Mature: Desert Moon

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad's disbelief grew and grew. Having them both in his mind was such a normal, comfortable thing to him. It never occurred to him to even think about the train wreck that would happen if they were all connected at once. How could he forget something so obvious? He'd been so focused on her, so stunned by her welcome that he hadn't stopped to think for just one damned second. Of course she was angry and shocked, and hurt.

And he didn't even want to think about how much this would hurt Atul.

"I'll...be back, to help you," he muttered to Tenele, his hands out like he was confronting a scared deer. With that, he spun and raced for the upper decks. He knew she wouldn't want his help. He got to the rail and ignored the sailor who was hoisting the sails next to him.

"Hey, man. Hey!" the sailor shouted, trying to stop him as Vlad opened his vein from elbow to wrist and let it pour into the sea.

[Emora Deen]

Atul was dressed and running for the deck. Vlad would bleed out, but he'd need something to drink or he'd end up eating the crew... Maybe even killing them. As his blood poured out he felt the connection falter between himself and the two of them. He felt Tenele's pain blink out.

She thought he'd meant that... That he would use her like that... It twisted knives in his gut to know that in her mind now, he was no better than the man who'd hurt her.

"Vlad," he called, ordering the sailors away.

* * *

Tenele slipped her dress back on, piece by piece, shaking through her sobbing. Trust. She trusted him. Stupid, stupid. Men were stupid. Selfish.

Tenele thought about leaving, hiding, running. But, she had no desire to move where the world could see her. She liked hiding in the dark, between the two crates, like a child afraid to venture out.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad drew his claw again and again over the constantly healing wound, watching his blood run free. He wanted to go overboard too. He couldn't face them. He'd raped them both in one fell swoop. The two people he loved most. Tears blinded him as he dragged all four claws down his arm impatiently.

How did people come back from things like this? He'd ruined his whole life in less than ten minutes. Maybe a wife would have been able to forgive something like this. Maybe. But Tenele wasn't his wife. She would never be his wife again.

[Emora Deen]

"Vlad," Atul whispered, reaching out for him. What could he say to make the vampire feel any better? "It was an accident. She'll understand that. She won't hate you." But, even Atul didn't really believe those words. "Just give her some space." Atul knew he wasn't wholey innocent. He could have told the vampire, spoke up at any moment before the bite to tell him it was a bad idea. But, he couldn't bring himself... In that moment it was too much like old times for him to remember.

He realized that maybe Vlad wasn't going to stop bleeding himself dry. Maybe... "Vlad, don't!" He reached out and grabbed ahold of him firmly. "We can fix this. We'll get her memories back. We can make this right."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad's arm jerked without much force against Atul's grip. He stared blankly as the long gashes closed. "I don't deserve her. I don't deserve you," he said, facing the man with an empty gaze. "Think of it for a moment. All the times I've hurt her. All the things I've done. I'm no better than my nature. How else can all these things happen to such a good woman?"

[Emora Deen]

Atul frowned at him. "Bad things happen to good people, Vlad. That's just the way the world works, whether you are in their life or not. Now, I want you to think of it for a moment. Think of all the missions you've been on, and then omit yourself from them. All those dangerous situations, all those dangerous people, and imagine you weren't there with her. Imagine some other partner, some other soldier. How long do you think she would have lived? Without you, who would have rescued her when she was a prisoner of war? And if you weren't with her on that first mission to Hajara? Imagine if Verin had not had you to distract him from her, how quickly would he have made her his slave? Vlad, you are not the source of Tenele's misery, or all the bad things that have ever happened to her. You give yourself too much credit. Tenele would have been in those same situations, regardless if you were there or not. But, the fact you were there means she's survived this long because of it. You are high profile people who have very dangerous jobs. Bad things are going to happen."

But, Atul had no words to tell him how he could fix this one. This one... If it had been her only time to be hurt like that, to be betrayed... The only way that they were going to fix this was if Tenele got her memories back. She'd be more understanding, and more forgiving, when she remembered how much she loved them. "We'll fix this."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad looked completely shell-shocked as he met his friend's eyes. "I'm sorry, Atul. I didn't think. She would have loved you, in time. You're allowed to hate me for this."

He stared at the stairway to the lower decks. "I said I would help her. I need to go back," he said mechanically.

No! He couldn't face her. He could never face her again.

[Emora Deen]

Atul frowned at the stairs and then at Vlad. "I can't hate you for loving her, and me at the same time, in the same day. Vlad, for us... She is Tenele. It is easy to fall into the casualness of what we shared. It is easy to forget when the person you are looking at looks the same on the outside, even if they are vastly different on the inside..."

She would hate him, he thought sourly. Both of them probably. "I can send someone down to her," he offered to Vlad. "We can give her the space she needs for right now. We'll get back to land tomorrow and we'll sort this all out. Maybe... in time... she'll forgive us."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad nodded lifelessly. He didn't want to be forgiven. At the moment, he didn't even want to be loved. He wanted to hate himself. He wanted to stop existing so he wouldn't have to do it at other people's expense. That was what he was. It was his nature. He was a monster, a parasite that some maniac scientist had given an ego. Such a huge ego that he believed himself worthy of love, marriage, forgiveness.

He was exactly what Tenele told him he was. Bipolar, aggressive. Dangerous, unpredictable, irresponsible.

