The Cost of Peace

[Soran Nightblade]

Sinead took a moment to register her words. They were so far off from anything she'd expected her to say. Frankly, her first assumption was that the vampire was dead. She had felt his link to her snap apart days ago. "Verin?" she asked incredulously as the possibilities came to her. She knew well what the dark god's power could be over a vampire like Vlad. But for a god to interfere directly among mortals? "Stuck with Verin where?"

[Emora Deen]

Tenele shook her head. "I don't know where we were. It was... hell. No, not quite hell. It was a place that I wasn't supposed to escape from," she whispered. "He'd been after us since we first arrived in the Outerlands. It had been a trap for Vlad, both of us in more ways than one. Verin wanted Vlad and..." She had almost let it slip. Tenele took a deep breath, her head swimming. The blood was running freely from the wound back, and the blood from her neck before the wound was closed had stained Sinead's elegant dress.

She took slow steady breaths, as if that would help keep her awake. "Has it left yet?" she muttered, speaking of the wolf.

[Soran Nightblade]

Sinead stroked Tenele's forehead soothingly, hardly able to make heads or tails of what the girl was saying. She was pushing her too fast. There would be time for explanations later. "Do you want it to leave?" she asked, somewhat confused.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele thought for a moment. "I don't think it can," she whispered. How would it get back to Vlad if there was no longer a portal to connect it.

She blinked several times, her eyes darting around now. She was fighting to keep her consciousness. "I'm going to pass out soon," she warned Sinead. "I can't hold on much longer. I..." She would have finished her setence if she could, but at the moment she concentrated on staying awake. Her bloody hand reached up and grabbed Sinead's arm comfortingly.