Chapter Thirteen

"Serana!" Screamed Yosa'Min, pounding at the ash green back of the vampire that was carrying her away into the marsh, monstrous wings beating as fast as they could with a mighty tear through the right, "Serana let me go! I have to go back!" Still the Vampire Lord refused to listen, the redguard struggling to get free but there was no escaping Serana's grip. Cringing in pain at the pressure Serana was exerting to keep her from escaping, Yosa'Min was starting to find breathing painful and hard. Suddenly she was dropped onto her rear, splashing into a shallow pool of marsh water, Serana's body shuddering as it started to transform to that of her normal form.

Yosa'Min watched from the water with a mixture of awe and disgusted fascination as bones popped into place, ears and fingers morphed as ragged wings seemed to go back into her body when they hadn't been there whatsoever before. The vampire shrunk a good three feet, returning to her middle five foot range, and she swayed as rivulets of red faded. "Ouch..." Muttered Serana, holding a hand to her brow as she tried to steady herself, clutching a nearby tree branch to keep from falling into the water as well. Every bit of her body ached, but she couldn't tell if it was the usual soreness from transforming, or wounds from the fight with the mortals taking its toll.

"Serana..." Yosa'Min said tightly, rising to her feet. Blinking up at her as the world refocused, Serana nodded her head mutely. "What in Oblivion was that?"

"I..." Serana paled with horrified realization, her hand dropping slightly to about her mouth, "I didn't tell you about that, not yet anyways, no..."

"Serana," Yosa'Min said more forcefully, stepping towards her, the nord taking a step back on instinct. "What in Oblivion was that!"

Shaking her head to try to send away the fog the transformation left, Serana started to speak, "It's an ability of ours, as you're of my clan by blood anyways, and it... It's a more powerful form but at the cost of a part of our control of ourselves."

Eyes narrowed at the words, Yosa'Min scowling. "Is that why you attacked my friends so violently! You nearly killed Lydia!" The redguard shoved her a bit. "And then you just took me like some trophy!"

Instantly Serana scowled back, pushing her in return and Yosa'Min nearly stumbled backwards into the marsh. "I didn't know they were your friends what did you expect! And you didn't listen to me, you came back!"

Yosa'Min scowled in return, stepping towards her once more. There was hardly a few inches between them, voices raising with growing anger. "Because I was worried for you!"

"I can handle myself." Serana retorted.

"You got locked away for centuries, doesn't look like that to me!" Yosa'Min threw a hand to the side. "Why did you take me away from them? I know you were trying to defend us but they hadn't even attacked us! We could have tried something else, you could have at least let me look!"

Hissing now, Serana grasped her by her wrist and moved her towards the nearest tree, pressing her back against it before the redguard could resist. Serana filled the entirely of Yosa'Min's vision, the fledgling stiffening with alarm as she felt the wrath of her sire. She wouldn't lie for a moment about fearing Serana's strength despite her not looking as strong as she generally was in that moment. With this new revealed transformation, the redguard suddenly didn't feel like stepping on any of her vampiric toes. "I did what I did because I want to protect you, to keep you safe," she said with a low growling tone. "If I'd let you see them, what would you have done? Run out there like a fool forgetting what you were? Telling them you were alive and safe and thinking for a few short moments that you could have them back?"

"I wouldn't-"

"Yes, you would have."

Yosa'Min clamped her mouth shut for a change, trying to avert her eyes to avoid the burning orange fury before her, but Serana had made that impossible. All she was met with was the elder vampire's frustration and rage. "It is my duty to keep you safe," Serana continued, "don't for a second think otherwise. That is all I wanted, and that is all I'm trying to do. I wasn't trying to kill your friends and keep your for myself or whatever crazy reasons you've come up with."

Yosa'Min gave a slightly guilty whimper, pressing into the damp wood of the tree in an attempt to move away from Serana but to no avail. "I told you before, you can't go back to your old life, and now it's just up and walked in on you." Serana frowned as she let up a bit more, trying not to scare the redguard into hating her. She winced with pain as her wounds started to make themselves known to her once more, but she ignored them for now. If she didn't say this now, who knew what would happen. "They have to be left in the past Yosa'Min, for all your sakes."

