I woke the next morning in the same position as in the middle of the night, on my side, with Marcurio's arm draped over me. The only difference is neither of us were wearing clothing. By his soft snoring I could tell he was still asleep. I tried to keep my body as relaxed as if I was still asleep, as I wanted to think a little.
Marcurio was right, I had been having erotic dream's with both him and Bjorn, the emotion's I had felt never changed, I should have noticed that. Bjorn had been shield brother and lover then friend and finally husband, Marcurio was student, shield brother then friend now lover and I would have no issues with calling him husband.
Physically they were nothing alike, personality wise really not much in common but a kind heart and firey spirit. I would never compare the two, because it would be like comparing a mountain lake to a river flowing through the tundra. Both could be placid or dangerous to the unwary if taken for granted.
That settled in my mind, I tried to move on to different things, but the first thing that hit my mind was that my Aunt and Uncle would be at the Falkreath house in a month if not sooner. I tensed and groaned.
The arm around me tightened and a husky voice asked against my neck, "Have you changed your mind about marrying me off to some cute little Nord woman?" I relaxed and chuckled, rolling over on my back and looking up into his silver grey eyes.
"Well if you think she would share, I might be talked into letting you have one for awhile," I said teasingly, grabbing a handful of his hair and pulling him down for a morning kiss. " Good morning, seriously, we need to get out of this bed, before I decide that the Master vampire can wait a couple days... or a week..... or maybe he can just turn us both and we can stay in this bed forever." My hands had wondered down his spine, taking playful nip's from his shoulder to his neck, then bit harder as my hand's reached the base of his spine and pushed... I smiled against his neck as I knew we wouldn't be getting out of bed for at least an hour.
I was laying in the crook of his arm with my head on his chest playing with his fingers when the Inn Keeper knocked on the door and said it was the dawn. I said thank you and rolled to my knee's, looking down at his handsome face. I shook my head and kissed him softly.
"Ok, it really is time to get out of bed." I climbed off the bed and stretched my arm's to the ceiling, bending backwards first then left and right and finally forward, my hand's touching the floor. I heard a groan from the bed and looked in that direction after standing up strait. I noticed the look in his eyes and walked over to put my underclothing on, then the rest. If he was going to stare, I was going to give a good show, I'm pretty sure I never put on my boot liners before my pant's before, by bending down. It was a lot less practical than by sitting down and pulling them up while tucking my pant's into them. I was almost completely in my armor, with only my boot's left when I noticed he was still watching me dress, so I threw one of my boot's at him. He caught it and tossed it back, I put it on this time and watched him get dressed.
"I have a question for you and if it bothers you to talk to me about Bjorn, I will understand." I told him to go ahead, I would answer if I could. " Why on Nirn did that man call you "Little Elf"?" I could really hear the puzzled tone in his voice, but the answer was a simple one.
" You did notice the height difference between us, yes?," At his nod I continued, " To him I was "little," he dwarfed most Nords and a lot of Altmer. I am an Elf, so Little Elf. I know now it's an insult, but to him it was an endearment." He stomped into his boot's then grabbed the shirt and pulled it over his head.
Walking back out of the cave, I looked at Marcurio and raised my eyebrow's at him in inquiry.
"Did that seem a bit to easy to you? I mean, a master vampire and we walked through them all like they were a bunch of drones." I thought about it for a minute and then answered him.
" It did seem a easy but, I think he was a lot younger than I first gave him credit for being, just as strong and not as smart. Dead thrall's are a cheap way to go, energy wise, for them. At the same time, if it was me, I would get my people to spend the energy to have live thrall's. Live thrall's may or may not keep doing their last command, but dead thrall's just turn to dust. Well plus one can keep feeding off of live thralls." He grimaced as he took it all in, but nodded.
"So are we headed back to Morthal?"
"No I think we can head to Ustengrav and camp out their for the night. With the right warding spell I doubt we'll have to worry about animals and will get a nice warning for people. I want to get this horn and figure out exactly what it is that I'm supposed to be doing."
Which is exactly what we did, fighting a couple of the swamps creatures and a Necromage at the door to Ustengrav. Their's something about Nordic tomb's and Necromages. After fighting them I debated on weather we needed to see if their were more of them inside the tomb, because I really didn't want to be surprised in the middle of the night. Deciding it was probably the best idea, we went down into the tomb and found a good number of necromages. It wasn't a fair fight at all, we wiped them out very quickly. The last of them running deeper into the tomb, from the sounds of it, he had found a friend and a couple enemies. I walked over to the nearest and felt a pang of regret at how young she was, so I walked over to the next one and it was the same thing, no more than mid twenties. Children, they were nothing but children just learning their craft. Because mage schools wouldn't teach necromancy, those interested had to learn on their own, often in groups like these.
