Heirot

Talon smirked. "Ah, I see." The young vampire gave a heavy sigh. "Well, I guess the bigger question here is do you want children? If she wanted children... would you want them too?" Talon chuckled wearily, unable to imagine Vlad being the least bit good with children.

Vlad took Talon's words and sat with them, giving no response. The sense that it was a near-rhetorical question was not lost on him. He'd even be glad to agree with his brother-in-law's sentiment. But for some reason, the issue still irritated him. "I suppose not," he said. He could have mentioned that his own experience with parental figures had brought about the opposite reaction in his personality than it had in Tenele's. He swallowed the thought back and opted to abandon the subject entirely. "Rest," he ordered his Blood-son, rising from the bed to sit on a stool at the edge of the room. He settled in to keep watch so Talon would not find himself in any further trouble that night. His eyes rested firmly on Talon, but his thoughts were on Tenele as the hours passed.

Tenele blinked her eyes open sometime by late morning. Her vision was blurry at first, her eyes following the shadows that moved across the spaces in the boards above her. Her mouth felt dry, her throat and body ached. She also felt warmth. She twisted her head to find Atul lying next to her, and then she glanced around for Vlad.

He wasn't there.

A deep frown tugged at Tenele's features. She shifted to sit up, but couldn't find the strength. Instead she rolled gently onto her side and pushed up with quivering arms. Tenele slid to the edge of the bed. She admired the bandages wrapped around the wounds of her naked body, and then searched the room for her chest of clothes.

Vlad wasn't back yet....Talon wasn't there.

Tenele felt a terrible feeling twist inside her. She tried to push the thought to the back of her mind, but she knew better. She knew Vlad. She knew his anger and wrath and vengeance. Now, came the awful moment when she had to wonder if she could ever forgive Vlad if he had killed her brother.

Vlad made his way through the busy dining hall, carrying a large tray of food and a pitcher of water. He had a groggy and somewhat sheepish Talon in tow. He'd given the man a chance to sleep in, but once the sun was over the horizon and light began filtering into Talons porthole window, Vlad's couldn't sit still anymore. He felt tense and ornery without Tenele, and thinking of the warm bed he could have shared with the two of them made babysitting his protege a frustrating task.

Oddly, he didn't feel the least bit jealous of Atul. He felt like the lines were made clear when they'd begun their teamwork together, and none of them had given reason to doubt the trust they'd placed in each other. That didn't chance the fact that he was envious and that he wanted to be obnoxiously possessive of his wife for the remainder of the day. But he didn't want Talon out of his sight, so he dragged the younger man along while he sought out breakfast supplies for his mortal counterparts.

"We're going to Atul's chambers, so prepare yourself," he warned Talon without much sympathy.

Talon swallowed. "I'm prepared," he muttered, but didn't think he truly was. He decided he needed to prepare himself, and quickly.

* * *

Tenele gauged the distance between where she sat on the bed and where her clothes were sitting across the room. She knew she couldn't make it. Her limbs were protesting sitting. Tenele felt frustration boil in her, and anger. She was always hurt. Always in trouble. She wanted to reach her clothes, to get dressed, and she couldn't. Not without help.

And that meant asking Atul to help... Asking a king to help her with dressing. That made her even more frustrated.

Vlad smirked in anticipation as he reached the door to Atul's quarters. "Coming in," he called through the door, turning the knob and pushing it open.

Tenele drew the covers up to her chest, her hand still on Atul's chest from where she'd nudged him to wake up. She'd been about to ask him to help her dress when Vlad entered the room. She was shaking from sitting up, but at that moment, when she saw Talon behind her husband, she forgot about being weak.

Her green eyes glanced from her husband to her brother. Relief flash clearly through her gaze, but she couldn't bring herself to say anything about it.

The smell of old blood in the room and Tenele's uneven pulse sent a protective edge through the vampire's emotions. He scanned the room and Atul's now-waking form before letting his ruby gaze admire his wife. "Hopefully there wasn't too much fun without me," he smirked as he entered with Talon in tow. The door shut with a wave of his hand behind him.

Tenele forced a smile, drumming her fingertips on Atul's chest. "Oh, you know how entertaining the King can be," she sighed. Tenele drew her hand away from him and used it to holding the covers in front of her to keep herself modest before her brother.

"Talon," Tenele murmured, her eyes locking on her brother. "I'm not mad. I forgive you." Talon swallowed hard, giving a quick nod. He wanted to say more, but couldn't figure out what to say in the situation. "I want to speak with you... but I need you to step outside for a little while. Is that okay?"

