Couldn't leave you on a cliffhanger for too long! Drop me a line if you enjoy - I love hearing people's thoughts on the story. :) Risky stuff in the last few chapters.

Synopsis as promised for those who skipped the last chapter:

Octavian's a sadist and begins to torture them both by murdering Veil repeatedly and forcing the blood-starved Adrian to watch. Veil is unable to escape due to chains that are enchanted that are keeping her body and soul bound together. Octavian gives each of them a bargain. If Adrian would feed from Veil they would both go free. If Veil submit to Octavian - he would give Adrian a peaceful death an end the torment. Both refuse.

In a moment of rage, Octavian throws Veil into a pool of acid - expecting that he's killed her. But she rematerialized just before he ends Adrian's life, killing Octavian herself. But the deed has been done - and Adrian has been bled dry, and cannot heal his wounds. He is dying.


Adrian awoke, and if he had been able to piece together more than two consecutive thoughts, he might have honestly been surprised. Mostly to be awake at all.

He was sitting on the ground, his back up against a wall, his legs stretched out in front of him. His hands were lying at his sides, palms open. Weak, thin and frail, he almost didn't recognize them. They were the hands of a corpse.

The chains were gone. The hooks were gone. But the damage remained. Puncture wounds - torn flesh, missing flesh where the vampire Octavian had cut from him like a stuck pig. He was happy to not have been awake for their removal - as most of the hooks had to be fed through the rest of the way to keep from ripping the gashes open wider.

He was suddenly wracked in pain as he groaned - and he felt like his own body was attempting to consume itself out of desperation. One half attempting to eat the other to survive. He couldn't even lift his head.

"Hey gorgeous…" he heard a soft voice say from near him. Something shifted in his vision, as a body moved closer to his. He could smell the blood in her veins - feel the life coursing through her, like a river. Endless, flowing… He felt his fangs pressing against his lip as his breath quickened, his chest heaving - hunger overwhelming him.

Adrian saw himself in his mind's eye, pressing her to the stone floor and tearing her throat open with his teeth like a wolf. How wonderful she would feel, underneath him - her soft, warm skin and hot blood to thaw his own coldness.

He wanted it. He needed it.

No!

Adrian let out a pained wail as he squeezed his eyes tight, turning his head away from the person next to him.

Hands touched his face, warm hands - so warm against the cold that threatened never to leave him. "No," he begged, whimpering, wishing to be left alone. Wishing to feed. Wishing this was all a nightmare.

His world faded and cleared in waves as his body fought to live, even as his mind wished to die. What had he to live for? This foolish mission of his, this suffering? This endless, pointless cycle of struggle against his own family? The only time he had ever known happiness was in these walls - with his mother and father. And now, it was gone.

Let the darkness claim him. Let sleep come, once and for all. Let him rest.


Veil knew a dying man when she saw one.

Call it personal experience.

Veil would not let him die. "No you don't," she said to him, and tilted his head towards hers, a palm against each cheek, turning his sallow, empty face to hers. "You don't get to leave me. Not like this. Not here. Not after we survived all that."

"Let me die," he whispered to her, golden eyes hazy with a white film that seemed fitting only for a corpse.

"No. You don't get to go anywhere without me right now, handsome - and that's somewhere I can't go." He tried to turn away from her - weak, thin hands lifting from the ground, barely able to even grasp hers as he tried to look away. Tried to pull away from her in desperation.

Veil felt bad - forcing herself onto him like this. Her stoic, dour companion was not a 'touchy' person, but if she left him to his own devices, he'd die like this.

All Veil wanted to do was to pass out. Lay down and sleep for a week. All she wanted was to let the exhaustion and the pain take her back to the darkness and just… rest. What that thing Octavian had done to her, had been some of the worst pain she had suffered in her longer-than-normal life. He was a sadist, and knew how to ply his trade.

God, she had almost wanted to give in. Almost wanted to say 'yes' and let it all be over. But she couldn't betray herself like that. She couldn't betray Adrian.

Her heart was cracking in half as she watched him wish for death - wishing to make it all go away. She knew that feeling. She had said it herself to him once before. Countless times she had eaten the business end of a pistol or jumped off a bridge - or hanged herself, in an attempt to make it all end. To make the pain go away. But that was not a choice she ever had - so fuck all if she was going to let him make it instead.

"Look at me," she begged as she shifted closer to him again - turning him once more to look at her. "You can't go… not like this. Not here. Not because of him. You don't get to die because of some sick and twisted little turd like him."

"It's too late," his voice was cracked and dry.

"No, it isn't…" What was one more death today? She held her wrist out to him. "Drink."

Adrian snarled and tried to push her away - and succeeded, in his last muster of strength, to knock her back on her heels. "You do not know what you ask!" he cried, his voice choked and broken. He tried to roll away from her - but she stopped him.

Veil straddled his legs, and pinned him to the wall by the shoulders, forcing him straighten up, and more importantly to stay put. She put her hand against his cheek again, lifting his head to look at her. She was not going to let him take the coward's way out. "I know what I'm asking… I really do. You vowed never to drink human blood again. You think it means embracing that part of you that you loathe so deeply. I get it. I really do…"

"No," he begged.

"But I'm not human. And I won't die… not now, not ever. You saw what he did to me - he dissolved me in a vat of acid and I'm still here. I'm here with you, Adrian. And you can't leave me here alone. I can't do this without you. I don't know where those two idiot priests are - or if they're still alive. I can't stop your father alone. Please..."

