I got the group to head back. The other girls deserved to have a night unruined by weirdness. They could be told tomorrow about the weird Ribbon happenings of today. It was Paige’s engagement night and nothing was ruining that.
Everyone agreed when I basically asked to just be normal. I could see the pain in all their eyes. That hadn’t been my intention, but it got everyone moving in the right direction. Gabe and Cayden were waiting in the hallway. I’d be surprised, except I wasn’t. Freya snickered at my thoughts.
Gabe teased me about knowing his mate again. Angelique came to mind right away. That was crazy…. I wasn’t sure it was though. They made sense to me. I’d have to be Emmaline or Aria Lyons to be sure… and I wasn’t so… it remained a guess. I could ask either of those women though… then work it out for Angelique to be around.
Angelique needed a new hiding place every so often…. and what better place than the Hackura realm… where she could see Kingsley again? That had merit. Freya chuckled, “You maneuver people so well.” I mean… even if Angelique wasn’t Gabe’s they’d have fun together.
The rest of the dance went by smoothly. I found Tank and gave him a big hug. Tank chuckled, “What’s that for?” I whispered, “You fought so hard for me… and… you always believed me… and in me. I’m sorry I let you down.”
Tank replied, “You have never let me down. What are you talking about?” I linked him, “The Ribbon pulled me, and I went to that night I was kidnapped. You fought back when you were spelled, and Robert stomped on you. Your lung was collapsing, and you still fought back…you believed I could win the fight and I let you down.”
Tank declared, “You did not let me down, the deck was stacked for you to lose. You’ve always felt a little sister or cousin to me. I hate that I didn’t manage to get a link out and keep you home. I hate that fucker for compelling me, and I’ve stomped on Robert. Levi took me, T, and Jase to see that asshole.”
I nodded because he deserved that. I hummed, “Well… umm thanks. For… fighting for me.” Tank replied, “Anytime, Ladybug.” Ziggy grabbed him and we went back to the dance floor.
No one attacked and everyone but me had a normal night. My night was mostly normal… just the one hiccup. I could live with that. Xander took me to Al’s diner afterwards. Freya chuckled, “I love how this excites you.”
I couldn't believe I was actually here… in Al’s diner. I felt like a rebel for some reason. When we got back in the car Freya urged, “Let’s go skinny dipping!” I replied, “We can’t do that.” Freya said, “Sure we can! Come on, I know you want to. It was in one of your plans that I now have access to the memory of.”
I bit my lip because that was true. Freya encouraged me, “Just ask our mate about that swimming place.” I didn’t need to ask. I’d heard MaryBeth and Melinda talking about a swimming hole in this territory. Melinda, Marybeth, Dane and Landon had gone there together before I left.
Xander was all for it and we actually had a lot of fun. We ended up back home having a lot of sex. My husband was very distracting. I mused about whether we would’ve done this after a dance, but he mentioned he was older than me. So? We were mates. We could’ve had fun after a dance.
The reality of going into that Ribbon strand hit me. What about my friends? Black Path was handled, but not Paige. Tears filled my eyes… what if Paige was all on her own wandering around? I had to fix that. Xander fell asleep, but I couldn’t.
My thoughts swirled. We needed a way to give information to our other selves. So did Eric and Haley. I got up and got dressed. Since I knew I’d probably be busy for a while I put on a skirt thinking… I could visit Xander for a lunch time break.
I left our room quickly and went to our portal to Nashville. I heard a throat clear as I was about to step through. I sighed and grabbed Egres’s hand and pulled him through with me. My mate’s Guard followed me through to my place.
Egres was taking in everything he saw. The Hackura were too dang observant. I grabbed Xander, Eric, and Haley’s watches, sighed, then grabbed them all. I grabbed a duffle bag and put them in there. I walked back to the portal and grabbed Egres.
Egres told me, “You are interesting.” I nodded, “Thanks… do you have Marcious’s number?” I could get it, but Egres giving it to me would speed up the progress and save me time. Egres said, “The Water Fairy Prince?”
I nodded, “Yes… but you knew that… it’s not a common name.” My mate’s Guard agreed, “It is not. Of course I do. I’ll give it to you if you tell me if one of those watches is mine.”I answered, “Umm yes… it would help you protect Xander… so you all have one.”
Egres chuckled, “Whenever you give them out, I’ll happily accept mine.” He showed me a number that I quickly typed into my phone and dialed as we walked in the direction of the science building.
Marcious answered, “Hello, what fun this is. I don’t know who is calling me.” I said, “Hi this is Melanie Mc… I mean Conners. My last name changed, gosh that's weird… I’ve been saying the wrong name… other people have too… if we are being fair… and I’m talking to a Fairy so… it’s definitely fair.”
Marcious laughed, “Did my cousin give you this number, Melanie?” I said, “So… you have so many…but you mean my husband and no….he’s asleep but… I did get the number for a reason.” He asked, “And what can I do for the newest member of the family?”
I said, “Umm… well… from what I’ve read… before… when I was in Red Run… from you grandson’s books… that he let me borrow… I didn’t take them or anything. Jared gave me permission to read them.”
“The point is… you have… all the documentation from the Ribbon strands Haley and Eric have visited in your possession on ports…. and I was hoping we could put them all together on one port and carry them with us.”
“That way we could just give people information instead of trying to remember it all because gosh… a lot has happened… and things could be forgotten and it will just be easier if it’s all in one place able to be handed to them. Especially since we don’t know how long we will stay in a reality.”
A pop sounded beside me. Marcious laughed, “Wow, you didn’t even jump. Aren’t you interesting? The Guard with you has a weapon drawn, but not you. You’re not worried at all.” I looked over to find he was right, Egres had a dagger in hand.
I frowned, “You have to know his name is Egres.” Marcious smiled, “I do know that.” I looked at my mate’s cousin chastising, “Then calling him the Guard is rude since you know his name… you didn’t even say Xander’s Guard… which would be a little better.”
Egres said, “Hic mediocris est. Id isti faciunt (He’s a Fairy. It’s what they do).” I snorted, “It’s still rude. He could say your name.” Marcious laughed, “You are such fun, little wolf.” I frowned, “I’m not really little… I’m average height for… forget it. Do you have the ports?”
Marcious smiled answering, “Of course.” He conjured a tub of ports. I nodded and walked into the science building. I walked over to the whiteboard with Laxenread and fixed their equation. I sighed, “That was bothering me more than I thought. I had to fix it before finding a space to work….or I would not have been able to focus on anything.”
Marcious whistled. Ok? Why did he whistle? Freya answered, “You fixed the board, that’s why.” I found a workspace and sat down. I pulled some of the small drives I’d been working on from my watch. They looked like a short piece of tape, but I’d been designing them to hold a lot of information.
I pulled out an adapter and started pulling the information from the ports into my computer system. I typed up a document of the important things I knew. Xander could do his own port if he wanted to. I encrypted some things for another me. Like the formula to Laxenread and other serums… then several other things.
