Greykin Valley

| 25 | Report

⥐ ⋞ ☽ ⋟ ⥐

| Sebastien |

Sebastien grunted when Damon put him down. He sat with his back against the cave wall and watched as the wolf walker pack settled and rested. His wounds were sore and throbbing, but they were slowly healing, and that brought him a little relief.

With a quiet sigh, he reached into his bag—which Rachel recovered from the hunter tent—and pulled out a protein bar. It didn't look like the wolves were going hunting any time soon, so it was going to have to do.

He took a bite of the bar and exhaled deeply through his nose. Seeing Jackson with Damon made him miss Clementine more than he already did; he'd much rather be in bed being nursed by his mate than sitting in some damp cave waiting for his wounds to heal naturally.

Despite the fact that he needed to report to the Venaticus, there was something else he wanted to do first. After all, Lucian or Caedis weren't around to scold him, were they?

Sebastien pulled his small rectangular mirror out of his bag and examined it for cracks. To his relief, it was undamaged, which meant he could still use it. He imbued his ethos into the rune on the back of the mirror, and as the mirror flickered and faded to black, Sebastien waited patiently, taking another bite of his protein bar.

The mirror flickered again, and as the darkness cleared, it revealed the inside of his and Clementine's bedroom. The curtains were open, and the light of the city spilt in. Clementine was sitting on the edge of their bed in front of the mirror, and beside him were several books and pieces of paper. He'd been researching in bed again, and that brought a wide smile to Sebastien's face.

"Hey," Clementine said. "Where are you? It's kinda dark."

"Yeah, I..." he paused and glanced around. "We're resting in a cave."

"What happened to you? What's that on your face?" Clementine exclaimed worriedly as he leaned forward and touched the mirror.

Sebastien waved his hand dismissively. "It's nothing. I'm fine. We just had a run-in with some hunters. How's everything over there?"

"Well," Clementine sighed with a sigh, sitting cross-legged. "The Venaticus have closed all the gates and set up these quarantine points. No one goes in or out of Silverlake without being examined. This cadejo stuff is getting out of hand, isn't it?"

"Lord Caedis is trying to contain it as much as he can. There's really only so much he can do, right?" Sebastien mumbled.

"He's stopped worse things from happening," Clementine assured him.

He shrugged and leaned his head back against the wall. "I know, I just...I just—"

"I know," Clementine said softly. "None of this is your fault."

"But none of this would be happening if I hadn't—"

"Sebastien, if it wasn't you, it would have been someone else. That thing was going to find its way out of that tomb one way or another. Why else do you think Lord Caedis sent you?"

"Because I'm the only kludde left," he grumbled.

"No, because he trusted you. Anyone else might have tried to use that creature for their own purposes. If someone else got their hands on it, the whole situation might be a whole lot worse than it already is."

Sebastien shook his head and looked down at his lap.

"I mean, if it's anyone's fault, it's Lord Ca—"