Heirot

Tenele pushed off the wall, spotting Vlad cutting down the length of the road. "Vlad..." she whispered.

"Tenele, don't run. Not..." Talon warned, reaching out to grab her cloak. Tenele frowned at him, pushing his hand away. She turned and started for Vlad, her feet moving carefully. She wanted to run to him, but couldn't bring herself to do it on sensitive skin.

Vlad thought about pouncing straight into her, but he noticed halfway to her that she seemed injured. His nerves tingling with protective ferocity, he slowed to a jog as he closed the last few feet and pulled her tight against him as gently as knew how. "What happened? Who dared hurt you?" he asked with tender rage, burying his nose in her hair and stroking his hand along the back of her neck.

Atul jogged up behind Vlad, and Talon closed in. Tenele nuzzled into him, feeling the tears she'd been holding since after Atul pulled her from the woodpile sting her eyes. "It was a misunderstanding," she muttered, glancing to Atul. "Arken convinced Atul's people that the only way to get rid of a curse was to offer Verin a sacrifice." She remembered the heat and the flames and what would have happened if Atul hadn't arrived. Really, she told herself, she needed to stop being so hard on him. She just felt so angry. So very, very tired.

Tenele drew back from Vlad slowly, showing him the bandaged arm, the white gauze that went up past her elbow, and then down at her legs. Her right cheek and neck were heat-burned and flushed, but not marred. "They burned me." The tears broke lose like a shattered dam and travelled down her cheeks.

Stalker nudged in behind her, pressing in as close as he could. Since the incident he was testy with anyone other than the three men around her. He snapped at everyone, and refused to be more than a foot from her.

Vlad's red gaze took in her wounds, every trace of pain and terror and hurt in her expression. He wanted to apologize for not being able to reach her. He wanted to tell her how desperately he'd missed her. Instead, he focused on her jade eyes. "What do you need right now?" he asked her earnestly, ready to do anything for her. Anything but leave her side.

Tenele frowned at him, reaching up to wipe her eyes. "I need them to die. All of them. I want them all dead. Every last Arken. I hate them," she muttered in her sorrow.

"She's tired," Talon piped in. "She's not herself."

"I am myself!" Tenele growled at him. "Stop treating me like glass."

Vlad's gaze darkened with a faint smirk. "As many as you like, maiden girl." It wasn't like her to speak this way, but he didn't mind it. Something in her eyes seemed off, but he was confident now that he was with her that everything would be alright. "Can I bring you someplace quieter, until you're less hurt?"

Tenele nodded, leaning back in against her husband. "Please. Somewhere quiet would be nice."

Atul glanced at the two of them, and then back at his men attacking the Arkens and flushing them out of the buildings. "I have a battle to manage. I'll see you afterwards," he told them, giving Vlad's shoulder's a squeeze. "Come on Talon, I'll need your help."

Talon hesitated, but eventually walked off to catch up to Atul.

Espha lingered in the background quietly, not wanting to interrupt them. "Father's house is swarming with Arkens... I don't know if it will be safe for her there. We may find an abandoned house to keep her in, it should be safe from the plague now that its passed."

"Yes," Vlad said. "Lead the way." He tucked an arm around Tenele's back and used telekinesis to ease her weight as Espha led them to a nearby building that looked uninhabited.

Espha found a house with the colored stone marking its abandonment and pushed open the door. The house was small and quaint with a living room and kitchen on the first floor and a narrow staircase leading up to a small bedroom. It wasn't an elaborate home, and clearly had belonged to a not-so-wealthy family. Espha skipped ahead to explore the house, and came bustling down the steps. "Seems clear. There's a bedroom upstairs. I don't think we have to worry about sickness."

Espha looked to Tenele excitedly, but did not find any warmth in her gaze. The young girl pointed to the couch. "I'm going to wait over here..."

"We will return soon. Keep watch and let me know if there is any trouble. If you see the king pass on the outside to signal the battle is over, let us know," Vlad said gently to the girl. He was a little sorry to leave her alone after so many traumatizing events, but he was also confident he could hear from upstairs if any trouble came to her. And her little heart was just so loud.

With that, he guided his hurt wife, he wasn't sure yet how hurt, up the stairs to the bedroom and let her sit on the edge of the mattress. He knelt in front of her and looked her over, studying the icy darkness in her eyes and the places where her half-burned skin held the faint aroma of blood too close to the surface. He placed a light kiss on her knee. It left a dark smudge, but he didn't think she would mind too much. He watched her, and waited.

Tenele sat quietly with him kneeling in front of her. She slipped her hand up to the cloak and pinched the clasp open, letting the cloak slip off her shoulders. She admired her husband's red eyes.

"I've changed my mind," she whispered. She reached out with her left hand and let her fingers brush across his dirty skin. "I don't want you to go." She leaned forward and kissed the top of his dirty head, drawing away slowly. She then pulled up the sleeve of her dress-shirt and showed him the wrapped bandage that went from the tips of her fingers to above her elbow. The skin around the edge of the bandage was red and flustered. Then, she pinched the fabric of her skirt and lifted it up to her knees, showing each long slender leg wrapped up to the knees.

"If I asked for it, would you give me anything I wanted?" she muttered, staring at her feet.

"Of course," Vlad said, impassioned by the sight of her wounds. "Of course I would." How could they do this to her? How could anyone do this to her? "My love, I would do anything to spare you this. I tried to come. Something prevented it."

"I know," she whispered. "I called him. I called him over and over. He never came." Her eyes watered with the memory of it. "I was helpless. I couldn't escape. The rope was too tight, and the fire moving too fast. They didn't care who they burned as long as it saved them. Selfish, ungrateful, none of them deserve our protection."

She lowered her dress, and her eyes, staring down at the floor. "I want you to kill me," Tenele told him. If her voice hadn't been so quiet, so solemn, it might appeared a joke. Then, her green eyes flashed back to him. "I want you to turn me."

Vlad wasn't sure she'd heard her right. "Turn you?" Something wrapped around the pit of his stomach and clenched like a snake. His eyes grew dark and his voice unsettlingly soft. "What good would that do?"

"Every bit of good," Tenele told him, her voice grating. "What reason do I have to be human? If you turn me I can live with you forever, I'll never grow old. You'll never have to watch me die. I can protect myself. You won't have to worry about me. I mean, what reason do I have to be human? Its not like we could ever have a human relationship. It makes sense to me to do this. I'm tired of being hurt. I'm tired of being the one that needs rescuing, or pampering, or healing. I'm tired of war. I'm tired of fighting. I'm done, Vlad. And its not like we'll ever have a normal relationship. I have no reason to be human. Its pathetic and useless."