The first thing Serana could feel was the warm leathers heaped on top of her. She was sore, incredibly so for a vampire as her wounds would usually heal much faster than anyone mortal. Looking around, she could tell that she was inside. As for where, she couldn't really tell. The Nordic people were never ones for unique interior decoration. Her room was cramped, yet homely. The space may well be small, but it was clearly someone's home and shelter from the many issues that gripped the outside world. Trying to sit up, she found the task incredibly taxing and after a few seconds of wasted efforts, she fell back into the bed, breathing heavily.

Suddenly, the memory of what happened came rushing back and Serana began to panic as she remembered the creatures meaty fist wrapped around her neck. She absentmindedly stroked her neck with her fingers as she momentarily got lost in the memory. The nearby door opened and Serana watched as a armoured woman stepped into the room. She held a potion and spoon in her hand and Serana looked up to see a sneering face staring at her surrounded by a fiery mane of hair. Serana remembered her from the meeting, she was a Companion.

"Aela?"

The sneer on Aela's face twisted even more, almost like the sound of Serana mentioning the warriors name had left an utterly horrid taste in her mouth. Serana had met many people like her. She wasn't the first and she wouldn't be the last. Horik was one of a blessed few that never had that initial reaction to meeting her. She walked over closer to Serana and sat on the leathers beside her, trapping her beneath.

"Horik isn't here now. Asked us to look after you. Said you were attacked."

Serana watched the redhead tip the bottle ever so slightly, enticing the contents of the bottle to pour onto the spoon. Her instincts told her that there was something up, told her to run, but she knew with the other woman so close that it would require a lot more power and energy than she had.

"I could see that he was worried about you, and with him being our Harbinger, of course I jumped in to help him."

"Thank you."

"However, it wasn't until I had undressed you to take note of your wounds that Horik told me what you are, Blood-Sucker."

'Oh great…'

Mustering as much energy as she could, Serana flashed Aela with a fanged grin.

"You have nothing to worry about from me."

"Oh, I know. I'm not worried. If I thought you were a threat, I'd rip you limb from limb myself. I'd relish in the hunt of a royal vampire."

Serana found the strength somewhere to pull herself up from underneath the covers so that she would be looking at Aela eye-to-eye. One of the few good things that Valerica had taught her, never look up at your enemy.

"That's if I ever let you get close enough."

Aela flashed a wolfish grin herself before pushing the spoon towards Serana's mouth. The ageless vampire wasn't stupid, she refused to accept the unknown silver liquid.

"I told you that I am helping as it is my Harbinger's wish. This is only a potion of regeneration."

"Yeah, haven't heard that one before. Besides, my body can heal all wounds. Perk of being a Blood-Sucker, you see."

Aela recorked the bottle before her grin spread to her eyes. "I wouldn't be too sure about that…"

"What do you mean?"

Aela stood up and headed to leave the room, stopping at the door. "If I was you, I'd make sure you have no regrets. Doubt you'll be here much longer…" The door shut heavily.

Serana looked around the room before spotting the large body mirror sitting in the corner. Slowly, she pulled herself to the side of the bed, and steadily used the ancient strong oak frame to pull herself to her feet. Her body felt much to weak, and she felt almost blood starved. Staggering over towards the mirror, she was appalled at the state of herself. Her skin was paler than her usual milky white, her face, gaunt and sunken. If she was mortal, she would give herself hours at most. Her hands trailed from her face towards the tight cotton bandages wrapped around her chest. Slowly, the bandages fell away to reveal a massive open wound in the centre of her chest. Serana couldn't believe it. The wound shut have healed and shut, her regenerative powers having never failed her before now. Around the wound, her skin had turned almost obsidian black and was hot to the touch. Then in the middle she spotted her heart hanging in the centre, having not beaten once in a thousand years. Serana was beyond terrified. She fell back onto the bed.

"Am I dying?"

"When did these attacks start happening?"

Horik was standing over a map of Whiterun hold, marked with the recent attacks of the cult of Molag Bal. They seemed to be spreading across the hold like a wildfire, swallowing everything they came across with a ruthless efficiency. When Aela took over Serana's care, Horik sent word to both Riften and Dawnstar to see if anyone had any similar occurrences or if they had heard anything. Neither Brynjolf or Nazir had any news, but they swore they would keep an ear to the ground and report back if anything changes. Vilkas was leaning against the table, just as confused as the Harbinger was, with the frequency and ferociousness of the attacks.

