"When on the mountain, just out of the tunnel, we got a couple of looks because he shared my bedroll with me," Lana paused with tears in her eyes, "I have nightmares. I don't just mean moving around a lot in my sleep. I mean I wake up with blood-curdling screams. Not exactly something you want happening in a world of people who drink your blood."
"While I was testing the latest Logan Green kitchen, Vorden was helping me out with that. My team has 6 people and I was sleeping on the couch because there were only 5 beds. This is a luxury kitchen complete with shower, toilet, the works. Whoever uses it gets to be in comfort while waiting for the food to cook. I wanted to see how much strain the system could take before it started to be taxed. I had others come and spend a few nights."
"I woke up one of those nights and … I'm not exaggerating when I say it was bad. Vorden was on the couch with me before the scream was even fully out and wrapped himself around me. I was back to sleep pretty fast. From that point on, I didn't sleep alone. It was either him or Dobin. But I didn't wake up screaming under either circumstance."
Erin responded, "it's a good thing he stopped you from participating then. You are too weak, you would have died."
Leo stepped in, "Lana is anything but weak. I'd put her against you."
Lana chuckled, "No thanks. Though her Qi as you called it is not at a bad level."
Leo smiled, "looks like the stress of your life has expanded yours twice as much since I last saw you."
Lana smiled back, "I was hoping now that I'm reconnected to you again if we could have one more spar at some point. I've been keeping myself pretty busy while here, I must say, and I have not practiced much. While we were in the vampire school, Vorden and I would go hunting for Caser's food."
"Right now, I have a deal with a vampire in the tenth to hunt for me. I pay him and he brings live food so I can work with Caser. I'm also working with a girl that was in Layla's class to swap information on plants. She watched the fight with me from the roof and handled getting today's catch for me when I left to join you guys."
"I would love a spar to see how you've grown, on one condition."
"What's that?"
"You use your whip the whole time as your weapon. You can use your body as well but keep it out and use it. Especially after you have used it to kill."
Lana nodded. "I used it to kill many beasts but you're right. I'll agree."
"Is that the same beast? It's stronger."
Lana smirked, "yes. He made his first kill finally. It seems he's got a huge protective instinct. It feels weird having all this protection. It used to be I could only rely on myself." She sighed and yawned. "I think I'll go lie down. Sleep well everyone"
Vorden was standing before she was and helped her up, took her bag off her shoulders and escorted her to the corner he had set up for them. She didn't even notice. She had been so busy taking care of everyone else. She still wasn't used to being taken care of herself.
She dug through her bag and pulled out a crystal she stole from the library and put it between her and Vorden because she could hear the sounds of the others going to bed as well. They could talk using this stone if she could stay awake long enough. But that didn't happen. She didn't sleep much the previous night so she could get everything ready for today. Now Sil's arms were wrapped around her once more. Nothing else existed but them and peace.
At some point in the night, the crystal had been tapped and turned off. In the early morning hours, Lana woke and tried to move even closer to Sil who had not moved. Just that small amount of movement woke him up. He traced her curves gently yet seductively. Now that they had been found out to be humans, scent was no longer an issue. He wanted to show his woman he loved her. In their room, they had their own bathroom. Here, she had things in her bag to clean up with but the act would have a scent. He rolled her rolled her back and discovered, painfully, she was laying on the silence crystal. She turned on her light crystal and rolled back over. He grabbed it, showed it to her and they both chuckled. He turned it on and set it aside. Caser was sleeping on her pillow. She turned the light crystal back off and they stripped each other and enjoyed each other for a few hours.
What they didn't know Quinn was sleeping on the mattress next over. He woke up when they chuckled. They were almost done when Arthur came to the door and told Silver and Leo the council was ready and it was time to go. They got everyone up. Quinn told them to not wake up Vorden and Lana, let her sleep a few more minutes.
Vorden had moved dressers and such around their mattress to create a small little room for her. The rest got up and moved their mattresses and blankets out. As they all headed down to the reception area, Quinn threw a pillow from the bed that belonged in the room and it hit the wall. In the reception hall, Erin was complaining Little Miss Princess got extra sleep.
Leo looked her direction, "Little Miss Princess healed everyone after we got here yesterday and none of us know how she got here so fast. How about you give her a break."
Logan decided to give Erin more clarity. "Lana does not have a healing ability. Her ability has to do with plants. This means she has to first grow the plant. She then extracts the medicinal components then she pushes those components into our skin to be absorbed by our bodies. In addition, that sandwich you ate yesterday."
"One, that was half of HERS. Two, she grew every component in that sandwich. This means she got up in the middle of the night the other night to prepare her bag with proper food to help us regain our energy, blood for the vampires to heal as well as Peter's special food. She has a right to be tired."
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Vorden stood up and looked around since the light crystal was back on. Sil had been cleaning them up.
Vorden got a bit red-faced, "thanks, Quinn!"
They got ready quickly and Quinn moved the mattress back while Lana fixed her hair. They thanked everyone for waiting for them.
"Logan," Lana asked, "Is there a way to do a temporary modification to this bag? I don't want the council to see Caser but he needs to touch me. If we can stash him in the bag and be able to breath and touch me, that would be ideal."
Logan touched the bag and the metal, which was made up of his tiny spiders, moved in the way she needed them to. "We'll change it back once this meeting is over."
She looked a lot more relieved, "thank you!" she then put Caser in the bag and explained everything. He immediately stuck a tentacle out one of the holes as she put the bag back on her back. She realized everyone was waiting on her and looked down as she said she was ready. Outside were 30 guards and the 9th leader, Muka Fortuna. The guards protected them all the way to the castle.
They were the first to arrive. Arthur sat in his seat which was directly across from the king's. This was the table designed off his own table for him and his knights after all. He told Quinn to sit as well in his own seat. Quinn was nervous but he did. The rest were lined up against the wall behind him. Muka gave them all protocol instructions. Silver and Fex were included with the others. Those lined up along the wall couldn't help but be nervous seeing that Quinn was.
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