I know, I know. I disappeared from fanfiction for quite some time. Winter months are supposed to be when my job eases up, but nope. Last couple years summer/spring has been the slow down time with fall/winter the opposite. So, between being worked to near death and oh yeah, my several thousand-dollar beloved computer going haywire, yeah… needless to say, haven't had much time to write anything, much less work on various projects.

I finally got some free time and managed to figure out the computer trouble, so here we are once more.

Anyway, here's another reuploaded chapter, not much changed on this one, thankfully. Reviews would be deeply appreciated, especially so I can know if people are actually still here and reading.

Enjoy.

Hastrel was an absolute trouble magnet. This much Serana had quickly figured out after a short time traveling in the man's presence. First it was carving through a force of vampires to unknowingly stumble across her tomb, then the near fight in the great hall of Castle Volkihar, not to mention what other fights Hastrel had gotten into when she wasn't looking.

Trouble stuck to Hastrel like flies to rotting flesh. Why, Serana had yet to figure out. Surely, nobody could have fortune as poor as his. There must be a reason he kept getting into situations like these.

Such as right now for instance, although the would-be bandits were looking a little… tasty.

"Do we really have to do this?" Hastrel didn't sound worried in the slightest, extremely annoyed was more like it. "Come on, you're a dozen or two short of a win."

Serana wouldn't admit it, but she probably had enough worry for the both of them. Being a vampire didn't make her invincible, and Hastrel was just an ordinary man skilled or not. Numbers may not always win battles, but they just might win this one.

Fifteen on two? Those odds were horrible for anyone.

"Then make it easy on yourselves." The bandit Serana assumed was the leader grinned, revealing several missing, and many yellow, teeth. Between that, the missing eye, and scars, he resembled your stereotypical bandit you would read about in a book. "Pay up, and we all go on our merry ways."

"How about we all go on our merry way and nobody dies today." Hastrel countered, arms folded but hand resting on the pommel of his sword. Almost as if he wanted the outlaws to know he was armed without actually drawing.

Serana herself had already drawn her dagger, an ice spike ready to be charged. When the bandits had sprung their little ambush, they had almost instantly surrounded the pair. Serana was given no other option but to take up a position at Hastrel's rear, leaving mortal and vampire back-to-back.

Their saving grace was that though Serana and Hastrel were outnumbered, the bandits had no mages among their number. Each either held a heavy two hander weapon, or a weapon and shield. None had the hands open required for spellcasting.

"Hold on a minute, can you tell your archer over there to stand down? I don't want to get shot because somebody feels jumpy." Hastrel motioned with his head, but he could have been indicating almost any direction.

The bandit leader looked perplexed for a moment. "How did you know he had an archer hidden in the tree?"

"I didn't, you just told me." Serana could almost hear the smirk in Hastrel's voice, even if she could not see it.

While the surrounding terrain was partially forested, most of it wasn't really leafy. Only a single tree could conceal a person at all. The moronic bandit had just confessed the position of their sniper.

Evidently, Hastrel's patience had completely run out. Quicker than the destruction magic he used, Hastrel struck.

The hand that sat on the pommel of his sword came up with a vicious uppercut to the other man's chin, knocking him flat on his back. Next came the whoosh of Hastrel's armor spells, followed by the drawing of his sword, ending a hurled flash of lightning to the nearby tree.

Hastrel had gotten lucky with the bluff that revealed the archer's hiding spot, but there was no way Hastrel could have known exactly where. If he had tried using a detect life spell, one of the bandits would have seen the exposed hand.

The answer came when a scream emanated from the tree. Serana turned in time to see another bandit fall from the tree's branches, his neck breaking when his body hit earth. The corpse was completely unmarked by the lightning, not even a burn or graze wound. How…

Of course!

Hastrel hadn't been trying to hit the archer. Judging by how poorly equipped the majority of this lot were, they were amateurs at best, easily intimidated and panicked. Hastrel had counted on that when he threw the spell. He didn't actually have to hit the archer, just scare him enough to fall from the tree.

In the span of four seconds, Hastrel had taken down the leader of the mob and neutralized the bandit's hidden sniper. Predictably, both of these things had put the fear of the divines back into the remaining twelve.

Instead of attacking, almost all of them looked ready to cut and run right then and there. Serana couldn't blame them, even she was a little freaked out how effectively Hastrel had acted. Not the first time the vampiress was thankful Hastrel never turned on her.

"What are you dolts waiting for?" The bandit leader sat up, spitting out blood and a tooth. "Get them!"

That shook a number from their stupor, but Serana was ready. The closest received an ice spike to his front. The bandit raised a shield, only for the spike lodge in the obstruction and take him clear off his feet. The shield may have stopped the attack but the spike punched right though the wood and drove through his arm.

