sister but Jonno knew Vlad was just as soft as any human despite Ingrid's death, he couldn't remember the affair that well but Ingrid was dead and it had been by Vlad's hands.
That's why he didn't hold Mina's death against the Chosen One, yes he was grieving, oh he was grieving and would be for a while but Jonno also knew that Vlad was grieving his sister's death; he hadn't wanted to kill Ingrid but he did it for the sake of peace and Jonno respected that.
What really irked Jonno though, were the people who felt the need to talk to him about the incident. It was a very private affair as Jonno had wanted it to be and only the five council members should've known about the circumstances of Mina's death. Yet most of the guild hadn't even bothered to pretend they hadn't known of the older slayer's demise meaning one of the council members had squealed.
Jonno sighed giving one last scathing look to the guild as he climbed in his Ford and turned the ignition. He wondered how Garside grange was getting on with no Ingrid. If he was honest, probably a lot better.
He pulled up on the drive and climbed out of his car, being a Saturday there was no one in school but he could still see Renfield fiddling around inside. It was beautiful day for England and the sun shone right into the courtyard lighting up every alcove and gap. The Dracula's were probably all hiding in their rooms because of this.
He banged his arm on the wooden door at the base of the courtyard and Renfield's silhouette disappeared from the window he'd been working in.
A minute or two later the door opened and Jonno shuffled uncomfortably under Renfield's scowl. The slayer found it strange that Renfield considered himself above the guild despite the fact that vampires respected them more than anyone had ever respected the servant.
"I'm looking for Vlad." He said and Renfield scowled. Jonno wondered if Vlad had offered the servant a break from working again; last time the pungent Renfield had been seriously offended by the nicety.
"Come in." The servant said gruffly. "He's upstairs."
He screwed up the ball of paper resting on the table and threw it in the general direction of the fire, he had a feeling it missed. He couldn't think of a way to explain the destruction of the school, Erin's disappearance and Malik's disappearance to Ms McCauley. He would've much preferred to tell her the truth and leave her un-hypnotised but it was obvious that seeing them in that way damaged her so he'd made her forget and intended to keep it that way. Maybe he should just hypnotise her about that too, but he'd heard that too much hypnosis could confuse and potentially damage the breather in question. He snatched another sheet of paper from the pile they kept in the throne room and began scrawling another excuse.
As his pen hovered over the paper eagerly a brilliant idea flew into his head and he started to write.
Jonno came in led by Renfield and the perfect excuse flew out of his head forgotten.
"Jonno," He greeted the slayer with a smile while telepathically warning Ingrid to stay out the throne room because of the slayer's arrival. "How are you? Are you… recovering alright?"
Jonno gave Vlad an unsteady smile and sat down on the sofa opposite the table. "I'm doing alright. Ingrid really did a number on the flat though, the bitch stuck organs in all the cupboards…" He looked at his feet and Vlad winced at the derogatory word referring to Ingrid. "I'm staying at the guild barracks right now… until I can find other living arrangements."
Vlad felt a flash of guilt at his deception but despite the crimes that Ingrid had committed, she was his sister and he would always find some way to forgive her.
But he wasn't quite sure if that was true when Ingrid walked in her crimson lips pulled into a devilish smirk.
To put it lightly, Jonno exploded. "You lied!" He exclaimed his face in an expression of pure betrayal. The mind wipe had apparently slid right off due to slayer hypnosis training.
"Jonno…." Vlad began in soothing tone but the slayer wasn't having it.
"She!" He pointed at Ingrid who was grinning manically. "Is still alive and you! You hypnotised me!" Vlad blanched as Jonno took a deep breath for another rant. "Does the treaty matter to you at all?!"
"Yes! But! Ingrid! She's my sister!" Vlad had no other excuse.
"She MURDERED MY MOTHER!" The slayer yelled.
"You don't understand!" Vlad argued. "You haven't got any family left!" The second the words left his mouth he knew he'd made a mistake. The slayer looked like he'd been stabbed with his own stake.
"The treaty is over." Jonno said his voice hollow and cold.
"Come on," Vlad growled. "You can't do this just because we disagreed!" The slayer spun round his brown eyes lit with fury.
"You think I'm doing this just because you and I argued? No, this is because you hypnotised me and she isn't dead!" He slammed his fist down on the table. "You keep making exceptions for your family and its cost me mine!"
