Heirot

Vlad skidded to a stop as he realized Tenele was on the brink of tripping into the rapids. He clutched the herb in his hand. "There's no time, Tenele. What happened?"

She felt so frustrated, why was he speaking to her like he knew her? It was a trick. "Go," she hissed at him, her shoe slipping over the edge. She caught her balance and swung the sword in front of her. Her heart beat thundered in her ears. "Go away. Leave me alone. I don't know what you want from me, but if you take one step closer I'll cut your head off. I know how to use this. I do. I swear it." *Oh, Gods I don't know how to use this.*

Vlad smirked. "I'm sure you do," he scoffed. Was she trying to cheer him up? It was very bizarre behavior, but it did take his mind off Sinead for the moment.

Shit. Sinead.

He ported to her side and pulled her in close against him. "Now now, we have a queen to save," he purred playfully. With the cure in hand, everything would be alright.

Speaking of hand, his left was beginning to feel unnaturally hot. No....it was burning. Screaming hot.

He jerked aside and stared at the ring on his left hand. It was too bright to even look at. "Ah," he gasped, clutching it to his chest. When he couldn't make it stop, he tore at it desperately. The ring fell to the forest floor, leaving both his hands smoking. "What....?" he breathed. He stared at the too-bright object. The horror of what he'd just done was beginning to race through him. "No....."

Tenele saw an opening to get away. For good measure she stabbed him in the foot with the sword to hold him in place and skipped along the edge of the cliff. She wasn't sure what had gone wrong with his fancy jewelry, but she was going to take the gift where it was given.

*Run. Get away. Don't let him eat you. You have to get back to...*

Who did she have to get back too?

Tenele stopped running, despite all intensity and need for it. Her daughter. She... had a daughter... but she had no idea where to begin looking for her. How could she have forgotten that? Or where she'd put her? Tenele took off running again. Her foot slipped in loose leaves and she rolled down an incline, slipped over the edge of the cliff, and caught herself on the roots along the edge.

"Ah!" she gasped, grappling for a better hold. Her legs waved uselessly in the air. The roots pulled free, and she fell another foot, tearing a scream from her.

Vlad sucked in air as the sword stuck into his foot. Fuck, she was really pissed at him. He couldn't remember her ever hurting him out of anger before. Out of necessity, but not by purpose. He pulled himself free and thrust the sword into the ground next to his wring. He raced to catch up to her and then spotted her hanging from the cliff. He fell to his chest and held his hand down toward her. "Come on," he directed her to reach for him.

Tenele stared up at him, and then looked down at the river below. It was clear she was weighing which option was least likely to kill her. Her grip was slipping on the muddied roots. He was going to rip out her throat. He was going to do terrible things to her and feast on her blood.

The river...

Tenele swallowed, her frightened gaze turning back to him. Her hand slipped a little more. She yelped. Tears stung her eyes. She didn't want to die. She had a daughter. Albeit a daughter in a location she didn't know. But, if she took his hand... He wouldn't let her see her daughter. He'd kill her. That's what vampires did.

Tenele took a deep breath and let the root go.

"Tenele!" Vlad snarled. He teleported to her side in the air and clutched her tightly. He just barely managed to teleport them to the opposite bank before they hit the rocks. Vlad held her tight, gasping. Damn, he'd used too much power the night before, and this wasn't helping. "Look, I'll get it back on. I swear, I will make sure I can wear it again," he said fiercely. "Don't do stupid things!"

* * *

Tenele struggled against him. "Please!" she screamed. She beat her hands against him harder. "Please, don't hurt me. Don't hurt me. I don't know what you want. Just let me go."

* * *

"For Gods' sakes!" Vlad growled. They didn't have time for this. "We're going to Sinead." He pulled her struggled form in tight and ported them both to the Queen's hospital ward. Their appearance startled everyone in the room, but a tech quickly ran up to them. "The plant, Lord Dracul," he demanded. Vlad had a split second to glance at the pale, gasping form on the bed, the blood spattered on the sheets. He dug the muddy leaves from his pocket and thrust them at the tech. The man didn't fuss about the mud. He rushed the material to the apothecary's bench in the corner and began mixing it in a mortar with other ingredients they'd prepared.

"Are we in time?" Vlad demanded.

"If we are swift," one of the nurses humored him. Vlad wasn't in the mood to be humored.

* * *

Tenele's gaze darted around fearfully. Why were all these people looking at her so strangely? She didn't know who any of them were. "Where am I?" she asked him fearfully. Her dress, sopping wet and muddied, felt heavy on her legs as she tried to get away from him. "Who are you? Why did you bring me here?" Tenele's green gaze locked on him.

