Chapter 7
Serana followed closely on the heels of the Redguard woman, Tonilia, Garen had said her name was. She followed the thief through a couple of storage rooms for the tavern and finally into another large circular room. In the center of the room was a pool of clear water with a platform in the center that had four ramps leading up to it. Around the room there were a number of beds, bookcases, chests and chairs. There was even a large black oak desk with a few trophy selves behind it.
There were three branching rooms off of this larger one. In one there was a simple wooden ladder that led up back to the streets. One was sealed off by a large vault and the other was a hallway with training rooms and various other living areas.
Tonilia lead Serana, past a few other men and women wearing brown leather versions of what Garen wore, into one of these living rooms. The room had mannequins, piles of leather and various spools of thread around the room.
Tonilia closed the door behind them before turning to Serana. "Alright. Take off everything but your smalls."
Serana looked baffled at the Redguard who merely walked over to a nearby table.
"What? Why?" Serana stammered out. The Redguard picked up a strip of leather from the table and looked at Serana in annoyance.
"The armor our members wear is specially tailored to each person. It's designed to act almost like a second skin. So take off your clothes so I can take your measurements."
Serana hesitantly stripped of her armor, feeling unsure around a complete stranger. Tonilia seemed to pick up on this.
"Honey, you don't have anything I haven't seen before." The Redguard smiled to Serana, easing her nervousness somewhat.
Once Serana was free of all but her smalls, Tonilia began wrapping the strip of leather around various parts of Serana's body.
"I can see why Garen likes you." She spoke, nonchalantly. "You might want to be careful around here though, Vex has had her eyes on that one for some time now."
Serana looked at Tonilia in bewilderment. "Wh… What do you mean?"
"Vex, that pale Imperial, isn't someone to take competition lightly. And unfortunately for you, you're pretty big competition." The ease with which Tonilia spoke scared Serana slightly.
"I don't follow. Competition for what?" She asked and Tonilia finished taking the different measurements of her body.
"For Garen, or are you as thick as he is?" Tonilia chuckled, rolling her eyes.
"You can see it in his body language. When you were there he was on guard, ready to pounce on anything that was a threat. He kept himself between you and the rest of the guild. It's some protective instinct from his wolf or some such." Tonilia spoke, jotting some notes down on a pad of paper from one of the tables.
"You can put your clothes back on. I'll have your armor for you sometime tomorrow." Tonilia spoke and Serana hurriedly put her clothes and armor back on.
She had just finished buckling her breastplate back on when the lithe, pale Imperial stormed into the room the two women were in. Serana looked into the woman's eyes and saw nothing but hate and fury.
In a blur of motion, the lithe Imperial, Vex, grabbed Serana by her neck and shoved her into a nearby wall. The impact was enough to force the air out of Serana's lungs.
"Vex! What are you doing?!" Tonilia shouted and looked at the enraged woman with wide eyes.
"Listen here you little whore." Vex snarled at Serana, slamming her into the wall again.
"Garen seems to fancy you. I'm not stupid enough to kill you or he'd flay me alive." Vex grit out, roughly shoving Serana to keep her off-balance.
"I care about him. And if you ever, EVER, do something that would hurt him…" Vex spoke drawing her dagger.
"I will make you wish you had never lived to see your first days in this world." Vex shoved the edge of dagger up against Serana's neck, hard enough to draw blood.
"Do you understand me?" Vex hissed out and Serana met the other woman's rage filled stare.
Serana nodded and Vex shoved her again before letting her go. Vex stormed out of the room and Tonilia hastily rushed over to Serana.
"Are you alright?" Tonilia asked while Serana struggled to regain her breath.
"Yeah, I've handled worse." Serana spoke once she had caught her breath.
"I'm sorry, I didn't expect her to do something like that." Tonilia spoke, but Serana shook her head.
"It's not your fault." Serana spoke quietly.
Serana wiped the blood off her neck and left the room. She entered the guild hall and sat down on the nearest bed. She let her shoulders sag.
After what seemed like an eternity alone with her thoughts, Serana felt a weight lightly settle onto the bed next to her. She was about to stand up, but a hand placed itself on her neck, where Vex's knife had cut her and another gripped her arm. A burning pain radiated out from the hand, spreading out over her neck. Before she could pull away, the burning receded and the heat lessened, turning into a soothing warmth.
Serana turned her head when the hand left her neck and looked up into the icy blue depths of Garen's eyes. The eyes were warm for her, but a tinge of sorrow lingered just behind them.
"Why did you bring me here?" Serana asked, her voice a whisper.
Garen let his other hand drop from her arm and sighed. "I need the help of the guild."
"And I didn't know that Vex would do something like this." Garen spoke softly after a moment of silence.
Serana dropped her eyes to her hands. She felt Garen's hand cup the side of her face and he turned her head back to face him.
"I promise you Serana. So long as I still breathe, no harm will come to you." Garen's eyes held only sincerity and warmth. For what seemed like the first time in a long time, Serana felt wholly safe at Garen's words.
