Marius felt the pain in his leg, sharp as a blade beneath his armor, the damned centipede had somehow bitten him. With a swift motion he brought down his sword but the creature was already burrowing its way back into the earth, its many human hands digging into the disgusting flesh that was the ground and walls here.

"That damned thing…" his words falter as the dizziness sweeps through him. He sways on his feet as a sudden weight of exhaustion dragges at his armor-clad limbs.

"What's happened? Are you al'right boy?" That was Farren talking, he could see her take a step toward him as the others looked his way too.

"The… centipede…" His words are as heavy as his body as he leans his shield arm against the disgusting fleshy wall for support. "It bit me I think, I'm… I'm ok…" Even as he says it he can barely keep himself upright. "I just need a minute."

Lethica suddenly appears at his side, helping him sit gently against the wall, her mask blank but her tone concerned. "Show me where."

Before he could reply, a sudden movement caught Marius's eye. The hole in the cave floor that they had been standing around suddenly pulses. A long and disgusting fleshy tongue slithered its way out of the hole and before he could call out a warning it struck. In the blink of an eye Farren, Jericho and Yorgrim were snatched by the tongue in quick succession as they had been the closest to it. Briggsy jumped in surprise but he too isn't fast enough.

"What the fuc-" Briggsy screams as in a flash he too was grabbed by the tongue and pulled into the dark depths of the hole.

No!" Marius tries to raise his arms, to move, to do anything to stop it but his limbs wouldn't respond.

Lethica spun around at the scream and both of them saw the tongue re-appear and whips towards them. But it doesn't wrap itself around either of them, they watch as it strains towards them, clearly wanting to pull them in but unable to reach where Marius had collapsed. There's a moment of the horrible fleshy swishing noise as it tries to reach either one of them before it slowly retracts back into the hole.

Silence falls on the two left in the cave, stunned and heavy. The moment is broken when Lethica turns back to Marius and kneels in front of him.

"Where were you bitten?" Her tone is brisk but gentle.

Marius gapes at her, "What? W-we have to go after them!" He tries to move his arm, to support himself and stand but it only flops uselessly at the wall. All of his strength slowly drains away and he begins to breathe heavily, either due to the exhaustion or the panic setting in, it's hard to tell.

"We can not help them if you can not stand. They are together, they will be fine, I will not leave you alone like this." Lethica's authoritative and practical words soothes a bit of the panic that had bubbled up but he shakes his head anyways.

"It got my leg, somehow, that foul thing…the familiar."

"Do you have any healing magic left?" She moves to the leg he indicated.

"A little," he says reluctantly. "Though I was planning on saving it for everyone else."

She nods at his leg, "You need it now, so please call upon it."

"Lathander," he closes his eyes in reverent prayer. "Hear my prayer and grant me the strength I need."

The surge of magic warms his body for an instant but then, fades. Something is wrong, he can feel it as the spell that was supposed to heal his wounds simply fizzles away into nothingness. Marius lets out the breath he had been holding. "It didn't work like it was supposed to." he tries his arm again but it refuses to move more than a few inches. "Damit!" he exclaims, "We don't have time for this!"

"Calm down, I will take a look at it."

In a few brisk movements Lethica straightened his leg and begins to examining it. "Ah, I see…" she quickly finds the still open bite wound and runs her hands along it, getting blood on her fingers. The smell of the blood hits Marius like a slap in the face and against his will he begins to salivate, the fangs in his mouth sharpening ever so slightly. He flinches and Lethica notices it as she looks up at him. "What is it? Does it hurt?"

"No…" he tries to suppress the hunger but the exhaustion in his limbs seems to have doubled his thirst and he can't stop looking at the bright red smear on her hands. "It's just… the blood…"

Lethica glances at her hands and hurriedly wipes them on her dress. "My apologies, but what are you feeling?"

"Hunger…" he growls the word before he could think then immediately shakes his head violently and tries again. "I cant seem to move more than my head. I was… dizzy right after it attacked and then I felt- …feel, exhausted."

