Chapter 507: Meeting
Laz got home late, the smiling not fading until he walked in the door. But what replaced it was a serious look that wasn’t something Jill had seen before.
"What’s wrong?" She asked, wrapping the towel around herself as she had just finished in the shower as Laz walked into the small room they shared.
"Laz sat down in the chair facing the window which overlooked the street. Being positioned on the second floor, there wasn’t much to see except a few small abandoned buildings, a car dealership and a wide expanse of open fields behind it.
Jill sat in his lap and drew his face to her, something far more bold than she had ever done in the past. Her time spent hunting demon beasts in the surrounding country side had given her scent the tinge of blood, but it had also sharpened her resolve and improved her strength. Her life had been saved more than once due to the supplies that Laz ensured she had every day, but even then some scars remained on her body, the results of her close encounters.
Even though it had been a few days for him, each day was a life and death battle for her. He knew it and she knew that he knew, but he didn’t try to stop her. It wasn’t his right to tell her what to do or what not to do. What he did do was to help guide her energy circulation, cleanse her body and discuss with her the battle she fought and where she did well or made a mistake. He was helping to drive home the lessons she was learning on her own so that she didn’t make the same mistakes he did. After all, the training she had gotten with the elves was far more extensive than he had starting out. The only thing left that he could train he with was hand to hand combat, something that was good for fighting humans, but useless against beasts.
Seeing her face so close to his, Laz let his attention come back to the moment right here and now. His face still had the tinge of age to it, but his half transformation faded as soon as he thought about it and he went back to being the young man that he was. Jill was still gripping his face while looking closely at him and in response, he couldn’t help but smile.
Jill blushed at this response and quickly tried to get up, embarrassed by her actions when Laz’s hand gripped her wrist and she fell back on top of him, the towel falling down across his lap as her naked body was laid out before him.
"Master...?" She whispered, a mixed of shyness and desire.
Laz didn’t say anything back, but brought his hand up to her chest wrapped in black flame. As the flame touched her skin, she almost cried out from the sight before feeling nothing but a calm, soothing sensation. The scar she had gotten while fighting a tree beast was burned away by the flame, leaving nothing but fresh, pink skin under neath it.
The deep wound from the demon lizard bite on her arm disappeared as the entire molted and scared chunk of skin sizzled off.
The stab wound on her left tight from the deer beast flaked away as well.
Like this, piece by piece, the entire length of Jill’s body was gone over by Laz, clearing her skin of every scar or mark that had been left, either from her battles the last few days or from the torture she had suffered just several months ago.
When Laz was done, Jill’s gaze was still fixated on Laz’s face, her naked body now covered in nothing buy new and old skin with every imperfection burned away.
Laz could only wipe away the tears flowing out of her eyes and she grabbed his neck and held him close, stifling her cries into his shoulder and shirt.
"Why?" She finally asked, when she had settled down long enough to finally take a breath.
"Why what?"
"Why did you heal me?" Jill asked, both sad, happy and confused.
"It was time," Laz responded with a smile.
"You’re... not leaving are you? Or doing something dangerous?" Jill asked, about to break out into tears again.
"No no, nothing like that. Let me tell you a story about four sister’s whose situation was even worse than yours," Laz started, before telling Jill the story of the four Ivy’s and their past. He left out a few of the more intimate details between them, but had shared their pain and suffering and what it had done to them and what it had cost them for doing so.
"In the end, they told me that the scars were not a curse, but a reminder. They kept them focused on their path and if they hadn’t already found their way, they wouldn’t have wanted them gone just yet. While I didn’t understand it at the time, with you, I finally did. You’ve finally moved on from the hell you survived and have begun to grow on your own. I’m proud of you and figured that maybe with this, you would treat yourself a little better from now on, ok?" Laz said, finishing up his story.
"I will, I promise!" Jill exclaimed before cuddling up into Laz’s arms. Even sitting on him naked felt like the warmest and safest place in the world.
Setting her into the bed, Laz stepped outside for a moment before vanishing on the spot. When he reappeared, he was standing on top of the dealership building behind a woman who had been watching the motel room the entire time.
"Tell Dani that support team needs to hurry. There is something much more pressing that is happening at that place," Laz said before disappearing again, leaving the field agent stunned in silence.
It didn’t take long before she picked up her phone to connect with Dani.
...
The next day at work, Laz went about his duties as he was assigned them with the ever talkative Vera at his side. It wasn’t just yard work today as Laz also had to be present during meal times today as well. Laz didn’t think anything of it since his duties were ever changing, but the one thing that was weird for him was that the table that he was positioned closest to was free of anyone sitting to eat. While that might not have been weird, what was weird was that a large group all came over to eat together at the same time, almost like the table had been reserved for them. While that might have been normal for the cult bunch, as they always ate together, he had never seen it happen with anyone else before.
The weirdest thing was that Jennia was with this group when they came to sit down.
In fact, even stranger, she was the one who sat closest to him.
"They need more information if you wish to get their help," Jennia said, her voice lower than the others talking around her. It was quickly clear to Laz that the other girls were simply a cover for her, and an effective on at that.
Vera was three tables down, chatting with another guard about something else and therefore couldn’t hear the conversation at all.
"What kind of info?" Laz said, wondering why she was communicating for the cult.
"You just said to look for something weird in the air, right? That isn’t very helpful." Jennia said as she ate her roll in silence.
"It’s a red colored energy that gives off a feeling of anger and oppression. If you’re close enough to it, it feels like you’re smelling hate in a condensed form. For normal people, it makes them angry, so much so that they lash out. As for an infected, it doesn’t have much of an effect yet as it’s not strong enough. But once it does, just imagine how all of you would react to it? I’m sure getting into fights with each other and the guards every day will do wonders for your situation in her," Laz said, careful to keep his voice neutral.
"Fuck!" Jennia said, a bit louder than she intended. In response, the girls around her laughed like she had just made a joke, helping to cover her outburst.
"Alright. I will tell them to be on the lookout for angry people in a prison full of wrongly convicted women. Thanks for the helpful advice," Jennia said without even looking at Laz once.
"Suit yourself," Laz responded and decided to ignore her. He didn’t think they would help, but he figured he would test his luck anyway.
"Hey... wait a second... do I know you?" Jennia suddenly said after catching a glimpse of Laz’s face as he turned to check out another table.
"I don’t know. Do you?" Laz said back without so much as a turning back before checking in on the next group.
Mercy came over and sat across from Jennia after Laz had left, asking her for details.
"You know how sometimes the guards just lose their shit and start beating us? That’s what he needs to know about," Jennia said in response.
"Ok... so... what was with that last question?" Mercy asked, her eyes fixed on Jennia.
"I feel like... I know him..."
"Then who is he?" Mercy asked, insanely curious.
"I don’t know. It’s on the tip of my tongue but something is blocking it from coming forth."
"Then is there anything you can tell me about him?" Mercy pushed on for more.
"I want him... badly...." Jennia said before covering up her mouth.
There was no way to hide the silence that came after.
