Prelude (Underworld Lucian Fanfiction)

35 - Chapter XXXV: Ten in the Morning

The East Wing. Ten minutes later.

"Reinette."

With a half-muffled snort, she sat up, still half asleep."Rena," she mumbled. Why was Rena's voice so deep?

Her bed-curtains were pushed aside, the light of a candle blinding her. Something was wrong with this picture. She squinted, trying to wade through the sleep, the mugginess...trying to understand why Rena...why Rena looked like...

No.

She had to be dreaming. Blood, let this be a dream, it was... Her fingers went for the bedside table, the small timepiece on the wood. She opened the clasp... a quarter past ten in the morning. She tried to say something...mumbled. "...Lyosh...a...ten...morning...trying to..."

"I've had an epiphany, Reinette." He was shirtless, tapping his thumb against the book in his hand. It was an announcement...one that did not seem to take into account that she was trying to sleep. "...all this time, I've been letting nature hold the reins. Observing without remorse, believing you are meant to be in this state..." He gestured at her face and body. "...old, decrepit, weak, lacking in memory...believing there was nothing I could do to help you..."

She tried to speak, but the words were stuck at the back of her throat. If this was how he woke his mistresses in the morning, then by her decrepit, old face, she felt sorry for them.

"...but I can help you," he said as though they were having a conversation, crouching by her bed, rubbing the spine of the book against his beard. "I can pick up the pieces, I can allow myself to take an active stance before the Horde, to do all that I can for you..."

"Mmhmm," she managed, hoping he would now leave.

Instead, he lightly thumped the edge of her bed. Like patting a dog. Using the book as his pen, he began outlining his ideas in the air. "We will have a system of research. A firm grasp of the problem, a strong plan of attack." It sounded like he was getting an army ready for war.

"Mhry...insightful," she said against her pillow. Also the Sami word for 'dog,' but he didn't hear that part. Thank Rena, she was wearing a chemise.

"Of course it is," he grunted, putting his hands behind his back. "...but we've wasted time, woman." He was so loud. "The time is now. We seize the day. We trigger the mind and we take back what is yours. Memories, youth. All of it. I have a plan...and by Victoria's head, I will see it through." The candle was suddenly in his hand. He held the light directly in front of her face. "...come, Reinette." His fingers on her hand. "...are you with me?" Reddish-grey eyes looking deep into her soul, a voice of strength and resolution, so clearly a leader of men. It was a moving speech...

...but she was so...tired. Did he honestly think she was going to leap out of her bed? Her hand went to her forehead. She groaned. "Go...away."

Too late. The match had been struck. He was lighting candles about the room, stopping at the door to hoist a pile of books. "Too much at stake," he said, shaking his head. There had to be at least twenty of them. Small books, large books, at least one atlas...and a pillowcase on the floor. "You're awake, I'm awake..." He stacked all of them on her desk and then turned, arms outstretched like a lycan messiah. "...we work. We research...and you, woman, are going to write down every memory that you can think of."

She tried to break it to him slowly. "Lyosha...I have only had...two hours...of sleep. Honestly...your concern is touching, but at the moment, I do not care..."