Glass Souls

34

"Why did my sire act like that mother?" The child asks as Leann flees into her safe place after leaving the others.

"Because he lost control. Not fully, or there would have been trouble, but he lost it enough that he said somethings that he shouldn't."

"Is that why you are sad?" The child asks Leann intently.

"Yes, but how did you know?"

"The chemicals in the blood change dependent on how the person feels. In this case it wasn't like I'm used to you feeling, now I know what sad tastes like."

"You make it sound like you eat the blood." Leann tries to joke.

"Not, just the nutrients it brings, that's what the umbilical cord is for."

Leann colors, even here in her safe place she screws up. She goes to leave, "Wait, mother please don't go. I'm sure it's something you already knew, just forgot, no need to be embarrassed."

"You actually enjoy spending time with me?" Leann asks, not sure if she should be more pleased or shocked.

"Yes, when you aren't giving me a lesson on how I shouldn't be doing something. But I think I understand now, you don't want me to hurt others like my sire hurts you." The child says it thoughtfully.

"Yes, or at least that's a good portion of it. When you have self control you can accomplish more. You stated that it's your goal to be the best and strongest of all, did you not?" At the child's nod Leann continues, "With self control that is far more likely to happen than if you don't learn control. Many Demons have brute strength, but when it came time to fight against me or your sire they didn't have the self control it would've taken to win." Leann looks sad. 

"I'm sorry I'm just not up to another lesson tonight. Good night love," Leann gives the child a kiss before leaving.

Lance tosses and turns, unable to sleep. This is the first night in a very long time since they didn't sleep together and Lance misses Leann at his side. Slowly his anger diminishes as does the jealousy. He sees just how badly he'd acted and he winces.

He's just thankful that Leann hadn't shrunk away from him like she would have when they first met. Now he just wonders what he can do to make it up to her for his bad behavior. 

Verruca cries herself to sleep. She'd have given anything for Jim to have kissed her like that before the bonding was done. Now she can't believe that he wants anything more than to control the bond by those desires she's always had for him.

She never knew that Jim stood outside her door ready to knock when he hears the sobs she tries to stifle. Jim lets his hand fall and steps away from the door. This is his fault, he'd pushed her away for over a century wanting to make it clear that he feels nothing for her. Now he feels like he made it so he will never have something precious.

He goes for a walk to clear his mind and organize his thoughts. He needs to decide just what he wants from this bonding. Does he want a relationship like Lance and Leann or does he want the normal bond? He no longer knows what he wants and it irritates him.

Morning is a somber affair, no one smiles or laughs, they won't even look at each other.

Leann stumbles her way downstairs. Her child is demanding food, and even though she herself isn't hungry she needs to feed him. She goes into the kitchen to fix something but before she can Lance grabs her.

As soon as his hand touches her arm she stops, just stands and waits. "I'm sorry, Leann. I'm  a jealous twot. I had no idea that I was that bad. You did absolutely nothing wrong, even played things out so Drummond wouldn't suspect. I'm the one that got overly upset. There is no excuse, forgive me?"

Leann pulls her arm from Lance's grasp  and continues on. "I don't know right now. No sleep and no food, I can't think."

In the kitchen Verruca is already fixing food. She motions for Leann to sit at the table as she finishes up. When she sets food down in front of Leann, Leann goes to thank her and pauses. "Verruca, what happened?"

Verruca sets her own food down and herself before she answers. "Jim kissed me last night."

Leann could just barely hear the confession of her friend. Verruca can't even look at Leann when she says it. "It was better than anything I could even imagine, yet I can't help but think it was just to take control of the bond. I wish our bond could be more like yours and Lance's. I'll be leaving back to the community as soon as I finish eating and clean up."

"You'll do such thing." Verruca looks up at her at that point and for the first time since the disaster from yesterday Leann feels like smiling. "I meant, I'll clean up. You are of course free to go whenever you choose. Where is that idiot anyway?" Verruca shrugs.

Leann finds herself feeling better after eating the food Verruca had fixed. She cleans up in the kitchen trying to calm herself down. She's still very hurt from what Lance had done, plus the anger at Jim for what he did to Verruca. She wishes sometimes that Jared had just killed her before she'd had a chance to leave.

"Don't ever think that again, Leann." Lance stands by the door watching Leann work.

Leann stiffens at his words, "So you read my thoughts now?"

Lance sniffs, "Oh, if I could do that it would make things so much easier. No, you said the words out loud. I don't regret it at all that you fell into my life Leann. I couldn't imagine my life without you now." He goes over to the stiff woman and wraps his arms around her. "I don't want to imagine my life without you."