Erik yawned into his hand, trying to be as silent as possible as he did so. The other mercenaries that he had served with delivering that silver shipment had taught him how to move quietly and carefully, to avoid any stray jangle of mail or clink of armor parts colliding against each other. Truth be told, though, he hadn't gotten any good at it until one of the less patient ones "borrowed" his armor and brought it back with something called "muffle" on every piece. Erik didn't know what he had been talking about; the armor hadn't looked any different to him, save that now and then it glinted green in the darkness.
He had first watch, as usual. He liked first watch, because it was easier for him than getting up after sleeping a few hours, only to go back to sleep again after, or waking very early in the morning. With a silent sigh, he rolled his neck to ease the tension, glancing up at the loft, where his borrowed bed was, with longing. It was sort of odd sleeping in the same room with Lydia, but not in the crass way his former colleagues would joke about. Lydia was a fierce warrior, and could wipe the floor with him whenever she felt like it. Erik knew and accepted this, just as she knew and accepted that he was trying to get better, and would help him out on his practices.
Argis, on the other hand, was sort of a jerk about it.
His gaze fell on the form curled up in sleeping furs just beyond the door. Erik could only see the big Nord's feet peeking out, but he could tell from the amount of tension in the man that the Markarth housecarl was sleeping lightly. The warrior thought Erik unseasoned, and made this painfully clear to him. That was alright, Erik supposed, if they were on a mission together, but while guarding the household was important, this was hardly a war zone. He thought the older man could be a little nicer to him.
Feeling his eyelids droop, Erik sat up, rolling the Staff of Ice Spikes Lydia had given him between his palms and legs, trying to keep himself occupied. It probably would have helped if he was outside keeping watch, rather than inside, which told all his instincts he was safe. A heady, meaty scent wafted from the stewpot Sofie had placed on the hearth, which didn't help any.
Rubbing his eyes, Erik wondered how long he had until midnight came, and Argis took over.
Something moved.
Erik froze, moving only his eyes, then, very slowly, his head, to see what had caught his attention. Two dull spots of red moved in from the front door, through the entrance hall, and finally stopped at the door to the dining room. Erik let his eyelids close most of the way, so that he could just barely see the incandescent spots through his pale lashes. He knew what this was; Lydia had described it to him in detail. This was a vampire. The glowing spots were its eyes, so its torso should be about a head length below that…
Apparently deciding he was asleep and all was safe, the vampire crept into the room, toward him. He almost panicked, but then the eyes glanced away as one of the children coughed, and Erik took his chance.
There was a muffled "oomph!" as the ice spike struck the creature, by sheerest luck pinning it to the post at the bottom of the stairs. Erik leapt to his feet, thrusting a torch into the banked embers of the fire until it caught, keeping one eye on the glowing form of the ice spike and the bobbing eyes.
Hand shaking, he lifted the torch to see the beast, and felt a little sick.
"Miss me?" the little assassin sassed acidly, tugging at the spike that impaled her shoulder. She must have been in dreadful pain, but she kept at it doggedly.
"Argis!" Erik hissed loudly, and had the relief of hearing the man grunt and roll out of his bedroll and to his feet, padding over quickly. For the moment, he was grateful that the man slept lightly, although he really didn't know how you could get in the habit of any other kind of sleep when you spent most of your nights in a stone bed.
"Erik, you idiot, what do you think you're doing?" the older man asked, aghast at the sight of a child pinned to the woodwork.
"Catching a vampire," he whispered back harshly. "She's a member of the Dark Brotherhood; Ysmir and I met her coming back to the house."
"And you didn't kill it?" Argis asked, sounding as if he were asking the Divines for patience.
"She looks like a kid!" Erik the Slayer practically yelped.
A slight creaking made them both turn to spot Sofie, coming out of the girl's room rubbing her eyes, then freezing, blinking wide-eyed at the scene before her, glancing back in the room as if she thought she might be dreaming. Finally, she focused on the vampire, "Beth?" she asked in a small voice.
"No, not Beth," Erik thought fiercely as the vampire scowled at him, then snapped his fingers, "Babette! That was her name."
"Why is Beth pinned to the wall?" Sofie asked, alarmed as she began to realize this was not a bizarre dream.
"She's not Beth," Argis said shortly. "Go wake up Lydia," he ordered sternly, and she ran to do just that as the Bulwark lifted the sword he had carried in and placed it against the small assassin's throat. "What are you doing here, vampire?"
"I'm just a lost child, looking for some milk," she lied cheekily, her eyes getting big and helpless. "Won't you help me?" Argis regarded her for a moment, then slapped her face with the flat of his blade. She yelped and glared at him, "I'm going to rip your throat out for that," she snarled.