"I see.." she moves around him, testing his limbs in succession before sitting back and looking him up and down fully. "It must be a sort of poison." Her voice is thoughtful but trails off. "This is not good… I do not think I have enough magical energy to cure whatever this is."

A sinking feeling grips his stomach at these words. If Lethica couldn't figure out what was wrong and couldn't find a solution to fix it then they were in some serious trouble. He watches her as she runs a finger along her mask, clearly thinking.

"I may have a possible solution." Her words are halting, as if she were picking them carefully.

"What is it?" He perks up, hope flashing in his chest. "Whatever it is, I'll try it, we need to get back to the others quickly."

You are a Dhampir, yes?" Marius stiffens and looks at Lethica, her face covered by the blank mask. The hope he had just felt is snuffed out by these words, like a candle before a hurricane. His eyes narrow as she continues. "If I am correct that this poison is unable to be cured with magic, as your prayer did not work. Then perhaps your biology can do what a simple spell cannot and rid you of this affliction."

Taking a slow breath in Marius asks the question he already knows the answer to. "What, exactly, are you getting at?"

Lethica tilts her head, exposing one side of her slender neck then points delicately at his mouth. "What I am saying Marius is that you should try feeding off of my blood in hopes to cure whatever is causing this exhaustion."

"No! No, I-I'd never do that, hurt you like that. I can't, I-I won't!" Marius attempts to stand and walk away from her in his outrage at the suggestion but merely slumped a little further back against the cave wall.

"Marius, that is sweet and noble but I fear we have few other options" Lethica looks around at the disgusting fleshy walls and then back to the pit before them. "The others are somewhere below and I cannot carry you. If you have any spells you could use to aid, then I would suggest you use them but I am tapped out."

He couldn't see her face beyond the ever present mask but the slump of her shoulders and the breathiness of her words made it clear she was also out of magic. Marius lowers his eyes and quietly mutters, "no… I don't."

"Then let me do this for you. It is the only way I can help now and we need you…" There was a slight pause and Marius could have sworn she was going to say something else but she fell silent and simply looked at him, pleading with her eyes.

"I still don't think it's a good idea." He shifts uncomfortably, the exhaustion making even the slightest of moves an enormous task. "What if it doesn't even work? I'd have…" he stops himself from even saying the words, re-routing his train of thought. "...hurt you for nothing."

The mask on Lethica's face twitches in the way he knows means she's smiling. "I know a little about your condition and trust me, if you feed off of me, take my life blood into your own then you will be strong again, maybe even stronger than before."

She reaches out and with one hand on his shoulder pulls him back into a more upright position and looks him dead on, all seriousness once more. "Marius, I know the risks to myself and to you and I won't make you do anything you do not wish to do but we are short of time and options. Our friends are most likely fighting for their lives at this very moment and without you there with your shield and sword they will most assuredly be lost. Please, let us do this for them. Let me do this for you."

The thought of the rest of the group, pulled into a dark hole where they know a hag to live, steals his writhing stomach. His face hardens with determination as he stares into Lethica's eyes and gives a tiny nod.

"Y-your right…"

Gently she wraps her arms around his armor and pulls him into her. With the little movement he has Marius nuzzles his head into the crook of her exposed neck. This close he can smell the blood pumping just below her beautiful dark skin. He swallows and resists the temptation to run his tongue over his fangs, he can feel them growing to their sharpest points in anticipation of the feeding.

With a shaky breath in, he tries on more time. "Lethica, are you sure?" he rasps out the words, trying so hard to hold the hunger at bay even so close to the blood.

"Marius…" he can feel the pulse of her neck as she whispers the words. "You can stop fighting… it is ok."

