Heirot

He grimaced. Her words told him what he already know and didn't want to acknowledge. He wasn't much use to her at the moment. "Okay. We'll get the sword, and move slowly. I'll get you to help."

"I think you've helped enough," came a scathing, familiar voice from behind him.

Havitharon released his hold on Tenara and whirled to face the creature stalking toward them. The look on Vladimir Dracul's face appeared to be a lazy smile, but it dripped with more darkness than he'd seen on even the most diabolical Yurivis matrons on his world. At his side, he held the soul sword, retrieved from the battlefield behind them. The vampire quietly squeezed down on the sword's grip, to the brink of deforming the metal. Havitharon winced, but didn't look away from the predator stalking toward him. "Looks like you've been taking excellent care of my daughter."

Tenara blinked her eyes open as her father's familiar voice filtered through the fog of her exhausted, bruised mind. "Daddy?" she said, though it was barely a whisper of air out of her mouth. Then, she heard another sound—a soft, panicked voice shouting, "Tenara!"

Tenele darted around Vlad and right for Havitharon, careless of his presence over her daughter. She fell down to her knees and pulled Tenara into her lap, worried hands cupping Tenara's cheek to her chest as she pressed kisses into her hair. There were tears in her eyes, and she was still so taken with having found her daughter, getting to hold her after over a month of worry and fear, that she didn't even look at Havitharon. Perhaps didn't see him at all.

"Mom?" Tenara murmured, finally opening her eyes. She looked up at the woman, reached up to touch her. She'd wanted so long to see her. Tenara might have burst into tears if she weren't so out of it.

Tenele laid her daughter back down, smoothed her hands over her, searching and planning. Tenara felt warmth fill her, felt it heal the parts of her that were not holy wounds. The fogginess in her head cleared, the ringing in her ears stopped. She could see again. Her mother's powers had no affect on the black lines running up her arms, though. Tenele reached for the hand, taking it gently into her grasp to inspect it. She began to unwrap it slowly until the bandages caught against the skin and Tenara whimpered. Tenele didn't need to remove them to know what was underneath. "Vlad..." Tenele called, directing her husband's attention to wounds he was most adept to handling. Then, Tenele's gaze finally settled on Havitharon. For a second, she took him in with the same soft-eyed expression of wonder Tenara held, but that melted quickly into barely tethered rage. "Is she still bound to the sword?"

Havitharon took in the woman's contemptuous expression, observing her cautiously. The resemblance to Tenara was uncanny. What really caught him off guard, though, was Tenara's blatant relief and affection.

This was how she responded to people she belonged with. People she could depend on. And the way those people responded to him was...

"To the best of my knowledge, yes," he stated, putting a stiff wall up in his expression as he answered the woman.

As if his wife's invitation had broken him from a trance, Vlad turned his attention from him to his daughter. Havitharon took a step out of the way as the vampire took his place next to Tenara. He noticed as the man moved that he didn't look quite right. His gait wasn't as smooth and powerful as it had been the last time they'd met, and exhaustion had edged into the corners of his face. Havi couldn't help but be pleased that the vampire didn't appear to be in peak condition. After all, the last time they'd met, the man had literally eviscerated him, and Havi still wasn't certain if he should expect Vlad to attack him for his daughter's current state.

Vlad crouched beside his daughter. He took Tenara's arm gently at the elbow and positioned it where he could see the wound - he knew better than to touch her hand directly. "How old?" he asked her as he studied the lines radiating up her arms.

“Ugh…” The days and nights blurred together. “Two or three days. It didn’t look like that until I used magic.” Tenara felt silly lying on her back now that her mother had mended most of her wounds. She still felt a bit woozy, but that was to be expected after all the magic she’d used. Still, she didn’t like them hovering over her. She pressed her good hand behind her and tried to sit up.

Tenara looked worst than she felt now that her mother had healed her. She looked down at the ruined dress and blood, felt blood and dirt stiff in her silver hair.

Tenele smoothed her hand over Tenara’s head, keeping her eyes on the otherworldly creature. “How did you end up here? Did he bring you?”

“No,” Tenara said. “I did it. I lost control and I was afraid of hurting people. I just… willed us away and here we are…”

“For over a week?” It was clear Tenele didn’t trust Havitharon or thought he had some control over Tenara.

Havitharon returned Tenele's stare with a neutral gaze, neither antagonizing her nor looking away. Long-honed instincts told him only to speak if necessary. He did not hold any advantages in this exchange, and anything he might say would be a risk right now.

Vlad released his daughter's hand so she could get into the position that made her comfortable. "I have never seen this type of scar. It's possible that it's him, but it doesn't seem likely. She had nothing of the sort last week."

“I accidentally touched a holy medallion,” Tenara said. “And then… well, we were attacked. I used my magic, and each time the lines got worst. They lessened when…” Tenara swallowed. She didn’t want to mention how healing Havitharon had diminished them because it had been such an unpleasant experience for him.

