Just as the time in Fort Grief time seemed to slow and I felt the vampire take control. The blade seemed to curl its way out of her fingers, tumbling end over end as it passed through the space between us. Twisting out of an adrenaline fuelled reflex I turned at the waist and felt, rather than saw the way how the dagger missed me with less than a handspan of air between it and my chest. If I hadn't moved it would had sunk to the hilt in the space just above the armoured gorget, and would have been a killing strike.

  The sudden surge of vampiric adrenaline left me readied for the next one, as a second found itself pulled from the walls and thrown shortly after the first. This one looped through the air, drawing circles with its hilt and blade even as I reached out, twisting my fingers and hands and instead of catching it, redirected it away and behind me.

  Twirling the blade in the palm of my hand with little more than a pair of fingers I spun on my heel, using my own momentum and the force of the dagger to flick it off at the wall. There was a crunch of masonry and the tiniest hum of quivering metal as it lodged deep in the stonework and mortar, leaving the room utterly silent at not only my speed, but the way I had parried a thrown dagger.

  "Viconia! Please stop!"

  Several the guildsmen had been considering stepping in to break up our fight, especially some of the more senior members. But now that the room had suddenly begun playing host to flying knives and my own abilities in dodging and deflecting them put that idea to rest. With indecent haste they began rushing for the exit, several of their number covering each other with shields as another knife and even a shortsword spranged off the floor and walls.

  She was no longer merely intent on storming off, the battle rage that I had seen on occasion during our travels surfacing and matching my daedric intensity in its terrible power. Looking into her eyes I could only see the burning desire to do me harm; to shed her fears and internal torments in my blood. There was a dangerous insanity bubbling to the surface that I felt a strange, twisted kinship with.

  The feeling of familiarity didn't help me in the slightest as she grasped a hilt of a steel gladius from a rack on the wall, tearing it away with a sizable chunk of wood with a roar of effort. Now armed with a live blade the dynamic of the fight shifted yet again and I felt the first hints of fear in my belly.

  Slamming with a resounding boom, the door to the upper levels closed as a handful of the more senior guildsmen made the decision to let Viconia and I to finished sorting out our differences. Only when the noise in the training hall stopped did I expect them to return and now that there were no witnesses I released my darker side further. With Sunchild being a little too deadly and several metres away with the last of my equipment, I too ripped a sword from the wall mounted racks. Against a typical steel blade, the danger of hurting Viconia was too great but I couldn't help feeling a tingle of nostalgia as I found myself wielding a legion sword once more.

  Sparks filled the air and I felt each jolt run through my arm as I blocked and parried her moves. She was like water, flowing in and around my guard and it was only by fully embracing my darker side that I was not impaled on the spot. The bones of my face restructured themselves once more, and I could feel the dozens of pops and miniature crunches as my cheekbones seemed to push out of my face. My single intact fang pushed my lips apart in a lopsided smile and almost as though a lantern had been lit in my mind I suddenly found myself being able to keep up with her.

  I could see my eyes in the reflection in her own, and she too seemed to be changing into her own darker side. I had always known that as a Drow, she had a darker side to her soul that matched the world where she had come from, but I never realised how profound it really was. Her skin seemed to take on a darker shade of Ebony and even her eyes changed colour until they were burning with a yellow brightness that matched the sun itself. They shone with a powerful intensity and soon we were both trading blows that the others would've struggled to see let alone counter.

  We danced all over the training hall, hacking, slashing, parrying and cutting almost with a wild abandon. Thousands of years of a brutal culture had ensured that only the strongest who survived to create the next generation had created a race unsurpassed within the bounds of existence. Such a cultural legacy ensured that despite her nature as an ex-priestess she was capable of not only holding her own against a daedra-infused vampire, but was almost nearly winning. The clashing of metal on metal soon grew in strength until it was almost painful on the senses but we continued on unabated.

  "I will not let you push me away!" My words were little more than hisses as my remaining teeth began their tapering into spikes of bone. The madness in her expression was still there but there was the tiniest waver in her arms, a chink in her mental and emotional armour. "I would rather die than see you come to harm."

  She had not spoken a word in common since throwing the daggers, her curses and ranting sentences continuing without pause. By now I had also begun to noticed tears streaming down her cheeks, and hers eyes were red rimmed and bloodshot around her intense yellow irises.

  "Lu'oh kuuv dos morfeth uns'aa khaless dos!" She spun neatly but as she swung her sword I caught the blade right on its back with my own, twisting sharply with a speed that only a vampire could have performed. One second she was spiralling out with a blow aimed to slide between my ribs, and then the next her long sword was left imbedded and quivering in the ceiling.

  This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  Twirling around she performed a graceful ballet, ripping the sword from where the stones entrapped it and cutting down as though she was going to cut me the same was I had with Kurdan. In a second she had leapt and sliced downwards before her sword came to a sudden and abrupt stop.

