Heirot

Vlad's eyes were glazed and empty. "No...I didn't." He stared at the top of Tenele's head numbly. "I didn't do that."

He'd done it. He'd felt every thrust. His pants were soaked with his orgasm. He'd enjoyed her screams. He'd hated and loved her at once.

The vampire scrambled back, away from his wife and her trusting hands. Tears ran down his face, unblinking.

Tenele fell across the floor without his support. She shook, trying to push up as she dragged her gaze up to him. "Don't," she pleaded. "Don't leave me. Don't go. He'll come back. He's coming back!"

The world around Vlad grew steadily darker, and Tenele's screaming faded. The blackness was darker than pitch, darker than anything, to the point that not even night sight couldn't see through it. And it stayed like that.

Vlad shook, beyond control or comfort. If Maxwell appeared before him right now, he'd run to the man's arms as if he were a savior. The man had no use for feelings. He'd do away with this emotional nonsense and take his pet experiment off to endure a certain and scientific death.

"Lelana," he barely had the control to mutter. His voice fluctuated wildly. "Lelana!"

He had to get out of here. All he saw was Tenele in the darkness, beneath him, sobbing for mercy. Mercy....Lelana had shown him mercy before. At least, she hadn't allowed him to die.

He looked down at his chest, mad with grief. It could happen again at any moment. He could rape her again. His mind would not survive the experience if he did. Maybe it hadn't survived the first time, because he thought absolutely nothing of what he did next.

Claws extended from his hands, long and sharp. He dragged them over his stomach, cutting through flesh and organs. Once wasn't enough. He clawed at himself madly, each scratch carving deeper. He didn't spare what lay below the lip of his pants. The more of that he mutilated, the less capable he'd be. He'd felt pain before. He knew pain. He liked pain. Even as he swore it to himself, he cried with each strike he threw against himself.

Outside the spell, his body maintained a steady attempt to heal itself as he tore at his flesh. The strikes were weaker than they were in the vampire's hallucination. His whole body was weaker. The strain of the spell had drained him severely.

Lelana floated Vlad's body to the room she prepared for him upon his arrival, watching him as he attempted to attack himself. Maybe she'd gone a little overboard with her last vision, but she wanted him to suffer. She wanted his wife to suffer.

She laid Vlad down on his bed and sat next to him, trying to contemplate what to do now. She restrained his hands gently so he couldn't hurt himself outside the spell.

She resumed the form of Tenele Dracul, waited for the vampire's real wounds to heal, and brought him out of the spell, simultaneously releasing him from the protective bindings.

"Vlad," Tenele called, kneeling next to him. "Vlad, you're having a nightmare. Please, wake up. Wake up." The terror in her voice sounded real. "Please."

Vlad jerked upright, hands over his chest like he'd been flayed alive. He was trembling, sweat pouring off his skin. Why was he in a bed? He looked up at Tenele, and his expression shut down.

No. He was still inside it. He was going to do something to her. He was going to destroy her, and his mind would be crippled forever by the memory. And he couldn't stop it. He couldn't even kill himself. She wouldn't stop until his brain was loose garbage strewn across the floor of his reality. She'd proven that to him, over 200 times.

"No," he whispered dully, like he already knew it would accomplish nothing. "Tenele," he sobbed, "No."

Tenele's brow knit with confusion. "Hey," she whispered, reaching forward to cradle his face in her hands. "Hey, look at me. You're okay. That was just a bad dream. You hit your head pretty hard..." Tenele knelt next to him, her warm body brushing his side as she leaned over him to examine the back of his head. "Are you feeling okay? I didn't think vampire's could get knocked out that hard. Queen Shehara said that when you met her gollem for the first time... it didn't take kindly to you trying to take a piece of it. I got here as soon as I could."

He listened to her gentle voice, and all his mind heard was her strangled scream of protest as he skewered her violently into the floor. Vlad scrambled sideways, leaping out of the bed. His legs barely held him. How weak was he? How long had this torture lasted? "Stop it. Lelana," the rest of the sentence died on his lips as tears burned down his cheeks. He leaned into the wall and dropped to a crouch like something had shoved him there.

Tenele blinked at him, "Vlad..." she murmured. "I think you should stay lying down. I'm worried about you." She went to him, pulling on his hand. "Come back to bed. Come on."

Vlad tugged loose and fell to his back, looking like she'd stabbed and not gently taken his hand. His eyes widened, and he teleported backward without even thinking about his target. That landed him with his right side half way into the wall, trying to displace what was already there. He screamed and made the correction, rolling onto his side and grasping an arm that barely looked like flesh. It slowly began to repair itself, along with the outer edge of his leg, the fabric permanently gone from that side. He pressed his forehead into the floor and took deep, sharp breaths to keep from sobbing. He'd never been so scared in his life.

Tenele drug the blankets from the bed and brought them to him, covering his half naked body while it healed. She looked hurt that he drew away from her and worried about him. She hesitated in touching him, so she just crawled under the blankets with him, lying about a foot from his body. Her fingers brushed his hair lightly while he calmed down. "Shh," she whispered. "Its okay."

"Stop it...stop it," Vlad demanded over and over, shaking uncontrollably. "I won't do it again. "Why would you do that? What the hell is wrong with you?" he screamed at no one he could see, even as his arms locked protectively around his wife. "Leave her alone. Whatever I did, just leave her." His fingers stroked over her hair. Sweet, warm Tenele, worrying about him, trusting him and cuddling him, forgiving him despite what he'd done. How could he face her after what he'd done? This wasn't right. It wasn't right for her to lie there with him. Nothing would ever be right again. The thoughts ran in an accellerating thrum of agony, until something inside him finally just snapped.

He stopped shaking, or breathing. He lay perfectly still beside her, like a sculpted mannequin. His eyes were empty and dull.

Tenele swallowed, brushing her fingers over his skin and staring into his dull eyes. "It was a dream," she whispered to him. "A terrible, terrible dream. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." To see his pain... to see Tenele's pain. She enjoyed it. And she hated that she enjoyed it. Lelana hated herself. The noise, the insanity in her mind... it wasn't so loud anymore. "I'm sorry." She pressed her lips to his cheek. "It was a dream. It wasn't real. What you saw wasn't real. Please, come back. Come back to me, Vlad. Please. I need you."

"Why?" Vlad looked at her with calm, dark red eyes. "No one needs me. I only fail them. This is what you wanted to show me, is it not?" He sat up, slowed a bit by his body's lack of strength, and put a light hand on top of her head. "What do need me for, Lelana?" He sounded utterly sober and dried like a husk.

Tenele stared at him, real tears burning her eyes. "People need you," Tenele replied. "They love you. They care about you. They worry for you. They struggle to help you, to find you, to make sure you are okay. You might not ever make it in time, but at least you try to save them. At least you care whether they are hurt. You do not fail them as long as you love them."

Tenele wiped her eyes and moved away from him. She brought her knees up to her chest and pressed her forehead to the top of them, covering her ears with her hands.

Vlad's lips curled into a disturbingly joyless smile. "Don't tell me dreams in a place like this. In reality, you're just pouting because you broke your toy."