"I can't just do that though, not that they know I'm alive now." Yosa'Min shook her head rapidly. "My family isn't the type to give up, much less so when something like this happens."

Sighing, Serana stepped back and granted the Dragonborn breathing room once more. "Then we have to get to my clan pronto, it's the only place we can be sure they won't find you," she said, cringing again as the pain surged. Adrenaline wearing off, every scrape and bruise was starting to show. Pressing a hand to her left side, Serana stumbled as she found herself unable to stand much longer.

"Serana?" Yosa'Min rushed to keep her from falling, and helped her sit down, leaning her against a half rotten tree stump. "What's wrong?" Anger faded away to concern in a moment's notice.

Breathing starting to come faster, the nord pulled the hand back to see it stained crimson, blood soaking right through the corset and cloth of her outfit. "Blast..." Muttered Serana, her head growing lighter. "Those friends of your's sure can put up a fight," she half-joked, only to get a serious scowl in return for the effort.

Instantly Yosa'Min was holding her hands up and muttering the incantations for the strongest healing spell she knew, when Serana simply shook her head, and lowered them with a grim look on her face. "Yosa'Min... It... Doesn't work that way for us," she gingerly tried to explain.

"What? How then?" The fledgling asked swiftly, distress making her hands shake. What had just happened no longer mattered, furious about it she might have been, because for the redguard Serana was all she had now. It was a fact she had accepted, because there was no way that her loved ones would ever truly accept or care for her the same when they saw those glinting fangs or glowing eyes, Yosa'Min was certain of it. A bottomless pit formed in her chest, swallowing everything within as she began to think that Serana might have just been wounded gravely by someone she cared for.

Serana took in a short gasping breath as uncomfortably hot pain surged up her. "Must have been using silver," she hissed with annoyance, almost as if she hadn't heard what Yosa'Min had said at first. "We're undead in a sense Yosa'Min," she muttered, eyes lowering from a furrowed brow and blazing eyes to a dark neck. "The only thing that really heals us fast enough, is blood."

The redguard tucked her chin a bit, eyes downcast as she realized just what Serana was asking. "Is that our only option at this point?" She didn't want to lose the only one who could help her, and undeniably she was concerned for Serana despite what had just happened, but the implications of the act were staggering. "You said that it was fairly..."

"Intimate?" Serana filled in the word when the redguard had sheepishly trailed off. "It is, but, we don't really have much of a choice. I'm not sure who did this to me, probably the imperial or the redhead, but it's too much for me to stop it on my own."

"How did you not notice this earlier," Yosa'Min quickly asked, nervously moving the torn clothing to inspect the gushing wound, "you know, like when you were carrying me off into the wild?" The thick aroma of the vampire before her made her head spin for a moment before she restrained herself.

"The transformation numbs me to most pain, why do you think I became essentially unstoppable? But, being numb to pain doesn't mean you're not getting hurt," Serana snapped a bit, another spasm of pain erupting up her body, "Now please, can you help me? Because this feels like my insides are on fire." Her legs were moving as waves of pain grew stronger. "Yosa'Min!" She urged as the Yosa'Min seemed to freeze.

Yosa'Min nodded her head, snapping out of the thoughts and scents and got on her knees, shuffling towards the nord swiftly. "How do we do this? Do I-" She was cut short as the elder vampire reached out desperately the moment permission was given, and pulled the Dragonborn onto her lap, nuzzling against her neck to where the pair of bite marks from her turning remained. The redguard stiffened with alarm, the memory of the rather violent changing resurfacing.

Serana ran one hand down Yosa'Min's back, stroking gently to try to reassure the Dragonborn while the other held her close between her shoulder blades. "Relax..." She cooed as gently as she could into the redguard's ear, despite being her voice wavering with pain it worked and the tension in the redguard's body lessened. Otherwise it would have hurt Yosa'Min quite a bit, and she didn't want to scare her away from the prospect. Serana bit down, far more tender than before as this time she had control of herself, and a pleasurable pain filled the Dragonborn. Yosa'Min gave a low moan, eyelids fluttering closed as the nord continued, one of the feeding vampire's hands curled into the small of Yosa'Min's back and pressed her against Serana.