Serana wrapped her arms around Garen's massive form and buried her head in his chest. Garen stiffened, but before she could pull away, he embraced her back. His arms around her felt strong and soothing and warmly loving. Garen rubbed her back and placed his chin atop her head. A deep soothing rumble echoed through his chest and sent shivers of pleasure down her spine.
"So I guess I won our little bet Delvin." Brynjolf smirked to Delvin from their place in the shadows watching their guild master and his "friend".
"Yeah, yeah." Delvin grumbled and handed the other thief a large sack of gold.
Delvin cursed to himself, he had thought that there would be no way even Garen could miss Vex's signals for this long.
"Remember." Brynjolf spoke next to him. "There are only a handful of men you never bet against changing their ways unless the gods themselves have something to do with it. Garen is one of those men."
"Yeah, Yeah." Delvin grumbled and a thought popped in his head.
"I bet you she'll get it through his head first." Delvin whispered to the other man.
"I bet that they'll figure it out at the same time." Brynjolf smirked to him.
"The usual?" He asked.
"The usual." Delvin smirked and the two men shook hands before turning to see to other matters.
A solid thunk sounded around him. Garen pulled out his next throwing knife and sent it toward its target. The knife landed dead center of the wooden dummy's chest. Garen threw his third and fourth knife, both landing only a hair's breath from its target.
'What are you doing?" Serana's musical voice flooded over him after he threw his fifth.
"Practicing." Garen replied and sent his last knife to sink into the wood.
Garen retrieved his knives and replaced them into their hidden sheaths in his armor. When he turned around, he was greeted with Serana standing in the doorway to the practice area, a smirk on her face and her eyes alight in mirth.
For no less than the hundredth time of looking at her in the last week since she had started wearing the brown leather of the Thieves' Guild did he need to repress a shudder of desire. She had started wearing the armor after he had convinced her that it would draw less attention to her than her old armor would. It would also make them draw less attention when they were out in Skyrim. People took less notice of a master and apprentice than they did a thief and a woman wearing something from a history book.
Garen couldn't help but rake in Serana's form. True to the design, the armor was like a second skin on her. It highlighted the round curves of her hips and rear, hugged her legs and made them seem longer than they were and even outlined her supple breasts.
Garen tore his gaze away from Serana and focused on putting his knives away. He tried to not think about the gorgeous woman in front of him, nor his spiking heart rate. Garen cursed when Serana chuckled, she must have heard his heart rate spike. Damn her heightened hearing.
"Why are you throwing them?" Serana asked when he turned around again to face the targets. "Wouldn't a bow or even one of those things the Dawnguard use work better?"
"Not always." Garen spoke and took in a deep breath. He cursed himself again when he caught her alluring scent just feet behind him.
"And why's that?" Serana asked.
She was now standing just behind him, practically leaning on top of him. She was definitely getting better at moving silently, he needed to thank Delvin for his efforts in teaching Serana.
"Sometimes they're too big or obvious. Sometimes you need to be able to make your enemy think you're not a threat when you have no weapons. You can hide knives in your armor, throwing them lets you do the same thing as a bow could do, but in closer quarters." Garen explained trying to distract himself from the woman behind him.
"Hmmmm." Serana mussed, her voice taking on a seductive tone to it. "Why don't you show me."
Garen nodded and his eyes misted over. His mind blanked and everything around him distorted, becoming unfocused. The only thing he saw were the three target dummies in front of him. The three dummies morphed into grinning men with blood and hunger in their eyes. His ears perked up and he thought he heard Serana's labored breathing behind him. Garen turned to look over his shoulder at Serana. Instead of the woman that was standing there, he saw Serana with a myriad of cuts on her and unbearable pain in her eyes.
A single thought raced through his mind. Protect Serana.
Garen snarled and flicked out his right hand, a knife sprung into his hand from the sheath on his forearm. He took a step forward and threw the knife into the man in the middle, catching him square in the chest. He flicked his left hand, another knife sprung into his hand. He took another step forwards and threw the knife at the man to his left, this time catching him in the throat, just under his jaw. Garen reached up to his collar behind his head and gripped the hilt of his third knife. In one fluid motion Garen drew the knife and threw it at the last man that was alive. His blade found its mark in the dead center of the man's face.
Garen reached up to the knife sheathed on his chest, hidden under the sash of pockets the crossed his chest. He drew the knife and looked around for any other threats but found none.
Garen re-sheathed the knife and the haze fell from his eyes. He turned to find Serana looking at him in awe.
"That was…" She began but was cut off when Vipir the Fleet ran into the room, out of breath.
"We… We…" The rogue panted.
"We. Found. Him. He's. In. Solitude. Leaving. To. Dragon Bridge." Vipir panted out, not stopping to catch his breath.
"Good." Garen spoke and clasped the man on the shoulder. "Tell Brynjolf that I'll be gone for a while. The usual drill."
Vipir panted and gave Garen a thumbs up. The thief wave Garen off and he strode out of the room after collecting his knives. Serana followed him close on his heels.
