Heirot

Mick turned to her and raised a measuring look over her robed appearance. "Lady Tenele. This may not be the time..." he offered, politely.

Tenele looked towards the cells. "Are they here?" she asked him, ignoring his warning. Tenele wondered towards the gates.

Talon was rising from his seat on the floor and walking to the bars. "Its late Tenele, go back to sleep," he muttered, fisting the iron. "He's resting."

"Resting?" Tenele muttered. She walked the wall of bars towards the hunched figure in the cell next to Talon. She could barely make him out with what little light reflected from the torches. She held her candle a little higher, but it still did no good. "He's resting," she whispered to herself, letting out a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry, I guess I'll go..."

Vlad's mind flickered with awareness as he recognized Tenele's voice. The idea of her pulled him back to the realm of the living. That brought him suddenly awake, and deeply in pain. He tried to roll over and immediately stopped, feeling his charred skip rip with the movement. He started to cry out and forced himself to stop, cutting off in a sharp grunt.

Tenele stopped at the sound, her green eyes narrowing. She slowly turned towards the gate. "Vlad?" she asked him softly, kneeling on the dirty floor and peering through the bars. "Would you open the gate for me?" Tenele asked the dungeon master.

Mick shrugged and stood up. "As you wish my lady, but best not touch him," he muttered, unlocking the gate and letting her in.

Vlad's head spun as he realized she was coming in. His back was crisscrossed with raised, blackening scabs where the holy metal had touched him. Apparently, his immunity had given up on him. The wounds wept thin trails of blood and fluid across his ruined skin. He still wasn't sure what it all looked like, except that he was sure it looked awful. He didn't want her to see it, but he couldn't bear to roll over onto it either. "Wait, Tenele," he warned her back.

Tenele started in the cell and froze at his words. Her brow furrowed. "Vlad?" she asked him softly, creeping forward. She lifted her candle a bit higher, shedding a little more light on him.

She gasped, a hand covering her mouth. She couldn't move after that, frozen in horror. Tenele slapped the candle holder into Mick's chest and hurried to Vlad's side, falling harshly to her knees next to him.

Her hands hovered over him, not sure where to touch him that it wouldn't hurt. She settled on cupping his face. "Who did this to you?" she whispered to him, leaning further over him to examine the lashes.

"How's it look?" he hissed out. He had to know.

"Terrible," she choked out, gritting her teeth. Seeing him hurt upset her, and her emotions were already on a roller-coaster as of late. "I'm so sorry." She leaned forward and kissed his cheek. Tenele slid across the dirty floor until she could lie down next to him. It was cold and damp and smelled stiffly of mildew, but she was going to stay with him for as long as she could. She took his hands and drew them to her soft chest, holding them into her warmth. "Its okay," she whispered to him, reaching out to stroke his cheek gently. "Think about my touch, don't think about anything else."

Vlad leaned into her hand and smiled, closing his eyes. "Alright," he agreed softly. He couldn't manage the energy to be properly humiliated or even protest her presence beside him on the dank floor. Her fingers on her cheek were the last thing he was thinking about as he dropped back into the relief of sleep.

Tenele scooted closer to him, he had no body heat to keep her warm, but she thought being closer to him would help insulate some of her own heat. Rather like a blanket, in theory. She kept stroking his cheek lightly, looking his face over.

"You can lock the door, Sir," she told Mick. "I'm staying."

The jailer raised his eyebrows. "Ye got strange hobbies, milady, but as ye wish."

He grabbed his coat from the back of his chair and dropped it over her. "I'll be reading, if ye change your mind."

"I won't," she told him softly, scooting closer to Vlad until her forehead pressed against his. She hugged his hands to her chest and closed her eyes. Despite sleeping on the floor, it was the best sleep she got all week.

The dungeon was far below the ground, so when morning broke Tenele wasn't aware of it. A rat went scurrying across the floor, towards her, nibbling on the edge of her robe and sniffing around her for food. She smelled more alive than Vlad, so it chose to ignore his presence.

"My Queen!" was the first sound uttered in the dungeon the next morning, uttered by Mick. Vlad's eyes twitched open as he heard Sinead's heartbeat approaching with her footsteps. "Tenele?" he muttered in confusion as he registered her warmth beside him.

"Tenele," Sinead echoed his words as she stopped just outside the cell. It was difficult to look at Vlad's back, but she wasn't going to avert her eyes from her own decision. She was surprised and yet not surprised to see her maiden with her husband on the dungeon floor.

Tenele's eyes fluttered open, first seeing Vlad's face. She let out a slight whimper as her body, stiff from lying on rough-cut stone, shifted. She sat up slowly, running a hand across her eyes and looking around.

"My queen," Tenele murmured drowsily.

Tenele then turned her attention to her husband, pressing her hand against his cheek. "How does it feel?"

"Good as new," Vlad said, stiffening in Sinead's presence. "Well, Queeny? Time for round two?" he asked, a bit cruelly.

"No," Sinead said quietly. "Mick will release you, and you will be brought to your quarters to heal."

"I'll bring myself," the vampire returned, though he didn't dare move in front of Sinead. He didn't know how he'd react to the movement and didn't want the queen to see it.