Not as it Seemed

Vilkas shut his eyes. She felt cold in his arms. Vilkas took a deep, steadying breath. He had failed her, his newest shield-sister. If he managed to get out of the caves alive and she was – she wasn't with him, what could he say to Farkas? To any of them? He should have retreated to Whiterun to regroup with the others, he had known it was dangerous to camp and wait but he hadn't wanted to risk losing the vamires' tail. He had wanted them eliminated as quickly as possible so that she – the Companions – would be safe from them.

Vilkas opened his eyes to see that Everlee had once again closed hers. Her breathing was shallow and he shook her to rouse her once more but this time she didn't respond. He shook her a little harder. Still nothing.

"You can't do this," he told her, disliking the fear he heard in his voice. "Stay. Wake up." She still didn't move. "Why don't you ever listen?"

It was then that he heard loud noise coming from the direction they had fled the vampire leader. At first he assumed it was the the rest of his minions come to pry them from the rubble and he didn't care. He was desperate to get her out. If they could free them, if they could save her, he didn't care what came next.

But the more he heard the more he seemed to realize that the noise he heard was not that of someone coming forth to dig them out. It was the sound of warning shouts, of metal meeting metal and blasts of lightning. The vampires were under attack which meant one thing.

"Farkas!" Vilkas shouted to his brother, hoping someone would hear him.

He wasn't sure how long it would be before they had completely eradicated the vampires and then searched enough to find them down this tunnel and he knew Everlee didn't have the time to wait patiently. The cry for help had barely caused her to stir, a slight moan of pain coming from her lips which was still more welcoming than the stillness that had greeted him moments before.

"Farkas!" he yelled again. "Aela! Kodlak! Somebody! Farkas!"

"I'm here brother!" he heard a responding shout. "Are you alright? Are you injured?"

"I am fine. But she needs help. Now."

"I will go find someone to help! Hold on!"

Vilkas took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart. Everlee's eyes fluttered open slightly.

"What's going on?" she wheezed, a quiet whisper.

"Help is coming. You're going to be fine. We're going to be fine," Vilkas assured her, making sure to keep his voice steady.

She smiled slightly. "Glad I didn't...kill you after all...like you always thought."

Vilkas said nothing, clamping his jaw tight as her eyes began to droop.

"No, stay awake, Everlee," he said.

"I like it when you say my name," she said, clearly drifting away from consciousness. "Especially when...you're not...angry."

"Stay awake then, Everlee, stay awake," he said.

But her eyes shut as he began rocking her back and forth, quickly. "Stay awake, Everlee, stay awake. Everlee?"

The breton made quiet noise, indicating she wasn't completely out yet so he continued to rock her quickly, repeating her name again and again as he heard his brother and whoever he had brought with him began to dig them out. The noise she made to indicate she was still hearing him stopped and he felt a stab of panic as the first rock fell and he could see his twin lifting the heaviest rocks away from them as Aela instructed him and Njada as to which pieces to remove in what order.

When they were finally free, Vilkas got to his feet but his legs were unsteady underneath him. He began to descend from the rockfall, not bothering with thanks or asking whether or not the vampires had been taken care of as he began to exit the caves.

Farkas and Aela quickly caught up to him, showing how weak he had become in the last several weeks while caged. He needed to move faster, he needed to get his shield-sister to a healer. Behind him he heard Njada run off in a different direction.

"Brother, what happened?" Farkas asked, concern clear in his voice.

"I have potions if she -"

"It won't work. They are old injuries, she has to see a healer," Vilkas said, determinedly.

Vilkas stumbled over nothing, his right leg shooting pain which he ignored, his injury having reopened during the cave collapse.

"You're bleeding," Aela noted. "You should -"

"Later," he said.

"Vilkas!" Aela said, as if reprimanding a child.

"Later."

"Brother, you don't look -"

"I'm fine," he snapped.

"You aren't going fast enough to save her," Aela said. Vilkas stopped abruptly to glare at her. Before he could speak, she continued. "Let Farkas take her. He can move faster and his horse is just outside the cave entrance. If you want her to live."

Vilkas's lip twitched slightly. Then he looked down at her before turning to his brother. He would not allow his pride to kill her now. Aela was right, even though it was his fault for their capture and thus his duty to see her to safety, he wasn't in a fit position to do so. Farkas leaned down, taking the Breton in his arms like he had on the day they met.

"I'm glad you're safe, brother," Farkas said earnestly before bounding ahead of them and out of sight.

"Most Vampire were dead when Farkas found us," Aela informed him.

Vilkas nodded as they began walking through the tunnels, collecting bodies to bring to the central chamber. The older vampires didn't dust so easily, they would need to be burned to be on the safe side. The younger ones were nothing but piles of ashes.