The nord murmured faintly, the pain in her side fading the longer she fed. The redguard tasted like nothing she'd ever had before, a blazing passionate tang that threatened to overwhelm her. If she could liken it to anything properly, it might have just been drinking melted gold, and it was driving her crazy for more. The elder vampire's grip on her tightened some the more she drank from the woman's neck, chest bursting with lust and hunger. All she wanted was more and more of Yosa'Min, and she was determined to get it.

The redguard had long since wrapped her arms around Serana, stuck between the tree and the nord, finding something to anchor herself with. "Divines..." Muttered Yosa'Min as the mix of pain and pleasure grew unbearable. The sensations burned out from where Serana's fangs were buried in her, webbing across the rest of her body and making shocks jolt from between her legs. The redguard's head was swimming with conflicting feelings, trying to figure out if she really liked it or not. Caught up in the moment, she could hardly tell where lines were crossed and remained untouched. There was something utterly intoxicating about the entire ordeal, a dark kind of sexy that was making Yosa'Min melt beneath Serana's fangs. Biting her lip to contain herself, Yosa'Min closed her eyes and shuddered, want bubbling up inside her.

Just before the redguard would have done something to further the already intimate scene between them, Serana gingerly released the Dragonborn who whimpered in response. Serana remained nuzzled against her for a long moment, taking in slow breaths and staring at where she'd marked the woman a second time. It was almost pride worthy, a feeling she couldn't quite place rising in her chest. The redguard hadn't moved either, trying to catch her breath and swim out of the pleasurable haze that had practically drowned her, slowly reeling herself in on top of the nord. Before either of them could exactly realize the wounds were closed and Serana had been healed, Serana slowly licked the last bits of blood that was rising up to the surface of dark skin, gaining a lusty moan from above that made the nord shudder.

At last Yosa'Min had control of herself, and she looked down to eyes that were a different kind of hungry. "Serana... I..." Whispered Yosa'Min as she released her, arms falling slightly to loop only around the nord's neck. "I don't..." Serana looked at her expectantly, hungrily, but the woman couldn't bring the words to pass her lips and instead slid off the other's lap. "How's the wound?" She asked, clearing her throat awkwardly.

A faint frown came to the nord's face, having to move past the desire she felt as the conversation shifted unexpectedly. She made no response until she had checked through the shredded tear in her armor. "Better," she smiled, looking back up, "thank you Yosa."

"Anything for my sire," replied Yosa'Min, ducking her head a bit. Serana did frown this time, before shaking it away with a gentle smile.

Serana tenderly reached out and took hold of one of the redguard's hands, leaning towards where she sat besides her. "I don't have to just be that you know? We could be... more than sire and fledgling..." She bit her lower lip, slightly nervous with the suggestive offer as burning eyes lowered down the redguard's attractive form before settling on her lips.

The redguard's gaze lowered to their hands, a faint glimmer of warmth between them. Her mind was filled with what had just happened and the lust that was making her body ache. It would have been pretty easy to accept and do anything to continue where they'd been, but she couldn't bring herself to just as much as she could't just walk away from the nord. Sighing, Yosa'Min shook her head. "For now... You do."

Recoiling slowly, Serana lowered her gaze as well. "Oh..." She shakily replied, "if that's what you want."

There was a long pause before Yosa'Min replied. "It is..."

"Lydia?" Iona asked, eyes clouded with worry as she pressed a rag to the wound. The brunet cringed in pain, leaning against the shack wall with sweat dripping down her brow. "Lydia how do you feel?"

"Like I got my ass handed to me by some monster," replied Lydia with a wave of pain.

The redhead shook her head, "You kinda did," she tried to jest, but was swiftly met with a sharp glare. "Sorry." The Riften housecarl focused on keeping the rag against the open tear on Lydia's flank, "Look just don't move much all right? You're wound stopped bleeding but that's it."

The Whiterun housecarl cringed in pain, shifting a bit and leaning her head back some. "What happened? I... I thought I saw Yosa'Min."

