Skedaddle

[Soran Nightblade]

Her words clicked in his mind, and he tried to remember how he'd gotten here. What had happened after...

His mind stretched out to locate Telanis's mind. He felt nothing. "Neither do I," he said. His full attention flashed to her. He wondered if she was hurt. He wondered why he didn't feel any fear or anger from her. The lack of emotion was comforting and unsettling at the same time. "How are you?" he started to ask, despite not answering her own inquiry about him. Pushing himself stiffly to a seated position, he watched her hand fumbling in the dark and swallowed a breath as it found his leg.

She was freezing.

[Emora Deen]

Laya pulled herself closer to Adonis when she found him, dragging the horse blanket with her. "I'm fine," she told him. "As well as I can be, considering." Laya curled next to him, able to feel the heat from his body in the small space between them. "But, how are you?"

[Soran Nightblade]

Adonis tried to look at her without remembering that he'd kissed her, touched her like a greedy human would touch her, spoken to her like the soulless filth Erik had hung around for all those years. He remembered distinctly the moment her body had reached out into his soul demanding his. He clutched at his stomach and fought the urge to be sick. "I'm sorry," he breathed, his chest and throat tightening more suddenly than he was ready for. "I didn't want to. I'm so sorry."

[Emora Deen]

Laya blinked, feeling a jolt through her gut. "I know..." she whispered. "Its fine. It wasn't your fault at all. I shouldn't have let him put you in that situation. Its okay now. Everything will be okay now." Laya reached out and felt blindly for his hand. "Please don't be upset." Her frigid fingers found his hand and laced between his fingers. She squeezed her hand around his.

[Soran Nightblade]

He carefully wrapped his fingers around hers, partly out of instinct because they felt like icicles. For her to be comforting him seemed unbelievable. Overwhelming. He swallowed to force his throat to open and clasped her cold hand in his while he composed himself. He couldn't afford to lose himself over this. The situation they were in finally began registering in the practical part of his mind.

She was freezing.
Where the hell was Telanis?

He sat up straight, and his body reminded him of what happened to his ribs earlier. How long had they been out here? Hours? Why did she smell like a horse? "You need a fire," he realized out loud. He reached down to her icy ankles and began rubbing life back into them. His hands felt feverishly hot by comparison. *Telanis!* he shouted in the back of his mind. He looked up at Laya. Was her mind so quiet because she was freezing to death? He couldn't read a thing off her. "Can you feel your feet?" he asked as he pressed his hands over her toes.

[Emora Deen]

She shook her head. "I can't," she whispered. "Their numb." His hands felt hot on her feet. "Telanis should be back soon. He said something about town, but I don't know why he would go without telling us he was leaving." She grew very quiet. "I wish I could turn into a unicorn... I wouldn't need to worry about being cold. I can run free and wild through the forest. People don't want to rape horses that I know of. Do you think if I prayed hard enough that the Gods would turn me into one?" Her teeth chattered as she spoke. She adjusted the horse blanket over her legs.

Her jaw worked as she thought of how to ask what she needed. "Adonis..." She swallowed. "I can understand if it makes you uncomfortable, because of what we just went through... But, I'm so cold. Would you lie close to me until Telanis gets back?"

[Soran Nightblade]

"Yes," he replied out of protective instinct, even as the back of his mind recoiled from the idea. He leaned down and shifted in close to her, his bare chest covering her back. He tried to slow his heartrate, but he was certain it was pounding hard enough to feel between their skin. He put his arm around her small body and pulled her in close. He could feel her shivering, and her skin was extremely cold. "You lost blood," he remembered, still filling in parts of the moments before he'd passed out. He held her a little tighter and realized this wasn't good enough. She was too cold. "You need to be indoors. Now." He sat up and collected her cold frame in his arms, moving her slowly. His head throbbed a little, but his body felt mostly functional. "We're going inside."

[Emora Deen]

"But, the blood," Laya protested. "Telanis said the house needed to settle. I can wait, its not so bad." Even still her lips were blue, her skin pale. "You shouldn't carry me. I can walk. You were hurt as well. Put me down." His ribs, and how the spell had affected him.

Laya was convinced she could walk, but even when Laya convinced herself of something it wasn't always true.

[Soran Nightblade]

"You have frostbite. You'll ruin your feet if you walk on them now," Adonis chided, sounding every bit like the human doctor he'd been for the year before he'd met her.

[Emora Deen]

Laya frowned. "Frostbite?" she asked softly. She tried to wiggle her toes, but they were so numb they didn't move. She curled her small fingers under her arms. Her storm gray eyes flickered to his face. "Thank you."

She wanted to say more than that. A detailed thank you. A thank you for saving her from that beast, for being kind to her, for helping her now when he needed help as well. All she could manage at the moment without her voice cracking were those two words.

[Soran Nightblade]

Adonis's expression faltered. He focused on her, and then glanced away at her feet. "You're welcome," he murmured, trying to get used to the idea of her gratitude. "Let's go." He put one foot in front of the other and carried her back to the house. He cast a brief frown at the bloodied spot on the lawn where he'd been encircled by Laya's attacker and went on to the front door. It was open. Adonis carried her sideways through the doorway, catching the muted scent of blood.

It was there, but it was weaker than logically possible. Adonis carried her slowly across the threshold, scanning the room warily. "Someone's been here already." His hands closed a little tighter around her as he proceeded one step at a time into the heaviness of the house.

[Emora Deen]

Laya's cold hands shifted up around Adonis's neck and she held him instinctively tighter. Hadn't the vampire said that he would wait for Kron here? Did that mean he was close?

Laya felt a swarm of dizziness take her at the idea. Her head lolled on Adonis's shoulder as she fought to keep awake. Neither one of them would handle a fight. "Let's leave," she whispered. "What if he's here? Please lets leave." Her nearly naked body trembled from the icy temperature as well as from the fear that raced down her spine and turned her stomach inside out.

Laya didn't care if her feet rotted off, if she could run from him she would.

[Soran Nightblade]

Adonis entertained the same notion. At the same time, as heavy as the air was, he didn't sense the lustful malice he'd felt from the creature earlier. Wouldn't this "Kron" have the same psychic scent? Why would he clean the blood from the house?

"Just one more thing," Adonis whispered to her, stepping further into the room. As he rounded the corner into his room, the room where all hell had broken loose happened earlier, he caught sight of a silvery form on the ground.

"Telanis!" he growled, rushing forward into the stale stink of blood.

[Emora Deen]

Laya's heart stilled. "What is he doing in here? Is he okay?" she asked so fast the words were barely understandable.

[Soran Nightblade]

"I don't know," Adonis cursed as he knelt next to Telanis's form. He shifted Laya to his other arm, not wanting to set her on the floorboards when they still smelled of blood. He reached out and slid his fingers under his brother's hair and touched his neck. "Telanis," he snapped. "Get up."

The white unicorn opened his eyes slowly. The brown irises flicked up at them and blinked them into focus. It seemed to take several seconds for him to recognize them, and when they did, he looked more concerned than hurt. "Not done," he murmured.

Adonis glanced around the room at the broom, the small pile of ash in the corner, the dark-stained rag lying wet next to his brother's hand.

Stupid. Adonis climbed back to his feet and carried Laya away from him into her own bedroom. "I'll bring him in a second," he told her crossly as he set her carefully on the bed.