Holier Than Thou

[Soran Nightblade]

Hearing Tenele's hungry demand made Vlad and Atul jolt with excitement at the same time. Vlad barely had time to think straight before the demigod's teeth dug hard into the side of his neck. The vampire groaned raggedly and drove further into his wife's impossible warmth. Atul's teeth weren't pointed like his, but he was still strong enough to break skin. Vlad squirmed until the bruising force of his bite, gasping for air. Atul released his neck only to bite him again at the root of his shoulder, his hands pressing viciously into the vampire's lower back because he could somehow feel that was what Vlad wanted.

"Shit," Vlad moaned in a voice that could make the most hardened female in Ighten swoon. "I'm going to..."

[Emora Deen]

Tenele cried out, her nails dragging across Vlad's skin hard enough to leave marks. She felt like she was going to shatter apart. She squirmed beneath her husband, truly trying to escape now. It felt too good. Good enough to hurt. The onslaught of Vlad's pleasure, combined with her own, and Atul's... It was too much.

"Vlad!" she pleaded, shaking her head fiercely. Another wave of ecstasy washed over her and her back arched off the bed, screaming. "I... I can't. Please. It- It's too much." And even as the words left her lips, her mind was screaming Don't stop, don't stop, don't stop!

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad's eyes widened at her sudden plea. Part of him grew instantly concerned, but his demonic side was completely entranced by her sudden struggling. Far from making him stop, her frantic mood actually sent him over the edge. He pulled down tight against her, taking her lips gently, though he trembled with the restraint. I love you he whispered into their connection, hoping not to scare her too much even as her panic tore a moan from his throat. Flattening himself to her, he winced and came so hard the room went white around him.

When his senses started returning, Atul was gently licking his bleeding shoulder. His back felt wet where Atul had been dragged along for the ride, and it should have been uncomfortable, but there was something about the man's exposed closeness that felt right in this situation. His wife was still there under him. He realized he was lying on her too heavily. With Atul's weight on his own, he had to focus to lift himself enough to give her space to breathe. "My love," he whispered, licking her throat affectionately while his body soaked in hers.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele's world shattered apart. When the pieces finally collected into some symbol of reality she was being crushed beneath her husband. His weight lifted from her, his tongue touched her neck. She took in a steady breath. She drew her arms inward and pressed her face against him. "Please don't move," she whispered wearily. She wasn't sure she could take any form of stimulation. She trembled beneath them, not as strong as two immortals, and the aftershocks of such an event made her weak.

She wanted to lie in stillness with him until her thoughts collected.

After a minute or two her green eyes blinked open. I love you, she finally managed a reply. Her shaking hand cupped his cheek. "I love you."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad rubbed his nose in against her collarbone, holding the rest of his body still for her. He could feel how delicate her mind was, now that it was swaddled by his and Atul's more immense presences. She'd done so well. He almost couldn't believe how well it had gone. The practical thought seemed quite odd when his body wanted to be sucked into the warmth of the two people nestled against him.

"There is one thing you need to do," he said gently to his exhausted wife. "Then, I promise, we will hold you until morning. You must place a hand on each of our chests, and repeat this out loud."

Sae quora lth de iirn de tolg, arndt sae quora seth de rilond.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele swallowed and gave a weary nod, not sure if she could hold on much longer. She lifted one quivering hand to Vlad's chest and Atul slipped off from his back to kneel next to them. She lifted a hand to his chest too. "Sae quora lth de iirn de tolg, arndt sae quora seth de rilond."

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad gasped as a strange power invaded his chest, as if pulling him out and tying his soul in a knot. Atul had a similar reaction beside him.

When the vampire caught his breath, he met his wife's eyes. "Now we are bound to you and to each other. Only you can join or separate our life forces."

[Emora Deen]

Tenele looked between them. She understood the importance of this moment, and of the fact that she'd joined them together and that she was the only one who could pull them apart. Even still, Tenele felt heavy with exhaustion, and couldn't seem to focus on the profoundness of it in the wake of so much emotion.

She felt a shudder of relief wash through her. She didn't have to worry about Verin hurting Vlad. She felt confident in his protection, and at the moment she felt safe. Fully and utterly protected. Which was odd given that they were all weary and naked.

"I'm going to be okay," she muttered more to herself than anything. She closed her eyes to contemplate on it, and ended up fading off. Her eyes flashed open, catching herself starting to doze. "Did you say 'we' would hold me while I slept?" Tenele smiled softly at the both of them.

