Everything was going so swimmingly well that within an hour of the portal’s normal song, Sylvie and company found themselves pulling into the Mill parking lot without any Shadewraiths chasing them. Rolling down the window and turning the moving truck towards the husks of cars on the other side, Sylvie put the vehicle in park and shut off the engine as she overlooked three very tired-looking vampires. “Goood Evennning.” Sylvie tried her best to sound like one of the stereotypical vampires on stage and only received a few disgusted looks across Amber, Daniel and Jason’s faces. “Don’t be sour.”
“We aren’t sour.” Amber offered and flipped her long ptinum-gray braid behind her. “Haven’t you ever seen relief?” She cracked her neck and stood up, gncing back at Daniel and Jason with their eyes shut simply holding one another. “Sylvie, they’ve stopped doing anything except going into the portal. Please tell me that you can close that thing.” Amber pointed to the top of the portal hill.
Success wasn’t something that Amber and company had time to enjoy, as Sylvie’s own little team had managed to pull off their tasks with very few hitches along the way. Exactly how the little group had gotten back to Colonial Heights was either a string of very good luck or a miracle, depending on how someone viewed it. “That is up to Kody.” Sylvie offered and exited the driver’s side of the truck, followed closely by a bouncing and clearly happy Casey. “I told them to build a second device.”
With a confused and rather impatient look in Amber’s crystalline teal eyes, Sylvie offered a peaceful yet knowing smile to her former Blood Bunny. “You have to understand that I had a vision of this whole area...”
“…was like dust in the wind.” Casey giggled while making yet another song reference and slipped behind her lover. “Yeah, yeah. I can feel you all groaning. I’ll shut up now.” Casey gave Sylvie a kiss on the cheek and went quiet.
Returning the quick peck to Casey’s blushing cheek, Sylvie nodded in agreement. “She’s right. I got the vision while I was gathering the items we needed.” She recalled the lead boxes full of the element within the back of the truck. “Oh, we might want to stand closer to the Mill just to be safe.”
A few moments ter the five vampires had gathered quietly at the entrance. “Alright, I deviated from the pn a bit and had to catch up to Kody.” Sylvie saw the confused looks on Daniel and Jason’s faces. “Well, the simple expnation is that Casey and I are blood-matched.”
“It’s a form of blood manipution, Amber. Two vampires can share and use each other’s blood like it was their own.” Daniel offered in hopes it would alleviate the questioning look in Amber's eyes.
“Yes.” Sylvie added, “Well, to make a long story short, I used as little of her blood as I could since I was completely irradiated.” Without warning, Sylvie leaned back into Casey and sighed heavily as though in a dream. Her lover had started making little circles with her fingers around her tummy and it sent the older vampire into a haze, wishing that the couple could do something as simple as y on a quiet bed of flowers and kiss away their problems.
It was the passion of the moment that made Casey look at the other three vampires and then whisper softly to Sylvie. “I felt that…Thank you, Taini.” Casey mewled. “Maybe focus on the story while Kody finishes up.” With an equally heavenly sigh, Casey found herself catching whiffs of pansies and went quiet to enjoy the remainder of the tender moment.
“Mmm, oh. Right.” Sylvie gleamed as her half-moon irises concentrated on her friends once more. “I swear Kody knows everything.” Sylvie ughed and held up three fingers. “They set up a decontamination station with three parts.”
“Makes sense.” Jason waved his hand while still observing the shadewraiths throwing themselves into the portal. “Get through this fast, the white-wraith could come back at any moment.”
A quick look at her watch told Sylvie that they still had time before midnight, “We’ll deal with her when the time comes.” She resumed her tiny tale. “They set up a shower that I will never forgive Kody for as it had zero privacy.” A quick smile came over Sylvie’s face. “I learned that a simple shower will remove most of the contamination.”
“I knew that.” Huffed Jason, “Just get on with it old dy.” A second ter he felt a small elbow to his ribs. “Ow.” Jason pyfully offered, “Sorry, Sylvie. Please go on.”
“Better.” Daniel giggled.
Promising herself to get even for the ‘old dy’ comment, Sylvie then went on to expin the remaining bits. “After I showered and got out of the clothing I was wearing, I moved to the second station and was able to cleanse my blood via Casey’s and was a hundred percent free.” She looked concerned to the others, “If only the troupe in Cudson knew that small bit, they might have survived.” Sylvie finished up, “Kody’s third station is where they pced all of the irradiated clothing and secured the barrels in boxes of lead. Unfortunately, in the delivery we lost two of the four elemental barrels.”
“Which means?” Amber asked and perked her ears, “I think Enas is coming back. I just have a gut feeling.”
“It means we only have one test and one try. The test is to see if the device will actually work, I had hoped that we could test it close to the mulberry hill where everything was stored, but time was against us.” Sylvie sadly offered. “However, as fate and my visions typically are…this might have been the catalyst that destroys everything. I had two devices built…”
“…Which under normal circumstances would have resulted in catastrophic failure.” Kody offered as they approached. “Sylvie, I have good news.”
“Go on.” Sylvie smiled.
“It would appear that given the ck of pnning I had in designing the first unit, I found a number of fws that would have made the brace fail and …” They gulped, “…make that vision a reality. I made the modifications and the second unit looks to be absolutely perfect. I didn’t see any gring mistakes structurally or mathematically.” Kody pointed to the back of the truck. “All I have to do is load the blood and the element into the machine.”
