Heirot

Talon didn't think he'd have a problem, he was already more revolted than he'd been in a long time. "I'll be right back," he muttered.

Talon stepped down the alley towards the occupied man. He was calm and predatory in his movements, but his eyes were gleaming red. The wind caught his silver hair, tossing long silky strands around him. He looked more like a ghost than a vampire. The girl whimpered at the sight of him, but it didn't seem out of the ordinary to her oppressor.

When Talon was no more than five feet away he couldn't take it anymore. His restraint snapped and he lunged for the man. He wrapped an arm around his waist, and fisted a hand in his hair. He snatched the head to the side so hard it snapped, and drove his teeth into the flesh.

The girl screamed in horror, covering her head and cowering. Talon's eyes closed with pleasure, drinking until the man was nothing more than a husk. He dropped him to the ground, where he landed with a sick thud.

Talon's glowing red eyes fell on the young girl. Blood seeped messily from his mouth, his fingers flexed at his sides. Her fear called to him, and he wanted her. He wanted to taste that fear too. A demonic growl rumbled up from him and he grabbed her up by her hair, pinning her to the wall with one hand. He lunged in for the kill.

As Talon dove in, he wound up with a face full of concrete.

"Think, Talon. Think about what you want to do. Feeling is a human habit. Stop feeling your body, and think," Vlad said from behind him. He held the girl at his side, and strong hand covering her small mouth. She was absolutely terrified.

Talon turned on Vlad, snarling at him. "I am thinking! I'm thinking I'm hungry. I'm thinking she smells so damn good. I'm thinking if you don't let me have her..." Talon stopped, blinking like he didn't recognise the words coming out of his mouth. "I..." He fisted a hand in his silver hair. "Let he go, run. RUN!" Talon slammed back into the wall. He could hear her heart throbbing fearfully in her chest, beating like a hammer against his skull. "GET HER AWAY!"

Vlad raised an eyebrow. "Oh, that's closer. But this time, I'm not babying you. If you want her to live, and listen to me very closely, Talon, you have to let her run."

He slowly released his grip on the girl's mouth. She shrieked and bolted down the long alley away from them.

Talon held fast when she started to run, but he couldn't hold out long. He twitched as he watched her run, the act more alluring to anything at the moment. He bolted for her, faster than her small legs could carry her. He was taller, stronger, and he hoisted her up before she could utter a sound. Her wrapped both arms around her waist and drew her in, sinking his teeth into her throat, into that sweet artery that called to him.

He drew away, dropping her half dead form to the ground. She wasn't completely gone. He looked down at her with a cheerful murderous gleam in his eyes, watching as the life faded from her eyes as quickly as it bled out of her neck.

Talon huffed, dragging his tongue across his lips. He stared at her young face and her dead eyes a moment longer before the horror of what he'd done truly sank in.

Talon roared, low and demonic. He plunged his fist into the stone wall, shattering the block. He huffed, rearing back and driving it in again. "What have I done!" He pressed his forehead into the cool stone.

Vlad stood in the shadows of the alley and watched Talon's fit in silence. It brought back bad memories. Every vampire made mistakes. Vlad hoped one was all the man needed to learn what had to be learned.

He lifted the dead man over his shoulder and then pulled the girl up under his arm. "Come," he instructed Talon. "Hold on to me."

Talon did as he was told without hesitation. His eyes locked on the dead girl, her eyes staring down at the ground. He placed a hand on Vlad's arm. "You didn't stop me," he muttered turning his gaze to Vlad. "You let me kill a little girl. An innocent girl."

"She was a little girl, but she was not innocent," Vlad said. With his mind, he levitated the basket of flowers and floated it to Talon. "You should be able to smell it, too. These aren't normal flowers. They're laced with a drug that causes hallucinations and euphoria. The drug becomes an undeniable habit, and destroys your internal organs until you no longer function. By that point, most people are too far gone mentally to care. To survive, she spreads this habit on that corner. It's natural that she'd attract the wrong people eventually. In this part of the city, the weak prey upon the weaker in a pathetic cycle."

Vlad met his red eyes and dropped the basket to the ground.

His story didn't make Talon feel any better, not yet at least. He was still getting over the shock of losing that much control, of being unable to stop himself from taking a life. "Where will we go now?" he asked Vlad, swallowing the taste of blood in his mouth.

"Dispose of these. Then hunt," Vlad said.

Talon nodded. "Then, lets get out of here," he admitted sourly. "I am ready to control this hunger. To try, at least. I have to. I can't do this again. It could be Tenele next time, or some other innocent person."

* * *

Tenele plopped down on the edge of the dining table near the large fireplace in a massive dining hall. She let out a heavy sigh, gathering the skirts above her knees to examine the new bandage on her thigh. The pain killers, and bottle of wine were combining to make her overly lethargic. In all honesty, Tenele thought she had a right to drink. Her mother was a goddess who abandoned her children, her father was a werewolf who'd spent the last years working for the enemy, Verin was planning some dastardly scheme (that wasn't really anything new) and now, on top of all of that, her husband had turned her brother into a vampire.

Tenele began waving her legs back and forth. She popped the top on another wine bottle and took a swift swing, wiping the back of her hand across her mouth.

“Rough day?” a dark voice mused from the shadows. Tenele lifted her eyes to the direction, watching as Verin emerged from the darkness.

Tenele groaned, waving the bottle at him. “I am entirely too drunk to deal with you right now,” she explained, shooing him off with the other hand. She took another drink.