[Soran Nightblade]

Vlad smirked at her tired form, even as his own began to fade. It wasn't clear which of them disappeared. If anything, they both did. One moment there were two of them, and the next, a single form was hovering over Tenele. Black hair hung in long strands around a face too alive to be Vlad's and too angular to be Atul's. The hair spilled down to the waist of a perfect male form that was neither the same nor different from the two beings that had created it. One red and one blue eye shone like jewels in the dark room. They should have looked unnatural, but the appearance simply seemed like an exotic but natural reality.

He put a hand gently over Tenele's eyes as he lay on his side next to her. "We will," he said tenderly.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele was too tired to notice the heat of the body holding her, or the fact that "we" appeared to be one person. She was even too tired to be curious about why he covered her eyes. She fell deeply and heavily a sleep. Too tired to dream. She just snuggled up to the warm naked skin and slept soundly through the night.

Morning came and went, and it wasn't until well into the afternoon before Tenele finally roused. She shifted, groaning as her luxuriously numb body began to flicker with life.

She didn't open her eyes at first. She felt one body, one hot body pressed against her. Her eyes closed, she rolled into that heat. Her hand skipped over skin mischievously, darting over sensitive areas before curling around him and hugging her body closer to his. Tenele let out a heavy sigh, her eyes flickering open. She glanced around the room before sitting up and looking down at her....

Tenele screamed, snatching at the covers as she scrambled for the edge of the bed. She tugged on the sheet, which his weight was pressing into the mattress, wanting something to cover her bare skin.

Where was Vlad? Atul? Who the hell was this guy?! Tenele shuddered, wondering if anything that had happened last night had been real. What if it had been some trick of Verin's? But, even in the split second of her panic she began to notice an odd familiarity with the person lying in her husband's bed.

"V...vlad?"

She could feel her husband's mind, no not just his... Atul's. A hybrid of their thoughts. "Atul?" Which one was it? Her heart fluttered at the idea of it being someone other than her husband.

[Soran Nightblade]

He moved back on the bed, considerate of her shocked reaction but studying her with an amused half-smile. "I am both," he assured her. *And neither.* He reached out an arm and summoned Vlad's robe from across the room, drawing it over his perfect nude form for her benefit. He studied her quietly, too quiet for Vlad, too amorous for Atul. His voice was silky and strong. "You have joined them. When you choose, you may separate them." Something in his voice suggested he wasn't too keen on the idea. He stroked a long lock of black hair behind his ear and looked at the window for a moment. When he returned his gaze to her, the hint of worry had gone from his eyes. "How is your body?" he glanced over her protectively and not completely innocently.

[Emora Deen]

Tenele swallowed, drawing the covers around her. She wasn't sure what to make of this, and it made her uneasy. She wasn't sure that Vlad properly understood what would happen to him if he did this spell. Or maybe he had? He wanted to protect her beyond anything.

"It is fine," she lied, but having wrapped the sheet around her form hid away her trembling legs. In fact. They felt a lot like pudding at the moment.

"So, if you are Vlad, and you are Atul... what am I to call you?" And how do I break you apart?

[Soran Nightblade]

He watched her thoughtfully, his posture strong and straight. He didn't rise from the bed. He could sense how uncomfortable she was. It bothered him, but he wasn't about to show it. Pushing the sense of rejection out of the way, he considered her question. "I don't require a name," he finally said. "You are frightened. You wish to know how to return me to normal."

[Emora Deen]

Tenele sat down on the bed, more because she had to than because she wanted too. "I'm not frightened," Tenele told him quickly, though she guessed a part of her was. "I'm just... This is very odd. I didn't expect this. When Vlad said that one of them would be absorbed I thought he meant Atul. I don't know why I automatically assumed that it was a mental thing.... not a physical thing. So if you are both and neither at once it makes me nervous."

[Soran Nightblade]

He smiled at her, a gesture remarkably close to Vlad's. "I love you, and I will protect you." He touched her cheek gently. "There are no rules for this, Tenele. Don't pressure yourself about what to think or how to feel. Do things in your own way."

He rose from the mattress and walked elegantly across the room to sit at Vlad's desk. There, the books Vlad had been studied were strewn all over the wood surface. He pulled a clean sheet of parchment from the drawer and took up Vlad's quill. In neat, clean script, he wrote out a few lines at the top of the page, and a few more down at the bottom. He blew on the ink to dry it and then rose to show it to Tenele.

"Say this line while thinking of me, and I will always come to your aid." His finger slid to the lines at the bottom of the page. "This incantation will return those two to normal."