Heirot

Tenele grabbed on to Vlad's arm worriedly when his balance faltered. Had it not worked? Was he still sick? She held both his arms with her hands, standing in front of him. She was worried for him… Because she cared for him. She didn’t know if he cared for her, but she couldn’t help or deny the fact she felt something strong for him…

"Hey, he doesn't seem that tough," Mentaria muttered to Anti.

"We should take him out," Nism said darkly.

Tenele’s head turned towards them. “No!” she said angrily, letting go of Vlad with one hand and drawing her katana with it. “You won’t touch him…”

Talon watched him, helpless to do anything. Vlad had to do this himself… Why wasn’t he healed… Talon must have been right when he felt something had gone wrong… He cared for Tenele… so saving her wasn’t something selfless… It was something he would naturally do…

He watched the way his sister spoke to the thieves, with a protectiveness in her voice. A protectiveness for Vlad…

Anti narrowed his eyes on the two who were causing trouble for their mission and had evidently just wrecked their exit route. "Get them," he told his men, and Tablish and Mentaria each pulled out short swords while Nism and Dises drew a hand axe and a club.

Vlad felt the pounding in his chest recede back to a dull pulse, and regained his stance. "No need to protect me, maiden girl. I'm not so cheaply made that I can't withstand a few kinks," he said, grinning at Dises, Mentaria and Nism, who were running toward him. Tablish and Anti went for Tenele. Anti drew his scimitar and slashed out at her furiously.

"You're going to kill the girl too?" Nism scowled as he went for Vlad.

"Getting attached to her, Nis? No surprise, she's probably the closest you been to a woman's touch in your whole life," snorted Mentaria, and sliced out at Vlad while Dises attacked him from the other side.

Tenele moved quickly to block the blows, her eyes following what Anti was doing as well as how Vlad was doing. She moved forward to distract a few of them from Vlad.

He might have been acting strong, but he was weakening... and sick...

"Vlad get away while you can," she said to him, kicking Anti in the side.

Vlad cast a dark smile on his attackers. "But all the fun is here," he sneered, long daggerlike claws emerging from his hands. In a blur of motion, he dove forward at Dises and slashed his hand across the man's neck so quickly that the man's sword didn't have time to swing. He spun menacingly on Mentaria, his eyes glowing red as the thieve's sword came in at him. He raised his hand and smacked the blade aside with such force that it flew out of his hands, leaving him staring at Vlad in stunned fear.

Vlad raised a clawed fist to punch him in the face when he heard metal flying through air behind him - Nism was attacking while he'd been distracted. The vampire had just enough time to throw himself sideways, receiving the blade through his waist below his ribs, where its aim would have been his heart. The no-life king grabbed the offending sword by the blade and twisted it from Nism's grip, then shot his other hand out to grasp the man by the throat and lift him from the ground, fire burning in his eyes. Behind him, Mentaria had acquired his blade again and prepared to attack.

Tenele stopped her attack when Vlad was wounded. "Vlad!" she called to him, but wasn't able to see if he was alright. Anti was back on his feet, and Tablish hit her in the back. She flet to her knees, but spun up to her feet blocking his attack as well as Anti.

She pushed Tablish back again, imediatly going for Anti.

"Come on fight harder I'm losing here!" Anti said.

"You always want more! It's always 'harder', 'louder', I can never satisfy you!," Tablish said with a grin as he came up behind Tenele.

She had to move quickly to block his blow, barely missing it. Anti drove a punch to her stomach, knocking the wind from her.

"Tenele!" Talon yelled as he saw his sister get hit again. He growled at the useless feeling he had... There had to be another way across...

He ran back through the tunnel to find that other way across.

Sensing Mentaria behind him, Vlad had to throw Nism firmly aside to spin back toward his other attacker. Nism smacked into a bounder and was knocked outcold while Vlade sent a spinning kick sideways into Mentaria's chest, bowling him sideways.

Mentaria managed to catch his balance and raise his sword again, rushing in on Vlad. Vlad dodged to the side as the sword stabbed at his neck and threw a crushing punch into Mentaria's gut, then slashing his claws in an X across his chest. Mentaria stumbled backward in a daze of pain, teetering dangerously close to the mouth of the tunnel that dropped steeply into the pit below the cavern. Vlad wasn't playing around this time; he lunged forward and threw a kick into the man's bleeding chest, sending him flying backwards over the edge, until his body met with the stalagmites below.

Looking over at Tenele, Vlad focused his energy on healing the wound in his side. Normally, the healing would be almost automatic, but now it took more focus. The wound on his side closed up just enough to stop the loss of his precious blood, and then Vlad left it at that. He narrowed his eyes and watched to see how Tenele was doing.

Tenele twirled her sword around, barely missing her side as she plunged it into Tablish behind her. She was half kneeling on the ground, trying to recover from the blow to her gut.

She stood up and Tablish fell as she pulled her sword free and swung it around with angry force, slicing off the arm of Anti. It was a total accident at that, she didn't even know he was standing there until her eyes found him... and what was left of his arm.

He yelled out and fell to his knees, clutching at his wound.

Tenele sighed, standing up straight to recover her lost air. Her eyes drifted over to Vlad as she cleaned her sword on the cloak of Tablish. She walked towards Vlad, sheathing her sword as she met him.

"Are you okay?" she asked him.

"Never better," Vlad grinned tiredly, admiring her performance. "That schmuck looks like he wants to be finished off," he commented, looking past her to Anti, who had staggered back to his feet and was glaring at Tenele vengefully.

Tenele shrudged. "Let him bleed to death," she told Vlad, a rather devilish grin coming to her face. "After all he would do the same for us..."

