Holier Than Thou

[Emora Deen]

His words punched through her, just as surely as if he'd done it with his fist. Her face lost its color. "I didn't..." But, she had. Tenele opened her mouth to speak, but the words wouldn't form. Her throat was closing around them, like hands around her neck choking the life from her. "I didn't mean to betray you." It was foolish. It was stupid. That's why she felt so bad.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, a tear trailing down her cheek. "I'm so, so sorry."

Tenele reached out for her robe, pulling it in against her chest. She couldn't look at him, couldn't see the anger and the hurt. It only made her chest ache more, and the ability to breath impossible. Tenele skirted past him for the door.

[Soran Nightblade]

"Leave me right now, and you don't have to bother coming back," Vlad snarled as she ran from him.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele froze at the door, the words cut her. Her hand let go of the door as if the metal had scalded her skin. She didn't want to be in the room, she needed air. She needed desperately to get out, but she couldn't leave. She was afraid he meant it. Of course he meant it, she'd just given their worst enemy permission to kiss her when it pleased him. She'd betrayed Vlad, hurt him, and she couldn't fix it.

She held the robe to her tighter, like one would hold a stuffed animal. She stayed at the door, unmoving, stuck...

Tne again, maybe she should go? If she left he'd be safe.

Tenele reached her hand out for the door, but it froze before touching the handle. She couldn't do it. She couldn't be without him. She loved him too much. Tenele's hand redirect to cover her eyes and she sank down to sit on the cold stone floor.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad's heart leaped up into his chest as, for a minute, he really thought she would leave. But she didn't. She didn't take the easy way out. She stayed. Unfortunately, it didn't make him feel any better. He wanted some kind of relief, but the one person he could seek if from was right in front of him, and she had done this to him.

She didn't trust him. And now, he couldn't trust her. Damn it all, they'd been married not three days, and she'd just put her body on the bargaining table with his enemy, without consulting him, without thinking for a moment that he was strong enough to protect her from this manipulation.

He was cut too deep. He couldn't think straight. He didn't trust himself to say anything. He didn't want to go to Tenele. He didn't want to acknowledge her pain when he was this angry, when he still didn't know what this would mean. He closed the short distance to his chair and dropped into it, studying the shaking back of the woman he loved. He leaned forward and rested his head on his strong fingertips, raking them into his face.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele listened to him walk to the chair and take a seat. He'd said those words too easily, and they still burned through her. "Leave and don't bother coming back." Was she that easy to throw away? Tenele drew her hands away from her eyes and looked at the gold ring that tied her to him.

Everyone in the world told her it was impossible, that she couldn't marry him, and yet he'd found a way to make it happen. Every improbable thing they'd come across he'd over come or found a way for them to live through it. Why was it so hard to see that now? Vlad was strong enough, determined enough to do anything he wanted. He'd gone through pain and hell to marry her...

And Verin easily had made her lose her faith in him. The guilt welled in her until it overflowed. He'd easily manipulated her, and she was a stupid fool for falling for it. Now, she'd hurt Vlad, after he had done so much for her.

Tears dripped onto her hand, onto the gold band around her finger. Her husband could accomplish anything he set his mind too, because he didn't give up.

[Soran Nightblade]

Finally, Vlad stood up. He turned and went straight for the bed. The human shape of his movements was gone now. If anything, he seemed hauntingly supernatural as he glided to the bed and pulled free the blankets. He bundled the warm fabric under his arm, including Tenele's pillow. Turning on his heel, he threw a glance at the fireplace, and the half-burnt logs scattered apart, growing cold with the embers. He glided to Tenele's side and extended a pale hand down to her. "Come," he said, neither harsh nor gentle. His fingertips waited for hers.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele looked up to him, reaching up a shaky hand to wipe the tears from her cheeks before she lowered her gaze to his hand. She held her robe to her tighter before reaching up with a trembling hand. She closed her fingers over his. Her legs protested her trying to stand, but she managed anyway. It was as if her physical body was beginning to feel the toll of her emotional state.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad's fingers closed over her shaking grip, securely. She might not trust him, but he could tell she was trying. It wasn't good enough, but maybe, in time, it could be. He'd decided, while he sat at the fire listening to her sobbing heartbeat, that though her betrayal hurt him, it wouldn't be enough to make him stop feeling the way he did about her. He didn't think that any amount of anger or betrayal could do that, and so there was very little choice but to accept her feelings for what they were, whether he liked them or not. It didn't change what he needed to do next. He held her small hand in his like it was all he had left of her, and in the blink of an eye, they were standing in the middle of Sinead's library.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele looked around, wondering what they were doing in the library. It wasn't very well lit at night, mostly because it was supposed to be closed. Tenele glanced to his hand around hers. Tenele realized for just a second that she was afraid of him. His words had been too potent to her. Don't bother coming back. Each time she thought about them it was like someone stabbed her and twisted a knife. But, she couldn't stop thinking about it.