"Try," the man challenged. Erik just shook his head, holding the staff at the ready in case he needed to make another spike.
"What is going on here?" Lydia hissed angrily as she came down the stairs, her hair askew and her sleeping tunic rumpled. She halted at the sight of the girl. "Oh, a vampire," she said, quite as if this were an everyday occurrence. Sofie's gaze bounced between Lydia and the vampire as the woman went to the chest in the front room and returned with some rope. Walking up to Erik, she held out a hand. "May I borrow that a moment?" she asked.
"Sure," he replied, surprised, as he handed it over to her. Sofie clapped both hands over her mouth as Lydia struck the vampire child in the head with the staff, knocking her out, then serenely walked over and yanked the spike from the wall. Erik shifted uncomfortably as she began tying the slender arms behind the vampire's back. "You seem awfully undisturbed by this," he commented. For once, Argis seemed to agree with him.
"Ysmir is not the only member of the Dawnguard in this house," she replied with a snort, tying the knots securely, then lifting the vampire into her arms. "I've seen vampires that look younger than this. Ysmir could never bear to do away with them; either I had to kill them or help her drag them, kicking and screaming, to Falion for a cure." She hitched the child up on her shoulder a bit more securely, then headed up the stairs, through her room and back into the second story of the back section, where the door to Ysmir's old Alchemy lab was locked up tight. "Here," she said, handing the vampire to Erik, who held her gingerly.
"What are you planning to do with her?" Argis asked, eyeing all of them like he thought they were insane.
Lydia was rummaging around on the top sill of the door, from which she pulled down a key and unlocked it. A strange, sulfurous smell assaulted all of them, but the housecarl just pulled her shirt up over her mouth and dragged a chair inside the empty, circular room, placing it in the very center. Looking at Erik, she pointed at it, and he held his breath and deposited the vampire child on it, immediately after which Lydia began lashing her to it with thick, sturdy rope.
"Why are we keeping it?" Argis asked, aggravated as they tested the ropes for security.
"Do you want to explain to Ysmir that we killed her rather than cured her?" the other housecarl asked, giving him a bland look. She stood, finally satisfied, and walked out of the old lab, locking it behind her and shoving the key down the front of her shirt, making Erik blush.
"We should just kill it!" he retorted, exasperated. "We don't have to mention how it looked!"
"No!" Sofie cried, darting between them to place herself in front of the door and holding her arms out wide, as if to shield it. The adults gazed down at her with surprised. "You can't hurt Beth!"
Erik glanced at the other two, who seemed too surprised by this level of vehemence from normally gentle, meek Sofie to even try to formulate a response. "Her name is not Beth," he told her. "She lied to you. Her name is Babette, and she's a member of…" he bit his lip, "a very bad group of people."
Sofie shook her head so hard her hair flew around like wisps of down. "No. She's our friend, and you can't hurt her!"
Lydia sighed. "How do you know her, Sofie?"
"She's our friend!" the girl repeated.
"I am too cranky for this," Lydia muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Look, Sofie, it's late. No one will touch Beth, or Babette, or whoever she is. We'll figure out what to do with her in the morning, when your mother gets home."
"Do you promise?" she persisted stubbornly, and the housecarl looked irritated.
"Yes, I promise," she replied. Sofie transferred her gaze to Erik, making him feel like she had caught him kicking a puppy.
"I won't go in there," he promised, "Cross my heart."
"I'll wait for Ysmir," Argis conceded grudgingly.
"Good," the girl finally relaxed, then asked, shyly, "Can I have a glass of water, please?"
.
.
When Ysmir walked in with Darva the next morning to find everyone sitting glumly around the breakfast table, she tried to not respond with alarm. "Look at all these long faces!" she exclaimed, eyebrows shooting up. "Who died?" When everyone simply looked at her wretchedly, her eyes widened. "Oh, Talos. Who died?"
Erik cleared his throat. "Um…that vampire we met? She…made friends with all your children."
"She what?" Ysmir exclaimed, nearly shrieking.
"She's not going to hurt us," Aventus said fiercely, glaring around the table.
"Then why didn't she give us her real name?" Runa replied, picking at her eggs glumly. No one looked like they had taken more than a bite or two at most.
The Dragonborn goggled, "Babette's here?" she asked, disbelieving. "Where?"
"She's tied up in the old Alchemy lab," Lydia told her. Of everyone, she looked the most normal, and it seemed she had only not eaten yet for lack of a chance. "I knocked her over the head last night, and it appears she's still out. Argis and I made sure there was nothing on her that could be used to cut the ropes, but we added some shackles to her feet, just in case."
"Mother," Aventus said, standing and rushing over to her, "She's not going to hurt us, please let her go."