He chuckled, stepping closer until he closed the distance between them and loomed over her.

“I’m not that drunk,” she muttered in warning, taking a deep drowning gulp. “Go away."

"No." Verin appraised her. "You usually radiate fear..."

Tenele waved the bottle at him. "Liquid courage does wonders. You should try it."

Verin laughed at her.

"It must be painful," Tenele slurred, lifting her green eyes to him. “To be so close to something you really want and can’t have.” She leaned in closer to his face. “Pathetic if you ask me. You just keep holding on to wanting my mother…”

Verin flew forward, and Tenele fell back against the table. The bottle slipped from her hands and crashed against the stone floor. His hands slammed palm flat against the tabletop either side of her head. He lowered his sneering face, and she tilted hers away from him, closing her eyes. The weight of his body brushed hers.
"You are under the delusion that I can't touch you, but I can. I can't hurt you, Tenele, but I could touch you. Who knows, you might like it?" he growled, lips brushing her ear. She cringed at the slight touch. "I'm a generous god, at least I think so. I have let Vlad live, after all. I could kill him with relative ease, and you know that. I could swarm this room with demons and have them drag you to my realm, since I cannot do it myself. But, I won’t. Not tonight at least. Your words push my patients. However, it is not yet time for that. You play a role in this war, just as Vlad does. Just as my son. But, when the time comes, no matter how far you run or where you hide, I will find you. No one can save you. You belong to me. If you think you can outrun a God, Tenele, or that Vlad can protect you from one, then you are a fool.”

Tenele exhaled a ragged breath.

"Ah," he breathed against her skin, inhaling. "It seems you need more of your liquid courage, my dear."

Tenele blinked her eyes open, resisting the urge to turn her face to look at him and risk bringing it too close to his. “What do you want with me? I’m sorry for burning your temples. I’m sorry for whatever I did to you. But, I am not sorry for keeping Vlad or Atul away from you. You loved my mother… but I am not my mother. I look like her, but I’ll never be her. I’ll never be who you wanted. You know that. So, what do you want with me?”

Verin’s hand slid across the wooden tabletop and his fingers curled in her silver hair. “Everything. I want all of you,” he replied coldly. “I want to take you and break you into a thousand pieces. Then, I will build you back into something of my choosing. I will make you the Attara I always wanted.”

He vanished, leaving her shaking and sober.

After they dropped off the bodies in a hidden lake in the woods, Vlad brought him back into the city. They hunted twice more. Vlad guided him toward safer quarries this time. He kept a close eye on the man's condition as they went. With each hunt, the seemingly insatiable hunger in his countenance eased more, while the physical and emotional exhaustion began to show at the corners of his eyes. He was a good sport, focused and determined. When he finally looked more drained than hungry, Vlad knew it was enough.

They were hunting in a cobblestone street next to a brothel when he decided to cut the man a break. He placed a hand on his shoulder. "How do you feel?" he asked in a voice more sensitive than he ever used normally, except with Tenele.

Talon lifted red eyes to Vlad, his pale skin making him sickly looking in his weary state. "The hunger has ebbed," he muttered. Silver hair fell across his face as he looked away. "Their hearts don't sound like war drums in my head. I can think clearer... for now." Talon glanced down at his blood stained closed frowning.

When he woke up this morning he never expected to end the day as a vampire. He never expected to be paling around with Vlad in a back alley somewhere, munching on helpless victims.

"Does Tenele's pulse beat so strongly in your head? You haven't killed her yet, at the moment it seems so impossible. It seems too irresistible. I don't know how you do it." Talon leaned back against the wall. "I'm dead tired... I mean... I'm tired, but not as much physically as mentally."

Vlad smiled slightly. "I have had three hundred years to cope. You've had one night. The sound is deafening because it is new to you. When you've mastered yourself and had time to grow used to it, it can be more than just a torture. When it's the pulse of someone you love, it can become familiar, even comforting." He blinked at his own words. He didn't speak of his feelings openly like this normally, except perhaps with Tenele. But he had to be open with Talon. If he was to protect his brother in law, he needed the man to be open with him, and trust had to go both ways.

"I will be honest," he said. "It will not be like that anytime soon. It will take time. I was chained in a basement and tortured for as long as it took to stop caring about instincts. You will be different. Even if I never intended to sire anyone, rest assured I've had plenty of time to think about what a better way would look like. I will do everything I can to help you."

Talon met Vlad's eyes, nodding slowly. "Thank you," he whispered. "You saved me. You're helping me. I owe you my life." Talon placed his hand on Vlad's shoulder, giving it a squeeze. "Do we rest now? Do we sleep as people do?"

* * *

The fire crackled warm in the fireplace, casting an orange glow across the room. Tenele curled on her side in Vlad's bed, in his room, in his tower. With everything that had happened, everything moving so fast, they hadn't discussed living arrangements. But, since he was gone she felt most comfortable - safer - in his tower.

The maids had been kind enough to work up a fire for her, because the tower was so cold. It was too late in the night to tell Sinead about Talon. No one knew at the moment, and she thought that was for the best. Tenele thought that waiting until they returned from their... hunting trip, would be a good idea. For now, she would simply explain their disappearance as Vlad and Talon's way of growing closer as brother-in-laws. Tenele could already see the disbelieving faces.

She curled on her side a little tighter and watched the moon through the ruby glass windows.