Regardless, he wouldn't be any more trouble for a while. Even as that one howled in agony, another moved to attack Serana.

The bandits were every but as weak as they appeared. Serana barely had to use any magic against the ones she fought. Her dagger alone proved more than enough, and that was saying something.

Serana was even able to sneak in a quick bite on one that wouldn't stay down. A zap of lightning, several dagger cuts, and even being drained wouldn't keep him at bay. Serana finally had enough and tore into his throat with her fangs.

The taste wasn't exactly that great. Better than horker or the bottled stuff she had at Castle Volkihar. Blood was blood however, and Serana was feeling quite hungry.

"Serana!" Hastrel's call reached Serana's ears just as she shoved the now dead bandit away.

When she followed the sound, Serana found herself face to face with a large orc, warhammer raised to smash her head like a melon.

The hulking bandit was too close, Serana didn't have a hope of dodging or stopping the weapon. Hastrel was almost two dozen feet away, too far away to help either.

This was it then, the place she met her end.

"WULD NAH KEST!"

First Serana heard the words, followed by an intense rush of wind. The orc just stood there, face contorted in some weird expression. He stood like that for several long moments before the line of blood appeared across his middle. Serana blinked, and the orc dropped to the ground, bisected in half at the waist.

Hastrel stood less than five feet away, his sword's blade smeared with orc blood.

Everything stopped cold the moment those three words had been shouted. It made the heavy thud of the orc's heavy parts and warhammer hitting the dirt even louder than they should have been.

"It's him." One of the surviving bandits whispered with a strange reverence.

"The slayer of Alduin." Another muttered.

To Serana's total astonishment, most of the bandits dropped their weapons and moved down to their knees bowing in what almost seemed like prayer.

All of this directed right at Hastrel.

"Who among you is your leader?" Hastrel sighed, pulling down his facemask, the hood following immediately after.

Many fingers pointed to the bandit speaker from earlier, but no one turned their gaze up.

The bandit in question was covered in numerous wounds, but was one of the only ones not kneeling. By the time Hastrel reached him, he was on his feet but barely standing. Hastrel easily batted aside the weak sword thrust with a swing of his spell armored arm. Hastrel once again knocked him down, this time with a shoulder to his front.

With the leader down, Hastrel planted a foot on his neck. He struggled to move Hastrel's foot, but was too weak from blood loss. He could only lay there pinned beneath Hastrel's boot. "I take it this is the one who gathered you all together? An easy life of murder and profit?"

Many heads nodded, but no voices spoke.

"Consider this a warning." Hastrel applied a tiny bit more pressure, just enough to cut off some of the bandit's breathing. "All of you, go home. Consider a career change. Am I understood?"

Again, nodding heads but silent voices.

"Good." Hastrel slammed his foot down, Serana heard the snap of the bandit's neck before his body went limp.

Hastrel stepped off the now unmoving corpse and wiped his sword clean on the fur armor of the dead leader. When he was done, Hastrel looked around at the kneeling bandits.

"Was I not clear?" Hastrel roared. "I said… GO HOME!"

Never before had Serana seen mortals move so fast. Everyone jumped to their feet and took off, more than a few literally tripping over each other. At first, Serana thought they were going to attack again, but they moved in the opposite direction. Everyone ran away from Hastrel and Serana as fast as their legs would take them, they even left their weapons behind.

Serana watched the entire spectacle trying to figure out just what she was seeing. She didn't even hear Hastrel's question at first.

"I'm sorry, what?" Serana shook her head.

"I said, are you alright?" Hastrel looked Serana over, checking for injuries. His eyes lingered a while on her face before realizing the blood on her lips wasn't her own.

"I'm fine, what was that?" Serana wiped the blood away with her fingertips before licking them clean, no point in letting it go to waste.

"That's… complicated." Hastrel's face darkened, but Serana knew it wasn't because of her eating habits.

Hastrel knew it was going to come up eventually, not like he could hide what he was forever. The hood and mask getup helped hide from the public eye, but if he was going to spend much time in Serana's presence, which seemed to be fate's intention, she would find out eventually.

Serana, being a vampire, would not be welcome whatsoever with the Dawnguard. Hastrel thus far was the only one who didn't take offense at her presence. So more than likely she would be fused to his side like glue until Harkon's plan was thwarted. After that was anyone's guess.

It became painfully obvious when Serana joined him at Fort Dawnguard she would have to be told. That didn't mean he couldn't try to stall as long as possible, she may have even already heard about him before they reunited. Even so, she wouldn't know he was the living legendary hero of Skyrim.

