It was quite a sight to see. I, a large Nordic vampire, fully geared up in my big armor, limping and using a woman much smaller than me for support. And of course, to that vampiric woman, it was nothing. She could probably wrestle giants twice my size. Night had befallen Skyrim not long ago, relieving the two of us of the burden of the sun on our backs. To take its place, rain began pouring down, leaving us soaked. We now sought refuge under a familiar rock formation in the middle of the treeless plains of the land.
The same rock formation which Serana and I rested under weeks ago. The shade that saved Serana from drying up like a raisin. And now it was giving us some shelter from the rain that beat down hard.
Serana slowly set me down and eased into the spot next to me. She lowered her hood and ran her hands through her wet, tangled hair. The hood was good against the sun, but was next to nothing against the cold, hard rain.
I slowly shifted my position against the rock to get closer to Serana and offer her a little bit of warmth. The feeling of warmth was something a vampire could only wish he had. Although vampirism brought some more resistance to the cold, it didn't mean we never felt a little too cold. Just like how a vampire's weakness to fire doesn't mean he doesn't ever crave some warmth. Whether it be from a campfire, mead, a lover, or a mortal's blood.
As my back stretched just a little bit too much, a groan escaped my lips, and Serana's head snapped to my direction. Of course it didn't go unnoticed. Concern was written all over her face, and I attempted to smile in reassurance.
"Let me see your back." She ordered. I put on a tough face, masking the pain that was radiating from my back.
"It's nothi-" My fellow vampire's steely glare stopped me dead in my tracks. She motioned with her finger for me to turn around. Reluctantly, I repositioned myself so my back was facing her, the movements causing me to wince and tense, which of course, she noticed.
"You're hurt." She said, irritation in her voice, along with discernible concern. She first took my helmet off, setting it aside, and freeing my hair.
"Ow ow ouch." I uttered between grunts as Serana slowly undid the armor around my chest.
"Try and hold still," She muttered as she undid a few more straps "And suck it up! Aren't Nord men notorious for their 'immunity to pain' facade?"
I tried to let out a small laugh at her jab at Nord manliness, but doing so only caused me to enter a coughing fit and put my sides and back in even more pain. I felt her hands finally undo the last buckle and with a pull, she easily slid the armor up and off of me with a quick tug. She then set it down gently and pushed it to the side. Serana yanked my two gloves off and set them down with the rest.
"Oooh..." Her grim voice was strangely soothing, despite the fact that the tone indicated it was not a good sight. Her gentle fingers ran over the fresh bruises and began to trace some of my older scars I had gained throughout the many years. She appeared to be fond of doing this to my scars. Serana copied the patterns of the scars, some were from your simple sword or arrow, others were from creatures as massive as dragons. Old Alduin himself, even. I heard her breathing uneven slightly as she took in my back, and the story it told of all I had done. I couldn't tell if she was awed or sympathetic.
Serana applied a small amount of pressure and began feeling my back and ribs. My muscles tensed at the feeling of her poking and pressing my damaged back. It was good that the bruises were just that, but they still hurt badly. Nothing seemed broken at least. I felt myself cringe as she hit a more sensitive spot. Okay, a few were definitely broken. She noticed my unease at her movement and she quickly stopped, soothingly rubbing an undamaged section of skin apologetically.
"I'm going to do what I can but it isn't much. We'll need to get you checked up before confronting my father." She said, rubbing my back as she did.
Harkon was to die, no question about it. It had to be by my hand. It was going to be. Our conversation on the matter was still fresh in my head, clear as day. Or more accurately, night.
Serana expressed her own doubt towards her capability of killing her own father. I tried my best to reassure her that if or rather when it came to that, I would be there for her. I was going to do the deed so she wouldn't have to live with the fact that her father died by her own hand. Harkon wasn't going to lay a finger on her for the prophecy as long as I lived.
The healing salve was applied, rubbed down with whatever alchemy components she saw fit. It stung rather badly, and I began gripping the dirt tightly, pulling clumps out as the stinging got worse. White-yellow light came from her fingertips and I felt some pain receding. I could even feel my ribs being mended ever so slightly. I was shocked to feel Serana's hands hold me by the shoulder and flip me so I was lying on my stomach.
I deftly adjusted my hand, and rubbed my fingers together for a moment, and attempted to focus my energy into a healing spell to assist Serana. Try as I did, nothing happened. Nothing other than my head beginning to pound as I poured my energy into the spell. I grunted slightly in irritation and let my hand drop, before I developed a headache.