We walked back out of the tomb, I wasn't in the mood to argue with the dragon I heard in the distance getting closer, so I called Durnehviir and asked him to make sure the dragon didn't come this way, weather he had to fight it or just warned it away. He dropped his head and looked me in the eyes, I could see he understood the sadness in my heart. He touched the tip of his nose to the side of my face and huffed, then turned and took off.
Marcurio slid his arm's around my waist and put his chin on my shoulder and we watched Durnehviir fly off and head in the direction of the other dragon. We could see gout's of flame and frost as the two dragon's talked to each other. The other dragon sounded young and through the bravado, scared... but he answered all of Durnehvirr's question's about what was happening. When Durnehviir went back into the Soul Cairn, the younger dragon took off towards the ocean, he probably had a lair on an island far enough out to not be a complete menace to people.
"Well it seem's as if a dragon named Alduin is waking up other dragon's, but Durnehviir seem's to think that's mostly to divert attention from himself." I heard the sharp intake of breath and felt the Marcurio tense up. "I'm going to take it you know the name?"
"Yes and I'm very, very surprised that Bjorn never told you about Alduin. They call him the World Eater, he's supposed to be the harbringer of the end of time or the begining of a new era, which ever way you look at it." I thought about that for a minute and realized what his name meant.... well crap. " So it actually makes sense for a Dragonborn to be here now. Why an Altmer and why you, well that I really can't explain. You've read the stories, epic hero fight's epic evil guy, someone win's someone dies."
"Well I guess all I can do is try to not be a dead hero. So first thing in the morning, we go and get that horn, get it back to the Greybeards and I train to fight The World Eater."
I turned and gave him a quick kiss and we set about to clean up the camp that was already their, I gathered some more wood, while Marcurio cooked dinner. I threw out the bedding that was in there and then sent out a wave of frost, that would kill any vermin that hadn't left with the bedding. Replacing it with our bedding, then I went and walked the perimeter of the camp, placing a ward around the area. I then walked down to the door of the tomb and placed a frost rune right in front of it.
Dinner was ready when I came up the step's and Marcurio and I sat on the stone step's leading up to the tomb and ate our dinner watching the creatures in the swamp do what they did. Neither one of us was in a chatty mood, both lost in our own thought's. I hoped his were better than mine, the Fates were playing a nasty trick on me and it wasn't fair to Marcurio either. I put my bowl down and leaned back to look up at the star's.
" I need you with me Marcurio, this is going to be a really nasty fight and I don't know if we will come out the winner's or not. I hate the idea of your dyeing but as it's an everyday threat hunting vampires, not much has really changed their." I looked over where he sat quietly just a darker shadow in the night, " I may have given an instant's thought to your not coming with me and staying safely with the Dawnguard or at Lakeside manor." I saw him tense up and turn towards me, but kept talking before he had a chance, " But I need you with me, not just as a fighting partner, but as the man I love. Yes, I do love you, I've just been fighting it and myself. As much as I don't wish to see you die in battle, I need you by my side. I need your sarcastic remark's when I get staid and boring." He moved closer and I could see his eyes, he wouldn't have let me leave him behind. I smiled at him and he leaned down and gave me a passionate kiss.
" I wish this was the time and place to do more than give you a kiss. We are going to take a day off, at home and send Rayya to town or something." his eye's were burning with desire and his voice raw with need. " I need you and I want time with you, we've been together for years and I want one day, maybe two to love you the way I have dreamed of." I shuddered, with the images that I was catching from him, one of these day's I was going to have to let him know that I was something of an empath and if we are touching, I get images as well as feelings.
"You'll have that time, but for now I think we both need to get some sleep." I had other thought's, ones that would at least give him some ease, I chuckled and gave him a wicked grin. I leaned over and gave him a kiss, projecting exactly what I planned to do to him in the next few minutes, my hand already reaching down to unlace his pant's. I could feel his desire and need, I could feel my touch on him and suddenly, I knew he could feel all that and what I was feeling also. I summoned a frost Atronach and we were out of our clothing faster than I thought possible. Their was no him or me, we just were.. each of us feeling the physical touch of the other and the emotions that went along with making love.
The moon's were up high in the sky by the time that we crawled into our bedding, I lay content with Marcurio's arm around me. I could still feel some of his thoughts, but he was half asleep. I stared out into the swamp, wondering exactly what had just happened between us, I had never heard of such a thing. Marcurio wiggled until their wasn't an inch between us anywhere and then said.
"I'm slightly Empathic as well, we fed off of each other. I had heard about that happening between two empaths, but never really talked to anyone it had happened to." He sighed and pulled me a little closer and then fell into a deep sleep. I had never thought about having sex or an emotional bond to someone else with any empathy, it just hadn't occurred to me, we would have to test it to see just how far it went. A girl likes to have some thought's to herself. I sent my prayer to Kyne and allowed myself to fall into a light sleep.