Iona dipped her head, silent as she opened up a nearby pouch and removed fresh bandages from it. "We need to get your breastplate off," she said, the dodge making Lydia frown.

As Iona started to remove the top steel armor, Lydia placed a hand to the redhead's chest and pushed her back a bit. Hard hazel eyes burned at her. "Iona, was that Yosa I saw?"

Sighing, she nodded her head. "Yes."

"Then where is she?" Lydia looked about the best she could without moving but to no avail. The clearing they'd been fighting in in the marsh was empty of anyone or thing aside from the two of them. The fresh night air was filled with the sound of insects, buzzing and chirping blissfully of the dark creature within the marsh. "And the others? Vex and Mjoll didn't kill each other did they?"

"No," Iona shook her head, moving back to start taking off the nord before her's armor. Lydia allowed her to, silently cringing in pain every so often as the metal plates were removed, leaving her skin hissing in protest. "They're off in the marsh, looking for Yosa."

"But she was here?"

"Yes."

Watching her warily, the brunet frowned. "Iona, what aren't you telling me?"

Once more she waited to answer, opting instead to get the armor off entirely and remove a bottle and fresh cloth from the satchel. Iona had seen Lydia get changed enough times that the fact that she didn't wear anything beyond a chest band no longer phased her. This time, she found herself a bit uncomfortable, having only been this close to the nord such as this once before. Swallowing her nerves and apprehension, Iona refocused.

Lydia watched nervously as Iona poured the contents of the bottle, some thick purple liquid, onto the cloth and then removed the blood soaked rag that had been pressed to the wound earlier. The brunet sucked in a breath of air as the cold touch of the medicine was against her skin, toes curling in discomfort.

Iona gently held it there for a moment, letting Lydia get adjusted, and then spoke. "Hold this," she ordered, the brunet listening and taking one hand to keep the cloth there against her side. Next, Iona began to wrap the bandages around Lydia's body, looping it around her body where her lower back was inclined over the ground, only the upper half pressed against the shack wall. "There we go."

Once that was finished, Iona looked up at Lydia and sighed. "Lydia... Something's wrong with Yosa'Min."

"What do you mean?"

Iona stared right into the brunet's eyes, forcing the words to come. "She's... well we're not sure but we think she's... a vampire."

"What?" Lydia jolted up some, instantly making the pain rise once more and she sucked in a breath of air. "What are you talking about? Yosa can't be a vampire!"

Shaking her head, Iona replied, "She seems to be. Vex is certain the monster we fought was a vampire of some kind, and then Yosa came out of the marsh and she looked... different. Her eyes..." a shudder ran down the woman's back, as she trailed off, recalling the frightening sight. "They were glowing like suns, and she knew the monster, knew it's name."

"What... was it?"

"Serana."

The brunet frowned, shaking her head with disbelief. "Yosa couldn't be a vampire though, it just... she can't!"

Iona shrugged glumly. "I can hardly believe it myself, but it's true. Our thane, our friend, is a bloodsucker."

"She's no monster!" Lydia said swiftly, tensing as if she'd expected Iona to start bashing the women they knew. "I refuse to believe that!"

"I'm not saying she is!" Iona swiftly defended, shaking her head with wide green eyes. "I'm just saying that she's not who we knew anymore."

The brunet tried to get to her feet, but with a pair of warrior hands pressing down on her shoulders before she'd gained more than an inch, and the pain in her side, she was pushed back down again with a huff. "You say a lot of things, how many of them do you really believe?"

Iona blinked, "What?" Shaking her head, Lydia turned her face away. "What are you talking about Lydia?" Hazel eyes snapped back at her, the woman refusing to speak at all now. "Look if I've upset you, let me know," Iona said with frustration rising, "I don't like you treating me like this. You keep this up and you'll have to patch yourself up on your own." She started to get to her feet and quickly the tough face slipped away from Lydia.

"Sorry, I guess... I'm just angry about Yosa."

Iona bit her cheek a bit, looking to the side before she sighed. "I think we all are."

