Heirot

Vlad's eyes went wide, and he had to remember not to clench his fists while his claws were deep in Talon's leg. He withdrew them in a quick movement and stared at him. "Lalana?" he growled, putting his story together carefully. The blood he'd been made to drink. The mission he'd been coerced into. "Atul's room is going to become very crowded," he murmured. "Because now, he's after you too."

Talon couldn't think clearly through the pain. "Who?" he growled. He coughed, clearing the blood from his throat. "Verin..." Talon's red eyes narrowed. "Well, let him come. I'll rip that son of a bitch to pieces, and that bitch he sent to me."

* * *

Tenele groaned, blinking her eyes open. She stared at the wooden ceiling for a minute before she slowly rolled over onto her side. Her arms trembled as she pushed to sit up. Her vision blurred as she looked around the room. Her mouth felt dry, her throat sore from where Talon nearly crushed her windpipe.

Tenele spotted Atul sitting on the edge of the bed. "Atul, is Talon okay?"

Atul leaned forward to roll her gently to her back again before she could reopen what the healer had closed.

"Vlad is with him," he said without lying. "Try to hold still. You lost a great deal of blood."

* * *
Vlad sighed, pleased but unimpressed by Talon's vow to destroy Verin. If anything, the young vampire was going to be more a liability than a help at his current skill level. "You will require blood to heal," he said, his voice gentler for the first time since finding him down here.

Tenele nodded slowly, feeling so dizzy. She closed her eyes, shivering beneath the blankets. "Its cold," Tenele murmured hoarsely. "Will you lie next to me?"

* * *

Talon met Vlad's eyes. Feeding felt like the last thing he wanted to do after what he'd done to Tenele. He could still feel her blood on his hands, dried and cracking, and the room smelled like her. "I don't deserve to heal," he told Vlad hollowly. "I'll take blood, and I'll heal... but I won't go back with you to Atul's room. I don't want to face Tenele so soon after that. She needs space."

Vlad thought about that for a few moments. "Then I will stay in your quarters," he decided. And Atul will protect Tenele, he held back a pang of jealousy. Or maybe it was just longing to be with them.

"Tell me the way," he said, lifting him up as carefully as he had Tenele. Maybe more. He'd repaid Talon's violence against Tenele with quite a bit of interest. It would be unwise to teleport him. He was a little impressed the man was even still conscious.

***

"Of course," Atul said, protective instincts surging up in him as he looked over Tenele's shivering body. It wasn't cold in the room. In fact, the cabins were downright stuffy in the warm weather. Which meant she was anemic, and uncomfortable, and hiding it very well. He lifted the covers and slid up to her very lightly, making sure not to lay his arms or legs across her healing body. She actually felt a bit feverish against him, but he warmed her and dragged he covers all the way to her chin. "Rest," he directed quietly.

Talon guided Vlad back to his room, though a bit deliriously and made a few wrong turns but eventually they made it back to his small cabin. This time there were bunk beds in the alcove instead of the single. "Do you think she'll forgive me?" he asked his Blood Father quietly.

* * *

Tenele shivered less when Atul's warm body pressed against her naked skin. "I shouldn't have struggled," Tenele murmured against Atul. "I knew better, but I was... Vlad's going to scold me for not calling on Knight. I could have called on him and everything would have been okay." Her throat hurt to talk, but she wanted to get it out. "I knew Knight would kill Talon if he saw... if he saw what he was doing. That wasn't my brother. I don't know who that was."

"She will forgive you," Vlad said as he lay Talon carefully onto the bed. Any advantage he might have taken from Tenele's blood was long gone, given the amount he'd now lost. He didn't even seem aware of how easy it would be for him to bleed out right now.

"You need blood," he said again, stretching onto the narrow mattress next to him. "It will not give pleasure as a human's would, but a sire may share power with those under his protection." He arched his neck so that Talon's lips brushed against it. "Take from the artery. Blood is strongest close to the heart. I want mine to be the strongest power in your veins. Verin will not control you while under my wing."

* * *

Atul listened to her carefully. "Yes," he confirmed. "Knight would have killed him." I would have killed him. "You did what you could with a bad situation, but you should never have been placed in it in the first place.

Tenele swallowed, feeling tears burn her eyes. "Its not his fault. Talon would never do that." She wanted to turn over and hug Atul, but her body protested her as she tried. She stayed where she was, having to seek comfort in such a one sided manner. Eventually exhaustion began to tug at her again. "Thank you, Atul... for holding me. I feel much warmer now." Her voice faded, her face turning so that her forehead brushed his lips.

* * *

Talon resisted at first, content with the idea of bleeding out and not being a monster anymore. But, the will to live was much stronger than that. His fangs sunk into Vlad's neck, far gentler than they had with Tenele. That was possibly do to the weariness in the young vampire. He drank until he felt like he should stop, which was a lot more than he'd done to his sister. How far he'd been from his true self was becoming more and more apparent.

When Talon moved to pull back, Vlad's hand found the back of his head and held him steady a little longer. He quietly guided the man until he'd taken as much as Vlad could safely give. Maybe he was feeling a bit of guilt, he admitted as he watched the open gashes on Talon's legs slowly, slowly tie themselves together again.

"I am sorry, my Blood," he whispered as drew back and his neck-wound closed. "Soon, very soon, Verin will pose no more threat to you. Living in this body does not mean you must be a slave to it. Not forever."

Talon nodded, swallowing the blood. "I do not worry about Verin... not for myself," Talon told Vlad quietly. He laid his head down against the mattress. "Will you challenge him? Or will you wait for him to come for her?"

Vlad frowned at his question. "That remains to be decided." He wondered if he should explain to the young vampire about Knight. Well, he was likely to meet him sooner or later. He was fortunate he hadn't met him today. "Tenele has a secret weapon, but she's not likely to use it proactively. It involves endangering both me and and Atul. Taking the initiative would mean convincing her to let us pick that fight before she ends up in a bad enough situation that we have no other option."

Talon chuckled. "Tenele won't be easily convinced to do that, especially if it involves endangering you," he pointed out with a harsh smile. "In most ways you have no other option. You're going to face him one way or the other, right? But, convincing her to challenge him is going to be difficult when she mostly wants to pretend he doesn't exist."

Talon patted Vlad on the leg. "Thanks for not killing me," he told his sire. "You wanted too... I don't blame you. So, thanks." He closed his eyes and tried to rest.

Vlad sat at the edge of Talon's bed for a few more minutes, thinking while he watched the man rest. He was right, of course. The confrontation with Verin would come sooner or later, even if they continued to play defense as they had.

Something etched back into the corner of his mind as he thought things over. "Talon, have you ever heard Tenele speak of children?"

Talon blinked his red eyes open. "Tenele has always loved children," he muttered. "I suspect it has a lot to do with how we were raised. We had Sinead as our mother figure, but a Queen is a very busy woman. We were given love, and attention, but we were not given the companionship that a mother can offer. She has never mentioned wanting children, but I suspect she would. I also know you can't give them to her." Talon shifted onto his side, sensing something in the link he shared with his sire. "I wouldn't worry much about it, Vlad. If it were a deal breaker for Tenele she wouldn't have married you."

"I'm not worrying," Vlad snorted at his advice. His mind was thinking back to that oddly hurt look in Tenele's eyes. "Just a point of curiosity."