Elayn woke, an arm pinned to the bed, to the scent of nightshade and Serana thick in her nose. She closed her eyes and realized that she was pressed to the vampire’s back, one arm tucked behind her own head and the other slung over the other woman’s midriff. She slept in a white linen shift, thin enough that Elayn could feel cool smoothness where her hand pressed, and she swallowed past the sudden dryness in her throat.

For a moment she thought to extricate herself, but something in her couldn’t bring herself to do it. Instead she shifted closer, burying her nose in Serana’s neck, sighing at the way it made her feel warm and fuzzy. Her hand tightened over Serana’s belly, and the vampire shifted with a soft moan.

Elayn froze, unsure if she should move or not, and before she could make a decision there was a hand over hers, holding it in place.

“You’re warm,” Serana said, voice roughened with sleep. “Feels nice.”

So she relaxed again, letting herself enjoy the feeling of holding someone. They lay like that while Serana woke up fully and stretched, the motion pushing her even more closely against Elayn, who did not at all mind. Then she got out of bed, which Elayn did mind, and started getting ready for the night. She rang a bell for breakfast and it was Leta who brought it up.

“Thank you dear,” Serana said, taking the tray to the bed.

“Anything else miss?” the girl asked, taking unsubtle glances at the werewolf sprawled in the bed.

Said werewolf had an idea and sat up. “Hey Leta,” she said. “You haven’t heard any plans to bring in more humans any time soon, have you?”

The serving girl looked around quickly before stepping further into the room, cringing as though she expected to be struck. “Yes, miss,” she whispered. “At the end of this week, the lord will be bringing in chattel for a special feast.”

Serana blinked in recognition. “That’s right, I do remember him saying something about that. Do you think…” She trailed off, and Elayn caught her meaning.

“Maybe,” she said, giving Leta a smile. “Thanks.”

The girl made her exit hastily and let the door swing shut behind her. Elayn sat up and grabbed the bowl of porridge. “The sooner I taste rabbit,” she groaned. “The happier I’ll be.”

“I imagine you’ll get plenty of time to hunt then,” Serana said, taking the goblet of ruby liquid from the tray. She drank from it, and wiped away the red from her lips with red fabrice of her sleeve. “After we finish this. I thought we would have more time.”

Elayn shrugged. “Better than hiding that we know for months in wait.”

“That’s true.”

They ate and went to the laboratory, where Serana took up her perch on the chaise and Elayn sat on the floor with her back to the furniture. She leaned her head against the vampire’s hanging hand, asking, and was answered with a gentle hand petting her hair. She sighed, eyes sliding shut, and dozed there while she waited for Serana to find something interesting.

It didn’t take long either, or so it felt. “There’s more information on the vessel here,” she said, reading so closely from the page that it nearly touched her nose. “It says it will be… the scion of two children of the night, born on a blood moon.”

“Children of the night?” Elayn asked, twisting her neck to look up at her.

“Vampires,” Serana said faintly, looking slightly paler than usual. “The child of two vampires.”

Did that mean… “Your parents are both vampires,” she said.

“It’s me.” Serana swallowed audibly. “The vessel is me.”

Once when Serana was young, she tried flying by jumping off a parapet into her mother’s garden below. There had been a moment where she felt weightless and light-- only to quickly feel dread as her stomach tried to tuck itself into its throat as she fell. It had been luck that her mother saw her and managed to catch her before she hurt herself too terribly.

Right now, her stomach was trying the same thing it had then.

It wasn’t common for vampires to bear children, in fact it was almost unheard of as far as Serana knew. It had taken great magic for her conception, and her birth had taken a terrible toll on her mother. All that effort, and she was nothing but a pawn in her father’s schemes of dominion? Not just him, but her mother too.

In a beat Elayn was sitting on the couch next to her, tugging her close with an arm around her shoulder. “It’s alright,” she assured her, unsure of what else to say. “He won’t use you.”

“We need to run,” Serana said, suddenly gripping her hands tight and looking into her eyes. “Tonight. I can distract the guards, I know a way through the gate, if we run then--”

“Then Harkon will chase us,” Elayn reminded her gently, turning her own hands over to clasp Serana’s. “Until he hunts us down and goes ahead with his plan. If we run, we need to be rid of him.”

“Do you understand how risky what you’re proposing is?” Serana demanded hotly. “He won’t let you anywhere near during the ceremony, and doubtless he’ll have me incapacitated in a way that I won’t be able to act either.”

The werewolf-- her werewolf, as she was growing more fond of thinking-- considered that for a moment, then said, “But how will he keep me away? He’ll have to put me under guard if he tries to keep me bound or locked up.” She smirked, somehow feeling confident in the midst of all this uncertainty. “I’m good at getting out of places.”

Serana couldn’t help it; she chuckled. “Then how is it I’ve managed to keep you here?”

“I’m good at getting out of places I want to escape,” she amended, tapping a kiss on the vampire’s nose, then more firmly on her lips. “You just trapped me better than anyone’s ever managed to before I really got up the urge to make my exit.”

Normally she spoke of traps with full malice in her voice, but her tone was only playful, and it made Serana smile in spite of everything. “We’ll figure something out,” she said, feeling more certain of the words than she might have before.