The week passed by with Serana and Elayn holed up in her mother’s laboratory, poring through the journals in an effort to figure out exactly how Elayn should go about disrupting the ritual. Eventually it became clear that at least that part would be fairly easy; the ritual involved a series of circles and sigils lined with precisely placed crystals and other occult objects. Knock enough of those out of place, and the portal would hopefully explode in Harkon’s face.

The night before the feast, they retreated to Serana’s room earlier than usual, the vampire claiming she wanted to get plenty of rest before all the excitement that would follow. Elayn waited while she readied herself for bed, but was puzzled when instead of sliding into the covers first, she slipped her shift from her shoulders and held her hand out to Elayn as the fabric fell to the floor.

“Trust me?” she asked, and Elayn in that moment fervently did.

They fell into each other almost frantically, their touches less awkward than their first kiss. It was a sweet reverse of their usual roles, and yet so like them. Aside from initiating the kiss, Serana was hesitant, while Elayn brought them both to the brink. Spent and sated, they fell asleep in each other’s arms, too exhausted to lie awake in fear of the coming night.

Serana was taken while Elayn slept. It had to be while she was forced unconscious by some magic, or she never would have let her mistress be taken.

“I’m disappointed, my daughter,” Harkon said heavily, standing in observation as his more magically inclined courtiers assembled the ritual for the portal. “Lying with beasts. I thought I raised you better.”

Serana said nothing, would not look at him, not while she was bound to a pillar, waiting for her part.

He scoffed and strode over to her, gripped her jaw in one large hand, and forced her to meet his eyes. “Impertinent,” he chided, voice full of menace.

“Bored,” Serana shot back. “When will this be over?”

“When the moon is high,” he said, jerking her head before letting go and stepping away. “Do you not appreciate the sacrifice you will be making? You will be the spark that burns the world of the plague of humanity.” He sounded genuinely curious, if not still threatening.

“I thought you loved me.” Serana kept her voice flat, even as the words sent a pang through her heart.

“We must sacrifice what we love for greatness,” he said, utterly convinced of his own dedication. He was completely insane.

Elayn wrenched at the bars of her cage for the dozenth time since she’d awoken in it, growling. Her guard growled back, but she ignored it in favor of dropping back to the floor with a huff. She had to get out, had to find where they were starting the ritual. She hadn’t expected the bars to be so damned thick, which was her mistake. The cage was large, maybe it was meant to hold the likes of her guard.

As she was plotting other means of escape, there was a knock at the door, and another hulking guard stalked in and faced the one standing by the cage.

“Shift change,” it growled. “Go.”

Her guard left without another word, letting its post be resumed by its relief. Elayn cursed, she hadn’t known their shifts would change so quickly. She would have to wait for the next for an opportunity to--

“Pups who cause trouble get put in cages,” the guard said, and growled strangely. Was it… laughing at her?

“Before I even got started too,” she said mournfully. “What a pity.”

“Indeed.” The guard crouched down in front of the door of her cage, looking in. “Can you stop the master?”

“What?” Elayn nearly fell over in shock. She peered closer at the guard. Wait a moment, she recognized that pelt.

“You’re the one from earlier!” she exclaimed. “That I spoke to.”

“You waste time stating the obvious,” the guard rumbled. “Can you do it?”

“If I could get out of this cage, I could,” she said as quick as she could. “I don’t suppose you have a key.”

In response, the guard reached out and grabbed the bars of the cage door. With a heaving grunt, the metal gave way and the guard pulled it away so Elayn could walk out without even having to bend her neck.

Something occurred to her. “Before I go,” she said. “Is there any way to reverse what’s been done to you?”

“What’s done is done,” it growled. “I will be content with freedom from this place.”

“What’s your name?” she persisted.

The guard stared down at her for a moment, then said, “Elis.”

And Elayn took off out the door and down the hall.

She followed her nose, which led her down corridors toward the biggest source of vampire scent she’d smelled in a while. It led to a large door set in a wall down a large hallway.

But before she could reach it, her instincts screamed and she skidded to a halt. Out of the shadows came a familiar bastard in robes and she bared her teeth.

“Vingalmo,” she growled. “I’m glad it’s you who got in my way.”

The vampire smirked, and gestured broadly with his hands as two hulking guards she hadn’t scented came out of the shadows too. “I think you’re hardly in the position to be glad, pup. You won’t be interrupting the lord’s ceremony.”

Elayn was tough, but she wasn’t that tough. While Vingalmo stood by watching, the two guards swooped in on her. She fought with everything she had and still ended up held by the arms, with a throbbing eye and a cut lip she could feel dripping blood onto her chin. She struggled and her arms were wrenched further behind her back, putting strain on her shoulders that had her biting the uncut side of her lip to keep from crying out.

“Now,” said Vingalmo, striding closer to grip her chin with iron fingers, wrenching her head to the side when she tried to bite him. “What to do with you?”

She panted, thinking furiously, and ignored him while he deliberated, pulling her chin this way and that to further the indignity of his hold on her. Then, inspiration struck, and she prayed to gods she wasn’t sure of that it would work.

“Elis let me loose,” she said, her words bypassing Vingalmo completely, aimed at the two twisted werewolves holding her. “I can end this.”

She was hoping a lot of things; that the vampires were as careless as she thought and didn’t know the names of their creatures, that said creatures had any sort of camaraderie, and that it would be enough to save her life now. She waited moments that seemed like an eternity.

“What are you-- What is this?!” the vampire demanded, backing away as the guards dropped Elayn and advanced on him. “Know your place--”

The rest of his words were cut off in a screech that ended in a wet gurgle as fangs flashed and tore through the flesh of his throat like paper. The blow nearly severed his head and he fell to the ground in a heap, bleeding thick, sludgy blood onto the rug covering the stone floor below.

Elayn fell into a crouch and watched all this happened, stretching her arms this way and that to relieve the pain in her shoulders. When the werewolves turned to her, she was quick to rise to her feet and not look either of them in the eye.

“Thank you,” she said. “I’m going to kill that bastard that held us as slaves.”

“Good hunting,” the one with bloody teeth said, while the other nodded.

Taking a deep breath, Elayn opened the door leading to the dark ceremony, shifted form, and slipped inside.