A/N: Hello again, and welcome to chapter twenty-five of this rewrite! Thank you to EricLightscythe for reviewing last time; I really appreciate it. Nothing in this chapter was in the original version of this fanfic, so there aren't any notable revisions here because all of it is new material. Rather, the existence of this chapter in itself is a revision of this fanfic's later chapters as a whole. I hope that I have expanded on the characterization of Lord Lovidicus and Agronak believably here, as the few lines of dialogue they have in-game didn't give me much to go on and aren't particularly applicable to the circumstances they find themselves in in this chapter. I have taken a few liberties with the layout of Lord Lovidicus' room and Crowhaven itself here, as well, in order to make it seem more like someone's home than an ancient ruin and keep things flowing as smoothly as possible. As always, I would be grateful beyond words for any and all feedback you may have for me; it's always good to know how I'm doing on this, and whether my writing is living up to your expectations. :)

The warm, cozy air inside my shack felt like a lover's embrace after walking home through the wind and snow. "So, which of us is going on the contract?" I asked, sitting down to warm my hands in front of my fireplace.

Lucien was quiet for a moment, brushing the last un-melted snowflakes off his robes. "Under normal circumstances, I would consider this contract to be an excellent means by which to test your skills. However, in your condition, performing such a task alone would be inadvisable and carry with it an unreasonably high probability of death or severe injury. I would simply attend to the matter myself, but given the potential time-consuming nature of infiltrating a fort and transporting a captive vampire, I'd prefer not to risk the traitor catching you alone again. As such, I feel it would be best if you accompanied me, if you have no objections."

"Why would I? It'll be nice to get out of the city again; I'm getting stir-crazy, spending so much time here at once."

"You do realize that we are leaving the city in order to kidnap and murder a possible vampire, not for a relaxing stroll through the winter countryside?"

"Yes. It still beats sitting around here all day." I shrugged. I didn't expect kidnapping Lord Lovidicus to be fun, but at that point, I'd have rather eaten a bowl of broken glass than kept on sitting at home, waiting to see who the traitor went after next. It'd be nice to have a chance to fight an enemy I could see, again. "Besides, I'll have you with me the whole time; I can't get much safer than that."

"You… place a surprising amount of faith in my protection."

"Is that a bad thing?"

Lucien sighed. "Not inherently, so long as you don't come to rely on my abilities more heavily than your own. I expect that you know better than to use it as an excuse for carelessness."

"I promise I'm not trying to take advantage of you. Unless it's in the fun way." I leaned back in my chair and patted my belly. "It's probably a bit late to warn me about being careless while we're doing that, though."

Lucien gave me a wry smile. "You weren't the only careless party involved in that. And I can think of precious few better sources of motivation to abstain from careless behavior in other aspects of your life..."

"See? You've got nothing to worry about. When are we leaving?"

"Tomorrow morning, as soon as the shops open and we can obtain the supplies we'll require. I suggest that you take this opportunity to rest; it may be quite some time before you have another."

As much as I wanted to, I hardly got a wink of sleep that night. No matter which way I turned, I couldn't get comfortable, and even the blanket I'd taken from Motierre's house felt rough and scratchy against my skin. I eventually settled for just trying to watch the light change through the gap under my door, and not thinking about what the next day would bring. I must have nodded off once or twice, because I opened my eyes after what I thought was just a blink to a much brighter sliver of light than when I'd shut them, but I didn't feel any more or less rested than the night before when the light had grown bright enough to look like morning.

We didn't need to buy much before leaving the city – just some food for the road, a bit of rope, and a dark, thick blanket we could use to cover Lovidicus if he really was a vampire and we needed to travel with him in daylight. Beyond that, we needed to rent a second horse we could use to bring Lovidicus back to the Imperial City. Lucien sent me to get everything else we needed while he saw to the horse, and I arrived at the city stables a little under an hour later to find him handing a bag of septims to the stablehand, a dark look on his face, while holding the reins of a withered horse hanging her head in a tired slump. Shadowmere stood tethered to a tree just outside the paddock, flicking her tail in impatience. Seeing the two of them so close together made the stable's poor old nag look even sadder.

"Are you sure she's up to this?" I asked, once the stablehand had left to tend to the other horses in the paddock. The horse's ears perked up a little as she plodded away from the paddock after us, but the rest of her stayed in the same tired slump.

"She'll have to be," Lucien replied. "Apparently the rest of their available horses were lost to… mysterious circumstances. I doubt that she's capable of moving swiftly, but that should work to our advantage if our target attempts to use her to escape."