I was probably going to have to wait for a while before I attempted casting spells again. That damned ward from earlier took a lot of effort to keep up. But it was worth it. Oh, so worth it.
"I didn't know you knew restoration magic." I muttered as the pain was nearly completely gone. As the pain receded, I slowly and carefully rolled onto my back, and laid my head on Serana's lap, looking up at her and shooting her a grin.
"I learned a bit from the Mage's College before I... You know." She said sheepishly, a smile gracing her lips, pleased that she could be of help.
The Mage's College.
"Restoration is a perfectly valid school of magic!" I couldn't place a name to the complaint but I remembered her badgering me about it a lifetime ago when I was the Archmage.
Serana gently lifted my head and slowly shifted closer to me for both of our comfort.. One of her hands went to my own, which was resting on my midsection. She held it tight, but not uncomfortably so. I imagined it as her way of encouraging me to recover. Her second hand went to my hair, which she seemed to enjoy fiddling with.
"You know, normally it's the man who's sitting, and the girl who uses his lap as a pillow?" I mused, playing with her little fingers that felt so tiny next to mine. Her soft chuckle was music to my ears.
"This is a total role reversal then." She squeezed my hand as she replied cheekily.
"It would appear so..." I trailed off, my thoughts drifting back to the events that led us to where we sat now.
Darkfall Cave was basically a barrel of drooling, snarling, bloodthirsty Falmer, in a nutshell. But as we got to the bottom of that barrel, we met one of the last remaining Snow Elves. It was remarkable. Seeing a Snow Elf in the flesh, alive and well. He told us of his brother Vyrthur. Sadly, we were to kill the second of the last two remaining Snow Elves. We needed to do it to cleanse the Chantry of Auriel and get the Bow. To get all the way to the Chantry, we walked far and wide, through icy mountain paths and grassy plains. We filled up this ceremonial ewer at several wayshrines along the way to the Chantry, and then dumped the water at the end.
Serana insisted that this was a waste of time, but at least we got to the Chantry. It didn't take us long to find Vyrthur, who was positively mad, and later revealed himself to be a vampire. I could take on the dozens of icy, thawing Falmer he threw at me. But things really got out of hand when he brought the whole damned ceiling down on us.
I narrowly ducked under the wide swing of yet another of Vyrthur's Falmer thralls. I took a step to its right and sliced into its side with my dagger, before spinning a circle to chop its head off. Serana had mastered her vampiric strength and speed long ago, and was taking full advantage of it. She was a blur of blades and a flash of magic that killed anything that got too close. Perhaps I would move that quickly and deadly one day?
My head snapped to the side, and I just barely avoided an ice spike sent my way by a frost atronach. I shoved my sword into its sheath and began summoning a fire ball in my hand. I allowed the fiery magic to power itself up in my palm as I dodged a few more of the sharp icicles. Just a little bit longer...
An icy Falmer lunged forward, aiming to stab. I twisted myself away from the short sword, meeting it head on with a successful stab of my own. I grabbed the dagger in a reverse grip, yanking it out, and using my momentum to spin around and hurl the ball of flame at the atronach. The massive ball of fire set the frost atronach alight, and burned it to ashes in no time.
Two more of the thralls lunged for me. I shot my right hand out to block its attack at the wrist, and used my blade to block the other incoming axe. I spun a circle, slitting the throat of the second and hammering my fist in the face of the first. The Falmer's head snapped back at the collision and I quickly drove my dagger into the side of its neck.
I took several steps back as half a dozen more approached me. I licked my lips, and took a deep breath.
"YOL TOOR SHUUUUUUUUUL!" Fire burst forth from my mouth, devouring everything in its path as I turned my head side to side, making the flames sweep the area clear. The shout effectively killed all the living ice thralls, but also thawed out those that were still immobile. And so a dozen more of the unfrozen Falmer stepped forward, hungry for our blood.
"ENOUGH!" Vyrthur's sharp voice cut through the heavy breathing, and the hard footfalls. I looked at the Snow Elf, and found him standing by his throne, his feet spread wide and his back arched as his clenched fists shook with rage. He screamed in rage, and his hands uncurled, unleashing a bright and powerful energy, which shook the chapel, causing everybody to stumble about and attempt to keep balance.
A portion of the roof collapsed, crushing several of the Falmer. My eyes widened in horror, as the image of Serana's limp hand sticking out of a pile of rubble briefly flashed through my mind. I felt shaken, and not because of Vyrthur's rage. I willed my legs to move, so I could run over to her and shield her from the imminent danger. But they felt so damned stiff. I needed to get moving.
