Despite the fact that an evil old witch had just tried to drain her vampire's blood, Erin had never felt better. It probably had something to do with the fact that she was kissing said vampire, but anyway.

Vlad pushed her lightly up against the wall as he pressed his cool lips to hers passionately, his hand curved around her waist. Then much to Erin's displeasure he pulled away and looked at her quizzically. 'What are you smiling at?'

Erin's grin widened as she grabbed his hand and started walking down the corridor, pulling him behind her. 'Well, I'm relieved that you are alive for one thing.'

'That smile is more than relief. You look like you've just won the lottery.'

'Well, I'm happy! And... I think I love you,' Erin said, smiling timidly now.

Vlad stopped in his tracks and quickly pulled her into his arms. Her heart missed a beat as he kissed her again, and she flung her arms around his neck, both of them smiling now as they held each other close.

'Ahem!' they both jumped apart at the sharp female's voice, and looking to the end of the corridor saw Mina Van Helsing standing with her arms folded and a disapproving look on her face.

'Everyone's gathered in the throne room, if you two would care to join us?'

Erin nodded, feeling slightly embarrassed. Mina had expressed her dislike of Vlad and Erin's vampire-slayer relationship on more than one occasion, and her look was as cold as stone as they neared her.

Erin felt awkward, but relaxed a bit as she felt her boyfriends hand in hers. As they passed Vlad flashed his eyes at Mina defiantly and fixed a huge grin onto his face. Mina stepped back as they passed, her expression as unreadable as Renfield's hand-written biography 'A Butler's Battle with Life' (Which had only consisted of about eight pages, but still nearly made Bertrand violently sick). She followed them into the throne room where Ingrid, the Count, Jonno and Renfield were having a heated discussion.

'Well, I knew they existed!' exclaimed the Count as he sat in his throne with his legs resting over the edge. ' I had a dramatic encounter with a hoard of witches on my last trip to the Carpathian Mountains.'

'And you never thought to mention them!' Jonno said, exasperated. Vlad and Erin sat down opposite the young slayer whilst Mina went and stood behind him.

'No, he couldn't,' said Renfield as he dusted the soup spoons. 'They put a spell on him. 'If thou ever enlightens another soul to our existence, what thou loves most shall wither and die!'' The whole room looked at Renfield in bewilderment. 'Their words not mine!' the butler added as he tipped a third layer of dust over the cutlery.

'And you believed those old cauldron stirrers?' Ingrid asked with a sneer.

'Well, it wasn't a risk I was willing to take! You know how much pride I have in my head of beautiful locks. To see them wither and die would be...' and he finished his sentence with a nervous gulp, earning a sympathetic pat from Renfield.

'Hang on, you couldn't tell us, but you told Renfield?' Erin asked suspiciously.

'Renfield? Oh, he knew already.'

'How?' asked Mina.

'His mother was a witch of course! Where else did you imagine he inherited his astoundingly sickening looks.'

'Boils don't breed themselves,' Renfield chipped in with a nod.

Whilst the rest of the family tried to process this piece of information Bertrand entered the throne room with a flounce. 'I've done it! I've given it up! From now on its soy blood or nothing!'

Ingrid rolled her eyes and fixed the tutor with a condescending look. 'Oh good. You know, we were all worried about your health for a second there.'

Bertrand ignored her sarcastic remarks and turned towards the Count. 'Aren't you pleased?'

'Well, of course I am! You've nearly drained me dry; my blood cellar looks as bare as a waxed werewolf!'

'And I thought I should tell you Count, I've just sorted out all the paperwork with Miss Macaulay. I am now officially the new Head of Art at Garside Grange!'

'Er, why?' Ingrid asked bluntly.

'Well, I don't want anyone, even you Ingrid, doubting how good I am at teaching. From now on...'

Ingrid interrupted him with a laugh. 'Teaching art? 'Oh, Here you go class!'' she said, in a surprisingly accurate imitation of Bertrand's voice. ''I'll teach you all how to paint! This is called a brush. First you dip it in this funny runny stuff called paint and...''

'Ingrid! I think Bertrand will make a good art teacher, provided he limits his consumption of slayer blood,' Erin said, with an agreeing nod from the Van Helsings.

