Watching Young Dracula is always fun but not always conducive to writing as I just wanna watch the screen and shout KISS at Vlad and Ingrid... I have problems I wholly accept this.
-YD-
The whole Slayer mindwipe and reinstatement hadn't been fantastic for Vlad's friendship with Jonno, but eight years of relative peace and quiet seemed to have repaired a considerable amount of the damage.
"So, I hear you have a vampire problem?"
"You could say that."
Vlad detected an unusually high level of hostility - even for Slayers - around him, and there were questions in Mina and Jonno's eyes.
"What am I missing?"
"We caught the vampires we think are responsible for this whole thing. Dealing with them is more... delicate than we had anticipated."
"Who?"
Jonno sighed, holstered the stake he had been twiddling idly with and gestured for Vlad and his entourage to follow him. He was one of the few who didn't hesitate to turn his back on the Grand High Vampire. As they walked through the UV lights and the thick, cloying smell of argentalium, Vlad picked up on a familiar scent.
Actually. Two.
It couldn't be...
"Adze?"
Pacing around one of two UV cages in the vampire-safe room, Vlad's own wife hissed and growled at the guarding Slayers. When she saw her bloodgroom, she could not have looked more 'caught' if Vlad had been the one to arrest her.
"I realise she's your wife, but she was literally caught feeding on a human family Vlad, you know the rules."
Vlad had never truly hated his wife more than in that moment. He wished for the pure satisfaction of watching her killed with no possibility of backlash - Adze was not immune to the cease-fire rules regardless of her status to Vlad. But...
"You can't."
Jonno frowned and several Slayers reached for their stakes.
"We have to-"
"No, I mean it. You literally can't. Adze is pregnant."
Several slayers faltered, but not all of them.
"You think I care that she's carrying some biter spawn? Two gone for the price of one."
Vlad swept his hand, watched the Slayer struggle to hold his stake until it clattered to the floor. He felt sickened to have to protect the rancid creature he had been forced to bind to, but she was having his child and Vlad had to protect them.
"And if I suggested murdering a pregnant Slayer for attacking vampires unprovoked?" Vlad spotted the wedding ring on the vocal Slayers hand "How about I personally went and killed your pregnant wife myself?"
Thankfully, Mina intervened before the situation could escalate, pushing the irate man backwards so he couldn't get to Adze.
"I don't want to admit it, but Vlad has a point. We would be worse than any biter to kill his child in front of him."
The Slayer blinked, looking over at Vlad.
"His child?"
"That's Adze Dracula nee Ramanga. My wife. My child."
His rapist. His biggest regret after letting Ingrid leave.
"So what do we do with her? Or him, for that matter."
Vlad had all but forgotten the other caged biter - a familiar face of sorts, though from a while ago now.
"Malik? By all means dust him."
Malik growled.
"Wait!"
"In case you hadn't noticed, I'm really rather busy-"
"I'm your brother!"
Vlad raised an eyebrow, wondering if it would be inappropriate to laugh in his face.
"Right. My long lost brother who didn't mention a thing when he was living in Garside Grange."
"Wasn't the right time. My mother wanted to kill you all, but then you became the all powerful yada yada yada and there was an incident with a werewolf... so I hooked up with your wife a couple years back to mess with your life."
"You would hardly be the first."
Several Slayers looked very confused; Malik looked a bit offended.
"What?"
"Adze's fucked her way through half the vampire world. I wasn't even sure her baby was mine at first. Don't go thinking your special Malik. Like me, you're just a means to an end."
"You're lying."
Vlad let out a hollow chuckle as Malik looked at Adze accusingly. Her interest was fixed on her nails, looking bored really.
"Jakob can tell you I'm not. He was one of her victims. I mean, lovers."
He didn't exactly love outing the shambles of his marriage, but it was worth the look on Malik's face as Jakob simply nodded to confirm.
"What? Did she tell you the baby was yours? I can prove it's not here and now."
Everyone watched as Vlad stepped closer to his wife, seperated by UV bars but as he suspected, Adze's eyes lit up in response to Vlad's proximity. The baby recognised their father, power reaching out to power even from within the womb.