Another flash. Her face contorted in pain, as she screamed my name. No. Serana? Hurt? Dead? No. No, that isn't going to happen. Not if I could help it.
My legs finally snapped into action, and I raced towards my fellow vampire who was scurrying about, trying to regain her footing as the ground shook violently. Serana noticed my approach and began scrambling over to me.
A loud cracking sound from the ceiling alerted me to the danger we were in. Then the ceiling gave way. All of it just cracked up and rapidly descended unto us. I saw several of the Falmer thralls get crushed almost right after.
One sizeable chunk of roof was heading straight for Serana. I panicked, and parted my lips to shout, as my throat began to protest.
"FUS RO D-" A rock struck me at the back of my head, causing my pace to falter. The shout, while not fully powered, sent the rubble off course, and allowed her enough time to evade it. I stumbled towards Serana, that rock having dazed me. I could taste blood already. Overusing the Thu'um was never a good idea.
Serana and I crashed into each other, and I quickly wrapped my arms around her waist, as she wrapped hers around my neck. There was one last damned section of roof coming down. And it was coming down right towards us.
I pushed Serana to the ground as gently as I could, and dropped on top of her. I balanced myself as well as I could as I sprawled out over her, cradling her head with my one hand. She gripped my wrist with both of her hands, and I could make out her mouth shouting my name, but could not hear it over all the chaos around us. I used my much larger frame to keep as much of her protected as possible.
With my one free hand, I raised it behind me. With my eyes locked onto Serana's, I created an image in my head, of a giant shield, that protected Serana, as she smiled on.
The ward was projected from my hand, and the rubble began to assault us.
We made it out alive of course. Although it did end with me hobbling out of the rubble with a hand gripping my back as Serana helped me walk. The ward shielded me from the initial onslaught but gave way in the end, and my back took a great beating. Serana made it out without a scratch, although she was quite shaken when she saw how much punishment I took for her.
The bastard retreated out to the grand balcony. We confronted Vyrthur yet again, and he revealed himself to be a vampire. One of Vyrthur's own initiates turned him, and he saw it as Auriel turning his divine back to him. To get revenge on the Divine, he created the Tyranny of the Sun to weaken Auriel's control over Nirn. He waited all this time for a Daughter of Coldharbour to come along so he could get her blood. And there Serana stood. But of course, she had no intention of giving her blood up so easily.
We then went toe to toe with the elf. I knew that Serana felt that this was more of her battle, and so I did not interfere much. Even if I could, I was too damned winded to be of much help. But, I had to intervene just the same at one point. Vyrthur kicked Serana, and left her winded. Had I not clumsily stuck my hand out in a late attempt at blocking his sword, her head would have been lopped clean off. Vyrthur was distracted by my pathetic defense and began assaulting me. I allowed him to take the offensive as I simply parried his blows. From there, Serana cut him down while he was distracted.
My thick gloves shielded my fingers from being cut, but the force of the blow elicited a nasty crack from my thumb. Thankfully, it could still move, but doing so hurt. I assumed this was another reason she was holding my hand and soothingly playing with my fingers. A form of apology.
After Vyrthur was dealt with, his brother Gelebor, who told us how to get around and make our way to the Chantry, showed up. He gave us Auriel's Bow, and sent us on our way back, wishing us good luck as he did. The arcane bow was being carried by Serana, but at the moment, it was leaning against the rocks we took shelter by.
We sat in silence for several more minutes. It wasn't an awkward or dead silence, but comfortable. But it was also uncharacteristic for Serana to be so quiet, and I picked up on this. I squeezed her hand to get her attention. She looked back at me and smiled a sad smile. As if sensing my question, she spoke up first.
"I'm sorry. It's because of me you're in all this pain right now. You're going through all of this to stop my father and you're doing it for me. Then I go and nearly get myself killed twice, and you take the blows for me." She broke eye contact and eyed the ground; the sadness did not go well with her pretty face. I frowned at this.
Serana idly rubbed my hand with her thumb, reveling at the feeling of my callused skin against her baby smooth skin. A week ago, her hands would have given me chills. They were cold to the touch and could make mortals recoil on contact. But being a vampire, it was nice being able to hold her hand without the contrast in temperature being uncomfortable.
I gently removed Serana's hand so I could push myself up to sit up. I leaned back against the rocks, glad that my spine and my ribs were no longer protesting.