The Count butted into the conversation, a troubled look on his face. 'Yes, yes, that's brilliant Bertrand! But I still haven't decided what to do with the old art teacher yet.'

'Oh, I wouldn't worry about that,' Ingrid said, a wicked smile on her face.

'Ingrid, what have you done? Despite being a witch... being a bit different, she is still a human with a pulse, and therefore our responsibility...'

'Oh put a stake in it, Mina,' Ingrid said viciously. 'Mrs Mord will be perfectly safe in Umbrage's Asylum for the Unhinged.' Ingrid looked around at the appalled faces sitting around the table. 'What!? It's the best place for her. And I know a guy who knows a guy. They came and picked her up about an hour ago... problem solved!'

'You ungrateful little wretch!' the Count exclaimed. 'I was going to donate her to the Transylvanian testing laboratory. They're always looked for new creatures to dissect, and witches are very hard to come by!'

The appalled faces in the room had turned to that of horror.

'What!? I like to do my bit to help science, and they're always looking for charity from kind strangers. Plus, if you donate you get a free bat grooming set! I've always wanted one...'

'Both of you are mad!' Erin said, earning a nod of agreement from Jonno. Erin looked at Vlad, who up to this point had been very quiet.

'Well, to be honest, I don't know what else we could of done with her,' Vlad said shrugging.

Mina frowned deeply at him. 'So that's it is it? The situations solved, time to drink some more blood and play some more at being humans!'

Vlad narrowed his eyes at her. 'It's the best thing for everyone.'

'If you wanted to put her into a mental home I don't know why you didn't just keep her here. She would fit right in!' said the stern faced slayer, clutching the back of Jonno's chair tightly.

'You better watch it breather,' Ingrid said coldly. 'Umbrage's Asylum is only a phone call away.'

'Yes... and just what do you mean by those remarks, Mina?' asked the Count, as cool as a cold coffin.

'Oh come on!' Mina exclaimed, throwing her arms up in the air. 'You're all as mad as each other,' and she pointed to each of them in turn. 'Your 'family' consists of: a drunk teacher; a lumbering oaf who eats his own vomit; a slayer girl who's kidding herself that she is in love; a girl who takes pleasure in causing misery and sadness where ever she goes; an evil bloodsucking, self-centred old bat who calls himself a Prince and a teenage vampire who pretends to be the good one, when in actual fact he's more manipulative than the rest of you put together!'

'How dare you, you ugly old bint!' Ingrid exclaimed, standing up. 'I'm the manipulative one!'

'Who are you to question our relationship?' Erin said, also standing up.

'Oh, come on. That evil and cunning 'Chosen One' of yours has his own agenda, and you're naive not to see it.'

'Mum, what's gotten into you?' Jonno asked quietly.

'Yes, Mina,' said the Count, raising an eyebrow mischievously. 'I had no idea you could be so passionate...'

Mina ignored him and stormed towards the door. 'Come on Jonno. We have more important things to do than listen to this bunch of maddened bloodsuckers.' She left the room swiftly. Jonno looked around at the Draculas, before shrugging apologetically and following his mum.

The room was left in a half stunned silence, before Ingrid erupted in a shower of laughter, which was really a very odd occurrence in itself. 'Oh, I wish I'd caught that little hissy fit on camera. That was priceless!'

'Well, I don't know what she meant by any of it!' Renfield said, looking puzzled and rather hurt. 'Sick stew is my signature dish.'

'Well! Garside is officially freak free!' Ingrid exclaimed. She took one last look at all of their unamused faces. then burst into laughter again and zipped from the room.

Erin looked around at the Dracula Clan. She had to admit, she was really rather shaken by what Mina had screamed at her, and the fact that no one else was just showed how odd they all really were. Was Mina right? Was she kidding herself into thinking that her and Vlad's relationship could be anything more than an illusion. After all, he had the same blood running through his veins that made the Count and Ingrid so unbelievably nasty and unpleasant. Was he really as good-hearted as he made out to be?

Erin immediately felt ashamed of her doubts as she felt a cool, smooth hand slip into her own under the table. She looked at her vampire and felt a small smile dance across her lips. Mina was wrong about Vladimir Dracula. He was a good person, and he loved her. It didn't matter that their future together was uncertain, because in that moment he was hers, and she was happy.

And that's it! Thank you for reading to the end; I hope you enjoyed it.