She narrowed her eyes on him. He seemed tired... He was making it worst by fighting...

Tenele looked back at Vlad... There was no saving him was there? He was getting weaker... and weaker... He was going to die...

Tenele turned her head away quickly, as if she were turning her head away from the thoughts. Vlad wouldn't die.... No, that was impossible...

"I guess we should look for a way out," she said and coughed once to clear her throat.

Vlad nodded and looked around the room they were in. For the first time he noticed the huge pile of gold that was stacked in the corner, like a royal bed for the dragon that once lived here. "First...I've never seen one of these things in person," he said playfully, walking to the edge of the pile and looking back at Tenele. "Shall we journey into the psyche of a dragon, and lie on top?" he grinned.

His curiosity was real, but he also wouldn't mind resting for a minute, until the pulsing ache in his veins died down - if it was going to die down. He avoided confronting his growing awareness that he was having more and more difficulty moving, and the supposed cure was something that just wouldn't happen. Perhaps years ago, before he'd become what he was, but that personality had been permanently warped by the excruciating glory of the experimentation that had made him a no-life king. He would die; the knowledge seemed less impressive than he'd always thought it would be. He found himself contemplating what Talon had said earlier; that they would all be better off... Looking at Tenele's state, this seemed true, but if the fact spurred any emotions in him, he did not acknowledge them.

Tenele watched Vlad with her own bit of curiosity as he walked towards the bed of gold stacked in the corner. "Not many people have, and if they have they usually don't live through it... Good thing its dead..." she said, walking up to gold pile with him.

The gold shimmered, casting that same color on her features as it had the walls. Even her silver hair took on a goldish color.

"Vlad..." she said, but broke off, unable to speak what she wanted to. In truth she didn't know what she wanted to tell him... She just knew that he didn't have long... if they couldn't save him from the curse threw this he didn't have long...

She went and stood in front of him and touched the side of his face... "I'm worried about you and this curse..." she said. She didn't know how Vlad felt fr her, but she didn't care. She was concerned for him. She couldn't control herself this time. That same uncontrolable urge took over and she kissed him softly. She realized that she might have been out of line so she backed off quickly and lowered her head. "Sorry..."

Vlad looked at Tenele blankly as her lips suddenly met his. She was worried about him... he didn't know how to feel about that. The sensation of her kiss kindled an instinct inside him and he half-closed his eyes, feeling a wave of euphoria wash over the ever-pressing sensation of his body starving. She broke contact quickly, leaving him to watch her with a strange expression that was trying to smirk, but not quite succeeding. The ache in his chest felt different, lighter and less consuming.

"Sorry," she said.

Vlad did grin now. "You never cease to amaze me, maiden girl," he said, leaning close to her and arching his neck down so that his cheek smoothed against her neck. He had reached a point where he was too hungry to have an appetite, and it was strange to be beside her neck and not hunger for it.

On an impulse, he licked the side of her neck, up to the base of her chin, and then traced his tongue along her jawbone. Absently, he licked her cheek close to the jaw several times, as he would a wound, only this time she wasn't bleeding, and he wasn't hungry. An observer might theorize that it was an act of involuntary protectiveness, but the thought did not consciously occur to Vlad. It was just an impulse he couldn't explain that somehow relaxed him.

There were so many things going on in her brain that she couldn't consentrate on one. She allowed Vlad to lick her neck... and her jaw, and her cheek... the whole time she felt a bit emberassed... and strange...

Her breath was a bit shallow, but that could be explained by the nervousness. She knew Vlad was hungry... He hadn't eaten in a while and when he did eat it made him sick... What if he got to carried away with this strange ritual and forgot who he was licking...

She didn't stop him, though she guessed it was the propper thing to do. Vlad had made her loose her propper thoughts a while ago... He had practically converted her into someone else... She couldn't explain it, and in truth didn't want to.

She kept her eyes close, feeling as if she were about to fall backwards onto the pile of gold. This wasn't the time or place... It wasn't that it felt wrong to her... it juse felt like there was something else they should be doing...

That something else was saving Vlad... But, the plan failed... What if the monk lied and Vlad couldn't be saved? What if he was going to die?

Well, if he was to die Tenele wanted to spend his last moments with him.... Maybe that was selfish of her...

Tenele kissed him a second time, this time longer... But, she pulled away again, fighting the feelings inside her.

"Vlad..."

Kaze and Kami stopped once again to listen to the sounds in the tunnel. At the corner of her eye, Kaze caught the glow of ruby eyes and quickly put out her flame. They were in total dark.

"Why'd yo---" Kami started until Kaze put her hand over his mouth.

"Creep backwards." she said in a voice Kami didn't question. Slowly, the two of elven blood crept backwards down the tunnel.

The ruby eyes came closer, moving directly toward Kaze and Kami in the tunnel. The sound of leathery hide and bonelike nails on the stone grew stronger and stronger, and the air became strangely hot. When the creature was within a few yards, it could be seen - though the eyes were three feet up, the creature itself was almost 6 feet tall. It was a dragonet, its head lowered curiously as it padded toward the unfamiliar smell of humans in its lair. Red eyes gleaming, it cracked open its mouth and fired a puttering, but intensely hot stream of fire toward the unfamiliar things that were in its lair, an instinct to hunt beginning to overtake its curiosity.

* * *

Vlad eyed Tenele thoughtfully after she kissed him again, bringing his strange instinct under control. It seemed that Tenele was more attached to him than he'd considered before.

"Vlad," she said. He didn't know what she wanted to say, but he turned toward the gold pile and began climbing up, saving her from whatever she was trying to say - or maybe saving himself.