Heirot

Vlad stared up into her angry eyes and tried to find something he could recognize in them. Was this was Atul was trying to warn him about before? "You don't understand what you're asking," he said very carefully, working to keep the hurt from his expression. "You don't know what you're asking of me."

"I'm asking you to save me," Tenele whispered. "I'm asking you to keep me from getting hurt again. If you do this I won't have to worry about being hurt. If a mob tries to burn me, I'll kill them. I'll never have to worry about a man trying to rape me again, because I'll kill him." Tenele reached forward, even with her bandaged hand, and cupped his face.

Vlad struggled to look her in the eye. "Not all vampires are like me. Most are weak, controlled by their instincts. I was made, Tenele. It is nothing to aspire to. You will not be the same person afterwards. I will not know you the same way."

Tenele grew frustrated, and the tears started falling. It made so much sense, why couldn't he see how much it made sense? "If I was dying, would you turn me?"

Vlad's gaze turned to stone. "I would not."

Tenele's teeth set tight and she pushed him away. She stood up and stepped away from him. "So you'd rather I die? You'd rather live without me than even consider living with me as a vampire? You can't love me in any other form? I was willing to love you no matter what you became when you bonded with Atul, but you can't love me as a vampire?"

Vlad's gaze darkened with anger. "I did not say I would not love you, I said I would not turn you! I will not see you become such a thing!"

"Why not?" she asked him angrily. "What makes me any different now than if I were a vampire? What is it? Some vampire thing? You like me being human. I smell good. I'm appealing. I'm fragile. Do you like the way I smell hurt?! When I'm in pain? I don't understand."

Vlad took her words like a blow to the stomach. "Sometimes, yes. It's what I am. I'm a monster. You are a gentle person, Tenele. Do you want to delight in others' pain? Do you want to feel excited whenever you sense fear or injury? Do you want to seek out pain during intimacy, because you secretly enjoy punishing yourself for thoughts you can't control?" He was near shouting now. He got to his feet and took a step back from her. "Do you want to be my slave, like Talon? You can try to disagree, but the bond won't let you. You'll do anything I ask. You'll love me when I want you to, you'll obey me when I need you to. This will be the last argument we'll ever have, yet you'll never feel quite yourself again. Won't that be great, my love? Bound to my command for eternity, until you finally come to hate me for it or find a convenient way to let yourself die? You can be hunted, hated, raped of the talents your mother gave you. Maybe I'll stow you away somewhere nothing can hurt you. You'll need nothing but my protection, and you'll accept it. Will that make you happy? After all, there's no point in having a 'human' relationship with a vampire!"

Tears were running down his cheeks. He'd never spoken to her this way before.

Tenele glowered. Her usual passive side, the side that turned to butter, when he raised his voice was still to scalded by fire to be hurt by his words. She still had too much rage in her to feel hurt by his words. They'd gotten in, and touched her, she just hadn't realized it yet. She couldn't feel the tears on her cheeks through the numbness of her heart. "And how is that different from now? I'm hunted and hated now, and my talents only allow me to heal undeserving people! The very people I heal are the very ones who tie me to a stake and set me on fire!"

She went to him, not quite in the scope of reason after what happened to her. She'd yet to crest that plain of anxiety and depression that came with being so close to death, and fear so high, and hatred so vast. All she could see was the salution to her humanity's curse. She cupped his cheek with her bandaged hand, and wrapped her good arm around his waist. "Please," she whispered to him with a kiss. "I don't mind being bound to you. I could never hate you. Please, Vlad." She kissed his lips and jaw, and went to his neck. Working all the places she knew excited him, trying to charm the deadliest beast she knew.

Vlad grabbed her wrist, where he knew it would hurt her, and pushed her back across the bed. His other hand knotted in her silver hair and held her tight to the mattress, the weight of his body pinning her helplessly under him. He ran his lips across her neck, craving her. Resenting her. "Selfish, awful woman," he snarled in her face, pain in his eyes. "I will never change you. I will never forget that you turned to my basest instincts to convince me. What the hell do you take me for? Is it so easy for you to throw our relationship away?" He backed up off of her, standing and backing toward the door.

Tenele screamed as all her senses exploded in pain and fear. She broke into a sob as he growled at her, the pain finally making her see clearly. When he moved towards the door she sat up slowly. Her burned hand trembled violently from the pain and she clutched it to her chest. Tears fell in rivers down her cheeks. She held her arm delicately, watching the red ring appear where he'd squished burned flesh against the bandage.

She couldn't believe he'd hurt her, that he'd grabbed the source of her pain and mental anguish... just as much as she couldn't believe she'd tried to manipulate him in such away.

It was fear of his wrath that made her scurry off the bed, and shame that made her run into the small bathroom. She slammed the door closed and held her arm out to examine it.

It hurt. It hurt. Tenele lifted her sleeve and started to unwrap the bandaging to take a look. She sobbed, shaking her head as she remembered what she'd done.

Stupid. Stupid. Why had she done that?

Tenele unwrapped the bandage to the point where Vlad's hand gripped her firmly. She pulled on it and choked on a scream. Tenele dropped down to her knees, pressing her forehead to the counter top. She huffed air, examining where the bandage stuck to the burns. Tenele drew little bit more of the fabric away, just a pinch. She cried out, fumbling down onto her rear, pinched between the sink cabinets and the tub, cradling her arm and crying.

Vlad stood two stairs down, and listened to her torture. He ran the rest of the way down the stairs, his footing sloppy on the last few steps. He stumbled at the landing and rocketed into the kitchen, ignoring Espha's stare. A char-broiled, livid, crying super-vampire was likely not a sight the girl was used to. "The water I gave you, is there any left," Vlad choked out as he ransacked the kitchen cabinets for clean bandages. He could still feel her flesh splintering under his fingers. Gods, what had he done, what had he done!? He found a drawer full of towels and some numbing herbs in the cabinets. His hands shook as he gathered them hastily on the counter.

Espha was sitting on the couch with her legs drawn up to her knees, looking a bit petrified. "I have it," she muttered, digging into the little purse she carried at her waist. She tossed it to him, and the leather canteen slid across the floor to him. "Is everything okay? There's so much screaming..."

* * *

Tenele tucked herself into the corner as tightly as possible, and stayed there. She intended to stay there until the world turned to dust. She had no desire to leave the safety of the small little corner, where there was barely room for her. She'd given up trying to remove the bandage, and instead just decided it was what it was. If it got infected, so be it. It hurt too much to change, and she was to afraid and hurt and full of shame to asked Vlad for help.

"Come with me," he said hoarsely as he scooped up the water and went back to the stairs. "In case she will not allow me to help." Ever again, the painful possibility seared his mind. That was all he offered her as he went back up to the bathroom door. "Tenele, may I enter?" he asked softly outside the door.