Suddenly the brush was moving to their west, and they both looked up to see a pair of arguing women walk out of the marsh. Mjoll and Vex were coming back, mud up to their waist covering their body and scratches fresh on their faces. Mjoll's had turned red with anger, while the imperial seemed to have turned to ice as she glared at the nord besides her. "Oh great..." murmured Iona as they came over, "more fighting."

"Was it a vampire? Of fucking course it was a vampire!" Vex was shouting as they crossed over, Mjoll stomping towards them with fury practically steaming off her body. "What else could it be?"

"I don't know, something!" Mjoll shouted back.

"That's so convincing," Vex drawled, rolling her eyes as she followed the nord that was now leading.

"I don't think Yosa is a vampire okay!"

Vex shook her head, moving faster and cutting her off. They were still a few good paces away from the pair of housecarls. "I don't care what you believe, it doesn't change the facts."

Mjoll attempted to step around her but was swiftly blocked. "You've never even seen a vampire before, how can you tell! Maybe that monster was using some magic on her that controlled her, made her look like that!"

"I listened to the Dawnguard long enough to know what to look for," gritted back Vex, "it was one of the first things Isran taught us. Vampires can be identified by gaunt features, fangs, claws, paler or unusual amounts of showing veins and glowing sodding eyes!"

"So a few days spent lying makes you an expert?"

"More than you are."

Mjoll balled a hand into a fist, and then shoved her way past Vex to the others. "How is she?" She asked Iona, looking down at the wounded warrior.

"She'll live, given we let her rest for at least a day. There is no way she can go anywhere like this." Iona crossed her arms, her tone almost short with the angry woman.

Mjoll narrowed her eyes at her, "What?"

"She's a vampire, you know it."

"No, she can't be- I refuse to believe-"

"Why?"

Mjoll grew quiet, not entirely certain of it herself. It was Vex that piped up, coming up from behind with a mocking tone that made Mjoll want to turn around and throttle her. "Because believe it or not, Kitten here still cares for Yosa'Min!"

"That is a lie!" Mjoll turned around, stepping towards her.

"Oh is it?" Vex cocked a brow at her. "Because you have seemed mighty concerned about her these past few days, just about as much as the rest of us and we all know how we feel for Yosa."

"My only concern for Yosa'Min is that I end things properly with her, nothing more."

"Really?" It was Lydia that spoke up, a different kind of hurt in her eyes. "Is that true?" Mjoll's lip drew into a thin line, and she shook her head.

"No... It's not, but I don't care for her the way Vex is suggesting," Mjoll sighed. "I want her alive, I want her well, I want her safe, but I don't want her."

Vex shrugged, "Fine by me."

They were silent then, the Lioness glaring rather intently at the Nightingale who simply looked back at her, chin raised with arms crossed almost in challenge. The housecarls nervously watched, expecting another argument to break out. Lydia cleared her throat, trying to move them past the denial and anger. "So, what do we do now? You two didn't find any sign of her out there?"

"I... thought I'd heard her, but we couldn't find her," Vex said slowly, her cocky mask being replaced by a more dismal one.

"So, nothing?"

Sighing, Vex dipped her head in shame. "Nothing."

"We should go to the College," suddenly said Mjoll, gaining confused looks all around.

"Why in Oblivion would we go there?" Iona asked.

Mjoll brightened a bit. "We've been there before, stayed for about a two days. Yosa'Min had been hurt and they healed her, maybe they could help her once more?"

"That's assuming we even find her," Lydia said glumly.

"It's a start isn't it?" Replied Mjoll.

Vex frowned with thought. "I have a contact there, I could probably get letters sent out from there, maybe my associates will help us."

"So we look for some answers on vampirism while Vex's shady friends look for Yosa?" Iona asked.

A hopeful feeling filled each of their chests. "Yeah, that might work," smiled Lydia, the others smiling for a few moments before a thought crossed the brunet's mind. "But what if... What if there is nothing we can do for Yosa?"

The question hung in the air, that terrible reality none of them wanted to accept as even slightly possible. Suddenly the imperial fixed Lydia with a firm gaze.

"We find her."

AN: Thanks for reading!