Mature: Desert Moon

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad hit the wall hard, and went to the floor. He seemed to have no difficulty breaking stone in this scenario. Chips of mortar showered around him as he caught his breath. He also knew for sure now what he'd suspected; he wouldn't regenerate in the presence of the creature.

He scrambled to his feet and grabbed an iron candelabra standing next to him. Wielding it like a bat, he set his sights back on the creature that had just sent him across the room with a literal flick of the wrist. "Let's try this again," he said, deep in concentration as he approached slowly. Where was the weakest point? How could he obtain one of those scales? Just one... one was all he needed.

He decided to try for wherever he could hit with the most force. That meant going for the monster's arm, while it was going for him. Damn the consequences, if he couldn't break its flesh with their strengths combined, then it couldn't be done period. He ran in close to the golem, reared back with the iron pole, and watched the creature's arm swing at him like a cave-in.

This was going to hurt.

He stayed in the path of the attack and swung into it with all his strength. The noise that followed seemed far too loud, too many things crushing and snapping to tell which were which. The floor opened beneath him, and he landed flat on his back on an old desk littered with books. The wood cracked under him, braking his progress to the ground. Then a furiously loud boom as something enormous fell beside him. He blinked blindly into the dusty air, wondering if the building was collapsing.

He screamed. His body noticed the pain before his mind fully acknowledged it.

[Emora Deen]

Odeb went to the hole and peered down as the dust cleared. The scream echoed off the ceiling above him, but he could do very little to save the vampire now. Stone rumbled and rolled, wood shifted off of its form, and the creature lurched up next to Vlad's screaming form.

It cared very little for his pain, wrapping a hand around his waist like he was a doll. He squeezed, lifting the creature up from the floor. There was a visible crack in his face, a small chunk having crunched off in the fall. The only problem being it now lay among a hundred other pieces of rock and rubble.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad bit off another cry as the vise-grip mauled his arm. He couldn't feel his legs. He reached up with his other hand and tugged at the hard flesh with the strength he had left, dreaming about unclenching the creature's hand.

[Emora Deen]

The gollem squeezed tighter, going to crush Vlad's spine.

"Ratraka!" Tenele's voice called from above them. The creature stopped moving, his grip loosening slightly. She knelt so that she sat on the edge of the hole, and then slid off down into the pit. She didn't land gracefully, but climbed to her feet. Her hands pushed on the gollem. "Ratraka, doco vil damo!"

The gollem growled at her, raising his big heavy hand to strike her. Tenele's visage disappeared and Lelana's returned. The creature stopped and his hand opened, dropping Vlad back onto the pile of rubble it had collected him from. Lelana shooed him and the creature climbed back up into the throne room, crushing the floor and making an even wider hole as he went.

Tenele appeared above Vlad, kneeling next to him, brushing her finger's along his face. "You fool."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad shuddered at the light touch, every inch of him hurting. His brain wouldn't work right. He felt delirious.

"Tenele," he whispered, wincing.

[Emora Deen]

"Shh," Lelana whispered in Tenele's voice, smiling. "You'll feel better in a second."

The sound of the gollem being lowered back into his hole filtered down, followed by the shuttering grating sound of the cap.

"There, now you will heal. You foolish man. Silly, stubborn man." Tenele pressed her lips to his, working them very softly against his skin.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad's mouth yielded to her kiss, though he hurt too much to enjoy it. As the golem's presence receded, his bones and flesh began to re-knit together. He endured the sensation with aching, frustrated breaths until his mind finally began to feel clearer. Only then did he start to realize it wasn't Tenele kissing him. He stretched his neck back, retreating from the contact even though there was no room to back away into. Knowing he didn't want it and being able to do something about it were two different things. "Stop," he muttered blearily.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele stopped, frowning down at him. "I'm sorry," she murmured. A very Tenele-like thing to say. She brushed her fingers over his skin lightly. "You need blood to heal faster." She pushed up to her feet and left the room quickly.

Oded knelt at the edge of the hole above them before something called his attention away. Minutes later Tenele returned with a chalice full of warm red liquid. "Here, drink this. Please, you'll heal faster."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad sat up slowly, registering the woman in front of her and the vessel in her hands. He took the chalice, not caring about the details at the moment, and drained it in a long, deep draught. The world came together a little better as he lowered it. He took his surroundings more into focus, and her.

"I'm going to start thinking you're soft on me," he warned hoarsely.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele smiled, clasping her hands together in front of the sheer dress she wore. It was a thin, barely-there, garment held together with thin gold clasps. A thin gold chain hung low on her hips on the inside of the garment, the fabric so thin it allowed for the glint it made to show through.

"Is that such a bad thing?" she asked him. "I could be crueler to you, if you enjoy that more than gentleness. I never wanted you hurt. I don't like to see you hurt."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad shook his head at her. It made no sense. Of course she wanted to hurt him. Why else would she keep him here. No one captured him without hurting him. He wasn't about to think of her as an exception.

And yet her voice and her eyes made him want to believe her. Her actions and words didn't line up.

It was then that he registered what had happened a minute ago. He touched his mouth, startled. "Bitch," he snarled, dread filling him. How had he allowed that to happen?

[Emora Deen]

Tenele didn't flinch at his words. "That name isn't unknown to me," she spat at him. "I told you the rules. I told you that all you had to do was obey and everything would be alright. You can only blame your pain on yourself. You attacked me, I didn't attack you. You attacked my gollem. You, you are your own destroyer."

[Soran Nightblade]

"Do I need to be reminded of promises by a woman who brought me here on the pretense that the golem's help would be freely shared with my wife?" Vlad sighed, struggling to his feet.

[Emora Deen]

"I was going to let you go with it," Tenele barked at him. "I was going to let you leave and go back to her, go back to my brother. I told you I would. All you had to do was humor my loneliness-" Tenele clamped her mouth shut.

She huffed with frustration, glaring at the floor. "Right," she sighed. "I'm being to soft. I shouldn't have expected you to be cooperative. I guess I was banking on the fact you loved your wife enough to be cooperative. I guess I was mistaken. You love your pride more."

Tenele turned away and headed for the door. "You look like shit, go bathe."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad rolled his eyes. He wasn't interested in a guilt trip from her, of all people. "I'll clean your study first," he muttered, wondering how long it would take him to find the one piece of stone he couldn't crush in this pile of rubble.