The others started coming in. Edward came in and stood behind Quinn in the standard way the knights do, not near the wall but just to the side and behind the chair. He told Quinn he looked good in that chair. Bryce was angry Arthur was sitting in his seat. Then he promised Quinn he would personally chop off his head once it was proven he wasn't the tenth leader.
The king was the last to enter. He had Quinn touch a ball first because there were two sets of verdicts based on whether he was the leader or not. If he was, the light behind his seat would glow brighter when he touched it. It did.
As the leader, Quinn had a right to turn Peter and save his blood brother. Some leaders questioned him killing the descendants on the red-portal planet. He asked the king to use his influence skill and under that, Quinn proved he did not kill them. It was his boneclaw but the council didn't need to know that. Quinn was told the humans he brought needed to either be killed, turned, or have their memories of vampires and the settlement wiped. As the leader, that was his duty to decide.
Edward led the way back to the castle and Arthur made sure they got there with no incident. He then offered to train Quinn a bit on the shadow when he had time. Quinn of course agreed. Upon entering, Quinn told everyone to go rest, shower, clean clothes and all that. Lana pulled Caser out of the bag and asked Logan to fix it back before they parted ways to freshen up.
Everyone was still wearing the clothing they fought in yesterday so there was dried blood, holes from injuries and the like. They were to eventually meet up in the dining room to discuss where to go from there.
Cia and Layla showered, rested for a bit, then headed down. Erin and Leo were first to join Edward and Quinn. Quinn asked Leo and Edward to be his knights. They both said yes. Quinn needed to perform the ritual to turn Leo into a knight. Edward was already at knight level because he served Vincent. Just as Leo finished recovering from the upgrade, Cia and Layla entered. Not wanting her memories erased again, she asked him to turn her. Erin jumped in reminding Quinn he had already promised to turn her.
Quinn asked Edward to make some preparations because he tends to create strange things. Once he was ready, Quinn turned Erin first. She became a dhampir which is also called a vampire hunter. Edward thought she was a vampire. Dhampirs are a kill-on-sight class. Cia was next. She turned into a banshee and about destroyed their eardrums. Edward hit her with a bolt from a beast-weapon crossbow. Vorden, Logan, Peter, Lana and Borden came in at that time to investigate the noise.
------------------------------------------------
Vorden took over Borden when he got ready before going to the council meeting. He had Borden laying over his shoulder again. When they got to the room he shared with Lana, he placed the still-sleeping Borden on the bed as the other two and beast-friend went into the shower and gave each other a nice long deep cleaning.
For the first time, Caser did not insist on being in the shower with them. Borden had woken up while they were in there. He was thinking of knocking on the door to make sure his brother was okay when there was a knock at the other door. Peter and Logan came in and heard the noise. Peter smirked. Logan simply sat on the bed to ask Borden how he was feeling.
Sil switched back to Vorden in case Borden was awake and it ended up being a good thing. The two emerged from the bathroom with towels on. All three of them were sitting on the bed staring at the bathroom door with various looks on their faces.
Borden ran to Vorden, "are you okay, Brother? She didn't hurt you, did she?"
Vorden laughed nervously. Lana smirked. "Um, no, Borden, I'm fine. She was… washing my back."
Lana walked over to her bag and pulled out her blue dress and boots.
Vorden looked at her, "you're going to wear that?
"I have a meeting with that vampire in a bit over an hour. That is if he shows up after me not being there yesterday. Do you think it wise to meet a vampire without protection? Even if they have been hired by me? I'll get our clothing washing before we head down."
She took her clothes to the bathroom to dress, leaving Vorden uncomfortable with his friends. Lucky for him she didn't take long at all to put those on. He was still trying to respond to their expressions when she reemerged. She went to the closet and tossed him an outfit. "This looks like it will fit you. Go get dressed." Caser had insisted on wrapping a tentacle around her ankle which she preferred at this point. She decided to talk to the silent and staring trio while she brushed her hair.
"So. I need all of you to understand his family doesn't approve of me. Since they are seriously wealthy and can find out anything they what to, we have been very careful to keep the secret." She had her hair in her ponytail and was putting on her special accessory, "I need all of you to promise you won't talk to anyone about what you saw here today."
It was Logan who responded. "Are his family idiots?"
Lana scoffed, "his family are an off-limits topic. I have said all I can say on that. I need a promise. From each of you." She saw nods and accepted that as all she was going to get. Borden looked really confused.
She grabbed her jacket and put it on as well as all of her extras Logan caught the glint of a ring as she pulled a glove on. She caught him looking at her hand and she finished putting everything else on, making sure the reversible things are facing the right direction to match the dress. Vorden came out of the bathroom looking HOT in the vampire outfit. She made a note to make sure that outfit didn't stay behind when they found a way to leave this planet.
Vorden noticed the look on her face and asked what was wrong. She chuckled, "I don't know if I can let you out of this room looking that good…" She chuckled again, "Let's get out of here." In his head, Raten was laughing at the whole scenario.
***************************
Join me on discord at https://discord.gg/wuNsfeGP Or Patreon at patreon.com/MindyLeeCrouch
