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Jane clutched Gerald's arm tightly as Vlad rolled down the blinds and locked the classroom door with a click of his fingers, before coming to stand beside Erin.

'Let us go you fiend! You devil, you...'

'Oh just shut up mum!'

'And you young lady!' said Jane, storming forwards and waving a finger in Erin's face. 'I can't believe you! What are you doing associating with a vampire? It's probably waiting for the perfect moment to tear you to pieces!'

'It! He's not an animal you know!' Erin said, even more annoyed than Vlad at her comment.

'He may look like a boy, but I can see the evil oosing out of him like puss from a boil! You are a perversion of nature!' Jane said venomously, and quick as a flash she ripped back the blind on the window, letting the strong mid-day sun shine into the room. Vlad let out a cry as the rays of light hit him, singeing his skin and causing a haze of smoke to fill the room. Jane looked at him triumphantly, then reeled in horror as he lowered his fangs and snarled. With a click of his fingers the blind snapped shut again.

'Can you just be quiet and listen for one minute!' Vlad said, more than irritated now.

'Listen mum, Vlad and I...'

'Vlad and I!'

'Vlad and I are more than just friends. He is... my boyfriend!'

Jane looked something half way between saddened and sick. Gerald just looked confused.

'What! You don't know what you're talking about you silly girl!'

'Like mother like daughter I suppose,' said Vlad under his breath.

Gerald suddenly belted out a loud and hearty laugh, earning a thunderous look from his wife.

'Ahem. Um, Jane dear... perhaps we should hear them out? I mean, Erin is right... this boy hasn't attacked us yet, which I'm sure he would have by now if he wanted to...'

'Don't be a fool Gerald! Vampires are manipulative and twisted creatures...'

'Oh, you know what mum? If you don't like it then just go! I don't want you here anyway!'

'We are not about to leave our only daughter in a school full of freaks! Are we Gerald?'

'No dear,' he sighed.

'I'm staying right here! Being with Vlad is the closest I've ever been to actually being happy... I'm not going to leave that behind,' and she took Vlad's hand in her own and grasped it firmly as they exchanged smiles. Erin's expression turned from happiness to outrage as Jane suddenly leapt forward and pulled Erin and Vlad apart.

'Oh that's it!' Erin was seething now. 'Vlad, open that door!' she said loudly, still staring hatefully at her mother.

'Ok...' Vlad replied, looking confused as he clicked his fingers, simultaneously causing a loud click to sound from the latch. Quicker than a slug on skates Erin was pushing her mother out of the door.

'Where are you going!?' Vlad called after Erin.

'Erin you stupid girl, don't leave your father alone...' then the door shut with a slam and Vlad and Gerald were left alone.

Gerald's face remained unchanged for a good five seconds before he realised who he had been left alone with, causing him to freeze and look worriedly at Vlad from the corner of his eye.

Vlad tried not to take any notice, and to be honest he had spent enough time around Jono's slayer friends to get used to being regarded with apprehension. He sat down on a desk and put his head in one of hands. He was fed up of this. Erin and him couldn't seem to have one normal day together. If it wasn't the vampires it was the breathers, and if it wasn't the breathers it was the slayers, which had now taken the form of annoyingly shrill and judgemental parents.

Erin and Jane's silhouettes could be seen faintly through the frosted glass on the window. Vlad didn't want to tune in and listen to what they were saying, but the occasional shouted word made it through the thin classroom door from both mother and daughter, the last of which had been 'parasite' and 'Nazi'.

Gerald still looked very uncomfortable, so Vlad tried to break the silence. 'Look, I'm sorry about all this. I hate it that I'm the reason Erin's fighting with her parents...' and he trailed off with a sigh.

Gerald looked somewhat taken aback, then cleared his throat loudly. 'Well... it's not the most ideal of situations, but Erin has always been a bit rebellious. I suppose we should have expected it.'

Vlad didn't look up when Gerald finished speaking, his head still leaning on his hand.

Gerald cleared his throat again and sat down on the table opposite Vlad. 'But you know, I think even if Erin was doing everything the way Jane wanted the woman would still find something to disapprove of.'

Vlad smiled. 'She sounds like my Dad. He isn't exactly thrilled Erin and I are friends either. 'Vladimir! Do you want to get us all staked!? Throw that slayer girl out!'' he said, in a rather accurate imitation of the count.

'I'd never thought about that...' said Gerald thoughtfully, who'd forgotten that vampires had their own families too.

Vlad sat up straight and looked at the stout old man opposite him. There were glimpses of him in Erin... they had the same eyes, and the same thick hair, as well as the same rather open and warm facial expressions. For a slayer, the man didn't seem too horrible, unlike his wife...

'Um... Vladimir... we care a great deal about Erin, and we'd hate to see her hurt...'

'Oh, trust me Mr Noble, keeping Erin safe is my top priority! If she ever got hurt I don't know what I'd do...' Vlad looked across at Gerald to find him gazing quizzically at him. 'What?'

'It's just... you seem really... nice,' said Gerald, quite flummoxed.

Vlad laughed slightly. ''Sweetest Vampire in the world' she called me once,' he said absentmindedly, his tone rather glum.

'Is that a bad thing?'

Vlad raised an eyebrow at Gerald. 'For the Chosen One, the supposed leader of the Vampires? It couldn't get much worse.'