  Gloves shredded, blackened talons of bone peeling apart my fingertips I had caught the descending blade in the palm of a hand rendered stronger than the steel blade that it caught. There was no blood, only the solid impact jarring my entire body as it stopped dead.

  My other hand lashed out, not in rage but in a cold calculating strike that transcended all emotions. Her other hand was suddenly gripped around the wrist, pulling her closer to me while I pushing her towards the wall. We were that close I could feel her breaths on my face and see the hot, fat tears rolling down her cheeks and splattering the front of her chainmail.

  The sight of the tears stopped the vampire as surely as the blade that was held in a transformed hand. Forcing the beast into the recesses of my soul I felt the customary tingling through my aching jaw and cheeks and my fingers reshaping into those of a man rather than daedra. Standing there with a trembling sword held aloft in one hand, a strangely delicate wrist in the other, I could do nothing but stare into her eyes as she began releasing all her pent-up emotions. Pressed against the wall, she could do nothing more than cast her eyes down and away from my own and weep.

  "You trust me because when I say that I will not let anything happen to you I mean it." I began, and I felt her body relax and her breathing suddenly transform in deep wracking breaths. The sword slipped out of her hand and I released it as well from a hand suddenly feeling numb from the impact, hearing the blade clatter against the tiled floor.

  Suddenly free I reached out with my tingling hand, pressing it against the side of her face and feeling the uncomfortable heat emanating from her flesh as she looked up into my eyes. There was a moment as I struggled to talk, feeling the words worming into my mind and yet struggling to bring myself to say them out loud.

  "I love you Viconia," I whispered, admitting it not only to her but to myself with the simple words. In the months of travelling and the time spent together I knew that I had been holding back for not only far of losing her but of admitting what I had always believed to be weakness. There was a similar shudder of emotion that flowed through her and her eyes clamped shut in a vain attempt to block the tears.

  "I have never been one to believe in fate," I began, feeling her body trembling as she shook her head at my words but unable to ignore them completely. "but after everything that has happened I am sure that we were fated to meet."

  She shook her head even harder, trying to crush the tears away and I could feel her frustration of her emotions fighting against a lifetime of engrained teachings.

  "No." She whispered. "It cannot be like this. After everything that has happened, I have still lost."

  My hand remained against her cheek and I felt the increased pressure as she leant against it unconsciously. Bunching up her fists as I let go of her other hand she hit me in the chest but there was no strength behind the punches anymore. Tears were streaming down her face as she heaved in deep breaths, her entire body being rocked by the efforts to rein in her feelings. without thinking I had wrapped my arms around her, feeling her press into me and my armour as she buried her head in my chest.

  "I... I cannot go on any longer." In between sobs she spluttered the words out onto my breastplate. "I cast my white flag before you. You have... You have defeated me."

  My grip around her shoulders tightened as I tried the best I could to comfort her, feeling her shift in my embrace. Curling up and clenching her fists under her chin she pushed into my chest with surprising force. Months, if not years of pent up emotions flooded out of her, leaving her suddenly go limb and almost fall if not for my embrace. Her entire body was shaking with the effort and emotions that had been eating away at her. Now that it was being released, all her mental defences were now breaking down in succession until there was no resistance left at all.

  "I... I don't know what it is about you, but I have opened up completely. I have let you inside with such honest and candour, and I am not used to that."

  We had slumped to our knees as she curled up even more into a protective ball. One arm was wrapped tightly around her, the other gently brushed against her flowing white hair in an awkward display of affection. Unused to showing any form of emotion myself I pulled away slightly, providing just enough space so we could look each other in the eyes. "Well, you better get used to it."

  "Khaless zhah aphyon." She said before translating the words into common. "Trust is death. I have been betrayed again and again and yet I began to trust you. You were right; the first story was the truth."

  I felt her fingers reach up and mimic the movement of my fingers over her skin, and I felt the strange surge of connection where her skin made contact with mine. The feeling of warmth made me somewhat light headed and I ridiculously considered that this could possibly be nothing more than a dream from suffering a head injury during the fight.

  "I have begun to feel that I need you and this enthrals and enrages me all at once." A tortured smile creased her face, one that contained enough of the smile that I was growing to love so much. "I owe you so much. I doubt that I could ever repay you for what you have done for me. You are a safe harbour in a storm, and for that I thank you."

  "It's going to take a lot more than you beating the shit out of me for you to lose me. Hells, it will probably even take more than the end of the world to get rid of me. No matter what happens, I promise I will always be here for you."

  For a few short moments we stared into each other's eyes and her voice grew soft and fearful. "Despite everything, I will be with you if you were still to have me. I will not try to push you away again as I no longer have the strength."

  I smiled as warmly and honestly as I could, my fingers in their shredded gloves tracing patterns down the smooth flesh of her cheek and jaw as I leaned forward and pressed my lips to hers.