Vilkas tapped his chin as he thought. "They have increased in number in the past few days but we first heard about them a number of months ago."

Horik lifted his eyes from the map to look his lieutenant in the eyes. "Can you be a little more precise by any chance?"

"Four months if I remember correctly. Midyear's Eve."

Horik thought about it himself for a moment before he realised something. Leaning against the table beside Vilkas, Horik began to massage his temples. Just as he was about to share his thoughts with the room, Aela walked into the room.

"Our guest is awake. She- "

Surprising everyone except Aela, Serana then walked into the room. Farkas and Vilkas were none the wiser, and Aela didn't care, but Horik immediately picked up on her incredibly poor appearance.

"-is up and moving."

Without making his feelings towards her immediately obvious to everyone in the room, Serana herself included, Horik walked towards her and helped her sit down in the chair beside him before going back to his original position beside the table.

"I was going to say looks like a corpse. Smells like one too." Serana and Aela glared daggers at each other from across the room. No one wanted to get between them.

Horik turned towards Serana. "It can't be a coincidence that around the time we vanquished your father, that groups of Molag Bal fanatics started travelling through Skyrim causing havoc and chaos."

"I agr- "Serana began to cough. It was an incredibly violent affair that shook the vampire's entire body. Horik dashed from the room and returned a moment later with a cup of water to help ease Serana's pain. Even though Horik knew Serana didn't need his help and was more than capable of taking care of herself and him, this rapid decline scared him a lot more than he felt comfortable sharing. After a few minutes, she began to bring her coughing fit under control and slowly took the cup from Horik's outstretched hands. Serana drank deeply until the cup was empty and Horik took it back, placing it beside him.

"Can you remember anything about the person who attacked you? Who did he claim fealty to?"

"Well, I couldn't see anyone under the armour, but I remember he said something to Boeithiah before he tried to turn me into a bracelet…"

"Boeithiah? As in one of those Daedric lords?"

Aela fell into an empty chair. "The very same Ice-brain."

Horik tapped his chin for a moment. "I've never seen anything like this before. Can you travel?"

Serana coughed again into her fist. "Yes, I think I can. Why?"

"I think we need to go and petition a Daedric Lord."

Horik walked behind Serana as they travelled towards Boeithiah's Shrine. While he usually took point during their many adventures, he couldn't help himself from keeping an eye on her. He remembered that when they left Jorvasskr, her head was held higher and her face more business like than she usually would, and he knew she was in much more pain than she was letting on.

"You know I'm not made of glass…"

"I know you're not but I'm not going to lie and say that I'm not scared for you Serana."

Serana gave a wheezy laugh. "First time I've ever had someone worry about me. Usually, people are just worried what side of the chess board I'm on."

"I thought we were already fully aware of how much of a bastard Harkon was."

"I'm afraid you can't sum up over a millennium of 'bastardness' in just a couple months. Could take another thousand years."

Horik laughed for a second before Serana fell to her knees in another bout of coughs. It was clear that she was growing weaker by the hour as she shook violently in a pile on the ground. Pulling a concoction from his pack, Horik pulled the cork from the top of the bottle with his teeth and held it out for Serana to take. It was a small homebrewed poultice that mixed a blood potion and a potion of regeneration. Her chest wound had mostly shut, but the black puss that was around the edge of the wound seemed to almost be eating away at her body. The blood potion was to help keep her vampiric abilities from eating away from the little energy her body had left. After a couple of minutes, the coughing finally started to subside and Serana pulled her hand away from her mouth. Horik watched her eyes widen before she opened her palm out to show Horik. Blood splattered across her palm; Horik watched fear blaze in her eyes.

"That's never happened before."

Horik felt his body change and transform as his inner wolf came to the surface. He helped Serana climb up onto his back and sprinted for the Shrine. On more than one occasion they had run across bandits and rouge wizards that had hit him with arrows and various magics, but he ignored them because he knew he had to get to the shrine quickly before Serana died.

Spotting the Shrine, Horik ran straight for the spire at it's peak. Boeithiah's cultists had started to advance on the spire in an effort to clear out those who seemed to be uninvited to their ladies shrine but as soon as Horik changed back, they all left their champion to whatever task he was attempting to do.