"You lied to me!"
Adze merely shrugged, though Vlad recognised the twitching muscle in her cheek as a sign of suppressed anger. Her father did the same thing.
"I'm a vampire?"
Bizarrely, Malik started laughing.
"Unfortunately for you, so am I. I'll tell you everything. Provided it gets her dusted."
Slayers turned to Vlad seeking confirmation that he agreed to those terms.
"The day she gives birth. Jonno, Mina. Want to go cuff him so we can drop the cage?"
They looked uncertain at first, but Malik froze on the spot - Vlad's powers didn't get much of a workout so they responded instantly when he called on them. He would have cuffed Malik himself but even Vlad couldn't just walk through the UV bars.
"Done. Take him next door to be questioned. Anyone who lays a stake on him will be mindwiped by our guest."
Vlad wasn't sure how he felt about Mina using him as a threat, but nodded in agreement when looked upon.
"I'll be along in a minute. The sooner we deal with all this, the better. I have my nephews birthday to get back for."
Almost the instant he assigned Jakob and Mikkel to make sure a Slayer didn't kill his child - the vampires couldn't undo the cage so they couldn't betray him to free Adze either - Jonno took Vlad to one side en route to Malik.
"Nephew? Ingrid has a kid?"
Jonno looked in danger of losing his eyebrows in his hair, the tight curls a little longer and loose over his forehead now.
"Yep. His name is Adam and he's a great kid. Eats peanut butter by the jar."
"I didn't know she was with anyone."
Vlad wondered if what he and Ingrid had counted. It was difficult to say.
"As far as I know, its just her and her son. She and Adam live in my castle now... long story. VHC meddling in my life as ever."
"Was everything you said in there true? About Adze and... well-"
"Yep. You know the binding was only ever for politics. Adze does what she likes and I ignore her indiscretions. That worked great until Ingrid and Adam moved in. Then there was this constant pressure for... anyway. My unlife is very complicated. Let's see what Malik has to say."
Vlad's apparent 'brother' had plenty to say, building a mental image of the plot and people scattered around with a common goal - bring down the Peace.
"Can I talk to my baby bro alone for a minute? You're about to ash me, it's only fair. Dying vamps last wish and all."
Curious, Vlad nodded assent and the Slayers left to check on Adze. Malik's cuffs stayed on - this wasn't about to become a battle.
"Well?"
"Aren't you curious about me being your brother? Even just a little bit?"
The last memory Vlad had regarding Malik was probably when Ingrid fucked him angrily on his bloodbinding day. He'd assumed it was something to do with Malik...
"That's why you turned Ingrid down."
"You knew about that?"
"Suffice to say I paid for it. And I can tell you now that" Vlad leant in closer, ensuring eavesdropping Slayers didn't hear his next words "Ingrid still would have."
He didn't clarify what Ingrid would have done, enjoying the show of confused thoughts and emotions flickering across Malik's face until he clicked, looking at Vlad in a mix of surprise and horrified fascination.
"You... and her?"
Vlad didn't respond to that question, wanting his own answered instead.
"Who's your mother? I'm assuming based on the eyes and hair alone that you're not Magda's son. Plus you don't have the cheekbones to be a Dracula."
"My necklace."
Vlad frowned.
"Your necklace is your mother?"
"No. Look inside it."
Suspicious of some ploy, Vlad circled the table between them and yanked the pendant from Malik's lean throat. The two halves of a locket fell open to reveal two small portraits - one was a woman he didn't recognise. The other was his own father.
"He gave that to my mother as a bloodbinding gift. Then he left her, pregnant and alone. It drove her mad."
"I'll be the first to say Count Dracula won't ever win father of the year, but you haven't answered my question."
Malik sighed, twisting in his cuffs on the uncomfortable seat they gave him.
"Elisabetta. She was married to Arta Dracula, your oldest uncle."
"Never heard of him."