The mental onslaught went on cruelly as he stood up straight and followed the King away from the confused crew members and watched while he gave directions to one of the most trusted men to see to Tenele.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele heard the heavy sound of feet. She pressed herself as tightly as she could into the corner between the wall and the crate. She drew her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

"Lady Dracul?" the voice called. The guard knelt down slowly a few feet from her. Tenele lifted her gaze to him. "I'm here to escort you back to your room." He reached out slowly for her hand.

Tenele flinched, and the guard hesitated.

"I can carry you," he offered quietly. His king had not explained what was wrong with her, only that she was upset and unwell. But, he had been a soldier long enough to see the look in her eyes and read it for what it was. "Alright," he sighed, retracting his hand. "How about a blanket?" He pulled the cloth out from under his arm and handed it to her.

Tenele took it slowly. "When you are ready," he whispered. "I will make sure you get back to your room without anyone seeing you. No one will hurt you, okay? I'll bring you some food in a little while."

Tenele scoffed at him and pulled the blanket around her. The promises of a man, she thought sourly as the guard left.

A few minutes later he was knocking on the king's quarters. He stepped in, closing the door behind him. He quickly washed judgement from his face, turning his gaze blank as he stood at attention. "Lady Dracul is refusing to leave where she's at. I am confident I can coax her back to her room before night fall. Until then, its probably best to let her be."

The guard left.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad stood near the corner of Atul's quarters. He imagined Tenele alone by those boxes, too afraid to leave. He wanted to fall apart in Atul's arms. But he didn't deserve that. Atul was suffering too, because of him. The things the vampire was feeling at the moment were so severe that as long as he dwelled on them, he couldn't possibly be there for his friend and lover, who apparently was still willing to be near him.

There was really only one option. He took all the pain, and walled it off in his head. It filled him with a strange coldness, but it was all he had. He couldn't afford to feel at the moment. He had Atul to protect. The only good thing in his life. "You're right," he said quietly, tuning in to the pensive mood of his lover. "There will be a solution to her memories. We will find it, and make her whole again. You will be remembered, I swear it."

[Emora Deen]

Atul nodded at Vlad, and sat down slowly at the edge of his bed slowly. "When we get back tomorrow we will scourer every book, ever surface, every elder, and ever scribe. I will not stop or rest or tire. We will find a way to fix her, and we will make this right." He wouldn't let Tenele live the rest of her life thinking of him with the same thoughts as the man who'd raped her. Gods... He'd... His hands flexed, and he tried not to think about how good it had felt to be with her, through Vlad.

"We've got to come up with some plan. We dock in the morning. If Tenele isn't ready to leave where she's hiding, we've got to talk her out. She already hates me Vlad, and there might be some salvaging done for her... What if we lie? What if I go down there and I tell her I made you do that. I can be convincing enough. As long as she... hates me, she can forgive you. She needs someone, one of us, and it damn sure isn't going to be me now. If I tell her I forced you to do it, she will forgive you. Tenele is too good, too loving, and that's why she'd forgive you."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad shook his head. "I'm not making you the scapegoat for my own actions. Besides, I doubt her trust would be restored, even if I did. She will leave the ship. She's too practical to expect to live in a storage room, and she will want Tenara. As soon as we reach shore and my powers are back online, I will alert Sinead. Tenele may be willing to trust her, and Talon.

[Emora Deen]

Atul frowned. "Maybe Sinead isn't the best person to contact about this," he murmured. He wasn't sure how the Queen would react to him after knowing what had happened. And he had to think of the alliance with her.

"Well, at any rate, we'll have to face Tenele tomorrow," he sighed. "But, I still don't mind being a scapegoat, only for temporary... until her memories return."

* * *

"You sent for me, Mathis," Grelot sighed, folding his arms across his chest. "Get on with it."

"The King returns tomorrow," Mathis replied, dipping his quill in ink and dragging it along the parchment, pinning intricate words on a contract. "He'll be bringing back the ambassadors of Ighten..."

"So? What does that have to do with me? I don't give a damn about the vampire and his little bitch wife. Stupid whore," he grunted.

"You care about money, don't you?" he asked lifting his gaze. "The king is in a delicate situation. I can't let anything come between him and the marriage to Espha of Ida. We need a union between him and a Hajarian woman, or a noble from a neighbouring nation. I do not need the Dracul's souring this possibility with their return. I need the King's head straight... and I need his alliances with them cut. That is where you come in. From what I am being told Lady Dracul has suffered an accident and is not quite feeling herself. She has lost all her memories, accept that of her child. I want to drive a wedge further between them. If you can't get creative... then one of them or both of them, must die. I can't have them ruining what we have worked so hard to get our King to accept. Do we have an agreement?"

"You want me to make them hate eachother?" Grelot asked with a laugh. "And you say the woman doesn't remember anything?"

"Nothing," Mathis sighed. "Is this helpful."

"Yeah, considering she punched me in the balls the last time I saw her and told me if I ever came before her again she'd cut off my dick," Grelot chuckled. "We had a miss-understanding."

"Does Lord Dracul know of your miss-understanding?" Mathis growled.

"No," Grelot snapped. "He doesn't. At least, if he heard the story he doesn't know my name or my face." The hired hand stepped back towards the door. "I'll come up with something good in the name of the King."

"In the name of the King," Mathis sighed. "Go."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad looked back at the door. "I need to go see her," he said blankly. "I can't leave her there with no explanation."