Page 72 of Expose Me

“What’s happened while I’ve been having my beauty sleep?” My mind was starting to race, connecting dots and raising questions all at once. “Are your people OK? Does anyone from Earth know what the hell is going on? Where did you get all this vamp saliva?” There were more vials there than I could afford to buy with a month’s wages. And I was paid well.

“We can talk later. You need to rest.”

“Zey, I need to know what’s going on.” I tried to cross my arms but had to abandon the motion because of the IV.

“You need to heal.” His stubbornness matched mine. Dammit.

“Fine,” I huffed and threw the covers back. “If you’re not going to tell me anything, then I’ll just have to find out for myself.”

He gripped my wrist firmly, keeping me in bed. “Fine, you stubborn woman!”

I leaned back with a satisfied smile.

“I’ll tell you everything if you eat.” He narrowed his eyes, like that was a hard bargain. Who says no to breakfast in bed? Even my stomach was in agreement, growling loudly at the mention of food.

I nodded and Zey got up, moving to a table in the corner. “What would you like?”

“Have you had all this food here the entire time?” There were piles of food, way more than one person could eat.

“Of course not. You started showing biological signs of coming to about an hour ago, so I sent for food knowing your weak human body needed sustenance to aid the healing process. What would you like?”

I grinned at him. My weirdo.

“Where did all this come from? I thought your kind didn’t really need to eat.” There was fried chicken, pancakes, fries, chocolate cake, and all kinds of fruit things I couldn’t even see properly from my spot on the bed.

“So many questions.” Zey shook his head as he picked up a plate and started piling it with bits of everything.

He insisted on feeding me every bite himself, and I decided to indulge him and allow it. As long as he kept talking.

While I ate, he told me about the moments after the battle at the portal. Apparently, after I released the final Onuei and it went on its merry way to the next True Leader, all the fighting stopped. The Vuulectians felt it when it happened, and both sides knew the fight was over. For them, there was no disputing the Onuei. Even though the Lineg Legion had tried to pervert the natural course of how they worked—tried to force them into someone they decided would do a better job than whom the ancient, wise magic chose.Idiots.

It turned out that only a small number of the Lineg were knowingly trying to steal the leadership position for their own selfish gain. The rest of them had been lied to. They’d been told that the Lineg were fighting to get the Onuei back to the True Leader—that the others were the ones trying to corrupt their power.

So, when the last Onuei was released, the majority of Vuulectians on both sides were relieved and felt like they had won. The small group who had killed the previous leader and tried to steal the Onuei had been apprehended and were currently being detained.

The concept of prison was foreign to Vuulectians, the vast majority of issues and disputes being solved with the aid of intuitive learning and logic before it came to violence or malicious actions. I had questions about this, and we went off on a tangent for a while.

Then I asked Zey to get me a piece of that chocolate cake, and we got back on track.

The True Leader had made their way to the capital of Vuulectus as soon as all three Onuei had made their way to them. They were in the process of restoring order and calm to the people of Vuulectus, setting up their advisory council, and getting settled in as a leader.

They were also prioritizing the issue of how to safely have contact with the realms on the other side of the two portals that were now in Vuulectus.

“One of the things they’re seeking advice on from other species is how to handle the issue of the Lineg Legion. We haven’t had anyone act in such stark defiance of our established, harmonious way of life in living memory,” Zey explained. “We want to make sure we handle this in the best way possible, so we’re seeking a lot of advice.”

“So your people are communicating with my people?” I asked, licking the last of the chocolatey goodness off my lips. I was so full, I couldn’t possibly eat another bite, even though everything was beyond delicious. “Do they know I’m here? Are the Houses cooperating?”

“They know—”

“Wait,” I cut him off. “Hold that thought. I need to pee.”

Zey gently took out my IV and insisted on smearing vamp saliva on the tiny hole in my arm before he tried to carry me to the bathroom. I drew the line there, so he settled for walking with me across the room, holding his arms out like he was spotting me and I was about to attempt a complex gymnastic move for the first time.

The bathroom was similar enough to what I was used to, although it was more ... organic. The walls were spongy, and water trickled all over the place while strange-looking plants grew out of various corners and up the walls. The “toilet,” Zey explained, used every little bit of “waste” to feed those plants, and I hoped my human secretions wouldn’t kill them since they were only used to pure Vuulectian waste. How did they pee? Did they just let it leak out of every pore—the same way they absorbed water? Did they even poo?

I kicked Zey out as I took care of business, but he rushed back in as soon as I was finished and lifted me right off the toilet and into something that vaguely resembled a bath. I was about to complain about being manhandled, but then I melted. The “bath” was more like sitting in the softest, cloudy, spongy surface while warm water trickled all around, coming down the walls to fill the tub.

Zey stripped and got in with me, situating himself behind me and pulling me back to rest against his chest. He produced a soft sponge that seemed to lather itself and started bathing me in slow, gentle strokes.

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