Holier Than Thou

[Emora Deen]

Tenele glanced to Atul, and then slid out of bed. "Put some pants on, your majesty. We are about to have a guest," she told him, walking to where a cluster of candles sat on a table. She lifted one up and struck flint against it to light. Tenele waited until Atul had made himself decent enough with a pair of pants before she held the candle up before her. She hesitated a moment on calling the demon, because of how little she trusted him. But, at the same time she knew she couldn't deny the fact that the beast could very well be the only one capable of helping him.

"Maxwell."

Tenele turned the candle downward and began to light the others in the room while she waited on Vlad's old master to arrive.

[Soran Nightblade]

Atul pulled his clothes on quickly while Tenele attempted to reach the demon. At first, nothing at all happened.

Then the flame flickered and grew slightly. "Very few know how to reach me this way. Who are you?" a voice glowed into the air.

[Emora Deen]

"Tenele Dracul," Tenele told the fire confidently. "I call you on behalf of my husband, Vladimir Dracul. He has need of your assistance." Tenele set the candle on the table near their bed, and let her eyes rest on her husband. Tenele leaned forward and stroked her hand gently against her husband's face. "Things will be better soon." The pain he was in, the blood he'd spit up all over the sheets, it wrenched her insides. She set her jaw tight to keep her emotions from her face.

[Soran Nightblade]

"Husband? Now that is interesting," the voice seemed to smile. "Though I seem to remember him swearing I should never come near him again. I'm not one for petty emotions, however. It is rare indeed for him to seek my involvement."

[Emora Deen]

Tenele took a steady even breath to cool the hot anger that rolled through her. She bit her tongue on the words she wanted to say, and instead made her voice as smooth as liquid silver. "I beg you to make haste, sir," Tenele told him, the strain of her kindness written on her face. She'd rather never see the man again, in fact she distinctly remembered punching him and threatening to kill him. Vlad punched him as well for that matter.

"Please," Tenele muttered, choking on her own words. "He could be dying." Tears glistened in her eyes and she quickly blinked them away.

[Soran Nightblade]

Maxwell sighed, a cool snakelike sound. "Where are you?"

[Emora Deen]

Tenele worked to keep too much relief from leaking into her voice. "The capital city of the Outerlands, the King's palace. I will set a candle on the balcony so that you know what room," Tenele told him, taking up one of the candles and stepping out into the night air. She placed a candle on the stone railing and quickly retreated inside. Tenele stood near Atul, staring at Vlad writhing in pain on the bed.

[Soran Nightblade]

It was a good half hour before a knock came at the door. Vlad had slipped into sharp, heaving breaths punctuated by bloody coughing.

Atul was the first to reach the knob. "Maxwell?" he asked of the stranger outside. The demon responded by literally sniffing him.

"You are?" he asked with a smile beginning on his lips.

"Atul. King of this land."

"Interesting," Maxwell huffed, gazing past him to spot his prize specimen on the bed.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele was kneeling next to the bed, her hands holding one of Vlad's. The helplessness she was feeling was more evident in her eyes and her posture now, so much so that she didn't even offer Maxwell a heated look. In fact, when her eyes lifted to the demon, they were hopeful. "Hurry, please."

[Soran Nightblade]

Maxwell raised an eyebrow at Vlad's form in the bed and stepped around the wary Atul to approach. "When did this happen?" he asked blandly, pulling up one of Vlad's eyelids to study him. The vampire held still, but had to jerk away to breaking into another choking fit.

Maxwell too him by his wrists and pinned him unceremoniously onto his back. "I've told you to stop breathing. It's unnecessary," he directed coolly as he placed his ear to Vlad's chest.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele stood up and moved out of the way. Tenele was trying to think of a way to explain it without being crude. She put her hand to the bite marks in her neck and the light kissing-bruises he'd left behind. Choosing to omit the first half of their adventure together, for fear that Atul might want to keep such a thing quiet, she chose to go with the most recent events. "I woke from a nightmare, Vlad was consoling me. We... were making love. Then, he told me something was off and... He was ill. He drank from Atul earlier, and myself... and he tried drinking from Atul again. It didn't seem to help him. We haven't tried getting him to drink from me again."

[Soran Nightblade]

Maxwell stepped away from Vlad with a difficult expression to read. He hauled a large medical case up onto a chair next to the bed and burrowed into it. Out came a variety of test tubes and a smaller case of syringes. "It's not holy magic," he informed them. "He's cold, not hot. Whatever this is is something I've never tried on him before."

"Meaning you don't recognize what this is?"

"Meaning I thought trying it would actually kill him," Maxwell clarified. "That's a short list. I have some theories." He proceeded to fill a tube with Vlad's blood. Then he turned to Tenele and Atul. "You two, too," he instructed them, gesturing for Tenele's vein.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele held her hand out over the tube and cut the skin. She jerked with a hiss, and watched as the blood filled the tube. When she'd finished she drew her hand away and took the robe sleeve, knotting it up over the wound. Tenele watched solemnly as Atul did the same.

"Can you make him better?" she asked softly. Her voice shook with her next question. "Is he dying?"

[Soran Nightblade]

"Patience, woman," Maxwell chided. He took her blood and Atul's and cleared some space on the table at the corner of the room. Then he sat down and began conducting various tests on them, ignoring the rest of the room as he went.

After about 15 minutes had passed, Atul grew impatient. "This is urgent!" he insisted, coming up next to the doctor. "Can you help us or not?"

"Yes, it is," Maxwell agreed while studying his vials unperturbed. "He has another day, at best."

[Emora Deen]

Tenele, placed a hand over her heart, and wrapped the other around her stomach, looking like Maxwell had stabbed her with his words. Her face went pale as the robe she wore. "That's not true," she whispered, shaking her head. Her eyes drifted back to Vlad, and then back to Maxwell. "Make him better... You will make him better, won't you?"