Heirot

Vlad didn't want to hurt her, but it was reassuring to know exactly where she was okay and where she wasn't. "You were reckless," he said lovingly. He couldn't help being a little bit pleased that she'd struggled so hard to get to him. All those weeks when he'd felt doomed and alone, he'd never really been alone at all. He knew without asking that she'd never hesitated. He leaned forward and kissed her, stretching his body gently up against hers and holding her shoulder tight until he had to stop to let her breathe.

The rest of the universe gradually became important again.

"Is everyone alive?" he asked the crowd wearily. "Talon, your girl?"

Talon frowned. "I told her to restart the fire, and she isn't my girl," he replied defensively. "I just find her pleasantly adorable. If everyone is alright here I'll go make sure she isnt having trouble with the fire." Talon backed away slowly before turning back towards the staircase.

Tenele hooked her hands in Vlad's shirt. "Sometimes recklessness is a necessity," she whispered.

"Okay," Atul murmured. "Let's get you two someplace more comfortable so I can stitch your arm."

"After you stitch my arm will you shave?" Tenele sighed.

"I'll shave if you shower," the king grumbled.

"Sounds like you two have been frolicking in the ice a little longer than you bargained for," the vampire teased, surprised to hear them bickering. Vlad disentangled himself carefully from his wife's injured body. It was hard to think of being separated from her even for a minute, but Atul was right that her wounds needed attention. He wasn't in the best shape himself.

He pushed to his feet with a low hiss and found himself lightheaded. His muscles were still burning him. He leaned dizzily sideways, hoping there was a wall there. He couldn't really recall.

Atul reached out and caught Vlad. "Okay, you get moved first," Atul murmured. "I'll come back for you Tenele."

Atul looped Vlad's arm over his shoulder again and carried him to a sparsely furnished sitting area just off the foyer. Even as he was walking away Tenele was finding her footing. She rolled onto her side slowly, gathered her legs underneath her. She was strong, she wasn't weak. She was mostly just in pain. If her ribs weren't cracked she'd be moving just fine.

Tenele followed them in and took the far corner of a couch while Atul settled Vlad into a chair.

"We left all our supplies on the otherside of the wall," Atul sighed. "I'll climb back over and get them. I'm not sure what Maxwell's people eat, but hopefully there will be a little more than berniper root."

* * *

Talon skipped down the steps several at a time until he jumped the rest of the distance to the bottom. "Sho! Did you get the fire going?" he called as he ran towards the mine.

Sho was standing with a group of her kin, guiding them toward the small, but growing fire. She turned at the sound of Talon's voice and came out toward him, still a bit hunched from the cold. "The fuel has caught. We will not die," she said. She sounded more tired than before, but her gaze was bright when she looked at him. "It is difficult to lose the master. Even if he was a bad man."

* * *

Vlad couldn't do much but keep his feet under his weight while Atul got him to the couch. He was startled to realize he wanted to recoil from the man's secure grip on his arm. Didn't he want to be touched? He denied the impulse strictly and waited until Atul helped him down before taking his arm back. The vampire lay back against the cushions and waited for his aching body to settle itself down. "Be careful," he said without meaning to as Atul headed out for the supplies. Make that averse to contact and overprotective. Lovely combination, he chided himself.

Atul smiled. "I'm always careful."

Tenele suddenly was overcome with coughing. It only lasted a second, but it was enough to send the King away with a scowl. Tenele wiggled into the seat, very pleased with herself for ruffling his feathers.

Her heavy gaze went to Vlad. She didn't want to be so far away from him... She slid off the couch and went sat on the floor at his feet, leaning against his leg with her head resting on his thigh. She was going to be extra clingy for at least a week or more.

* * *

Talon nodded. "I know... But, it was wrong for him to talk your people into coming here. This place is not safe for you. How did he get you here anyway? If I can find his room and his things I'll see if I can't research a way to get you and your people some place warmer. You can't travel across the ice, so I'll have to figure out a portal system that can connect us to a permanent home for you. I think you would love Hajara. Its heat and dry desert air."

Talon cast his gaze on her people. "My master needs blood, like I needed it a few moments ago. Will you show me where you keep it?"

Sho looked at him in confusion. "Come," she said, beginning to lead him up the stairs. "And tell. There is heat? With no fire? Sho's kin have lived our whole lives here, even before master. We never knew of such a place."

Vlad rested his big hand on Tenele's head, petting her gently.

"No fire," Talon assured. "Its actually too hot for fire on some days. The night can get cold, so its good to have fire then. But, during the day the heat his blazing. Blinding."

* * *

Tenele looped an arm around his legs and hugged them to her good side. This all seemed anti-climatic now. The travelling, the days of hunger and cold and near-death... and Maxwell died too easily. Now, here they were, sitting with each other without worry of more pain, more hunger, more death.

