Break

"Had I known you were with him, I would have warned you..."

He shifted, just as uncomfortable as I was, keeping us back to back and at least with /some/ support other than the slimy, wet walls, and the rain slipping in from cracks and crevices above us. I merely hummed a soft response, not very interested in what he had to say /now./

"My apologies..."

I didn't answer. 

It was uncomfortable enough. 

My wrists were bound in cold shackles, chains leading to the walls, and every part of me hurt. I couldn't focus. My head throbbed and the only thoughts I had drifting around now... They were only fragments of what I probably should have been worried about. 

Where was Casian?

Where was I?

Who had sent those people after us?

A malformed shrieking scream ripped through the air, chilling me to the bone and sending my head into a far deeper abyss of foggy pain. It echoed, quieted, returned in full force, and I clenched my fingers over my ears, my nails sharpening and my scales shuddering, my wings forcing their way out as I doubled over, raising my own scream. 

So... So... Loud...

Finally it was over, and so was the agony, leaving me quivering in its wake, drained of any energy I had regained sitting in this stinking cell. 

Everything was so suddenly silent save for the ringing in my ears, as I removed my tembling, now slightly bloodied hands-made-claws away from my head, forcing myself to relax and letting my defenses fade away, curling up and wrapping my arms around my legs, my dress from the palace nearly shredded in several places. 

Finally, /finally/, the ringing faded, and Arcantine's voice was suddenly intelligible. 

I lifted my head, weakly staring at him as he repeated what he had probably been saying for maybe the past... All of it. 

"Are you alright..?"

...He looked as bad as I felt. 

But somehow... Somehow he seemed...

/Stronger./ Safer. 

All I wanted was to hide. 

To curl up and wait out the ringing pain still rippling through me. 

I couldn't stop myself, really.

I lunged forward, flinging myself into his arms and trying so hard to hide in them. 

Shivering. 

Terrified. 

In so much - /so much/ - pain. 

He stiffened, his arms slowly resting around me, then altogether so tightly.

Suddenly, all so suffocating. 

Was it a comfort to be hugged so tightly I felt like I might snap in two?

It might have been. 

What ruined it, was the tug he gave to my collar, opening a wide swath to the air, his nose pressed by my ear. 

Too weak to resist. 

Too weak to escape this grasp. 

Or did I even want to?

Then, as cold fangs pricked my skin, my mind came to a halt at the conclusion. 

Vampiric. 

He was a vampiric drakon. 

I felt my face drain of color long before the bite came, a small whimper of fear and pain escaping my lips as his teeth sunk into my skin, not deep, but enough to stain my shoulder scarlet as he drank, cold numbness spreading slowly from the spot. 

I was beyond terrified. 

Part human... I was part human... Part demigod... 

I...

I..

I-I was an edible to them, wasn't I...?

"S-stop... Please..."

I felt even weaker. Head spinning and heart racing. 

My hands scrabbled at his arms, clawed and trying to free myself, and soon I set them ablaze, pushing him away or at least trying to with the threat of burning. 

And finally, /finally/, he let go. 

Releasing me and opening his jaw, pulling away and watching placidly as I crawled as far away as I could from him, my hand covering the bite as it started to mend, my eyes hardened into a glare. 

His face was drenched in blood. My blood. 

I shuddered as my stomach churned in knots at the sight of it. 

"You're... You're a vampire... How dare you... How could you... You were kind..!"

He didn't answer, licking his lips and standing, moving to the door to the cell and covering the lock with his hand, as if he was in a trance of some sort, his eyes nearly unfocused. 

"Wh-"

I stood, shaky and a little broken, watching as the lock began to frost over. 

"What... What are you doing..?"

Still no answer. 

Even as the area around the lock became invade in ice, he didn't ever acknowledge my question. 

Only...

Lashing out and kicking the ice, shattering it, and...

...

He broke the lock. 

He turned, wiping his mouth off with his sleeve, a faint smile playing on lips that had only been on my skin moments earlier. 

"My apologies, sweetheart. I needed strength in my human form for this... And you were a perfect pick-me-up. I'm betting that my friends are already here to pick me up, and certainly you're invited. Your friend too, if he's still living..."

He moved towards me, arm outstretched as I backed away, and stepped forward, reaching as my legs gave out catching me and assisting me in staying on my feet. 

"Don't... /Touch/... Me..."

I hissed, trying to get away. 

But he was having none of that. 

Hoisting me up by the waist and carrying me right out the door, my struggles quickly abandoned, considering how useless they were. 

He seemed to know the place on a different level, alert, stepping behind shelter before I could even detect the hint of a patrolman coming, staying silent, watching. Waiting, then moving when it was clear, making it all the way to the upper levels of the dungeon before we came across a small crowd. 

Maybe five or six. 

Having a blast, I suppose, chatting, sitting around a blazing fire whose smoke drifted up into a small hole in the ceiling. 

...outside. 

We were close. 

And so had to be Casian. 

I tried to look around from such a limited view, struggling to see any sign of him. 

When finally... A coat I knew well. 

Hung up by a door, a door that was very much obviously locked, and the keys...

The keys...

Resting on one of the revelers' belt, hanging by a cord. 

Suddenly I found myself being set down, in the shadows, as Arcantine crept up behind them...

And attacked, drunken hunters being little to no match for him, their feet freezing and their flame dropping low, their yells stopped short by his fangs ripping at their throats. 

Once again, my stomach heaved, although lacking much energy to really do the heaving I wanted to be doing. 

...once again he came back for me, picking me up again and tossing me over the shoulder this time as I heard the tinkling of keys, fitting into a lock, several times over until it clicked. 

I reached for Casian's coat, taking it between my fingers and lifting it off the hook, right as Arcantine moved in and knelt down, and next thing I knew, I was nearly face to face with a still-unconscious Casian, slung over his /other/ shoulder. 

His cheek was swelling, all purple and bright pink, a shallow gash opened along the most swollen part of it. 

My fingers brushed against it, radiating warmth as it was, my heart taking a fragile leap as his eyelashes fluttered for the briefest of moments. 

But no. 

Still out. 

I shuddered as a cold breeze hit me, and with the brightness that came, so did vast whiteness in either direction... Frigid winds tearing at me. Threatening to take the coat from my already weak arm. 

"Sir Arcantine! So glad to see you made it out once again! Please, sir, the young master is more than eager to meet with you again... We have a small plane waiting for you, if you don't mind conserving strength..."

...A new voice. 

If only I was able to see who it was.