"Don't say that. All of that was unavoidable. That ceiling was going to hurt both of us no matter what we did. I just... Made sure you didn't take the blunt it. Don't blame yourself for it. This," I raised my thumb, which gave out a quiet click. "I couldn't let you die, darling. This is nothing. Just a pinprick. You're worth every scratch and bruise." I made sure to whisper the last part into her ear, earning a soft giggle as the breath tickled her. She gently took my thumb between her own and her index finger before speaking.
"I would have died twice over if it weren't for you. From the ceiling and from his blade. He would have cut my head clean off if it weren't for your stupid," She gently slapped my arm with her free hand. "Stupid disregard for self preservation!" She slapped my cheek this time, but still gently. I simply grinned in response, and it appeared my smile was contagious. A beautiful smile soon found its way to her features.
I eased my arm over Serana's shoulders. She shuffled closer yet, her eyes closed and smile bright due to her contentment of our proximity. She sort of cuddled into me, her head resting on my shoulder, and her small hand on my bare chest.
"Thank you. I owe you so much you know?" Serana idly poked and prodded my exposed collar bone. "I have no idea where I'd be now if you hadn't come along and my father's scouts got me. Obviously I wouldn't have made it this far." She paused for a moment, her thoughts occupying her.
"I'm glad I have you." The sincerity in Serana's statement caused my unbeating heart to melt in place. She buried her face into the side of my neck, and I heard a contented sigh.
If she was glad that she had me, she could only imagine how glad I was to have her.
"I was a mess before you came along. Spent a year or two at home, never leaving. Just whacked a mannequin all day. Or shot it. Dragons, vampires, and murderous Snow Elves aside, I think I'm the luckiest man on Nirn. And it's because of you. I'm glad too." I placed a quick kiss on the top of her head, causing her to remove herself from my neck to look up at me.
"Oh please," She chuckled at my flattery. "What could be lucky about being stuck with an ancient vampire with a dysfunctional family?" She raised a brow, as if challenging me to come up with something to prove her wrong. And so I did.
"Because that vampire is you. Strong, witty, smart, compassionate, and with beauty to make Dibella herself quake with jealousy. You make everything worthwhile." I inched closer with every word, taking Serana's hand with my free one as I went. I could see the ghost of a blush on her face as she looked down, smiling slightly. I reached out to gently hold her face and turn it to me.
"The Dawnguard gave me a purpose. They got me to stop going back to my home and sleeping the day away. Then they led me to you. Good old Isran could have sent anyone to check out Dimhollow. But he sent me, and I met you. You gave me a reason to live and to love again." I whispered, eliciting a noticeable chill down her back.
"There's nobody in Nirn that can make me feel the way you do. With you, I feel like I can do anything. I can take on anything. I feel complete. I feel as alive as a vampire can be." I continued, Serana's gentle smile still present. Taking the risk, I leaned forward, our foreheads meeting, and our breathing heavy. Serana's eyes fluttered to a gentle close as she tilted her head to meet my lips. I was obliged to mimic the motion.
The kiss was gentle, soft, and brief. Her lips, like the rest of her, were cold, but soft and comforting. The kiss left me wanting more, yet at the same time it felt like just enough. Like nothing was lacking. I attributed that feeling to the fact that the moment was perfection in itself. And I know she felt the same. Even if we sat under a small rock formation in the middle of Skyrim, easy prey to wolves or the sharp eyed dragon. Even if my body ached ever so slightly when I moved. It was perfect. And she made it perfect.
She was first to break the position. She grabbed me by the shoulder once again and made me lie down, adjusting her own position so she could comfortably lean back into the rock formation. I used her lap as a pillow, staring up at her pleased smile.
"Let's get some rest. We both need it." Serana told me, soothingly rubbing my arm in that way only she can.
"Goodnight, dear." I muttered, feeling all the activity of the day finally catching up to me.
Harkon can wait one more night.
I vision began to darken, and my heavy eyelids were hard to keep open. As I slowly slipped out, I heard the faintest whisper come from the beautiful vampire before me.
She whispered, "Goodnight, love."
A/N: Hey there, everybody! I tried to keep this one short and sweet, without dragging it out too much or anything. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope the chapter title wasn't misleading, by the way.
I'd like to thank everyone who has faved, and followed. And a larger thank you yet to those who took their time to review. Don't forget to drop one on the way out. Tell me what you think about the latest chapter!
We're getting close to the end now, folks. I know that I may not have as many cards up my sleeve as other writers do, but I hope you are enjoying this adaptation thing of Dawnguard nonetheless.
I plan to start another story after I finish this, but updates may not be as frequent. That thing with the twist at the end of Dawnguard that I mentioned a few chapters back.
Anyways, have a good day, and please stay tuned.