With her words reverberating on his lips there's nothing else to hold him back as he gives in and gently, almost tenderly sinks his fangs into her neck. At first he tries to be gentle but the smell of the blood and the first taste of it sends his body into overdrive and he bites down harder. The rush of blood onto his fangs nearly masks Lethica's slight wince of pain as he bites into her and begins to drink. Hot, live blood flows into his mouth and Marius is nearly dazzled by the taste of it. In more than a century of existence as a Dhampir he had taken great pains to never drink blood from anything, much less a live person, a willing person. Now as he takes great gulps from Lethica's neck he wonders why he's never done this before. He can feel the strength returning to his veins as the fresh blood fills them. With one arm he wraps it around Lethica and pulls her closer to him, needing her closer. He is nearly overtaken by the bloodlust but as his mind clears of the exhaustion and he holds Lethica so close, suddenly he feels how stiff she is, ridged as if she's in… pain. With a jolt Marius pulls away, releasing his bite and pushes her back from him.

His hand flies to his mouth in shock and disgust. "Lethica! I'm so sorry, i-it overcame me, I-I-I didn't mean to…"

He trails off as he looks at her, seeing the twin trails of blood leading from the holes his fangs had made. His stomach twists in dread and self loathing and he turns his face away, still covering his mouth where he can feel the fangs slowly begin to shrink.

A soft hand brushes his cheek as Lethica reaches out to him and firmly turns him to face her. "Marius…" her voice is as gentle as her hand, with no trace of pain. "I promise you I am okay."

Her words barely penetrate his consciousness as he pulls a handkerchief from his armor and begins to wipe the blood off of his mouth. "No, no, I-I shouldn't have done that. I hate that I did that to you and y-you must be hurt after… I don't even know how much I…"

His nervous babbling is cut off as her hand once again moves to gently grab his hand and pull it towards her. She looks down at his hand and the mask twitches with her smile, her eyes meet his and from deep within the mask they glint.

"But look here," She caresses her fingers along his hand. "It worked, didn't it?"

Realization struck him as she holds out his hand. The exhaustion that had caused him to collapse was gone, he had full control of his limbs and though the thought makes him shudder, he feels almost better than before.

Marius cleared his throat. "Ahm, well, yes… I suppose I can't argue that I do feel stronger…"

He can't look at her as he pulls his hand away and stands. He can feel the newly ingested blood flush his cheeks. A writhing pit of anger and self hatred roils in his stomach, threatening to throw up all of the life sustaining blood he had just taken from her.

The quiet swish of her dress is the only sound Lethica makes as she too stands. Without looking, Marius holds out the handkerchief toward her and steals himself as best he can. "Alright, we should find the others and-" a soft touch on his arm stops his sentence and he turns to look at her.

The blood on her neck had been wiped off and the holes seemed to be closing rapidly. Her mask was serine but the eyes behind it were blazing as they looked into his, both gentle and firm.

"Marius." her voice mirrored the expression in her eyes, a calming but insistent tone. "Please do not hate yourself for being what you are." he opened his mouth to protest but she continues. "I do not know how you came to be what you are and I do not begrudge you the regret in what you have lost. But hating yourself will neither undo what has happened nor serve you in fixing what you believe to be wrong." She squeezed his hand a bit tighter. "I did not know who you were before but the man standing in front of me is a good man with a noble heart and that is all that matters to me."

She reaches up and with one finger caresses the side of his mouth briefly showing a single sharp canine tooth. "Fangs and all…"

Stunned by her words Marius can only stare at her masked face. His eyes begin to sting as tears threaten to form at the corners and he has to clear away the lump in his throat before daring to speak. With as much polite and, what he hoped to be, detached courtesy he can muster he manages to say. "Thank you Lethica. I appreciate the sentiment, but," he tears his eyes from hers and looks at the hole in which their friends had disappeared only a few minutes before. "We really should go after them. They'll wonder what happened to us if they aren't dead themselves."

The moment broken, Lethica takes a small step back from him as she too turns to the hole. "Indeed, if the hag is down there we will all be in trouble." Her mask twitches as Marius moves toward the hole. "At least we have you back on your feet, I feel much safer going into battle beside your sword and shield."

Despite himself, Marius smiles.