"Check the lineage books. He's there, I guarantee it. He was ashed, and that meant as the next in line the Count was obligated to marry the widow" Malik stopped, then leered eerily "I'd love to see that in action for Adze and Ingrid."
Vlad cringed at the very idea personally.
"A dustbath at the altar. Even if I believed you, which I don't, it changes nothing. You broke the rules of the Peace treaty, freely and willingly. What happens to you is your own fault."
Honestly, Vlad could easily believe his father had gotten someone pregnant and ran off. But Malik was a psychopath, a killer and a sacrifice necessary for the Peace to stand. Tossing the locket back at him, Vlad stretched, adjusted his cape and left the room.
"All yours."
He made a beeline for the room Adze was being kept in, equal parts relieved and disgusted that she was absolutely fine aside from the cage.
"What are we to do with her?"
Mina asked as Vlad leant against the wall next to her, watching Adze skulk around the space with the burning light almost painful to watch.
"She can survive in a UV cage indefinitely so long as she's fed, but I suspect there would come a time where she threatened to step into the light and ash herself, knowing I need to protect my heir. I can't watch her every second of every day and night, and almost anybody I can think of would be at risk of her seducing them to escape. So... I don't know. I am open to suggestions."
Mina hummed, then Jonno sidled up next to them.
"Take me with you. I'll help you watch her."
"That's a nice offer, but since she almost hypnotised and ate you last time you two were alone Jonno..."
"That's a risk we'll have to take. What's the alternative here?"
Vlad shook his head.
"I don't know, but I'm not prepared to put your life on the line here. There's some old prison quarters in my castle from a predecessor who liked to turn Slayers before letting them change and starve to death in there. Lead-lined, big enough for her to live in for a few months. They'll have to do. I have a couple of vamps I actually do trust, I'll work it out."
Jonno nodded as he listened, eyes flicking between Vlad and Adze now and then. Vlad really hoped he wasn't trying to picture the two of them together. He was almost violently sick every time those images seeped into his brain.
"When's she due?"
"A little over... six months I think. Is there to be a Slayer presence at my heirs birth?"
"If you want the Guild as a whole to agree to release your wife into your custody, I think that would be all that pacifies them."
Stretching some kinks out of his back, Vlad rolled his neck side to side in an attempt to relieve the stress-related tension building in those muscles.
"Fair point. What of the other biters I presume were with them?"
"Lets just say we haven't had this many new trophies for a while and leave it at that. Malik's info is going to allow us to finish taking down what's left of the organised groups responsible, and with any luck this will all be dealt with in time for Christmas. Bats, lets be optimistic and say Halloween."
Vlad couldn't help chuckling a little at Jonno, thankful someone was as committed to only culling where necessary to save coexistence without reigniting the war between species.
"So, do we need to stay or are you happy to do the clean up while I take my wife home?"
Jonno glanced down at his watch, reaching up to click on the backlight of it's face.
"You better had go, you'll lose the dark if you don't leave now."
"Want to do the honours?"
Grinning, the slayer stepped into Adze's UV cage and placed argentalium shackles upon her wrists. He made a quick exit afterward, then the UV cage was cancelled. Swallowing his revulsion, Vlad took hold of Adze by the elbow without looking at her. She still made him sick.
"I'm flying out, she can't struggle in my bat form."
"That sounds creepy, but sure. I'll even carry you. Oh, wait" Jonno pulled out the locket Vlad had tossed back to Malik "he insisted you have this. Wouldn't shut up about it."
He took it, concerned for time. Vlad transformed, letting Jonno transport the bat holding two vampires within outside. Jakob and Mikkel joined him, the flight back absolute torture as Vlad could smell Adze, taste her scent on every breath with their energy so entwined. It felt hideously wrong to do so, even with the melding of them growing within her stomach.
When they landed outside his castle, Vlad dismissed them both with sworn silence.
"Not a word. I'll decide how this comes out. Don't forget, the adultery laws are still on our books Jakob."
A wince told Vlad his threat hit home, and with a deep breath Vlad hauled his shackled wife inside the castle. It was going to be a very long few months.
-YD-
Well, where did you think Adze spent all her time?