Tenele wanted to grovel and apologise for what she done. If only he knew how terrible she felt, how much she truly hated herself for what she'd done. She'd already voiced her sorry's and in the end she knew it wouldn't do any good. Vlad's pride was too strong, and her betrayal too deep. Tenele had well and truly screwed up this time.

Then, scores of other thoughts threatened to break her even more. What if he never kissed her again? What if he couldn't stand it? What if she tasted like Verin to him forever? Tenele's breathing was coming in quick, to the point she felt light headed and needed to sit down. It made her all the more pissed at herself.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad looped an arm around her waist as he heard her pulse began to tremble dangerously fast. She was upset. Very, very upset. "Okay," he murmured to her, and he drew her in against his chest securely for balance. "I get it, so it's okay." He looked to a large sofa that was halfway across the room, and he drew it to them with telekinesis. It slid to a stop just beside Vlad's leg, and he lowered Tenele to a seat onto it.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele shook her head as he helped her sit. It wasn't okay. It really, really wasn't okay. He'd been so willing to tell her she couldn't come back if she left. He'd been that willing, and found it that easy, to threaten her.

She needed rest, she told herself. She was breaking into a million pieces and she knew that she just need to close her eyes and rest. That everything would be able to be handled better in the morning.

She wanted to say something to him, but couldn't think of the words. Would it help her cause if she explained to him how she'd be paying for the mistake for as long as Verin lived? That it wasn't exactly a joy to have Verin kiss her, and that he'd hurt her. She wanted his forgiveness, and she knew she wouldn't get it.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad crouched in front of her and reached out to cup her cheek in his hand. His red eyes were quieter now as the met hers. His thumb brushed aside a tear as it fell from her cheek. The pad of his thumb glided down her cheek and brushed cautiously across her bruised lips, as if he were relearning her face. He turned his hand over, making sure she could feel the cool metal of his ring glide across her wet skin.

"I am yours," he vowed quietly.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele swallowed. "And yet you told me never to come back if I left," she whispered to him, trying hard to keep from looking away. "Do you have any idea..." She couldn't finish. Tenele closed her eyes and looked away. "I made a mistake, and I'll pay for it. I'm paying for it now, and I'll pay for it tomorrow, and the next day. But, I would never, no matter how angry, tell you to not come back. What Verin does to me will be nothing compared to those words. I love you, and maybe I love you too much."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad chuckled - a hard, miserable sound - and threw the blankets into her face. "Sleep there, please," he said stiffly, and turned away from her. He walked to the table, where all his books were stacked from earlier, and returned to the wooden chair he'd been sitting in all day. His back throbbed as he leaned into it, and he didn't give a damn. He pulled a book into his arms and forced himself to read it, to stop thinking, to stop hurting.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele took the blankets, looking like he'd slapped her. She lifted her eyes from staring at them to watch him for a moment longer as he walked away from her. She regretted the words, but her heart had spoken them. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that Verin knew this would happen, that he'd wanted this to happen. She'd played into his hand, and now they were both suffering. She'd hurt him, and he'd hurt her.

"I'm yours," Tenele replied to him softly, glancing up from the pile of covers she was clutching. She let out a heavy sigh and stretched out across the couch. She drew the blankets over her, tucked the pillow under her head. It didn't take Tenele long to fall a sleep, the mental exhaustion helping quite a bit.