Shadowmere narrowed her eyes and snorted when Lucien untethered her from the tree, and she realized we meant to bring the other horse with us, but she didn't protest any further. She relaxed her posture when she saw Lucien put our supplies in the other horse's saddlebags instead of hers, and with one last flick of her tail, she stopped acknowledging that the other horse even existed.

We spent the rest of the day, and the better part of the next, riding to Crowhaven, Lucien on Shadowmere and me on the horse we'd rented. I'd started thinking of her as "Patchy," because of the way her dull, brown hair thinned to almost-bald patches in places, but calling her that out loud would've just felt mean. We probably could've made it to Crowhaven in less than half that time if we'd just taken Shadowmere, but nothing either of us tried could convince Patchy to move at anything faster than a meandering half-trot, and without her we'd have needed to walk back with Lovidicus, which probably would've lost us more time than waiting on Patchy, in the end. Her slow pace meant I didn't have to worry about Shadowmere's breakneck speed, and the jostling it would've given me, making me sick, either, which I couldn't have been more grateful for.

When we reached the area where Agronak told us to look for Crowhaven, the closest thing to a fortress, or even a house, we could find was a crumbling, burned-out ruin. Ivy covered most of its walls, and a few saplings had sprung up inside it, as though no one had visited the place in decades. About the only thing left intact was a set of sturdy, wooden cellar doors that raised just high enough off the ground to peek through the tall grass that covered the floor around them.

"Are you sure we're looking in the right spot?" I asked, sliding off of Patchy's back and taking a coil of rope out of her saddlebag. I decided to leave the blanket behind, for the time being; no sense in carrying something so unwieldy around if I wasn't sure I'd need it.

"No, but this bears investigating, nonetheless." Lucien dismounted Shadowmere in a single, fluid motion that probably made me look like a stumbling child in comparison. "If Lord Lovidicus no longer calls this ruin home, he may still have left some hint of his present whereabouts behind. And if he is a vampire, a ruin such as this would make as effective and inconspicuous a lair as any, if its cellar remains intact."

"So, it'll be a bit like Fort Farragut inside?"

"Presumably, though hopefully with fewer precautions taken to defend it from scavengers."

We brought Shadowmere and Patchy inside what was left of the fort's walls, to keep them – well, mostly Patchy – safe from wolves, and set about prying open the cellar doors. Someone had put a good-sized lock on them, but after years of sitting out in the weather, it had almost rusted away. Instead of trying a lockpick on it, Lucien grabbed one of its handles and gave it a good, sharp tug that shattered what was left of the deadbolt holding it shut.

The door made an almost painful creaking sound as it swung open to reveal a set of stone stairs that descended into pitch darkness. A rotten, dusty smell wafted out of the cellar they led to. Lucien started down them first, and I waited until he'd disappeared into the darkness before following him, the coil of rope slung over my shoulder, so I didn't bump into him by accident. I turned my back to one of the staircase's walls and kept both my hands on it, to help keep track of where I was and give me a way to steady myself if I stumbled on any loose stones or skipped a step as I shuffled sideways down the stairs.

At the bottom of the steps, the same sort of eerie, glowing mist that lit up Fort Farragut's outer halls swirled over the cellar's stone floor. Rows of torch sconces, most of them empty or holding long-burnt-out scraps of wood, lined the walls, with a few mostly-intact tapestries spread out between them. A few tables, surrounded by crumbling chairs, and a half-rotted bookshelf were scattered over the floor, making the room look smaller than it was. If someone took the time to replace a few torches, it might have almost looked like a home. On the far side of the room, a narrow hallway stretched out for a few feet, then made a sharp turn to the left. I thought that Lucien had moved on through the hallway without me until what I'd thought was just the shadow of one of the stone pillars holding the roof up reached out a hand and gestured for me to come closer to it.

I could hear my heart trying to beat its way out of my chest from the fright he'd given me as I skittered across the room toward him, hoping that the sound was all in my head.

"We may well have to look elsewhere for our quarry, if he still lives," Lucien murmured. "Search this room for any information that might aid us in our search while I determine what, if anything, lies beyond this chamber."

I nodded, and set about looking over what was left of the furniture while Lucien disappeared around the hallway's bend. Some of the tables had a few damp scraps of paper on them, but any writing on them had faded long ago. The bookshelf wasn't of much use, either; most of the books were still intact, if a little crumbly, but none of them were anything out of the ordinary.

