Heirot

"Good," Talon told him, standing up so he could be eye level with his master. "So did I."

Vlad's eyes flared hot, and then nearly choked black. "You what?"

Talon's brow furrowed. "She asked me. She was distraught. Tenele nearly burned to death. I didn't find her in the right frame of mind to ask such a question. I think she was in too much pain, and felt too much rage. I didn't want to turn my sister. I don't want you turning her."

Vlad's chest wrenched. It was bad enough she'd asked at all, but she'd asked someone else first. And a New vampire, at that. Even if it was family, the temptation had to have been strong for Talon. She'd put herself in true danger. A flash of real respect and gratitude ran a cool touch over the pain in his heart. "You did well," he said quietly. "Did you feed during the battle?"

Talon nodded. "I overfed," he smirked. "In fact... I was thinking about going to see if I could catch any stragglers. Mostly because I feel antsy sitting in this house. After all that's happened I feel like I need to do something. That might be because I overfed." Talon stretched his arms. "Is there anything you need of me?"

Vlad looked down at his Blood, and for just a second, thought of asking the man for his company. Instead, he smirked. "Burn some of it off, then. Enjoy yourself."

Talon smiled. "I'll do that." He headed for the door and paused, glancing back up the stairs at the dim lit room. "I won't go too far. If you need me, you know how to reach me."

* * *

Stalker rested his head on the bed and blew air in a harsh line across Tenele's glistening brow. His glowing red eyes seemed quite intense as he stared at his sleeping ward. He pressed in closer, drawing his cold muzzle across her scorching brow. Tenele blinked her eyes open, smiling at him as she pushed his nose away. "Go torment someone else."

"I will," Vlad said thoughtfully, and watched the younger man leave. His gaze finally turned up the stairs, where Tenele was resting. He walked to the kitchen and made his way carefully through the family's cupboards until he found what he needed to temper her fever.

It was an unpleasant shock to realize he didn't want to go up to the room. He did so anyway. As he walked to her side, he studied her quiet form and Stalker's attentive presence next to her. "Awake?" he asked her gently. His weight pressed into the mattress beside her.

"I am," she sighed, rolling over onto her back, with her head propped on the pillow. She stared at him, her gentle expression fading as if she felt the mood he was in. Instead of addressing it, mostly because she feared to, Tenele reached out and curled her fingers in Stalker's fur. Her silver hair slipped down in front of her face, and she didn't bother to brush it away.

After several seconds of silence Tenele murmured, "The house grew quiet."

Vlad watched her fingers weave through Stalker's fur. "Espha needed some air. Atul and Talon are 'cleaning up'. He dipped his fingers in a small bowl he was holding and smeared a cool cream just below her collarbone, across her chest. "If you feel well enough, we will return to the capitol in the morning."

Tenele glanced down at the cream and then to her husband's eyes. "I'll feel well enough," she promised. "I'm feeling fine now." Her focus returned to Stalker's fur. "You seem upset again," she finally whispered. She instinctively pressed herself into the covers more, as if she could hide there.

Minutes ago they'd been discussing children and now he felt... he seemed... She couldn't quite decide what was off, if anything.

"Was it that painful?" he asked, almost too soft to be heard. "They hurt you...twisted you that badly...?" His soul ached imagining it. Everything else, knowing she wanted things he couldn't give, that she could even think he enjoyed her mortal pain, it was all like splinters compared to the image of her so alone and unprotected that she had to beg Talon for death.

If he'd protected her properly, she would not have had to suffer.

If he'd done his job, he would never need to know what she thought of him.

"I should have been there."

Tenele's brow furrowed. Her eyes watered and she blinked the tears gone, turning her face away from him. "I looked into the eyes of people I'd helped, protected... healed. I begged them not to do it. They caught me and tied me up like some stranger. In the moment the flames were gone it struck me. Its useless. I'm useless. All I do is get hurt. I'm weak. I'm fragile. What good am I? And I was angry. Sooo angry. The very people I was willing to die for were so very willing to kill me to save their own skin."

"I'm feeling better," she resolved, like what he'd witnessed before had been just a temporary illness. "I feel more myself."

"Okay," Vlad said quietly. He reached out and recovered the rag she'd lost in the pillows. He dipped it in the bowl next to the bed, wrung it out, and lay it cool across her forehead. "Perhaps I'll even believe you after your fever goes down," he teased emptily. "What did Knight have to say? I feel like I ran a marathon. Without cheating."

"He said that I can only call him on a full moon... He thinks that whatever my mother did to bring you back might be conflicting with the spell, and that her power is weakest on the full moon," Tenele told him, closing her eyes as the cool rag draped across her forehead. Tenele swallowed hard, not sure how to approach the subject now, or what reaction it would garner. "He said he'd be honored if I allowed him into my bed."