"Of course," he whispered. "I'll go up on deck for some fresh air." Not that he had any need of it, but mortal habits died hard. Talon met Vlad's gaze. "I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. I'm more level headed than I have been in days." Talon backed out of the room and closed the door behind him.

Tenele felt Atul's arm slip behind her back to hold her steady. Her body had started to shake uncontrollably as she fought to stay sitting up. It was a relief to have the support, and she sank back against that strength.

"Thank you for not killing him," Tenele muttered to Vlad, her green eyes glassing over. "Thank you so much, Vlad."

Vlad teleported to the bed, frustrated with the distance between them and too impatient to walk. He didn't try to reassure her that he would never kill her brother. It would be a lie. He sat down next to her and looped an arm around her waist just below Atul's, leaning her forward against his shoulder. It was the closest he imagined he could come to hugging her without causing pain. "If he had attacked you willingly, he would most likely be dead," he murmured without much satisfaction. "However, Cassandra put him under Verin's influence. He is too young to even attempt to resist it if a god compels him that way." His gaze went to Atul's, suspecting the half-god wouldn't quite be satisfied with that. "I did, however, carve the punishment into his flesh. Next time the fear of Verin is pouring through his veins, perhaps his fear of me will be stronger."

Tenele's jaw set tight. The image of Vlad cutting Talon to pieces as penance for what he did made her angry, and at the same time she knew that it was the easiest Vlad could have gone on her brother. He would not have let Talon escape what he'd done unscathed, whether it was his choice or not.

"So, Talon is a target now too?" Tenele felt rage burn through her. She shifted, trying to move past their arms so she could stand, so she could go to her chest of clothes and dress herself. She wanted to call on Verin, to watch him suffer. And she was stuck, too weak to even escape the lightest of embraces.

Tenele's frustration caused her eyes to burn with tears. "One day you're going to get tired of putting up with someone so fragile," she murmured to her husband in a hoarse whisper. Her neck beheld dark bruises and a bandage where Talon nearly crushed her throat with his hand and tore into her with his teeth. Her green eyes lifted to his, determination bright in them, as well as sadness. Vlad was strong, powerful. She could imagine how irritated he got at how easily she was to injure.

Vlad drew back enough to study her expression and her tear-burnt eyes. "You are hardly fragile, my love. Anything will break if something powerful sets its mind to destroying it. Lately, you have been targeted too much. It is natural to be outraged, but not at yourself. I will never grow tired of you, even when you someday grow fragile. Do you understand?

Tenele nodded softly at his words, and while they were gentle and loving she still felt angry with herself. It would fade, she knew it would. So she swallowed it, and her pride.

"Could it be that Verin wasn't targeting Talon, but rather Atul's sister had other reasons for what she did? It seems counter productive to me that Verin would want me alive and well in his realm, and then put the hint in Talon that he really needed to have me for lunch." Tenele glanced to Atul.

"It is possible that Lalana did was she did out of jealousy," he murmured to her. "But, I wouldn't put Verin out of the picture completely. There are no rules for what he does."

Tenele lifted her arms and draped them across Vlad's shoulders. She leaned against him gently, resting her head in the crook of his neck. "I'm naked," Tenele muttered to her husband, stating the obvious. "and I can't dress myself." She kissed his skin. Her pale, drained body was nearly the same color as his. "Help me, please?"

He does whatever will cause the most emotional pain, Vlad thought. Essentially, he's trying to kick me between the legs and hurt Tenele in the process. Suddenly, he was exceptionally glad he hadn't murdered Talon.

"I will dress you to speak to your brother, but you will not leave the bed," he laid the ground rule firmly before doing anything.

Tenele nodded. Usually she argued, insisted she was strong enough to do more than just sit in bed. Not this time. She gave in too quickly. It was either a hint to how exhausted she was, or how beaten she felt. After Vlad carefully helped Tenele into a comfortable gown, she sat against a cluster of pillows at the head of the bed. The conversation with Talon was emotional for Tenele, but also very comforting. And by the end of it she was smiling again.

In the days that followed Tenele did all the things that were asked of her. She didn't argue with bed rest, or the amount of food she needed to eat. She obeyed the doctors orders without question. By the time they docked in Atul's capital city Tenele could manage walking, but with the aid of a sturdy arm.

"I don't like this," Tenele muttered to Vlad, lifting the hood over her head and leaning on the strength of his arm with her opposite hand. Talon had his silver hair covered too, so not to draw any attention to them. "We're supposed to be bringing these people hope and I look like death warmed over." There were so many people gathered in the streets, she could see the lines go on, all the way up to the palace at the top of the hill. "Maybe no one will notice." She pulled the hood a bit further over her head. "If they start to doubt, Atul may lose their confidence."