Holier Than Thou

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad fought back a new wave of humans. They weren't very strong, and their numbers kept growing fewer and fewer. Still, he was strangely out of breath as he struck them down. He finally reached a gap in combat to look back at Tenele. He was about to help her, when he realized how much ass she was kicking. He crossed his arms and admired her work. "Ignoring doctor's orders, I see," he teased her, as if she weren't already busy enough. He reached back and casually speared a soldier running up behind him.

[Emora Deen]

She smiled at him. "Honestly, when do I ever listen?" she asked him, pushing off with her knees and sending the man forward into the hole. He cracked his chin as his body folded up for entry. She then set to work trying to untangle the mess of knots they'd tied her hands together with.

A bulky soldier came whizzing by while Tenele was concentrating on the ropes. He swooped down and hauled her up, throwing her over his shoulder.

"What the!" She twined her fingers together and drove her fists into the small of his back as he carried her out through the gate. He didn't make it a foot from the entrance before Vincent took out his legs. The soldiers body toppled, and Tenele went crashing to the ground with him.

She groaned, shifting to her knees. A wolf with green eyes paced nervously in a short semi-circle around her. He moved in slowly, and she froze.

"Vlad!" she called worriedly as the beast grew nearer. "Stalker!!"

[Soran Nightblade]

Stalker was standing nearby, relaxing in his victory over the attackers. He trotted to Tenele and stood near her with confidence, but didn't attack Vincent. Vlad teleported out next to her and knelt at her side. "He's safe," he reassured her as he checked her bandages for any signs that the stitches might have broken.

"Actually, this is someone you're due to meet," the no-life king said, glancing pointedly at the wolf.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele frowned. "Safe?" she asked him skeptically. "Who is he?" she asked him. The wolf made a soft growl, shaking his head as if to gesture something. He backed away slowly, and turned for the woods. "I suppose he didn't want to meet me after all."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad turned toward Vincent's disappearing form and blinked. It took a few moments for him to catch on to the wolf's logic. "Oh, he's just being modest," the vampire smirked. He took the moment to look her over a little more thoroughly. "Feeling alright?"

[Emora Deen]

Tenele met Vlad's eyes. "Yes," she told him softly. She reached forward and wrapped her arms around him, resting her head against his chest. "When they broke through I thought..." She swallowed. "I'm glad you are okay.... you are okay, aren't you?" Truth be told she still felt weary, but it was better than dead.

Vincent stepped out from behind the bushes, pulling on a brown coat over a bare chest. He buckled his belt, and readjusted the shoes he'd thrown on. His heart was pounding, not from the fight either. His stomach was doing flips. If he'd been in wolf form he was sure he probably would have turned and ran with his tail between his legs. Instead, he'd stepped out into the open.

It was now or never, and he'd much prefer never.

He waited off to the side for Tenele and Vlad to pull apart.

[Soran Nightblade]

"'Course I'm okay," Vlad scoffed, rubbing his nose in her hair. He didn't need to draw attention to it. Soon they'd be married, and then he could deal with his disintegrating invincibility. Movement drew his eyes to the figure standing near them. "Tenele," he said almost gently, "Keep an open mind. And turn."

[Emora Deen]

Tenele blinked at Vlad curiously, glancing over her shoulder before facing Vincent. Her brow furrowed, and she turned her eyes to Vlad. "Keep and open mind?" She racked her brain for what the hell he could be talking about.

Vincent stood awkwardly waiting, and it wasn't a surprise to him when she turned her confused eyes on him. It had been so long, and he had changed. She had grown up, a hundred human years had passed while her half-elf body aged. It hurt, but it was no surprise.

"Do I know you?" Tenele asked him after no one said anything.

Stalker came up behind Vincent and gave him a hard shove forward. He stumbled on his feet, glaring behind him at the hell-hound. His eyes then look at Vlad pleadingly.

"You do," he coughed, trying to find the words. His green eyes met hers.

Tenele narrowed her eyes, trying to place his face. His eyes were the only familiar thing about him and she couldn't for the life of her think of where she'd seen them. "I'm sorry," she replied, shaking her head. "I don't..." Her eyes dropped to the mark on his neck. "You're a wolf-demon... a member of Shea's army."

Vincent dropped his hand to the tattoo of the three claw marks. "I..."

Tenele moved back against Vlad until her sore back brushed his chest. She stared at Vincent intently, trying to place whether he was one of the ones who'd been in that torture camp that Vlad had rescued her from after the loss of the Border Battle. She focused in on his eyes again.

"Tenele," he started softly, unable to take the suspense anymore. He stepped forward, but the click of realization in her eyes halted his advance.

It was the way he'd spoke her name, combined with the soft sad look of his eyes. Like a flash of light she was carried back to a different place a different time. She exhaled, her hands moving to cup her mouth, she fell back into Vlad further. Her stitched wound pressed up against the vampire's hard form, and she flinched away from him, shaking her head. "No... that's impossible."

"Wait, don't panic," he urged, moving closer while reaching out a hand to her.