A few moments after I'd finished thumbing through the last of the books, Lucien returned from the hallway, as empty-handed as I was.

I shut the book and put it back on the shelf. "There's nothing useful in here. Did you find anything?"

His lips – the only part of his face I could see under the shadow his hood cast – curled into a smirk that sent a shiver down my spine. "We are not alone here, after all. Come with me."

I followed him down the hallway, stepping over a few dead skeevers along the way, until we came to a stop in front of a wooden door with a pattern of leaves carved into it, held shut by an iron crossbar. At first, I couldn't see how he'd convinced himself that someone else was on the other side of it, but when I looked down, I could just make out the glow of a candle or torch shining out from under it.

"What do we do, now?" I asked, my voice hardly more than a whisper.

"We take this opportunity to strike at Lovidicus, before night falls and he can make use of his full strength. Be on your guard; no human could have survived so long without a supply of food and water, and what few rats he may have caught over the years will have done little to quench his thirst for blood."

Lucien lifted the crossbar, then turned the door's handle. It swung open without a sound, and he shut it with a faint click once we'd both stepped into the room beyond it. A pair of torches lit up a short, wide flight of stairs that descended into what had probably been a bedroom fit for a king, before it had gotten sealed off. A large, four-poster bed sat on a dais in the center of the room, with a sturdy desk carved to match the door on one side of it and a bookshelf flanked by two overstuffed armchairs on the other. Dust covered everything in the room, including the shriveled corpse dressed in worn-out nobleman's clothing, a set of fangs poking out from under its dried-up lips, sitting in one of the armchairs. It looked like we'd arrived too late to capture Lord Lovidicus alive, after all.

Then, the corpse in the chair stirred, sniffing the air as he turned his head toward us. "Luktuv? Have you finally come back to me, my love?" he called out in a thin, reedy voice.

I clapped a hand over my mouth to muffle my startled yelping, and took a step backward, into the door. Lucien tensed up beside me, sliding the coil of rope off my shoulder with one hand as he drew his shortsword with the other.

Lovidicus' eyes snapped open, glowing red in the dim torchlight. "You're not Luktuv. Still…" He got to his feet, bones creaking the whole time, and bared his fangs in a snarl. "I suppose there's no harm in slaking my thirst on the lackeys she sent to finish me off before I feast on her traitorous heart!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he leapt across the room at Lucien, faster than a dried-out husk like him should've been capable of. I drew my dagger, ready to kill Lovidicus right then and there, contract be damned, if I couldn't pry him away from Lucien alive, but Lucien didn't so much as flinch. He took a single, graceful sidestep out of Lovidicus' path, then dropped his shortsword as his hand lit up in a flame spell.

"I'd reconsider that attitude, if I were you," Lucien purred, holding the small flame he'd conjured in his palm between them as a warm, flickering shield. "You've begun your quest for vengeance too late, I'm afraid; your lover has passed beyond your reach. Her child, on the other hand…"

"What do you know of our son?" Lovidicus' eyes narrowed, but he didn't take them off the flame spell.

"Only that he wants to see you, and has offered us a generous reward to bring you to him. Willingly, or otherwise." Lucien ran his thumb over the coil of rope. "I know which method I'd prefer, but in the interest of… efficiency, I am willing to compromise, if you behave yourself."

"So, you're here to kidnap me?" Lovidicus threw his head back and let out a harsh, cackling laugh. "Do you have any idea who you are dealing with, boy? I am Lord Lovidicus, esteemed peer of County Anvil and treasured friend of the Count himself. I am-"

"Likely presumed dead, and living in the cellar of a burned-out ruin. Any friends you once had will have died, or aged to the point of senility over the course of the decades you have languished here, and in such a decrepit state you are unlikely to make a favorable impression on the sons their power and fortunes will have passed on to. I am well aware of your station in this world, my lord," Lucien replied, somehow making a noble title sound like an insult. "If I were to burn you to ashes where you stand, or simply seal you in this room once more, not a soul in Tamriel would notice, let alone care. You would do well to keep that in mind."

Lovidicus' entire body trembled, and he fell to his knees. "E-except my son. He… He wanted to see me, yes? You have to take me to him, then! Out of this accursed prison! At long last, I will be free…" He sighed. "Take me with you. I will go willingly to my child's side."

"I know you will. But not before I have taken the necessary precautions to ensure the well-being of myself and my associate along the way."

"W-what do you mean?"

"You have two choices: either you allow me to bind your hands, in which case you may ride to the Imperial City with some semblance of your dignity intact, or resist and spend the journey bound, gagged, rolled into a blanket, and strapped across a horse's back like a piece of luggage."

