Mature: Desert Moon

[Emora Deen]

Atul took Vlad's hand gently and guided it to Sinead's touch. He then offered her his own hand, but he kept one arm around the vampire's waist and his body pressed tightly to him for support. "We're going home."

Though, it wasn't his home, he thought sadly. And he couldn't stay there with them... And he had to tell them eventually, didn't he? Tell them, that is, what he'd been discussing with his advisers on the night that Vlad was taken from them. No, that could wait a little while longer.

[Soran Nightblade]

Sinead spoke a few words, a magical system she'd basically created by her own devices over the years. She held their hands tightly, and they were gone. No waiting, no drain, just an instant change of location, from Maxwell's mansion to the warm room where Tenara had been staying.

Vlad caught his weight as the change of surroundings stunned him a moment. "Lowight," he whispered, turning in Atul's arms to take in the room. "Tenara," he whispered, relieved to see the child resting so calmly in her mother's arms.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele smiled up at Vlad, pressing a kiss to the back of their daughter's head. The child was so drained of energy that she didn't wake as Tenele climbed out of her small bed. Everything in her room was fit in size for a toddler.

Tenele went to her husband and wrapped her arms around him like she hadn't seen him days. "Everything is fine now. We are all here together. We are home," she whispered against his chest. "Tenara is resting. She was so upset." Tenele choked back tears she thought of how angry and frightened her daughter had been upon their return.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad wrapped her in his arms and kissed her hair. From her tone, he could about imagine how it might have gone."

"It will be okay. We will teach her to trust again. We have plenty of time." He looked at Atul across his shoulder with conviction.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele nodded. Her pain medication had worn off, and Tenara's forceful magical shove had aggravated her cracked ribs. "She will trust again," Tenele agreed quietly.

Atul nodded slowly. "Thank you Queen Sinead for your help. If you don't mind could you show our..." Atul couldn't finish his sentence. How could he call it that, when it wouldn't be a family, not a real family. "Could you afford us a little privacy. We can discuss these difficult things in the morning. I'm going to assume that Tenele and Vlad's room is adjoined to this one?"

[Soran Nightblade]

Sinead glanced at the door at the side of the room. "There is just the one bed," she murmured. Apparently Vlad's backlash had affected her, because she sounded tired. "It is extra large in size... Tenara advised me that would be best. I hope I haven't misinterpreted something..."

[Emora Deen]

Tenele swallowed. "You have not misinterpreted. It is a good size for us," she told her Queen. "One more thing. I broke ribs while trying to rescue my husband, would you please heal them for me?" Tenele stepped away from Vlad, cupping a hand over her side. The sooner she got rid of that pain the more agile she could be. She could play with Tenara and cheer up her daughter.

[Soran Nightblade]

Sinead turned to Tenele and studied her. "I hadn't realized. I'm sorry, my dear," she said, stepping close to her and touching her hands to Tenele's chest. The ribs weren't the only injury she'd sustained; she could feel any number of bruises and cuts throughout her body as she began to send her magic into her. The technique was not much different from what Knight had shown Tenara shortly before. She guided the healing strength into Tenele's body until it seemed unwilling to accept any more, and then dropped her hands. "I hope that will be better," she said warmly to her adoptive daughter.

[Emora Deen]

"Much better, thank you," Tenele replied, taking a deep breath. It was the first deep breath she'd been able to take without some measure of discomfort in days. She exhaled in a soft sigh. "So much better."

"Thank you," Atul told Sinead. He ushered Vlad to the bedroom next door so the vampire could relax without being in the presence of the woman who seemed to set his nerves on edge at the moment.

"Okay, back into bed with you. We'll get pants on and then Tenara can sleep in the bed with the three of us. We'll all be together," Atul told Vlad.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad arched his neck to press his forehead lightly just above Atul's ear. "That's perfect," he confirmed quietly. All together. If he'd had the energy to be emotional, he might have considered it. But all he could muster was the protective, territorial haze of a lion surrounded by his pride. Nothing else and no one else was important to him right now.

Well, maybe one. "Talon," he turned back, looking for his protege. Sleep in Tenara's room. See to it you're brought another bed, unless you prefer that one," he said with a flicker of a smile.

He offered no words to Sinead as Atul guided him from the room. "Pants, he muttered, dragging open the doors of the wardrobe in the corner. As he'd suspected, it was stocked with the things from his tower that hadn't packed. He suspected it was even the same wardrobe. He pulled out a pair of black silk sleep pants and threw them to Atul. "They should fit you. You're about my size." He looked the man up and down with a hint of his normal devilishness coming out. "More or less."

He drew out another pair in deep scarlet and pulled them on with the coordination you might expect of a human man, only strange when considered against how graceful and still he was normally.

[Emora Deen]

Talon nodded to Vlad as he disappeared. Tenele said her good byes' and gathered Tenara in her arms and carried the child into the room while Vlad and Atul dawned their paints.

The bed was large, and Tenele thought it interesting that Tenara insisted Sinead provide them with one. She carried her daughter to the center of the bed and rested her beneath the covers, curling about her like a bear around a cub.

She hoped Tenara forgave them in the morning, she hoped desperately that the sight of her fathers would not send her into another fit.

"You will be strong, little one," Tenele whispered to her daughter as Atul curled his hot form against her back, leaving the space on the other side of Tenara open for Vlad so that he could hold his daughter.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad slid in between them, feeling a little bit guilty for taking Tenele's place beside Tenara. He lay on his side and gazed down at her. His hand brushed the back of her head very lightly. It was impossibly warm and soft. He took a contented breath and slid in close to her, his arm resting around her securely while his legs twined with Atul's. He felt Tenele's warmth against his back. Then a huge, crushing weight on their feet.

"Stalker!" Vlad snapped at the huge creature lounged across the foot of the bed.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele laughed. "He missed us." She sat up, pushing against the hell hound. "Get off boy, we'll spend plenty of time with you tomorrow. You'll put our legs to sleep. Go."

[Soran Nightblade]

Stalker made eye contact with Tenele, as if to hold her to her word, and rose gracefully from the sheets (though his weight practically collapsed the bed). He leaped down to the floor and circled at the base of the bed before flopping down somberly to guard the pile.

Vlad didn't last long after that. The warm contact of the others let him truly, completely relax, for the first time since before he'd given himself up to Maxwell. Sleep pulled him under rather impatiently, and then he was dead to the world.

[Emora Deen]

Tenara woke that morning very confused, but very warm. When she opened her eyes and sat up on her knees between the people around her she saw her mommy, her daddy, and her papa. She rubbed her eyes with a yawn. She remembered Knight, her father. She remembered her mommy and she remembered hurting her... and then she remembered her father taking all the pain away.

Tenara sat on a pillow near her Vlad's head and began to poke his cheek slowly. "Daddy," she whispered. Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke...