Chapter Text
Series 2 Episode 1: Answers, Questions and Kidnappers: Part 1
Vlad was tossed and turned within his bed that night, a nightmare of that night invaded his dreams, dreams of the night he almost lost his father to slayers, the night of the Hunt Ball, images of slayers and vampires overloading his mind.
His eyes snapped. He bolted upright in his bad. His body caked in sweat, his pyjamas clinging to his soaked flesh. His breathing deep and rapidly as he sought to calm himself and convince himself it was all just a dream.
The door to Bloom's coffin swung open, Vlad's gaze shot to the said coffin and was met with the sight of an empty coffin. He felt a hand press down firmly on his shoulder, his head whipped round and he was met with Bloom's concerned expression as she sized him up, sitting on the side of his bed.
"Vlad, are you okay?" Asked the fiery haired vampiress, her tone filled with concern and worry for her younger brother.
"Yeah. It was just a nightmare." Vlad replied; panting, hoping she'd drop it, he'd rather just forget about the whole ordeal.
Bloom then shifted her position so that she and Vlad were fact to face her gaze looked him over once again. Despite his denials Vladimir knew that there was no fooling Bloom, she could smell his fear a mile away and there was little doubt she could both see his pulse pounding in his neck and hear it.
"What was the nightmare about?" Bloom questioned, her eyes locked on Vlad's as she allowed her allure to work its magic, to prevent Vlad from looking away, to lower his defences. She hated to use and even more so on her family but she couldn't let Vlad suffer from a nightmare if she could avoid it.
"It was nothing." Vlad protested, though he was already starting to feel his mental defences fall, while true most vampires can resist the allure of others it was also true Vlad wasn't a full vampire yet and thus was more susceptible to Bloom's allure.
"No it's not, now tell me about it." Bloom insisted; her tone soft and caring, akin to sweet melody. He felt the last of his defences fall.
"It was about the Hunt Ball…of the slayers and vampires, how Vanhelsing had nearly murdered dad." Vlad admitted, his voice's tone akin to one lost in a dream.
"Open your mouth." Bloom instructed Vlad did so, his eyes dilating even more as the constant use of her allure continued to lull him into a near trancelike state.
Bloom peered into the preteen vampire's mouth and was met with the sight of Vlad's fangs, fully extended.
"This isn't good, your fangs are sharpening just from you dreaming about it…then again tonight was very traumatic…Vlad, I want you to look into my eyes, deep into my eyes, I am going to put a psychic block in place to prevent the memory of tonight's events from resurfacing and entering your dreams, or randomly popping up…you will still remember what happened, it just won't be able to affect you in this way." Bloom explained, her tone remaining soft and soothing.
Vlad followed her instruction and soon found himself being lured deeper and deeper into the Bloom's almost reflective blue eyes, drawing him in, consuming his entire being. Bloom's irises ignited with a golden sheen. She placed the block preventing the memory from causing any mental or physical problems, such as sharpening Vlad's fangs while in the open.
Morning…
Bloom headed downstairs and was met with the scene that was Vlad trying convince their father to drop the idea of fighting the slayers, trying to convince him that it was better that they attempted to find peace with the slayers. He wasn't doing too well. The Count quickly won their little fight with his usual 'I am your father speech'.
Vlad released a tired sigh before heading to the table to eat whatever concoction Renfield had prepared for their breakfast. He was already ready for school, he had his books, his lunch and was in his uniform, all he had to do was finish his breakfast, the only problem with his current situation was that if he didn't leave soon he'd be late.
The Count was at all concerned with the fact Vlad might be late for school, then again knowing him Bloom wouldn't doubt him throwing a party should Vlad get in trouble at school. Then again he hadn't seemed to have noticed the time as of yet, seemingly lost in his chipper mood. Ecstatic at the news of two slayers in town and he couldn't wait to face them again. To drain them of their thick, hot, delectable blood. To savour the divine taste of slayer blood while enjoying the satisfaction of it once belonging to a hunter of their kind. Slayers' Blood; a delicacy among vampires that was rarely enjoyed.
School…
Vlad met up with Robin and Chloe after getting a 'lift' to school from Bloom; which consisted of her carrying him and flitting down to school. Chloe wasn't exactly thrilled to see him today.
"And where were you last night? When you're family was trying to drain us of our blood!" Chloe snapped, her voice full of what her father would deem 'attitude' as she placed her hands on her hips, mimicking her mother perfectly.
"I was a little tied up" Vlad replied sheepishly, his eyes widening in surprise of how aggressive Chloe was being.
"So you were too busy to help save my family from been Drained of our Blood." Chloe snapped back at him, stressing the words 'drained' and 'blood'.
"No Vanhelsing tied me to a chair and it wasn't until Bloom came was I untied." Vlad explained, Chloe's features softened, a light blush appearing upon her cheeks, seeming almost apologetic as she lowered her head slightly.
"It won't happen again." Vlad added.
"Vlad…that's a promise you can't keep…you can't be certain of that…I am never setting foot in that castle again and neither should you Robin" Chloe replied almost softly, directing the final part to her older brother before leaving before the vampire obsessed goth could defend his friend.
