“Fine,” Velra cut in.
I cocked an eyebrow. “Fine?”
“Yeah. I get why you did it. I get why youhadto do it, to play it that way, to keep it from us… temporarily.” She winced. “It’s just… it’s our son, Sylas.”
“I know. I know all too well.”
“I would have done the same thing,” she admitted. “I just don’t like it, that it had to be that way. All because of external factors and things the supernatural world has put in place against our son.”
“You know, though, it’s not all like that,” Lazriel said. “One example of that is Winter’s three loves. Like with Evira stepping down from her role in the Dracoryn Realm. Win saying the world doesn’t want him is bullshit. Look at this, her doing that. That’s some actual recent and blatant proof right there for him to see when he wakes up.”
“While I agree that will help, Winter will need more,” Cassius warned. “Ruxnoth’s manipulations aren’t to be taken lightly. We’re dealing with a malicious mastermind incredibly skilled at coercive psychological entrapment.”
I growled low in my throat with Lazriel following suit.
I saw Velra shudder, deeply disturbed.
A rush of wind whipped through the room, and then Remnant came to a sudden stop before us. He smiled out at Lazriel being held by me, then he cleared his throat and told us, “Zayn is seeing to the settling in due to his familiarity with your home.” His lips quirked. “He’s taking charge in fact.”
“Oh crap,” Velra uttered.
“Yeah. I’ll go take point,” Lazriel said, easing from me. He kissed my cheek, lingered for a moment over Velra and Cassius, then spun to his dad. “You’re gonna be here for a little while yet, right? Mom’s gonna be meeting with Jaxon Silver really late and she said you were going to pick her up for a date much later on tonight?”
“All true.” He laid his hand on Lazriel’s shoulder. “And I will stay as long as you need. As long as my grandson needs.” He eyed me. “And in that time, you and I need to discuss enhanced safeguarding for Winter using a combination of Requital and The Shadowed resources in order to keep it off the radar of the wider supernatural world.”
“Yeah, if they clock stepped-up protection on Winter, it’s really gonna give away that there’s a massive issue,” Lazriel surmised.
I caught Velra’s eye.Fuck.“We’ll determine what can be done, but no decision is gonna be made without input from Win.”
I saw Remnant clock the situation impressively well, briefly arching an eyebrow, but then merely giving a nod. “As you wish.”
He tensed then and craned his neck a few moments before Zayn appeared at the doorway, looking intent yet also nervous as he stayed at the threshold but looked in at the five of us. His gaze settled on me, finding comfortable purchase there I suppose because of our recent interaction regarding that vampire clan takedown. “Sorry to interrupt, but Vaxan overdid it with the vibrational tracking and he needs to eat ASAP, but his Basilisk diet is really specific and—”
“I’ll take care of it,” Cassius told him. “He also channeled Ketheron’s power, the Celestial aspect. That can cause this sort of thing for non-Celestials. A hangover effect essentially. I need to determine the severity of it. It should just pass, but there are instances where help is needed.”
Velra grasped his arm. “I’ll go with you. The Basilisk people don’t exactly have a stellar history when it comes to the Celestial Plane. And unlike Ketheron, you were actually up there while all of that was going on against his people.”
Cassius winced. “Ah, understood.”
“You’re still on the dinner thing, though, right?” Lazriel called after them as Zayn bounded out of the lab with Velra and Cassius following.
Cassius eyed him over his shoulder. “Satiate yourself with a blood bag in the meantime, wild one.”
Remnant stroked Lazriel’s hair as they hurried to see to Vaxan. “I’ll summon a feeder. Although, that’s not all that you need.” He sighed and looked at that accursed vial on my worktable, then told me, “You need a reprieve before you begin that research.”
That became basically impossible to deny when he also noticed the mess all over the other side of the room from my outburst a little earlier.
“I’ll start dinner off until Cassius is done helping Vaxan,” I said, leaning in and kissing Lazriel’s forehead, then clapping Remnant’s shoulder, before striding from the room. “Come on, then,” I called over my shoulder. “I know you’re gonna have a fuckload of input about it as usual.”
“A fuckload? That’s kind of overstating it, don’t you think?”
I shot him a look. “Is it?”
He ruffled my hair. “Aww, love you too.”
I snatched his hand and kissed his fingers. “Love you, too, babe.”
I loved them all.
