A/N: Oh, and a special note to you, 1- no, I'm not really loosing my momentum, and don't worry, I take no offense. Actually, I had been kinda wondering the same thing about myself. What it is, it's a mixture of the school year coming to a close, my senior project, and stressing about finals. Now that it's almost all done, I'm cooling off a lot better, so I'm able to get back to working on my stories again. Don't worry, I'll be working on the TR/SR one soon, too. Speaking of which, I need to go do a review response for it . . .
After Ker'orin had left, Raziel quietly told her what had happened after they had fought. Shay'Telnira didn't say anything, but there was the ominous sound of her knuckles cracking as she pressed her fingers tightly to her palms to restrain herself. There was a long time of silence, then a polite knock at the door. The brothers had left their seats and all leaned against the walls near the door, waiting. Melchiah sat in a chair next to Shay'Telnira, and Shay'Telnira had moved her chair to face the door. The door opened and Tyrastan came in, blinking curiously at Shay'Telnira.
"Shay, how come you didn't show up and sent Ker'orin to get me? Were you going to be late?"
Her eyes narrowed as she looked up at him. She pushed forward the book and let her hand fall into her lap again.
" . . . Well? . . ."
He stared at it, eyes wide, then glanced back up at her.
"Shay, you don't understand—"
"Oh, I think I understand 'parasites' and 'vermin' pretty well!"
Tyrastan looked for a moment at a loss for words, then shook his head furiously, saying, "It must be some sort of practical joke they're playing! I would never write that about them! You know how much the Treaty means to all of us! They must have gotten a hold of it and written it."
Shay'Telnira let out a short bark of bitter laughter. "Tyr . . . no, Tyrastan of the House of Glass, they could not have written it. The journal was written in Draconic, and they have only recently begun learning the language."
"Yeah!" agreed Melchiah, who held up a sign to Tyrastan that read, "U bee jerck!"
"Not to mention their spelling is atrocious," she added as she saw the sign. The other brothers chuckled at their youngest brother's sign, and Shay'Telnira stood slowly, anger radiating from her form.
"You should never have written that about these vampires, Tyrastan, and should certainly have never left it where one of us could find it."
He blinked in surprise, shocked into saying, "That's what you're angry about?! I would have thought you were pissed because I had said some . . . rather rude comments about you, and I am terribly sorry, Shay, there is no way for me to make up for such statements—"
She held a hand up to stop him. "There is nothing you could say about me that would make me this angry. What made me furious was how you viewed and treated my friends!"
Tyrastan choked. "You . . . would claim friendship with these . . . leeches?!"
Shay'Telnira lashed out with a closed fist, slamming her gem-hard knuckles against his cheek. Tyrastan, not expecting the assault, landed on his rear, Shay'Telnira glaring down at him, flames beginning to lick across her wings.
"How I could have not seen through your act, you arrogant, egotistical, dim-witted and narrow minded imbecile, I will never know! But you had better pray to the Pillars that I DO NOT see you again!"
Tyrastan jumped to his feet and started to advance toward Shay'Telnira, but Raziel stepped between them. A new target to focus his anger on, Tyrastan hissed down at him.
"Get out of my way."
"No," Raziel responded calmly. In a swift movement faster than the eye could follow, Tyrastan backhanded the vampire, sending him stumbling back against Shay'Telnira, who in turned slammed back into the wall. The male dragon raced across the room and dove out the open window, translucent wings grabbing the air as he settled down on the ground. Immediately, the brothers jumped out of the window after him except Raziel who hastily brushed himself off and helped Shay'Telnira to her feet. He, in turn, dove out the window, and Shay'Telnira stayed close to him. The vampire quickly lost her as he slid in and out of the shadows as if he was one of them, and she traveled through the city, following her instinct more than anything else.
The brothers fanned through the city, hunting the dragon-male, working in a silent tandem that never existed in normal day-to-day affairs. Near the edge of the city, close to the gates that kept the dragons in and the creatures of the planet out, Raziel found Tyrastan. The dragon-male hissed as fiercely as any vampire might at seeing his rival, and glanced around for a weapon. The guards had been training out here the past few days, and they had left their dueling staves, believing them to be safe in these lands. Tyrastan kicked the end of one so it flipped up into his hand, and he looked up to see Raziel had retrieved one as well.
"So, little leech, it seems I'll be able to finish you off, at least, and that will comfort me."
"You speak with such assurance that you will win," Raziel shot back disdainfully. "Yet all the things you have showed me about yourself would make even the worst cowards and thieves look like martyrs of virtue."
"Ah, your words pour from your silvered tongue like honey, brat, but while it may woo Shay, it will never work on me. Killing you will be the most rewarding thing I have ever done."
"You're life must be full of disappointments if killing me is the most rewarding thing, considering you will not be able to do it. But indulge me. Just what have I done to earn such ire?"
Tyrastan laughed bitterly. "I know what you want of Shay, what you feel for her, and she will always be mine. If that means destroying you to get her, so be it."
Before Raziel could even inquire as to what Tyrastan was babbling about, the male dragon swung the staff around and Raziel had to shove any thoughts into the back of his head but self-preservation. He exchanged blows with the dragon-male, but Tyrastan was quickly battering down the vampire's defenses. Tyrastan grinned cruelly down at the vampire as they stood, weapons slammed against one another, pressing against each other's strength.
"No human would ever be able to stand up to you, leech, but you must keep in mind: I'm not a human. And while you may be trained in the art of war, I am several centuries your elder, and we are trained from hatching to fight!"