***
Vlad frowned at her while he listened to his Queen's struggling heartbeat. "What are you on about, woman?" he growled. "The isn't a good time for jokes."

***

"This is not a joke! I do not know you. I've never seen you before in my life. Now, let me go!" Tenele struck him in her frustration, punching him across the face. "Let me go! I don't know you. You monster. I don't know who you are. Any of you."

* * *
Vlad looked at her for a long time. His jaw buzzed from her punch. "You don't know me?" he murmured very carefully.

* * *
"No," Tenele whispered, her gaze misting over. "I don't even know who I am. So, now that that is out of the way, do you mind letting me go?"

* * *
Vlad didn't release her. "Did you hit your head on something?" he demanded, worrying over her scalp with strong but gentle fingers.

* * *
Tenele struggled out from under his touch. "No," she replied angrily. "I don't know. Stop touching me. What part of 'let me go' are you failing to understand?"
* * *
Vlad snarled. Her attitude was scratching at already-raw nerves. He let her go abruptly. "I'll bring you to the other wing, and we'll get to the bottom of this," he said in frustration. He glanced over his shoulder, not wanting to be outside the queen's presence.
* * *
Tenele wrapped her arms around her chest and followed the vampire hesitantly away. She didn't like the idea of going off alone with him, especially when he seemed angry. But, no one else in the room seemed bothered by it. Maybe they were all in league with him?

The dress was so heavy and hard to walk in, and so cold now that they had stopped running. It left a muddied trail along the floor as she walked.

There was very little traffic outside the queen's quarters in the ward. Vlad flagged down one of the physicians who were still focusing on the other patients. "You. Do you have experience with amnesia?" he demanded of one of the doctors passing him.

"This is not the time, Lord Dracul," the man said. "I have a lot of patients and very little help, with the queen ill."

"Tenele's lost her memory," the vampire explained, collaring the man before he could walk away. "Would you see to her? I need to return to Sinead." His mind was racing. He couldn't afford to think about it. He couldn't think a second ahead of the present at the moment.

She stared at the doctor warily. He kept calling her something. What was it? "Is that my name?" Tenele murmured to him. "Tenele?" She was terrified. How come these people knew her? Why didn't she know them? Why were they such good friends with a vampire? Tenele felt so frightened and frustrated that she didn't know what to do. She just slinked off to the room that the vampire ordered her to go to.

She was too dirty to sit on anything, so she just paced back and forth.

Vlad tore himself away to go back to Sinead. He crossed the room through the maze of doctors and nurses and assumed the spot right beside her bed, on a tall stool. The queen wasn't doing well. She was coughing up blood and choking on her own breath. Vlad didn't touch her the way he would Tenele, but his entire body and posture reflected wary guardianship of the queen's failing body. "The cure is coming, Sinead," he said firmly. Her struggling calmed slightly at the news. "Just a few minutes more."

The woman stretched her hand out and clutched it tight around Vlad's wrist. She knew she couldn't hurt him, and she needed something to dig her nails into and drive some focus off the pain. Vlad sat calm and stil as she dug into her skin. "Almost, Queeny," he murmured to her on repeat.

The doctor deemed her too dirty to examine. With the mud in her hair and smeared across her skin. He sent in nurses and they wrangled Tenele into a bath and scrubbed her clean. It was probably one of the most humiliating experiences of her life... At least, that she could remember at that moment. She felt like a crazy person. Maybe she was. She didn't remember anything except a daughter, and Tenele was afraid to even bring that up.

But, these people seemed to know who she was. They apologized to her as they dressed her in a hospital gown that was too big for her frame and made her sit on the bed. She stretched it down as far is it would go over her knees and waited.

The doctor came and held a candle in front of her eyes. He poked and prodded her head. Took her temperature. A sample of her blood. After several minutes he just gave a heavy sigh and left, like he was giving up. He didn't even tell her what he'd found.

Vlad's pulse raced erratically as he listened to Sinead's breathing slowly smooth out. The injection had to be working. She looked uncomfortable and very weak, but she wasn't choking. Her lungs were opening up. "You're doing well, Queeny," he murmured, placing a hand on the back of hers as she clawed at his skin.

He turned as a doctor came to him from outside the room. "She's in perfect health, Lord Dracul. There isn't a scratch on her. Perhaps the stress of seeing the queen ill has just caused a temporary lapse."

"That can happen?" Vlad demanded. He found it hard to believe Tenele, who had seen her share of trauma, would blank out so easily.

The doctor just shrugged. "I have actual sick people to attend to," he muttered, rushing off again.