Meanwhile…
Bloom was currently in the secret room, flicking through the books held within, trying to find the reason as to why her senses had suddenly developed beyond their normal parameters. She pulled out book after book each one dustier than the one before. Searching for her answers, she had discovered many spells, incantations, curses and rituals. And yet she couldn't find an answer to why her senses had evolved so much; why she could smell the slayers with Vlad even when they were in the wood work room, while she was still in the castle.
A combination of a growl and a scream of frustration echoed throughout her throat and escaped her ruby lips as she slammed her hands on the antique table in the centre of the room, now decorated with several piles of dusty books, open at random pages, languages varying from ancient Samarian to Celtic to English.
"What's happening to me?" Bloom growled in frustration to herself. At first she was thankful she could read the multitude of languages though she had her suspicions that, that particular boundary was dealt with by her heritage.
But her understanding of languages was not her problem at the moment. She needed to find answer. There had to be answers, it was then she remembered the day she first discovered the room she currently inhabited. The entity; that voice had told her what she was and had shown her those visions, images of long forgotten memories. Perhaps she could tell her what was happening to her.
Bloom released a tired sigh before lowering herself to sit upon the cold, dusty stone. She crossed her legs and took on a meditative form and closed her eyes, calming her thoughts, quieting the storm of her mind and focusing her instincts.
She searched through her mind, diving deep within herself, attempting to locate some way of contacting the entity from before; searching for that connection, that warm feeling.
"I sense you are troubled Bloom." A soft voice sounded, echoing throughout her mind. Bloom had almost completely dived into her subconscious.
A mental apparition of Bloom materialised within a vast darkness. She quickly turned, glancing all around until finally her eyes landed on the fiery entity, she floated close to her. Gazing upon her from her mask, covering the upper half of her face, a small smile upon her lips her hair pulled up, wearing a golden, flowing dress, her entire form almost completely transparent.
"Yeah, you could say that. What's happening to me? My senses are increasing, my pyro abilities are rapidly evolving, I can roar like a dragon and I turn into a human whenever my 'vampire self' is knocked out." Bloom nearly snapped, the stress of her situation finally coming to surface level, making quotes with her fingers on the words vampire self.
"The source of your power is merging with your vampire side allowing you to summon a dragon of fire and to control it, it also allows you to take on the qualities of a dragon as your inner dragon has also began to merge with you as you are finally beginning to make peace with your human self. And you already know your interesting origins Bloom and now that your powers are activating you have gained the ability of becoming human." The entity replied.
"What is the source of my power and who are you anyway?" Bloom asked, starting to lose her patience with the continuing trend of her not only not knowing what's happening to her body but also who or what this entity is that knew so much about her.
"That is something you must discover on your own and as for who I am the answers lie in your human memories, but a hint I shall provide I am the Nymph of your homeland and was once the guardian of a great power." The entity replied, her voice slowly becoming fainter as she drifted away from the confused and rather agitated vampiress before she had vanished from view entirely.
Bloom's eyes snapped open, her posture faltering slightly. She was exhausted and she didn't entirely understand as to why she was. She rose to her feet and proceeded to exit the room to find she had been in there for hours. She flashed up to her room, upon entering; she briefly checking on her children through their psychic link. Just as she thought they were still asleep, having enjoyed her blood early.
When she turned her attention to the room itself she was met with the sight of Vlad about to climb out the window, using his bed sheets that he'd tied together into a makeshift rope, while Ingrid merely watched on with a knowing smirk.
"What's going?" Bloom questioned, mentally swearing on how she could never walk in on something normal. Vlad glanced up at her, offering her a sheepish smile as he climbed back in through the window to explain the situation, not wanting to risk falling by getting distracted by explaining what had happened.
"Dad locked us in and then went off to face the slayers." Vlad answered, rather quickly.
"Then why not just use Ingrid's skeleton key?" Bloom questioned, briefly glancing to the door (1), Vlad turned his gaze to Ingrid, quickly developing it into glare, her fangs starting to sharpen within his mouth as he felt a familiar tingling sensation. Ingrid ignored the glare and merely held up the key.
"You really are evil." Vlad muttered.
"Why thank you." Ingrid replied with her signature smirk.
Bloom rolled her eyes and with a snap of her fingers the door unlocked and swung open.
"Show off." Ingrid muttered under her breath.
"Sorry I didn't come and get you out earlier I was busy researching and didn't realize how much time had passed…I should have known dad would go bats now that he knows there's a slayer in town." Bloom sneered. She turned on her heel and proceeded to leave the room with Vlad and Ingrid following close behind.
An argument quickly developing between the two on how they could have gotten out earlier, had Ingrid just unlocked the door rather than making Robin climb out the window and watching on as Vlad began his descent. But thankfully, for Bloom the conversation soon changed and they began debating on how they were going to get their father and the adult slayer both to stop fighting, it had been easier when the Count was completely ignorant of the slayers' presence.
When they reached the 'living' room they were met by Eric Vanhelsing, holding a stake, pointed towards the three of them.
"Where's your father?" He questioned, his stake poised to strike the first one of them to move, he had quieted his breathing so to listen in case someone or something was to try and sneak up on him.
