Helen decided to head back to the ship to think of schematics for a shelter that would serve maybe 300 people. She took the basic dimensions Lana had given her and drew out a few options on her tablet. It took her the rest of the day.
In the shelter, Lana asked Dobin to figure out a way to have the shelter below but the secrets remain hidden. The ramps needed to be blocked off from the shelter making the living area smaller below. Understanding the urgency of keeping the kids secret first and foremost, Dobin went straight to the kids and shared a plan.
The kids would borrow Dobin's ability and block off access to their area from the rest of the area below. They would retain access to a ramp to get up to the schoolhouse. They already used the ramp nearest Lana's house to get to the school. It was nearest to the entrance of their area anyway. There were about 10 accessways to get to the open area. Working together, they could have it all closed off today. This would give them only one way to the surface into the shelter. There were two other exits that led outside the shelter.
By the end of the day, Lana felt she could breathe easier. She had called Oscar and talked to him about the idea of a back-up command post for the three factions. He liked the idea and said he'd contact Owen to discuss it.
The next day, Helen brought her schematic and Lana got Dobin to work on it. The kids helped as well during their ability training time. Lana explained to Helen the children that were below were none of her business and Lana would revoke her privileges if she caught Helen snooping in that area. Helen said she understood in a serious tone.
Oscar had contacted Megan to see if the Cursed was interested. She told him she didn't know but if Lana and Helen were good with it, so was she. Oscar told her he would just work with Lana on it. The next conversation Lana had with Oscar on this topic was about waiting until Logan returned. His level of technology would be needed to safeguard the location. If Logan was unable to meet the demand, there was no point in continuing the discussions.
After her recent adventures, Lana decided to spend the next four weeks training herself, her people and tending her family's needs. The kids, both Plantwell and Blade grew in their own ways. The twins were now crawling. Caser and Griddlebone both tended the children as Griddlebone grew more swollen with her own babies.
Lana's desire to learn about her past, gain entry to her mother's lab and support Quinn all got put on hold for a while. She felt she got lucky with that demon -tier because the beast was more focused on "the Plantwell" being dead than on the actual fight. The next encounter would not be so easy. She really did need to get stronger.
Lana had also copied three more of her notebooks for the girls to study. Just 6 more to go. The girls were upstairs studying while she was in the kitchen and lab working on another batch of energy bars.
--------------------------------------
Meanwhile, in the vampire world, Sil was feeling useless. Quinn had been accused of killing a Royal Knight and Alex was accused of using his blood as part of the murder scheme. According to vampire law, Alex, as a blood fairy was not even allowed to exist. His subspecies had a kill-on-sight order.
Sil spent this time not doing a whole lot. Logan and Peter had snuck out of the castle with Borden, leaving him there since he had no abilities. He was useless. He wandered the castle aimlessly and found himself in the library. When they were there last, when his Lana had been there with him, she had to use a light crystal to find books that interested her. Now the castle was lit.
Sil read the title of every volume on every shelf and pulled off anything he felt Lana might be interested in. He brought no personal affects with him this time around so that meant when he went home, he could carry an entire bag of books home to his wife to further her research. Make even better energy bars. They were really good. She had made 20 in that first batch. He only had 5 left. They made his vision go fuzzy and everything seemed to speed up around him. Lana said they were to be used to replenish energy to continue a fight. He ate them because they made him feel funny. And because the woman he loved more than anything made them.
Cindy Cha, the leader of the second family, attempted to steal the crown. Bryce, leader of the first family was the one voted in but she managed to gain the king's armor and power.
Quinn, with the help of others, was able to defeat Cindy. Bryce took her into custody to run a full investigation. Quinn was so exhausted from the fight he slept for more than a day. At this time, Quinn was in a meeting with the leaders where he planned to tell the king he was going back to the human world.
Sil's Lana was going to love these books. Maybe she'll forgive him for leaving her in her hour of need.
---------------------------------------------
Lana pulled the tray out of the oven. She cut them all up into little bars. They were made one third of the size of one before. She had refined the process and they were stronger now. She set them aside to cool. Even with the oven set to a low temperature, they were still too warm to wrap up. As she set aside the last one, she smiled broadly. The tree had sent her a message. Someone special was coming home. She wanted to give him a warm welcome. He also wasn't coming alone, though Quinn wasn't coming with him. Quinn was too busy for her anyway. She didn't expect him to.
Lana quickly chopped some veggies and got 2 steaks out of the fridge so Shalt could have one as well. These days he was either with the Blade kids or at her door. Right now, he was present but would be going down soon. She would fill his stomach first.
The soup was cooking as the trees told her he was minutes away. She got out bowls, preparing to serve him a nice hot meal, knowing no such thing was forthcoming in that dark world. She heard footsteps then felt the warmth of her husbands arms engulf her.
*************************************************************
Join me on discord at https://discord.gg/wuNsfeGP Or Patreon at patreon.com/MindyLeeCrouch
If you'd like to donate to me via PayPal, https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=8PCLHZTXAPFPC
Constructive criticism is welcome as it helps me become a better writer. If this story is well-liked, I will separate it from the original and write it again without the content from My Vampire System.