Vlad awoke in the training room with a thirst like he had never felt before. His hands immediately went to his neck which was writhing with pain and his eyes bounced around the room, desperate for relief. In the corner of the room stood a lone bottle of blood, the lid removed. Ingrid ... he thought. That cunning bitch! However, the more Vlad thought about it, the more he realised that - yes Ingrid was doing this on purpose - but - actually he didn't mind.
Vlad had finished the whole bottle before he gave it more thought. Instantly he was relieved, his thirst was gone and his head was clear. Drinking blood made Vlad feel stronger, more in control and he started to wonder why he had resisted it all this time. He didn't have to kill for it, he still wasn't biting innocent people. Yes, not all blood was sourced ethically ... but that would be another battle.
"Evening" said Ingrid as she entered the room, eyes immediately darting towards the empty bottle next to Vlad and her eyebrows raising.
"What do you want" Vlad answered.
"I just wanted to check in on my little brother and see if he was a real vampire yet, clearly things are improving" she stated as she pointed to the bottle.
Vlad did not respond, he just started blankly into Ingrids eyes.
"I knew one day that you would come to your senses, finally the day has come. So are you finally going to drop the whole peace thing with the VHC? I know you no longer enforce no biting but the whole 'try not to bite and if you do, don't do it too much' thing is stupid and weak ruling."
"Are you calling me stupid and weak?" Replied Vlad calmly.
"Stop changing the topic!" Ingrid responded quickly. "You agree that Vampires need blood to survive and not stupid alternatives?"
"Yes" Vlad replied confidently without a second thought.
"So then vampires can go back to normal, their rightful place in society" replied Ingrid.
"No." Vlad replied, his eyes flashing black so quickly it could be missed, but Ingrid noticed.
"Easy there Vlad, I'll ask you again in a few days, help yourself in the cellar" Ingrid smirked at Vlad and whooshed out the room, leaving Vlad alone.
Vlad spent his day researching about blood farms and sourcing of blood, helping himself occasionally to the a bottle or two from the blood cellar. Talitha stopped by to check in on Vlad but noticing what he was researching, decided to give him some space. Ingrid was not seen until the following day at the VHC.
"Good Evening Gentlemen" responded Roquelaire, as all the members of the VHC took their places at the table.
"and Lady" added Ingrid, tired that every meeting she had to correct him.
Every member of the VHC had an empty glass in front of them that that waiters began to fill with blood. When a waiter approached Vlad with soy blood, Vlad covered his glass and shook his head at the waiter. Every member of the table looked at either Vlad or the glass, afraid of saying anything.
Vlad looked up, uncomfortably at everyone around the table and decided that he was just going to tell the waiter that he didn't want anything at all to drink ... until ...
"Excuse me Paul. Can you pour my dear brother a glass of this delicious red you poured me. Thank you dearly" said Ingrid, addressing the waiter by name, something none of the other members, including Vlad, did.
Vlad looked deeply into Ingrid's eyes, clearly disgusted but also slightly relieved.
"You're welcome ... chosen one" Ingrid said clearly, to irritate her brother.
Before Vlad considered his response, his glass was full and everyone on the table was staring at it with Alexander showing a very visible smirk.
Not wanting to drink at this moment, not wanting to drink at all under this many eyes, Vlad attempted to change the subject.
"So Roquelaire, anything specific on the agenda today?" Responded Vlad.
"Erm" Roquelaire said, pulling out his folder and stumbling through his paperwork.
"Yes, just one thing, so you're drinking blood now ... human blood?" Quickly remarked Barty.
The room feel silence, everyone staring at either Barty or Vlad.
Vlad considered for a few moments what to respond, while everyone waited, not wanting to talk next and desperate to see how Vlad would respond. Vlad realised that whenever he addressed this, it would be awkward.
Therefore, Vlad picked up his glass and slowly drank it all, letting everyone watch him and take it in. No one spoke a word.
Vlad put down his glass slowly and gently.
"Yes" he said.
Hack and Roquelaire exchanged glances while Ingrid was smirking at her brother.
"Do any of you have a problem with that?" He added.
"No" everyone murmured in response, knowing how Vlad would likely respond if they did express concerns.
"Right then, well since no one has brought up anything else, I have an issue I wish to bring to the table"
Stunned, everyone listened.
"It has come to my attention that there are hardly any laws or even advice on how blood is gathered, contained, maintained, anything. The whole process of bottling blood is the most unorganised thing I have ever seen. Aside from the laws about registering your factory, do we actively do anything else? George Lansley farm was unregistered and therefore illegal but had it been registered, had he been more discreet, would it have been allowed?" Stated Vlad.
"You say George Lansley ran this breather farm but did we not establish 2 years ago that you killed him and that there is no proof it was his farm?" responded Hack.
Lightening struck in front of Hacks face.
"You dare call me a liar, again" responded Vlad
"Simply stating fact ... your highness" Hack said, in an attempt to save himself.
"Whatever you all think about Lansley is beside the point and deflecting on my question and point made. I don't doubt that half or all of you probably knew of his farm and used it but as your leader, I am here asking about our laws and what we do or do not allow" responded Vlad crossly.
"You are right Vlad, we only have laws in place about registering factories that supply blood and Barty and myself have a team that visits these factories every decade" responded Alexander.
"While that is very concerning, thank you for being honest Alexander. Next week, I would like a full report from every one of you about your team and any involvement it has with blood, collection, bottling, maintaining, anything at all. I will analyse these and we will then meet shortly after to discuss next steps. I believe ethical sourcing is vitally important and while it isn't the exact peace I have previously preached, it is certainly better than nothing. If vampires must drink blood to be healthy and sustain their lifestyle, then we must do our best to reduce the impact the collection process has."
Some of the members looked annoyed by Vlad's remarks, it was always the same with Vlad, he wanted to be ethical, he wanted peace, he wanted things a vampire should not want. However, Roquelaire looked quite impressed, Vlad was moving forward and was thinking critically.
They all nodded at Vlad, some reluctantly and the meeting continued with their regular tasks.
Vlad's glass was refilled the most out of anyone else in the meeting and the other members did their best to hide their reactions to it.
Hey, thank you for reading this latest update. I don't have a very strong plan for this story, I'm just going with the flow and building on ideas. I personally feel Vlad will always be a good vampire but he is still a vampire and I am trying to reflect that. I do agree with all the comments made about Talitha, she doesn't fit Vlad however she is important to him and you can see that in Season 5. It's also hard because Young Dracula is PG so they don't explore the romantic relationships as much as we would all like, so Talitha is left pretty undeveloped. This certainly makes it easier for me to split them up!, but will I ... you will have to see :)
In regard to the breather farms, they are so lightly touched upon in the series. I rewatched the clips in Bootiful Breathers where Lansley's farm is discovered and destroyed and they barely said anything about law, just that it was a breather farm and that it's disgusting and that it's behind the scenes with some of the council supporting it. So I am building the concept from the ground up here, with the concept about registering made up but also the most logical explanation I can think of ... because they obviously get the blood from somewhere and again with it being PG this is not explored.
Let me know what you think of this chapter and if you have any suggestions. Again, as I said, I have ideas and concepts I wish to explore but I can be easily guided.