Thank you to Jessilee1027 and ShadowVampireGirl for your kind reviews.

I've tried this before but I'm trying again – I'm going to upload on a specific day, every Sunday at 8pm GMT or around that time. This will hopefully mean I upload without fail rather than having large gaps between posts. :)

"You let a vampire go?!" Colonel Evans had a fury worthy of Count Dracula when his slayers screwed up.

Jonno shrank back at the rage directed at him and responded with justified argument. "She helped us! It was part of our deal!"

"Do I need to remind you that given half the chance she would be sucking on her throats?!" The Colonel perhaps was right but Jonno's moral compass protested against killing Erin.

"If we behave as they do it makes us no better than them!" Jonno paled slightly at the cliché of his remark.

Evans frowned at Jonno for second. "I think this is an emotional matter."

"What?"

The slayer patted Jonno on the shoulder. "It's not uncommon knowledge that you liked the vampire before she died."

"Are you saying I cut Erin loose because I had a crush on her?"

"Am I wrong?"

"Yes!" Jonno could not believe what he was hearing – Evans couldn't possibly be suggesting that the Van Helsing, a victim of Erin's tricks, was fulfilling their deal because a fondness towards her. "I let Erin go because she completed her end of the deal!"

The Colonel gave Jonno a look of pity that sparked rage in the youth's heart and said, "I'm sorry Jonno but I just can't trust your word on this."

This prompted immediate protest. "You can't seriously be saying this…"

"Don't argue."

Jonno scowled, how could he not disagree? He opened his mouth to snap an argument-

"-I said don't argue!" His eyes flashed angrily. "I'm putting you on pause. Go back to main guild and take a refresher course."

Jonno gaped at the audacity of the Colonel's order. He was not emotionally compromised like the man was suggesting.

"I'm not-!"

Evans considered him. "Let the guild be the judge of that."

Vlad was resting on the sofa in the throne room, eyes closed. He was awake and he could hear faint murmurs of conversation around him but he struggled to concentrate. He felt like he was underwater; sound became inaudible echoes; when he had his eyes open the environment rippled around him and he was so heavily weighed down.

He felt maybe he was recovering but as the passing of days had left him drifting in and out of consciousness he couldn't be sure. Ingrid had been shockingly kind to him; she'd brought him blood on a regular basis (he couldn't be sure it was soy but he was too out of it to care). He tried to work out her motives, but he could identify no key reason for her, dare he say it, thoughtful behaviour.

Renfield was also a regular visitor; he was trying to work out what had caused Vlad's health issues, Vlad was so fuzzed he couldn't even remember what those issues were.

Then he received a visitor he didn't expect.

Alex McCauley was settled on a chair beside where he was resting, looking slightly pale.

"Hi…" Vlad coughed slightly but managed palpable speech.

"You look better." The teacher commented, "But I don't suppose you're feeling any better."

The reason for Vlad's improved appearance was the fact that his outward exterior was blood free; courtesy of a basin and towel Ingrid had left with him for several hours. But she was right in saying that he felt no better.

He felt a millennium older; a soul-deep weariness had crept through his skin and left him feeling like his bones were made of rock. He shrugged. "I've forgotten what feeling fine is."

The teacher sighed. "Your sister and Mr -sorry- the Count told me about everything..."

Vlad swallowed. "So I guess you're on board with the whole 'vampire' thing?"

"Just about." The teacher nodded before her expression withered, turning solemn and pitiful. It irked the young vampire. "They told me about Erin."

"Oh." That. He had mainly avoided thinking about the instrument of his torment and tried to ignore the realisation that she must have really hated him if she conspired with slayers, whom she hated even before she became a vampire.

Miss McCauley's eyes conveyed a deep empathy as she softly asked, "do you want to discuss it?" She looked around "I know you can't really talk to the rest of your family about this."

Vlad hated the sympathetic look she was giving him and shrugged. "She hates me so much that she'd rather work with people that would kill her rather than leave me be." Vlad stared into the teacher's hazel eyes and narrowed his own. "There is no way past that."

The headmistress swallowed, possibly realising the conclusion Vlad had just voiced. "Just because Erin is holding onto things doesn't mean you have to." She touched his hand reassuringly. "You both did wrong but moving on is the only way to redeem that and if Erin can't let go… She's not the student I thought she was."

Vlad nodded, wondering whether or not to mention that the reason Erin wasn't the kind soul she had been was because of him. He didn't.

His eyes flicked to the teacher and he told her with a stiff jaw, "I doubt it will be over until one of us is dead."

The young vampire had no idea how accurate his bitter comment would prove to be.

Jonno stood at the door to the guild's gym with a distinctly puzzled expression on his face. The sports area of the slayer's guild had never been busier, Jonno didn't even know that the guild had this many people.

The last time the Van Helsing had seen this many individuals was the last time he went to Garside Grange in open hours. Every piece of equipment was in use and a large number of people were practising slayer maneuverers without anything other than what they were carrying.

He approached a slayer whose fist was repeatedly slamming into a hard straw dummy and opened his mouth to speak when he heard a voice behind him.

"Is it true that you," Jonno spun around to face a group of slayers that looked way too new, "a Van Helsing, let a vampire go because you had a crush on it?"

The nosy, inquiring tone tickled Jonno's nerves and made him feel rather insulted. "No I didn't."

A tall blonde, who was obviously in charge of the group, titled her head at him. "So you didn't let the vampire go?"

"I did…" The slayer Jonno had been intending to talk to was now watching the exchange.

"Why would you let that back into the world?" Despite his growing anger, Jonno felt a tiny bit amused by the fact that the slayer interrogating him looked remarkably like Erin with her fair skin and green eyes.

"She assisted us in capturing-"

The Erin-lookalike cut in him off. "She?!" She smiled in a condescending manner. "Don't you remember they're not people?"

More people were looking at them.

Jonno realised his mistake "I-"

"I would've thought you would understand considering…"

Her patronising tone finally hit somewhere painful and Jonno's eyebrows narrowed at the angle their discussion was taking. His voice was sharp as he answered. "Considering what?"

"Well the fact that your parents were killed by vampires." It was said so uncaringly, so nonchalantly that had Jonno not been so angry he would've wondered what had happened to let slayers become as nasty as what they hunted but at present he could only hear and think of the blood rushing in his ears.

And the crack of his knuckles as they collided with a feminine jaw.

Hopefully I will be seeing you next Sunday :)