"And if I refuse to come with you under such terms?"

"Then I present your severed head to your son, and tell him you died of natural causes before I could reach you."

"You… may bind my hands."

"Good. Silencer," Lucien said, not taking his eyes off Lovidicus. "Keep a watch on our… guest, while I see to his restraints."

I put my dagger back in its sheath and grabbed a torch off the wall before approaching them, holding it between me and Lovidicus like Lucien had done with his flame spell. Lucien gave me a nod once I'd gotten into position, then stepped behind Lovidicus to work on tying his hands together.

As soon as Lovidicus' face was out of Lucien's sight, it twisted into a sneer as he looked me over, eyes glinting with hunger. I tried not to flinch, or let my hands shake while I held the torch, to show him I wasn't afraid of him. He didn't seem convinced.

"Does my deathly visage frighten you? I think you may have stumbled into the wrong line of work, pet." He laughed. "Though I think we both know what a man like that is really keeping something like you around for. Tell me, how often does he make you-" His voice turned to a sharp, wordless cry as Lucien finished tightening the rope wrapped around his wrists with one last, harsh tug.

"I believe that concludes our preparations." Lucien stood, and hauled Lovidicus to his feet by the back of his shirt. "I think it's past time we were on our way."

"I'll get the door," I said, grateful for a chance to get away from Lovidicus, even if it was just by a few steps. I kept my torch with me as I followed them out of the room, partly to light the way and partly because it gave me something to focus on other than what Lovidicus had said to me.

When we reached the stairs leading out of the cellar, Lucien shoved Lovidicus onto his knees again. For the first time since we'd entered Lovidicus' room, he turned to look at me. "We need something to cover him with until night falls. Go and fetch the blanket; I'll see to it that he doesn't try anything foolish," he said, his voice softer than it had been while dealing with Lovidicus.

Lovidicus spat at me as I passed them. "Don't trust her," he hissed. "She'll just betray you in the end, the same way my Luktuv betrayed me. They're lying harlots, all of them, just waiting for a chance to bleed you dry!"

I half-ran up the stairs to where we'd left the horses, grateful that I had a torch to light my way. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out why Lovidicus' words stung so much, but they cut me deeper than his fangs could have dreamed of. If he'd stopped at just calling me a woman, I could've brushed it off and moved on, because I would've made the same mistake if I were a stranger taking a quick look at me, but him thinking I'd chosen the wrong line of work stuck to me like an under-cooked strip of taffy. The man didn't know me, or Lucien, but that didn't mean he wasn't right. When he'd charged, I panicked while Lucien kept his head straight. If Lovidicus had tried to go for me, first, I probably would've gotten my throat torn out. Lucien hadn't seemed disappointed in me, but I couldn't have impressed him with that display, either. Maybe he did only like me for my body. And I didn't know why, or when, it started bothering me that he might not like the rest of me.

I hugged the blanket close to my chest as I made my way back down the stairs, trying to push the thought out of my head. I didn't have time to waste fussing over whether or not Lucien liked me. Or whether or not I genuinely liked him, for that matter; it wasn't like I had any past romantic attachments to compare him to, and I'd been the one to suggest we keep things casual in the first place. We had a starved vampire to smuggle and a traitor to catch. Maybe, once both of those problems were taken care of, I could start worrying about my feelings, and his, but until then I needed to focus on staying alive. Unless Lucien outright told me he was only interested in me for the sex, I could let myself think there was more to… whatever we had between us than that, and that would be enough to keep me satisfied for at least a little while longer.

Lovidicus kept mercifully quiet as we rode back to the Imperial City. He was alone on Patchy, while I sat behind Lucien on Shadowmere, with Patchy's reins tied to Shadowmere's saddle to keep Lovidicus from trying to make a run for it. With the blanket wrapped around him like a cloak, and his face smoothed by the skeever's blood Lucien had let him drink before leaving Crowhaven, he could've almost passed for human. The blanket covered the ropes tying his legs to Patchy's saddle, and the fact that his arms were still wrenched behind his back, too, and the few travelers we passed on the road didn't give us a second glance.

When we reached the city gates, I kept watch on Lovidicus while Lucien stabled the horses and arranged for a courier to deliver a note to Agronak, telling him to meet us in the abandoned house where he'd arranged the contract. We managed to get Lovidicus to the house without any guards taking notice, though we had to keep to the city's back alleyways for most of the way to keep him out of the worst of the sunlight, and waited there until night fell, and Agronak arrived.