"Are you truly alright?" Aela asked.

Vilkas grunted, "I will see a healer when we are through here."

"What happened?" she asked him.

"I failed. I should have returned to Whiterun to meet with the rest of you, but I did not want to risk losing them. I was on watch when they cornered us with Illusion spells. Still, she would have gotten away if I hadn't been shot," he explained.

Aela didn't speak for a moment. When she next asked a question, her voice was gentle as he had not heard it in years, "And while you were here?"

Vilkas dumped a body on top of the pile before meeting her eyes. "I am fine, sister. They did not touch me."

She sighed. "That is a relief," Aela admitted. "And I shall not complain about that good fortune. But then the question is: why?"

Truthfully Vilkas hadn't considered his good circumstances. The bad blood between werewolves and vampires was nothing new. It was an age old feud, especially in Skyrim. The only time either group kept the other alive was for information, bait, or torture. They had not tortured him or demanded information from him and if they had been ransoming him they would have anticipated the possibility of attack. But given how completely unprepared they had been to handle the attack they had not been after that either.

"I...do not know," he answered. "They left me in the cage. Everlee claimed they had planned on killing me before we escaped."

He could still hear her voice begging him to leave her and run, telling him she would be a burden to him. Not because she wanted to stay, but because she was sure he would fail with her at his side. Vilkas had pressed her on this. Even if she had enjoyed the time she spent with the bloodsuckers and had changed her mind in regards to becoming one of them, he had considered dragging her out of there against her will.

When he had discovered the reason behind her reluctance and that she hadn't wanted to stay, he had determined not to leave her behind. As she lay gravely injured in his arms she had still insisted she didn't want to become a vampire.

But that went against logic. If she didn't want to be a vampire, if she didn't like them feeding from her, then she had lied to him. Which meant...

Which meant she had been protecting him, again. Just as she had done instinctively the day they met when she had thrown herself at him to push him out of the way of a giant. At the time he had seen that as a rash, stupid decision. She had injured herself and could have gotten herself killed, either from the giant or his sword. He'd been irritated. It had been Kodlak that had pointed out that it was likely his pride hurting that made him judge her so. He had failed and she had saved his life, and that admittedly had made him uncomfortable.

And he had failed again, and again she had saved his life. They had used him as bait, to keep Everlee complacent. The moment she found out they had planned to kill him she had devised a method to escape. She had somehow swiped the key from the vampire's belt despite being ill and the creature's heightened sense of awareness. He still remembered how irritated Njada had been the night she returned to Jorrvaskr, in heavy armor, and had sneaked into bed completely unnoticed by any of them.

So despite her claiming that she was the obstacle to his escape it appeared that perhaps it had been the other way around all along. And she could be dead right now.

Vilkas shut his eyes, his fists tightening.

"Vilkas?" Aela asked.

"It's me," he said. "It's my fault."

"What are you talking about?"

"They kept me as bait to keep her here," Vilkas said.

"There were over thirty of them. They did not need to keep you for that purpose," she assured him.

"Didn't they?" Vilkas asked. "Then tell me why else they would keep me alive and unharmed for so long."

"Perhaps they intended to ransom you," she said.

"And lead you to their doorstep? That has not turned out well for them."

"Then as an experiment?" she began. "The leader was on his way here. If it hadn't been for your absence, we would have waited longer to ambush him."

"I...no. They were going to kill me, that's why she got the key. If they had planned on experimenting on me, then they would have done so before that. No, they thought she was beaten down from the life-drain and thought they had no further use for me, that she would remain whether I was here or not."

"It still seems odd. Do you think she truly could have escaped if not for you?" Aela asked him. "That they could have known that?"

"They had dark magic. It is possible they could have seen something like that in her. She got the key from one of their leaders the day she knew she needed it. She sneaked into Jorvaskr in heavy armor. Perhaps...perhaps there is more to her than meets the eye," Vilkas said.

Aela sighed. "It doesn't matter. If the situation had been reversed, you would have done the same."

"If I hadn't been here -"

"She would be dead or a vampire. We saw the report on the first camp," she reminded him. "You are too hard on yourself."

"Now you sound like Farkas," Vilkas said, irritated.

"Well the peanut-brain isn't wrong all the time," she said. Before Vilkas could defend his twin, Aela was ahead of him, "You know it was a joke. Do not feel so personally responsible for everything."

Vilkas rolled his eyes which reminded him of Everlee. He needed to see if she had made it back to Whiterun, to see if she would be alright.

"Let's finish up here," he said. "These leeches are starting to stink."

Author's Note: Luckily I wrote ahead as this chapter comes to you via a hospital room. Hopefully this helps you forgive me for that six month absence! Enjoy.