Heirot

"Vlad," Tenele murmured, her voice quivering. She held the skirts of her dress down, because she didn't want him to see the claw marks on her legs. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have struggled. I made it worst. Don't be angry with him."

"I will discipline my Blood by my code," he said gently to her, though there was an underlying fury in his tone. He pulled her up into his arms like he was holding an injured sparrow and teleported to the deck. The crew nearby immediately scattered at their sudden appearance.

"Find a healer. Quickly." Vlad's terse command interrupted their suspicions that may he was the one who had done this, and sent them running for the cabins. Vlad turned toward Atul's quarters, kicked the door in, and brought her carefully to the bed. The front of her pale blue dress was soaking up with blood now. Vlad tore it open and cursed. Atul's claws were not like his, not yet, but they were enough to do plenty of damage. If Vlad's had cut her that way, there would be no fixing it. She would never walk again.

He grabbed pillows from the head of the bed and stacked them under her knees, elevating her legs above her heart.

Tenele's head lolled on the pillows, her body deciding it had enough of staying conscious. A few minutes later a man rushed into the room carrying a leather sack. He froze in the doorway at the sight of her bloodied form, but after that he no longer hesitated. "Move," he told Vlad, pushing on the vampire's shoulder to get him out of the way. He began to work, spreading the contents of his bag out on the bed. In a few moments he'd gotten the bleeding to stop by applying a nasty looking paste to the wounds.

"I can take it from here," he told Vlad. "Please step outside."

The vampire's temper surged at the healer's order, but he made himself remember that these people likely weren't accustomed to knowing vampires who could control their inner demons. He stared at Tenele's stabilized form. "I am her husband," he said resolutely.

The healer stiffened for a moment and then nodded. "Then, you may stay," he muttered. Thirty minutes later he removed the paste. The wounds for the most part were closed. He spread a thinner paste over them and wrapped them in bandages. "She should heal fine. She'll be tired, let her rest." The healer tugged the blankets over her nude body modestly and stood up straight.

* * *

Talon stared at the dark ceiling to the storage room. His hands shook at his side, still lying in the same place Vlad had told him to stay. He wanted to get up, he wanted to check on his sister. He could feel her blood drying on his hands. The image of her frightened face, her legs bare and bleeding. The knowledge of what that part of him had wanted with his sister... It made him sick and bile rose in his throat.

Fury burned through him, and he roared with it, slamming his fists in to the floor.

It was a long time before Vlad was willing to leave his sleeping wife. Atul had joined him shortly after the doctor left, and the man's gentler temper had been comforting on the vampire's frayed nerves. He stood slowly. Atul's thumbs had been lightly rubbing his shoulders, but they slipped away as he moved. "Going?" he asked in confusion, tearing his worried gaze away from Tenele.

"I have to see to Talon," the vampire said darkly."

"You sound like that scares you," Atul observed without judgement.

"Yeah," he acknowledged quietly. "I'm scared I'll end up killing him."

Atul nodded, offering no instruction. His gaze said he would approve if Vlad actually did kill him.

A moment later, he was gone from the room.

Vlad walked across the storage room toward his protege. Death loomed in his posture as he took slow steps toward him. "Why bring her here, Talon?" he asked coldly. "All the way to a dark and unheard corner of the ship. Why take the time to bring your sister all the way here, if you needed blood SO DAMN URGENTLY!" He kicked a crate next to the silver-haired man. It flew into the wall and burst to splinters, its cargo flying everywhere. His scarlet gaze promised the box was just a practice swing.

Talon didn't flinch as the crate splintered. He couldn't. Vlad told him not to move. "I don't know," he said truthfully. "I don't know why I did anything that I did." Talon glanced at him. "I felt out of control... like it wasn't even me. Like I had no limiter anymore. I felt like how Tenele described you when... you were under Verin's influence."

Talon frowned. "Only, that I wasn't. I don't think. Gods... what did I do to her? Why would I do that to her?!"

He could have told her she was alive. That she was healing. He didn't give him that much relief. He put his foot down on the man's chest and pegged him to the floor. "I could show you firsthand what you did to her," he snarled. He reached down and tugged him upright by the front of his shirt, though his muscles wouldn't let him stand thanks to Vlad's compulsion spell. "How did it start, Talon? A little taste from her wrist?" His claws slowly dug into the man's arm, drawing a dark stream of blood onto the floor. "Not enough? Or maybe she asked you to stop." His hand clenched around Talon's throat and thrust him to the ground, his nails driving painful spears into his neck.

"Vlad!" Talon warned, red eyes glowing. Talon shook his head, remembering vaguely Tenele telling him to stop. It was like he was looking through someone else's eyes. "Yes, she asked me to stop. I didn't stop. I didn't want to stop."

"Of course you didn't," Vlad purred dangerously, his fingers releasing his neck and sliding down over his chest. His palm laid flat over his heart before he dragged his fingers into a fist, trowling through flesh and the outer surface of his ribcage as they went. "You wanted her to fight you. You wanted more from her." He twisted his fingers slowly, dragging through flesh.

Talon roared as Vlad ripped open his chest. He shook his head. "No," he muttered, closing his eyes. "I didn't. I didn't want anything else." He closed his eyes to what he saw. To Tenele's frightened eyes. The blood on his hands. Her clothes. Her legs. He wanted to move, wanted to slam his head into the wood until he forgot.

"Do not lie to me!" Vlad snarled, his rage barely tethered enough to keep from ripping the man apart. "I am what I am, Talon. I know the instincts of a newblood confronted with a struggling female." Both hands dropped to the man's thighs. Talon's slacks were like tissue paper under his claws. His slid into the man's flesh, slowly.

If they had been his claws, there was no way she could ever walk again.

He breathed fiercely, digging down into him and trying to decide whether he was actually going to shred the man's legs into useless ribbons of flesh. "You were to bring supplies. You were to turn to me for help. And if all else failed, of all the useless strangers on this ship, how could you possibly turn to your sister as your vent!"

Talon growled through gritted teeth as Vlad's claws dug into his legs. "I wouldn't have done that to her!" he swore, but knew better. If he hadn't of woken from whatever that was... what would he have finally woken to see? Tears burned his eyes. "I wouldn't have done that..."

The horror of it wrenched his insides. "I drank them all. I couldn't stop... I wanted her to help me. I needed Tenele to help me. I don't know why. I don't know why it was her."

Vlad's claws paused inside his flesh while he studied the badly bloodied vampire. Something was off about his words. "What do you mean, help you? For blood?" It didn't make sense. He'd trained Talon personally, and up until today, he was confident the man had been weaned past the initial helpless bloodrush. He knew what to look for in a bind, and a slender female was not it. His control wasn't perfect, but it was decent, for his age. To need a body that bad, he would have had to ignore his hunger for days. "What is the matter with you?"

"A woman," he muttered, thinking past the pain. "A woman was on this ship that is no longer here. She was forward, I was welcomed to it. She gave me wine that wasn't wine." Talon huffed. "It tasted like blood... but no blood I'd ever tasted before. I felt... invigorated. Too good. I drank my supply because I nearly bolted from my room and drank the crew. And I wanted Tenele, I don't know why. I wanted her." The horror of that made him sick.

Talon clenched his eyes shut. "The woman isn't on the ship anymore. She was never on the ship as a member of the crew. I don't know how she got on board or where she went. Her name was Lalana." (Atul's evil step-sister)