Skedaddle

[Soran Nightblade]

Adonis froze at her question. Images flooded back to him of too many things he'd experienced with and through his soulmate.

His head spun as he was slammed back against the hallway wall.

"What the hell was that, Adonis?"

"I cannot eat that, Erik. It's...I just can't.

"I thought you wanted to be part of my life here. I can't make friends if you humiliate them by refusing their food. You need to eat like a human, too. Don't be fickle."

"I'm not being...Erik....it's hard to even sit there."

"Well get over it!" the human snapped. "Get in there, sit down, and eat with the rest of us."

Adonis stared at his soulmate in dull horror. He forced his legs to turn him back toward the dining room, back toward the expectant, skeptical glares of Erik's new acquaintances, and the rare beef roast that sat like a centerpiece on the table. The smell of blood clouded his senses as he walked to the table and sat down stiffly. He cut the meat and forced it into his mouth. He ignored the black spots in his vision and chewed. The room blurred. He kept himself upright, focused his eyes on his plate, focused on anything but the stares of the humans around him. He couldn't....he seriously couldn't...

"Like you're enjoying it, Adonis," Erik hissed from beside him. "Before I feed you myself."

He swallowed and fought back the need to vomit. A few more bites, and it would be over. He would...

Pain ripped through his chest. He grimaced as the room blotted out around him. The next thing he was aware of was Erik's fist flying into his face, back in their apartment. He knew on some deep level that he'd let Erik down, that he wasn't human enough.

That was the night he felt shame for the first time. It certainly wasn't the last.

He focused his eyes on Laya uncertainly. Why tell her anything? He'd certainly never told Telanis. After the sleepless night he'd just had, his judgment and his emotions were both raw. He decided to offer her the bottom line. "He changed." He sat up and pulled his blackened fingers through his hair. "Things just changed."

[Emora Deen]

Laya watched him as he thought. "So... when we reach land. Will you take him from me?" she asked him softly, glancing over her shoulder at the curtain she'd drawn closed where he was sleeping. She swallowed wanting nothing more than to hear him say no, but he would. It was what he wanted to do all along.

She didn't believe she would harm Telanis, she didn't think it was possible.

She held the cloth in her hand tightly, her other hand fisting in the fabric of her white dress.

[Soran Nightblade]

Adonis felt like he couldn't breathe looking at her. He'd spent years of effort to prevent Telanis from getting involved with humans, and here in front of him was the downfall of all his careful planning. There was no use in preventing him from becoming close to her, any more. It was already too late. The fear was like a heavy brick in the back of his lungs. "Don't hurt him," he barely whispered. "I'll repay you if you do."

[Emora Deen]

Laya blinked, lifting her gray eyes to look at him. What did that mean? Did that mean he would allow them to stay together? Laya almost burst into tears again. She sucked in her bottom lip and bit, her eyes welling with water and relief. "I won't hurt him. I promise. I promise. I'd destroy myself before I ever hurt him." Laya threw her arms around Adonis and hugged him tightly. "Thank you."

[Soran Nightblade]

Adonis stiffened at her embrace, taken off guard. It wasn't a gesture he was used to receiving. He had an instinct to push her away. He also had an instinct, just for a second, to pretend that it was an embrace meant for comfort. He let out a thin breath and did neither. He just let her do it and ignored the pulse of emotion. Was he seriously being hugged by the woman he'd hated a short time ago? Why couldn't he bring himself to hate her now, when she'd tricked him into allowing her to endanger his brother?

But she'd just sworn to destroy herself before hurting Telanis. She'd sworn it without any hesitation. This woman was either very reckless, or very serious. He wanted to know which. "What was that black mark on your skin, earlier? Are you involved in something?" he spoke quietly as she released him. It had almost looked like a rune of black magic, but he didn't recognize it.

[Emora Deen]

Laya's gut wrenched cold. She blinked pulling away slowly, her hand going to her arm. She looked down at the floor again, cupping the mark on her arm. She opened her mouth to speak, but didn't quite know how to explain it. Finally, with a heavy sigh, she spoke, "It was carved into me by a creature that... He..." Laya's cheeks turned crimson and her skin felt hot. She thought she felt the mark burn with the idle memory of the master that had given it to her. "He made me his and gave me this mark so that he could find me if I ever ran away." She didn't look up, and instead wanted nothing more than to hide under the covers again.

[Soran Nightblade]

"Made you his..." Adonis halted as he combined her words with the incredible terror he'd picked up from her last night. It wasn't the first time she'd been treated in such a way. "....Where is this man now?"

[Emora Deen]

"Dead... I think," Laya whispered, hugging herself. "One night after he... I stabbed him. We were on a ship, like this one, coming back from Ongoreth to Ighten. I took the lifeboat and went away. He was a vampire, and a sorcerer of sorts... I stabbed him in the heart. I haven't felt anything on the mark. He has to be dead." She couldn't take it if he wasn't. She would completely shut down in fear if she saw him again.

[Soran Nightblade]

Adonis nodded slowly. He wasn't going to judge her for murdering her tormenter. If it had been an option for him, he sometimes wondered if he'd have done the same. "You've been through a great deal, then," he said. "That was reckless of you, yesterday." He met her eyes sternly, thinking of the way she'd tried to distract their attacker so that he could escape.

[Emora Deen]

"If he killed you he would have done it anyway." Laya shrugged as if it didn't matter to her at all. "It wouldn't have compared to anything Kron did or for how long." She lowered her gaze again, feeling suddenly very shy.

[Soran Nightblade]

Adonis dropped his gaze slightly. "Don't do that again," he muttered, anger budding into his voice. "I would have killed him. He wouldn't have...gotten to you." What the heck was he getting mad about?

[Emora Deen]

Laya looked down. "Well, its over," she finally let out. "No one is dead, no one is hurt." She brushed her brown hair back, drawing her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on her knees. "And I will just pretend like nothing happened when I see him." She didn't want to see him. She wasn't good at pretending.

[Soran Nightblade]

Adonis sighed and leaned back against the luggage. What was wrong with him today? "I'm going to find breakfast," he muttered, standing up. He made his way to the washbasin and knelt next to it, flashing back to last night. He glanced at Laya, weighing whether he wanted to undress with her in the room. He finally removed only his shirt, laying the soaked fabric on the ground next to him so he could splash water over his face and chest. He took out the leather strap holding back his hair and splashed water over his head as well. When he was cleaned to the best of his abilities...of course, the blackness would not wash away...he dried himself with his old shirt and crossed the room to find something else to wear in his bag.

[Emora Deen]

Laya didn't want to leave the room, she wanted to avoid leaving it as long as possible. "I'm staying here."

While Adonis was washing up she pushed back the curtain she'd drawn in front of Telanis's bed. She crawled slowly back into bed where she had been sleeping before getting up. She didn't want to wake Telanis, but at the same time she did. She wanted to talk to him. She crawled under the covers, resting her head on the pillow facing him.

She let out a heavy sigh, shutting her eyes.

[Soran Nightblade]

Adonis found a shirt with long sleeves in his bag and pulled it on. He took a moment to tie his hair in place and then looked over at Laya and Telanis. He wasn't sure what to think, so he just let himself out and headed across the ship to find something to calm his stomach.

Telanis woke to the sound of the door closing. He opened his eyes, looked over his shoulder at the empty room, and then looked back at Laya. "Good morning," he greeted her cheerfully.