Then the last remaining Van Helsing stormed from the room.
Vlad froze, unsure of how to react. The treaty was ruined for good this time and it was no accident. The paralytic shock faded as Vlad wheeled round to face Ingrid his face curled into a snarl.
Ice met ice as the two Dracula's stared each other down.
"I told you not to come in!" Vlad hissed and Ingrid glared back unimpressed. "The only reason you unlived through killing Mina was because I broke the treaty to secure your survival!" He slammed his palm down onto the mahogany table with a heaving sigh. "And what do you do? You not only ignore my instructions but you rub it in Jonno's face!"
Ingrid raised a sceptical eyebrow and her lips curled into a smirk resembling the sneer she'd given Jonno. "It was going to happen anyway," She said nonchalantly and Vlad's eyebrows somehow narrowed further.
"It wouldn't if you didn't continuously botch up the treaty!" He growled at her but she seemed to find his anger amusing, a completely different story than the previous night where she and he had a shouting match.
As if reading his mind she responded to his unsaid question. "I only over did the drama yesterday because I thought you might realise that the slayers won't stop trying to destroy us and as for botching up the treaty, the slayers will do that when they attack." Vlad gritted his teeth.
"I would know if Jonno was lying to me." And he would; before Bertrand's untimely demise he had taught Vlad had sense breathers that lied via their pulse rate, heart beat and breathing. All the time Vlad had been working with Jonno he'd been honest.
"You are an idiot brother. You think just because Jonno doesn't know that his superiors aren't planning to eradicate us." Ingrid's cool composure broke briefly as she scowled at Vlad's apparent idiocy. "If you don't sort the slayers out, I think I will." She turned to walk away but Vlad snatched her wrist and she span to wrench her arm from his vice-like grip. Vlad's eyes glowed yellow as he glared into his sisters angry crimson ones.
"Sorry about this sis," He murmured as Ingrid furious gaze turned blank.
Ingrid was meant to be destroying the treaty with a devious plan, she'd intended to five times but every time she'd attempted to leave she'd ended up back in the throne room somehow.
She scowled, Vlad had gone to try and repair the treaty and he probably wouldn't have left without finding some way of keeping Ingrid there and that was probably why she was unable to escape the school.
There were only so many hours in the night and Ingrid intended to further fracture the treaty before they all passed. She made her way down the empty corridors of the school that in the day would be teaming with students, she reached the door. This was always where she ended up back in the room where she started.
She made to open the door. Her hand curled round the polished brass handle. Her brain told her hand to twist.
Her hand didn't move. Ingrid's brow furrowed as she attempted to fathom why her hand refused to obey her orders.
You must not leave Garside Grange.
The ghostly whisper floated in her mind, she couldn't remember who'd said it to her but she couldn't leave and that was why her hand refused to listen to the instructions given.
She scowled at the door for a moment.
"You win this time but I have a way around you," She told it seriously her eyes flashing with a devious shine.
As she turned to go back upstairs she wondered why she was be talking to a door.
Lacey Williams, the instant she heard her Mistress calling, headed to Ingrid's room. Lacey was one of the remaining members of VP (vampiress liberation) and she was proud to have survived Vladimir Dracula's attack on them.
She hadn't spoken to Ingrid properly in over a year since the VP took a terrible blow from their foe and Ingrid had told her to stay in contact but lay low. Lacey was finally going to be instructed on how best to take down the enemy.
Her dauntless leader didn't look so indomitable though. Dark shadows and creases in her pale youthful face exposed the transformation that she'd taken during Lacey's year of going to ground. Lacey wished she'd been there to soothe the blows that had aged her so.
"You wanted me?" Her voice felt hoarse and unused as she spoke the first words she said to the apex of her life in a whole year.
As Ingrid's ice blue eyes rested on Lacey she felt inadequate and realised she should have prepared herself for this meeting. Her hair was too light and her makeup too flushed.
Ingrid did not apparently see or sense any of this internal discomfort but scowled at Lacey's short form.
"You are apparently the only one left." Her voice was like a choir of angels singing to Lacey in a dark symphony. "So you will be finishing my work." Lacey's unbeating heart swelled with pride at being the one to continue and complete Ingrid's work.
"Go to the Slayer's Guild and kill everyone; don't stop until you're dead."