Gerald looked the young vampire up and down. He certainly didn't look like the evil and bloodthirsty Vladimir Dracula that the Guild had told them all about. They had painted the Chosen One as a wicked villain with more malice than a mouse with a machete! But he was just a teenager really.
'I'm supposed to want to bite slayers and instead I want to...' he trailed off, looking awkwardly at his girlfriend's father. 'Look, did you really not have a clue that there were any of my kind here?'

'Not even a hunch! We just wanted to see how Erin was getting along.'

'Trying to drag her back to slayer school?'

'Well, I think that's what Jane had in mind, but... Erin's never really been that set on being a fully qualified slayer. Bit like me in that respect I suppose...'

The words 'coffin licker' drifted into the room through the frosted glass, followed immediately by 'you blunt old splinter, I hate you!'.

Gerald looked embarrassed. 'I am sorry about those two. I don't know where they learnt that kind of language...'

Vlad was surprised he was even apologising. That was everyday vocabulary in his house.

'We should record this and play it back to them afterwards. Mind you, that would probably get Mrs Noble even more annoyed, and I'm not sure I want to see that vein in her temple throbbing any more than it already is...' Vlad said jokingly.

He thought he'd gone a bit too far as Gerald just stared at him. Then without any warning he opened his mouth and emitted the loudest rumble of laughter Vlad had ever heard. He himself looked perplexed for a moment, then began to laugh himself as the middle-aged man rolled about on the desk clutching his side with glee.

The door suddenly swung open.

'What in garlics name could yoube laughing about!?' Jane hissed at them, whose face was as red and shiny as Renfield's special nail polish.

Vlad had to stop himself laughing even more as Gerald's happy expression slid of his face. It was immediately replaced with the same expression that a fly would have if it was caught in a web, or the Dracula family faced with Renfield's Bacon Butt Surprise.

'I've had enough of this,' Jane screeched at Erin. 'You young lady are coming with us, and you!' she said, pointing a prune-like claw at Vlad. 'I will be sending a squad of highly-trained slayers to deal with you as soon as possible!'

'Right!' Gerald suddenly exclaimed, jumping off the classroom table, his pot belly bouncing in time with his double chin.

'Of course I'm right Gerald! I always am.'

'No, I mean, right! That's it! I've had it! There will be no more of this nonsense Jane! Leave our daughter alone!'

Jane looked shocked simply by the fact that her husband had interrupted her. 'What are you talking about Gerald!?'

'She is perfectly capable of making her own decisions, and I think we should respect them, however...' he looked sideways at Vlad, who looked rather thrown by the whole situation, '...however radical they may be.' The spindly vampire certainly didn't look like much of a threat, especially when he looked at Erin like he did. Gerald cleared his throat loudly, not put off by the set of shocked faces looking at him. 'This young man, no matter how different he may be...'

'Different! He's a vampire! Look at him, he's...'

'Do not interrupt me Jane!' he said loudly, and his wife looked like she'd just been slapped. 'Young Dracula here looks as if he's a nice enough fellow, and I for one know it could be much worse. I mean remember her old boyfriend Jake?'

'Oy!' Erin said. 'That was three years ago... and he wasn't that bad...'

'He was so pathetic a gust of wind would of blown him over!' said Jane. 'In fact that time we went away to Kent it did...'

Gerald nodded in agreement. 'That cliff had been far too close for comfort. But anyway! At least this one can protect her Jane. And either way, whether she becomes a slayer or a stays here, she's always going to be surrounded by vampires and stake wielding slayers!'

'But Gerald...'

'No ifs! No buts! That's all there is to it!'

Gerald took a large breath and relaxed, his shoulders deflating comically. His usual look of uncertainty and confusion returned as he looked at them all apprehensively. Jane was for once lost for words.

'Wow Dad, that was... unlike you,' Erin said, going to stand beside Vlad.

'I think you've finally grown a set of fangs Gerald.' Vlad said with a cheeky grin.

Gerald tried to return his grin, but ended up just running his tongue over his teeth nervously.

'I really am happy here mum. I'll be fine. I never wanted to be a slayer, even before I met Vlad.'

Jane looked like someone had died, but before she could start another rant Gerald jumped forward, spun her around and pushed her towards the door. 'Time we were off I think!'

'Thanks Dad,' said Erin happily.

'I'm going to pay for that in the car on the way home. But hey, maybe she'll refuse to speak to me? That would be a bonus.' Gerald muttered to them as Jane walked out, almost in a daze.

Gerald took Vlad's hand and shook it firmly. 'Look after her.'

And with that the two of them were gone.

'Was that real? Did that all actually happen?' Erin said leaning on Vlad's shoulder.

'I'm just glad I wasn't staked! I thought I was a goner for a second.'

'She's a very special woman, isn't she?'

'Well, I can definitely see where you get your stubbornness, and your big mouth, and your...'

'Hey, watch it! I'm still a trained slayer remember?'

Vlad laughed and put his arm around Erin as they walked into the corridor. They watched in silence as Gerald continued to push his wife across the school playing field towards their car. Vlad looked down at Erin, nestled into the crook of his arm. They might not of been the most perfect match in the world, but he knew without doubt that his world would be a much worse place if she wasn't in it.

The End!