Chapter Six
Neith
“What?” I ask, I swear he just said what I think he said. “When the hell did Ransom go to Luesidious?”
“Shit, everything happened so quickly, we never told Neith about that,” Doc mutters. “Not that we had any time to talk about it.”
“Okay, so explain now?” I ask, sounding impatient.
Ransom nods and then proceeds to explain about his trip to Luesidious. I’m not the only one who hasn’t heard the whole story since we quickly realized that we had to get to Sully’s as soon as we could.
“Wow, okay. Are you thinking that you were taken there because you were supposed to help him?” Reed asks.
Ransom nods, “Yeah. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Of course, I was on edge because of the brick wall that I kept hitting with the wards, so there’s that.”
“Good point,” Griff replies, clearly knowing more than I do because I don’t quite know what he’s talking about. I know he was having trouble with the wards, and they were frustrating him, but I have no idea what that would have to do with him going to Luesidious.
My brain veers off track before I can ask about it, “I saw a guy when I was there as well, just as I jumped through the portal to come home, after I got bitten.”
“I highly doubt that it was the same person,” Reed says.
“Probably not,” I agree. Everyone stays silent and watches me. “What?”
“You were explaining your theory about why you think we’re all ridiculously tired,” River reminds me.
“Oh shit, yeah. Sorry, guys, I got distracted and then forgot what I was talking about in the first place.”
“We know,” Coen smirks, and I stick my tongue out at him and then dance out of the way of his hands as he reaches for me.
“If you kiss me now, then I’m going to completely lose my train of thought and remember in three years, or something equally ridiculous, when it doesn’t even matter anymore,” I ramble.
Coen holds up his hands, “Later then.”
“Deal.”
“So what was your theory?” Griff asks, looking amused.
“Did anyone else use different magic?” I ask, after a moment's pause, where I try to remember where I was going with the thought in the first place.
Most of them nod.
“Okay, so my theory is that maybe using magic against the dead is more exhausting than anything else that we’ve done before.
Of course, I’m not used to having magic, so my theory could be way off and not all of you are super tired, but not all of you used the magic that we’re not used to using .
. .” I trail off as my rambling thoughts start to mix together and make less sense.
“How is it possible that you ramble even more when you’re tired?” Doc smirks as he pulls me into his arms and drops a kiss on the top of my head. “It’s adorable.”
“It’s a gift,” I grin.
“I think it’s a really good theory,” Raiden says. “Especially since those of us who aren’t as tired as the others didn’t use any new magic.”
“It’s usual for a new gift to tire you out more until you get used to it. It’s kind of like a muscle that you’ve never really used before. You have to build up the strength,” Doc explains.
“So it could definitely be because of that,” Reed agrees. “In which case, after we’ve had a good night's sleep, we should be back to normal.”
“I didn’t use any new magic, and I’m still exhausted,” Raiden mutters. “I’m ready for bed.”
“Wait, we have Neith’s room to see yet,” River says, as we get into the hallway and everyone starts to leave to go to their rooms.
I frown, “I think my room will just be the same as it’s always been.”
All of the doors start banging, the lights start flashing, and the floorboards under my feet lift, making me stumble in the direction of my room.
“I’m guessing that you may be wrong about that,” Raiden smirks. “And that you may have offended House by thinking he wouldn’t do something special with your room.”
“And that he wants us all to see it, just like we’ve all seen all of the other rooms,” Doc adds with a smile.
House lifts the floorboards under my feet again, making me stumble toward my room.
“Alright, alright. I’m going,” I grin as I start walking without House’s assistance, and the guys all start chuckling.
I have to admit that I’m slightly nervous to see what House has done for me, but when I open my door, I realize that I don’t need to be.
“It’s my room from my little house,” I mutter, a clog of emotion in my throat, as I look around at the familiar furniture and all of my trinkets, things that would be worthless to anyone else but that mean the absolute world to me.
I grin as I notice more things, “Well, it’s mostly my room from my little house.
House has given me more furniture, and although the bed appears to look the same, it’s bigger, so is the room itself. All my stuff is here though.”
“House obviously knows that you aren’t going to be able to go back for a while, and that everything in it means something to you,” Van says in awe.