Golden eyes, wavering, met hers in an expression overwhelmed by pain. Torment. Hunger, grief, and loss. It broke her heart. Veil bit back tears - no. Not now. He was not dead. Not yet. She wouldn't cry for him now. She combed her hands back through his hair, and he tried to recoil at her touch - struggling to free himself from her. "Go away," he begged her.

His hands pressed against her shoulders, trying to push her away. But the man who was once so strong - who could have ended her with a well-timed gesture, was now feeble and broken. She rested her forehead against his, even as he struggled to break free of her and avoid her touch. "This doesn't make you a monster," she whispered to him. "This doesn't make you less of a man. This doesn't make you more like him, or any less like you. You are not your father. And letting me help you save your own life will not change that."

"Leave me," he pled.

"I'm here with you. I'm not leaving you. Let me do this, please… You can't hurt me… You can't break me. Most importantly, Adrian Tepes -" She didn't know where it came from, but she tilted his face to look up at hers, meeting his golden eyes, and said with far more meaning than she had intended. "I will not let you leave me."

"No," he begged again, even as his hands began to weakly slide to grasp her shoulders, instead of pushing her away. He was begging her to run even as he was unable to fight the hunger that was taking control. "Please, go… run…"

Veil leaned in, and grazed her lips against his cheek by his ear in a faint kiss as she felt one of his arms begin to snake around her waist. Adrian wasn't giving in, so much as his body was. The hunger was too much for him to fight. He was a drowning man reaching for a raft - blind to anything but survival. She tilted her head away, baring her neck to him. The sound and smell of her blood would be too much for him to resist. She tried not to let herself pull back in fear as she heard him make an inhuman hissing noise.

The arms around her were no longer weak or feeble - they were like iron girders. She tamped down the fear and reminded herself that she could disappear if she wanted to, and leave him holding empty air. But this was the only way. He was going to die, if this didn't happen.

And what was one more death today, like she said?

At least this death would have meaning.

At least death would be for someone she realized - right then and there all at once, like someone turning on a lightswitch - that she cared about.

Even as his breath was cold against her skin, as he lost control to his inhuman urges, he still begged her not to let this happen. "Run from me…"

Fangs pierced her neck, as the arms around her tightened. She heard him moan against her skin in bliss as her hot blood filled his mouth. He shifted her against him, pulling her tighter into his lap, and straightened up - sinking his teeth deeper into her skin as he bettered his angle.

She let out a small whimper in her throat, but didn't struggle - didn't fight. She stroked his hair gently with her free hand. Her other arm was now trapped under his as he held her. One of his hands was cradling the back of her head, holding it still as he drank.

An inhuman… purr… seemed to come from him, as he fed. Like some great tiger or jungle beast, as he slowly emptied her body of blood to fill his own.

The pain faded away - and she felt herself grow warm, as something else washed over her. It was a strange kind of aching pleasure - a kind of peace. A closeness. It must be so victims don't struggle, she realized to herself even as it washed over her, wave after wave. A connection to him. It was wonderful, feeling like she was bound together with him that moment. Lulling her to sleep. Lulling her to give in. To let it happen. To let herself be consumed.

Veil trusted him. The hand that was stroking his blond hair finally couldn't continue, and fell against his shoulder against his neck. She let her eyes drift shut and even as she felt her own heart stopping, she felt his resume its measured drum.


Adrian felt a tear run down his face - blood, mixed with salt. Even his tears were cursed to not know to which side they belonged.

His wounds were healing. Stitching themselves back together as he felt himself flush with fresh blood. It pounded through him with a tempo that he had not felt in ages. It was a power beneath his fingertips that he could not deny was there, even if he had denied himself its gift for so very long.

A gift.

A gift of life, so freely given.

Adrian still remained sitting on the floor where he had awoken. But now, instead of insistently pinning him there, Veil was cradled in his lap. Sitting on him sideways, as he held her. Head tucked under his chin, eyes shut. She had not awoken in some time. She would, he was certain - but the day had been more than trying on them both. They were both taking time to heal.

Adrian would let her go, the moment she showed any signs of life. He would not dare impose on her any further than he had this day. He would not have her wake in the arms of a monster such as he. Adrian would not cause her any more harm than he had wrought upon her - first with his false dignity and vanity, and then twice over in his uncontrollable hunger.

But in this moment, he found he needed her there against him. Needed to feel the moment she returned to the world of the living - to assure himself that it would indeed come. And, if he were truthful… he did not wish to let her go. Not just yet.

He had fought so hard to turn away from this darkness that now so loudly beat within his chest. So long in his life he had fought tooth and nail to climb from that dark pit that was his bloodright. And she had jumped into it - head first - without even a second glance. So certain was she of her conviction to save him. So certain was she that his miserable life was worth saving. It was such a simple choice to her, like night and day.

Why? Because she could not do this alone. Veil was strong, perhaps unstoppable in her own right - but she could not defeat the vampire king. She had said so much herself.

But there was something else, mixed into her reasoning. The kiss she had laid upon his cheek. The gentle touch on his hair, even as he drained her life away. As though somehow he was the one in need of consolation. Something burned in her final insistence that he could not leave her here. The meaning there he could not find, even as hard as he searched for it. So for now, he put it aside.

He curled his arms around her, and held her tighter to his chest. He could smell the scent of her deep blue hair. For a moment, it took him to another place, somewhere far away from all this horror and blood.

He decided that if he were to break all reservations for one moment in his world, to tear down all the careful walls he had built around him - let it be in this moment. If he were to have the briefest second to wallow in all that he denied himself, let it be now. For now, he would hold her, feel her body against his, and enjoy the simple comfort he had denied himself for so very long.

The moment would be gone soon enough, he knew.