Ysmir felt a sinking feeling deep in her gut. "Please tell me this is not the girl you've been sneaking off to see." At his flushed and guilty look, she sighed, imagining Sheogorath laughing in the background to this farce. "Honey-bee, go get yourself some breakfast."
Darva looked a bit surprised. "I already had breakfast," she reminded her mother.
"Then have second breakfast," Ysmir ordered, passing by the table altogether. All this tension was doing nothing for her digestion.
Reaching the Alchemy lab, she paused, noting Erik had followed her up. "What?" she asked, a bit more waspishly than she had intended.
"A courier arrived this morning, too," he said diffidently. "He left this."
The Dragonborn took the note and unfolded it quickly. "It's from the twins," she said in relief. Not that she minded getting calls for help, but her time was a bit short right now. "It says they're a day behind the courier. Oh, and they're bringing Aela."
Erik shifted uncertainly. "While I really would like to meet some Companions, you're pretty full-up here as it is, and with two more warriors, you really don't need my help all that much," he pointed out.
She looked up in surprise, then smiled with understanding. "You miss your father, don't you?"
He flushed. "I was away for months, and was only back for a few days…"
Smiling, she shook her head. "It's alright, Erik. You're right, on both counts, as much as I enjoy your company." Turning back toward the door, she steeled herself, then pushed her house key in the lock. It turned with a clank of tumblers, and she hastily pulled out a handkerchief to cover her mouth and nose with. "Well, if the knock to the head didn't keep her unconscious, the smell will," she muttered, entering.
The girl was just as she remembered, save that she sat slack in a chair, held up only by an impressive array of knots. Ysmir checked her hands first, making sure the girl hadn't actually been awake and trying to escape. Just to be on the safe side, she retrieved two canvas rags and bound the vampire's hands into fists to keep her from using her nails.
Then she went and opened the windows.
Babette hissed as the sun hit her skin, but the brisk breeze quickly cleared a good deal of the stench from the room, and Ysmir sighed in relief. "Well, I suppose you're awake now," the Dragonborn said with forced cheerfulness.
"I…where…ah, hag's tits," the little vampire swore, gazing around groggily as she came to.
Ysmir waggled a finger in front of her face reprovingly, "No dirty language out of you, young lady, or you'll get your mouth washed out with soap, same as the other children."
Babette rolled her eyes. Ysmir had seen that eye roll before; Runa had started doing it. She'd wondered where the girl had picked it up, or if it was just something that developed on its own during puberty. "I'm a little old to be treated like that," the vampire informed her scathingly.
"Perhaps, but I'm in the habit," Ysmir replied with a smile that was more a baring of teeth than anything friendly. "I bet your head's hurting you."
The girl scowled, "That usually happens when someone hits you in the skull with a staff."
Rather than replying, Ysmir held a hand up near the vampire's head. Babette cringed away from her for a moment, then graced her with an astonished "You're healing me?" Briefly, Ysmir wondered if the girl was more surprised that Ysmir was bothering, or that she knew how to heal undead.
"No one wants a cranky, concussed vampire in the house," the Dragonborn told her facetiously. "So," the woman wondered aloud, standing straight and putting her hands on her hips, "What am I going to do with you?"
"Killing me seems to be the most sensible option," Babette replied caustically, then grinned, "but you won't do that, will you?"
"Of course not," Ysmir scoffed. If she really believed that, she wasn't about to disillusion her just yet. "I said that I'm not in the habit of killing children, and I meant it." She paused, as if considering, "But Lydia might."
The smug look melted from the vampire's face, which was beginning to look distinctly red where the sun hit it. "You know you want me alive," she told Ysmir in a low voice, not sounding like a child at all. "I can see the distaste in your eyes at the thought of killing me, or allowing me to be killed."
"I've done things I've found distasteful before," Ysmir said flatly. "It has never stopped me."
"So what will you do now?" Babette asked, honestly wanting to know.
"Keep you alive. For the moment, that's all," the Dragonborn replied, closing the windows and exiting the room. She would need some help with that, though.
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I managed to write two whole chapters this week. :) I also finished some sketches of the characters (NOT the twins, though, cause men are ridiculously difficult and I'm not satisfied with how they came out). I'll post them on Deviantart eventually, but my boyfriend suggested waiting until the story is finished, since people already have particular ways they envision the characters. I can understand that.
Welcome new followers!
Wynni: You made me blush. :) Yes, everyone is still waffling on Darva's status as Dragonborn, because they can't afford to assume anything. As for Inigo...well, he did sort of ruin me for other followers for a bit.
Eren-boambastic for chapter 14: Since I have no idea how far you read after reviewing I'll just put my note to you here. In lieu of a Deadric Prince of Snark and Hilarity, Sheogorath must fill the role. :D