Punishing Beupraxia

Concordia, Eleven Hundred Years Before

Thaelen woke with Gera pressed tight to his chest. The human had massaged and fed Thaelen, and then slept contentedly at his side. Thaelen had fed heavily from Gera in the hopes that between the blood loss and lack of privacy, the human would not find the lack of sex remarkable and Gera did not stir as Thaelen eased himself free of his embrace and tiptoed out of the tent.

He was not surprised to find Egren feeding on a blood slave outside and nodded his greeting to her. “Do not interrupt your meal,” he told her. “I will go to the beach to bathe and return anon.”

His path through the stronghold was heralded by greetings and offers of company however he declined them, needing to spend some time alone with his thoughts and his grief. The sand was spotted with camp sites, smouldering fires ringed by sleeping vampires and blood slaves, and the debris of their belongings.

He stripped to his skin, leaving his clothes in the sand, and plunged into the wa