Heirot

Tenele nodded. "Okay, tomorrow," she admitted with a sigh. "Good night, my Queen."

When Sinead left Tenele changed her clothes into something more comfortable, curled in the sheets of the unmade bed, and fell fast asleep. She was too tired to do anything else.

Vlad flicked Talon in the head through the bars. "Well for starters, if you don't even believe it, how is she supposed to?" He looked him straight in the eyes. "Decide, Talon. This is what you are now. What do you intend to be?"

A creak sounded on the steps as Sinead came down the stairs and past the warden's desk. A tall man with a large wooden case in hand entered beside her.

"Whoops. Showtime. I'll want your answer, later," Vlad told Talon. He spoke casually, but the muscles in his cheeks had gone taut.

The warden immediately stood and bowed as Sinead entered. The queen walked to the front of Vlad's cell and studied him with a dull frown. "Your punishment is chosen," she said, sounding neither angry nor sympathetic. She was the queen right now.

Vlad swept down to one knee and bowed his head. "As you decree, your majesty," he acknowledged her.

"Remove your shirt."

The vampire obeyed, dropping the garment to the floor next to him.

"Stand, turn, and put your hands against the wall."

Vlad did not raise his eyes as he stood and slowly turned to the stone wall, his back to Talon and his side facing Sinead.

"Vladimir, for betraying our pact and my trust, you will now accept 40 strikes."

"Yes," Vlad said stiffly. He didn't need to look at the weapon the man drew from his wooden case. It lit up the room. The long whip was plated in tiny shards of blessed metal.

Talon stood up, wrapping his hands around the bars. "It was my decision," he called to Sinead. "Why punish him for the choice I made." Talon could barely see her through the bright object the jail keeper was holding. "He broke your oath because of me.... Let me take his punishment."

"I do not need to punish you, Talon," Sinead said unhappily.

She means you'll be able to feel mine, Vlad said inside his mind. Sorry, my Blood. When I am wounded, so are you.

Talon swallowed. Will these bars hold me if I lose my control? He wasn't sure what the pain would do to him, or if he would revert back to the state he'd been days ago from it. He held the bars a bit tighter, red eyes boring into Vlad. Draw from my strength if you can, or if you need it.

Vlad scoffed proudly. I will not require it. But thank you. Just hold onto something, and think about something else, if you can. The bars will hold you.

The first strike nearly made his legs give out. The liquid fire scalded into his back and drew a sick gasp from the dead king. By the fifth strike, he collapsed to his knees. The axeman paused.

"Stand, Vladimir," Sinead instructed him quietly.

He slowly rose and returned his hands to the wall, the pain screaming through his nerves.

Talon gripped the bars tighter, his red eyes flashing to life. He pressed his forehead into them, thinking about other things, but with each strike his attention was driven back to Vlad. A few more strikes and Talon was kneeling in front of the bars, holding onto them so tightly that the metal began to crush in.

Sixteen strikes. That was how far Vlad lasted before his voice betrayed him. He leaned into the wall and let out a frustrated scream as the whip beat into him. It felt like it was ripping apart his flesh, carving through his ribs and into his organs.

Twenty strikes had him gasping in obvious pain, his cheek pressed harshly to the stone.

Thirty strikes, and the vampire was back on the floor. His back was a huge, weeping mess. Once again, Sinead ordered him to get back up.

Talon shook his head, pressing his face into the floor. He huffed, clawing at the stone. His eyes grew brighter with a combination of pain and bloodlust. He focused harder on something else other than what Vlad was feeling, but nothing could block it out. Talon rushed to his feet, flinging his arms through the bars. He was too far to reach anyone, so he clawed at the air, growling like an animal.

Sinead struggled to remain still as she watched, but she refused to look away from her servant's punishment. Her own knees were feeling weak by the time her axeman finally finished. "Forty," he affirmed, shouldering the whip.

Vlad was left sucking in air in wet gasps, his limbs shaking beyond use. He collapsed with a harsh groan, tumbling onto his side. "Sinead," he almost gagged as his pain-drenched lungs formed the word. She took a step closer to the cell and looked down at him, hiding her sympathy. Bloodshot red eyes looked up at her from his twitching expression. "I am sorry."

Her eyes softened, ever so slightly. "I know. Goodnight, Vlad."

He barely nodded, his focus slipping in and out.

Talon was trying desperately to find a way out of the bars, and when he found none he sought to try and dig his way out. Eventually he fell huffing in the corner of his cell, glaring menacingly at the Queen as she stepped away. He was not himself, not at the moment at least.

After several minutes longer he calmed enough to think. "You took that obediently," he growled. "I nearly went mad."

"Doesn't...pay...to get mad...at that woman," Vlad said thinkly, wincing into the floor. He could barely even hear his ward's voice through the blood screaming in his ears. Part of him really wondered if his back was completely gone. He wouldn't be surprised if it was all torn away, except that Talon didn't sound too horrified. "You did fine."

"Thanks to the bars," Talon muttered. He tossed a chunk of stone he'd ripped up form the floor away from him. "I'd have killed someone without them. I wanted to kill her..." Talon stared at his feet. "That woman practically raised me and I wanted to kill her." The horror of it churned his stomach.

"I don't know if letting someone beat you within an inch of your life is something you should aspire to," Vlad hissed. "You don't have to be me. Be something of your own. Don't hide from it...Talon...you did fine." The vampire drew a tight breath and felt the world lurch downward as he lost consciousness.

Talon sat there for the longest time watching Vlad sleep. He could feel him sleeping, which was very odd, but also comforting. He thought it gave his master some relief from his wounds. So, Talon sat there watching Vlad and thinking about his words. He didn't have to be like Vlad?

* * *

Tenele woke with a start sometime after midnight. Her eyes flashed open. Her hand instinctively stretched out, reaching for Vlad. She felt cold empty sheets next to her. The room was dark, the maids hadn't come to light a fire since she'd fallen a sleep so early. It was cold, so she pulled the blankets around her tighter.

Tenele listened to the quiet creaking of Vlad's tower, feeling that slow slip of paranoia come over her. The same one that had bothered her nearly every night since Verin's visit. The shadows all turned against her, the sounds seemed more ominous. Even though she knew it was all in her imagination it didn't stop her heart from leaping into her chest.

And the knowledge that Vlad was down in the dungeons, close and yet so far made her feel slightly more hopeful than she had been.

After thinking on it, she slipped into a thick robe on her shoulders and headed grabbed a candle from the nightstand.

Tenele wondered down to the dungeons, passing the guards as she went. She had no trouble getting in. Through the door and down the spiral staircase the dungeons were pitch black save torches lining the halls. The voices of the residents echoed off the walls, calling to her as she wondered passed them.

"Come here," one called. "Let me out."

"Oh, pretty girl, won't you come a little closer?"

Tenele stayed in the center of the hall so none of them could reach her, but there arms stretched through the bars, dirty hands and fingernails clawing at the air. Tenele wandered through the maze like halls until she came to a quieter end of the dungeons where she saw a guard sitting at a desk, reading a book.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for Vladimir Dracul... and Talon Raider?"