Chapter 19
~Vaxan~
Winter had finally settled.
Somewhat.
It had taken several hours before he’d managed to sit still for more than a few minutes at a time.
When we’d first emerged back onto the mortal plane, his entire family and their close allies had swarmed around him welcoming him back. Including the six necromancers who had allied with Winter down there in Sanctus.
Fortunately, it hadn’t taken his parents—and Ketheron—long to realize that it had been overwhelming him, so it had lasted for no more than thirty minutes, before Evira, Zayn, and I had been able to take him home.
To our new home that he’d never seen before.
I’d considered taking him back to his family home for the sake of the comfort of familiarity, but given that he’d spent so many years there essentially locked down from the world, I was concerned that a similar mentality could set in for him all too quickly, while he was in this somewhat fragile state.
The dormitories at Loxley Academy were in far too much of a high-profile space.
When he’d stepped across the threshold of the house, his whole face had lit up.
And, yes, it had also clearly given him a lot to focus on and explore in his highly erratic state.
He’d even started work on a figurine at the jewelry-making station I’d fashioned for him upstairs.
Although it had taken the form of a very creepy-looking, twisted creature.
I was concerned as to whether it was perhaps a nod to Ruxnoth, or far worse, even himself.
Zayn had told Evira and I what had transpired in that room, the Core Chamber, and the rage Winter had exhibited, the pain he’d inflicted on Ruxnoth.
Something obviously not like him at all.
His reaction was most definitely justified, so my concern was rooted in how Winter was viewing himself in light of that.
If he was feeling shame, it would complicate his recovery and hurt him so very deeply, and unduly.
The details of Ruxnoth’s manipulations that Zayn had reported in great detail, how precisely he talked with and engaged with Winter were very helpful to me.
It meant I could determine how to counter it.
Especially if Winter had internalized it, which we wouldn’t know until he’d had some time to decompress.
Fresh off battle was far from the optimal time to begin delving into that sort of thing.
He needed calm, he needed comfort, and some sense of normalcy.
He'd taken a shower an hour ago, and when he’d finished, the three of us had been right there to watch over him again, but then he’d walked out naked and tried to seduce us all into a “long overdue sex marathon” as he’d so aptly termed it.
Despite the need raging through all of us to do just that, we’d managed to veer him off that track.
At least for a little while. We couldn’t engage in that sort of thing yet.
Not with him in this fragile state. Not until he’d at the very least gotten a good night’s sleep and reclaimed a sense of safety he’d been missing for far too long.
It was awful enough that he was going to be compromised physically soon.
He’d briefly told us about the curative immersions he’d been through to heal from the Nihilumbra torture that Ruxnoth had subjected him to.
With all that had transpired earlier tonight, especially the Fuel Core aspect, everything of Ruxnoth’s that had been in his system had been emptied out.
That chill would return all too soon and destabilize his equilibrium.
Ambrose was working on the development of a version of Ruxnoth’s living warmth that would be permanent for Winter.
It was just a matter of time now. But in the meantime it meant that feeding from Zayn would be Winter’s only relief, and that hadn’t proven to be enough last time.
Winter leaned against my shoulder as we sat on the brown leather couch, one of the blue throws draped over him and Evira.
She was on his other side and exhausted, requiring some recovery time after her astonishing feat earlier.
I’d thought I’d be experiencing much the same thing now that my people’s vibrational resonance had utterly left my system, but I was actually rather wired.
I smiled as Winter stroked Evira’s hand in his.
“Vax?” he murmured.
“Hmm, beautiful?”
“I love this house.”
I caught Evira’s eye and she winked back at me.
“You do?”
“Yeah. You really went out of your way to make it homely and special to each of us. Thank you. It’s perfect.”
“Well, I’m glad you like it.”
“It’s forever?”
“That was the intention.”
Evira stroked his hair. “Is that what you want, lovely?”
He nodded against my shoulder, but didn’t actually speak to it.
Evira frowned at me. I shook my head, not sure where it was rooted.
Yet.
“Aww, so sweet,” Zayn uttered, barreling on in, flour marring one cheek, grated cheese in his hair. “Lick, little puppy,” he teased Winter.
Winter laughed and gnashed his teeth at him.
Then Zayn reached him and leaned down and licked along his jaw. “Just kidding. I know you like it better when I’m the puppy.”