Tenele shifted out of the way quickly so he couldn't touch her. "Don't panic?" she asked him harshly. "You're pretending to be my father! My very dead father... And you're going along with it!" She glared pointedly at Vlad.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad didn't embrace her or try to hold her there. If she chose to run away from her father, or hit him, or anything else, it was her business. He met her eyes thoughtfully. "He isn't dead, Tenele," he told her quietly. "That man.... even smells like you. As Talon does."

[Emora Deen]

Tenele looked between them. "Smells like me?" she repeated questioningly to herself before focusing her attention on the werewolf. "I need to sit down," she muttered before plopping down right there in the snow. She put her hands to either side of her face and looked up at the man claiming to be her father.

Vincent knelt down across from her. "When you were little Talon would chase you with his pet lizard until you climbed the tree in our back yard and couldn't get down. I think every afternoon I had to get you out of that tree. I called you Cuddle Bug, I beat up your closet monster, and we'd take naps in the hammock when I got home from work. You hated the color pink, were terrified of fairies, and the first time you stood up to Talon's teasing you broke his finger." Vincent glanced back to Vlad. "I was very sick, I was dying, and I made a mistake. That mistake took your mother and I away from you, I can't take back what happened. No amount of variation of sorry can fix it. There is so much I need to tell you, Tenele..."

Tenele's eyes had started watering halfway through his speech, and by the time he'd finished a tear trickled down her cheek. She remembered all of that, it was faint, but she remembered it. She remembered him, despite how long it had been somewhere in the back of her mind she'd preserved those memories. He was the same as she remembered. He hadn't aged, just got more scruffy and hard.

"I need to sit," she whispered again.

"You are sitting," Vincent replied with a smile.

She glanced around, and indeed she was. She reached out slowly and touched his scruffy face. He stayed very still, like he was trying to attract a frightened cat. After a second of staring at him and poking his cheek for assurance that he was real Tenele flew forward and wrapped her arms around his neck. Vincent sat wide-eyed, turning his gaze up to the vampire. His arms were out awkwardly, and he wasn't really sure what to do with them... so he slowly wrapped them around her. He was careful of her wounds, noting how weak her grip was, and how cold and light she felt.

The knowledge that she was that frail lit worry in him. But, for the moment Vincent Raider closed his eyes and held his daughter.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad watched Tenele and her father thoughtfully. He'd never really imagined Tenele's childhood, and it occurred to him for the first time that there were whole parts of her life he still didn't know about. Listening to them talk fascinated him.

"Lord Dracul. Lady Raider," the high priest called to them, approaching from the direction of the gates. For his age, he carried forward at a stiff, but brisk pace amidst his robes. "Can this really be? Have we won?"

Vlad turned his red gaze toward the old man and smirked. "Ever the pessimists, you church folk. Of course we won!"

The man shook his head at the term "we", knowing full well how shamefully heavy their reliance on their odd guests had been.

"How are the men inside?"

The priest cast an uncertain look at the stranger hugging Tenele, as if noticing the scene for the first time. "There are almost no casualties. By the time they made it inside...they were very few in number." His gaze pulled back to Tenele. "Is everything alright with you two?"

[Emora Deen]

"Yes," Vincent replied, glancing at the priest. "Everything is fine..." He pushed Tenele away gently, cupping her face in his hands. He smiled at her lovingly. "I have something for you. It should help you heal." He pulled from his pocket a vile of black liquid. He handed it up to Vlad. "Rub it on the wound and it should heal fairly fast. I can't do anything about blood-loss unfortunately."

Vincent stood and helped Tenele to her feet. "You need warm clothes," he pointed out, rubbing her arms. He realized that they were blood but strangers, so he moved to a safer more comfortable distance.

Tenele looked back at the priest and then at Vlad, and finally her eyes turned to her father. "This is... I don't know what to say." She slipped back against Vlad, wrapping one arm around his waist and pressing her cheek against his body. "Do you know eachother?" she asked Vlad curiously.

[Soran Nightblade]

"Only as of this morning," Vlad said. "He fought alongside me in the battle."

"Then you are welcome within our walls," the high priest said firmly. "Come, let us go inside and see to both your wounds."

[Emora Deen]

Vincent looked warily at the church. "I really need to start cleaning up this mess..." he replied to the priest. "Thank you for the offer, though." He knew he'd burst into flames if he stepped over that threshold. He looked back to Vlad and Tenele. "I will see you again," he told Tenele. "There is so much I have to tell you." But, honestly, how could he explain her mother, or the danger she was in?

"Tend to her," Vincent said trustingly. He nodded to Vlad, giving him a firm look of understanding.

[Soran Nightblade]

"Wait a sec, 'Dad'," Vlad stopped him. The word felt awkward on his tongue, so inevitably it came out half sarcastic. The other half, however, was firm and intent.

Vlad turned to the priest. "Priesty, does your decision before the battle still stand? You will acknowledge our engagement?"

The man paused, as if stunned all over again by the concept of marrying a vampire in his cathedral. He looked over the vampire's searching expression and then the pale, youthful maiden who intended to marry him. He took a deep breath. "The fact that you are alive with that pendant around your neck is proof of God's tolerance. If Thar allows it, so do I." He paused for a moment, weighing the tone of his words. "Also, it would be a pleasure to behold your union."