Agronak entered the house breathing hard, as though he'd run all the way there from the Arena, and still sweaty from a training session. "You've done it, then?" he panted. "He's here? Show him to me!"

"All in good time," Lucien said, leading Lovidicus, still wrapped in the blanket, out of the shadows. "First, there is the matter of our payment to attend to."

"Of course. That's all you people care about, isn't it?" Agronak tossed a bulging leather pouch to the floor by Lucien's feet. The drawstring holding it shut loosened a little when it hit the ground, and pulled open just far enough to reveal a few gemstones, glittering in the moonlight. "Those should be worth a few thousand septims, to the right buyer. Does that cover it?"

Lucien lifted the pouch of the floor and tucked it away in his robes. If holding something so valuable had any effect on him, he didn't show it. "It will do." With a flourish, he flung the blanket off of Lovidicus. "Gray Prince, I present to you one Lord Lovidicus, and his vampiric affliction."

Lovidicus kept his eyes on the ground, his shoulders slumped in either shame or defeat. Compared to his son, he looked tiny and fragile, like a single gust of wind would turn him to dust and blow him away. Something on his cheeks glinted in the moonlight, and when a small, wet spot appeared on the stones by his feet, I realized they were tears. It was almost enough to make me feel a bit sorry for him. "M-my son…" he whispered. "It's really you."

"So you admit to being my father?" Agronak asked. "Don't think that makes up for the years you've spent denying me my birthright, old man. Save the crocodile tears for someone who cares."

"I denied you nothing, child." Lovidicus' head snapped up, leaning backward to look Agronak in the eye. "Had fate allowed it, I would have given you all I had to offer."

Agronak snorted. "Is that why you let your wife drive my mother away?"

"I did no such thing! In all the years I have walked this earth, never once have I married. I did nothing to drive your mother from my home; she left of her own accord, and sealed me in my chambers to ensure she was not followed. She stole you – my only child – away from me, denying me my rights as a father because I foolishly dared to reveal my true nature to her."

"Of course she left! How could anyone stay with a blood-sucking monster like you? You ruined her – she never trusted anyone after she left you – and you ruined me with your cursed blood!"

"Do you share in my curse, then? Doomed to live in shadow and sustain yourself on the vitality of others?"

"No! By Shinji, how could I have let myself live this long if I did? But I don't need to. Just… just knowing it's your curse that made me, that the same blood flows through my veins, even if it failed to turn me… That knowledge is a curse in itself."

Lovidicus took a step closer to Agronak. "My son… Had I known that the truth of your heritage would cause you such sorrow, I would never have allowed myself to be brought before you. I am sorry. Please, if there is any way I can make this up to you…"

"You can't. Nothing will ever fix this, old man. Nothing." Agronak sighed. "Knowing you didn't shun me on purpose is something, I guess, but it's too late for us to mean anything to each other, now. You can't change the past. It's time to move on."

"I… I see." Lovidicus backed away, shaking like a leaf, until he bumped into Lucien. "Perhaps it is time for me to go, then."

"Indeed it is," Lucien said, wrapping an arm around Lovidicus' waist to hold him in place. "Are you finished with him, Gray Prince?"

Agronak nodded. "I've seen enough. Let him go; death is too good for him."

"I'm afraid that isn't how this works. Blood must be spilled, or we have no contract. And as a contract has already been completed-"

"I don't care. Whatever your price is, I'll pay it, but I don't want him dead. Look at him, shaking in his boots and crying his wretched little eyes out! How am I supposed to get satisfaction out of watching him die? I don't care about revenge anymore; I just want to forget this."

"His death isn't meant to satisfy you; it is a tithe that must be paid to Sithis, for which there is no substitute."

Agronak put a hand on the hilt of his sword. "If you think I'm going to stand by and watch you slaughter a helpless man for the sake of your twisted little god…"

"But you already have." Before Agronak could so much as blink, Lucien unsheathed his shortsword and sliced Lovidicus' throat wide open.

Lovidicus lurched forward with a startled gurgle, his eyes wide and glassy, but Agronak caught him before he could hit the ground, falling to his knees along with his father. "What have you done?" he cried, holding his hand against Lovidicus' throat in a failed attempt to stop the bleeding.

"Exactly what you hired me to do. Don't act so surprised." Lucien took my hand and pulled me toward the door. "It's time we took our leave of you."

"I won't forget this!" Agronak called out after us. "You'll regret crossing the Gray Prince; I swear it on my father's grave!"