"BOEITHIAH!"

Silence was his only answer as his dragon blood unintentionally boosted the scream into the very heavens. One of the cultists walked up and pressed the back of his hand to Serana's forehead. At this point, the wound had begun to spread throughout Serana's body and her veins had turned an eerie black that contrasted her milk white skin in a beautiful and yet equally horrifying way.

"Champion, why have you brought a child of Molag Bal to the shrine of Lady Boeithiah?"

"I wish to petition the Lady to save her."

"I'm afraid that's not possible. It appears she has been inflicted with Boeithiah's touch. Being that she is a Daughter of Coldharbour, The Lady's power overcomes that of Lord Bal. It is fatal within a day."

Not wishing to waste anymore time with the cultist, Horik turned his attention back to the sky, screaming for the Daedric Prince to hear him.

"Champion, if you truly wish to talk with our Lady, she requires a sacrifice of powerful blood."

Without a wasted second, Horik stood at the precipice of the spire and pulling a dagger from his waist, ran the blade across his arm, allowing the torrent of blood to run along the floor. The channels that ran along the spire ran red with blood and the spire began to thrum with daedric power before a figure appeared before him. The cultist fell to his feet, chanting a mantra of prayers towards her.

"Ah, the child of Akatosh. I hear that you wish to petition me for something."

"Yes, my Lady. Remove the curse from my companion. She is faultless."

Boeithiah walked over to Serana who was curled into a ball on the floor. Clicking her tongue in disgust, she walked back to the spire.

"Faultless? I think not. A daughter of Coldharbour is a 'boon' that my idiotic brother grants to those who do incredible and unspeakable horrors in his name. The vampire will die."

"It was her father and mother that dragged her into it. Her parents petioned Molag Bal when they grew too greedy to the draw of power. She is haunted by the horrors that she watched her parents inflict over the centuries and she even helped me fight back against her father when he wished to use Akatosh's bow to block out the sun. She has tried to undo the horrors of this world. She doesn't deserve to die."

"Blocking out the sun? No doubt a ploy of my brother, whispered into the ears of his followers in an effort to get them to do his bidding…"

"Lady Boeithiah, please help her."

"I'm sorry Son of Akatosh, There is no way to stop the curse now. My touch is there to destroy Molag Bal's influence on Nirn. Being a Pure-Blooded Vampire, her body has been touched by my brother's disgusting influence."

Horik balled his fists in defiance. "Is there truly nothing we can do?"

"Well, there is only one solution in which I can see. We can save the girl by eliminating the Vampire. She will have to become mortal once again."

"What?"

"My touch will remove my brother's touch from her body. If you truly wish to save your companion, we will have to try and stop my brother from claiming her soul along with it."

"I- I can't make that decision for her."

Horik turned as the cool Skyrim air was filled with Serana's shrill screams as her body tried to overcome the daedric magic. She began to twist, seize, and the decision was made.

"Lady Boeithiah, do it."

"Very well Son of Akatosh. Bring her over to the spire. It is my conduit to the mortal realm and where my influence is at its most powerful."

Horik gingerly lifted Serana up off the ground as she continued to twist and turn in his arms. Placing her on the ground at Boeithiah's feet, Horik pressed a kiss to her clammy forehead before stepping back. Boeithiah held her arms out over Serana's body and began to chant in a language that Horik couldn't understand. After a few nerve-wracking seconds her body began to calm before it lifted off the ground to roughly the height of Horik's waist.

A cultist came running up the hill towards the spire. "Champion! An army of Molag Bal's faithful are marching on the Shrine!" They hugely outnumber us!"

"No doubt an attempt by my brother to stop our attempts at taking what he thinks is his. He will try all he can to stop this, using anything and anyone at his disposal to destroy this shrine and my conduit to Nirn. This will be a bloody battle Dovahkiin. Are you up to it?"

Horik looked at Serana one last time before he pulled his sword and axe from his belt. "By my word, nothing will touch you both."

"Very well Son of Akatosh. I bid you good luck."

With that, Boeithiah resumed her dead muttering and Horik watched as beams of light shone from every orifice. Turning to the open valley, Horik stared up at the moon overhead and gave a powerful howl. He will get his back-up. Now it was simply a question on keeping Bal at bay until they arrived.