“How has House got the exact things here?” Raiden asks. “I’m assuming that they are the real things and not replicas, just like my books and Ransom’s workroom.”
Raiden makes a good point. I guess the only way that I’m going to know for sure is to get a closer look at my stuff.
I head over to my set of drawers. If these are really mine, and not just a copy, which, to be honest, would still be really impressive, then there should be a packet of half-eaten candy, the wrapped kind, I’m not that gross, well, not this time anyway.
I’m sure that a lot of people put things down and forget where they’ve put them, and then randomly remember a couple of months later.
Candy included.
On second thought, that may be just me.
I pause. What the fuck was I doing?
Oh, right, checking the drawers.
“You’re on fire today,” I mentally mutter to myself, making the Voices cackle in response.
Well, that’s new.
For fuck sake, don’t get distracted again.
Finally focusing on my task, I pull open one of the drawers and sure enough, there they are. Grabbing the packet, I unwrap one, pop it in my mouth, and then turn around to offer the guys one.
They’re looking at me with raised eyebrows and dubious looks, so I feel the need to explain.
“They’re wrapped, and still way in date.
” I turn the pack around to make sure that I didn’t just lie, and grin triumphantly, “Ha! Yep, I’ve got like a year left before these get questionable.
I don’t normally keep my candy in my shirt drawer, but I was eating it and then spilt my coffee down me so I needed to change my shirt, so I put the packet down while I changed, and then forgot that it was there until just then when I was trying to figure out how we could tell whether House has brought my original stuff here or just replicas.
” I frown, “Although, now that I think about it, if House has replicated everything, then it could have just replicated the packet of candy, so that wasn’t a good test.”
“I think she’s tired,” River whispers dramatically, “more of her inside thoughts are becoming outside thoughts.”
I decide to ignore him and the snickers that his comment earns from the guys because, quite frankly, he’s right, but I’m on a roll.
“Oh, I know!” I suddenly exclaim, making the guys jump. Probably because I was way louder than I needed to be, considering we are all standing in the same room. “House,” I start. “If you have brought our actual things here and not just replicas, make the fireplace flare.”
The fireplace roars to life, and I grin as I put another candy in my mouth.
“Well, that was certainly easier than going around in circles trying to figure out how we can test it,” Coen says with a smile as he pulls me under his arm, drops a kiss on the top of my head, and then steals a candy out of the bag.
“True,” Ransom says, as his lips tip up into a smile. “Although it was only Neith who was going around in circles.”
I try not to smile as I stick my middle finger up at him. “I got there in the end.”
He just smiles at me, his expression holding more than my tired brain can comprehend at the moment.
“Wait. What if those rooms aren’t for guests?” Griff asks, completely out of the blue and confusing me entirely.
“What rooms?” River asks with a frown, seemingly as confused as I am, and making me feel better about the fact that I didn’t know what he was talking about.
Griff winces slightly as he realizes that he’s started the conversation in the middle of the sentence, and that the rest of us have no idea where he began it, so we have no idea what he’s talking about.
“Sorry. The two extra rooms that we have. What if they aren’t rooms for guests?” He clarifies.
“Who else would they be for?” I ask, my eyebrows dipping down slightly.
He shrugs, “I don’t know. But if they weren’t for guests, and House has done all of these rooms to match us, then it would tell us a lot about the people those rooms belong to, and if they belong to anyone.”
“That’s true,” Reed agrees. “But that would mean that at some point we will have more people living with us.”
“I feel like that’s quite unlikely,” Doc points out.
Griff shrugs, “Maybe so, but then again, did any of us think that we would be in the position that we are in now?”
“Alright, I hear you,” Van says. “I still think it’s unlikely though.”
“I mean, it wouldn’t hurt to have a look,” Raiden shrugs. “They will either be decorated like ours are, and then we’ll know that eventually we will have more people with us on a more permanent basis, possibly living with us, or they won’t be, and we will know that they are just for guests.”
“Well, I’m nosey, so I want to know what’s in those rooms,” Ransom shrugs.
“Let’s go,” I grin as I grab Coen’s hand and simply pull him behind me.
“I guess that’s settled then,” Van chuckles.
I don’t know why, I’m going to blame it on tiredness, but I knock on the door of the first spare room that we come to.
“Erm, Neith?” Doc asks with amusement.