Tyrastan smashed through the vampire's guard and sent him slamming into the nearby wall, leaving a crater around his body. Raziel shook his head, trying to brush off the dizzy spell that ran over his eyes, as Tyrastan walked toward him, chuckling malevolently.
Abruptly, something landed on his shoulders and began hitting him repeatedly over his head. Tyrastan hissed and threw his body around, dislodging the offending assailant. The being sailed through the air and slammed into one of the building walls, and to his surprise, began to cry. His eyes narrowed as he recognized the youngest of the brothers.
"Hey!" another voice called. Tyrastan's head whipped around to see the other brothers had emerged from the darkness, each holding a weapon. Dumah stood at the front, pointing at Tyrastan with his staff.
"Those are our eldest and youngest brothers, and only we can beat on them!"
Turel moved up next to his younger brother, magic beginning to crackle across his claws.
"You pick a fight with them, you pick a fight with all of us."
The dragon-male heard a sound behind him and glanced over his shoulder to see Raziel standing slowly, a very heartless smile on his face.
"Family, Tyr. That is why they can be better than us. They hold a better sense of family than we ever could."
Tyrastan looked up at the familiar voice as Shay'Telnira walked out of one of the alleys toward them. Her arms were crossed, and she glared at the errant House lord. She stooped and scooped up Melchiah whose crying smoothed out to sniffles in the dragon's arms. The vampires shifted and began to circle him slowly. Tyrastan realized he wouldn't see the end of the night if things continued unchanged. One or two of the brats he could take, but all six he knew he couldn't handle. He looked up at Shay'Telnira pleadingly.
"Shay, please, you can't let them kill me! There are too few of us as it is! And as the Empress' daughter, you're bound to help us, to keep all dragons safe!"
Shay'Telnira sighed and the brothers looked at her askance before she stated simply, "Yes, you're right. But I don't have to come to the rescue if I don't know there's a dragon in trouble, do I?"
Tyrastan's eyes widened. "Shay! No! Even you aren't that cruel!"
She shook her head. "No, I'm not. But you attacked one of the ambassadors of the vampires, and they demand their own justice, not one of ours. So what happens to you is beyond my control."
Melchiah dropped out of her arms, tears gone, a hungry look in his eyes, the young child gone to be replaced by the scheming malevolence of a vampire. Shay'Telnira turned and walked away, her fingers plugging her ears so she couldn't hear the battle taking place. In mere moments, the shuffling ceased and Shay'Telnira stood, waiting for the vampires to return.
Melchiah was the first to come back to her, and she quickly sat as he barely kept from toppling over, apparently very tired. She pulled the youngest into her lap and gently rubbed away a bit of blood still at the corner of his mouth. It took only a few minutes more before the other brothers came back. She smiled, recognizing the sleeping expression on all their faces. Dragon blood was thick with potent power and energy, and lulled a vampire into a dreamy, very contented state. Rahab and Zephon both settled down and used her legs as pillows. Dumah sat down behind her and propped up his back against hers, and Turel did the same at a more diagonal angle to give his more physically oriented brother more room. Raziel was the last to drop down next to her, and he leaned heavily against her shoulder, his head dropping against it. She slid an arm out and looped it gently over his shoulders and smiled down at her vamplings.
"Shay," a voice reproached. Shay'Telnira winced and looked up to meet the annoyed eyes of the Empress. Kain stood next to her, looking down at his children, then walked swiftly toward the fight scene to see the havoc they had caused. He returned after a moment as the Empress weighed her daughter with her eyes, and Kain's face was a blank as ever except for a single small, proud smile. His sons were beginning to excel in their training, it seemed.
The Empress finally sighed and broke her gaze of her daughter.
"His father will have to be told. We need to call a Council to discuss just what we're going to do, and how this is going to effect the Treaty."
Shay'Telnira's eyes widened at the thought of the Treaty being threatened, but her mother had already turned to Kain.
"Would you do something about your children, please? We can't leave them out here for the sun to find them, and I doubt Shay would like to serve as a pillow all night."
"I'm okay with it," Shay'Telnira broke in. Both adults glanced back at her, and she immediately shut up and looked back at Melchiah in her lap. She studied the faces of each of her vamplings in turn, smiling at them all.
Suddenly, she looked up and found Kain's yellow cat-slit eyes dangerously close to hers. She nearly jerked back in surprise, but remembered her charges and forced herself to sit still. A smirk tugged the corner of the vampire lord's lips.
"I am going to teleport my children and you back to your room. Do you understand?"
"Of course, my Lord," Shay'Telnira answered formally. Kain nodded once, concentrated a moment, then a white light that contained multicolored fragments surrounded her form and she, along with the vampires, vanished. Kain stood and met the Empress' gaze a moment.
"It was necessary."
"I know," she sighed. She turned to the shadows. "Why didn't you help?"
A soft chuckle came from the darkness. "I didn't need to. The vampires had it all covered themselves." Ker'orin stepped out where his Empress could see him.
"His father's not going to take this well," the Empress sighed, "so it would be wonderful if you could . . . perhaps find some way to make it easier for him? Make him see that it was for the better of us all that we found out."
"Yes, my Empress," Ker'orin bowed slightly before giving a flap of his wings and shot up into the air. Both rulers watched him go for a long moment before looking back at the other again. Kain held his arm out and the Empress chuckled as she took it. Magic surrounded the two as they returned back to the castle.