Tenele kissed his leg new her cheek. "I'm sorry I couldn't get here sooner," she whispered softly.

Vlad grinned wryly. "I'm sorry I'm not in better shape to welcome you." He closed his blurry eyes for a moment, wishing he could see her better. He didn't want to be collapsed on a couch. He wanted to be her Vlad, not some ruined invalid she couldn't recognize. He wondered if she would be disappointed he hadn't borne with it better. That he couldn't be tougher. He thought of himself as a pretty tough person usually, but not now. He'd just been exposed to his mortality so vividly...everything around him felt like a possible threat. Every touch made him nervous.

Except for hers. Tenele was the only person he could imagine wanting to be touched by at the moment.

Atul materialized inside the house in a wave of blue light. He dropped the packs and shook off the snow. "That worked, I guess killing Maxwell took the teleportation shield off." He dug through the bag until he found their first aid kit and tossed it on the couch. "Okay," he sighed. "Out of that."

Tenele stood up slowly, using the chair to help her. She shucked the heavy coat with a wince. Atul helped her with the long-sleeved shirt. Her waist was an watercolor of purple and black hues. It looked painful to touch. She wore a tight cloth wrap over her chest so that it was snug around her sore ribs. Though, it really didn't do a whole lot of good.

"Okay, no pain medication so just do what you're good at. Grit and bare it," Atul whispered as he started to sterilize the wound.

About that time Talon walked in with an arm full of blood packs for Vlad. He draped them in the vampire's lap with a smile. "Drinks are on me," he mused to his master.

The vampire was staring at Tenele's mangled body with a kind of horrified pride when the weight of the blood packs jerked his attention back to his chest. Jumpy much?, he chided himself.Vlad glanced at the blood and raised a grateful look to his bloodling. "If you insist," he joked back. He didn't feel hungry, but he intended to drink everything he could keep down, while Tenele was working with Atul. He sat up with deliberate slowness and took the bags one at a time, until all 5 were gone. It felt like work to consume them. Unlike Atul's blood, this stuff did little for his appetite and carried no rush with it - just the full, steady sensation of being whole and stable. It was a feeling he'd desperately needed. The vampire sat up a little straighter on the couch and worked on not looking damaged.

Stitches with out something to numb the pain wasn't anything new to Tenele. That didn't make it any better. She tensed up, clutching at the arm to the corner of the couch she'd commandeered. She pressed her forehead into the back of it.

"Not much more," Atul told her soothingly. "You're doing fine."

Tenele laughed, and laughing hurt.

Atul finished as quickly as possible and cut the string with a knife. "There," he sighed, mopping up the weeping blood. "Its closed. I cleaned it so infection shouldn't happen."

Tenele nodded slowly.

"Okay, we haven't eaten actual food in a week," Atul sighed. "Since Talon and I seem to have the most energy we'll go locate a kitchen. That bastard had to eat something..."

Atul grabbed the collar of Talon's shirt and tugged him out of the room. Tenele couldn't help but get the feeling he was only doing it so they could have privacy.

Tenele turned her gaze on her husband. She crawled the short distance across the couch and laid down very slowly so that she rested her head in his lap. She wanted to cuddle with him. She wanted him holding her, and she didn't want him to let go.

Vlad stroked his fingers through her hair. He couldn't care less that she was dirty from her travels, but he felt a strong desire to lie down with her in a bath somewhere, where the contact wouldn't hurt and he could wash away all the pain and fear she'd experienced looking for him. He leaned sideways against the arm of the couch, shifting himself and pulling her up gently so that she was enveloped between his chest and the cushions.

He curled his arm around her and hoped he wasn't hurting her. Since he couldn't see much detail, he let the sound of her pulse tell him how she was and remind him who was snuggled against him. His other arm wrapped around her waist, so she was secure against him. "I missed you," he said quietly into her warm hair.

Tenele smiled against her husband as he held her. She didn't care how much it hurt, she wanted him to hold her as tightly as he desired. "I missed you," she whispered. She felt so comfortable, even if she was in pain. Compared to the cold harshness of their journey, and the fight with Maxwell, this was heaven.

"I just want to lie with you for days," she whispered. "I don't want to stop touching you. I don't want you to stop holding me. I longed for you."

"That sounds like a pretty attractive plan," the vampire approved hazily. Her warm weight against him was so soothing, and he hadn't slept in weeks. The temptation to give in and rest was overwhelming, but he didn't want to fall asleep on her. Not after all she'd gone through to get to him. He knew they would eventually have to talk about everything that had happened to them both, but right now the self-evident was enough: they were hurt, they were safe, and they were together.

He stroked his thumb along her cheek in a slow, light rhythm. "I will not stop holding you for a very long while," he affirmed.