Hastrel didn't exactly expect to reveal it to save Serana's unlife. But when he saw that orc ready to kill her, Hastrel didn't exactly have much in the way of options. Despite their short time together, the vampire was growing on him a little.

Besides, she was a friendly vampire. That alone was enough for him to go the extra mile in her defense. Hastrel would have done the same for Hert if she were in danger.

Of course, the stupid superstitious morons had to go and make the situation worse. Hastrel expected them to run in fear, not bow in worship! Divines, the whole thing made him want to yell in frustration. He almost turned his blade on every single one of them, but most were just kids duped into doing the bidding of some bigger idiot who probably got booted out of his own gang.

Hastrel took enough of his anger out on him so he wouldn't butcher the whole lot.

None of these thoughts were solving Hastrel's current problem.

Hastrel was still stuck with a vampiress who wouldn't let what she saw slide. Hastrel had done his best to deflect and brush what he did off like it was nothing, but Serana wasn't buying it. He did get her to drop it for a while, but now that they had stopped for the evening, she was waiting for his explanation.

Amazing how an immortal could so lack the virtue of patience.

"You're not going to let go, are you?" Hastrel sat opposite Serana at their small fire. The sun had set a while ago, leaving the orange embers their only source of light and warmth.

"No."

Hastrel sighed, a heavy sound as he prodded the burning wood with a small stick he'd found. When was the last time he'd even shared a campfire with someone anyway? Probably not since he'd traveled in the company of his housecarl, Lydia.

"What you did back there, thank you." Serana started. "But just what was that you did?"

Serana, from what little Hastrel had been able to gather, spent her entire childhood cooped up in Castle Volkihar. No doubt reading books was her only view to the outside world, she had to already know. The vampiress just wanted confirmation.

"I shouted." Hastrel responded, blunter than a mace.

"The only ones who can do that are…"

"Okay, let's just skip the question and answer session. Yes, I'm Dragonborn, yes, I can shout, now can we just drop it and go back to trying to save the world?" Hastrel didn't mean to sound so hostile, so bitter, it just came out that way.

Serana seemed completely unfazed. "Why didn't you say something?"

"Why didn't you say something about being a vampire princess?" Hastrel countered.

"I'm not a…" Serana stopped, her face contorted in a scowl. "Fair enough. But why hide under a hood all the time? Is it because of what we saw back there?"

Hastrel didn't attempt to hide his groan. He knew there was no getting out of this quite so easily.

"I hide because I got sick of the attention, the praise, the requests." Hastrel sneered. "It's all Dragonborn go kill this monster, Dragonborn wipe out these outlaws, do this, do that, ooh Dragonborn have my babies. I grew completely sick of it!"

"You're pulling my leg with that last one." Serana didn't smile, but Hastrel could hear the amusement in her voice.

Hastrel answered with the most deadpan ton he'd ever used. "You want names? I have about two dozen."

"Wow."

"There's some in Skyrim who see me as the reincarnation of Talos, returned to deliver them from the Thalmor and Dominion. I'm no god, just another person good at killing things." Hastrel spat in disgust. "No matter what I say or do, it's always the same. They even try repeatedly to demand my help in their civil war. I swear to Akatosh, if I have to hear it's my solemn duty to fight for Skyrim's freedom, or for what they claim is 'my empire', I will rip the messenger's head from his shoulders!"

"They've been trying to get you to pick a side in the war?" Hastrel had told Serana about the civil war, but no doubt she'd gotten some more details before they met back up. "Why?"

"Everybody wants a Dragonborn on their side." Hastrel explained. "The Stormcloaks know just how powerful I can be, not to mention I'd be a beacon to draw more people to their side. The empire is pretty similar, but it's more about denying the Stormcloaks my help. Both sides have even tried to assassinate me, twice."

"Wait, if they want to recruit you, why kill you? Seems kind of counterproductive." Serana thus far had been indifferent to what Hastrel was. Hopefully it stayed that way. It would certainly be a first.

"Rogue elements. I imagine Ulfric and Tullius wouldn't be happy if they knew about it." Hastrel shrugged, remembering them quite clearly.

"Something else." Serana mused. "You can shout, why haven't you done that until now?"

"Shouts are a last resort." Hastrel admitted. "I only use them when I have to, lest I become dependent on them. Not to mention, I can't hide being Dragonborn if I go shouting everywhere. Besides, I trust more in my own skills than I do some fancy dragon words."

"Makes sense, I suppose." Serana agreed. "Any other hidden surprises you're not telling me about?"

"Hmm… I was considered for arch-mage of the College of Winterhold and I personally kicked in the door of the Dark Brotherhood, for starters."

"You did what?" Serana squawked.

Another reuploaded chapter. As I said previously, leave a review please. I have no clue just how many readers I have left and would very much like to know.