8. Vlad IV (1/1)

another little vlad smit for you. yaaay. enjoy.

disclaimer: ownership of young dracula and/or its characters has not been conferred upon me since five minutes ago when i posted the last chapter. so no, still not mine.

vlad didn't mean to keep letting bertrand down.

he knew he should have fixed the book by now, filled in its pages, but there'd been so much going on with trying to learn everything he needed to know to be grand high vampire properly, and erin, and ingrid, and everything that was going on. bertrand… everything about what bertrand was coaching him in was new, and with the confusing feelings on top of that it was easier to focus on something else. anything else. everything else.

so he'd pushed bertrand aside, waved off his concerns about slayers as something that could be dealt with later, forgetting that bertrand had seen slayings before, knew the difference just a few nights could make. hadn't bertrand watched entire clans crumble before him? he'd let it happen; he'd made it happen. if he was that determined that it needed to be stopped, anxious enough to actually

ing his concern to vlad instead of leaving him to pick his own battles, it must be important. yet he'd shrugged it off, and bertrand had let him, as usual.

he was almost relieved when bertrand's anger flared – this careful dance around each other's feelings was doing them no good. since he couldn't confess the way he felt, it was almost reassuring to know that bertrand was furious with him. it made things safer somehow, even with an insane ancient vampire on the loose. when things were finally resolved, he kept his tutor at arm's length, afraid he wouldn't be able to resist temptation. he had to keep his distance.

no matter how much it hurt.