Having landed back into my own body had jarring consequence. Being racked with pain was nothing unusual for me but the bustle about the room had the effect of rousing me back from the pits of the abyss.

I blinked away the blood that dripped down my forehead. Most of it had dried and was caking off but here was still some oozing down in a slow trickle. That most of it wasn't mine was a shocking reminder of how far I had come from the Kira I once was. All that too in the span of hours.

The sun up and still rising high in the sky. But our job here was not over. With Vanessa gone the coven of originals here needed a new leader. I wasn't sure but from the buzzing talk that was going around after Damon brushed aside the first wave of attack on Lucian with the ease of a true master, the opposer's backed down. Being a master was inevitable for an original but to lead a coven of masters was another matter all together.

Lucian had the ability but not the heart for it. He enjoyed his own territory and had no desire in expanding his responsibilities beyond that territory. In defeating Lucian a new leader would be born but neither Damon nor Lucian wanted that method of settling this dispute.

So Damon leaped in to the rescue and was even now physically negotiating a new method of resolving this dispute.

Lucian took the moment of respite to fall on to his knees beside me.

I looked up at his beautiful but battered profile. He had already healed most of his wounds. There were only smears of blood where previously there had been open gnashes.

"Kira," he breathed out my name, shakily.

"Lucian," I all but croaked in reply.

At once his wrist torn open and dripping with the rich brew of an original was settled over my parched lips.

I drank from him like never before. With an erotic enjoyment that was unseemly especially given the circumstances we were in surrounded by veritable strangers as we were.

"Kira," murmured Lucian huskily into my ears turning me on even further. I lifted my head to stare up longingly into his eyes and found myself cradled in his bloody lap a moment later. His arms wrapped around me. I released my teeth from his wrists then as I turned instead to mesh my lips to his. Our kiss was brutal with no hint of tenderness on either side. The fear for each other that had gripped us only moments before was what ruled. We gripped each other hard trying to mesh together physically where before we meshed at an ethereal level.

But the turmoil of dispute that surrounded us had away of getting through even the most all encompassing haze of lust and love.

We broke apart starting at each other breathing hard. I cupped his beautiful face feeling the bristles on his unshaven cheeks bite into my tender skin. I ran a caressing hand down his face feeling his contours, needing the closeness of touch. My hand slid down the strong column of his neck onto his shoulders where my eyes landed on the blood filled rag that was once his shirt. My hand gripped at the offending rag and without a thought ripped it right off him.

The sound of shredding seems of the torn fabric ripped through the room with a lot more engaging results then I would have liked. As one all stilled about us swinging their gazes onto the two of us still seated like love lorn fools in the middle of the floor.

I stared around with rising embarrassment until the most marvellous sounds of Lucians' laughter rang out loud and clear... drawing my startled gaze back to him. Watching him laugh with unrestrained relief was a pleasure that I could have never imagined. my own happiness rose to incredible highs from just watching his face split in the wide grin. His shaking shoulders made me want to run my hands all over him but instead I fisted my hands and moved to rise shakily to my feet. Needing the distance between us before I did something really stupid like pounce on his heaving chest and divest him of his remaining garments.

Instead, I turned to face Damon and our watching audience. "I would like to leave with Lucian. I want no repercussion from what happened here. What do you want of me... of us.. to make it so?"