"He's gone to Spain to improve his tan you'll know when he's back you'll have a pair of fangs buried into your neck." Ingrid snapped, her tone dripping with sarcasm. Ingrid took a step forward activating one of the traps that Renfield had been setting earlier that day, even though their father insisted that they let the slayer in. This trap was a simple trip wire, she deliberately stepped on it, planning for it to deal with the slayer when all it did was drop a heavy rope net on the three of them.
"Ingrid…did no one ever tell you not to spring an idiot's trap?!" Bloom snapped as she set about trying to remove the net from them only be stopped by their guest as tossed a small handful of garlic powder over them.
The dust burned Bloom's pale flesh, she hissed in pain, baring her fangs as she felt her power start to weaken. She began to lightly smoke where the dust had rested upon her skin, not stopping until she fell unconscious. Renfield then silently entered the room, hearing one of his traps going off, a saucepan in hand, he slowly crept up behind the slayer.
"Mr Vanhelsing can't we settle this, another way?" Vlad pleaded, not noticing the presence of their butler.
"This is the way it goes kid, you're a vampire and I'm a slayer." He replied without remorse, taking a couple steps towards them, knowing that with Bloom unconscious they were helpless.
"What about a truce? No biting no slaying?" Vlad yelled out, Eric paused, this was the last thing he had considered happening, them asking for peace. Then again Bloom had pretty much enforced it through her threats, so it shouldn't have been too surprising that her brother would try it too.
Ingrid took the final step, raising the pan overhead, now only one pace behind the slayer…only to step on into a small circle of rope on the floor, shifting his weight as he prepared to strike and triggering the trap. The rope tightened around his ankle and hoisted him into the air, he screamed in surprise and fright, his vertigo quickly becoming an issue for him as he was hung upside down from the ceiling. Eric turned to face the intruder.
"Renfield you brainless zombie! Can't you do anything right?!" Ingrid screamed.
"Says the girl who deliberately set off his trap." Vlad muttered, earning himself an elbow in the ribs, releasing a small grunt of pain. The slayer returned his gaze to the two of them.
"You tried to trick me." He muttered, internally banishing any concept of peace as he proceeded to drag the Count's children away, after binding the younger twos hands with rope and placed Bloom's wrists in argentalium fang cuffs. Planning to use them as hostages to get the Count to give himself up. He had few delusions that he could take on Count Dracula himself and so had decided he would take a few precautions, such as sending Jonno to his mothers and kidnapping the Count's kids, removing his weakness while using the Count's again him.
Meanwhile…
The Count took on the form of smoke and surrounded the young slayer, Jonno who had decided he would disobey his father's orders to go home to his mother and go back to help his father. He surrounded Jonno, blinding him while making bat like sounds, terrifying him. Jonno spun around trying to figure out where the Count was. He could physically hear his heart pounding in his head as fear continued to take control, not realizing the fog was only around him and it was actually the Count himself.
The count then materialized behind him and brought his arm around his neck with vampiric speed before pulling the small slayer against his him and flashing back up to the castle, planning to have the slayer give himself up, to watch the hope die from his eyes as he drained his blood, making the child watch as he did so.
Once back in the castle he tied the slayer boy up, confident of his victory, until he then saw Renfield caught in his own trap, he clicked his fingers, setting the rope to alight, it was quickly burnt through and Renfield fell to the floor.
"I thought I told you to take down these stupid traps." The Count sneered.
"I was doing just that master when I sorta stumbled into one." Renfield replied.
"Whatever, just get rid of them, and tell Vlad, Ingrid and Bloom to come down, I want to gloat about my ingenious plan." The Count declared, Renfield hesitated a moment before choosing how best to approach the current situation.
"Master Vlad and Mistresses Ingrid and Bloom aren't here right now Master, they are out at the store." He lied.
Meanwhile…
Bloom's head was pounding, her consciousness returning, she felt her head hanging loosely. She winced as she pulled it back, squeezing her eyes as she focused her instincts, the banging subsided, for now. Her eyes snapped open, her blue irises briefly illuminated by a fiery ring around them. Her gaze roamed round and was met with the sight of her younger siblings sat atop a sofa by a table, there arms bound at their sides and their wrists tied together.
She attempted to lift herself from her current sea on a wooden chair only to find herself bound to it by fang cuffs, binding her wrists behind her back.
"Good luck getting out of those vampire, those fang cuffs are made of argentanium, a most interesting alloy, it has this rather useful property of draining vampires of their power. Meaning that you're powerless and trapped." Announced Vanhelsing as he strode past her and into clear view of his three captives. A freshly sharpened stake in his hand, if the heavy scent of wood shavings was anything to go by. He assumed a sea on the opposite side of the table from Vlad and Ingrid, waiting for the Count's servant to explain the situation, for the Count to arrive and give himself up.
TO BE CONTINUED…
(1) For those not familiar with vampires in 'Young Dracula' they have incredible speed, which I have depicted through the use of words such as 'flash' and 'flit'- they can use this speed to go through doors, gates, etc. or just simply turn into smoke and go beneath them, hence it was child play for Bloom to get into the locked room.