Obsession is the height of passion, but what does one do when they find themselves enthralled with their enemy. Talamayas Sol loses his mother when he stumbles upon a mage in the deserts of his territory, and he is plunged into a despair he's never...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Everything in front of him wavered as if he were out in the desert heat, but he was still in front of the mage complex. Wren was there in the other mage's arms, but Tala couldn't see him, not past the wall of despair that smothered his every sense. There was no choice but to turn away, and every step felt weighted with stones as he trudged to Vic's side.
They returned home through Vice's ghost magic, but it didn't feel like home when he arrived. Tala couldn't look anyone in the eyes, less Shan who spoke to him with welcome that he didn't feel. All of the words were muffled as his people looked to him for leadership when he could barely keep himself upright.
At times like this, he'd always gone to Wren, but this time it was because of Wren. All that left was the desert, and Tala left his people to lose himself in the heat and the sand. Daytime was taxing to his kind and the desert sun was even more brutal. Even his people stayed indoors on hot days like this one, but Tala wanted it–the heat, the weight, the agony of barely being able to lift himself from his elbows where he fell. If the sun didn't hold him down, he'd get back up and hurt someone, mostly the mages as he tore them apart and dragged Wren back to him.
They'd won the battle, but he was hollow. His people were waiting for him back in the castle, waiting for Wren, and Tala didn't even know what to say to them. Some of his own were attached to Wren as he was, certainly not to the same degree, but they would be saddened that he had not returned. And Shan would take the first chance he got to pounce on Wren as a traitor. They got along. Shan liked Wren, but Shan was also wary of betrayal and had never trusted him.
Tala had trusted Wren.
Why? He had no idea.
Maybe he'd just gotten comfortable, used to his presence. Under all of it, had Wren been terrified the entire time? A few moments ago, he'd wanted to embrace him, to feel his energy against his weakened body and fall into slumber with him by his side. Now, he couldn't get the sight of the man's wide eyes out of his head, the way he'd trembled and backed away from him, like he was a monster. It had been decades since Wren had looked at him that way. Even in the dungeons, Wren had been resigned. Something had broken the man, and Tala rubbed the seals on his wrists where they'd faded.
He'd forgotten.
It had been not much more than a year ago that he'd freed Wren, and the annulment clause had just been a way to get rid of the writ in case it became cumbersome. Any vampire who made a promise by blood writ inscribed an out or the magic would be too strong and binding. That hadn't been why he'd saved Wren. Far from it. Tala had already been on his way to see to Meredith and Wren before anything befell them. When he'd heard that scream from Hel, shadowed by the cries of the man he couldn't bear to be without, he'd thrust himself in the way of danger to protect him.
After, Wren has seemed okay, weak, but at least enough of himself to joke with Tala about his end... or had he been joking? Had Wren really thought Tala would enjoy watching him die? Nothing made sense anymore, and Tala was trying to sort it out as best he could. Wren had slept by his side, in comfort, or at least perceived comfort. Had that been terror to the man too? Had anything he'd had with Wren in the last year been real?