“Aww, hellion,” Evira crooned, stroking Zayn’s hair, before then easing him back when she and I both registered Winter getting worked up as Zayn lingered in his space with that intense and overt sexuality of his bleeding out all over the place.
He gave a nod, acknowledging it, then stepped back and snapped his fingers. “Come on. Time to eat. Dinner is served.”
“Z, I told you, there was no need to make it all from scratch.”
“Are you kidding? With that awesome kitchen Vax fitted out? You bet your sweet ass I’m gonna be cooking the non-magical way now.
Pretty much all the time. And if you get in there and start eating, you might also find that there was a magical mail delivery I called in from Vantiqe while you were taking a shower earlier. ”
Winter lifted his head off my shoulder. “Frosted Moon Petal Cake?”
“Hmm, maybe. Only one way to find out.”
Winter laughed. Again.
Evira and I beamed out at Zayn. He’d now managed that twice.
His eyes sparkled at us, then he held his hand out to Winter, and eased him to his feet.
As they headed to the kitchen, I called out, “Winter, I’ll retrieve those items you listed from your dormitory now.”
He spun around. “What? Now?”
“It’s as good a time as any.” While he was immersed.
And it had to be now.
“Uh… okay, thanks. When will you be back, though?”
“I need to make a brief stop to meet with a contact of mine from the Basilisk Dominion who lives above ground to… smooth over the current situation. A couple of hours at the most.”
“Them pressuring you to become sovereign? That situation?”
Sure. “Right.”
“Vax, if it’s any later than two hours, even a single minute, I’ll have to track you. Are we clear?”
Unfortunately, yes.
Several things he’d said had referenced such a thing, regarding us all.
He thought we were all chief targets to Ruxnoth.
That had been in spite of me, Ambrose, Ketheron, Kai, and even Sylas, assuring Winter that even if Ruxnoth had survived, he would be in no state for a while to act against any single one of us.
“You’ve made your limit clear, and I’ll respect that. You have my word, little death.”
A sigh escaped him on a fractured breath. “Yeah, okay. That’s… good.”
Zayn led him into the kitchen, catching my eye and signaling that he’d keep him occupied.
Because I wasn’t meeting with that contact.
I would be stopping by to retrieve the things Winter had asked for.
When he’d been gone, none of us had been able to get past his ward erected around his dormitory, but he’d given me a little bit of his magic to see to it.
But that retrieval would take little time at all.
There was something else I needed to see to.
Something necessary, and that needed to happen now.
“Be back soon, beauty,” I told Evira, but as I went to head out, she followed after me.
She closed the door behind her and we made it down the porch steps out of earshot.
“Be careful, all right? If you’re caught doing this, you could very well end up amongst those in custody.”
“I won’t be caught, I can assure you.”
“Good, because if you were locked down there, you know I’d blast my way in dragon-style and literally fly you out.”
I pressed my hand over my heart. “I’m honored. To be willing to create such a disastrous ruckus all for me is beyond touching.”
She moved closer, pressing her hands to my chest. “Of course I would. Hell, let’s face it, I’d do a lot more than that without blinking.”
“We both know you’d analyze the political ramifications and all potential fallout first.” I stroked her soft hair. “Something I utterly adore about you.”
“You do, don’t you? Adore it? I mean, not just that, but—urgh.” She shifted her weight. “Sorry, I didn’t think you and I needed the actual words… with the animal thing… the primal connection… but with everything that’s happened—”
“We don’t, Evira.”
She arched an eyebrow. “So… we’re already… there, then? Adoring and all that?”
My lips quirked. “I love you, too.”
A bright and beautiful smile spread over her lovely face. “I love you.”
She threw her arms around me and breathed me in.
I held her to me, stroking her hair, up and down her back.
But then a growl escaped her and then she eased me back. “All right, go. Go now, or you’re gonna be on your back right here on the grass.”
“Well that’s the direct opposite of an incentive to take my leave.”
“Vaxan!”
I chuckled. “Understood.” Then I dipped into a bow. “As you wish, dragon princess.”
I heard that wondrous giggle from her as I teleported out.
I was undetectable.
Not a single security measure had registered my approach, nor my infiltration.
Of the Guardian Compound.
More specifically, its Containment Facility.
There weren’t adequate protocols in place to account for what I was capable of.
There was still a lot kept secret about the true abilities of my people.