Heirot

Maxwell shook his head. "There's poison in his system. I can buy him a little more time, but eventually, the toxin will take over."

Tenele shook her head fiercely. "Can't we flush his system? Bleed it out? Make him throw it up? Give him new blood? There has to be something we can do!" Tenele told Maxwell fiercely. "You're not trying hard enough." She stepped towards the man with her fist balled up, looking ready to punch him.

"Well, the transfusion goes without saying. If he stays exposed at the current rate, he won't last the night," Maxwell said, unbothered by her threat. "However, it can't come from him," he pointed at the king.

"Why not?" Atul snapped protectively.

Maxwell's yellow eyes met his. "You're the source of the poison. If you want to help him, get three or four dispensable mortals and one dispensable vampire."

Tenele's eyes narrowed in confusion. "Atul? How could Atul..." Tenele remembered then how Vlad seemed to get worst when drinking from Atul a second time. "You're blood..."

Tenele took a slow step away from the King. Her heart wrenched. Would Atul do this on purpose? He was Verin's son... No. There wasn't any reason for him to help Verin. Why would he go through the trouble of making Knight if he was going to help Verin in the end? But, Atul cared for her, she knew this. She felt this. Would he kill Vlad to get her? The hurt and distrust was something she couldn't deal with right now, and they had more important things than figure out than his motives... If Atul even had any.

Tenele swallowed her emotions and cleared her throat. "Do you have any prisoners that are set to be put to death that could be used?" she asked Atul slowly, lifting her green eyes to him.

Atul could feel her distrust, and he hoped she could feel his innocence. "There are enough," he answered her, flustered. "I don't understand...I can't be poisonous to him."

"Then perhaps someone has made you that way," he said. "But it is definitely your blood that transmitted the toxin. And since you're unaffected, that narrows it down to a good short list of poisons that could make a wreck of something like Vlad."

Atul stared, guilt and disbelief overwhelming him. How could this have happened? And he'd even encouraged Vlad to take a second bite of him. "I'm going to the dungeons. I'll be back immediately," he forced out, and fled.

Maxwell's yellow gaze fell to Tenele. "What manner of spell have you three cast on yourselves?" he asked with dark, almost accusing curiosity. "And don't deny that you have."

Tenele blanched, swallowing hard. She hesitated, glancing at Vlad and then Maxwell. Was there something in the blood that gave them away? "I merged their souls... We needed a force strong enough to fight Verin and so we created another being using magic. I control him. What of it? What does that matter?"

"Professional curiosity," he replied, raising his eyebrows. "And you intend to fight Verin?" he repeated after her, thinking to himself now. He was pleased with the idea of his creation taking down the god of darkness. Even if it wasn't spoken, it was there in the hard glaze of his eyes. Not because he particularly wanted Vlad to win, but because he wanted to see what would happen.

He walked to Vlad's side and picked up his left hand. The vampire jerked it back, but his shaking muscles were no match for Maxwell's light grip. The doctor lifted his ring finger and studied the band of gold, squinting at the holy magic emanating from it. He poked it with his finger, and his skin singed. "Fascinating. Sinead's little theory played out."

Tenele frowned at him. "He is not some toy you can poke and prod for your own curiosity," Tenele growled at the demon, stepping towards him. "It would have been better had you told us your intentions the last time we were here instead of treating it as an experiment. If you put his life in danger again for something like that without giving me a good enough reason, I'll kill you. If he dies tomorrow and I don't think that you've done enough to save him, I'll kill you. If you do not believe I am capable of such a thing," Tenele seethed. "Then, you don't know me very well, Maxwell."

"The fact that you think yourself capable is itself proof you do not know me well, either," the demon replied, annoyed by her claim on what he considered his creation. However, the proof that she was part of him now was written in gold around his finger and all over the samples on the table behind him. They were joined in too many ways to unjoin. Therefore, she was part of the equation, and he needed to keep his peace with her.

"Vlad is my life's work. I do not wish him to die," he consented.

"Beautiful," the vampire muttered.

The door burst open, and Atul entered, followed by several guards who in turn were leading prisoners. Four were human men, who looked confused. One was a vampire female, who looked half-mad from hunger.

"Chain her to Vlad," Maxwell directed one of the guards.

The guard, not his to command, turned his gaze to Atul.

"Bring her," Tenele told the guard, not sure if her words had any more sway than Maxwell's but they had seemed to obey her where commands were concerned before. She wasn't sure how far that ability stretched.

Tenele moved back toward Atul and away from the bed. She wasn't sure what was about to happen, but she knew that Maxwell needed space. Tenele eyed all the people in the room, and had she been less worried about Vlad she might have noticed how the thin robe wasn't the most modest of attire.