Garen went to his bed and pulled out the two already packed travel packs from the chest at its foot. Garen smiled when he thought that his bed had really become their bed. Much like in Dawnstar, the beds of the guild were all taken so Serana and he shared his. She didn't seem to mind it, rather she seemed to enjoy it a bit more than he thought, but it had worked for the time. He also found it odd that over the last week, the terrors that usually plagued him hadn't done so. He couldn't think of a single night where he didn't sleep like a normal person.
Garen shook his head, clearing his mind of the thoughts. There was no point on dwelling on something so trivial.
Speaker. I have need of you. Garen called out in his mind.
To his right a shimmering blue kneeling form appeared. The form's head was bowed.
"Listener." The specter spoke.
"I have found the Moth Priest. Tell Speaker Nazir that he needn't search for him any longer. Also, go to Whiterun and let my housecarl Lydia know this information as well. Tell Lydia to also meet back up with me at Fort Dawnguard." Garen spoke to the kneeling form and handed one of the packs to Serana.
"It will done do my Listener." The specter spoke before fading out of existence.
"I've seen a lot of things in my time." Serana spoke and shuddered next to him. "But that is one of the creepiest things yet."
"Hey." Garen chuckled. "At least you don't have a fear of those unnatural creatures people call spiders."
Serana chuckled. "Fair point."
"Come on. We need to get there as quickly as we can."
Garen and Serana left the guild hall through the back entrance, coming out into fresh dusk air. The pair hurriedly made of the stables just outside the gates of RIften where Shadowmere was stabled.
The horse saw them coming and trotted out to meet them. Shadowmere bowed her head to the two of them before nuzzling Serana's outstretched hand. Garen rubbed the horse's neck lovingly before lifting Serana up onto Shadowmere's back. Serana glared down at Garen and he simply smirked back.
"We need to get to Dragon Bridge and we need to get there as fast as you can get us there." Garen spoke softly to Shadowmere.
Very well my Listener. Shadowmere's sweetly seductive voice sounded in his head.
Garen climbed up onto Shadowmere's back, settling onto her broad back just behind Serana.
Keep tight hold of your companion. Shadowmere spoke in his mind.
Garen wrapped one of his arms around Serana's waist and pulled her into him. She seemed to lean into him more, her body shivered against his. With his other hand Garen took a handful of Shadowmere's mane holding onto it gently.
"Ready?" Garen asked Serana. He only received a soft sound that sounded something close to a yes.
Ride on girl. Garen thought to Shadowmere.
The horse whinnied and she jerked forwards, galloping away from the gates of Riften. Racing up to speeds impossible to a normal horse.
Garen felt the beginnings of fatigue start to creep into his body just before Dragon Bridge came into view. On the untiring creature that was Shadowmere, Garen and Serana rode through the night and into much of the day. Some time just before dawn, Serana leaned against him fully and her muscles went limp. Garen nearly panicked before he saw the steady rise and fall of Serana's chest. He had stayed awake through the whole journey, ensuring that neither he nor Serana fell off of Shadowmere.
He was starting to pay for his vigilance now however. Garen shoved his thoughts of sleep into the back of his mind and tightened his grip both on Serana and Shadowmere. He felt Serana stir in front of him before she turned her head to look at him over her shoulder.
"We're almost there." Garen shouted to be heard over the wind roaring through their ears. Serana nodded and smiled to him.
After another hour of travel, Shadowmere finally slowed to a canter and they entered the tiny village of Dragon Bridge. It was late into the evening when they arrived and the main street that the houses and shops lined was empty. Garen had Shadowmere slow to a walk and they slowly made their way down the street.
Just after passing the small tavern in the center of the street, a cool breath blew over them. Garen sniffed the air and stiffened. Serana looked back at him, a worried look in her eyes.
"What is it? What's wrong?" She asked.
Do you smell that? Garen prodded mentally at the horse.
I smell death. The horse's sweet voice replied. Garen knew that if she could, Shadowmere would be smiling deviously.
"I hope nothing." Garen replied to Serana grimly.
He kicked Shadowmere into a gallop towards the massive stone bridge that the town got its name from. The closer they got, the more and more prominent the smell of decay and blood became.
They crossed the massive bridge, only to come to a sight of utter carnage. A broken and splintered carriage lay on its side and bodies littered the ground around it. Garen slid off of Shadowmere and inspected the dozens of bodies laying on the ground. Most of them were wearing the heavy armor of the Empire's elite honor guard, but some wore lighter ancient armor.
"Serana." Garen spoke standing from one of the corpses. "Do you recognize this armor?"
"They're not from my father's court." Serana sounded puzzled. Garen began rifling through the pouches and pockets of the dead vampire.
"What are you doing?" Serana asked.
"Looking for this." Garen spoke once he found a note in one of the pouches.
Garen unfolded the note and read it over. "Forebears' Holdout? That's close to here."
Garen mounted Shadowmere again. "We might still find him."
Garen wrapped his arm around Serana's waist once more and kicked Shadowmere into a gallop, heading for the nearby cave.