…keep your sensations to yourself… I am not one of your Indigo House whores…

“I think, if I just… not use magic… maybe they will go away as the wound heals.” Which could be a month or more given how her fathers reacted to holy wounds.

Vlad almost accepted her words, but something nagged at him. Nothing lessened holy wound pain. "What were you about to say? They lessened when what?" he pried.

Tenara tried not to meet her father’s eyes because he was annoyingly good at telling when she lied. But she knew there wasn’t any avoiding it. He’d get the truth out eventually. “When I healed Havitharon. But he’s not hurt now and I don’t think it made him feel well.”

Havitharon froze. She hadn't told him that. Why hadn't she told him?

The vampire side-eyed him. "I could make him hurt."

Tenara glowered at her father. “You will not.”

“He won’t stay hurt…” Tenele added and Tenara gaped at her mother. She had never heard her so easily swayed into hurting someone.

“No one’s hurting him!”

Havitharon observed, silently, as the argument carried on. Even he was surprised whose side he personally landed on. But he'd be damned if he let that son of a bitch have the satisfaction of mauling him without a fight. And... it would upset Tenara if he did, he noted, telling himself it wasn't really a concern.

He looked at the tree next to him flatly, drew back and punched it with all his strength. The awful sound of bark and bone crumpling ripped the family's debate to a halt. Vlad's ruby eyes glued to him, silently analyzing. Havi concentrated on returning the gaze calmly as falling leaves shivered through the air around them. Not a twitch, not even a flash of discomfort entered his expression, but his ruined hand shook slightly as he lowered it back to his side.

"I forgot," Havitharon muttered. "Looks like I got injured before."

She appraised Havitharon’s face, remembering how he described her magic. Like being drugged... he'd once said.

She hadn't known how strong it was, how hurtful it was for him. He had tolerated it because he had to, in order to exist as something other than a sword. But, he didn't need to tolerate it now for her sake, and she felt shame for having forced him to for so long.

“Mother,” she said. “Help him.”

Tenele blinked at her daughter. “You just said it helps you.”

“And hurts him…”

“Looks like it doesn’t hurt him enough to scare him away from it.”

Tenara’s jaw clenched with frustration.

"I can endure it," Tenara said, her throat tight. "I cannot endure hurting you by making you feel those… things… against your will.”

"Things?" Vlad asked, glancing at Tenara. When his attention came back to Havitharon, the horned being was no longer looking at him, but at Tenara. The mask in his expression had slipped slightly, but Vlad still couldn't make heads or tails of it. What was this creature thinking? What had transpired between him and his daughter?

Havitharon couldn't think of anything to say. It was impossible to misunderstand why Tenara was refusing. He remembered clearly how he'd lashed out at her the night before, and how she reacted. He didn't believe her then. But what else could he do but believe, when she would sooner put her life at risk than put him in that position again?

She was protecting him at her own expense. There was no manipulation in her actions, from the very start. The thought was a shock to his system, an impossibility he'd never imagined confronting. She was real. She was for real. How could he doubt her now? Some part of his heart felt like it was swelling and breaking at the same time.

"Hey, Spiky. You need to throw up or something?" Vlad called to him.

Havi looked at him like he'd been underwater, taking a moment to absorb the words. "...No."

Vlad sighed and crossed his arms. "Fine, we'll figure this out later. For now, we're getting you home," he said to Tenara. He looked back at Havi. "Think that can wait for a while? There's no shame in having a good cry," he smirked.

"I don't cry when I'm bored," Havitharon returned.

The vampire raised his brows like the man had done something to impress him. "Then, we're going home," he said. He turned to Tenele. "I may not be the smoothest ride at the moment," he said, knowing his wife was aware of his limits. They were very far from Hajara, Tenara was injured, and he had been teleporting them all over the place for the better part of a day looking for their daughter. He didn't like it, but he was spent, and she was the only one he didn't mind admitting it to. "He might make the better choice."

Tenele nodded, still watching how her daughter looked at the creature. She didn’t like it, mostly because it was a little like how she’d looked at Vlad when they were first thrust together, after the edge of distrust had worn away.

She shifted her attention to Vlad. “What about Torune? The Hajaran outpost at the border. Could we make it there? At least we’ll be on our side of the border and with our men.”

Tenara stared at Havitharon’s hand, hating how much it must hurt him. Her mother seemed disinterested in helping him, another out of character move. Her disappearance seemed to have rid her mother of all her softness and mercy.

Vlad nodded. "It won't be particularly fun for the kids, but I can get us there."

"You don't need to bring me," Havitharon interjected. Vlad raised a brow at him. "Bring that," Havi clarified, nodding at the sword in Vlad's hands. "It will bring me on its own."

The vampire said nothing, simply gathering his daughter in his arms. He honestly didn't care if the outsider came with them or not, regardless. "Alright, then." He stood with Tenara and placed an arm around his wife.