The guard stepped forward, uncertain what good it would do to chain one vampire to another. He grew even more confused as he noticed Vlad's condition. "Ambassador Dracul is..."

"It's alright. Chain her," Atul murmured, not totally comfortable with the idea.

"His blood smells enough of Atul's power right now to be attractive, even from another vampire," Maxwell confirmed. "She will drink, and she will not stop."

Vlad looked up at the woman who was about to sign up for the same agony he was in. She stared at him with hard, hungry eyes and seemed uninterested in who or what he was. It made him feel less pity for her, which left him with nothing to think about except how wretched it felt to be drained. He gritted his teeth for the experience.

She didn't need to be chained. As soon as the guard let her close enough to him, the hungry vampire flew at Vlad's neck and took him fiercely. Vlad tilted his head slightly to let her do as she pleased, though she was being awfully reckless about it. Her violent, ripping bite was a welcome distraction from the rest of his body. Mortal pain he could handle. It was the insatiable, twisting fire the poison caused inside him that had him at the edge of his composure.

Vlad stopped breathing, and just waited while she dried his veins into husks. It felt awful, and sent a hunger through him that grew more relentless by the second. The red hue left his eyes, until his body was cold and still.

"Leave the prisoners with me. Everyone who expects to be alive in five minutes, get out. Now," Maxwell said, gesturing for Tenele and the guards to shoo. "You too. Especially you too," he directed to Atul.

Tenele's insides wrenched as she watched the vampire drain Vlad. She didn't want to leave her husband, and it took all her will power to back towards the door with the guards.

Outside the hall Tenele walked away from the cluster of guards to a quiet end and slipped down into the corner. She tucked her knees up against her chest and wrapped her arms around them. Worry and fear were the only things she could feel at the moment, and both of them made her want to break down and sob. She held her composure, shaking, but not yet crying. She didn't think crying would do the situation any good.

If Vlad died...

Atul came up to Tenele's side and sat next to her, watching her cautiously. He wanted to put his arm around her and comfort her, but he didn't know if she'd let him. "Tenele... I am sorry," he whispered. "If I had any idea..."

Inside the room, there was quiet for a long time. The prisoners had been left tied, like a gift. Maxwell hauled Vlad's limp body out of the bed, keeping his fangs pointed away from him, and let him down next to the struggling prisoners. Since the vampire didn't move even with 5 heartbeats inches from his face, Maxwell decided the vampire girl had done her job well. She was curled in the corner, forgotten, already beginning to keen with pain as the poison took her much faster than it had taken Vlad.

The doctor took a blade from his case and slashed open one of the men's wrists, then held it over Vlad's lips. After a few drops, a groan came from Vlad's throat, and his lips closed over the wound. A few seconds more, and his teeth made their own marks, ripping flesh.

Maxwell stepped out of the room, leaving Vlad with his victims. There was a lot of screaming, both from the dying vampire and from the victimized humans. He leaned casually against the wall outside the door and smoked a cigarette while the guards stared in dismay at the chorus of screams.

"Are we sure those 5 are gonna be enough?" one of the men asked nervously, looking like he'd prefer to have a lot more than a door between himself and what was happening in that room.

Tenele nodded slowly, staring at the door and the guards outside of it. "I know," she whispered to him. "I know your sorry. I feel that your sorry. I'm not mad at you. I was scared. I am scared..." Tenele bit her tongue, her eyes watering. Instead of talking more Tenele shifted and climbed into Atul's lap, wrapping her arms around his neck and burrowing her face against the heat of his body. She gave no mind to what anyone might think of them, or her for that matter. She just wanted someone she trusted to hold her.

"If he dies... Atul... I don't know what I'll do," she murmured against him, her voice cracking. "I'm scared of losing him. I've lost so many people." She closed her eyes and tried to blot out the screaming.

Atul held her closely, running his hands along her back. "We will do everything possible," he said firmly.

"My King," one of the guards interrupted politely. "If this was foul play...what would you like us to do?"

Atul nodded to his master of the guard, as always grateful for the man's proactive work. "Summon everyone who served us, prepared food, or was at the meal last night. Whoever did this, they did it then."

"Very well, my King," the man returned quietly, and dismissed himself.

About ten agonizing minutes later, the door to the bedroom swung open. Vlad stepped out, covered in blood and wearing his pants from earlier. He looked paler than he should have after all that blood, but he was standing.

That didn't stop the guards from backing up as far as the hall would let them and wishing they could be somewhere else.

Maxwell studied him immediately, moving to do some checks, but Vlad slid past him and went directly for Tenele. "My love. My king," he addressed them each, affection and tension battling in his voice. He knew he needed to decide what to do next about his body, but he wanted to hold them right now.