Tenele waited for a very long time in the cold quiet room, for what felt like forever. No one seemed to be coming back for her. She dug through the closets until she found a robe and drew it on, and a pair of slippers after that.

She peeked outside the door. Everyone was so busy attending to other patients, or in that crowded room. No one seemed to pay her any attention as she slipped out.

The palace was in such an uproar that no one paid her any mind at all as she wandered lost through the maze of corridors until she found her way to the front entrance and out the gates.

She wanted to ask for help, but the way everyone greeted her it seemed they already knew who she was. The problem was, she didn't. How silly would it sound if she tugged someone aside and asked where her room was? Or her daughter? They'd probably not even question locking her up.

"You look lost," a woman whispered to her as she stumbled along the street. She just kept looking for something familiar, anything at all. Nothing matched. Not a single sign or building. How could she forget everything?

Her kind face made Tenele's eyes well with tears. "I am," she whispered to the woman. "I don't know why... I don't... I don't remember anything."

"Oh, dear," the woman hushed, cupping a hand around her arm. "You don't remember anything? Nothing? You poor thing. Come with me. I'll keep you safe and we'll sort this out. My husband is very good at this sort of thing."

"He is?" Tenele breathed.

"Oh, yes, he is."

Tenele walked with the woman down several streets until they came to a large fancy house. The woman let her in and then closed and locked the door behind her. With a key. That seemed odd, though Tenele wasn't sure why.

"Come on, we'll get you some clothes on. A lady can't go to dinner like that," she sighed. "We'll get this thing all figured out over dinner."

It was another hour before the queen finally passed out into a deep sleep. Vlad didn't move. He looked like he was in a trance. He glanced down with dark, feral eyes as one of the doctors touched his hand. The man seemed to reconsider for a moment, but when he saw the vampire didn't attack him, he drew the man's left hand away from Sinead's and then pulled Sinead's hand free from his wrist. Vlad's flesh had healed around her nails, and they ripped flesh as the doctor tore them away. Vlad just watched in a protective daze.

"You poor dear," one of the nurses said, touching his shoulder with the bold confidence of a grandmother. "You are very loyal to her, aren't you," she praised quietly. She reached with a clean rag to clean his wrist, but the skin was already repaired beneath the blood. Vlad looked at her appreciatively. "Thanks for the thought," he said with a grin that didn't make it to his eyes.

"You should see to your wife. Let the queen rest a while.

Tenele could barely breathe. "This seems too tight," she winced, smoothing a hand over the corset the maid had latched onto her. "I don't need to be dressed so well for dinner. Really, if that woman's husband can help me I'll be on my way."

The maid didn't answer her. She just ushered Tenele down from the room and to a closed off dining room. They pulled out a chair for Tenele and made her sit near the head of the table. She looked up from her chair at a woman across from her. She was rail thin. Scary thin. Like a skeleton with skin. Her eyes were sunken with deep shadows under them. Tenele's gaze went to her arms where they were tied to the chair.

She shot up, but a hand on her shoulder forced her back down.

"Sit, sit," the woman she'd met on the street urged. "My husband will be here shortly."

"Why... why is she tied up?" Tenele whispered.

"Oh, her? She's just ill. Its not safe to untie her."

The woman's eyes lowered to the steak placed in front of her. "Go on Martha, eat."

"She can't eat with her arms tied," Tenele whispered.

"Oh," the woman gasped. "You're quite right. I guess you won't be able to eat, will you, Martha?"

"I'm going," Tenele whispered, but just was she was about to stand the dining room door opened and closed. A burly man with a large belly and wiry beard sauntered in. He sat down at the head of the table. He took a hard look at Tenele, his gaze wandering, and then his eyes flashed to his wife.

"Are you mad?" he barked.

"What?"

"Do you have any idea who she is?" he growled.

"Yes," the woman chuckled, folding her arms. "But, she doesn't."

Tenele glanced between them. "You know who I am?" she whispered. "Why didn't you tell me that? What is going on here?"

"My dear, everyone knows who you are," the man laughed. "Everyone that is anyone, at least. What happened to you? What's your name? Who is your husband?"

Tenele's brow furrowed. "My name..." she frowned. "Tenele.... My husband..." She was married? Of course she was married. She had a daughter, right? Tenele burned with frustration. "I'm going."

"See, she doesn't know. Isn't this perfect?" the woman laughed, slapping her hand on the table. "Oh, the fun we can have with this one."

Tenele stood up and ran from the room. She ran to the door and twisted the knob. The door wouldn't open. She kicked at it. "Help!"

A hand covered her mouth with a cloth. The smell was strong and choking and it made her eyes heavy. Then, the world just went dark.