Daybreak, BK 4 of the Lightwalkers

XXXX - Jon

After Kain had fed and given his thanks to Samera, he talked details with Nickolas as I listened, discussing the trip and how we would travel. Then Nickolas retired to his rooms, leaving us alone in the library just before dawn.

Content to sit by the dying fire, Kain's thoughts didn't stay on any particular subject, and his mood was far better than I'd ever witnessed. When dawn broke, I found myself restless. The need to move was so overpowering, I began to wonder the halls of the mansion alone.

I paused, in the upstairs hallway, to look at a painting hung in a gold gilded frame. It showed Paris in the 1600's as dawn was breaking over the rooftops and upon the church of Notre-Dame. There was something almost peaceful in the painting that echoed within me.

Was it a new sense of purpose or direction that I hadn't realized I'd been missing? Or maybe instead, it was that I wasn't at odds with the other half of myself. I wouldn't go as far as to say that we wanted the same things now, but Kain and I had a common goal of traveling with Nickolas to court.

I wasn't ready to accept that I was stuck with Kain for the rest of my life, which seemed daunting enough as it was. But for now, I was glad that we'd come to some sort of truce.

Footsteps on the stairs behind me caught my attention and I turned to see Seth at the end of the hall. He had his arms full of snacks and food from the kitchen, even a few cans of soda tucked under his elbow.

"Can I help you with that?" I asked, walking over to meet him.

He looked startled, but the expression disappeared quickly. "Uh, sure. Thanks."

I took a few of the items from the top of the pile, a bag of chips, two boxes of cookies, and sodas. "Where are you going with all this food?"

"Remi's room," Seth said with a nod of his head. "He won't go too far from Jay at the moment but we're all too wound up to sleep. Come join us."

"Okay." I followed Seth down the hall, past our rooms, to the last room at the end. The door was already open, and Remi wasn't the only one in there.

In front of the fireplace, Bryson sat on the opposite end of a couch from the Caster and Carrie had claimed an armchair adjacent to him. Bryson and Carrie were talking quietly, a half bottle of whiskey sat open between them on the end table.

Seth dumped his armful on the low coffee table and grabbed one of the sodas before claiming the last armchair next to Remi's side of the couch.

I followed my brother's lead, placing the items on the table with the others. But instead of looking for another chair, I settled for sinking onto the thick rug in front of the fire, the warmth heating my back.

Carrie smiled at me. "How are you feeling?" she asked in a near whisper.

"Alright, I guess." I glanced around the room and found that Remi was asleep on his end of the couch. Bryson reached for a bag of chips and even the loud crinkle of opening the bag didn't stir Remi.

"He's been worried about Jay and hasn't had much sleep. And after what happened at the Order, too," Seth said. He opened his soda and took a sip.

"How badly is Jay hurt?" I asked, concerned because even though I hadn't met him, he'd been injured helping me escape. It made me feel responsible.

Carrie was the one to respond. "It's a bad gash down his leg. He's lost a lot of blood."

"He'll be okay," Remi said without opening his eyes. "He's tougher than he looks."

Carrie frowned at the Caster. "We'll see."

I guessed that this had been a source of tension between them because Bryson shifted in his seat to set the bag of chips aside and changed the subject. "So, we're on to Europe then?"